Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 i Adweek

Linear television may be struggling as a whole, but the Big Game remains a big draw for advertisers. Inventory for Super Bowl 58 on CBS is “virtually sold out,” according to a Paramount spokeswoman. And with a few months remaining before the game on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, ad sales are “pacing ahead of schedule.” Paramount didn’t reveal details such as pricing; however, Fox, which broadcast Super Bowl 57, brought in nearly $600 million in revenue and sold the majority of 30-second spots in the mid- to high-$6 million range, with multiple 30-second spots north of $7 million. CBS’ broadcast of Super Bowl 58 was among the most sought-after inventory during its 2023-2024 upfront negotiations, according to the company. Earlier this year, Paramount also announced that it’s bringing slime to…

The first time Sasha Luccioni applied for a position at Hugging Face—the AI startup now valued at $4.5 billion—she was rejected. “I wasn’t what they were looking for,” she recalled. This was nearly three years ago. Shaking off that initial rejection, she went to work at BigScience, a yearlong volunteer research workshop funded by Hugging Face to train the first open source, large language model. Luccioni directly reached out to Thomas Wolf, the startup’s co-founder, during the project and “proved my worth,” convincing him to offer her a job. For two years now, Luccioni has worked as the climate lead and AI researcher for Hugging Face, the machine learning platform and community that helps people deploy AI in open source applications, such as Meta’s Llama 2. If those two years…

The appeal of data collaboration has always been its potential to bring simplicity to the traditionally fraught process of compiling a comprehensive picture of customer behavior and preferences from various sources. This, in turn, was supposed to make it easier for media buyers and sellers to derive meaningful insights and drive informed decision-making for specific outcomes. Yet the road from potential to reality has, thus far, been encumbered with endless back-and-forth between data intermediaries, a tangle of antiquated systems and successive compliance hoops for partners to jump through. It’s all because data collaboration is typically sold as a technology solution—but what gets delivered is consulting, with all its human complications. The hurdles associated with data collaboration are particularly high in ad tech. About two decades ago, ad networks were supposed…

For some, the world of advertising just isn’t exciting enough. The always-on-the-move Celeny Da Silva, chief executive of market development and advisory company MarketMakers, is a born traveler and can often be found at the industry’s largest digital advertising conferences. One of her many life goals is visiting every country in the world. She’s checked off 150 so far and has run the top 10 marathons on the planet. To get to these places, Da Silva was no longer satisfied with waiting in airports for airliners to tell her when she would depart and land, so for the last few years she has been learning to fly. “Obtaining my flying license is a top priority for me,” she said. “And so, when Covid arrived, I had the opportunity to realize…

If you’re looking for a little inspiration as the nights start closing in earlier, this issue’s cover story from Mollie Cahillane on LSU Tigers star Angel Reese will deliver. Reese, fresh from signing her Reebok NIL deal, is our lead Champions of Change honoree, an award that celebrates those at the top of their game in sports and marketing. This list, in its sixth year (renamed this year from the Most Powerful Women in Sports), also honors 23 other champions, including Disney global advertising president Rita Ferro and Togethxr co-founder Jessica Robertson. As the cliché goes, change is the only constant. But clichés exist for a reason. Nowhere are the forces of change more apparent than in the onward march of technology, particularly generative AI. At Adweek—like much of the…

As we hurtle headfirst into the next tech frontier, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we need thoughtful, smart approaches to fully realize the power of generative artificial intelligence, rather than the breathless excitement of this year’s earlier months. With that in mind, we’re pleased to bring you the winners of Adweek’s inaugural AI Awards. Here, we have sought to highlight the technology and people driving change in their organizations and for their clients, exploring where gen AI can solve problems and spur creativity while maintaining the human touch and a measured, thoughtful approach. After a period of open calls for submissions (with copywriting help from ChatGPT and the actual award created with the help of Midjourney), Adweek’s editorial team took part in the first round of judging, before handing it…

Steak-umm, a surprising voice of reason on social media for years, continues its truth-to-power marketing with “DeepSteaks,” an ad that turns vegans into carnivores with the help of AI. The 4-minute film begins with a focus group of vegans talking about what it means to them to follow an animal-free diet. But just 20 minutes later, with help from off-the-shelf generative AI tools, new agency of record Tombras twists their words, making the participants profess things like, “Meat is like a religion for me.” The ad calls out the potential of AI to invade an average person’s life. “The deepfake discussions so far have mostly centered around celebrities and world leaders,” president Dooley Tombras told Adweek. “None of it has focused on how it can impact everyday people.”…

Amazon Reese and teammate Flau’jae Johnson starred in a back-to-school commercial for Amazon in July—giving viewers a glimpse inside their dorm rooms. “I like to do these deals in the summertime, but right now I’m only doing deals I can do in a day,” said Reese. Mielle Organics Multicultural hair care brand Mielle tapped Reese in May as its newest ambassador—the star’s first major beauty deal. Reebok Reese became the brand’s first major NIL deal—and the first signing under new president of basketball Shaquille O’Neal. The agreement upped Reese’s NIL value to $1.7 million per year. Starry In June, Reese starred in a PepsiCo.-owned Starry commercial alongside NBA players Karl-Anthony Towns and Zion Williamson, throwing her now-famous “you can’t see me” gesture. Tampax Johnson and Reese partnered yet again on…

Of the roughly 94,000 U.S. soldiers who became prisoners of war in Germany during World War II, an especially unfortunate several hundred wound up in a camp called Oflag IV-C, better known as Colditz Castle, a 12th-century stone fortress built atop a 250-foot cliff in Saxony. The Germans believed that escape from Colditz was impossible. But it was possible, thanks to Bicycle playing cards. Unbeknownst to the Wehrmacht, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) and British Special Operations Executive had secretly commissioned the United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) to create top-secret Bicycle-brand decks—spirited in by the Red Cross—where the cards could be peeled apart to reveal miniature maps of Germany. These map decks incited no fewer than 316 escape attempts. Today, only two of the…