Table of contents for December 12, 2022 in Adweek

Nine months after it was first announced, Disney+’s ad-supported offering made its debut on Dec. 8, bringing on more than 100 partners “across every major holding company” and “every single major brand,” according to Disney ad sales chief Rita Ferro. While Ferro didn’t share subscriber expectations for the new tier, dubbed Disney+ Basic, a recent analysis by Kantar found that 1 in 4 Disney+ subscribers could trade down to the new AVOD tier, which is rolling out at $7.99 per month. Disney+ topped 164 million subscribers as of the fiscal fourth quarter. Disney+ Basic is debuting with mostly 15-and 30-second spots that will air in pre-and mid-roll ads, with advanced targeting capabilities and new formats coming later as the company continues to test. “At the end of the first quarter,…

Sexual health care company Wisp has, for years, relied on digital channels like paid search, social and affiliate marketing to get the word out about its telemedicine services, which expedite access to sexual and reproductive health care. By last June, Wisp was ready to diversify its media mix, especially as the Supreme Court was slated to overturn Roe v. Wade, meaning more people would need access to the emergency contraceptive and soon-to-launch abortion medication the company provides. So it chose to invest in connected television, and the results were startling. “We looked to CTV to ultimately reach new audiences at scale,” Wisp CMO Monica Cepak said. “The timing of Roe v. Wade being overturned further accelerated the timing of this decision, as we felt it was more important than ever…

Fox’s Thanksgiving Day New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys NFL game averaged 42 million viewers, breaking a TV record set in 1990. Fox Sports has also seen record viewership for English-language soccer during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as well as the biggest college football audience since 2011 for Nov. 26’s Michigan-Ohio State game. To learn about who these passionate audiences are outside of the stadium, Fox Sports commissioned two surveys of 2,500 U.S. teens and adults. By every metric, teens who are avid sports fans live happier lives. They have nearly twice as many friends (31 versus 16 among non-fans), and nearly two-thirds (64%) say making friends is easy compared to 28% of non-fans. Teenage sports enthusiasts are also twice as likely to exercise most days, with 77% feeling…

SHEETZ “Why the Sheetz Not?” Joan developed “Why the Sheetz Not?” to drive a series of humorous ads, including one that explains how its Sheetz Go app makes condom buying less awkward. AD COUNCIL “Real Deal on Fentanyl” Former drug dealers are brought into a school as substitute teachers to give unsuspecting students a hands-on lesson about the dangers of fentanyl. ZENBUSINESS “#MomsMeanBusiness” This moving film was created to inspire moms to start their own businesses and offered them a free LLC during the month of September. It generated a 130% increase in leads, and Mark Cuban touted the campaign on Good Morning America. EBAY “Let’s Ride” Joan discovered that eBay customers trust automotive influencers on where to buy parts for their cars. The agency created a series of ads…

NBA “Welcome to the Lane” Packed with a star-studded cast, the ad took us on a ride through nostalgic references, familiar faces and perfectly timed jokes. Celebrating the NBA’s 75th season in 2021-2022, the spot tells a story about the NBA’s iconic legends as actor Michael B. Jordan takes the wheel of the Hoop Bus to guide children through an imaginary neighborhood filled with the NBA’s current stars. BEATS BY DRE “Dark Mode” Translation showcased the work ethic of basketball player Ja Morant in a 90-second video for Beats featuring Grammy-winning artist Lil Baby. The ad effectively drove home the agency’s passion for storytelling while simultaneously connecting people through music. SIRIUSXM “Home of SiriusXM: Dinner” The ad is the latest in SiriusXM’s “Home of SiriusXM” campaign, which launched last September.…

UNAIDS “Unbox Me” In India, children often keep small boxes where they hide their most precious belongings, a collection that can also reveal facets of their identities. UNAIDS re-created the childhood boxes of transgender adults to start a conversation about trans rights and fight against transphobia ahead of the International Transgender Day of Visibility. THE TIMES OF INDIA AND POLITICAL SHAKTI “The Nominate Me Selfie” Though India is the world’s largest democracy and women make up 50% of the population, only 10% of its parliamentarians are women, and 90% of party leaders are men. This campaign encouraged women to take selfies and turn them into resumés appealing for nomination to political office. They then sent those selfies to party leaders with the goal of closing the gender gap in politics.…

Coca-Cola is branching into branded entertainment with a Christmas film series on Amazon Prime Video produced by Imagine Entertainment. The anthology is the first project from Coca-Cola’s new entertainment platform, Real Magic Presents, which will produce videos in various formats that “celebrate stories of human connection, told in magical ways,” according to Coca-Cola. OpenX, WPP’s bespoke team for Coca-Cola, developed the series with creative leadership from agency Grey. The films were shot by different up-and-coming directors and tell diverse stories across three continents.…

We’ve somehow arrived at the end of another momentous year. You’re holding in your hands Adweek’s final magazine issue of 2022, and we’ve saved the best for last, spotlighting our annual Agency of the Year honorees. As is the case each year, this award recognizes the standout shops across a variety of categories. But our ace agencies editor Jameson Fleming (recently promoted to managing editor, marketing and agencies) and his team—alongside our creativity guru Shannon Miller (also newly promoted to managing editor, creativity, creator economy and DEI) and her team—made some key expansions and additions this year. For the first time, they created an open submission process and added three new categories to the AOY mix: small, midsize and multicultural agencies of the year alongside the returning U.S., global, breakthrough…

As the year draws to a close, against a backdrop of busy retail days and marketers trying to spend those budgets, Adweek’s NexTech 2022 event gathered marketers on the frontier of digital innovation to discuss the latest media and marketing tech trends shaping the months ahead. What alternative identifiers yield the most reliable results? What commerce tech drives sales? Should you even be investing in the metaverse? NexTech was a chance to learn where smart marketers and savvy publishers are placing their bets to maintain growth, even as the economic forecasts look unsettling. The digital advertising ecosystem is going through a reckoning. The pendulum has swung from mass surveillance and user tracking to more privacy-centric practices. Guests from companies including MNTN, Spotify and Salesforce discussed the future of ad serving,…

COORS LIGHT “Patrick Mahomes Presents the Coors Light” For its stunt with NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Mischief had to skirt around the fact that active NFL players can’t officially promote beer, so Coors Light became a flashlight. The actual flashlight product was sold online, and all proceeds benefited nonprofit 15 and the Mahomies Foundation. TINDER “You’re Not for Everyone” Dating app Tinder wanted to promote its product feature, Explore, which allows members to swipe based on interests. But the company wanted to manage daters’ expectations and remind them they won’t necessarily hit it off with every person they encounter, no matter how hard they are trying to improve themselves. MILLER64 “What Number Is Smaller?” For Super Bowl 56, while one beer touted its 80-calorie beer, Miller64 and Mischief tapped Ken…

GATORADE “Love Means Everything” TBWA\Chiat\Day Gatorade produced this-two minute tribute to commemorate Serena Williams’ retirement. When Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is the narrator who leads the tribute, you know this is something special. It’s a note-perfect spot from the energy drink, which is why it was crowned Adweek’s Ad of the Year. WINAMAX “The Ball of Yarn” TBWA\Paris This dark science fiction tale features humanoid cat-like people who form a crowd to chase a large ball of red wool as it rolls through a city, causing chaos along the way. APPLE “The Comeback” TBWA\Media Arts Lab Shanghai Created to celebrate Chinese New Year, this 23-plus-minute film to promote the iPhone Pro 13 marks the work of the country’s stuntmen and the homecoming of young men who have left their villages to go…

EXPEDIA “Made to Travel” In Expedia’s 2022 Super Bowl spot, Ewan McGregor encourages viewers to invest in experiences, not things. But the campaign execution went deeper, with Anomaly helping Expedia launch its Made to Travel creative platform, which accommodates different executions that ladder up to the campaign’s big idea. JANE WALKER BY JOHNNIE WALKER “Angel City Football Club: Running With the Angels” For the newly formed LA women’s soccer team, Angel City, the Diageo brand debuted a custom song by Alabama Shakes’ vocalist Brittany Howard and rapper Tia P. that underpinned a catchy feminist spot. The campaign represents and inspires underrepresented communities and champions gender equality. ALLY “When You Watch Me” On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, Ally committed to giving an equal amount of ad dollars to women’s…

REALTOR.COM “Our First Big Boi House” Certain celebrities have a sustained presence in advertising. Outkast’s Big Boi is not one of them. So seeing the hip-hop legend have a little fun with his name to celebrate a couple’s first “big boi house” for the real estate site was not only a great surprise for fans, but also an indicator of how embedded the agency was in Atlanta culture. G LEAGUE “The World’s Most G League” This high-energy look at the NBA’s official minor league, G League, debuted the brand’s AOR relationship with Majority. Focused on the different elements that encompass the league’s identity—determination, energy, ambition—the work is careful to illustrate the brand’s dedication to its players and the sport at large. CDC “Live to the Beat” Majority tenders a special…

The past year has seen a number of defining moments for the ad industry, from grappling with measurement and privacy regulations to the meteoric rise (and unceremonious fall) of crypto. But if this year’s crop of beloved ads reflects any singular theme, it’s the willingness of brands and creatives to go out on a limb. Whether they played with tone, implemented cutting-edge tech, attempted to connect with Gen Z or convinced actors to act like total creepers at a nationally televised ball game, advertisers didn’t shy away from trying new things. And as viewers, we were luckier for it. To see all 30 of our favorite ads of 2022, visit adweek.com.…

In February 2021, a new restaurant appeared in Steubenville, Ohio. Its name: Wings on Wheels. The menu featured what you might expect: chicken wings, soft drinks, sides of ranch and blue cheese dressing. Everything was rather typical about the place, except for one thing: There were no booths or servers—let alone a building. Wings on Wheels, you see, was a virtual brand, meaning the only way customers could get food was to order it through an app or website, then wait for it to show up at their front door. The delivery-only concept did not sit well with some of the 116,000 people living in the Steubenville metropolitan area. Who, exactly, was doing this? And where? “The phone calls and the messages and the Facebook comments were very hectic to…

By now it’s clear that anyone betting on the post-Covid inflationary period being a short-term blip rather than the beginning of a long spate of hardship has resolutely lost. Consumer sentiment is increasingly moving from nervousness to existential fear as the “heat or eat” dilemma looms ever larger this winter. As expected, most early responses from brands regarding soaring inflation and price hikes have been limited to messages of empathy, transparency and understanding. But as the crisis persists, these communications appear hollow or even insulting to intended audiences. Empathy alone is no longer enough When Danish butter brand Lurpak hiked prices by 33% in July, it tried to quell consumer frustration by citing rising raw material prices and the need for farmers to receive fair pay. However, consumers were not…

If you ask Majority founder Omid Farhang to reflect on the past two years since creating the company, he’d describe a beginning rife with “beautiful accidents and unintended consequences.” Despite how that may sound, he means it in the best possible way. “When we started the company, [the partners and I] put plans in place. But one of the smart things that we did was leave room for unanswered questions,” Farhang said. “And by doing so, we opened ourselves up to possibilities that we couldn’t have imagined on our own as first-time entrepreneurs.” One such question—“Can a seemingly far-fetched idea at the back of a 108-page pitch deck yield resonant work?”—led to the Atlanta-based agency’s first major success during summer 2021, in dating app BLK’s “Vax That Thang Up” musical…

While the advertising industry has seen some progress in diversity, equity and inclusion, many agencies have only just begun making efforts toward advancing social justice initiatives and pushing the cultural envelope forward. For example, nearly 50 agencies that previously pledged to support DEI policies dropped those commitments in 2021, citing hesitation within leadership. More recently, Kantar’s 2022 Inclusion Index showed a lack of progress in DEI within the marketing workplace. But one agency has bucked those trends, seizing the chance to translate culture for Fortune 500 companies for nearly 20 years. Black-owned creative agency Translation, Adweek’s 2022 Multicultural Agency of the Year, built itself on recognizing the importance of culture and providing brands the ability to connect with creators who are moving the needle forward. Since the agency’s launch in…