Agency

Why gaining a stronger grip on brand identity may actually involve letting go

Attempts to find central “influencers,” “opinion leaders,” “hubs,” “optimal seeds,” or other important people who can hasten or slow diffusion or social contagion has long been a major research question in network science.

The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) recently published its “2020/21 Agency Performance & Outlook Study.” It covers a broad range of topics, including hiring plans, managing project budgets, operational concerns, and finance team challenges, which I will not address here. Instead, I am cherry-picking some takeaways from the report specific to agency new business and profitability to share, along with some observations.  By Mark Duval – The Duval Partnership

The audio streaming competitive landscape has seen a lot of players try to enter the space, but so far only a few have established scale.

Univision announced the appointment of Beatriz Pedrosa-Guanche as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications based in Miami.

As scholars of gender inequality in the workplace, we are routinely asked by companies to investigate why they are having trouble retaining women and promoting them to senior ranks. It’s a pervasive problem. Women made remarkable progress accessing positions of power and authority in the 1970s and 1980s, but that progress slowed considerably in the 1990s and has stalled completely in this century.

MediaVillage founder Jack Myers continues to build his AdvancingDiversity.org team with the announcement of Claudine Waite as Head of Partner Development at the B2B marketing, diversity and education company.

Since #unpaidinternships is trending, I want to provide advice if you’re starting your career and are considering an unpaid #internship today.

Around 10 million U.S. mothers living with their own school-age children were not actively working in January — 1.4 million more than during the same month last year, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data.

Alma announced the promotion of Michelle Headley, Angela Battistini, Leo Peet and Angela Rodriguez within its executive leadership team. These promotions come on the heels of a year in which the agency saw significant new business growth, adding 11 new brand partners and effectively growing its roster by 44%.

In this role, Roberto will lead initiatives that drive growth for Captura Group and its roster of clients. Roberto will further develop Captura Group’s Hispanic and digital-first capabilities that will enable its clients to effectively engage with and reach multicultural consumers.

Even as the world begins to re-open more permanently, it’s clear that the pandemic will have a lasting impact on consumer behavior and brand-to-consumer engagement.  By Heather Jordan, SVP, Product Management, Ad Intel, Nielsen

Everyone can learn from the female energy in our lives and women’s contributions as much as we have to learn from males, ungendered or multiculturals, without it being mutually-exclusive, a diss on others, or descending into divisiveness, reparation for the past, or white male bashing. America is not perfect, but it’s the only place in the world you can start with nothing and end up with your own thriving business, and despite the blemishes, get a fair chance. I know. I’ve lived around the world. And with gender and ethnic fluid GenZ on the horizon, the best is yet to come. Marvelously different is America.  By Liz Castells-Heard, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer, INFUSION

Challenge the status quo. Transform long-held beliefs and behaviors. Build a more equitable future, together. Businesses can help lead the way toward racial equity and our perspective can help you drive the change.

A new Ipsos survey for the World Economic Forum finds that across the 27 countries surveyed, an average of 65% of all adults think that, in their country, someone’s race, ethnicity, or national origin influences their employment opportunities. When considering their own race, ethnicity, or national origin, an average of 39% say it has impacted their own employment opportunities.

When pandemics sweep through societies, they upend critical structures, such as health systems and medical treatments, economic life, socioeconomic class structures and race relations, fundamental institutional arrangements, communities and everyday family life.

There’s no doubt 2020 was a remarkable year – in the literal sense rather than the positive. Individuals, businesses, brands, governments and society have been tested like never before, and it is clear that the upheaval we saw early in the year is set to continue well into 2021.

Chief Outsiders released the results of their second annual CMO survey on what to expect this year in market trends and company growth.

CCOMGROUP won big at the 2020 American Advertising Awards presented by AAFMiami, taking home a total of 15 ADDY Awards— five gold and 10 silver.

How often does your agency revisit its new business strategy? (Dare I ask…does it have a proper new business strategy, to begin with?)  By Mark Duval –  The Duval Partnership