S T U D I O 1 2 : 24 Million Followers, But Who's Counting?

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First Things First

March 6, 2020

By Kathryn Lundstrom

Shay Mitchell and the Evolving Power of Social Influence

Adweek's second annual Challenger Brands summit in New York wrapped up after two jam-packed days of panels, breakout sessions and networking centered on today's top issues in the world of marketing—all from the perspective of up-and-coming brands. Here are a few highlights from today:

Shay Mitchell, known for her roles in Pretty Little Liars and You, discussed her travel company, Béis, and her work as an influencer. With more than 24 million followers on Instagram alone, Mitchell chooses brands that fit within her lifestyle like a recent partnership with Pampers. Read more: Unlike her personal strategy, Mitchell explains why doesn't pay for sponsored social media posts to promote Béis products.
Shefali Murdia, director of brand engagement at Glenlivet parent company Pernod Ricard, spoke about how the Scotch whisky brand came back after realizing it was losing ground to competitors. Read more: Glenlivet built up brand partnerships last year and made a splash with controversial pods of Scotch—which looked way too much like Tide Pods.
Goop chief content officer Elise Loehnen, who appeared onstage with Adweek's Diana Pearl, told the audience that the attention the brand gets from fans and critics alike has helped the brand find resonance with its millions of followers. Read more: "We're very interesting to people," said Loehnen, "and we've managed to sustain that, which is shocking to me, for a decade."
Ben Lerer, managing partner of Lerer Hippeau and CEO of Group Nine Media spoke onstage with Stephanie Paterik, executive editor of Adweek, about his initial decision to start investing in DTC brands and what DTC brands need to do to stand out in today's world. Read more: As one of the earliest investors in Warby Parker back in 2011, Lerer Hippeau solidified itself as an important and guiding voice in the DTC industry.

Early TV Upfront Plans Upended by Coronavirus Concerns

Two March upfront presentations—a "Nowfront" from Comcast's FreeWheel on March 12, and a Fox News Media event on March 24—were both scrapped this week due to coronavirus concerns. The other upfront events set for March are all still a go as of now. The show went on for CNN, however, which kicked off upfront season with its CNN Experience for buyers last night. Predictably, the coronavirus epidemic was a topic of conversation. And the other two big March upfront presentations—AMC Networks' event on March 18 and A+E Networks' gathering on March 25—are still scheduled to go forward, for now.

Coronavirus Tracker: Starz and WarnerMedia backed out of SXSW, pulling media activations from all of its brands like CNN and HBO. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 all tumbled by over three percentage points at the close of Thursday's trading sessions. All three of the major U.S. stock indexes lost the almost 4% gains they made the day prior. Read more: See all the latest updates.

Fiverr Opens a Store Where People Can Hire Female Freelancers

Yesterday, gig economy platform Fiverr launched its first Women's History Month campaign with an online storefront that highlights women freelancers. Fiverr's campaign also includes promoting female talent through a podcast sponsorship (Wonder Media Network's Encyclopedia Womanica) and a March 18 panel discussion with diversity and inclusion consultant Yai Vargas alongside women from Shutterstock, Etsy, Roofheads and of course, Fiverr.

More coverage of International Women's Day and Women's History Month:

LinkedIn is rolling out a campaign for International Women's Day, which falls on Sunday, focusing on mothers who return to the workforce after taking career breaks. In a spot running across digital channels, the professional network tells the story of Nicky, who put her employment on pause to care for her son with learning disabilities.
EcoATM partnered with digital education nonprofit The Rumie Initiative to create a New York City pop-up that is paying cash for unused cell phones—and then sending those phones to underserved girls in Afghanistan. The pop-up, A Good Call, will run today through Sunday.

Best of the Rest: Today's Top News and Insights

Ad of the Day: You're Going to Love the Payoff to This Fanta Ad That Puts Idiots on a Pedestal

Each spot for Fanta's new campaign by 72andSunny perfectly invokes the serious drama of an ad for a sports brand. Epic music, a deep-voiced commentary and a look inside grueling training regimens. But rather than culminate in some cookie cutter statement about what it means to be "great" or whatever, it's just an ode to idiots. And how much time they spend preparing for silly videos just to send to their friends or post on TikTok. Chill out, says Fanta, and just have some fun. Laugh. It's good for you.

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Confessions of the Adweek Executive Mentees

The inaugural Adweek Executive Mentor Program (which will double in size in 2020) connected 110 of the world's top leaders with 116 executive mentees—the up-and-coming leaders of tomorrow. The mentees share their experiences with the program, as well as these key takeaways:

"Most people get asked the question, where do you see yourself in 3 years, 5 years? I like to instead think about, where do I want my career to end?"

— Jasmine Atherton, mentored by Kenny Mitchell, CMO, Snap Inc.

"Who cares what the title is! It could be anything, but if it involves doing things that are interesting and meaningful, creating higher value, then I would take whatever the job is called."

— Tara Hagan, mentored by David Rubin, CMO, The New York Times

Pinterest and Intuit CMOs on the Keys to Effective Platform Amplification

Andréa Mallard, CMO of Pinterest, and Lara Balazs, CMO of Intuit, came together for our second installment of People-powered Growth Fueled by Transformative Technology. This is a theme that Lara and I came up with to take us all one level deeper into four formative pillars to accomplish this mission.