Get a Jab, Get a Bud; Connected TV Soars: Friday’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. Budweiser’s Clydesdales and Puppy Reunite to Sponsor Your First Post-Vaccine Beer Last June, Budweiser released an aspirational ad showing its most adorable mascots—Clydesdales and their puppy friend—reuniting (responsibly) to the tune of “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Now the ad is running again, but this time their reunion has a more specific goal: to encourage people to get the vaccine—so they can grab a free beer. Watch the inspiring ad and learn how to redeem the offer. Related: This campaign from agency Hanson Dodge and Milwaukee health org HealthyMKE is going local, leveraging residents’ stories to encourage its community to “show up” for one another and encourage vaccines. How the Pandemic Accelerated a Transformation Across Connected TV It may come as no surprise to those of us who have binged most of the shows on Netflix and Disney+ in the past few months that streaming is soaring while linear TV got slammed. But it’s not just the platforms that are growing amid this shift—the entire connected TV landscape, including advertising, has skyrocketed as cord-cutters give way to cord-nevers. At Mediaweek yesterday, leaders at Vizio and NBCUniversal explained how the shift has impacted advertisers. Find out how advertisers are “breaking legacy” and getting what they need out of this new connected TV landscape. More from Mediaweek: The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM) is made up of trade orgs and companies across the industry. The ANA, IAB Tech Lab and Venable LLP's Stu Ingis discussed PRAM's work and what’s next for cookie alternatives as ad targeting shifts.Marketers are increasingly embracing strategies tied to customer acquisition, retention and more. Saleel Sathe, vp of performance marketing at Walmart dived into Walmart’s best practices to reach customers in organic, yet unexpected ways. Wendy McMahon, Neeraj Khemlani Named Co-Chiefs of CBS News and CBS TV Studios In a major restructuring, CBS is uniting the journalistic and businesses resources of CBS News and CBS Television Stations, and tapping Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani to jointly run it. The news comes after the surprise departure of McMahon from her role as president of ABC Owned Television Stations the day before, and after news that Susan Zirinsky would be stepping down as the CBS News chief. The restructure and leadership change seeks to shift CBS’ trajectory, repositioning it “for the future.” Also in TV news: NBCUniversal had thus far held out on committing to a return to upfronts week, but yesterday the company said it’s joining the fray once again. However, The CW will be sitting out the event for the second year in a row.Last week the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), which represents major networks, accused Nielsen of undercounting overall TV use. Now the organization is demanding a third-party audit to verify the measurement company’s accuracy. How Brands and Agencies Are Navigating Relationships During—and Coming Out of—the Pandemic Adweek worked with The Harris Poll to find out how brands and agencies are working together and how things have changed amid the pandemic. Proving ROI has long been the crux of agency-client relationships, but the pandemic has only exacerbated pressure to do so, with 48% of respondents saying they had a client terminate an agency over the past year and 45% saying they moved marketing in-house this past year. Discover more data. More in agency news: Audrey Melofchik joins Wunderman Thompson as CEO, responsible for overseeing all of the agency’s operations in New York, including Wunderman Thompson Health.TBWA announced several changes in leadership for its New York offices, including the promotion of Nancy Reyes from president to CEO of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York.Rebecca Routs, formerly senior account director for Google initiatives at S4 Capital’s Firewood agency, has joined MDC Partners as its senior director for key client relationships. 3 Big Takeaways From Jeff Bezos’ Final Shareholder Letter as Amazon CEO Amazon Prime now has 200 million members, a significant leap over the 150 million Jeff Bezos said it had 15 months ago. Bezos announced this in his 24th and final shareholder letter yesterday, which is hefty and filled with news about the ecommerce giant. Here are our top three takeaways, including his thoughts on how employees are treated. More Big Tech News: Google unveiled a new brand safety feature that enables resource-strapped media buying teams to create “dynamic exclusion lists” that can be updated seamlessly and continuously over time. Briefly: Consumers Are Split on What Media Platforms Should Do With Their DataFamily Dollar Launches Retail Media NetworkAsda’s Clothing Brand Hires Impero for ‘Significant’ Back-to-School CampaignAppLovin Goes Public as a $28.6 Billion CompanyWalmart Invests in GM’s Electric Self-Driving Vehicle CompanyNewsletter Platform Substack Goes Local Josh Groban Turns Beautiful Bean Footage Into a Soaring Ballad in ‘Bean Song’ The simultaneously hilarious, nostalgic and heartfelt “Bean Song,” performed by Josh Groban—and complete with "toot" jokes—kicks off Bush's rebrand as That Beautiful Bean Co., marked by a new website and logo. Let Groban serenade you. More of the Latest: For Earth Day, Beyond Meat Will Take Over an Entire Carl’s Jr.Los Angeles Revives Its Tourism Push, Saying ‘Your Comeback Starts Here’Procter & Gamble’s Sustainability Marketing Tackles Consumers’ Intention-to-Action GapThe Ziff Davis Creators Guild Walks Out in Protest of ‘Bad Faith’ BargainingFacebook Continues ‘More Together’ Campaign With Two Spots Focused on Dance and BasketballFor Earth Day, Old Navy Is Eliminating Plastic Bags and Funding Young Environmental Advocates

First Things First

Get a Jab, Get a Bud; Connected TV Soars: Friday’s First Things First

Plus, toot toot goes Josh Groban's Bean Song

Budweiser’s Clydesdales and Puppy Reunite to Sponsor Your First Post-Vaccine Beer

Jess Zafarris

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Budweiser’s Clydesdales and Puppy Reunite to Sponsor Your First Post-Vaccine Beer

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Jess Zafarris