Meet Adweek's Women Trailblazers; Sleeping Giant Co-founder Leaves: Monday'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. Adweek’s Women Trailblazers Talk Inspiration, Career Milestones and Future Victories Today, we'll start with a note from Adweek's features editor Kristina Feliciano: "When we interviewed our picks for this year’s Women Trailblazers issue, the mood was understandably introspective. Not only was the pandemic reshaping life at work and home, but the nation was (and remains) at a cultural tipping point. While many of us wonder what the future will bring, the women featured here are actively building the future they want—pursuing an end to racial and gender inequality, leveling the playing field and making room for those who might otherwise be overlooked. Here, they talk about career milestones, the people who inspire them, what they’re setting their sights on next and even their go-to songs." See the full list: More than two dozen women make up the list, including Kara Swisher, Padma Lakshmi and Dara Treseder. Adweek Cover Interview: Gabrielle Union on Speaking Out, How Companies Can Step Up and Who Inspires Her to ‘Bust Ass’ Adweek chatted with the actress/activist/business owner to find out where she gets her confidence, what real industry change looks like, and how she’s empowering and uplifting diverse talent through her growing production house, I’ll Have Another. Infographic: Despite Public Scrutiny, Consumers Still Engage With Celebrity Content Even as influencers gain tens of millions followers on social media (hello, Charlie D'Amelio and your 70 million followers on TikTok), celebrities still have a firm place as product endorsers for brands according to one study. During the first two months of quarantine, Instagram posts from brands that featured celebrities saw 1.5 times more traffic. Chase, Secret Deodorant and Samsung Mobile X saw huge gains thanks to partnerships with Kevin Hart, Sophia Bush and Steve Aoki, respectively. See the infographic: Not all segments of brands saw big gains thanks to celebrities. Here's which ones did. Sleeping Giants Co-Founders Split Over Unequal Partnership As the founders of Sleeping Giants began to seek the public spotlight once they were publicly identified, co-founder Nandini Jammi says she found herself sidelined as co-founder Matt Rivitz made himself the public face of the organization. Jammi is leaving the organization as a result, writing in a blog post, “I hope other brilliant WoC and marginalized folks see yourselves in me and don’t wait as long as I did. The stakes are too high for you to disappear.” Another reason for her departure: Jammi learned she was being left out of critical conversations about the Facebook advertiser boycott. Amazon Is Not Banning TikTok on Employees’ Phones, After All Amazon now says that an email telling employees to delete TikTok from their phones was sent in error. The email claimed the app, which is owned by ByteDance, could be considered a security risk because of ByteDance's relationship with the Chinese government. Already, TikTok has been blocked in India, threatened in Australia and voluntarily pulled out of Hong Kong. Related: Byte, the Reboot of Vine, Surges on App Store As the U.S. government also considers banning TikTok, Byte is gaining steam. Users downloaded the app more than a million times last week, making it the No. 1 free app on the App Store. Best of the Rest: More top stories and insights Carnival Sees Bookings Tick Up for 2021, but Continues to Burn Cash Until Then As Joy Reid Prepares AM Joy Finale, MSNBC Sets Interim Weekend Morning Plans To Help Speed Recovery, Tripadvisor Hires Its Own Travel Agents After Network Backlash, Nielsen Reverses Course on Delaying National OOH Measurement One Company Wants to Rank the Ad-Tech Industry. Another Calls Foul Ad of the Day: Audible Gets Delightfully Vintage to Pitch Audiobooks as Glamorous Vacations With its latest U.K. campaign, market leader Audible has spotted an opportunity in that escapism, especially with few people around the world going on holiday this summer—but definitely wishing they could get away after months of the same routines and anxieties. Watch them here.

First Things First

Meet Adweek's Women Trailblazers; Sleeping Giant Co-founder Leaves: Monday's First Things First

Plus, Amazon isn't banning TikTok after all

Adweek’s Women Trailblazers Talk Inspiration, Career Milestones and Future Victories

Jameson Fleming

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

Adweek’s Women Trailblazers Talk Inspiration, Career Milestones and Future Victories

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Jameson Fleming