Those with painful menstrual cycles find solace in seeking private relief while working from home

Prior to the pandemic, journalist Britt Julious was struggling to strike a balance between full-time, in-office work and her health.

When she wasn’t working, the 34-year-old former freelance writer said she was silently struggling with her menstrual symptoms, battling a complex form of endometriosis and fibroids, and balancing debilitating pain alongside doctor’s appointments, physical therapy and acupuncture to find relief. At one point, she worked from a hospital bed after surgery related to her endometriosis diagnosis.

Julious wouldn’t find relief until the global pandemic shuttered company office doors across the world, allowing her to work from home in Chicago. “I had so much more control in terms of how I was feeling and what I was doing to provide myself more comfort,” she said, noting more flexibility around doctor’s appointments, time to rest when the pain got intense and even small luxuries like camera-off Zoom meetings.

Over the last year and a half, Julious and other people with mild to severe period symptoms have found relief in working from home. (Julious has since left her full-time role and returned to freelance work for the sake of her health.) For this story, Digiday spoke to four other people about their experience managing period symptoms while working from home and what a return to in-office work means for them.

“I can’t believe I was toughing it out pre-pandemic and being told it’s normal,” said Cydney Rhines, a 28-year-old digital marketer from Atlanta. “It’s not normal.” For Rhines, period symptoms can range from cramps and bloating to hot flashes and vomiting, all of which she says are exacerbated by the stress of work. 

“When we got the work-from-home order, all I could think about was I get to stay in my bed with my heating pad and my laptop and get some work done,” Rhines said. “In a perfect world, period pain needs to be included in disability because you can’t function. In an even more perfect world, [there’s] more awareness around what periods are.” 

Recently, there has been a major shift in the conversation around employee health, pushing companies to take a second look at things like the taboo around menopause and the workplace, gender inclusivity and pregnancy discrimination. Still, menstruation continues to be largely overlooked as a taboo topic, according to Nancy Lengthorn, global chief inclusion and culture officer at MediaCom. 

“Health issues, particularly those relating to menstruation and reproduction, still carry enormous amounts of stigma and shame and sometimes create questions around whether someone will be unreliable or not dependable,” Lengthorn said in an email, noting that flexible work ushered in by the pandemic has been a god-send for many with periods.

Currently, per Lengthorn, menstruation is an issue that flies under the radar as many people with periods don’t feel they can be open about what they need, and managers don’t feel equipped or comfortable with those discussions either. It’s a similar pattern the labor force has seen with other historically stigmatized ideas, such as mental health or flexible working for dads, she said. 

As conversations around going back to the office heat up, employers will need to commit to providing resources, like in-office period hygiene products or relaxation spaces, and permission to break the stigma, she said.

“There isn’t any reason why this should be treated any differently to parenting, caring, neurodiversity,” Lengthorn said. “Continuing to ‘whisper’ about this topic just leads to people covering or leaving the workforce.”

To Brittany Sharnez, a 28-year-old digital marketer based out of Little Rock, Ark., a flexible work environment is already non-negotiable. Sharnez was one of the millions who lost their job due to the pandemic. But in her hunt for a new gig as someone who suffers from stomach cramps, fatigue and other period symptoms, a flexible work environment was at the top of her list. Next year, she’ll start a fully remote digital marketing position. 

“We should get paid time off, or at least give us the option to work from home during those times because your body is really going through it,” Sharnez said. “That’s the time that you really need to take care of yourself.” 

As the so-called Great Resignation continues to loom above company leadership, employee health, including menstrual health, will need to be a bigger part of the conversation to retain talent, said Kai Deveraux Lawson, svp of diversity, equity and inclusion for Dentsu Creative in the Americas. That means company culture must extend beyond happy hour.

“That is now the full scope of what it means to run a business,” said Devereaux. “People have to be able to trust that we as leaders have their best interests at heart. To do that, we have to cater to the person as a whole, not just the professional.”

In the future, 32-year-old Atlanta-area marketer Jasmyn Wilson, who suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome, believes that a flexible work environment will empower her and others like her to be more productive, a key element in the future of work, she said. 

“Even if I’m working, if I take two hours out of the day to deal with myself, I’m going to be way more focused the rest of the day,” she said. “It could allow me to work better, be in better mental health and physical health as well.”

The post Those with painful menstrual cycles find solace in seeking private relief while working from home appeared first on Digiday.

Digiday+ Research: Many publishers can’t reach most of their audience with alternate identifiers

When agencies and advertisers began casting about for replacements to the third-party cookie, many of them pounced on alternate identifiers. 

And while publishers expect that those identifiers will play a key role in how they target and measure ads going forward, at the moment the identifiers are facing a scale issue that will have to get worked out, according to new Digiday+ research.

In November, Digiday asked 76 publisher professionals questions on a number of topics, including how they are preparing for returns to the office, how their employers are dealing with vaccination requirements and how they are adapting their businesses to the deprecation of third-party cookies. Of those 76, 54 respondents indicated they had at least direct knowledge of the company’s plans to replace third-party cookies; a majority of those 54 work directly on the plans.

A significant majority agreed that alternate identifiers will play a “key role” in their ad businesses after Google deprecates third-party cookies. Yet at the moment, the identifiers offer a limited picture of many publishers’ audiences. More than 40% said that they can reach less than half, or none of their audience using these emerging products. When subtracting the responses from panelists who said they did not know, that share rises above 60%. 

This limitation is likely to get smoothed out as Google’s 2023 deadline draws closer. But it also helps explain why publishers, who have had their post-cookie game plans set for most of this year, remain worried about the effects that third-party cookie deprecation will have on their businesses.

The post Digiday+ Research: Many publishers can’t reach most of their audience with alternate identifiers appeared first on Digiday.

Media Buying Briefing: Engine’s global CEO explains how downsizing led to newfound growth

Kasha Cacy knew a lot about holding companies and consultancies when she left her position as CEO of UM to join Engine Worldwide in 2018. After all, she had held senior positions at McCann and Ogilvy, and cut her media teeth at Wunderman and Accenture. But all that experience taught her that when holding companies or consultancies become too big and unwieldy, they lose the ability to be nimble and responsive. 

This is why Cacy has revamped Engine Worldwide, selling off a film trailer firm and is in the process of sell various agency assets in the U.K. The ultimate goal: land midsize clients who can benefit from speed and agility. Cacy explained her strategy and goals in this Q&A, which has been edited for space and clarity. 

Give a little history of what attracted you to Engine, and what you’ve done to change it? 

Engine was a lot of things when I joined, frankly. The first thing I did was say which of these things belong together and which don’t. [Film trailer firm] Trailer Park we’ve divested of, and it’s public knowledge that we’re in the process of divesting our London [agency assets]. The most interesting assets and the ones that over time we could really evolve and innovate with were the core assets based in the U.S., which primarily consists of a global programmatic exchange, an insights capability, and a small, integrated media/creative/social media agency. 

I loved the promise of programmatic. I loved the fact that it is data driven, it’s targeted, it’s measurable. It’s all the things that are great. The way we built it, though, quite frankly, filtered in a lot of different pieces, and the execution often didn’t live up to the promise. 

Are you talking about how Engine built programmatic or how the industry developed? 

I’m talking about the industry. If you look at programmatic, there was and still is a transparency issue. Nobody can really see what’s happening across the programmatic supply chain. There’s a data issue where, because you have a DSP, and a DMP, and an SSP and an exchange, the data doesn’t actually connect across anything — especially when you’re using cookies. Most of the infrastructure in the industry was built 10-plus years ago, not thinking CTV was coming down the line, not thinking 5G was coming down the line. Prior to me coming in, Engine had basically rebuilt their programmatic exchange with an eye towards that future. I thought if we could combine this technology with some other innovations, we could really start to fix some of the things that I had seen in the industry and offer better solutions, which I think we have done.

How do you avoid the trouble agencies ran into years ago with their clients when their exchanges were engaging in un-transparent practices such as media kickbacks? 

For us, a client could be a brand, or a DSP, or an agency holding company desk. We have two innovations. The first is that we can offer a flat fee — most SSPs and exchanges can’t do that. The visualization of the bid-stream data was the second, and more important, innovation, because everybody claims they have access to the bid-stream data. It’s just unwieldy and very difficult to actually use, right? One of our core capabilities is the ability to harness and manage and visualize gigantic datasets. So instead of us saying you can have access to the bid-stream data, we actually give you a portal, where you can see all of the auctions you’ve been in, you can see what happens at each step of the auction, you can export that data if you want to use it for something else. It’s really sort of opened the kimono on what’s happening.

More agencies say they don’t want to take part in the next Mediapalooza because of onerous demands by these huge clients. Where do you stand?  

We’re small and and we want to remain small. Since I’ve been here, the agency business has grown 10-15% every year so we’re seeing growth. But I think we still have a lot of potential in that mid tier client, and I think our service model aligns really nicely to what they need. In order to go after some of those Mediapalooza clients, we would have to have a really different structure and operating model. What we are really good at is taking all the pieces — creative, media, insights — and driving a result for our client. The really big players often do a lot of that themselves. It’s more of that mid tier that finds it valuable.

What do holding companies need to do to change? 

I’ve always been a person who likes to go into a small sandbox and innovate, I think it’s really hard to do that at a holding company level right now. Because they’re so big. And I think the challenge for them moving forward is what pieces [they should change]. You’ve seen WPP has probably been the most aggressive about bringing different agencies together and defining capabilities. I think you’re going to have to see more of that. Just the way the financials of the different agencies work, and how that plays at the overall holding company level. But it is by no means a small effort. 

Color by numbers

Analyst and consultancy Forrester issued its 2022 predictions around media and advertising, agencies and CMOs. Forrester expects global revenue from the retail media category will reach $50 billion, eclipsing Netflix and YouTube’s revenue. Among agencies, Forrester predicts 10% will crack the code to monetize their creative and media tech. And finally, Forrester forecasts that four in 10 CMOs will bolster their in-house agencies’ remit from execution to creation, taking on more high-profile assignments as part of the blended partner management model. 

Takeoff & landing

  • Havas Media Group secured global media duties (planning, strategy and digital activation) for Dolce & Gabbana, work that will be done out of HMG’s Italy office. 
  • Nike is reportedly putting its massive media account into review, potentially affecting Wieden + Kennedy in the U.S., and Stagwell’s Assembly and GroupM’s Mindshare overseas. The business is estimated at close to $1 billion in media spend globally. 
  • In acquisition news, digital marketing agency Brainlabs acquired social/creative shop Consumer Acquisition; ad-tech firm GumGum bought attention-based ad platform Playground xyz; and digital services provider Kepler Group acquired measurement firm Napkyn Analytics.

Direct quote

“Brands are being put on notice: prepare for the metaverse. This is a chance to reimagine virtual experiences and find better ways to do all the things we’ve been trying to do in the real world, including building community among customers, experiencing physical goods virtually, understanding shopper behavior, and creating more personal (AI-powered) concierge-style services. As always, the path includes a few wrong turns; accessibility and privacy need to be baked in from the ground up.”

Sanjay Mehta, head of industry and e-commerce at search specialty firm Lucidworks, talking about the metaverse’s potential.

Speed reading

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‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Slings To Third-Best Theatrical Opening Ever, With $253M

The latest installment of “Spider-Man” soared to massive levels, posting the highest-ever results for opening weekend numbers in Columbia Pictures’ 100-year history.