Month: June 2020

Just hours after PepsiCo acknowledged its Aunt Jemima brand is based on a racial stereotype and it will change the name and packaging, rice brand Uncle Ben’s said it plans to follow suit by “evolving the visual brand identity.” In an email, Sara Schulte, external communications manager for Uncle Ben’s parent company Mars Food North…

For Disney, data is the future of television. The entertainment giant has combined its ad-tech units under a newly created Advertising Platforms team. The teams for Hulu and Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) Technology group will now sit under one roof to develop strategies and ad products for the company’s global linear, digital and streaming…

A new tool from IBM Watson Advertising uses public health data and artificial intelligence to track where Covid-19 is on the rise or decline so that marketers can better customize their advertising to the pandemic situation in a particular area. The feature, called Covid-19 Triggers, is one of many initiatives the tech giant’s advertising tech…

Last week, Netflix rolled out a Black Lives Matter programming collection highlighting stories of racial injustice on the streaming service. Now, the collection is getting a big out-of-home push. The streamer is launching an out-of-home campaign highlighting four of the titles in its Black Lives Matter collection, including the documentary 13th, the miniseries When They…

The reunion-themed upfront event will feature “30 Rock” characters offering up stories and content, presenting new and returning shows for NBCU’s 2020-21 TV season. The hour-long, ad-free event will
air on NBC July 16 and will include other guest appearances from talent across NBCU networks including Telemundo, USA Network, Syfy, E! and Bravo, as well as sports and news programming.

The IAB expects 41% of buyers’ ad-spending budgets will go to total TV/video media buying for upfront/NewFront-related deals on traditional TV and digital video platforms for the 2020/2021 TV season.
One positive area is connected TV/OTT. Media-buying execs expect an increase in revenues of 46% in 2020 over the year before, while brand execs believe CTV/OTT will rise 32%.

It’s no secret that, especially with continued fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, agencies have had to make tough decisions about staffing, with layoffs an unfortunate and common occurrence. Additionally, the general move to more remote work, which could be a permanent change in some form, has brands and agencies determining the best way to approach…

WPP plans to spend $30 million over the next three years on what it’s calling “inclusion programs” and anti-racism charities. The commitment comes weeks after CEO Mark Read addressed the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other “racially motivated incidents” in a LinkedIn post. In the post, he said WPP needs to…

First came a slew of streamers with pluses in their names. Now the new trend among streaming services is their color of choice: purple. Whether it’s the new all-in-one streamer HBO Max, short-form mobile service Quibi or the streaming platform and device maker Roku, streaming television services are using a deep purple as the dominant…