600 BK Birthday Parties for Kids; Finding Talent in Quarantine: Tuesday's First Things First

Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s daily resource for marketers. We’ll be publishing the content to First Things First on Adweek.com each morning (like this post), but if you prefer that it come straight to your inbox, you can sign up for the email here. Burger King France Will Throw 600 Birthday Parties for Kids After Lockdown Ends Burger King France worked with agency David Madrid to create a promotion offering free post-lockdown birthday parties—complete with food, cake, gifts, invitations and decorations—to 500 kids. The response was so strong that the chain expanded the promotion to 100 more winners. Read more: The campaign was accompanied by a 30-second spot featuring several kids exuding a lot less enthusiasm than normal for a birthday celebration. (They’re still cute, though.) Burger King's marketing machine didn't stop at birthday party IOUs. This morning, it debuted a stunt from David Buenos Aires. Burger King has to do something useful with all those out-of-home billboards, right? That's why the fast-food chain is giving out free Whoppers to anyone who makes one of those billboards their Zoom background. Get the details here. More campaigns doing good amid coronavirus: Because of its close ties to diners, Heinz recently announced an initiative to send $2,000 checks to 500 of the country’s diners. To determine which small restaurants will receive a share of the $1 million fund, the brand is asking people to nominate their favorite neighborhood spot. A new campaign for the Portal From Facebook salutes mothers and their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic as Mother’s Day approaches. Walgreens, which sells red noses in its stores for Red Nose Day to raise money to end child poverty with nonprofit Comic Relief, created a special Red Nose filter that can be shared via Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. How Agency Recruiters In Lockdown Are Finding New Ways to Connect With Talent With hiring largely frozen in the agency world and many industry workers feeling immersed in a cloud of uncertainty, agency recruiters are finding new ways to connect with, nurture and energize talent. Talent directors working under quarantine are shifting their daily tasks and expanding their roles to emphasize aspects like professional development, long-term talent scouting and increasing the internal visibility of colleagues. Read more: We talked with recruiting professionals about Wieden + Kennedy, Mother, O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul and other agencies about how they're connecting with new talent. On the Adweek Podcast: Creativity in Quarantine and Leadership Within Limits On this week’s episode of Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad, co-host Ko Im speaks with clinical psychologist and organizational expert Nicole Lipkin about showing up with less judgment. She also shares how executives are managing headspace, leading teams, prioritizing time and finding breaks to foster creativity. Tune in: Hear from Lipkin, along with senior editor Doug Zanger, who discusses more good things coming out of the creative world. Don’t Want to Touch Public Door Handles? An Agency Invented a Way Around It [kickout id="2"] To meet the demand for less skin-on-pretty-much-anything contact, agency TBWA\Helsinki has created a simple and clever device that lets visitors to a building or shop open doors without having to grab handles with their hands. Created from postconsumer recycled plastic and produced via 3D printing, the Fortum Vipu add-on lets you pull open a door with your sleeved forearm. See it: Check out the device and learn how the project came together. Media Together: Where Media Pros Find Solutions for the Future We created Media Together as a way for media, marketing and tech professionals who have been impacted by Covid-19 to connect with the larger community and job opportunities. It's a place for them to gather, tell stories and find solutions for the future. If you're a media pro, learn how to get involved here. If you're looking to hire talent, read about the editorial, marketing and technology pros who have already come together to share their stories and expertise with us. Best of the Rest: Adweek Together: Bill Ritter on Working Through the Pandemic VaynerX Launches VaynerCommerce Following Acquisition of Lucid Fusion Comedy Central Expands The Daily Show With Trevor Noah to 45 Minutes IAS Names Former McCann Executive as New CFO Advertisers Can Now Buy the First Commercial Users See on Snapchat Shows A Senior Designer in Minneapolis Creates Paintings to Support Feeding America [kickout id="3"] Kelly O’Halloran, a senior designer at Adweek Fastest Growing Agencies honoree 10 Thousand Design in Minneapolis, has created miniature gouache paintings commemorating some of the products that have gained prominent status throughout the pandemic. Half of the proceeds from sales goes to Feeding America. 3 Ways to Celebrate Employee Successes in a Remote-Work Environment Klaire Hensley, principal and business development, The Richards Group "One of the things we have always done is to hold what we call “an agency stairwell,” a gathering at our internal stairwell, led by Stan Richards and Glenn Dady, to share internal news with our whole agency at the same time. We gathered at our first virtual agency stairwell recently to celebrate a new business win. While we all wish we could have been in person, doing it virtually was much better than not doing it at all, and we were really able to celebrate the success as a whole agency." Brad Casper, CEO, OH Partners "We are advancing our annual practice of Summer Fridays by a full month. Instead of letting employees "leave" at 3 p.m. on Friday between Memorial Day and Labor Day, we will start this benefit May 1 to alleviate burnout and reward employees for our tremendous success during the pandemic." Alda Abbracciamento, chief growth officer, flytedesk "We named our weekly 'good news and gratitude sessions' after one of our most effusive employees as she has set the tone for true celebration of individual's successes. There is something really special about peer to peer recognition." More of the Latest Online Fashion Sales in the US Recovered in April After Tanking in March 5 Ways to Reframe Your Thinking and Marketing Hilton, Marriott and Airbnb Roll Out New Cleaning Initiatives to Reassure Consumers 8 Steps for Breaking Your Agency Out of Its Pre-Covid Habits