Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Adweek

For Josephine Zhu, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, her Asian-inspired pottery brand Zhuology Ceramics is a love letter to her culture. “Every Chinese kid knows the classic blue and white Qinghua patterns, or the traditional lidded tea mugs their grandmother used to sip from. Memories of these grace my childhood, yet I used to think these looked so antiquated,” Zhu said. “But as I got older, I developed a new appreciation for those shapes and patterns.” Zhu’s reconnection with her heritage followed her move to Los Angeles, which brought on significant lifestyle changes that paved the way for her creative calling. Moving away from the hustle and bustle of New York, she found the time and freedom to pursue life outside of her role as director of entertainment marketing strategy…

Jonathan Balck, managing director of Boston-based creative agency Colossus, didn’t start his business with B2B work in mind. Founded in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, Colossus worked with consumer brands like Jack Daniel’s and Best Buy before it made a pitch for Athenahealth—a cloud-based network services provider for health care companies. Marketing in Athenahealth’s category was homogenous, and Colossus wanted to speak to buyers with “hearts that beat and minds that have emotion.” It won Athenahealth’s business from incumbent MullenLowe with work so compelling that Athenahealth’s then-CMO Simon Mouyal referred Colossus to ZoomInfo CMO Bryan Law. Of the marketers that participated in Integrate’s April 2023 “State of B2B Marketing” research, 40% said head count cuts posed a challenge. To respond to those staffing changes, 34% of marketers reported they’re relying…

PHD is on a mission to understand the future generation of marketing, one that will be completely reshaped by technology. For the past decade, it has been ahead of the game when it comes to focusing on the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive marketing transformation. That’s in part because it’s stuck close to parent company Omnicom Media Group (OMG), allowing PHD to grow its tech offerings at scale. In 2018, OMG introduced a centralized platform, Omni, that helps its agencies and clients create, plan and execute ad campaigns using data. From there, the tech offerings have evolved with OMG’s integration of generative AI technology in partnership with Microsoft. And in 2023, the parent company introduced the agency-as-a-platform (AaaP) model, which tackles clients’ problems with technology and…

NEW BALANCE To remind consumers of New Balance’s history in the running category, Mediahub built its own brand measurement tool, Brand Pulse. Upon its launch, the tool captured data in six markets, across six languages and about 10 New Balance competitors. With the tool, Mediahub could ask consumers standard brand awareness questions, plus questions about New Balance that revealed why customers lose interest in any ad—whether because of media exposure, ad stock, seasonality or creative fatigue. “It was so influential, because honestly, we didn’t have any money to invest in different platforms and multicultural campaigns [before]. Everything was going against lower-funnel, instant-gratification ROAS,” Knauer said. With its “Runlock” campaign, New Balance wanted to associate the endorphin release known as “runner’s high” with its brand. It partnered with Strava to launch…

Secondhand shopping is on the rise. Branded resale, when fashion companies add used items to their inventory, grew by 450% between 2021 and 2023, according to ThredUP, as American Eagle and J.Crew joined over 160 companies in the branded resale game. Still, the complex logistics of online resale presents both sustainability and profitability challenges. Two major players in web-powered secondhand, ThredUP and The RealReal, aim to break even in 2024 by fine-tuning their business models. However, questions remain regarding the financial viability of online resale and the category’s ability to counter the culture of fast fashion. FAST FASHION’S EMPTY VALUE ThredUP and The RealReal both take possession of the secondhand inventory they sell. In contrast to peer-to-peer hubs like Poshmark or Depop, the model creates a greater potential for consumer…

SPIN MASTER In November 2023, toy and entertainment company Spin Master introduced its latest fantasy adventure series, Unicorn Academy, on Netflix. PHD helped it rank on the streamer’s Top 10 for kids’ content to ensure it would be renewed. Due to competitive limitations, advertising on TV and streaming channels was off-limits, leading the team, working through Omni Studio, to implement a two-leveled strategy. With a budget of less than $5 million, this began with the use of seeding through YouTube and running ads across all networks simultaneously. On launch weekend, a takeover of all major original equipment manufacturers’ screens took place during peak kid viewing periods. This included easy clickthrough to content, which was achieved through strategic media units across the campaign that created a single path for viewers to…

EXVERUS means “from the truth” in Latin, and that phrase is at the heart of what the fast-growing media agency does for its clients. In less than a decade, Exverus has grown from a two-person shop to a 40-plus-person, full-service media agency that fosters relationships through its niche of supporting challenger brands. It’s a model for success that has earned the agency an ADWEEK Media Plan of the Year award six times and landed the agency on ADWEEK’s Fastest Growing Agencies list last year. The agency grew over 50% last year, thanks to new business from New Belgium Brewing Co., Bell’s Brewery and PatPat.com, and expanding its business with long-standing customers like Stella & Chewy’s. Those wins, combined with the agency’s ability to customize each media campaign with creativity and…

Nearly four years ago, a significant number of people went inside and stayed there. They relied on DoorDash for food, Peloton for exercise and Netflix for entertainment. Without people driving to work or walking around downtown, U.S. out-of-home advertising declined 30%, from $8.5 billion in 2019 to $6 billion in 2020, according to marketing intelligence firm WARC. Money has since returned to the medium, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. “It suggests brands are still pretty keen on reach as a target in their media campaigns,” said Alex Brownsell, head of content for WARC Media. That said, ad dollars aren’t coming back to each format at an equal pace. Billboards and roadside signs have exceeded past highs. Transit and in-store retail environments have not. And despite all the potential for digital out-of-home advertising,…

FOR THE FIRST TIME in its history, Mediahub competed with the industry’s largest media agencies in 2023. Its work is edgy, and it’s embraced experiential elements for a long time. Six years ago, it created fake human bodies, encased them in liquid and installed them inside local bus stops. It made the news in West Hollywood, Calif., for scaring puzzled commuters. Turns out, it was a campaign for the dystopian Netflix show Altered Carbon. But until last year, the IPG media agency never courted the same global accounts worth hundreds of millions, or billions, as sister agencies Initiative and UM. That’s because before January 2023, Mediahub was a subsidiary of IPG’s creative network, MullenLowe Group. The other media agencies were part of the holding company’s media network, IPG Mediabrands. After…

NEW BELGIUM BREWING CO. Exverus spearheads the omnichannel “Live Rangerously” campaign for the brewery’s Voodoo Ranger IPAs, appealing to a fun-loving Gen Z/millennial demographic. New Belgium is a certified B Corp, and the entire operation is committed to being carbon neutral by 2030. With futuristic animations crafted by creative agency Fact & Fiction, Voodoo Ranger Juice Force is the top share-gaining brand in the craft beer industry this year by far, according to Circana. Year over year, Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA has increased sales by 13.1%, amassing a total of $117.3 million in sales by the end of the observation period. STELLA & CHEWY’S The rising pet food brand looked to Exverus to boost its presence and support local pet stores as well as celebrate the close relationships people have…