The CBD Brand Taking Trade-Ins; Plastic Bag Bans Turned Branding Opportunity: Wednesday'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. This CBD Brand Pop-Up Wants Your Unwanted Products With so many CBD-infused products on the market, first-time CBD users or curious onlookers might need a little help—and motivation—in choosing which brand to try. Charlotte’s Web, a leader in the CBD space that sells hemp-based products, wants to educate consumers about how their CBD products are made by inviting them to trade in their own unwanted or questionable bottles from other brands. The Colorado-based company opened the CBD Swap pop-up in Miami, a store that aims to promote Charlotte’s Web products and educate consumers about hemp farming and manufacturing. The pop-up is a physical extension of “Trust The Earth,” the brand’s first high-profile ad campaign that launched in fall 2019. The campaign is themed around the brand’s mission to promote hemp as a natural way of improving one’s quality of life. Read more: The swap program runs now through Feb. 1, and is the first of its kind for a CBD company. How Retailers Are Turning Plastic Bag Bans Into a Branding Opportunity While Americans certainly love their conveniences, the tide has turned on disposable plastic bags. Laws have been passed to ban them in several states, with legislation pending in others. And while this may prove annoying to some customers, retailers across the country are seizing the opportunity to provide branded reusable bags to those customers. The bags serve more than just the practical purpose of subbing in for their disposable counterparts—they become small, portable billboards for the brand's message, following consumers home and remaining useful over time. Retailers like Trader Joe's, Target, Publix, The Container Store and more have capitalized on this opportunity by selling bags that remind consumers of their brand before they even leave for their next shopping trip. Read more: “The reusability of a bag means the brand awareness is multiplied every time it is used," said Robert Lockyer, founder and CEO of Delta Global, which creates packaging for upmarket brands. The 7 Biggest Things We Learned About TV’s Future at TCA Winter Press Tour After 13 days, the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour finished on Sunday with dozens of broadcast, cable and streaming outlets sharing their programming plans for the first half of 2020. The semiannual TCA press tour always offers an fascinating glimpse into the current state of the TV industry, as the influx of new streaming services (with even more on tap for this year) resulted in a record-breaking 532 scripted programs that aired in 2019. Adweek's TV and media editor, Jason Lynch, and our streaming editor, Kelsey Sutton, were both out in Pasadena, Calif., for the tour and compiled seven takeaways: broadcasters went big announcing several event shows; streamers insisted that the increasingly crowded market would definitely not be an issue; multiseason renewals multiplied; spinoff announcements took the place of revival announcements (for the most part); networks partnered up; 2020 will be the year of many finales; and an increasing number of cable networks are bailing on scripted shows. Read more: The networks addressed some of the industry’s biggest questions going into press tour as they set their agendas for the coming year—and beyond. Why This TBWA Creative Leader Wants to See More Focus on Older Industry Pros A couple of months ago, Walter T. Geer III, svp and group creative director at TBWA\Worldhealth, took to LinkedIn for what one might consider an innocuous post on what he saw as an inordinate amount of time focused on ad professionals under 30 or 40. But the post caught fire: over 24,000 people liked the post, while almost 1,900 took the time to weigh in. Adweek's Doug Zanger caught up with Geer to find out what he learned from posting a simple, yet provocative statement for all to see. "As an industry, we have forgotten that fantastic talent over the age of 40 is abundant," said Geer. "I work with some creatives at TBWA that are well into their 50s and 60s, and they are incredible. Our society puts such a significant emphasis on the success of young adults that many of us are hoodwinked into believing that they are advertising's saviors." Read more: "Publications need to either open up these awards for every age group, or be inclusive of the age groups that are excluded," said Geer. Best of the Rest: Today's Top News and Insights Focusing Again on Charity, Kia Is in the Big Game For the 11th Year Running As Domestic Growth Slows, Netflix Focuses Globally and Creates New Viewing Metric Bloomberg Focuses on Climate Change With New Vertical L’Oréal Executive Joins ANA to Lead Gender Equality Push ‘It’s Always Been a Dream’ for Kygo to Design His Own Headphones Juniper Park\TBWA Hires McCann Vet as CSO Ad of the Day: Snickers, Budweiser, Pringles and Avocados From Mexico All Dropped Super Bowl Teasers Yesterday The world is "out of sorts," according to Snickers, and many of us would probably agree. But what can a candy brand do about that? Well, we'll have to wait until next week to find out, but based on the three teasers released yesterday, it has something to do with digging a giant hole. Budweiser, on the other hand, is taking the sentimental route—its teaser features the actors that star in it responding to seeing the final spot for the first time. (THE SUSPENSE). Pringles worked with Adult Swim to create a Rick and Morty spot, so its teaser is filled with robots, Morty's signature screech and Pringles' "flavor stacking" thing. Avocados From Mexico's teaser featured Molly Ringwald painstakingly placing a tiny tiara on an avocado as it sits in a hair and makeup chair and then saying to it, "they're going to eat you up," which feels a little ominous. (Stay on top of all the latest updates on Super Bowl advertising news with Adweek's tracker.) [kickout id="1"] How Agencies Support a Healthy Work-Life Balance "We do the simple things well but it many regards it’s what we don’t do that promotes a healthy work-life balance. Meaning, we celebrate the fact that people take their vacation days or spend time learning new things outside of the office because we recognize that improved perspective and fresh thinking is hugely beneficial to everyone on the team. We don’t do all-nighters or Sunday night emails. We don’t push new releases Friday afternoons and we avoid unnecessary meetings. We give people the room they need to focus while they’re at work so they can enjoy the time they have outside of the office." —Mike Dongonue, CEO and founder, Alpha Group "We were early adopters of the notion of work-life integration—blending most aspects of life rather than drawing a distinct boundary between personal time and time spent on the job. We expect employees to take time out of their workday to tend to personal needs and desires, just as the workweek is no longer expected to be Monday through Friday capping at 40 hours. We just don’t live in that world anymore. As long as our employees are delivering on commitments and expectations, and accountable to their teams, we don’t have any hard and fast rules about when you need to be at work or focusing on work. That, and, we are very open to part-time arrangements, telecommuting and we have implemented some impressive onsite agency-sponsored wellness initiatives." —Heidi Taglio, associate partner and head of talent, Eleven "Our business is constantly transforming, but one thing is constant: we are only as strong as our talent. As such, we want to make sure that our people are working in the most productive, healthy and happy way possible. If our business is to succeed, this is crucial. As such, we have a number of programs/initiatives to help promote a healthy work-life balance, which are outlined in our answers to the following questions." —Mesa Kewish, marketing director, M&C Saatchi LA More of the Latest: Why You Should Think Irrationally in 2020 Like These Brands Did Uber’s Taj Alavi on What It Means to Build, Not Break On the Adweek Podcast: Inside Bud Light’s Sneaky Super Bowl Ad by Droga5 Would You Buy a Bracelet With Water From Mount Everest in It? Nominate the Extraordinary for Adweek’s 2020 Media All-Stars

First Things First

The CBD Brand Taking Trade-Ins; Plastic Bag Bans Turned Branding Opportunity: Wednesday's First Things First

Plus, 7 top takeaways from TCA

Kathryn Lundstrom

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Kathryn Lundstrom