AGENCIES

On the First Day of Women’s History Month, IPG Gave to Me…

Many agencies celebrate Women’s History Month in some way, but Initiative started off the month with a splash. On Monday, the 51-year-old IPG media agency announced its very first female Global CEO: Amy Armstrong. 

• Armstrong has served as Initiative US CEO since 2016. She previously ran sister media network BPN Worldwide and was president of ID Media. 
• Her team brought many a major client to Initiative’s fold, most recently T-Mobile’s $2 billion media portfolio. 

On diversity: Perhaps more diversity and inclusion initiatives could spring from Initiative (see what we did there?) under its very first woman top leader. Armstrong told Ad Age that creating a “fair and equitable” environment for BIPOC is a primary concern. “You only do good work with diversity,” she said. 

On Women’s History Month: “I have definitely run into my problems being the only female in a room with clients,” she continued. “But I feel that the generations under me aren’t going to have to deal with that.”

Let’s not do the Time Warp again, OK?

For Women’s History Month 2018, Digitas produced an extensive history of women in marketing and advertising that you can read here. Some key takeaways...

1880: Mathilde C. Weil opened the first female-run ad agency.

1949: Four women became VPs at McCann.

1963: Caroline Robinson, the first woman of color to reach VP level at an agency, started her career.

1986: The 4A’s tapped Charlotte Beers as its first female Chairman.

2008: Women represented a mere 3% of creative directors at top ad agencies.

2016: 4A’s President and CEO Nancy Hill announced Madison Avenue gender equality goals.

2018: 180 female ad industry execs launched Time’s Up Advertising.

Big picture: Progress has been slow-going, until recently. As of October 2020, women held 45.4% of all executive positions at advertising, media, and tech companies, compared to just 29% in 2019, per She Runs It and Diversity Best Practices research cited by The Drum. 

RETAIL

Selling Things Selling Ads

Ta-da: What you thought was a retailer has become an ad platform right before your very eyes! 

That’s the trick several retailers have pulled off over the last few years, further monetizing their massive audiences.

Just yesterday, Walmart announced three new ad tech partners, which will nearly double the number of advertisers on its platform overnight. That’s on top of the growth it saw last year, when sponsored search ads skyrocketed 185% year over year and it multiplied its advertiser base 10x.

It’s a trend

Last week, Macy’s said the media network it launched in August had already hauled in more than $35 million. Home Depot, Kroger, CVS and Walgreens each has its own media platform too, but they haven’t disclosed revenue. Neither has Walmart, although Morgan Stanley estimates it brings in ~$500 million.

That’s...cute. Amazon racked in $13.18 billion in e-commerce search ad revenues in 2020, per an eMarketer report from Insider Intelligence.

Big picture: Advertisers want access to first-party shopping data, and big box retailers are lining up to provide it. But as with their e-comm platforms, they’ll face stiff competition for business. 

SPONSORED BY ASANA

Beat the Burnout

Another thing we can thank 2020 for: burnout. According to Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index report, burnout is on the rise, with 71% of workers surveyed experiencing it in the last year. 

A lot of this comes down to work management. The number of employees working late rose to 87%—which, for people like us who refuse to burn the midnight oil, is not a good look. 

We support campaigning against late nights for many reasons, not just because we prefer happy hour. Burnout is proven to lead to lower morale, more mistakes, and a lack of engagement. 

With better workday management, late nights and burnout don’t need to be a thing. Asana’s entire report is all about better ways to manage work, from reducing work about work, to avoiding burnout, to getting back to productivity. 

Learn how to reset and resist burnout in the Anatomy of Work Index report. 

BRANDS

Deepfake Dew

Starting Saturday, Mountain Dew is running a YouTube spot featuring sentient mug of chamomile tea painter Bob Ross of PBS fame. Turns out, there’s a “lost” episode in which Ross paints a bottle of Mountain Dew. 

Only, it’s a deepfake—Ross passed away in 1995.

Long relegated to the darker corners of the web, deepfakes are becoming more common. Political analysts and think tankers have been sounding the alarm about potential abuses of the tech to an already deeply conspiratorial public.

PepsiCo didn’t respond to Marketing Brew’s questions about the moral implications of resurrecting Ross, but media and tech researcher Justin Hendrix told us he expects more of these kinds of stunts from marketers.

• “This type of media manipulation will be more common across all forms of media in the near future, including in advertising, as the techniques get better and the costs come down dramatically,” said Hendrix. 

Open question: What do you all think about the ethics of deepfakes in marketing? Hit reply to weigh in. 

My take: State Farm's viral spot featuring a Kenny Mayne deepfake seems like one of the few safe applications. That's because the real-life Mayne—who was in the ad—clearly consented to it.

CORRECTION

As a few readers who work in the space helpfully pointed out, our SMS messaging piece on Monday got an important detail wrong. We wrote that shared short codes would be banned by AT&T and T-Mobile as of 3/1, but several sources have told us that date has actually been pushed back to 6/1.

We’ve updated the piece here if you want to read the amended version—apologies for the error!

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Google is carving out its own path in the third party cookie solution world, rejecting broader industry replacement efforts and doubling down on its internal ad targeting solution. 
• Spotify’s US podcast listenership is projected to overtake Apple Podcasts for the first time. 
• Roku is acquiring Nielsen’s video advertising business to boost its linear TV ads.
• Serena Duff, who headed up Horizon Media’s West Coast office, died on Friday.

SPONSORED BY POSTCLICK

Let’s get personal. Ad personalization is known as marketers’ secret sauce for growth. In Postclick’s latest report, 194 marketing leaders share their insights on the State of Ad Personalization. How does it impact your bottom line? What do top performers do differently? What data moves the needle? Find out here.

AD FRAUD

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Is ‘Working through the Apocalypse’ the Future of Agency Life?
2. Former Richards Group Creative Duo Launches New Agency
3. Disney CEO Says Moviegoing Has Probably Changed Forever
4. Roku Announces Plans to Launch Virtual On-Platform Pop Up Shops

Keep scrolling for the answer.

FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

Instagram: Here’s how to use the “if Clubhouse shrank in the dryer” feature Instagram debuted earlier this week.

SEO: Google search modifiers have evolved over the years—and this article tracks that evolution in detail. 

Pinterest: This step-by-step guide to Pinterest advertising will help you get started running paid ads on the platform. 

A globally recognized marketing icon: Bozoma Saint John, CMO of Netflix, will be the keynote speaker at Activate Live on April 7. In an exclusive fireside chat, she’ll share insights on how to create a quality, authentic customer experience. Reserve your seat here.*

*This is sponsored advertising content

AD FRAUD ANSWER

Roku is doing a lot, but it’s not popping up shops any time soon.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Sesame Street's DoorDash and General Mills partnerships highlight the cultural cornerstone’s power
• The latest trend in alcohol marketing? PTO sweepstakes
• Why the 125-year-old Swarovski company needed a rebrand