Breaking Down Marketers' Salaries; Super Bowl Tracker Returns: Tuesday's First Things First

Welcome to First Things First, Adweek’s new 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. Here’s What We’ve Learned So Far From the Viral Agencies Salary Google Spreadsheet Before Thanksgiving, an anonymous spreadsheet began making the rounds containing the reported salaries and demographic info of thousands of marketers. Our extremely talented data analyst, Hannah Gorman, did a statistical analysis of the data from the spreadsheet and found some startling pay gaps. Disparities appear to be the largest within art direction, copywriting, visual design and strategy, as each has a median salary gap of more than $20,000 between men and women. Strategy has the most significant gap, as the median salary for women is $82,250, while the number for men clocks in at $120,000. Read more: We interviewed the creator of the spreadsheet. Plus, more insights from the data. Super Bowl 2020 Ad Tracker: All About the Big Game’s Commercials As reported last week, Fox incredibly sold out its entire in-game Super Bowl inventory at $5.6 million per 30 seconds. So who's in the game? We know a few brands so far: Kelloggs bought time for Pop-Tarts to air its first Super Bowl ad (no word on whether fellow Kelloggs brand Pringles will return to the game for the third-straight year). A number of brands who typically advertise in the Super Bowl have also announced their returns, including Kia, Hyundai, Avocados From Mexico and WeatherTech. Have a tip about the Super Bowl? Email our breaking news reporters, Katie Lundstrom and Mónica Marie Zorrilla. Read more: Keep tabs on the latest Super Bowl news with our frequently updated Super Bowl tracker. Celebrating the Creative Brilliance of Our Agency of the Year Winners We revealed our winners for U.S. and Global Agency of the Year yesterday with profiles highlighting the stupendous years for Wieden + Kennedy and McCann Worldgroup. And while they won for numerous reasons, one of the critical components of our judging process is the work agencies produce. For W+K and McCann, the depth of their submissions elevated those agencies above the rest. McCann tapped into brand purpose in a truly authentic way that drove real change, while W+K consistently found ways to elevate popular brands through unique creative. Read more: 9 Campaigns That Illustrate Wieden + Kennedy’s Consistent Creative Brilliance in 2019 10 Campaigns That Showed Off McCann’s Creative Chops in 2019 Podcast: How We Choose Our Agency of the Year Winners You Don’t Have to Tickle Him if You Don’t Want To If we've run a better headline than this one, please let me know on Twitter. In each issue of the magazine, senior editor Robert Klara takes a look at the history of a famous brand—and you can probably guess what this story is about. It's Tickle Me Elmo, of course. In 1996, the toy shot the Sesame Street character into stardom as one of the main Muppets on the children's show. Now, you can find Elmo as a variety of toys or in Times Square taking pictures. Read more: The history of Elmo starts with a gravelly adult voice. Best of the Rest: Today's Top News and Insights CNN’s Kate Bennett, Who Covers Melania Trump, Says the First Lady Is ‘Actually the Most Free Person’ in Trump’s White House Audi Retains BBH London Following Controversial Review Cyber Weekend Yields $7.5 Billion in Digital Sales The Starbucks “PIG” Cup: A PR Nightmare or Opportunity? Digital Publishers Cross New Territory in Merging Companies With Unionized Staffers What new skills do employees need that they didn't need a couple years ago? Mike Donoghue, CEO and founder, The Alpha Group We’re seeing people join our team that have a more diverse range of skills, experiences and interests than we’ve ever had before. This doesn’t mean you walk in the door with a 10 years of experience doing different things. It means that the lines are getting blurred between what people do for fun and what they do for a living. Whether it is the ability to manage a social community, produce video, or write code, I think many more people are figuring out how to apply their interests outside of work to what they in the office every day. I think that outside perspective is extremely valuable. Caitlin Roark, HR director, Levelwing In a fast-paced industry, time is a limited resource. Team members need to know how to effectively prioritize, negotiate with others, and delegate tasks efficiently—all while anticipating disruptions and being protective of one’s own time. Understanding the difference between importance and urgency is key. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Learn how to be a leader by setting the balance for yourself and helping others buy in for their own schedules.