Mark your calendar for Mediaweek, October 29-30 in New York City. We’ll unpack the biggest shifts shaping the future of media—from tv to retail media to tech—and how marketers can prep to stay ahead. Register with early-bird rates before sale ends!
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.
A Breaking Bad Pop-Up Is Coming to L.A. as Follow-Up Movie El Camino Hits Netflix
What better way to celebrate the release of Breaking Bad’s follow-up movie, El Camino, than to get served food by someone wearing a hazmat suit? That’s part of Netflix’s West Hollywood pop-up experience that will include recreations of the set along with a themed bar and snacks, including make-it-yourself cocktails.
Read more: Get the rest of the details on the experience and check out the trailer to the movie, which drops on Netflix today.
TM Advertising Closes Its Doors After 85 Years
The Dallas-based agency known for work on American Airlines and Nationwide—TM created the “Life Comes At You Fast” campaign and made a Super Bowl spot for the insurer in 2007 featuring Kevin Federline—has shut down. The agency bought itself back from IPG just two years ago after 16 years with the holding company.
Read more: Becca Weigman, CEO of TM Advertising, explained to Adweek about a “perfect storm” that led to its closure.
How Chobani’s CCO Built an In-House Agency (Just Don’t Call It That)
At the ANA Masters of Marketing conference last week, one topic top of mind for marketers was in-housing. How to do it? Who’s doing it well? What are the pros and cons? Chobani began navigating those waters three years ago under chief creative officer Leland Maschmeyer and now the majority of Chobani’s creative work, strategy and media planning are handled in-house. Under Maschmeyer’s leadership, the brand has launched a clothing line for kids, created new products and given its packaging a makeover.
Read more: Agency reporter Minda Smiley looked under the hood at the yogurt brand to look at how the company attracted talent and built out its in-house offering.
Can Topshop and Arcadia Group Survive Misconduct Allegations and Massive Financial Loss?
As if brick-and-mortar retailers weren’t facing enough when it comes to sales and innovation, U.K.’s Topshop and Arcadia Group seem to be taking an especially hard hit amidst allegations of misconduct and massive financial loss. Over the past year, Arcadia’s chairman was accused of sexual, racial and physical misconduct and abuse by multiple people. On the financial front, Topshop may be the jewel in Arcadia’s crown, but the retailer has failed to evolve or make a splash with American consumers. So where does it go from here?
Read more: Learn how Topshop and Arcadia Group hope to turn things around.
Just Briefly: The Rest of Today’s Top Insights and News
- G/O Media Shutters Splinter, Lays Off Staff
- 3 Lessons Learned as a First-Timer at ANA Masters of Marketing
- FX’s John Landgraf on Content Expansion and Streaming Under Disney
- Instagram: Here’s How to Use Create Mode in Stories
- With 2,000 Marketers, How Does GE’s Linda Boff Prioritize Brand Messaging?
Ad of the Day:
If you thought a normal visit to Times Square could be overwhelming, wait until you see what happens when 51 towering digital displays work together to tell one story.
To announce its new branding and global expansion, Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child recently staged a massive Times Square takeover, produced by agency AKA NYC to turn four blocks’ worth of ads into one panoramic theater experience.
Adweek Executive Mentor Program
Interested in learning from some of the brightest minds in marketing like Anheuser-Busch InBev U.S. CMO Marcel Marcondes, Campbell’s Soup board member Sarah Hofstetter and Petco CMO Tariq Hassan? Apply to be a mentee today.
Today’s mentorship advice comes from Barbara Martin Coppola, chief digital officer of IKEA, on finding a mentor
Don’t be afraid of reaching out to somebody you admire and starting a relationship with that person. I was based in South Korea in Seoul, and I was working for Samsung Electronics in their global marketing operations department, and I was working for an exceptional woman, the first woman vp ever for Samsung Electronics. I was very lucky she was my manager, and what she taught me, I would forever be thankful, was the invisible things were important because it would help me actually influence people that were not in my line of management.
Career Tip: New Scenario on Discrepancy of Review Grades
Scenario: A manager and an employee grade the employee drastically differently during a review. How can they get on the same page?
Jessica Kassel, head of talent, Heat
I’d first start by looking at the consistency and structure of employee/manager check-ins. How productive are those conversations? Are there notes and next steps outlined? If both are walking away from those check-ins with slightly different expectations, that will only compound in a negative way over the course of the performance year. I’d suggest looking at ways to increase the quality (and sometimes the quantity) of those meetings as well as how both sides are working on improving their communication.
Laura Small, vp and director of people, RPA
I actually love it when this happens, because there’s an opportunity there for real candor. The manager should get really curious, and ask the employee why they rated themselves so highly. Maybe they have achieved a bunch of great stuff that their boss has zero visibility to, or they may not understand what’s expected and be focused on the wrong priorities.
