Month: August 2023

In recent years, agencies have sought to increase diversity, equity and inclusion efforts through hiring and training their workforce, building community partnerships and quantifying their progress. Now, as some move beyond their own workforce diversity and internal programs, they are bringing that DEI expertise and strategy to clients via new offerings and services.

Janis Middleton, chief inclusion officer of 22Squared parent organization Guided by Good, sees these services as a natural progression as agencies expand their DEI focus outside their own walls. While they built a lot of momentum throughout 2020 and 2021 to start DEI programs and install diversity officers, there remain valid questions about how much progress the industry has really made.

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This story was first published by Digiday sibling WorkLife

Being a manager is a lot of work. 

There isn’t always the best training from top executives for new managers on how to approach the role and make sure their team feels comfortable. On the flip side, senior managers might be stuck in their ways, regardless of whether they are actually working or not. Ultimately, a smooth-functioning organization would have frequent management training sessions and check-ins, but unfortunately that’s not always the case. 

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The wildfires in Maui, which have left a devastating toll on the Hawaiian island, is the latest topic being labeled as unsafe by Peer39 for its advertiser clientele due to concerns over being associated with the news. 

Per an email obtained by Digiday that was sent to advertisers from the ad tech firm on Tuesday, the company has begun offering clients the ability to block “Negative Maui Hawaii Wildfires” coverage of the wildfires from their media buys. Peer39’s email said this was being done in response to advertiser requests and the company is now “proactively” offering the rest of its clientele the same service.

Peer39 did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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Athleta is wiping its Instagram account in a bid to re-introduce itself to shoppers.

Similar to someone going through a breakup, the brand has archived its Instagram posts, launched brand new content, signaling the company’s new brand direction. As opposed to product-focused social media ads and marketing campaigns, the new direction brings Athleta to the 21st century with a video-led strategy, user generated content and more influencers, according to Julia Leach, Athleta’s recently appointed chief creative officer.

Athleta’s brand refresh comes at a notable time as parent company Gap and its portfolio of brands — Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta — is suffering a myriad of issues, including lagging sales, stiff competition from fast fashion retailers, and the departure of key leaders, including former Athleta CEO Mary Beth Laughteon. Per Barron’s, the former CEO stepped down in March following a sales slump. Since then, Athleta has hired former president of Alo Yoga, Chris Blakeslee, and Leach.

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Last week’s report into ad targeting and child safety protocols on YouTube from Adalytics has rekindled a war of words between the research outfit, and the ad industry’s biggest seller of media.

The August 17 report from Adalytics Research asserts that it observed targeted ads served on YouTube channels specifically crafted for younger audiences, where such modeling is prohibited, without parental consent.

The findings, which have been “vehemently contested” by YouTube owner Google, appear to contravene the media owner’s own policies plus raise questions over how rigorously it meets the requirements of the FTC’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

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Still lacking an industry standard definition for made-for-advertising sites (MFAs), one of the largest media agencies, GroupM, has taken matters into its own hands to more thoroughly vet sites as potential MFAs within its programmatic business.

Claiming to be the first media buying agency to take this step, GroupM has added protections against MFAs across all of the inclusion lists in all the markets it operates in, like its m-list in the U.K. Inclusion lists are a set of approved publisher websites and are used to inform where buyers spend their clients’ programmatic advertising budgets. Lately, more and more marketers have voiced their concerns about their ads showing up on MFA sites, putting pressure on buyers to avoid those domains.

Publisher domains included on GroupM’s inclusion lists are now vetted against programmatic supply chain management company Jounce Media’s list of MFAs, which is updated daily based on a set of six KPIs. This list, as well as Jounce’s criteria for determining if a publisher is deemed an MFA, has been widely adopted by the ad industry in lieu of a universal definition from a trade body. GroupM first started testing Jounce’s MFA list in beta back in June. 

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It’s no surprise that AI and other emerging tech showed up this summer Down Under during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The tournament, which wrapped up yesterday in Australia and New Zealand with a hotly contested final match between Spain and England, attracted a lot of attention thanks to interest in the U.S. Women’s National Team, which bowed out in earlier rounds. But AI, augmented reality and even blockchain also scored some points in ads, games and social media.

Emerging tech also showed up plenty last fall during the Men’s World Cup in Qatar with AR filters, virtual worlds and plenty of NFTs. However, as companies explore more ways of using new tools, it’s sometimes the final painting that’s more memorable than the brush. 

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Our pandemic outcome would have been better with more debate, less censorship.

The President’s diplomacy with Japan and South Korea needs more hard power and freer trade.

Biden’s slow delivery of U.S. arms has hurt Kyiv’s counteroffensive and plays into Donald Trump’s hands.