Innholdsfortegnelse for June 26, 2017 i Adweek

Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun stunned the marketing world—and set the tone for the rest of the Cannes Lions festival—when he announced on Tuesday that his network’s agencies would be skipping all awards shows, trade events and related promo opportunities for a full year. That means Publicis will be entirely absent from Cannes in 2018. The given reason for this decision was to shift resources toward the development of Marcel, the AI-powered “professional assistant” that Publicis plans to debut during its VivaTech conference in Paris next June. This news surprised many of Sadoun’s 80,000 employees, while the industry at large responded with a mix of encouragement and skepticism. One Publicis executive argued that the “2.5 percent cost synergies” mentioned in an internal memo were “purely about saving money”…

SPOTHERO Mobile parking app SpotHero has used branded pins, sponsored search and “zero-speed” takeover ads. In Austin, Texas, it saw a 23 percent increase in engagement during SXSW, with navigations increasing 153 percent and brand recall up 138 percent. TYLENOL Waze aims to avoid traffic, but a campaign by Tylenol targeted people stuck in it. Branded pins were shown to drivers to promote the product with special offers. Offer recall jumped 225 percent, with a total 12 million impressions and 3,700 navigations. ACTIMEL For its “#StayStrong” campaign, the French yogurt brand targeted inspiring messages to drivers who were heading to work, stuck in traffic or on a long road trip. The campaign reached 1.1 million, with 10,000 engagements and 140 percent lift in ad recall.…

Already the biggest sport on Earth with an estimated 4 billion fans worldwide, soccer has seen its profile rise dramatically in the U.S. in recent years. The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final drew a record 26.7 million viewers (and generated $40 million in ad revenue for Fox), while Major League Soccer—which added two teams this year—drew an average stadium attendance of more than 21,000 spectators per game in 2016, higher than the NBA or NHL. So just who are these American soccer fans and how can marketers reach them? Consumer analytics platform Hitwise gathered search and audience data from 2014 to 2017 to paint a clearer picture. “For brands and marketers, it’s worth noting that the soccer fans audience is 40 percent female,” said Rochelle Bailis, Hitwise global director…

‘[The Lifetime deal] allows players to see that there’s stability within the league and a higher visibility for the league.’ Soccer star Christie Pearce knows a thing or two about winning. From 1997 until early this year, Pearce (formerly Rampone) was part of the legendary U.S. Women’s National Team that won three Olympic gold medals and two FIFA World Cup championships in addition to inspiring a generation of girls to play the increasingly popular sport and cheer on their newfound heroes. At the same time, Pearce rode the wave of women scoring major sponsorship deals, and currently counts Adidas, Jif, Smucker’s, Chevy and Sports Authority as partners. Pearce, 42, retired from the USWNT in February, having been its longest-serving team captain, and will soon hang up her cleats for good…

Adweek went far afield for our second annual list of Powerful Women in Sports, selecting leaders from the burgeoning world of esports, the ascendant women’s soccer arena and a brand-new basketball league—plus the mar tech and artificial intelligence innovators serving the sports marketing ecosystem. Here, Adweek honors the 35 female executives and influencers who are winning over the next generation of fans and scoring new partnerships with brands. Katrina Adams Chairman, president, CEO United States Tennis Association Chairman, U.S. Open The firsts keep stacking up for Adams, the first pro player, the first African American and the youngest person to serve as the top executive of the U.S. Tennis Association. In January, she started a second two-year term, becoming the first person to do so in the organization’s history. The…

THE LOGO Interchangeably known as the alligator and the crocodile (it’s really a crocodile), Lacoste’s logo was a pioneer of exterior labeling. Plus, it’s just cool. THE COLLAR In 1961, Lacoste made his “polo collar” out of thicker fabric so it could be turned up. Some did to protect their necks from sun, others just to look, like, totally bitchin’. THE FABRIC Lacoste polo shirts, which come in over 40 colors, are woven in piqué, a soft, lightweight cotton whose raised pattern allows it to breathe. Cool shirt When reporters nicknamed French tennis star René Lacoste “The Crocodile,” he ran with it—first by wearing a crocodile logo on his blazer (right), then using the logo to found his own shirt brand (above, left and right). In time, Lacoste began to…

Waze, the driving navigation app acquired by Google in 2013, pitches its ad products as being ideal for brands that want to act as a utility for drivers. Since launching the platform in 2012, Waze has worked with brands across a variety of industries—from Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s to Adidas and AT&T. With an active user time per month of around 10 hours, the company sees itself as a way for brands to reach consumers when they’re not scrolling through Facebook and Snapchat. “At the time [we launched], we were operating in a unique space, where location was a really big buzzword,” said Jordan Grossman, Waze’s head of brand partnerships. “And it still is now, but people have come to learn that location in an owned and operated environment is…

There is something to be said for the whole “find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life” thing. Success takes hard work, but passion brings fulfillment from that hard work. At the start of my career, people suggested that a woman could only be a racing reporter or timekeeper, but never an actual race car driver. Some say that I “crashed the boys’ club” or that I broke down the gender barrier in racing, but all I did was follow my passions. I’ll always be someone with an edge who isn’t afraid to make a little noise and push the envelope a little bit. That part of me won’t ever change, but now it’s time to show who I am off the track.…

Betsy Rosenbloom found an entirely new way to say, “Be mine,” to promote a Netflix variety show this past February called Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Day Special. A series of cheeky e-cards got right to the heart of the matter: “This Valentine’s Day, I’m going to power ballad a baby into you,” read one, while another promised a date night with “dinner, flowers and insemination.” The idea wasn’t a tough sell, as the hour-long show itself—created by Lonely Island and Comedy Bang! Bang! vets—poked fun at Bolton’s schmaltzy image (and encouraged people to get busy). Plus, “the client was willing,” said Rosenbloom, a veteran TV and film writer and producer. “They were very receptive to the most out-there ideas.” That project highlights the two sides of Rosenbloom’s gig at…