Megan Thee Stallion to Bring Hot Girl Energy to Social Media Week

Three-time Grammy Award-winning artist, philanthropist and entrepreneur Megan Thee Stallion is set to discuss her authenticity when it comes to fan engagement as the “Hot Girl Coach” comes to Social Media Week. Set to speak on day two of this year’s event, Megan Thee Stallion will take to the main stage to talk through her…

Enter The Creatorverse

Adweek continued exploring the depths of the Creatorverse earlier this month at Social Media Week Europe. The event was held in the heart of London from October 10-11 and featured creators and marketers alike sharing their thoughts and expertise on the ever-expanding role of the creator in driving engagement and recognition for brands. With such…

Booking.com Is Striking a New Balance Between Brand and Performance

In 2022, Booking.com showed up at the Super Bowl for the first time with a spot starring Idris Elba. It booked a second ticket to the Big Game in 2023, making a comeback with actress and producer Melissa McCarthy. For Natalie Wills, vp of brand at Booking.com, these star-studded multi-channel campaigns are emblematic of how…

Adweek Podcast: Real LGBTQ+ Allyship From Brands Matters Now, More than Ever

In October, Dylan Mulvaney issued a message to advertisers after former brand partner Bud Light failed to support her through transphobic hate and dented its own sales in the process. “If you’re going to ask us to capitalize on our vulnerabilities and our traumas, at least have our backs when the going gets tough,” she…

Creators Can Help Brands Cut Through the Noise, Here’s How

The average person spends around 400 minutes per day online, according to research firm GWI. Social media platforms, including Facebook and TikTok, account for an increasing amount of this scrolling and thumb-tapping, using canny algorithms to serve users a carefully selected range of content guaranteed to pique interest. For brands and publishers, it can be…

Adopting Channels in New Ways Is Driving PepsiCo’s Marketing Success

As the owner of brands such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Gatorade, PepsiCo’s core focus across its marketing is to tap into culture, demonstrate its relevance to consumers’ lives and engage them at their passion points. “You cannot build brands the way we used to,” stated Mark Kirkham, senior vp and CMO of international beverages…

‘Proactive and Not Reactive:’ How Charity NSPCC and Agencies Sustain Diversity Efforts

Deep in the lockdown era of the Covid-19 pandemic and shortly after police in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd–sparking global protests against systemic racism and police violence–creator Dan Mosaku received a package as part of a brand partnership that he’d been hired for. Declining to name the brand onstage last week at Adweek’s Social Media Week…

Creators Should be Part of Every Brief–Even When They Make Brands Uncomfortable

To some viewers, it may have seemed nonsensical to put a highland cow riding a motorcycle in a Virgin Media ad. But the campaign proved popular, and months after its launch, the internet provider went even more left field. Earlier this year, Virgin Media partnered with creator Cole Anderson James, who is known for his…

How Shopify Is Wooing Creators, the ‘New Generation of Entrepreneurs’

Successful creators are known to hustle, but they’re not always known as entrepreneurs. At a panel at Social Media Week Europe last week, creators Catherine Kay and Obi Vincent joined influencer partnership lead at Shopify V?rane P?de to discuss the converging line between creators and entrepreneurs. “Creators are the new generation of entrepreneurs, which is…

11 Things We Learned About the Creatorverse at Social Media Week Europe

Influencers and creators are not new additions to the marketing mix, yet brands leaders are still figuring out how best to work with this new school of talent. At the same time, a growing appetite for content across all platforms–from TikTok to YouTube–is taking its toll on the creator community. With marketers under pressure to…

Burger King’s TikTok Strategy Continues Its Mission to Give Consumers Their Way

Burger King has been a marketing powerhouse for decades, but TikTok was a whole new realm for the international fast food chain a few years ago. To help it navigate the new frontier in the U.K., Burger King turned to an independent social media agency that named itself after its mission to reinvent water cooler…

Why Brands Should Foster Long-term Relationships With the LGBTQ+ Community

Increasingly, brands need to focus on establishing long-term relationships with the LGBTQ+ community and invest internally in cultivating a culture of diversity and inclusion. In a conversation with Adweek’s Brittaney Kiefer during Social Media Week Europe, Natalie Wills vp, brand, Booking.com, emphasized the brand’s deliberate year-round commitment to investing in the LGBTQ+ community. “We say…

How LadBible Increased Platform Revenue by Going All In on Short Form

Social publisher LadBible has seen revenue growth through its investment in short-form video across its vast portfolio of social platforms, three of its executives told Adweek on stage during Social Media Week Europe. Its scale offers it the opportunity to drive meaningful revenue from short-form, where other publishers would struggle due to the comparatively lower…

Advice for Brands Working With Creators, From Creators

Last month at Adweek’s Social Media Week event, we caught up with creators and brand executives to discuss the elements of a successful partnership. When it comes to a successful brand partnership with creators, everyone agreed that authenticity is key. “You have to just be cool,” said actor and creator Boman Martinez-Reid. “You need to…

Long Live Longform: The Story of Hilton’s 10-Minute TikTok

When the average human attention span is 8.25 seconds, and the average view time of a TikTok is 28 seconds, how do you get the internet to pay attention for a full 10 minutes? For Hilton, the answer was to break with convention and give the people what they want: unexpected, platform-native, funny content made…

Amplifying Impact Through Strategic Social Media Engagement

The social media game has changed. How are brands curating and producing online content that resonates and leaves a lasting imprint? Kickstarting Adweek’s Social Media Week, Manu Orssaud, vp and global head of marketing at Duolingo, and Lauren Thomas, senior communications manager at Intuit, tackled this question. They offered the audience an expert-guided tour through…

How Sephora Is Partnering With Creators for Brand Impact

Brands are increasingly looking to leverage partnerships with content creators to make an impact–but one that’s significant and lasting, rather than one-off sponsored posts. Content creator Pierrah Hilaire and Brent Mitchell, vp of social media and influencers at Sephora, joined Danisha Lomax, Digitas’ head of client inclusivity and impact, during Adweek’s Social Media Week to…

How Brands Deliver Social Media Success With Eos and the NBA

What does going viral mean in a world of social media campaign oversaturation and fleeting attention spans? Soyoung Kang, CMO of Gen Z-focused beauty brand Eos Products, and Ashley Atwell, avp of social content at the National Basketball Association, joined Adweek at Social Media Week to reflect on their best viral social media marketing examples…

How Shutterstock and the NFL Build Inclusion Into Their Creator Strategies

The social media team at the National Football League is on a mission to be “the most youth-driven and community-driven platform and league” in the world. It aims to do this by using platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat, as well as gaming platforms including Roblox and Fortnite, to build and engage with future fans…

How Busy Philipps and Caissie St. Onge Are Doing Their Best

“It’s not a lot of work to be authentic. You just have to make a commitment to telling your truth,” said Busy Philipps, New York Times bestselling author, actor, activist and podcast co-host, at Social Media Week. On their podcast Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best, both she and her co-host, comedy writer Caissie St….