MAY 10, 2021

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 THE W EEK IN MEDIA A ND M A RK ETING

IN THIS ISSUE
M AY 10, 2 0 2 1 | VOL . L X II NO. 8

14
Upfront SCHITT’S

AMAZON MAKES ITS

C R E E K S TA R
C AT H E R I N E O ’ H A R A
EMCEED AMAZON’S
NEWFRONTS

NEWFRONTS DEBUT
D E B U T.

WITH PLANS TO FOCUS ON REINVENTING

BROADCAST. BY KELSEY SUTTON
Amazon Prime Video has been known for its buzzy original series for a long time, but
the company’s free streaming service, IMDb TV, is now making an originals push.

CMO AWARDS During Amazon’s first-ever NewFronts presentation, the company—which touted
offerings on IMDb TV along with livestreaming service Twitch, Amazon Fire TV devices
Adweek honors 30 CMOs as they and Amazon Prime Video’s live sports offering—highlighted how it’s aiming to recreate
guide brands through the pandemic. broadcast television. At IMDb TV, that’s translating to a broad array of new shows.
That content investment extends beyond IMDb TV. Prime Video also announced that
Thursday Night Football, the rights to which were previously held by Fox, would come

8 exclusively to the subscription service beginning in 2022, a year earlier than planned.

SOCIAL MARKETING PROGRAMMATIC

INSIGHTS
Why media companies are hiring
executives with Bitcoin knowledge.

BIG NUMBER
54 SNAPCHAT MAKES MOVES IN CREATOR ECONOMY WHAT
Snapchat has 125 million people using Spotlight,
its TikTok-like feature that pays out $1 million to
1,000% VERIZON
top creators. And at NewFronts on Wednesday,
HOW MUCH
VICE EXPANDED
MEDIA’S
it announced a new creator marketplace where
brands can connect with creators on the platform. ITS SYNDICATED SALE TO
It’s still very new territory for Snap, a company COOKIELESS APOLLO
that prizes private, one-to-one communications. The
key to success is keeping that ethos while building a
AUDIENCE
UNIVERSE.
MEANS
PERSPECTIVE 23% sustainable marketplace so brands can better reach
From fashionistas to rappers, the Apollo Global Management
users and creators can get paid. —Scott Nover
COVER: PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAGGIE SHANNON FOR ADWEEK

Gucci belt is a staple accessory. is set to buy Verizon Media

for $5 billion, almost half of
what telecommunications
MOOD BOARD The Week in Emojis
56 giant Verizon originally
paid for the media and
ad-tech asset s.
But what’s next for the
business once it’s under the
thumb of private equity?
Signs point to a focus on
growing out the already
DATA sizable Yahoo Sports and
When disasters occur, consumers Finance ver ticals, but
look for helpful brands. Verizon Media’s demand-
TIKTOK TRUMP U.K.
N E A R LY H A L F O F BRAND CONTINUES IS POISED TO SEE side platform could very
ADWEEK PUBLISHES NEXT ON MAY 17. U S E R S M A K E P L AT F O R M - B A C K S L I D E 1 0 0 D AY S MASSIVE INCREASE well find another home.
©2021. All rights reserved. ADWEEK® is a registered trademark owned INSPIRED PURCHASES OUT OF OFFICE IN AD SPEND
by Adweek, LLC and used under license. Adfreak®, Adweek Brandshare®,
AgencySpy®, Brandweek®, Brand Genuis®, Brand Save®, Hot List®,
—Andrew Blustein
Mediaweek®, Social Times®, TVNewser® and TVSpy® are registered
trademarks owned by Adweek, LLC and used under license.
UPFRONT

TALENT POOL

JONATHAN
HYLA
AUDIO COLLECTIVE
CO-FOUNDER
INSPIRES AND EQUIPS
NEURODIVERSE
CREATIVES IN
CLUBHOUSE
AND BEYOND.
BY JESS ZAFARRIS

Jonathan Hyla, more commonly

known simply by his last name,
wants to empower creative
professionals who think a bit
differently than many of their
colleagues—especially those who
have ADHD.
After working in radio, film and
television for more than a decade,
including doing high-profile celebrity
interviews at E! Entertainment,
Hyla shifted to his most recent
work directing commercials,
documentaries and music videos for
the likes of Samsung, Clif Bar and
Zillow. He still does the occasional
high-profile interview, though,
collaborating with Cannes Lions
the past two years and sharing
the screen with top creatives from
around the world.
In 2020, he began working on
a book and documentary called
All Day Dreaming, both of which
address living and working with
ADHD. However, they were put on
hold due to the pandemic.
But that hasn’t stopped him
from exploring the subject via his
original passion: audio. During
quarantine, he started a local radio
station, Eastside Radio, and began
experimenting on Clubhouse in new
ways. He created the platform’s
first 24-hour radio station, All Day
Dreaming Radio, playing lo-fi beats
with no lyrics for listeners to work
to. He also created the platform’s
first 24/7 club focused on
creativity, ADHD and productivity.
“I could open up a [Clubhouse]
room with ADHD and a title, and
there’d be amazing stories of people
from all over the world that I normally
would never get access to,” he said.
Hyla is a founding member of the
Audio Collective, a hybrid live audio
‘Mindfulness
is an incredibly
valuable tool that
lets you shut off
your brain for a
second and let
it roam without
the algorithm.’
BIG MISTAKE HOW THE DREAM creator community, production house and ambassador
People with ADHD CAME TO LIFE group that partners with creators, agencies, brands and
can often struggle Hyla’s long history includes studios to develop, strategize and execute engaging
with delegation, work in radio, film and interactive audio events on Clubhouse and throughout
and that was very television, including work the emerging social audio space.
much the case for with major brands like “Success on Clubhouse is built around
Hyla. “Early on in my Samsung, Clif Bar and collaboration when the right moderators can get
career, I would try Zillow. Now he’s working on together and create magic,” he said. “That’s the secret
and do it all because I his own projects, such as sauce of Clubhouse: people collaborating in rooms.”
was afraid,” he said. impactful work with All Day Now, All Day Dreaming has grown to more than
Dreaming, the name of his 60,000 followers and provides “a simple survival
LESSON LEARNED Clubhouse ventures, and guide to navigating creativity,” including interviews,
“I quickly realized the book and documentary conversations, co-working sessions and music for deep
that when you try he plans to create. focus. While it has a special focus on ADHD resources, it
and do it all, you’re also supports the neurodiverse creativity more broadly.
not giving people PRO TIP “One of the top five questions or subjects that we talk
the opportunity to “We have to have space about in All Day Dreaming is how to navigate talking about
make the thing that to be bored. We have to your ADHD, or mental health in general, in the workspace
you’re working on have space for meditation. with your boss and with your colleagues,” he said.
better.” He embraced Mindfulness is an To that end, Hyla’s goal for both his Clubhouse
collaboration, learning incredibly valuable tool community and his personal ADHD project is to
to limit his role on that lets you shut off your help other neurodiverse people communicate
projects to allow for brain for a second and more effectively about their needs and make the
team-based creativity let it roam without the workplace more accommodating for creative and
and productivity. algorithm,” he said. atypical forms of productivity.

4 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK

 NAMED ONE OF THE BES T BOOKS
OF T HE Y E A R BY WIRED
“Part spy novel and part science thriller, this book “The book might be described as prophetic . . . At least two
is an essential guide to ensuring our digital future.” of Aral’s three predictions have come to fruition.”

—JONAH BERGER, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF CONTAGIOUS — NEW YORK

Social media connected the world—and gave rise to fake news and increasing polarization.
Now, a leading researcher at MIT draws on 20 years of investigation to show how these
trends threaten our political, economic, and emotional health in this eye-opening
exploration of the dark side of technological progress.

L E A RN MO R E AT SI NA N AR AL . IO
Available wherever books are sold CURRENCY
Insights
TRENDS YOU NEED TO K NOW
Fast-Food Brands
Turn to Reusables
MCDONALD’S, BURGER KING AND STARBUCKS ARE
LAUNCHING PILOT PROGRAMS TO CUT DOWN ON
CONTAINER WASTE. BY KATHRYN LUNDSTROM
F
ast-food restaurants have
long hinged their business
models on extreme
convenience. Super quick
service and single-use packaging gives
diners an on-the-go meal with nothing
to clean up afterward—leftovers go into
the trash without a second thought.
But decades after it gained
popularity in the U.S., that model
isn’t jiving with increased awareness
about the environmental impact of
waste—especially plastic waste.
Branded litter has never been a good
look, but consumers have come a long
way since they laughed Sun Chips’
compostable bag off convenience
store shelves in 2010. In a recent
survey by Adweek and Harris Poll, 81%
6 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK
of consumers said they’re concerned
about littering and pollution from quick
service restaurants (QSRs).
With those ideas threatening
their image, fast-food brands like
Burger King, Starbucks, Tim Hortons
and McDonald’s are following in the
footsteps of sustainability-minded
establishments like Just Salad by
introducing reusable containers.
Working with Loop, the packaging
arm of recycling company TerraCycle,
or Ridwell, another closed-loop
system based in Seattle, trial
programs let consumers pay a small
deposit to use a sturdier container.
Consumers then return the container
to the store for professional sanitation
and their deposit.
Chains like
Just Salad,
Burger King
and Starbucks
are trying more
sustainable
options.
BY THE NUMBERS
When asked about quick-
service restaurants’ (QSR)
impact on the environment,
81%
of survey respondents
included littering and pollution
in their list of concerns.
55%
said they’d be willing to
consider a reusable or
returnable container program
to address packaging waste at
QSRs, and millennials and
Gen Z were most willing (77%).
50%
of respondents also said they
visit a QSR at least once a
week, but parents (65%) and
Gen Z (67%) turned out to be
the most regular customers.
ADWEEK-HARRIS POLL
In a perfect world, these systems
would eliminate the estimated 4.9
million tons of packaging waste that’s
generated by QSRs in the U.S. each
year, according to a 2016 study by The
Overbrook Foundation. Most cups,
boxes, straws, utensils and lids from
fast-food joints aren’t recyclable or
compostable. Paper cups, for instance,
often require a plastic lining to keep
the liquid from seeping through,
making them unrecyclable, and even
the containers that are industrially
compostable often end up in regions
that lack the infrastructure to handle
large-scale composting.
“If we can actually come up with
models where we can successfully
reuse packaging, there’s an opportunity
to reduce the impact of packaging,” said
Shelie Miller, professor of sustainable
systems at the University of Michigan.
But it’ll require significant consumer
behavior changes. “One of the worst
things that could happen is if companies
put out reusable packaging that doesn’t
ever get reused, and it’s actually
treated like a single-use plastic.”
Reusable bowls have been a part
of Just Salad’s business for 15 years.
Consumers buy a bowl for $1 and get
a free salad topping every time they
use it. Adoption hovers between 20%
and 25%, said Just Salad director
of sustainability Sandra Noonan,
but the brand is currently working
on building out its rewards program
and messaging to encourage more
consumers across its 40 stores
nationwide to participate.
While some consumers are
motivated to use reusable bowls
simply because they’re dedicated to
limiting their environmental impact,
others are moved by the opportunity
for a free salad topping—helping
the environment is an added bonus.
Leveraging both is crucial to ensuring
that the program is valuable to a wider
range of consumers, Noonan said.
Just Salad estimates that if
someone uses the bowl four times,
it offsets the carbon footprint of
C O U R T E S Y J U S T S A L A D , B U R G E R K I N G A N D S TA R B U C K S
producing it. The brand is considering
incentives to ensure customers hit that
threshold, potentially diverting dozens
or hundreds of single-use containers
from the landfill per customer.
Burger King’s pilot with Loop
launches later this year in New York,
Portland, Ore., and Tokyo. They hope
to get 100 uses out of their reusable
containers, aiming to make the program
cost the same as its current packaging
expenditures once scaled to the brand’s
7,000 U.S. restaurants, said BK global
head of innovation and sustainability
Matthew Banton. Once the sturdier
packages break down from repeated
use, they’ll be sent back to TerraCycle
®
to be transformed into things like park
benches and play structures.
“We do believe that the food that
we serve can be delicious, convenient,
a great value and also sustainable,”
Banton said. “If we’re going to be a part
of the problem, we have to be part of
the solution.”
Loop has also partnered with
McDonald’s in the U.K. on a pilot
program that’ll launch later this year,
but hasn’t yet announced plans for a
U.S.-based program.
“The idea is that it truly is a
system where, for convenience’s sake,
you’re going to the store and there’ll
be Loop drop-offs everywhere,”
said Loop spokesperson Eric Rosen.
But Loop isn’t the only company
creating streamlined, closed-loop
recycling systems for QSRs. In
Seattle, Starbucks partnered with
‘One of the
worst things
that could happen
is if companies
put out reusable
packaging that
doesn’t ever
get reused,
and it’s actually
treated like a
single-use plastic.’
Shelie Miller, professor of sustainable
systems at the University of Michigan
Ridwell and Go Box on its Borrow a
Cup program in five stores earlier
this year. Consumers pay a $1 deposit
for a reusable cup, which can either
be sanitized onsite or picked up at
consumers’ homes by Ridwell.
And while all these programs are
encouraging, Miller isn’t expecting
overnight adoption. Pilot programs are
necessary to learn what consumers
will actually commit to.
“If we’re trying to optimize for
sustainability, we don’t want to put out
a reusable product just because it’s
reusable,” she said. “We want to put out
a reusable product because it actually
reduces environmental impact.”
KATHRYN LUNDSTROM IS ADWEEK’S
SENIOR NEWS WRITER. PREVIOUSLY,
SHE WROTE ABOUT POLITICS FOR THE
DAILY DONUT AND ANALYZED POLICY
AT THE TEXAS CAPITOL. @KLUNDSTER
ADWEEK | MAY 10, 2021
®
CLUBHOUSE AT
A CROSSROADS
DOWNLOADS OF THE APP HAVE DECLINED,
BUT IT’S SPARKED AN AUDIO FORMAT THAT
MAY BE HERE TO STAY. BY SCOTT NOVER
At first, Walter Geer, like many,
didn’t understand Clubhouse.
It was early July 2020, and Geer,
now the executive creative director
at agency VMLY&R, spent a few days
listening to live audio conversations
on the app before shelving it for a few
weeks. While Clubhouse is now known
for its LinkedIn-esque user base, the
breakthrough session for Geer wasn’t
really about business or marketing.
“The first conversation I spoke in
on was actually about dog food,” he
said. The conversation was interesting,
but the intimacy is what did it for him.
Geer estimates there might have
been 1,500 people on the app at the
time, and average rooms involved
five people. “Conversations were
super candid, and you could really
establish incredible relationships. It
felt very, very exclusive.”
In the months after, Geer saw
exponential growth in the platform’s
user base, fueled in large part by a
robust and engaged Black community.
By December, the “floodgates” opened,
he said. The winter brought the apex of
Clubhouse’s audience numbers, but it
also brought over-eager motivational
speakers, self-proclaimed billionaires,
wannabe influencers and even
scammers. Plus, the app has long
struggled with server capabilities,
content moderation, accessibility and
monetization opportunities—must-
haves for any modern platform.
Now, the app is at a crossroads.
Clubhouse is trying to mature quickly
while keeping the elements that
made it special in its early days.
Despite intense hype in Silicon Valley
and a $4 billion valuation, Clubhouse
is staring down declining user growth
numbers, intense competition from
Big Tech incumbents and a potentially
more normal summer that could lure
even devoted users out of their homes
and back into society.
Clubhouse downloads are losing
momentum as competitors emerge
and people head outside. According
to Sensor Tower, Clubhouse’s global
app downloads shot up from 2.4
million in January to 9.6 million in
February, a 300% increase, before
falling back down to 2.7
million in March, a 72% drop.
April brought dour news,
as new downloads fell to
922,000 for the month. While
the company is still invite-only
and iOS only (with Android
capabilities coming soon), the
hype appears to be over.
300%
increase
CLUBHOUSE
GLOBAL
MONTHLY
INSTALLS
DEC. 2020 JAN. 2021 FEB. 2021
994,000 2,400,000 9,600,000
Clubhouse spokespeople
declined to comment for this story.
And since that midwinter bump,
a glut of big-name entrants have
announced plans to venture into
social audio. There’s Twitter Spaces,
Reddit Talk, Discord Stage Channels,
Spotify Greenroom and also
forthcoming clones from Facebook
and LinkedIn. Meanwhile, smaller
players like Stereo and Spoon are
also vying for market share. These
alternatives share a smattering of
user data but are broadly in fledgling
stages compared with Clubhouse.
Clubhouse doesn’t currently have
an ad operation, though brands have
struck up sponsorships directly with
creators on the platform. For their
part, marketers are looking for more
scale, brand safety and opportunities.
The end of the pandemic could
spell trouble for Clubhouse and its
rivals, though.
“Summertime is no doubt going
to be an attention deficit because
we’re starved for interaction,” said
Eric John, vp of the IAB’s media
center. But he thinks a lot of
what Clubhouse is bringing will
stick if the company and its
competitors can scale up.
“The longer that people
engage with these media
forms, the greater chances it’s
going to become [an] everyday
[habit],” he said.
But it’s tough to listen to
a social audio session at a bar
or restaurant or even covertly
during a work meeting once
offices open up.
Simple scale is Clubhouse’s
largest barrier, said Nathan
Young, head of strategy for
Chicago studio Deloitte Digital,
considering its user base hovers
somewhere just north of 10
million monthly active users.
That gives its rivals a leg up.
“If you’re Twitter, if you’re
MAR. 2021 APR. 2021
2,700,000 922,000
Spotify, you don’t need to achieve
scale,” Young said. “You have a wider
variety of avenues for that ad to
run. It’s kind of like the early days of
Facebook. They announce Stories, you
can click a box and put it in your mix
and it’s just additional reach. But when
[social audio] is the only thing you
offer, that is a really, really significant
challenge to overcome.”
Ultimately, the staying power
of Clubhouse could hinge on its
simplicity to replicate.
“Clubhouse was extremely
disruptive,” said Geer, pointing to
the company’s ability to create user
demand. “But I look at this not as a
whole new social platform, I look at
this as a feature. … I think that the
question is: Will this feature stand
the test of time? Will audio stand
the test of time?”
SCOTT NOVER IS A PLATFORMS
REPORTER AT ADWEEK, COVERING
SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES AND
THEIR INFLUENCE. @SCOTTNOVER
7
INSIGHTS | MEDIA
CRYPTO
CURIOUS
WHY MORE MEDIA COMPANIES ARE LOOKING FOR C-SUITERS
WHO UNDERSTAND BITCOIN. BY LUCINDA SOUTHERN
In late March, 98-year-old Time
magazine posted a job opening for a
new chief financial officer, with one
notable qualification: “comfort with
Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.” In four
weeks, more than 600 people had
applied on the digital currency job
board Crypto Jobs.
When it comes to grappling
with cryptocurrency, some media
companies are dipping their toe
in. Others, like Time, are doing a
full cannonball, recognizing the
opportunities for media companies,
such as differentiating from the
duopoly and driving more ad revenue.
Time is one of the few accepting
Bitcoin payments from ad clients and
subscribers. In March, it auctioned off
a number of digital covers minted as
nonfungible tokens (NFTs), generating
nearly $1.5 million. Other publishers
charmed by the $342 million monthly
trading market of NFTs are The New
York Times, The Atlantic and Playboy,
which have auctioned digital content
as NFTs, mostly donating the proceeds
to charitable organizations. As with all
shiny newfangled tech, the challenge
is predicting its longevity.
The New York Times and The Atlantic
declined to comment for this article.
“The most uncertain aspect of
8 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK
NFTs is how they will be valued by
consumers over the long term; all
that’s needed is for people to think it’s
valuable,” said Zach Seward, CEO of
Quartz, which auctioned an NFT news
article for $1,800 in late March and
donated proceeds to the International
Women’s Media Foundation. “That
said, we’re scratching the surface
of the possibilities for the direction
of media,” he added, pointing to
blockchain smart contracts making
syndication and licensing businesses
more seamless for publishers.
Crypto-focused publisher Decrypt
accepts various cryptocurrencies
as payment from its advertisers.
It’s also using tokenomics, the
process of how crypto works in the
broader ecosystem, in its business
model. Most recently, advertisers
can sponsor coins used to reward
audiences for engaging with
content, and audiences
can redeem those coins
for NFTs. By getting closer
to its audience, Decrypt is
more sheltered from the
headwinds of the digital ad
market, such as Google and
Facebook taking most of the
digital advertising growth,
@LUCY28SOUTHERN
and the deprecation of third-
party cookies, leading to depressed
ad rates in the open exchange.
“Publishers should be much
more willing to invest in [crypto]
and understand this world because
of the potential to create revenue,”
said Matt Hussey, co-founder of
Decrypt. “For advertisers, there’s a
conservative sense of this space, but
should they embrace it, they will find
opportunities to deliver much better
returns on campaigns.”
That uncertainty hasn’t dampened
the crypto tulip mania, though.
“The crypto bull run will probably
continue to the end of the year,” said
Colton Sakamoto, co-founder of Crypto
Jobs, which has roughly 300 active
crypto-related roles on its job board.
Since its January launch, Crypto Jobs
has facilitated 30,000 job applications,
but Time is the only media entity
searching for crypto experience on it.
Other executive search firms
interviewed said that crypto
doesn’t currently come up
in conversations to place
C-suite level executives.
“What the CFO job
LUCINDA
SOUTHERN
description really highlights
IS ADWEEK’S is a mindset more so than
MEDIA EDITOR. a skill set,” said Keith
Grossman, president at
Time. “Smart, qualified individuals with
the right mindset will easily be able to
learn the space.”
Environmental costs stunt
mainstream adoption of crypto
and NFTs, as well as processing
payments, known as gas fees. These
fluctuate depending on the demand
but are the same no matter what you
spend, making smaller-ticket items
paid for annually, like a subscription,
potentially prohibitive.
Specifying newer skill sets in a job
post can attract an interesting set of
candidates. In this case, a traditional
media company like Time is looking for
execs on the bleeding edge of tech to
help with its transformation, placing it
nearer to carmaker Tesla and business
intelligence firm MicroStrategy, which
have both swapped billions in cash for
Bitcoin in recent months.
“Predicting the market is a fool’s
errand,” said Daniel Payne, a fin-
tech lawyer at law firm Murphy &
McGonigle. That said, NFTs will likely
follow other socioeconomic product
rollouts. Early users translate to
a bubble that pops, leading the
value of the market to decline
precipitously until speculators exit
the market before it gradually builds
to an equilibrium over time. “This
‘What the CFO
job description
really highlights
is a mindset
more so than
a skill set.’
Keith Grossman, president, Time
model is well-documented in many
markets,” Payne said. “The only
question is the time frame over
which that cycle happens.”
On May 5, for example, the gas fee
for the popular blockchain Ethereum
was around $13, compared to $32 a
couple weeks before. One year ago, in
the early throes of pandemic-induced
I L L U S T R AT I O N : T R E N T J O A Q U I N
market disruption, it was 12 cents.
Companies that decide to accept
cryptos like Bitcoin aren’t likely to see
many customers use the currency
now. But it’s a marketing win, and
they’ll be ready if—or when—crypto
goes mainstream.
“That is no longer a long shot,”
said Payne.
®

Curbing AI’s Eccentricities
STARTUPS AND AGENCIES ARE USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR
INSPIRATION AND CONTENT CURATION. BY PATRICK KULP
When research group OpenAI first
introduced what is arguably the most
powerful text generator in the world
last year, it immediately wowed the AI
community with its ability to produce
realistic copy. Trained on nearly 1
trillion words pulled from across the
internet, the generator, known as
GPT-3, is able to mimic the style of a
piece of writing based on something
as short as a single passage.
But granting that much creative
license to a machine also breeds a
certain level of unpredictability in
output. That element of randomness
is partially why GPT-3—or its less
powerful predecessor, GPT-2—is
taking time to gain widespread
commercial traction as a tool to
power chatbots or auto-generate ads.
After nearly a year of
experimentation, however, how such
a technology might be tamed for
marketing purposes is beginning to
take shape.
Working through OpenAI’s closely
guarded API program, startups and
agency technologists have reined in
GPT-3’s more eccentric tendencies,
which can range from nonsensical
prose to inappropriate or explicit
content, in order to put it to use for
rote performance marketing tasks
like A/B testing endless variations
of a digital ad, generating product
descriptions or assigning email
subject lines. Meanwhile, other
companies are capitalizing on GPT-
3’s stranger side for creative tools.
While still nascent, projects like
these offer a glimpse into a future
where humans might work hand in
hand with generative AI on creative
copywriting and the give-and-take
forces that might define such a
relationship.
“In marketing, the trade-off is
between guardrails and creativity,”
I L L U S T R AT I O N S : C A R L O S M O N T E I R O
said Gartner Research analyst
Andrew Frank. “You can create fairly
strict rules that prevent the machines
from generating crazy stuff. But I
think the real impact is probably
more on the fringes, where it’s
creating things that people wouldn’t
necessarily think of or expanding the
scope of language for a brand.”
One of these companies doing
just that is startup Copysmith, which
ADWEEK | MAY 10, 2021
®
INSIGHTS | EMERGING TECH
recently raised $10 million to support
its mission of using GPT-3 to create
anything from digital ads, SEO meta
tags and product descriptions to blog
ideas and listicles. Copysmith users
can select the tone of some types of
content from a dropdown, with options
like neutral, funny or luxurious.
The company, which counts
Marshall’s, Volcom and Change.org
among its clients, combines OpenAI’s
model with its own proprietary
WE ASKED COPYSMITH’S GPT-3 TOOL algorithms to allow marketers to
TO GENERATE AD IDEAS FOR reword the same message with more
DIFFERENT BRANDS guiding control than a GPT-3 alone,
according to CEO Shegun Otulana.
“You can produce a whole ton of
variations—way more than a human
being can—and at a faster rate,”
Otulana said. “So if you have a market
that you’re trying to reach … then
you want to really test a whole ton of
variable language and see which one
FORD performs the best.”
AI ad idea Dentsu Asia Pacific’s data science
“What if we did division recently released a similar
something with a content generation engine built
skydiving car chase?” around GPT-3. Users simply input
a social media caption, and the
program spits back several more
iterations designed to be tested on
different audiences.
While tools like these take pains
to curb GPT-3’s more absurdist
impulses, other advertising creatives
say studying a generative AI’s
random output can offer inspiration.
Qasim Munye, founder of GPT-3-
based writing assistant ShortlyAI,
is harnessing GPT-3’s creative
side. His startup is based around
LAY’S a collaborative platform that will
POTATO suggest additional sentences and
CHIPS ideas as a writer types.
AI ad idea “I wanted to create a tool that
“What if we will become the next generation of
performed an Microsoft Word,” Munye said. “It can
experiment with a help you think through your ideas, it
vending machine that can help you articulate your thoughts.”
would only accept your As for the next steps for this
shadow as payment?” technology, Sid Bharath, co-founder
of a GPT-3 ad and blog copy platform
Broca, said he believes it will be the
beginning of a synthetic content
revolution that will also encompass
similar tools for generating AI images
and video through text inputs.
“You could, say, generate a video
of two people talking and one of them
is wearing Nike shoes. And boom—it’s
like a little video that you can use in
your ads,” Bharath said. “In the future,
we’re going to be able to create all
ADWEEK sorts of media … using the GPT series.”
AI ad idea
“What if we did
something with a PAT R I CK K U L P I S A N E M E R G I N G
giant red button that TECH REP ORTER AT ADW EEK . HE
C O V ER S C R E AT I V E I N N O VAT I O N ,
when pushed, would ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE
F U T U R E O F 5 G. @PAT R I CK K U L P
break some news?”
9

Michelob Ultra
And Adapting in
The Pandemic
ANHEUSER-BUSCH’S U.S. CMO DISCUSSES
CREATING A FOUNDATION FOR A NEW FAN
BASE. BY MARCEL MARCONDES
On March 11, 2020, the NBA
indefinitely suspended the season after
a player tested positive for Covid-19.
It was a frightening moment that
sent shock waves across the nation.
Other leagues quickly followed the
NBA, leading to a standstill across
professional sports. Countries around
the world were imposing strict and
immediate lockdowns on all facets of
life. Simple activities like grabbing a
beer and watching a game suddenly
felt out of reach.
As sports leagues looked for ways
to restart their seasons, the only
viable option seemed to be forbidding
fans from attending.
It was during this time that
Ricardo Marques, Michelob Ultra’s vp
of marketing, and I got a WhatsApp
message from FCB N.Y. co-CCO
Gabriel Schmitt: “What if we could
bring fans—not cardboard fans, but
real fans—virtually into an arena?” As
daring as that sounded, it took us 30
seconds and we were in.
We soon discovered that the
NBA and Microsoft both had their
own plans to restart the season.
10
VOICE
But it wasn’t until we all teamed up
that everything came together and
Michelob Ultra Courtside was born.
A WHOLE NEW GAME
As excited as we were, we were not
prepared for how enthusiastically the
fans embraced our idea. The debut of
Microsoft’s AI-driven Together Mode
not only gave fans the opportunity
to attend NBA games virtually, but
it also democratized the coveted
courtside seat, bringing an energy to
the arena that made the experience
better for the viewers at home and
for the players. The scene was like
something out of a movie: 17-foot
video boards wrapped around the
court, exclusive camera angles, 120
contact microphones embedded
under the floor.
To get these tickets, fans had
to scan a Michelob Ultra bottle.
This wasn’t a stunt, and it went on
throughout the season. At every
halftime, we hosted a special Q&A
for courtside fans with celebrities,
NBA legends and more, driving a ton
of social conversation and creating a
series of truly memorable moments.
Through the season, we saw
Michelob Ultra’s volume performance
the solutions for the challenges
we face daily. I love that this was a
proactive idea. They didn’t wait for a
accelerate to over 32% versus the
previous year, social conversation was
at an all-time high and brand health
indicators moved across the board. We
brief. They understand our brand, they
live and breathe our business, and
they are constantly looking at how we
can impact culture.
brought Michelob Ultra to a new fan
base in new parts of the country with
new beer occasions and a cultural
AGILITY AND AMBIGUITY
What made this process so
moment of unprecedented scale. exhilarating was that we built the
Michelob Ultra Courtside taught us plane as we flew. More than ever,
lessons that will forever influence our our teams need to be ready to adapt
way of marketing: to the ever-changing reality. Today,
we keep our finger on the pulse of
PEOPLE, NOT TARGETS culture by operating as a newsroom
Michelob Ultra Courtside was inspired across our brands. But to truly create
by a genuine focus on people. It all something unique, we need to trust
started with a deep desire to improve the vision and be able to navigate
the viewing experience for fans and through the ambiguity of building
to bring that joy to the players. Being something entirely new.
people-centric is the only way forward. We now have a great opportunity,
not just in business, but in life. Let’s
ACTIONS, NOT ADS get better, not back to normal.
It can be tempting to make yet another
inspiring spot, but at the start of the
pandemic, we decided to stop just
talking the talk and instead started
walking the walk across our entire
portfolio of brands by focusing on
meaningful, solution-oriented actions.
PARTNERSHIP
We couldn’t be prouder of our
partnership with the NBA because it
demonstrated the power of working
together to create something that goes
beyond sponsor relationships. The
power of true partnerships cannot be
understated in the hyper-connected,
volatile world we live in today. Specs
Claim to fame
CREATIVITY Marcel Marcondes is CMO
Our partners at FCB N.Y., along with of Anheuser-Busch U.S.
FCB worldwide creative partner Fred Base New York City
Levron, showed us once again that Twitter @MarcelMarcondes
NBA
creativity and innovation are indeed
MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
INSIDE THE BRAND
How did you get to where you are
today? Any noteworthy “aha”
moments along the way? I come
from the tiniest village in the north
of France. I studied literature and
philosophy but joined a business
school because I considered
advertising an underestimated form
of art and, ultimately, became a
marketing intern for the agency that
designed France’s Happy Meal toys.
What’s the most innovative thing
you’re currently working on?
An innovation in mindset. We’re
working to understand the range
of discussions and topics brands
should be engaging in. Consumers
ask where their favorite brands stand
on important social issues, and we’re
seeing brands openly communicate
about their core values. Covid-19 and
recent events around racial equity
have made this the new norm. And
that’s good!
‘Using the power
of a brand for the
greater good
should be in every
marketer’s agenda.’
What new or up-and-coming
innovation(s) are you most excited
about? How do you think it will
change the future of marketing?
A shift in mindset, perception and
INNOVATORS approach. Instead of innovating, we
HUIN
went back to our brand’s roots, to
its purest DNA. McDonald’s is an
GUI L LAUME
entertainment brand, and it was an
anomaly not to let our brand express
that in the social media world.
What’s exciting is how brands
keep pushing on their identity quest.
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR OF BRAND The more complex the problems
brands face, the more they reflect on
who they are deep down, embracing
CONTENT AND ENGAGEMENT their vulnerability.
MCDONALD’S U.S.
What’s one piece of work from
your career that you’re the
By Julian Gamboa
proudest of? The Happy Meal book
or toy strategy I led in France in 2015.
I believe in the power of words; they
shape, lift and protect you.
12
In 2015, I saw a kid in the street
holding his McDonald’s book as his
most precious treasure. Using the
power of a brand for the greater
good should be in every marketer’s
agenda. That’s why I always ask
myself and my teams: What are you
doing to make this brand better?
Was there ever a time where you
questioned your career path?
How did you handle that? When
I discussed what my next move
should be with Maurizio Biondi, one
of my bosses at McDonald’s France,
he said, “A job is three things: Do
you keep learning? Do you like the
people you work with? Are you
recognized for what you do? If you
have the three, stay. Two, stay, but
prepare for the next move. One or
zero, no work is worth your mental
health. Leave.”
What is one skill that you think
is currently underdeveloped in
marketing? I believe in observing and
learning about people directly from the
source, but I lost that over the years.
When I arrived in the U.S., [McDonald’s
senior director of cultural engagement]
Liz Campbell sent me to a town next to
Indianapolis to visit a few McDonald’s
restaurants. “Sit down, observe and
talk to the consumers and crew. Put
yourself in their shoes,” [she said]. I
learned more in four days than I ever
thought I would.
What is one thing marketers who
are not in social should know
about? Social media is not run by
interns; it’s run by future CMOs and
CCOs. Respect them. Don’t ask your
social team to insert your brand in a
topic the second it trends. It’s about
making the topic better the second
your brand chimes in.
INSIDE THE BRAND SERIES
CMO MOVES
INNOVATORS
WOMEN TRAILBLAZERS
GEN ZEOS
CHALLENGERS
MENTORSHIP
SEE THE LATEST ON ADWEEK.COM.
MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
W I N N E R ’ S P L AY B O O K
FINDING NEW
OPPORTUNITIES
AND KNOWLEDGE
ANGELA ZEPEDA
HYUNDAI CMO SHARES
ADVICE ON TAKING
ADVANTAGE OF TRENDS
AND BEING PATIENT WITH
CAREER ASPIRATIONS.
BY HEIDE PALERMO
STEP UP AND
LEARN MORE
If there was a big pitch
going on, I would ask
around and say, “What
can I do to help?” Even
if I was the person who
went to get coffee or the
person who would take
notes, these were menial
jobs, but I got seen by
senior management as an
up-and-comer who wanted
to learn more. Otherwise,
you don’t get that exposure
and you can easily get lost,
especially in a big agency.
Take on more than you do,
and don’t ask. Offer to take
on something that gives
you exposure in a new and
different way.
C H E C K O U T T H E C M O M O V E S P O D C A S T AT A D W E E K . C O M / C M O M O V E S
ADWEEK | MAY 10, 2021
®
NEVER STOP
INVESTING IN
YOURSELF
I did take a different
route than others did and
went back to school at
one point in my career.
Always put yourself first
when it comes to making
yourself as educated and
as knowledgeable as you
can be; [it’s] 100% worth
it. Never let anybody tell
you that anything you’re
interested in and that
you want to learn isn’t
worthwhile because it is;
it’s just another thing that
you can add to the table.
TAKE ADVANTAGE
OF THE
EXPERIENCE
I did not always get picked
for the promotion. I didn’t
always get the job that I
was going for. I had plenty
of disappointments along
the way. But I just put my
head back down and said,
“I really feel lucky to have
this job in this moment.”
Take advantage of it for
what you can. I feel like
I am a late bloomer to
be a CMO of my age. I
have counterparts who
have been a CMO for 20
years. But if you still have
aspirations for it and
[are] open to it, it actually
comes at some point.
KNOW WHERE
YOUR BRAND
FITS IN
Just because it’s cool,
new and happening
culturally doesn’t
mean it’s for us. Do
we participate in it as
a brand? Maybe, but
sometimes maybe not.
Sometimes those are just
gut calls. You hope to
get it right. But knowing
where to fit best with
these new things that are
happening out there is
important for a brand to
seem genuine and true.
I do not need to show up
everywhere or jump on
every trend, but I certainly
want to take advantage
of the ones that make the
most sense for us.
THINK OUTSIDE
THE CMO BOX
The CMO role is an
epicenter for a lot of
activity, but the biggest
role still really is in the
integration of digital
and technology that
sits within marketing’s
expertise. We have a
chief technology officer,
but technology touches
a lot of the executives.
Thinking about things in
an enterprise fashion is
difficult because it’s so
easy to know what I need
to get accomplished in my
little box. But the truth is,
I have to work across the
organization to make sure
that what I’m bringing in is
a technology solution.
13
CMO
These 30
Standout
Marketing
Leaders Are
Guiding Their
Brands With
Agility and
Ingenuity
Through the
Pandemic

AWARDS
and Beyond.

As the pandemic upended business, strategy and consumer

experiences, the most successful CMOs remained agile and
innovative, pivoting and pushing for progress in terms of growth,
creativity, sustainability, representation, organizational structure,
remote leadership, product innovation, customer experience
and more. In Adweek’s annual roundup of the most innovative
marketers, we honor those leaders who helped brands navigate
the coronavirus while positioning them for success in the future.
CMO
AWARDS
CHRIS BRANDT
CMO, CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL
Ask Chris Brandt what being in the restaurant business
was like in the past year, and he doesn’t mince words:
“2020 threw a lot at us,” he says, recounting all of the
terrible news: “pandemic, stay-at-home orders, racial
injustice” and, well, you get the idea.
But as the CMO of Chipotle, a fast-casual operation
with 2,750 locations, Brandt didn’t have the luxury of
hunkering down until conditions improved. In fact, with
the cooperation of his marketing team and other senior
executives, he succeeded in turning many 2020 challenges
into growth opportunities.
As the pandemic took hold, Brandt first moved nearly
all the chain’s creative effort to its online channels. “Digital
access has been a big growth driver for Chipotle since I started
in 2018,” Brandt says. “We are fortunate to have a lot of
younger consumers, and they access the world through digital
channels, so we know we need to be nimble in that space.”
Nimble not only in advertising, he means, but in ordering.
Unlike some brands that scrambled to build out their digital
infrastructure last year, Chipotle already had one—a popular
app that allows diners to easily customize their orders, and
Chipotle Rewards, a digital club launched in 2019 that lets
customers earn points they can put toward free food.
But a headlong shift to digital ordering would have led
to catastrophe if the restaurants weren’t set up to handle
that volume. Here again, Chipotle was already moving
in the direction in which the pandemic was pushing the
entire restaurant industry. In 2018, Brandt helped Chipotle
introduce its “second make line,” a devoted production line
for customers who’d placed orders on the app. Outside, it
added some 200 “Chipotlanes,” dedicated drive-thrus for
customers picking up orders in their cars.
The ease and speed of app-based ordering encouraged
still more customers to go digital, to the point where digital
orders accounted for 18% of the chain’s business by the end
of 2019. Once the pandemic struck, however, these features
became literal lifelines for the chain.
Brandt presided over the next logical step: a prototype
built exclusively for takeout. The first Chipotle Digital
Kitchen opened its doors in Highland Falls, N.Y., late last
year. The chain’s decision to build a to-go prototype was
prescient, customer experience consultant Kate Hogenson
told Adweek in November. “They couldn’t have been better
timed, because people are not exactly enjoying sit-down
[dining.] We’re seeing an increase in people wanting to
eat within their own homes, and curbside pickup is more
accepted than waiting for the delivery man to find you.”
Chipotle’s current plans call for building more of these units.
PHOTOGR APHY BY MAGGIE SHANNON FOR ADWEEK
Meanwhile, as racial equality and social justice issues
came to the fore, the company responded by creating the
United Network of Influencers Furthering Inclusion and
Ethnic Diversity, an employee resource group that meets
virtually and includes a minority mentorship program,
discussion groups and diversity training. The company
also recently partnered with online education platform
Udemy for Business, allowing all full-time employees
access to courses in management, leadership and
technology topics.
A focus on employee well-being, coupled with the chain’s
standing commitments to reducing waste and sourcing local
produce, gives the brand both a marketing and competitive
edge. “This sense of purpose truly matters, especially to
today’s younger people,” Brandt says. “That definitely gives
us an advantage.”
Fortunately for the chain, the results of Brandt and his
team’s efforts aren’t just anecdotal. For fiscal year 2020,
Chipotle revenues increased 7.1% to $6 billion. Digital
volume rose by over 174% and now accounts for just over
46% of Chipotle’s sales.
For all the popularity of Chipotle’s food and convenience,
the chief marketer’s job is not without its challenges right
now. Though Chipotle has long touted its “Food with
Integrity” slogan, the brand name has been tarnished
in recent years, starting in 2015 with a series of widely
publicized E. coli outbreaks—ones the company settled last
year by paying a $25 million fine.
The chain has also been dogged by allegations of labor-
law violations, most recently in New York, where the city’s
Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is suing
for $150 million over alleged infractions of New York’s
Fair Workweek Law. While the chain has called the most
recent charges “dramatic overreach,” the bad publicity has
been unavoidable.
But while negative headlines can affect a company’s stock
price, consumers’ views of restaurant chains tend to be led
by their stomachs and, right now, Chipotle seems to be doing
everything right. Chipotle was voted America’s favorite
Mexican food chain in 2019—a title it’s held more than
once—and its new unit designs are clearly giving diners the
accelerated access they want.
“The wide variety of formats that we now have—
conventional restaurants with multiple configurations,
Chipotlanes and now Digital Kitchen—really gives us the
flexibility to open the right type of Chipotles in a wide
variety of areas around the country and to continue to be
a leader in the digital space,” Brandt says. —Robert Klara
 CMO
AWARDS

CAREY COLLINS KRUG SVP, HEAD OF MARKETING, ABERCROMBIE & FITCH ALL PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BRANDS
Under Krug’s leadership, Abercrombie & Fitch completed its transformation from one of the most hated brands in the U.S. to one of the
most inclusive. Rather than disrupt, the pandemic only served to underscore the brand’s strategy. “With everything happening in the world,
it only made Abercrombie’s commitment to inclusion and equity that much more important,” Krug says. “The marginalization of underserved
communities doesn’t go away in a pandemic—it becomes magnified.” The #FaceYourFierce campaign, for example, featured models from all
walks of life and of all shapes, abilities, sexualities and ethnicities, and sans the chiseled abs, body positivity reigned supreme. It also featured
soccer phenom Megan Rapinoe, who took on an expanded role as the year went on, hosting a seven-part Instagram miniseries on mental health
sponsored by the brand. Those efforts showed in the company’s results. According to the NPD Group, apparel sales declined 19% in 2020,
but with a new look and feel and its continued digital transformation, Abercrombie & Fitch’s sales fell just 12%. Those numbers certainly
impressed investors. In mid-April, the retailer’s stock hit a multiyear high of about $41 per share. —Richard Collings

18 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

The blueprint
for success begins
with a vision.
Congratulations to Marisa Thalberg for
your Adweek recognition and for building
a home where anything is possible.

From your Integrated Agency Team

CMO
AWARDS
DARA TRESEDER
SVP, HEAD OF GLOBAL MARKETING
AND COMMUNICATIONS, PELOTON
Community is everything for Treseder. When she joined
Peloton last August, the fitness platform was booming with
so many people exercising at home. But Treseder wasn’t
about to simply ride the wave of success—she was ready
to get to work. She helped develop Peloton’s first brand
campaign featuring real members sharing their stories at
home. From there, the platform released Tags, a way for
members to create microcommunities based on identities or
common interests. “I believe the quality of what we’re putting
out there is next-level,” Treseder says. “It’s not just, ‘Here’s
a bike, buy, buy.’ It’s all of the deeper storytelling.” By the
end of 2020, Treseder and her team had a hand in building
music-themed workouts featuring artists like Beyoncé and
The Beatles to continue fostering that sense of community.
Looking ahead, Treseder’s recipe for success when it comes
to growth is combining marketing, music, culture and
technology to “positively impact the world,” she says. “I’m
excited about that intersectionality, how we continue to foster
that and how we combine and bring those things together in a
way that delivers maximum impact for our business and the
communities we serve.” —Tiffany Moustakas

CHRIS TEDESCO
CMO, GENERAL MANAGER, U.S. MARKETING, RECKITT
One brand that’s become crucial in the effort to keep households germ-free during
the pandemic is Lysol. This didn’t happen by accident. In the early days of the Covid-19
outbreak, Lysol expanded its Here for Healthy Schools program, donated $2 million to the
CDC Foundation to help fight the virus and ramped up production to ensure its products
got into more homes “at a time when more consumers than ever sought the protection
they trust from Lysol,” Tedesco says. And into more dwellings Reckitt brands have
gone. Lysol entered more than 10 million new households last year. Finish dishwashing
detergent, powered by its eco-friendly #SkipTheRinse campaign, found its way into over 4
million. As a big believer in keeping his team curious, consistent and agile, Tedesco notes
that, without a doubt, the events of 2020 have forced Reckitt to reconsider its long-term
plans. Investments in ecommerce and digital advertising, for example, are aimed at
keeping pace with shifts in consumer behavior. Good hygiene is now also forever linked to
good health, which “presents great opportunities for growth in our existing portfolio,” he
says, “but also more opportunities for innovation in new categories.” —Paul Hiebert

MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

CMO
AWARDS

DEBORAH YEH
CMO, SEPHORA
AMERICAS
An early entrant to ecommerce,
Sephora was more prepared than
most when the pandemic hit the
U.S. With physical stores closed,
Sephora needed to get creative to
reach its customers. “Even the basic
routine of shooting content for our
website and social platforms was
disrupted,” Yeh says. Employees,
now working remotely with
Sephora’s San Francisco offices
closed, were forced to set up studios
in garages and figure out how to
safely send samples. “We learned
that we can do almost anything
as a hack with the right level of
creativity,” Yeh says. Rather than
tailoring messaging for events like
Coachella, Sephora focused on
self-care at home, and a virtual
event series replaced live events.
“Engagement went up,” Yeh says,
adding, “We still do many of these
types of shows today.” Sephora
also moved forward with ambitious
projects such as relaunching its
loyalty program and introducing
three new exclusive brands. Those
efforts paid off, with ecommerce
up some 75% late in the year.
But the pandemic also put the
brand’s “strong values” to the test,
according to Yeh: “Knowing that
we had a point of view on racial
inclusion, that we had a position on
civic engagement during an election
year, that we stood with the Asian
community in the face of hate …
made responding to them both
faster and more authentic.” —R.C.

MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 Congratulations,

Lish.
It took us all working together to make a
travel brand grow in a year like 2020, and
one very special person to lead the way.

Thanks for helping families know they

can get away together with Vrbo,
and inspiring us all to spend quality
time with the people we love.

TM
CMO
AWARDS
DEENA BAHRI CMO, STOCKX
When Bahri joined StockX as the resale platform’s first CMO in September 2019, there was no
way of knowing the kind of chaos the world had in store for her first year on the job. The pandemic
quickly forced her to pivot her fledgling marketing operation to an all-digital team more or less
overnight. While parts of the digitally native company were well positioned for such a change, Bahri
found herself undertaking a crash course in digital events as the team struggled to translate their
trademark physical activations into online experiences. “We definitely had to adapt to the fact that
on the cultural marketing side, a lot of the things we used to do in person to bring the brand to
life, we obviously couldn’t do those anymore,” Bahri says. Fortunately, Bahri learned fast and her
team transformed a planned Los Angeles screening of a brand documentary on emerging fashion
designer Reese Cooper into a global online premiere that went on to win a Webby Award. Bahri
also helmed the launch of a digital travel experience series called “Excursions” that supported the
company’s international ambitions with in-depth looks at the culture of cities around the world.
Between StockX’s growth in key markets abroad and a massive surge in online retail, the company
managed to notch a record-breaking year of growth despite the pandemic. —Patrick Kulp

ED PLUMMER
CMO, DICK’S SPORTING GOODS
Given consumers’ collective state of mind during the pandemic,
Dick’s Sporting Goods bet that people were looking for
inspiration. So, the athletic goods retailer responded with
its “See You Out There” campaign that, in Plummer’s words,
“celebrated people exploring the outdoors” to the chorus of
Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion.” “The pandemic has been terrible
and hard, and our belief was that people didn’t need a reminder
of that,” Plummer says. “They were looking for inspiration
and hope, and that fueled our efforts all year.” That theme
carried through to the brand’s Sports Matter initiatives, which
support youth sports, and a holiday campaign focused on the
retailer’s technology offerings. And then there were events
such as “10 Days of Black Friday” that Plummer oversaw,
spreading out the kinds of deals and promotions that would
typically be packed into a single day—with an emphasis on
pandemic activities such as at-home fitness—to ensure a safer
shopping experience. Rather than being adversely affected by
the pandemic and store closures, Dick’s boasted a record year,
with same store sales increasing 9.9% and its ecommerce
business doubling. Net sales in its recent fourth quarter were
up nearly 20%. “At the end of the day, we are always going to
lean into what’s important to customers and speak to what we
believe they care about,” Plummer says. —R.C.
 We wanted to do more than just a print ad for Patricia Corsi,
Bayer’s Global Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Digital Officer.
 CMO
AWARDS
ESHAN PONNADURAI
GLOBAL HEAD OF CONSUMER MARKETING, WHATSAPP
The importance of WhatsApp and other messaging platforms surged as Covid-19 confined people around
the world to their homes, so Ponnadurai and his team turned their attention to packing as many useful
additions into the Facebook-owned app as they could. WhatsApp worked extensively with the World
Health Organization to deliver credible information about the pandemic to users and teamed up with its
parent company in the battle against misinformation. “The strategy behind the WhatsApp brand hasn’t
changed,” Ponnadurai says of marketing WhatsApp during such trying times. “What has shifted is the
usage behavior of our consumers and the value of the product at a moment in time when we are physically
apart more than ever.” WhatsApp also helped get people to the polls during last year’s presidential
election in the U.S., teaming up with the International Fact-Checking Network to provide accurate
information about voting issues in English and Spanish. Its first-ever brand campaign, “It’s Between
You,” focused on stories of real human connection and was shot, directed and produced remotely during
quarantine. “Now, and post-pandemic, we’ll continue to focus on stories that display these raw, real and
intimate moments in a way that resonates, on and offline,” Ponnadurai says. —David Cohen

26 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 IT TAKES AN EXTRAORDINARY CMO
TO GET EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
IN AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR.
Congratulations to CHRIS TEDESCO on winning the Adweek CMO Award.
And thank you for being such an innovative and trusted partner to Havas this year and every year.
 JANINE PELOSI
CMO, ZOOM
Perhaps no company was better
positioned to lead the new
quarantine economy in March
2020 than Zoom. The video
conferencing service’s focus on
user accessibility and a prescient
CMO
AWARDS
decision to play up its freemium
model at the start of the
pandemic helped the company
beat out competitors in brand
recognition and build a thriving
consumer business alongside
its ubiquity in enterprise spaces.
Pelosi says she decided early on
that the best way to win over new
users to the platform at the time
was not to market traditionally
or sell to them but to simply
focus on meeting their needs.
“We made a conscious decision
to focus all of our efforts on
supporting our users, their new
use cases and our customers,”
Pelosi says. “It was not a time
for sales and marketing. … I think
we set a really good foundation
in the way we were going to
handle the unexpected.” To that
end, Pelosi’s marketing team
quickly pivoted its efforts toward
building out video content that
introduced new users to the
platform and offered various tips
and tricks. At one point, Pelosi
says, they managed to publish
hundreds of YouTube videos per
week. “Our whole collective
team came to support these new
use cases in a way that I think
that’s what I am most proud of,”
Pelosi says. —P.K.

JESSIE BECKER SVP, MARKETING, IMPOSSIBLE FOODS

Becker’s in-house marketing team kicked off spring 2020 by throwing all its “beautifully orchestrated”
plans for the year directly out the window, she says, in response to the pandemic and skyrocketing
demand for Impossible’s plant-based meat. The focus for the brand immediately shifted to
accelerating its distribution plans, eventually going from 150 to 20,000 retailers inside of six months,
launching its own DTC site and supporting its struggling restaurant partners. “We had always
expected it to be a big change year,” Becker says, “but we had no idea how radical it would be.”
Impossible stepped up its social good, linking up with Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp,
and pledged to feed at least 1 million front-line workers and people in underserved communities.
While the startup was cutting its prices to get closer to parity with animal meat and adding Starbucks
to its roster, Becker was prepping for the first-ever national ad campaign, which launched in April
2021. The tagline, “We Are Meat,” from Wieden+Kennedy Portland, aimed to solidify the message
that Impossible “is not built for vegans,” says Becker, who draws on her tech background at Netflix
and YouTube in her current gig. Future plans include focusing on Gen Z as influential climate change
advocates who Becker says will help the company “change the definition of meat.” —T.L. Stanley

28 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 CMO
AWARDS

KATIE PERRY VP OF MARKETING, PUBLIC.COM

While GameStop stock was soaring in late January and all eyes were on trading app Robinhood, fellow mobile investing platform Public took the opportunity to
tell everyone to “break up with your brokerage.” Perry says the idea for the campaign started snowballing over Slack, when someone said leaving a brokerage
app is like going through a breakup. Perry, a self-proclaimed fan of ’80s power ballads, thought to make it a musical number, and eventually, the marketing team
landed on Michael Bolton and produced a spot in just seven days. The Bolton breakup ballad hit the web before the end of February, the same month Public hit
1 million users just 18 months after it launched. In February, it also stopped receiving payments for directing orders to certain parties for trade execution to
avoid conflicts of interest with its users. “Retail investing, obviously, is having a moment in culture right now,” Perry says. “Our product had a good fit with people
who wanted to get into the stock market but also have kind of a more educational approach.” Perry says the company was well positioned during the GameStop
drama in part because its app has features like safety labels that essentially act as speed bumps for volatile stocks. “What we want to do at Public is turn
somebody who maybe just started investing via one of these meme stocks into a more thoughtful long-term investor,” she says. —Andrew Blustein

30 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 What do you need when you're the world's largest retailer,
expected to have the back of millions of people
during the storm of a global pandemic?

A captain with a steadfast gaze on the horizon.

Muchas felicidades William White

for steering the Walmart brand forward and earning the Adweek CMO Award.
 CMO
AWARDS
KATIE SHILL SENIOR DIRECTOR
OF MARKETING, CALM
Modern life is saturated with daily stress, but last year was brimming
with it. Instead of retreating and hiding under the covers, Shill
presented Calm as an antidote to anxiety and social isolation by
building a page with free content and helpful resources to make mental
wellness accessible to more people. “Our biggest challenge last year
was adapting our approach to respond appropriately to Covid,” she
says. Then came election night. The meditation app partnered with
CNN to sponsor the network’s key race alerts, generating plenty of
discussion across social media. That single November evening saw
twice as many tweets about Calm as the entire previous week. And all
that marketing activity has done well: Demand for the app has spiked,
as the company ended 2020 with more than 100 million downloads.
Users listened to more than 1 billion minutes of content, too—a 100%
increase compared to 2019. Looking ahead, Shill plans to expand
Calm’s services to support a wider range of needs. As she puts it: “The
mental wellness journey, very similar to physical fitness, is a highly
individualized process—different tools work for different people.” —P.H.

KOFI AMOO-GOTTFRIED
VP OF MARKETING, DOORDASH
When the first shelter-in-place orders of the pandemic
went into effect, it was clear to Amoo-Gottfried and the
team at DoorDash that the communities they serve would
be impacted. “We pivoted our business and marketing
strategy to focus on service and framed everything we did
through the lens of a single question: How can we help?”
says Amoo-Gottfried. From pivoting and launching a new
marketing strategy in just six days to cutting commissions
by 50% for independent restaurants, every decision the food
delivery platform made was in service of its communities.
As takeout orders skyrocketed during the pandemic, so
did DoorDash’s growth, and the brand never wavered in its
approach. “Our strategy is to consistently provide value, so
while the specific tactics and execution may have changed
over the course of the year in response to the needs of the
moment, the core strategy did not,” Amoo-Gottfried says.
As for the post-pandemic world, he says DoorDash has
no plans to relinquish its status as a leader in the delivery
app space: “[We] listen to what merchants, Dashers and
consumers need and [innovate] to meet those needs and
provide value in real time. That’s what got us to leadership
before the pandemic and through the pandemic, and it’s how
we’ll keep our leadership.” —Al Mannarino

32 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 24/7 EFFECTIVE.

Congratulations to Bayer’s Patricia Corsi on her Adweek CMO Award, from all the team at IPG, MullenLowe Group and Campbell Ewald.
 CMO
AWARDS
MARCEL MARCONDES U.S. CMO, ANHEUSER-BUSCH
With bars, restaurants and sports stadiums severely restricted during the pandemic, the beer business has faced an array of hurdles. Instead of pressing pause to craft
the perfect message, Marcondes and his team sprung to action—which is its own form of communication. Within two weeks of the world shutting down, Anheuser-Busch
reallocated its sports sponsorship dollars to transform arenas into safe venues for Red Cross blood drives. The effort collected enough donations to help more than
12,000 people. When it comes to marketing and making a brand relevant, the aim is to treat “consumers like humans instead of targets,” Marcondes says. Other examples
of this include Bud Light creating egaming tournaments on Twitch, Stella Artois debuting livestreamed cooking demonstrations and a first-ever corporate Super Bowl spot
called “Let’s Grab A Beer,” which highlighted the role beer plays in bringing people together. Despite the challenges, Bud Light and Michelob Ultra remained the country’s
bestselling beers last year, and the company’s seltzer portfolio grew 313%, outpacing the category. “I really believe that if we take this opportunity to learn from the past
year, we will come back stronger as marketers. … We don’t want to just get back to normal; we want to get better,” Marcondes says. —P.H.

34 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 FEED

adam&eveDDB high fived Dara Treseder!

#CMO_Award_Winner

Congratulations Dara on being named a CMO Award winner.

We’re proud to ride with one of the most innovative marketers in the world.
From your friends at adam&eveDDB
CMO
AWARDS
LISH KENNEDY
VP OF GLOBAL BRAND, VRBO
Surviving the past year felt like an accomplishment in itself, says
Kennedy. But Vrbo not only survived, it also thrived. “We were already
focused on strengthening our 25-year-old brand and making sure we
were solving the challenges around family travel,” Kennedy says. “But
during the pandemic, private, whole vacation homes were the only
acceptable or available travel option for many families.” The pandemic’s
challenges brought a new focus for Vrbo. In order to succeed and
differentiate, Vrbo grounded its brand purpose in helping families
spend quality time together on vacation. For example, Vrbo noticed that
remote work and virtual school opened up opportunities for families
to stay on vacation longer. They could travel during the middle of the
week or during off-seasons when destinations are less crowded and
more affordable. Vrbo dubbed it a “flexcation” and released ad creative
showing families mixing work or school with vacation time. Kennedy
says Vrbo is enjoying its “best-ever start of a year” and sees 2021 as a
big opportunity for the brand. Accordingly, she says, the brand plans to
launch one of its biggest marketing campaigns to date in mid to late May.
“There is so much pent-up demand to travel and reunite with loved ones.
… We are continuing to invest in ad creative that’s focused on family
travel [and] exploring brand partnerships,” she says. —David Kaplan

MARINA MACDONALD CMO, RED ROOF INN

Throughout the course of her life, MacDonald has learned that she can
overcome the hardest times when she’s surrounded by like-minded
people. She was reminded of that lesson throughout the past year.
MacDonald credits Red Roof Inn’s teams for rallying to support its
650 U.S. franchisees and deliver high-quality service to its guests,
allowing Red Roof to “remain agile, responsive and able to outperform
the competition.” That agility was demonstrated in a promotion aimed
at providing “day rates for workers.” The idea was to attract remote
workers trapped at home with the promise of a temporary sanctuary
and a “home office away from home.” Extended-stay offerings also
boosted Red Roof’s brand. Its HomeTowne Studios extended stay
was initially conceived as a way to challenge home-away brands.
By marketing to consumers who wanted a getaway in a home that
wasn’t theirs, though with some of the hotel-like comfort, Red Roof’s
HomeTowne achieved more than 80% occupancy across its hotels. And
Red Roof’s RediClean program included enhanced cleaning protocols
and financial support for its franchise community. As the pandemic
ebbs, MacDonald says constant evolution of its business and marketing
models remains the norm. “2020 was the most difficult year the
hospitality industry has faced in recent history,” she says, “but the
events, paired with Red Roof’s response, have only motivated us as we
continue to grow and navigate future opportunities.” —D.K.

MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

Eat
Explore
Feel
Better
Thank you for making our
lives and marketing better.
Jessie Roger Patricia
Becker
IMPOSSIBLE FOODS
Harris
AMTRAK
Corsi
BAYER

Congratulations on your
Adweek CMO Award!
 CMO
AWARDS
MELISSA HOBLEY
GLOBAL CMO, OKCUPID
OkCupid bills itself as the only dating app that
“matches people on what matters,” and in the
last year, Hobley has learned a lot about what
matters—and the true meaning of connection.
Since joining OkCupid in 2017, Hobley has
focused on the brand’s storytelling and cultural
relevance. In 2020, that meant, among other
things, adding numerous matching questions in
markets around the world on issues from racial
equity to voting to how people were handling
pandemic life. “We were the only dating app to
add a Black Lives Matter badge and encouraged
people to have thoughtful conversations about
race right on our platform,” says Hobley, whose
tenure has been marked with bold political
moves. That has kept the brand’s audience
focused and devoted at a time when many
brands still try to appeal to a wide swath of
consumers. Hobley was behind the effort to
create a Trump Filter, for instance, to allow
users to sort potential dates based on their
political beliefs, achieving buzz and high brand
engagement in the process. And that, in turn, is
what keeps users downloading the OkCupid app.
“We’re even the No. 1 most downloaded dating
app in multiple countries,” Hobley says. “That’s
big growth from three years ago when OkCupid
wasn’t marketing and didn’t have a marketing
team or function—or a CMO.” —D.K.

MARISA THALBERG EVP, CHIEF BRAND AND

MARKETING OFFICER, LOWE’S HOME IMPROVEMENT
Thalberg joined Lowe’s from Taco Bell in the first week of 2020, a year that completely transformed
many Americans’ relationships to their homes. An essential retailer, Lowe’s stayed open throughout
the pandemic, which hit at the beginning of its biggest season: spring. Rather than take a step back,
the retailer leaned in, engaging consumers on how homes were adapting to become offices, schools,
gyms, day care centers and entertainment hubs all at once. Thalberg aimed to communicate with
the 100-year-old retailer’s customers “in relevant, respectful and heartfelt ways,” she says, by
encouraging fans to write letters to their homes thanking them for how they adapted, for example, and
highlighting DIYers in an end-of-summer campaign. She focused on situating Lowe’s within the cultural
conversation amid 2020’s myriad concurrent crises with the goal of helping people “discover the
possibilities for their home, along with the necessities for their home,” she says. That meant everything
from a partnership with fashion designers at New York Fashion Week and outdoor, socially distanced
trick-or-treating events to community support programs and initiatives to ensure Lowe’s shelves
reflected a diverse selection of designers. “We’ve got all these different things going,” Thalberg says.
“We’re starting to create some really good alchemy for the brand.” —Kathryn Lundstrom

38 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 “dope.”
– Kofi Amoo-Gottfried

You know how Kofi feels when he sees an idea he likes because he’ll tell you.
One word contains all of the trust, conviction and support needed to go from
presentation to creation. For that, and for a thousand other reasons, we are
grateful. Thank you for being an inspiring client, a decisive partner and for
continuing to give us the green light to do great work.
Congratulations on winning Adweek’s CMO award.
 CMO
AWARDS
NEIL LINDSAY
VP, PRIME AND MARKETING, AMAZON
Lindsay, an 11-year Amazon veteran, spent the past year focused on
messaging about Amazon’s response to the pandemic. Included in those
efforts were spots like “Rising to the Challenge,” which has nearly 24
million views on YouTube a year later, as well as a holiday campaign, “The
Show Must Go On,” celebrating perseverance and the human spirit while
acknowledging the hardships of 2020. Lindsay also helped Amazon bring
back some levity to American consumers in its sixth consecutive Super
Bowl appearance with the ad “Alexa’s Body,” which imagined what Echo
devices would be like if they looked like actor Michael B. Jordan. And it
was Lindsay and his team who rolled out a program offering discounts on
Amazon’s Prime membership program for customers receiving government
assistance and oversaw Prime Day 2020, which was delayed until October
due in part to logistical challenges early in the pandemic that resulted
in shipping delays and prompted Amazon to temporarily change what it
stocked in its warehouses. Despite these early hiccups, the ecommerce
platform quickly ramped up to meet the demand, and Prime Day 2020
resulted in $3.5 billion in sales for third-party sellers alone. A year into the
pandemic, one-day shipping still isn’t the norm for 200 million-plus global
Prime members, but it’s getting closer. —Lisa Lacy

MELISSA PROCTOR
CMO, ATLANTA HAWKS
The pandemic put the NBA on hold for several weeks, but nothing
could stop Proctor on the fast break. She oversaw a rebranding
of the Atlanta Hawks franchise that included new uniforms, logos
and colors for the 2020-21 season as well as a $192.5 million
renovation and renaming of the team’s home arena, State Farm
Arena (formerly Philips Arena). Proctor ensured local culture was

PROCTOR: CHERISE RICHARDS PHOTOGRAPHY

embedded in the new facility, including SWAG Shop, a four-chair
barbershop spearheaded by hip-hop star Killer Mike, and new
dining option Zac Brown’s Social Club, with integration and input
from the Grammy winner and Georgia native. And the league
approved the use of a person’s initials on a jersey for the first time
with the Hawks’ MLK Nike City Edition Uniform. “We really want
to ensure that the next generation of Atlantans and Hawks fans
understand the work that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did,” Proctor
says. “A lot of people don’t know that he wrote a number of books,
so we’re going to have a book series on our website and [add it
to] our game-day experience and our social channels.” Proctor,
who served as a ball girl for the Miami Heat when she was 16,
hopes her work paves the way for other women to follow in her
footsteps and make their way into NBA front offices. —D.C.

40 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 Special congratulations to
2021 Adweek CMO Award Recipient

DEBORAH YEH
Chief Marketing Officer
Deborah, we’re so thrilled to celebrate you—you’re the foundation of our marketing team!
Your leadership inspires us every day.

With love,
Your Sephora Family
 CMO
AWARDS

MUSA TARIQ
CMO, GOFUNDME
Like many of us, Tariq
experienced a lot of change
during the pandemic year. After
pivoting Airbnb Experiences,
the fastest-growing part of the
business, to virtual excursions,
he left the brand in August
and started his new role at
GoFundMe in January. Following
his big impact at Airbnb and
many other brands, including
Ford and Apple, Tariq came out
of the gate quickly at GoFundMe,
launching the #StopAsianHate
fundraising campaign through
which users can make donations
via the brand’s Support the AAPI
Community Fund, which issues
grants to AAPI organizations
fighting racial inequality.
GoFundMe also co-produced
the anti-Asian racism film
“#StopAsianHateTogether,”
which features celebrities and
influencers including Olivia
Munn, Ken Jeong and Lisa Ling,
and directs YouTube viewers
to the fund, which has raised
over $6 million to date. Tariq
says that while 2020 was
“an extraordinary year” for
GoFundMe, the needs reflected
on the platform aren’t going
away any time soon, and he
wants to elevate the fundraising
experience with more touch
points, provide a safe space for
people to ask for help and make
it as easy as possible for people
to donate. “I’m just building on
SUMMER WILSON

the momentum that was already

created,” he says. “Marketers
need to step up and leverage
their brand for good. … People
inherently want to help.” —Ko Im

42 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

T H E N F L C O N G R AT U L AT E S
TIM ELLIS
A WINNER OF ADWEEK’S

C M O AWA R D
 CMO
AWARDS
PALOMA AZULAY
GLOBAL CHIEF BRAND
OFFICER, POPEYES
When the whole world wants your sandwich, you
find a way to make it happen. Azulay took over as
Popeyes’ global CMO the week before the pandemic
when the brand was pursuing global expansion.
That meant she had to manage the brand’s entry
into new international markets without ever visiting
them. But it didn’t stop Azulay and Popeyes from
building on the success of the chicken sandwich
that conquered America and expanding to 16
countries, including a flagship Shanghai location
that opened in May. It took some adaptation, with
the culinary team reviewing samples of mayo and
buns via UPS. “We had ingredients being shipped to
their houses all over the world so we could have the
product introduction,” Azulay says. Popeyes was a
bright spot for parent company Restaurant Brands
International (RBI) last year, reporting a same-store
sales increase of nearly 25% in Q2. “The first goal
and objective when building iconic global brands is
consistency,” Azulay says, explaining that it takes a
clear brand and product story, a visual identity and a
great team of marketers. After succeeding Fernando
Machado as RBI’s global chief brand officer in
April, Azulay is setting her sights on helping fellow
RBI brand Tim Hortons pursue expansion while
also continuing her predecessor’s legacy of bold
marketing for Burger King. —Erik Oster

NICK TRAN HEAD OF GLOBAL

MARKETING, TIKTOK
Amid the boredom of the pandemic, users turned to TikTok, one of
the great success stories of 2020, even though the United States
tried to ban the app, which is owned by the Chinese company
ByteDance, and India, its largest market, succeeded in doing so.
Tran joined the company from Hulu just as it was blossoming from
daily habit to global sensation last April. The pandemic helped
“speed up discovery,” he says, and brought entire families together
when they were hunkering down indoors. TikTok’s most notable
advertisements of the year highlighted videos and characters that
went viral on the platform—like Nathan Apodaca, the cranberry
juice-wielding, skateboard-riding, Fleetwood Mac-blasting
overnight sensation. Oh, and sea shanties. Lots of sea shanties.
“The community is the heart of what we are,” says Tran, who
cherishes the chance to spotlight TikTok’s creator talent. As the
pandemic subsides, Tran says, the onus is on TikTok to keep its
user base engaged. “As a brand and as a company, we need to
provide more value and be a part of everyday life,” he says. “If you
need a moment to be entertained, TikTok is there.” —Scott Nover

44 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

Marisa
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and domestic
turmoil, you have been an essential leader and friend.

No matter the category or medium, your commitment to

harnessing creativity in service of greater humanity makes
you a superstar time and again.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR
ADWEEK CMO AWARD.
We’re so proud to be your partner on this journey.
 PATRICIA CORSI GLOBAL
CHIEF MARKETING AND
DIGITAL OFFICER, BAYER
Corsi not only spearheads Bayer’s consumer-
facing health efforts, she also leads by example.
CMO
AWARDS
In response to the dire health needs brought on by
the pandemic, Corsi’s focus on mental health and
self-care led to healthier team habits, including
mindfulness sessions, virtual team challenges and
walking meetings. She also created Bayer’s Global
Creative Council, comprising senior marketing
leaders from top creative agencies and brands
to elevate Bayer’s consumer health marketing
efforts, and shifted her focus to products and
education across multiple continents to continue
driving the brand forward. “One of the top
priorities during the pandemic was to ensure our
products were available, especially supplements
and vitamins,” Corsi says. “Additionally,
there was an increased focus on educational
programming within our brands, websites, social
media and communication with our customers.”
Bayer provided aspirin consumers in the Middle
East with easier connectivity to health-care
professionals via telehealth, and in Asia, the
brand partnered with TikTok to encourage
consumers to be proactive about their health.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Corsi and her team
pushed forward several Claritin-related
initiatives to help consumers understand the
symptomatic differences between Covid-19
and allergies, colds and flus. All in all, Corsi
is changing the face of consumer health for
years to come. —Luz Corona

ROGER HARRIS EVP, CHIEF MARKETING

AND REVENUE OFFICER, AMTRAK
Prior to becoming Amtrak’s CMO in 2019, Harris notched years as an airline executive.
Was moving from the world’s newest form of mass transportation to one of its oldest
a tough transition? “There are enough points of reference that are similar,” Harris says,
“but enough differences that make it interesting.” Which is fortunate. Once the pandemic
effectively shuttered the transportation system, it would be those differences that
Harris would seize upon to distinguish Amtrak from its high-altitude competition. Early
on, Amtrak, like the airlines, instituted hygiene protocols and (like Delta) partnered with
Lysol. But trains are not the same as jets, and Harris’ team capitalized on the differences
to maneuver the railroad into an advantageous position. Since Amtrak seating is more
spacious than the sardine cans of coach, physical distancing—augmented by a limited-
booking policy—was already a built-in advantage. But Amtrak also touted its private
roomettes, an amenity no airline can give you. Under Harris’ leadership, Amtrak also
lumped the downturn by forging ahead with inducements like tap-and-go payment
options, dog- and cat-friendly trains and flash sales including a kids-ride-free promo—all
with an eye toward getting more Americans to try the train and, hopefully, stick with it.
“The pandemic, tragic as it’s been, has allowed us to step back and reassess where we
are and where we want to be 10 years from now,” Harris says. —R.K.

46 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 CMO
AWARDS

TESA ARAGONES CMO, DISCORD

Aragones hasn’t yet been to Discord’s office or even met
most of her team in person, having started in her role in
September 2020. But she says Discord is such a strong
platform that, in using it for work, she feels connected to her
colleagues. The Nike and VSCO alum has found Discord to
be a similarly “youthful” and energetic brand to market, and
she wants to use her perch to create a space for inclusivity
and belonging. Aragones emphasizes how important this is
to her work. The recent wave of anti-Asian hate has made
this goal all the more salient for her, a first-generation
Filipino from Detroit. “When you talk about inclusivity and
creating space where no one feels like an outsider, it’s
something I can really relate to,” she says. The platform has
exploded during the pandemic, going from 100 million active
monthly users in June to 140 million in December. With that
growth, and its $7 billion pre-IPO valuation, Discord is trying
to assert that it’s not just a platform for gamers, who made
up much of its original audience. “We’re not going to go away
from our core gamers,” Aragones says, but the company
wants to expand its reach so creators and users of all types
can enjoy Discord—even if they’re just hanging out. —S.N.

48 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

Congratulations to Chris Tedesco
and Nick Tran on being recognized
by the Adweek CMO Awards!

Chris Tedesco Nick Tran

General Manager, US Marketing, Hygiene Head of Global Marketing

We are so honored to partner with two of the industry’s biggest stars. We’re
inspired by your ingenuity, creativity and leadership in reaching new heights.
 SHANNON RYAN PRESIDENT,
CONTENT MARKETING, HULU AND
DISNEY GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT
When Covid-19 shut down typical TV marketing, Ryan got
creative. “We had to pivot on almost every front and find new,
inventive ways to connect with our viewers,” says the content
marketing exec, who oversees Disney Television Studios, ABC
Entertainment, ABC News, Freeform and Hulu Originals. Instead
of a normal premiere for Freeform’s freshman drama Cruel
Summer, Ryan and team rented out 80 balconied hotel rooms
from which guests and cast could watch the first episode on a
70-foot screen positioned outside. The creative workarounds
have extended beyond premieres. ABC, which retained its
position as the No. 1 entertainment network under Ryan’s
purview, held three Disney Family Singalong Specials as a gift to
stuck-at-home families, reaching a combined 49.2 million viewers
across all platforms. And ahead of the Season 4 premiere of The
Handmaid’s Tale, Ryan and the Hulu team crafted a catch-up
campaign and an interactive map of Gilead to reengage fans,
and then offered one final gift: a surprise drop of the first three
episodes one day ahead of its scheduled debut. “We simply want
the most people to watch in whatever way they choose to,”
says Ryan, whose philosophy is content-forward and platform-
agnostic. “Appointment television still exists—everyone’s
appointment just isn’t at the same time.” —Kelsey Sutton

FROM BALL GIRL TO BEING NAMED

2021 ADWEEK CMO

AWARD WINNER
CONGRATULATIONS MELISSA
FROM YOUR ATLANTA HAWKS FAMILY

MELISSA PROCTOR
CMO, ATLANTA HAWKS & STATE FARM ARENA
TIM ELLIS EVP, CMO, NFL

CMO
The pandemic kept fans out of stadium seats for the most
part during the 2020 NFL season, but Ellis and his team
kept converting. “We’ve got to fight for attention,” he says.
“We’ve got to fight all of the media companies, all of the
entertainment companies in order to get that mindshare and

AWARDS
to get that share of wallet.” Players were a key component
of the NFL’s “Stay Home, Stay Strong” campaign urging fans
to remain vigilant during the pandemic. Ellis took advantage
of the remote nature of the 2020 NFL Draft to raise $100
million for pandemic relief via the league’s “Draft-a-Thon”
initiative. Health-care and other front-line workers received
a tip of the cap in the form of “The Real Heroes Project.”
And Ellis helped guide the league, which pulled off a full
season in the middle of a pandemic, through a reversal of
its position on player protests, with commissioner Roger
Goodell and players sharing a video supporting the Black
Lives Matter movement and the NFL pledging $250
million to social justice causes over the next 10 years.
Now, the league will rely on influencers who are true
NFL fans to retain and attract younger fans. According
to Ellis, “It’s this continued engagement with our
younger generation, open to diversity of thought, that
will allow us to be a culturally relevant brand that
will sustain well into the next 100 seasons.” —D.C.
TIM MAPES CHIEF MARKETING AND
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, DELTA
The travel industry has had a rough year, but that hasn’t put a damper on Mapes,
who has leveraged this time of reduced travel to focus on innovation and health.
When the pandemic took hold, Delta pivoted its marketing focus from price
and schedule options to health and safety, including emphasizing that it
CMO
AWARDS
remained the only airline to keep middle seats open for a year in the interest
of social distancing. Mapes says the key to inspiring confidence was
communication. That meant clarifying safety and cleanliness protocols
and partnerships with the Mayo Clinic and Lysol to consumers, and
remaining transparent and connected with employees through virtual
town halls and regular communications aimed at reducing fear and
anxiety. The airline’s top priorities now are advancing sustainability,
an effort that began in earnest in March 2020 when the brand
pledged $1 billion over the next decade toward achieving carbon
neutrality from its global business, and improving inclusion and
representation by revamping its talent acquisition practices
and closing diversity gaps with the help of advocacy
organizations OneTen and Operation Hope, according to
Mapes. “To connect the world, we must first reflect and
protect the world,” he says. “Delta exists to connect
humanity and opportunity, and by doing so, drive forward
empathy and a deeper respect and care for our planet
and the people within it.” —Jessica Zafarris

Marina MacDonald,
Thank you for making it all
happen under our roof!
You are innovative, agile, forward-
thinking and inspiring to the next
generation of marketing leaders.

Red Roof Chief Marketing Officer Marina MacDonald,

named a 2021 Adweek CMO Award Recipient.
 WILLIAM WHITE
CMO, WALMART
White joined Walmart from Target just two months into
the pandemic. “To join during that time, I was able to build
relationships potentially in ways that would have taken
much longer … because we were really rolling up our
sleeves and digging in to help,” he previously told Adweek.
That included focusing on delivery and pickup services to
ensure customers could still get the products they needed
as well as launching membership program Walmart+ in
September 2020. An accompanying marketing campaign,
which debuted during the NFL’s season opener, focused on
how much time Walmart+ saves. The program reportedly
had 8 million members as of February 2021. White also
helped the retailer provide socially distanced experiences
to make up for canceled events during quarantine. The
result included drive-in movies, contactless trick-or-
treating and a holiday drone light show. “The innovative
and inclusive experiences … were a huge shift in
marketing strategy for Walmart that White facilitated,”
a spokesperson says. “They really showcased ways that
Walmart could be there for customers and communities
and positively impact their lives.” Meanwhile, White will
continue to experiment with trends like social commerce
following two initial shoppable livestreams on TikTok
focused on apparel and beauty. —L.L.

TO THE CMO WHO KEEPS IT REAL.

CONGRATS
CHRIS BRANDT!
YOUR FRIENDS AT
 ON THE ORIGINS OF BR ANDS AND THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD THEM

Perspective
THE LOGO
Made of aged brass,
the interlocking Gs
are the initials of
founder Guccio Gucci.

THE LEATHER
The original was
black, but now the
leathers come in
colors and include
crocodile.

THE THREADS
Alessandro Michele’s
fall 2015 fashions
brought the logo belt
back into vogue.

Gucci Belt «

HOW A PAIR OF INITIALS

RENDERED IN BRASS BECAME
ONE OF FASHION’S MOST ENDURING
STATEMENTS. BY ROBERT KLARA
 Few who were in Milan for Fashion Week in 2015
V I C T O R V I R G I L E / G A M M A - R A P H O V I A G E T T Y I M A G E S ; 1 . PA I M A G E S V I A G E T T Y I M A G E S ; 2 . T O U R I N G C L U B I TA L I A N O / M A R K A / U N I V E R S A L I M A G E S G R O U P V I A G E T T Y I M A G E S ; 3 . R O N G A L E L L A / R O N G A L E L L A C O L L E C T I O N V I A

will forget the buzz surrounding the Gucci ready-to-

wear fall collection. The famous house’s creative
director Frida Giannini had been axed a few weeks
before, so all eyes were on 42-year-old Alessandro
Michele to see what he’d created. He’d been given all
of a week to do it.
That Monday, the eyebrow-raising clothes on
display represented “a different Gucci,” an impressed
Robert Rabensteiner, editor of L’Uomo Vogue, later
said. Gucci’s regular models had been nixed in favor
of himbos with tattoos. Sporting berets and dorky
glasses, they slinked down the runway in lace shirts
and billowy cravats, silk sweaters and fur-lined loafers.
It was an outré hodgepodge of thrift shop chic.
Yet a single familiar item tied the ensembles
together: the double G belt.
Fashionistas had seen the belt before, but it had long
1 2
fallen out of favor. Now, suddenly, it was back. Culture
writer Christina Binkley recalls how fashion editors
ran home to look for theirs. “They all started pulling BUCKLE UP Guccio Gucci’s son Aldo (1) developed
out that belt. People reached into the backs of their the logo belt in 1933, and stores like the one in Milan
closets,” she said. “I remember a fashion editor [saying], (2) began to popularize them in the years afterward.
‘I had to dig this thing out. It was in a shoebox.’” Creative director Tom Ford (3) put the belt in the
No surprise there. Fashion, as we know, is cyclical. spotlight in the 1990s before Alessandro Michele’s
But what distinguishes the Gucci logo belt—an debut show in 2015 (4) rejuvenated it, opening up
accessory that’s enjoying its second renaissance right the field for celebs like Miley Cyrus (5) to wear it.
now—goes beyond its legacy. Logo belts are suddenly
everywhere: Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Versace and
Givenchy all have their own versions. But the double G
is arguably the icon.
Belts have been part of the offerings since 1921
when Guccio Gucci opened a small leather goods shop
G E T T Y I M A G E S ; 4 . V E N T U R E L L I / W I R E I M A G E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; 5 . D AV E J H O G A N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; Y N W B S L I M E / Y O U T U B E

in Florence, Italy. But it was his son Aldo who created

the monogram buckle with his father’s initials in 1933.
Fashion logos didn’t become trendy until the 1970s,
though, and the Gucci belt’s popularity has ebbed and
flowed since. Gucci creative director Tom Ford made
the double G glitzy in the late 1990s, until the 2008
recession dulled its shine. Yet the Alessandro Michele
resurgence has been an enduring one. By March 2017,
Gucci reported its strongest quarter in 20 years, with
revenues growing by 51%.
Owing just to a belt? Well, not entirely. But the truth
is that clothing is rarely a profit center for the fashion 3 4 5
houses; it’s accessories like fragrance, sunglasses and
wallets that make the margins. “If I were at the Harvard
Business Review and I wanted to choose a luxury fashion
product that sort of epitomized how the industry really
works,” Binkley said, “that [Gucci] belt might be it.”

THE GUCCI CREW If you’ve seen any hip-hop videos

in the past few years, odds are you’ve noticed a lot of
double G belts. Not only do rappers wear them, but
some (Soup, 637godwin, Leps and YNW BSlime) also
have songs titled “Gucci Belt.”
How did a Milan runway accessory work its way
into hip-hop? Most agree it started when Harlem
designer Dapper Dan started appropriating the Gucci
logo for his designs. Instead of suing him, a savvy
Alessandro Michele partnered with him instead. But
Gucci’s accessories, ever the symbols of wealth,
would likely have found a home in hip-hop anyway—
and Kanye West introducing “It’s Gucci” (translation:
“It’s good”) to the argot didn’t hurt, either.

ADWEEK | MAY 10, 2021

®
55
 D ATA P O I N T S

Emergency Preparedness
AS CONSUMERS CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY OF DISASTERS, THEIR HABITS
AND EXPECTATIONS OF BRANDS ALSO MORPH. BY NICOLE ORTIZ

The past year saw its fair share of emergencies, from weather-related disasters
to the pandemic that’s still ravaging the world. And brands aren’t the only ones
building emergency preparedness into their routines.
According to monthly research series ML:Next from agency MullenLowe
U.S., which spoke with 550 consumers from different backgrounds across the
country between Feb. 22-28, more people are looking to brands in different ways,
particularly how they could help out in areas struck by disaster. Respondents
would love to see brands offer discounts to residents in affected areas, encourage
employees to roll up their sleeves and volunteer and pay for disaster relief.
Although, many said they would prefer that a brand do something tangible rather
than “throwing money at the issue.”
Additionally, disasters affect how people use their social media platforms.
More than 40% of respondents said the best way to reach consumers with
information in times of crisis is through their phones.

Disaster preparedness
!
Items people
Top items
people have
61% 60%
are less likely
to have 54% 16% 49% 18%
on hand for
disaster
emergencies
71% 70% 70%
Flashlight Masks Blankets
Bottled
water
Extra
batteries
on hand for
disaster
emergencies
OTC medication
(47% prescription
medications)
Portable
generator
Emergency
kit at home
Emergency
meetup
location

Places people would turn to if they were to Among those Brands’ most effective

89%
experience a natural disaster or severe weather who would turn approach during
News channels on TV 59%
to social media
for information
natural disasters
or severe weather:
!
Family 51%
Radio stations

Friends
48%
44%
74%
Facebook
38%
14%
Donating
products
News websites

Government websites 35%

44%
51%
Paying for
resources
(food, water
they make

13%
63%
agree that it would
of people feel it would
be helpful if big-box
Twitter or supplies) be helpful if brands brands like Walmart,
Social media 32% Sending shared important Target and Amazon
General Google search

Blogs 8%
30%
49%
YouTube
employees
to the location
to provide help
information during
natural disasters
or severe weather
created emergency
kits for different
disaster scenarios

Circumstances people think will never occur Circumstances people think will occur in less than a year

INFOGRAPHIC: CARLOS MONTEIRO; SOURCE: MULLENLOWE U.S.

28% 23%
37% 35%
31% Domestic State-
35% Dissolving 23% terrorism sponsored 19%
Free college 30%
of Medicare/ tuition at state- emerging cyber attack
Resolution as a key against A new
Medicaid funded schools Significant
Implementation of climate threat to the U.S. pandemic
of universal change Elimination domestic civil/
of physical political unrest national
basic income crisis security
workspace (e.g. civil war or
HOSPITAL for office-based other armed 19%
companies—all conflicts)
remote, all Regular
the time energy
outages
$

56
MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer,
not a late-night TV commercial.
We work to eradicate mesothelioma
as a life-ending disease.
Join us.
 LOOK BACK

1982

The
CEO
Who
Did the
CMO’s
Job
Even in the annals of
visionary chief executives,
few can match the record
of the late Lee Iacocca,
the ex-Ford heavyweight
who saved Chrysler from
extinction. In 1980, after
two decades of churning
out dubious gunboats, the
moribund company had
nothing to compete with
quality compacts from
Japan. Iacocca’s solution
was the K-car, a boxy line
of family cars that offered
solid performance at a
low price. But what really
saved Chrysler wasn’t
just the K-cars—it was
Iacocca selling the K-cars.
In an unprecedented move,
a Big Three president
became his company’s own
on-camera pitchman, a
smiling grandfather in big
glasses whose voice exuded
trustworthiness. “If you
can find a better car, buy
it,” Iacocca told Americans.
And they did. —Robert Klara
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

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58 MAY 10, 2021 | ADWEEK ®

 ®

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