Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Adweek

When IPG-owned performance marketing agency Reprise Digital began using a form of the same AI that powers ChatGPT a couple of years ago, it started with a test. The firm pitted its OpenAI-powered copywriting software, Transcribe—paired with human editors—against internal and external teams of copywriters to write digital content for financial clients. Each team’s results were judged on factors like cost and turnaround time. “We saw that Transcribe was magnitudes more efficient when used by people that are changing its output a little bit versus external copywriters or internal teams,” said Vincent Spruyt, Reprise’s head of AI. The tests clocked an 87% reduction in production time between the AI and internal copywriting teams. These results might confirm some people’s fears—that AI is coming for our jobs—but the reality is more…

MCDONALD’S Last October, McDonald’s leaned into the nostalgia around enjoying a Happy Meal and partnered with hot streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market to reimagine the experience for adults. Starcom created a media experience fueled by Gen Z’s desire for authentic self-expression and access to the exclusive trends at the forefront of drop culture. A digital-led strategy captured trendsetters and McDonald’s customers and included an AR experience on Snap where scanning the Happy Meal box transported fans to a world of CPFM collectibles. McDonald’s sold out within the first few days of the promotion, and it helped drive the highest weekly digital transactions ever for the U.S. business. CHEEZ-IT Kellogg’s brand Cheez-It needed to address an underperforming segment in younger millennials. The brand and agency built a plan based on…

Two companies are using their advertising dollars to bridge the sports gender gap. Financial services firm Ally partnered with Disney for a sponsorship package with a 90% media investment solely in women’s sports. Insurer Aflac, meanwhile, pivoted its March Madness plan entirely to the women’s Final Four, including relocating an activation. “We don’t want it as a value-add,” Ally CMO Andrea Brimmer said. “We want to pay for it, and we wanted it to be the primary portion of our media package.”…

Globally, 15% of the population is disabled, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at most advertising: Only 2% of it features members of disability communities. That statistic is shamefully low, but it’s finally starting to tick up thanks to trailblazers like our cover subject, KR Liu. After losing most of her hearing at age 3, Google’s head of brand accessibility has become one of the industry’s most influential advocates for inclusive representation. In her incredible interview with senior editor Robert Klara, Liu talks about her own remarkable journey, which included initially trying to hide her disability from co-workers. But it ended up becoming one of Liu’s greatest assets, leading to her helping Google create (and share industrywide) its Accessible Marketing Playbook, which, according to CMO Lorraine Twohill, will “make…

When it comes to DEI pledges from advertisers and media companies, talk is cheap. There’s a big difference between making upfront equity promises and actually putting forth the eight- or nine-figure ad sales spend required to back that up—especially in the midst of a soft ad market with a possible recession looming. But despite the economic uncertainty, the DEI promises aren’t just lip service, according to Lisa Torres, president, multicultural, at Publicis Media. “This is a very different environment than what I’ve seen in prior recessions. This always becomes a focus during census releases,” Torres said. “This time, it’s really from a societal standpoint, the injustices that we knew were in the system but didn’t necessarily address them in the way that we’re addressing them now.” With this year’s upfront…

Perfection is out. We want our heroes flawed, our romantic comedies realistic and our images un-retouched. But does this mean the world’s biggest brands are ready for a traveling exhibit called the Museum of Failure that showcases their failed products? “No,” laughed Samuel West, the project’s founder and an organizational psychologist by trade. “Nobody wanted to have anything to do with this.” Despite his extensive network of innovation directors, West couldn’t get a single brand onboard when he launched the museum in 2017 in Sweden. “That was really a wake-up call, that this is much more sensitive than I thought,” he added. So he built the collection through Craigslist, eBay and Russian classified ads. The Museum of Failure opened with some 60-70 items. Once it was a success—ironically—brands including Microsoft…

Google didn’t get to be the world’s most visited website by making mistakes. And that’s much of why CMO Lorraine Twohill’s 2022 address at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (left; Liu joined remotely) was something of a needle-scratch moment. When it came to diversity in its marketing, Twohill admitted, Google had goofed. “We weren’t getting it right,” the veteran marketing chief told her audience. In particular, she added, “we were very bad on darker skin tones, and we were leaning into stereotypes.” Google’s first step in addressing these shortcomings came in 2021 with the launch of All In—also called the inclusive marketing tool kit—which focused largely on addressing populations of color. The Accessible Marketing Playbook (which is the disability component) was 2022’s addition. Though the timeline and semantics…

GILEAD SCIENCES For its pharmaceutical client Gilead Sciences, Initiative turned its attention to HIV testing consideration in the South, where 51% of all new HIV cases occur. Initiative and Gilead targeted Black and Latinx communities across 11 Southern markets with low HIV testing rates to provide resources to men who have sex with men (MSMs) in those locales. The agency’s audience insights established MSMs find comfort in sharing their experiences, but contend with a persistent fear of stigma. Given this, Initiative had to reach the MSM community discreetly, but effectively. It produced a hyperlocal, Gilead-sponsored podcast series hosted by Zach Stafford called In The Deep, showcasing stories of people living with HIV. The agency partnered with iHeartRadio to advertise the podcast within a custom newsletter and digital, social and radio…

High inflation has made buying everyday goods—from yogurt and ketchup to trash bags and laundry detergent—more taxing on households across the country. As a result, a growing number of shoppers are reaching for store brands, also known as private labels, to help ease the cost of keeping their refrigerators full and pantries stocked. Last year, U.S. sales of store brands rose 11.3% compared to 2021, resulting in record-breaking revenue of $228.6 billion, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association. National brands, meanwhile, climbed 6.1% to $981.1 billion. “Shoppers are increasingly likely to buy a store brand versus a national brand now than they were six months and one year ago,” said Aliza Freud, CEO of influencer marketing agency SheSpeaks. According to a SheSpeaks survey of more than 1,200 U.S. women,…

Much like management consultants lean on tried-and-true project frameworks to solve problems, so does the IPG Mediabrands agency Initiative. For several years, agency leaders called the agency’s go-to approach Cultural Velocity. Last year, after elevating performance media expert Dimitri Maex to the global CEO role, Initiative rolled out a new, modified framework that replaced Cultural Velocity. The new concept, called Fame and Flow, helped secure the $450 million global Nike business. Cultural Velocity and Fame and Flow are abstract, but clearly resonate with clients seeking to master the concepts. Media agencies are brand stewards, but aren’t typically very good at branding themselves. Initiative, with its appealing frameworks, might be an exception. The Nike pitch came hot on the heels of Initiative’s $1.2 billion T-Mobile win in 2021. “What was really…

For decades, heritage media agencies grew in power by managing clients’ buys on television, radio and print. But to stay on top of 2023’s omnichannel world, a media agency must be able to see the entire media map, locate every consumer on it and navigate it like a trailblazer. Starcom comes from heritage—it traces its roots back to the 1940s as Leo Burnett Media and became Starcom in 1999—but now is in lockstep with modern integrated trends. And often it’s ahead of them, helping its long-tenured clients and new ones alike with Publicis Power of One-fueled cutting edge media technology and data. But technology alone does not make a great agency. The Publicis media shop also brings decades of experience, know-how of the creative process and a decent dose of…

Ten years ago, Gale did not exist. Five years ago, the Stagwell-owned agency did not have a media practice. And last year, it delivered a billion dollars in media billings and scored nine-figure revenue, growing at an astonishing 133% year over year. While Gale was shortlisted for Adweek’s 2022 U.S. Agency of the Year award—which honors creative agencies—and is the winner of Adweek’s Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year, its story is not as an integrated agency. It’s in, as Gale CEO and president Brad Simms calls it, a new class of shops: a business agency. Gale is nestled in a little pocket between traditional agencies mired in decades of ingrained structures trying to adapt to today’s landscape and consultancies racing to add creative arms to complement their strategic practices.…

H&R BLOCK Gale paired its database of 275 million households with H&R Block’s first-party data to develop 12 different audience profiles that are based on potential value of the customer. It created custom messaging and tracked when customers were searching for tax services in order to target them at the precise moments they were likely to pick a company to do their taxes. It used pricing data to capitalize on a 10-day period in which it had a price advantage on a top competitor by significantly increasing its media spend. In an industry with nearly 100% awareness but little loyalty, Gale’s work helped drive a 10% increase in revenue. MILKPEP With just 7% of $30 billion in sports sponsorships going to women, MilkPEP used the NYC Marathon to put out…