Table of contents for July 11, 2022 in Adweek

Talking about data management and measurement back in 1995 was a very different conversation from today. But Sara Moorthy has been working in the industry long enough to see it all, from commercials to print ads to direct mail. Beginning with building websites back in the ’90s, then starting her own agency, Chautauqua Communications, in 2006, and now as managing partner and evp at marketing technology firm Leavened, Moorthy has been in the analytics field for more than 25 years. “The amount of data [we use] has changed, but I don’t think the process in which we use it has changed that much,” she said. “What are the KPIs? What are the right metrics and measures? [These questions} haven’t changed in the 25 years that I’ve been working.” Moorthy is a…

What is the first form of media or information you consume in the morning? I used to go to Twitter first. Now, I check the app that goes along with my Oura ring to see how my last night’s sleep was. I’m starting to notice a difference in how I feel during the day based on my sleep the night before, which is based on my activity during the previous day. So the great mysteries of life—at least the sleep part—are partially solved by my obsessive attention to these nightly sleep reports. What’s your favorite social platform? House parties. Not the smartphone app. Actual parties at actual houses. They are amazing and include food, drink, people I like, eye contact, spontaneous laughter and literally zero Nazis. Which are the most…

Most marginalized gamers know all too well what it’s like to not see themselves reflected in the video games they love. Rather than silently making do with an industry ostensibly set on excluding people who looked like her, DePass launched I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit space where underrepresented gamers can press for a more well-rounded industry, from calling for more inclusive development teams to rallying for better protections for marginalized streamers. DePass’ work was recently immortalized in the short film Game Changer, which premiered during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Tina Charles for P&G’s Queen Collective initiative, Game Changer followed the impact of DePass’ unflinching voice and long-standing advocacy for gamers who exist outside of the typically prioritized white male demographic. “Game Changer reminded me what I’m…

As the CEO of a holding company agency and one of the few Asian American women leaders in the industry, Butler’s commitment to DEI goes far beyond checking a box. Organic’s employee demographic breakdown reflects a deep commitment—32% of the staff at Butler’s agency are non-white and 64% are women. Its annual retention rate is 90% for BIPOC staff and 100% for AAPI employees. Women also lead at Organic, occupying 62% of roles at the vp level and above. Achieving such a diverse employee makeup didn’t happen in a vacuum. Butler, who joined Organic in 2019, launched the Omnicom Precision Marketing Group (OPMG) API Collective (OAC), a group that brings together and empowers more than 300 AAPI members. OAC training, mentorship and leadership opportunities support AAPI elevation across the OPMG…

There’s a growing movement across advertising to build networks that elevate women and people of color to the C-suite, and one of the newest organizations, Own It, is designed to inspire, guide and act as a resource for women and nonbinary people who want to open their own ad agencies. Cornett president and owner Christy Hiler and Zambezi principal and CEO Jean Freeman created the initiative, which includes a database of more than 200 women-owned agencies and a podcast featuring advice from their leaders. “We want more women-owned agencies to become successful, which we can showcase to help other women come into the agency ownership game,” Freeman said. Hiler said she wants women to think about what really fuels them and brings them joy, and then go do it while…

Overturned by the Supreme Court last month, Roe v. Wade was the groundbreaking 1973 case that established abortion as part of a woman’s right to privacy. That right had been codified only eight years earlier in a case that drew national attention to Connecticut—and to a nonprofit called Planned Parenthood. In 1961, police arrested Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, for dispensing contraceptives—an act made illegal by an 1879 statute sponsored by none other than circus impresario P.T. Barnum, then a state legislator. Griswold fought back, and in 1965 the Supreme Court ruled in her favor. But until that decision, clinics (including Griswold’s own, shown here in 1963) padlocked their doors. Outside, meanwhile, public debate raged over legislated morality, bodily autonomy and the meaning of…

Clad in a one-piece outfit and a Texas Southern University graduation gown, Megan Thee Stallion posted pictures of her graduation in November 2021. Twitter Music turned the American rapper’s announcement into a larger campaign, “Hottie Graduation,” not only to celebrate Megan Thee Stallion’s big moment, but also to encourage graduates from all over the world to share pictures of their own graduation ceremonies. The person behind the campaign was Alvarez, who is known for creating memorable moments while making them inclusive and relatable. She accomplishes this by taking cultural moments—such as Megan Thee Stallion’s announcement—and making the audience feel as if they’re not just spectators, but equals. “We made this campaign inclusive because everyone deserves to be celebrated when they accomplish their goals,” said Alvarez, who continues to champion music,…

Chavez has always believed in the collective power of her community. That’s why she founded online marketplace Shop Latinx—it was a way to leverage that power for the benefit of small businesses while investing in the culture. “Being a part of something bigger than myself and showcasing the culture and beauty of Latinx truly fuels my drive,” Chavez said. “Making sure the Latinx community feels seen, supported and celebrated in all our creativity and ingenuity is a major component, and I strive to put intention into everything I do, both personally and professionally.” Since Chavez launched the platform in 2016, the brand has gone from a humble Instagram account for trend-forward Latinx consumers to a venture capital-backed startup. In Shop Latinx’s first year as a marketplace in 2019, Chavez raised…

Duncan’s client-side work experience—with companies as varied as Def Jam Records, Sean Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, Martin Guitars and ViacomCBS—has helped BBH win clients including Heineken, LinkedIn and Netflix, and expanded its role with Google. Those “zags” throughout Duncan’s career have helped open doors for others. “If I can push the door open, then that means I can hold it open for a few more people to pass through, maybe a little easier than I did,” she said. At BBH, she has helped make the agency more diverse—more than 40% of the agency’s employees are people of color, and its creative department is made up of 54% women. “We believe in the power of difference to make a difference, and the only way that can really work is if there’s…

After eight terrific seasons with the San Antonio Spurs as the first woman to serve as a full-time assistant coach in any of the four major professional sports leagues in the U.S., basketball legend Hammon made the decision to return to the WNBA. She joined the Las Vegas Aces this year as the team’s head coach, and her 9-1 start to the season was the best by a new head coach in WNBA history. Hammon played in the league for 16 seasons and was a six-time All Star. In 2016, the San Antonio Stars (now the Las Vegas Aces) retired her No. 25 jersey, and she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this year. Hammon missed the Hall of Fame ceremony due to a coaching commitment but…

As a former makeup artist turned breakout Peloton cycling instructor and now published author, Oyeneyin’s mission is clear: Give people confidence and strength. The title of her New York Times bestseller, Speak, is an acronym for Surrender, Power, Empathy, Authenticity and Knowledge. The motivational memoir has garnered praise for Oyeneyin’s relatable personal story of love, loss and self. Known for her unparalleled positive energy and powerful playlists at Peloton, Oyeneyin strives to bring light into people’s lives during a time when the outside world is in crisis. “I’m motivated to bring my best forward, knowing that the small amount of time that one might spend with me during their day enriches or positively impacts how they show up,” she told Adweek. Oyeneyin carries that message into her partnerships with brands…

If you want to know how something works, first you have to take it apart. And for the events industry, the pandemic did just that. For more than two years, publishers undertook a real-time process of trial and error as they sought to translate their portfolio of events into digitally native enterprises. Now, as health protocols allow for the resumption of physical gatherings, publishers are faced with a welcome, if mildly ironic challenge: integrating their virtual offerings back into the landscape of in-person events. The emergence of virtual events has raised expectations for in-person gatherings, forcing them to sharpen their value propositions. But key strategic elements, such as distribution strategies and pricing for virtual tickets, remain open questions. “People have fundamentally recalculated why they attend events,” said Dan Macsai, executive…

RESPECT THE TWO-WAY STREET Community is the output, and the input is connecting. It’s not unlike making new friends—it needs to be real and authentic. It needs to be two-way and not transactional. It really is about getting to know the people you’re bringing into the community, ensuring there’s a shared set of values. We are going to enter into a relationship. We are going to step into being part of the same community. It starts from an authentic connection and commitment to get to know folks on a human level. TRUST YOUR GUT I have a couple pieces of advice. One is to make sure you are building your network, listening and learning from marketers in other organizations. Have folks with different perspectives and experiences who think about different…

Michelle Yeoh wasn’t trying to become a martial arts movie star. Or an international film star. Or a trailblazer for the next generation of action stars. She simply asked one question when starting out on Hong Kong action movie sets in the late 1980s: “Why can’t the women do that?” Embarking on an acting career at a time when there was no blueprint for how women could make it in action films, the Malaysian actor leaned into her dance background when learning how to perform her own stunts. She rapidly grew to fame in Hong Kong, starring alongside “martial arts buddy” Jackie Chan. Yeoh garnered international acclaim in the late ’90s, thanks in part to leading roles in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger,…

A British comedian and screenwriter, Ali is the creator and head writer of Ms. Marvel, the critically acclaimed limited series by Marvel Studios on Disney+. The show features as its protagonist a 16-year-old Pakistani American high schooler, bringing the first Muslim superhero to the screen. Ali, who was born to Pakistani parents, understands the double-edged sword of reshaping the narrative for underrepresented communities, especially when it comes to media representation. “On one hand, it’s a thrill to join the ranks of other long-admired creatives … striving to tell our stories onscreen,” Ali said. “On the other, the pressure applied to a handful of people to represent huge, wonderfully heterogenous communities is immense.” Prior to her writing career, Ali was a domestic violence support worker and a data scientist. She credits…

It all started as a GroupMe chat that Dobbins created with professionals of color who felt alone at the C-suite table. Within two weeks, the group had amassed 300 members who shared the same thought: “I’m also the only person of color at my company.” In 2016, Dobbins scaled that community into a DEI consulting company, Mimconnect, that’s now worked with more than 120 companies, including Mailchimp and M Booth, across industries like marketing, media, advertising and communications to help recruit, retain and develop minority talent. Mimconnect now has a network of almost 12,000 diverse professionals. Last year alone, Mimconnect made half a million dollars in revenue, which Dobbins said is a “big feat for Black women entrepreneurs since we typically don’t even hit that level.” While Dobbins aims for…

A former Netflix executive overseeing hit series such as Orange Is the New Black and Narcos, Duncan has been running Freeform since 2020. Under Duncan’s leadership, the network launched Cruel Summer, its most-watched series ever and a breakout show on Hulu, as well as other hits such as Love in the Time of Corona and Single Drunk Female. In addition to Duncan’s work on Freeform, the network president spearheaded the launch of Onyx Collective in her first year. The Disney content brand on Hulu curates a slate of premium entertainment by creators of color and underrepresented voices. Onyx Collective projects already include Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), The 1619 Project and The Hair Tales, a miniseries about Black identity and beauty…

Fleming does not take pocstock’s mission to change the face (literally) of stock imagery lightly. In fact, the co-founder and chief content officer of the Black-owned and curated library of images, videos and illustrations—a photographer by trade who also identifies as a queer woman of color—could not be more personally invested in or more perfectly suited for the job. Through pocstock, Fleming wants to ensure that people of diverse ethnicities and lifestyles living as their full selves are readily available and accessible to companies looking to expand the narrative of human experiences beyond the dated tropes of the “Mad Men” era. Companies such as Dell, IPG, LVMH and Sony Music have used what Fleming refers to as pocstock’s “solution-based platform” to visually amplify their messaging and global reach. Fleming said…

Rosado joined Telemundo in 2018, but took on the daunting challenge of helming NBCUniversal’s new Hispanic streaming division in 2021. While Telemundo is no stranger to superserving Latino audiences, Rosado is specifically focused on driving growth on Peacock and across all of Telemundo and NBCUniversal’s streaming platforms. She will oversee the launch of TPlus, a new content brand debuting on Peacock with programming exclusively designed to serve the “200%ers”—audiences who are 100% American and 100% Latino. “By launching on Peacock, TPlus will be immediately available at scale to a wide range of audiences interested in Latino content, regardless of language, in a way that has never been done before,” Rosado said. While she stays busy growing NBCUniversal’s Latino audience, she still finds time to mentor young professionals both inside and…

When e.l.f. Beauty set out to eliminate packaging waste in its effort to be more sustainable, some customers and vendors told the company it just wasn’t going to work. But Rosebrook and her team didn’t let that discourage them. In fact, they ended up finding a way to eliminate more than a million pounds of packaging by getting rid of vacuum-formed trays, secondary cartons and paper insert cards. That’s the type of creative problem-solving Rosebrook loves to take part in as e.l.f. Beauty’s chief creative officer. Since her promotion to the role in November 2020, Rosebrook has overseen creative strategy and execution for many projects, including the expansion of four separate brands under e.l.f. Beauty: e.l.f. Cosmetics, Well People, Keys Soul Care and e.l.f. Skin. She lives by the credo…

For Scaman, a coffee meeting with a peer from New York became an unexpected catalyst for an industry reckoning. “Within 30 minutes [of talking], we were trading stories on who to avoid and men with bad reputations but who still remained success stories,” the agency veteran and founder of U.K.-based strategy studio Bodacious told Adweek. That meeting motivated Scaman to write “Mad Men. Furious Women,” a scathing, courageous and brutally honest blog post documenting accounts of harassment, assault, pay, gender and racial inequities, and other traumas she and other women in the industry have experienced at the hands of colleagues, clients and company leaders—ending careers for many as a result. “The whole piece came pouring out within a matter of hours, in one sitting,” Scaman said about the widely shared…

To the enduring benefit of cocktail lovers everywhere, Robert J. Cooper was not a man who gave up easily. Fifteen years ago, the 31-year-old approached his father with the idea of creating a liqueur made from elderflowers, a flavorful but fickle ingredient he’d first tasted in a cocktail in London’s storied Hakkasan Chinese restaurant. His father, Norton J. “Sky” Cooper, ran the house of Charles Jacquin et Cie., a Philadelphia company known for its sweet and syrupy cordials like blackberry brandy and crème de menthe. Young Cooper was already overseeing Jacquin’s raspberry liqueur Chambord, but he longed to create something more refined—“a product that was impeccably high quality,” he told The Aspen Times in 2008. Sky Cooper had scoffed. “I’ll hire you back in a year when you fail,” he’d…