Month: October 2020

Too late?

Kim Sheehan on

The WSJ says that Walmart will remove guns and ammo from store shelves four days before election day, citing concerns for civil unrest.

I’d like to applaud them but maybe they should have thought of this before now, like when shooters shot up Walmarts in Oklahoma and Texas. Yes, the store has stopped selling guns to people under 18. Yes it is legal for people to buy guns. Yes, they stop selling handgun ammo and assault rifles.

But four days before the election? I think the people who want their guns to cause civil unrest already have them.
This seems like a bit of performance activism on Walmart’s part.

College students, the pandemic, #BLM, and shopping habits

Kim Sheehan on

That’s a lot for a single post, but a new report from the research firm Student Beans shares some interesting information.

The pandemic has caused many students to shop online more often than before. As a result, some students are doing less impulse buying, and are many college students spend time searching for more ethical companies to purchase from. They look to family and friends, social media, and TV for what to purchase (so for responsible brands, social and TV are important media). The top two platforms for searching for products and services are YouTube and Instagram–meaning multimedia and visuals continue to be important motivators for today’s college students.

The #Black Lives Matter movement has impacted student shopping. According to the report:

The Black Lives
Matter movement has also shaped this year for many young
people, and our survey shows it has had a significant impact
on their purchasing decisions, just like the pandemic. In total,
71% of students have changed their shopping habits due to
Black Lives Matter. 44% want to support more Black-owned
businesses, 40% want to buy from brands who support the
movement, and 40% will try not to buy from brands that have
been linked to racism in the future.

Students continue to look for products that are gentle to the planet, and look closely at labels and ingredients.

Student Beans is a company that offers coupons to students. To learn more about the report, click here.

Australian Agency fights Ageism

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I read this week that an ad agency in Australia called “Thinkerbell” is addressing the age issue in agencies–that is, that people over age 50 rarely work in agencies. I couldn’t find any specific statistics, but I did read an Ad Age article that indicated it was ‘rare’ to see someone over the age of 45 in an agency. The article also said that people rarely retire from an ad agency as instead they are ‘squeezed out.’ I’ve read a lot that ‘blames’ the rise of digital advertising, indicating that people of a certain age don’t ‘get’ digital. That might be true, but I think advertising has always had an age problem (I left the agency business when I was 35, and I felt very, very old when I did).

Now Thinkerbell is starting an internship program for people age 55 and older. The article I read indicated that the agency thinks there are a lot of people who could contribute to the agency with their past (non-advertising) skills. I think it is a great idea, but I wonder how many people my age would be interested in being an ‘intern’. I wish they had given this a better name, because I think the label of intern disrespects the life experience someone over 55 brings to the workplace.

We will revisit how this works as we learn more.

New info on advertising agencies and diversity–from UO ad and MABR grad students/alums and UO faculty!

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Faculty and students at the SOJC have put together a database of diversity at agencies. You can find the website here: http://addatabase.org/

Some interesting findings:

Most agencies employ more men than women
Minorities make up fewer than 25% of employees at most agencies
Non-white women are particularly underrepresented

Read more in the Adweek article here: https://www.adweek.com/agencies/oregons-school-of-journalism-researched-ad-agency-diversity/

MABR students who worked on this project include Nicole Lee (MABR 2020), Kelly Kondo (MABR 2020), and Michael Hampton (MABR 2021). Great work all!

Pandemic Lessons part 1

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It seems like a lot of pundits are publishing lessons for brands from the pandemic this month. Seems a bit early given that we’re still in the midst of it, but here are a few that I learned today from an Adweek article that focused on changes to luxury purchases.

1. Blogs are back! Many brands are feeling that advertising seems to be tone deaf, and that blogs can be more authentic. Blogs can be one way to provide content that makes people feel better and informs and inspires them.

2. Perceptions of luxury have changed. People have traditionally bought luxury goods as a way to communicate their status to others. In a pandemic, that signaling stopped, and luxury good sales decreased. Now that people are thinking about purchasing luxury again, they seem to be appreciating lower price points. Maybe the ‘break’ from buying a lot of stuff has re-set our minds about the appropriate prices for things?

3. Consumers have become accustomed to ‘waiting’ for products given shortages earlier in the pandemic and with shipping time lags. The value of ‘overnight delivery’ from Amazon and other companies may be diminished.

UPDATED WITH RICHARD APOLOGY VIDEO: Tough Decisions at the U Texas Ad and PR Department

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By now, you may have heard about the Richards Group in Dallas–a very large ad agency with a roster of national brands. The New York Times reports on the news:

During a Zoom gathering of more than three dozen Richards Group employees on Thursday, a creative team working on the Motel 6 account presented an idea for an ad to Stan Richards, who founded the Richards Group in 1976. Mr. Richards responded to the idea by saying, “It’s too Black,” according to a person at the meeting, who said the ad would have featured Black, white and Hispanic guests. Mr. Richards, who is white, added that the ad might offend or alienate Motel 6’s “white supremacist constituents,” the person said.

A Richards Group spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Richards, 87, had made the “too Black” remark, but said in an email that he was trying to convey that the proposed ad “was not multiculturally inclusive enough.”

When asked about Mr. Richards’ comment on white supremacists, which was first reported by the publication AdAge, the agency spokeswoman said, “Although his comments did reference that group, that quote is not correct.” Mr. Richards apologized to hundreds of the agency’s employees on a Zoom call on Friday.

A year ago, the apology may have been enough. But today, when agencies and brands alike struggle to be more diverse and to create a culture of inclusivity, the apology isn’t going to cut out. So far, The Richards Group has lost four major clients: HEB, Motel 6, Home Depot, and Dr. Pepper. Client Cracker Barrel, which is under review, has removed the agency from its review.

Of interest to many of us here at the UO is the fact that the University of Texas’ Advertising and PR Department is named the Stan Richards School of Advertising and PR. Several donors, including Richards, made a $10 million donation in 2014. It is unclear how much Richards donated, or what the terms of the gift are. A press release from the Moody College at the time included this:

“Stan Richards’ gift and the campaign for the Richards School will have a lasting legacy for our advertising and public relations students, for which I am deeply thankful,” said Bill Powers, president of The University of Texas at Austin. “These contributions were vital to both the Moody College’s pursuit of excellence and the university’s successful, record-breaking capital campaign.”

“We are tremendously grateful for the overwhelming support of Mr. Richards,” Hart said. “Stan Richards’ legacy as a creative force and visionary in the advertising industry will serve as an inspiration to students and faculty. His generosity will enhance the credibility of the school and the opportunities available to our students.”

More recently, Richards donated a media lab to house an advertising agency at the School. The agency, to be called The Lab, is scheduled to be ready for students in January 2021. According to the Daily Texan, every student who graduates with an advertising or public relations degree must complete a capstone project in The Lab within their field of study.

The Moody College (the home of the Stan Richards School, and the journalism and communication college at UT-Austin) has a big decision to make.

“University of Texas—whose advertising and PR school carries Stan Richards’ name—is holding discussions with staff, students and faculty about how to respond,” writes Ad Age’s Judann Pollack.

Universities love donations. And donors love to put their names on buildings. Whether it is ego, or virtue signaling, or simply lacking a better name, I would guess the majority of buildings at public and private universities are named, and many are named for a donor. But what happens when these names get scrutinized, and are found to represent something that goes against the mission and values of the school?

At UO, for example, buildings named for people who represent Oregon’s racist past are being renamed. McKenzie Hall, home of the history department and other units, was called Grayson Hall. Jeffrey Grayson gave an $800,000 gift; however, the company he ran was closed down for bilking investors and making bad loans. The name was changed to McKenzie in 2002.

Now, I don’t know the ins and outs of what the donors agreed to regarding that $10 million endowment. There could be all kinds of things that are tying the hands of our colleagues at UT-Austin. This has to be an incredibly tense time for them.

What I do know is what the school stands for. The published Mission of the Stan Richards school is “to continually seek ways to train and empower students, staff and faculty of all ethnicities, races, genders and identities to work collaboratively to produce world-changing ads, PR campaigns and research. This mission will ensure our positioning as one of the nation’s leading advertising and public relations programs and a formidable presence in the canon of communication theory and research.”

Their mission statement sets out the following goals:

Generate top-tier research and creative work that contribute to the overarching theories that explain success and failure in the practice of advertising and public relations.
Attract and retain the best student, staff and faculty talent—individuals who offer diversity in experience, background, culture and perspective.
Maintain strong, positive relations with key publics served by the school.
Cultivate graduate students with skills in critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, creative problem solving, active listening, efficient communication, evidence-based strategies and ethical decision-making.

What should UT do? What will they do? It seems like there are a few choices–none of them optimal.

1. Keep the name, as well as the donations. To state another way: do nothing. This seems to be an awful choice–how could the school welcome diverse students to the school, knowing about Richard’s statement?

2. Change the name, keep the donations. Changing the name seems to be the least the school should do. The $10million endowment is a hard thing to say no to–it probably generates around $300,000 each year to support school operations, which could fund scholarships, support faculty and educational programming, and provide exceptional student experiences. Are these funds tainted now?

3. Change the name and give back the donations. This is clearly the most courageous action. But what would the school look like–be like–without these funds?

In class during Week 3 we talked about the ‘Red Hen’ case–where a business owner had to make a snap decision based on her brand values and her business’s stakeholders. We talked about the importance of thinking of all stakeholders, and matching the decision with the brand’s values. Values, of course, can be interpreted in different ways.

I’m glad that UT is reaching out to students, staff and faculty. Bringing in all these stakeholders is necessary, in addition to talking to current and future donors. I hope they listen empathetically to how students, in particular, feel about being in the physical space donated by Richards. Do they feel safe, supported, and valued?

I wish our colleagues at UT the best as they struggle with this challenging decision.

Update: UT Austin issued the following to their stakeholder:

We continue to listen to the voices who have shared their disappointment and outrage at the racially intolerant and bigoted remarks recently spoken by Stan Richards, for whom our School of Advertising and Public Relations is named. We recognize and acknowledge the hurt his words have caused to many in our community and we conclude that they are not consistent with our core values.

We have now had the opportunity to speak directly to Stan and he has expressed to us his deep regret and remorse. He has asked for an opportunity to apologize directly to our students, faculty, staff, and alumni and we have agreed to that request. Please view the video below for Stan’s remarks to our community.

Stan Richards’ Video

We remain firmly committed to building and sustaining a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in Moody College, and we sincerely hope that the learning from this incident can be used to help us accelerate our progress toward those goals.

In the days ahead, we will continue to gather information and engage our community, internally and externally, to inform our path forward. We invite you to reach out to us with your thoughts and feelings.

Purpose Driven Innovations in the Global Beer Sector

Kim Sheehan on

The beer category as a whole isn’t really known for its purpose driven messaging. The ‘moderation’ messages are required by law. Stella Artois has had a good drinking water initiative with their partner water.org, and we’ve seen interesting messages about domestic violence in Mexico from Tecate and in South Africa Carling Black Label. But overall, especially in the United States, I’m not recalling a lot of purpose driven messaging.

Two new efforts in South America are notable.Corona beer in Columbia (Corona is owned by Anheuser Busch) is promoting eco-resorts in Columbia as many citizens plan a ‘staycation’ and will not leave the country (the Summer season starts in December). According to Trendwatcher, “As Colombia’s tourism sector is slowly opening back up, this initiative hopes to help rebuild the hard-hit industry in a way that promotes a more responsible and conscious form of tourism. ”

Another beer brand from Brazil, Cervejaria Colorado, is drawing attention to the plight of the rain forest. The brand is committed to biodiversity and the product is made with all indigenous ingredients. They are pricing the beer based on the rate of deforestation of the rain forest. They compare the rate of deforestation in 2020 to the rate in 2019—if deforestation increases, the price of beer increases. If it goes down, the price of beer decreases. According to Trendwatcher, “All proceeds are donated to the Terro do Meio Canteens Network, which includes local farmers and indigenous populations that live in the Amazon and are working to conserve the rainforest. ”

In just a few weeks, consumers saw the price of the beer almost double–from about $1 (in US dollars) to $1.79. During this time, devastating fires continue to burn in the Amazon.

What this does is connect what can be a bit of an opaque event to consumers–deforestation–directly with something that is very transparent to consumers–what they’re paying for beer. It is a different kind of promotion. Will it work? We’ll see.

Allbirds & Adidas to Work Together to Tackle Climate Change

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MABR grad Trevor Shott wrote this at the end of Spring term—right before life got really crazy. We’ve saved it to now. Thanks Trevor!

On Twitter last week, shoe giant Adidas and sustainable footwear brand Allbirds, made an announcement that they would be working together to create a performance shoe with the lowest carbon emissions ever. By working with one another, the two competitors are hoping to “redefine the playbook on sustainability” and show that some issues, such as our growing climate crisis, are too important to try and tackle alone.

The shoe industry produces more than 24 billion pairs of shoes annually worldwide for a population of “only” 7.8 billion people. The emissions from these shoes adds up to over 700 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year – that’s the equivalent of powering 80,775,444 homes for an entire year. According to Allbirds, the standard shoe has a carbon footprint of 12.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e) when you consider manufacturing, materials, and end of life disposal. A study by MIT shows that this number could even be closer to 30 kg. By acknowledging their industry’s large impact on our environment, Allbirds and Adidas are hoping to co-create a shoe with an output of 2 kg CO2e or less.

Currently, Allbirds has gotten their products down to an average of 7.6 kg CO2e due in large part to the innovation of their materials. They do this in part by using more sustainable and renewable resources such as merino wool, eucalyptus trees, and sugarcane. On top of their materials, Allbirds makes sure to offset any remaining carbon emissions in order to be fully carbon neutral – with the larger goal of emitting no carbon in the first place. Though Allbirds is known for their sustainability, Adidas is no stranger to earth-friendly initiatives themselves. Their Parlay collaboration turns plastic waste found in our oceans into high performance shoes. They’re also currently developing a closed-loop shoe that can be returned and remade into an entirely new shoe via their FUTURECRAFT.LOOP initiative.

Both companies are trying to do their part to reduce their impact on the environment, and James Carnes, vice president of brand strategy at Adidas, is already seeing the benefits of working together, “We’ve already realized we’re doing the right thing because we’re moving so much faster than either of us would have if we were trying to do this alone.”

While collaboration between brands is not uncommon, it’s typically done so across different markets. This unique partnership, however, will allow the two companies to combine their tools and sustainably produce shoes at scale. Allbirds cofounder Tim Brown believes this shift in perspective about competition is a necessary step for the future of our planet, “When it comes to sustainability, we don’t see ourselves competing with one another, but competing for the future.” Allbirds and Adidas are paving the way for more teamwork and collaboration between companies for the sake of our planet and should be looked at as an example for others to follow suit. We can only hope that this partnership will lead to a future that emphasizes collaboration over competition. One where companies acknowledge that a combined effort can lead to a win for not just their bottom lines, but for society as a whole.

Only time will tell how this partnership works out, but there’s no doubt that they are redefining what role businesses have in tackling social and environmental issues. On his responsibility in addressing the environmental crisis, Brown says, “Climate change is a global problem that knows no borders, will wait for no one, and will challenge everyone. It’s going to be on countries, governments, companies, and individuals to solve the problem—it’s not going to be fixed by one person. We’re all in this race together.” Seeing companies come together in this time is very encouraging, and hopefully it inspires other businesses reflect on their own practices and how they can make a difference.

For all the brands out there: Take notes. This is brand responsibility. This is the future.

Michelle Pfeiffer on her brand “Henry Rose”

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Day 4 of the Fast Company Festival of Innovation featured actress and entrepreneur Michelle Pfeiffer’s talk on how beauty products can be sustainable. Her line of fragrance is called Henry Rose, and she spent a decade creating a line of luxury fragrances with fully transparent ingredients that are safe, sustainable, non toxic, and humanely sourced. She now has seven fragrances in the line.

She started thinking about the line when her children were born, and she noticed that many products did not contain full ingredient lists. She examined the “Skin Deep” database where she found she could check ingredients of products she was using and look for alternatives. She noted that many fragrances contributed to high toxicity rates, given the total lack of transparency in reporting about fragrance ingredients—a brand can say that one of their ingredients is ‘fragrance’ and no additional information about the make up of the fragrance needs to be provided.

No major beauty company would do a partnership with her. She put the product on hold for several years, and then saw that there was more of an interest in ingredient transparency for fragrances. She met with a company called IFF, which introduced her to a group called Cradle to Cradle, which certifies products based on lifecycle assessment.

Most fragrances have over 3000 ingredients they can choose from. For Pfeiffer’s products, she could only choose from about 250 because she was only sourcing fragrances with transparent ingredient lists.Since the brand has launched, it has won an Allure Best of Beauty award along with multiple other awards.

She prefers the term ‘safe beauty’ to ‘clean beauty’ or ‘natural beauty’ as there is no real standard for ‘clean’ or ‘natural’. Safe, to her, makes a specific promise—the brand is not dangerous. It takes away a worry from people’s lives. People shouldn’t have to choose quality over safety.

She’s the founder of the brand, but she’s not the face of the brand. She wanted the brand to be credible on its own, without a ‘celebrity endorsement.’ She promotes the brand on Instagram. She tries to be authentic true to herself and her values, and realizes that any content that she posts could be construed as political content (e.g. ‘wear a mask’). The posts are really pretty:

Learn more about Henry Rose here!

Chip and Joanna Gaines on authenticity, beauty, and a return to simpler times.

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Day 3 of the Fast Company Festival of Innovation featured Chip and Joanna Gaines–Founders of Magnolia, a home and lifestyle brand and the soon-to-be launched Magnolia Network. They became famous through their show ‘Fixer Upper’ on HGTV.

They are launching the Magnolia Network as a joint channel with the Discovery Network. The Gaineses wanted to start a network because they love challenges, they love storytelling, and they found that their own expertise (contracting and small business/retail) translated well into developing content. The network grew out of the success of the magazine and all the things that the magazine could do. The stories didn’t have to include Chip and Joanna as the ‘centerpieces’ but the curated stories of homes and home improvements would be the center. Home improvement, food, decorating, kids programming—a variety of types of programs will be presented.

Television and magazines are kind of ‘old fashioned’ ways to tell stories—linear and non-digital. They wanted the value of being able to physically touch the magazine—and there’s a limited number of ads so the reader doesn’t have to page through lots of ads to get to the stories. The network will be the same. They want the network shows to be ‘appointment television’ that families can watch together—highly meaningful and highly authentic.

The shows on the Magnolia Network will be ‘season long’ and each program will have multiple episodes. They reached out to people they’ve read about but didn’t know personally and ask them to be on the network—they said about 2/3 of the people they reached out to said no thank you! The people who agreed are ‘dreamers and risk takers’ who can motivate others to go out and take risks as well. The stars of the shows are diverse, and inclusivity is important to them because they believe everyone deserves a seat at the table. Diverse talent brings a diverse group of experiences to the network. It will be a ‘beautiful tapestry…telling beautiful stories.’ Chip said that our country is more divided than ever, and the network can try to bring people together. Different opinions make us all better, our lives more richer, and helps us see lifestyles and viewpoints that many people may not have seen. This is a way we can develop a new reality for the future—the Magnolia Network will bring a variety of perspectives to their audience.

Authentic stories are going to resonate with a variety of audiences—from young adults to their grandparents and great grandparents. Everyone should feel welcome. Every program won’t appeal to everyone—but there will be something for everyone during the programming day.

Basically, they are taking an existing Discover channel (the DIY channel) and changing to the Magnolia Network. They are ‘honoring’ the legacy of the DIY network and our working with existing DIY Channel audiences to make sure that content for them will still be available.

Chip and Joanna’s identity as small business owners has become their platform for growth. Their businesses taught them they are always evolving as a business and that they personally are evolving as people. It also taught them that they have an opportunity to create beauty—not only beautiful buildings, but beautiful moments when people are connecting with one another.

The culture of Magnolia focuses on a belief that dreams can come true—and that as a company, as a tight knit community and family, they can work together to make dreams come true. They want to learn, they want to try new things, they want to take risks, and they want to work hard and do work that really matters.

The secret to their relationship? Chip says that they are kind to one another, first and foremost. That transfers to their company—they lead with kindness. Kindness evolves into mutual respect, which causes teams to rise to new heights. Kindness is a fundamental value that some people are naturally drawn to, and some people may have trouble with this, as they think kindness equates with weakness. Chip and Joanna believe that kindness leads to strength.

Why Waco? They are impressed by the resilience of Waco. Waco had to deal with lots of negative things, both natural and man-made, and they both believe in the promise of Waco and how Waco can be a center for change in the world.

What are they most proud of?
1. The way that they handle adversity—they always put kindness at the center.
2. Innovation for innovation’s sake may not be always the best strategy—values of family, community and kindness are always important and shouldn’t be sacrificed in the name of innovation.
3. Simpler ways of life and innovation can live side by side, but must be complimentary.
4. The way they always look for hope and beauty.
5. Shiplap