Tokyo Olympics' New Date; Ryan Reynolds' Mint Mobile Surprise: 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. Today's Top Coronavirus News from the Ad World Keep up with real-time updates, news and cancellations impacting the advertising and marketing world in our coronavirus tracker. IOC Sets New Dates for Postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics The Summer Olympics, postponed last week as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, have been rescheduled. The Games—which will still be called the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020—will take place from July 23-Aug. 8, 2021. Read more: Postponing the Olympics will have a massive impact on Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which began marketing the event in 2018. Several of Spring’s Biggest Cable Series Delayed Due to COVID-19 Some of cable’s biggest and most anticipated shows this spring have been postponed until at least later this year, as networks grapple with production shutdowns, a major upheaval in advertiser spend and concerns about what could happen to their content pipeline if production doesn’t resume soon. Read more: Fargo and AMC’s Walking Dead spinoff World Beyond are among the shows seeing delays. As Coronavirus Squeezes the Ad Industry, Local Publishers Are Feeling the Pain Publications at the local level—alt-weeklies and newspapers—are starting to feel the squeeze of coronavirus. These are the business models on the front lines of tragedy, and they're being left without the desperately needed advertising dollars from local businesses that are now forced close. Read more: Despite numerous challenges, some local news organizations are seeing an uptick in digital subscriptions. But will it be enough to save them? Related: Publishers today face a similar challenge as they did during the 2008 financial crisis: the risk of lowering their advertising standards in search for short-term profits as the U.S. economy likely stares down a recession. Agencies Launch Initiatives to Help Ad & Marketing Professionals Here’s Some Good News in the Coronavirus Crisis: Agencies Are Still Hiring Many fear there will be widespread disruption for existing talent and for those seeking to enter the agency world for the first time. Yet agencies still have open positions, so The One Club launched a job board for both employers and job seekers. Currently, it holds around 175 open positions around the world, covering all aspects from creative (including production and design) to operations. Read more: Learn how to find and post open jobs on the board. Havas New York Makes Wellness Part of the Work-From-Home Routine Havas New York has built a series of programming to help keep creatives—and anyone else who’d like to join in—growing mentally and spiritually while working remotely. The Creative Consciousness initiative attempts to address an industry-wide issue of agencies chasing growth at the expense of talent, contributing to low morale, lagging productivity and a high turnover rate. Read more: The initiative is an evolution of programming the agency has been rolling out over the past two years. Related: In Las Vegas, R&R Partners wants to make sure the city defined by partying is still front and center, even when the party is digital with a landing page of high-quality videos and still images on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s site to use for Zoom. Brands Lend a Hand During the Pandemic Ryan Reynolds Left Voicemails for All Mint Mobile Subscribers In a voicemail that began popping up on the phones of every Mint Mobile subscriber on Friday, the cell carrier’s star owner Ryan Reynolds announced a new Unlimited Data For All plan to help folks out during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more: The Deadpool star is well-known in the marketing world for his ad stunts for both Mint and Aviation Gin, which put his trademark brand of dry, self-deprecating humor front and center. Burger King Advertises a Quarantine Whopper You Make at Home [kickout id="1"] Advertising in the quarantine era is no simple task. Burger King France has boldly stepped up to the challenge with an ad from Paris agency Buzzman, “Le Whopper de la Quarantine,” or “Quarantine Whopper,” which shows an array of store-bought ingredients that the chain’s fans can use to approximate a Whopper at home. Read more: Burger King global CMO Fernando Machado says what’s most important during this time is that brands respond to the crisis in substantive ways. Related: Burger King and Popeyes announced that employees will get 14 days of paid sick leave if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 or exposed to the virus. New Jack Daniel’s Ad Toasts Social Distancing—and Connection—During Coronavirus With a rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” serving as the background, this Jack Daniel's spot from Energy BBDO features user-generated content of real human interaction. All of the footage was edited to illustrate the importance of social distancing, but still manages to retain the spirit of togetherness. Read more: The brand’s parent company, Brown-Forman, also announced a $1 million donation to COVID-19 response funds. More Brand Initiatives to Help Out During the Pandemic: Sesame Street's Famous Fuzzy Residents Star in Kid-Friendly PSAs for COVID-19 NHL Continues Rolling Out Social Initiatives to Keep Fans Busy During Covid-19 Suspension Facebook Pledges Another $100 Million to Support the News Industry The Frito-Lay Snack Society Is an Invite-Only Fan Club for Chip Lovers Frito-Lay tapped technology firm Zyper to select a few members to invite to an exclusive fan club. Abby Nierman, one of the few chosen to be a member of Frito-Lay's digital Snack Society, advocates for the brand on social media including TikTok and Instagram. Read more about this highly targeted engagement strategy and the logic behind it. [kickout id="2"] More of the Latest On the Adweek Podcast: How We're Coping During Quarantine How HP’s Gene Paek Blends Creativity with Innovation With SXSW Canceled, The Fader Takes a Mainstay Music Experience Digital Creating an Advertising World That My 17-Year-Old Self Would Want to See 3 Ways Marketing Strategies Will Need to Shift to Deal With Coronavirus Complications

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Tokyo Olympics' New Date; Ryan Reynolds' Mint Mobile Surprise: Tuesday's First Things First

Plus, more positive initiatives that brands and agencies are launching to combat COVID-19

Today’s Top Coronavirus News from the Ad World

Jess Zafarris

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