ABOUT GALE

GALE is a Business Agency. Founded in 2014, the agency currently has offices in New York, Singapore, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, London, Austin, Kansas City, and Bengaluru. GALE has received top industry awards including Ad Age’s A-List, Ad Age’s Data & Analytics Agency of the Year, Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agency, the Grand Effie and Adweek’s Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year. 

Frontiers in Focus

Want to explore more of the frontiers of marketing? View more of our work on the cutting edge of AI and immersive brand experiences here

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Bomb Pop is the most popular ice pop that nobody can remember. GALE’s mission was simple: get tweens to remember the brand’s name. The team brought the favorite summertime snack into the virtual world of Restaurant Tycoon 2 in Roblox, where Roblox restaurant owners could serve eight virtual Bomb Pop flavors to their customers. Gamers served 48.5 million Bomb Pops — making it the #1 selling food item in Roblox history. 

Our Approach to Transformation

Introducing the Bomb Pop Update in Restaurant Tycoon 2. For two weeks, Roblox restaurant owners could serve virtual bomb pops to their hungry customers and earn limited edition gear to upgrade their restaurants – turning Restaurant Tycoon into a red, white, and blue bonanza, and making restaurant owners within the platform our very own virtual brand ambassadors, interior designers, and architects. In the process, using our limited-edition items, players completely transformed the restaurants into gaming lounges, family style buffets, and even high-end beach clubs with an average of 28 minutes engaged across the experience.  

Our Impact

Time spent was 133% beyond Roblox branded experience benchmarks. We also had over 500,000 unique users enlist as virtual bomb pop distributors who sold over 48.5 million bomb pops, making it the most sold food item in Roblox ever. Even more significantly, sales in the real world were also up with an immediate 28.6% increase. We proved that the virtual world can spur epic real world business results.

Wondering where to begin with immersive experience implementation in your organization?

Email Beth Sidhu, Chief Brand and Communications Officer at Stagwell, to discuss how we can support your organization’s digital goals. 

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We’re home from CES 2023 and abuzz with the latest tech powering the next chapter of modern marketing. Read on for three quick things you need to know about how technology will impact brand marketing this year. Reach out if you’d like to connect on any of these trends. 

TECH RISING = DATA RISING

While the tech at CES is dazzling in its own right, the data it unlocks for brands is the true thought-provoker as we leave Vegas. Every tech advancement is generating fresh ways to capture first-party data from consumers. It’s on marketers to scope these technologies with a healthy mix of skepticism about privacy implications and eagerness about the ability to (more) seamlessly connect consumers to brands.  

Watch this Space: Pinterest announced a new data clean room collaboration with LiveRamp and Albertsons as the latter seeks to build a retail media network. 

Get Smart on Impact: Do Consumers Understand the Bargain of Digital Data?

THE THREE C’S

Whether it was ever-more integrated home devices, new content partnerships, or gifting modern travelers with free wifi, the power of truly connected brands to drive performance is clear. In the year ahead, marketers need to prioritize linking content, commerce, and community in order to effectively serve consumers and boost brand efforts. Tech companies learned “built it and they will come” is a bad way to engage consumers; marketers, too, need to focus on delivering the content consumers want, when they want it, and engage digital and IRl communities to power better experiences.

Watch this Space: Delta announces Delta Sync, a new chapter of connected travel.

Get Smart on Impact: How Warner Music Group is Preparing for Connected Consumers in 2023

TECH IS ABOUT TO HAVE A POLITICAL YEAR

TECH IS ABOUT TO HAVE A POLITICAL YEAR  – The subtext on the convention floor this year was that tech is about to face increased scrutiny and possibly even regulatory action from governments around the world in the year ahead amid growing concerns that products and services are veering us closer to “1984” than 2023. Expect the industry’s practices around data privacy, competition, and content moderation to come under close examination and consider the reputational risks of marketing certain products or services if they are perceived as “bad tech.”  

Watch this Space: How TikTok Became a Diplomatic Crisis

Get Smart on Impact: Mark Penn in Forbes on Twitter, TikTok, and the Year Ahead  

🤖 Category Transformations

Check out the announcements from the past week we predict will drive the biggest vertical transformations in the year ahead. 

Live from the Stagwell Content Studio @ CES 2023

Stagwell’s Content Studio returned at CES, delivering behind-the-scenes interviews with C-Suite execs at the world’s most ambitious brands on the trends and transformations they’re tracking at CES.

In this episode, Qualcomm CMO Don McGuire and Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn share why artificial intelligence and augmented reality are the two trends to bet on in 2023.

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CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

 Specialty Media Business Unit from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud is Incubating New Connected Marketing Mediums and Inventory for Brands

NEW YORK and LAS VEGAS – Jan. 4, 2023 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, today announced a Specialty Media business unit to create net new brand and performance inventory. The unitpart of the Stagwell Marketing Couldwill build media formats that offer brands novel ways to reach, engage, and monetize key consumer segments across sports, travel, retail, news and dining.  

“Stagwell is bringing new experiences to consumers whether they are at the stadium, in a restaurant or getting on an airplane. Along with these experiences come a wealth of creative marketing opportunities,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “Stagwell is at the forefront of these transformative technical innovations and new forms of richly targeted marketing.”  

Shared Augmented Reality (AR) Platform for Stadiums: ARound, a first-of-its-kind fan engagement platform, is a new stadium-level augmented reality platform, already in use by the Minnesota Twins MLB team at Target Field and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. ARound uses 3D spatial computing to map large-scale venues and localize content to individual users, enabling attendees to see the same real-time 3D effects and participate in the same shared experiences. This is a new, connected marketing medium, enabling brands to reach fans at scale with stadium-wide AR games, contests, effects, and a remote experience amplifying the energy and excitement of gamedays. 

QR Code-Powered Advertising Platform for Restaurants and Bars: Stagwell Marketing Cloud is developing an advanced digital out-of-home platform that directly integrates into digital menu and point-of-sale systems to serve contextual ads native to the customer’s experience. The platform provides brands with rich customer profiles and a new channel to place relevant, dynamic messages that complement the user’s current experience; for example, a promotional offer for a specialty cocktail designed to warm consumers during winter, a recommended wine to pair with the dinner meal, or an aperitif to complement dessert, generating rich first-party data in the process. 

Media Marketplace for Travel: Stagwell’s Ink, the world’s leading travel media company, has launched “The Travel Marketplace,” a one-stop shop for brands to get unparalleled access to 5 million passengers a day. The new platform offers access to an unmatched portfolio of channels including airport TV screens, WiFi sponsorship, multi-channel digital and physical platforms, inflight entertainment, branded travel documents, targeted social media, and more. With exposure to international and domestic brands including United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, JetBlue and others, 2,500+ screens across 90 North American airports via Stagwell’s ReachTV, and exclusive first-party passenger data to drive smart targeting, brands can now easily engage across diversified performance mediums that reach travelers at every stage of their journey. 

Today’s commitment is part of a larger focus at Stagwell on transforming media solutions through impactful technology to be announced throughout CES. Further announcements will come from business agency GALE and global omnichannel media shop Assembly. 

About Stagwell  

Stagwell is the challenger holding company built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.  

Media Contact 
Sarah Arvizo 
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

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CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Content Will Be Freely Accessible Via Online Channels

NEW YORK and LAS VEGAS – Dec. 21, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), is bringing its Content Studio to CES 2023, building on its successful debut at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June 2022. The Content Studio will be housed at the Stagwell booth in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), 60488.

As thousands descend on Las Vegas for CES, Stagwell is democratizing access to some of the senior-most business leaders across marketing, electronics, food and drink, luxury goods, media, sports, tourism and more. Through the course of these candid conversations, executives will share perspectives on topics including:

  • What are you doing to transform your business in the year ahead?
  • What does impact mean to you?
  • What technology do you think will spark the greatest transformation of your business in the next five years?

 Over 15 leaders will join executives from across the Stagwell network in special conversation. Brands include:

  • AB InBev
  • Christie’s
  • Fandom
  • Group Black
  • Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
  • Los Angeles Rams
  • Lyft
  • Magic Leap
  • Minnesota Twins
  • Qualcomm
  • Reddit
  • Sirius XM Media
  • Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.
  • Wells Enterprises (Blue Bunny, Bomb Pop, Halo Top)
  • Zappos 

For Access to Content

In line with its mission to democratize content at exclusive events, Stagwell will make the interviews available to anyone, anywhere, via online channels including YouTube, LinkedIn, and the website. To join the conversation, use #StagwellatCES across all platforms.

“I worked with Bill Gates on his CES keynote 20 years ago when he told the world that all entertainment would be delivered digitally, and here we are: there’s nothing you can successfully accomplish in business today without understanding technology’s role in how consumers view and interact with the world around them,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “Virtually every consumer action and interaction is now online, and we’re excited to host these leaders who are leveraging data and technology to know these consumers well and meet them where they are.”

To Connect

Brand executives interested in participating in a Content Studio interview, and/or news organizations interested in obtaining this content for redistribution should contact ces2023@stagwellglobal.com to coordinate.

Journalists interested in participating in Content Studio interviews, or connecting with Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn, and/or leaders from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud or Stagwell network agencies, please contact pr@stagwellglobal.com.

About Stagwell

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

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CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, announced its second-annual sponsorship of Advertising Week New York, the world’s largest annual gathering of marketing, media, and technology leaders. Stagwell will host two panels on the Advertising Week New York stage, sharing insider insights into the implications for brands of the explosion of political media spending and fresh insights from a new global survey on brand fandom. 

The panels will feature experts from Stagwell’s flagship omnichannel media agency Assembly and leading technology, content, and culture insights firm National Research Group (NRG):  

  • Buzz & Devotion: The Fan Economy That Makes the Niche Mainstream in Today’s Culture – Monday 10/17 @ 1:15p: Fan culture has a powerful impact on a brand’s ascension into relevance, power and popularity. Informed by new, original research, we will bring brand experts from McDonald’s together with NRG to explore the pathways for brands to successfully build and activate a fan community. Insights from NRG’s latest thought leadership research will combine with lessons learned from the birthplace of fandom — sports and entertainment — to unlock powerful insights that help brands connect and grow their most devout and influential customers. 
  • Talk Politics to Me: Why Every Brand Today Needs a Dose of Political Know-How– Thursday 10/20 @ 1:15p:  Political is THE media story of Q4 2022, and it’s never been a more critical time for all advertisers to know the rules of the game.  Join Assembly, a global omnichannel media agency – with an only-of-its-kind full-service political strategy and media practice – and experts from Lyft and SambaTV for a discussion on the path forward for brands in a politically charged media environment and the convergence of political, advocacy, and commercial advertising.  

Also at Advertising Week New York:  

In addition to staged programming, Stagwell is proud to partner with Brand Innovators to deliver access to intimate thought leadership with leading CMOs and agency experts. Sign up to follow along with insights and other content from Advertising Week New York.  

About Stagwell 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. 

 

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Fall awards season is underway, and Stagwell’s network is winning big. 72andSunny, CPB London, and Observatory received a collective 18 awards and shortlists at the 2022 Gerety Awards, recognizing the best in advertising that resonates most with a female audience. Additionally, 72andSunny was named Agency of the Year, collecting in total two golds, two silver, four Bronze, and six shortlist nominations for their work with the National Football League, Call of Duty, The Flow Initiative, Adobe, and Tinder.

“We have immeasurable respect for The Gerety Awards and how aligned they are with our ambition to manifest a more just world through our people and the work we produce. We’re incredibly proud of our teams, led by our ECD’s Elaine Cox, Zach Hilder, and Lauren Smith, for the work that’s been recognised and the agency as a whole for this honour. It’s work that not only moves the needle on storytelling representation but also delivered business results for our partners, proving you don’t have to choose between the two to make an impact.”

Stagwell’s 2022 Gerety Winners include:

 

CPB London – Imagine

Imagine a world where gender makes no difference. That’s the premise behind CPB London’s 2022 poster and out-of-home campaign called Imagine, which was prompted after a nationwide study found that 39 percent of primary school children still think that mummies should look after babies and do all the housework while daddies should go to work.

Awarded: BRONZE Work for Good Cut (Print) 

72andSunny and PERIOD., Free the Period, No More Secrets, The Flow Initiative, Ignite, August, Off-Limits Cereal – Loopholes Cereal

On International Women’s Day 2022, 72andSunny New York launched “Loopholes,” a faux cereal brand with a month’s worth of tampons and pads inside as the prize. The campaign allowed consumers to bypass the SNAP loophole that prevents users from buying tampons solo, and put a spotlight on the fact that, in the U.S., nearly one in four people who menstruate experience period poverty – the struggle to access tampons and pads. Because these products are not eligible through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, consumers sometimes have to decide to choose food over period products.

Awarded: SILVER Communication Cut (Integrated) and BRONZE Health Cut (Integrated)

72andSunny and the National Football League – Bring Down the House

With Super Bowl LVI held just blocks from Hollywood in 2021, the NFL and 72andSunny used movie magic to end the season with an epic bring-down-the-house celebration. Through cutting-edge digital composting technology combined with a new innovative approach for the NFL, ‘Bring Down the House’ is both inclusive and emblematic of football’s expansive influence on American culture—leaning into the next generation of fans and forward-thinking technology. Featuring a young brother/sister duo (played by real-life siblings Gabriel and Kapri Ladd), the spot centers around the siblings’ experience with the NFL’s past and its present.

Awarded – GOLD Craft Cut (Animation)

72andSunny and Activision Blizzard / Call of Duty – Warzone in Paradise

Headed into Q4 2021, Call of Duty Warzone was starting to see a drop in engagement amongst younger gamers, the old map began to feel stale and folks were moving on to other games. A traditional gameplay trailer wouldn’t be enough to get players to jump back into Warzone. 72andSunny had to excite and surprise them by hijacking one of their most popular daily habits, scrolling social media. So the team seized one of their most popular forms of inspiration, travel influencers, with a compelling message to come travel to Call of Duty’s new Warzone Pacific island for free.

Awarded: GOLD Craft Cut (Visual Effects), BRONZE Communication Cut (Mobile), BRONZE Media Cut (Mobile), SHORTLIST Media Cut

72andSunny and Tinder – SWIPE NIGHT: Killer Weekend

Tinder’s Swipe Night is a groundbreaking and highly-acclaimed interactive entertainment platform designed to give Gen Z new pathways to connect through content. It paved the way for social entertainment experiences on Tinder, which have since become a popular way for members to match. In creating the second season of Swipe Night, 72andSunny set out to push the limits of ‘entertainment with purpose’—to innovate, not just iterate, in terms of the value we could bring to Tinder members. Swipe Night: Killer Weekend is a Gen-Z whodunnit that plants you in an interactive first-person video experience with a complex group of friends—when a murder occurs, everyone is a suspect (even you); your choices dictate different outcomes, clues, and plot twists.

Awarded: SILVER Entertainment Cut (Mobile) X2, SHORTLIST MOBILE EXPERIENCE CUT

72andSunny and Adobe Premiere Pro – Adobe Premiere Pro Fantastic Voyage

Adobe’s film campaign, Fantastic Voyage | Adobe Premiere Pro celebrates the limitless creative possibility of telling your story with Adobe’s editing tools. Created by 72andSunny Los Angeles, edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, and brought to life by the VFX wizards at Alt.vfx, the hero film follows a creator who uses imagination and Adobe Premiere Pro’s features to transform a night at home into an escapist adventure story. 

Awarded: SHORTLIST CRAFT CUT

72andSunny and the National Football League, Football is for Everyone

When NFL Defensive end Carl Nassib became the first openly gay active player in the league in 2021, the announcement was momentous for the NFL and the sports world. For far too long, football was perceived as being played by only one type of person. But the truth is that football e is as diverse as those who love it. Simply put, football is for everyone. 72andSunny utilized that insight to drive their work but realized we couldn’t do it alone. To redefine the game to include all types of fans, coaches, and players, we needed to show our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. So we partnered with The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that helps protect at-risk LGBTQ+ youth to elevate their efforts and highlight resources that could save people’s lives. Within four days of Carl coming out as the first active gay NFL player, the team created a simple yet powerful film that used the NFL’s platforms to drive their massive fanbase to donate to the Trevor Foundation. The film created positive change while also sending a message of inclusion and unity to players & fans

Awarded: Shortlist Work for Good Cut (Digital)

Observatory and Chipotle Mexican Grill – A Future Begins  

A decade ago, Observatory helped Chipotle launch its Cultivate Foundation into the world with a two-minute, stop-motion animated film, “Back to the Start.” A decade later, Observatory partnered with Chipotle again to tell a new story—an intergenerational tale called “A Future Begins” that picks up the “Back to the Start” story ten years later. This film tells the story of our Pa farmer passing his family farm onto his son and daughter-in-law, overcoming many challenges. To follow up Willie Nelson covering Coldplay’s “The Scientist” in the first film, this time Observatory partnered with next-generation Country superstar Kacey Musgraves to reimagine Coldplay’s “Fix You” to serve as the soundtrack for “A Future Begins.”

Awarded: GOLD Craft Cut (Animation), SILVER Entertainment Cut (Alternative), SHORTLIST Work for Good Cut

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This episode of Is This Thing On? features our Managing Director Andrew Noel and EVP & CMO of Seminole Hard Rock Jeff Hook discussing the iconic brand’s growth, challenges, and maintaining a consistent global brand story. Throughout the podcast they cover:

  • How Hard Rock properties became iconic destinations
  • The company’s multilayered business model
  • Building Unity – a loyalty platform that ties together 140 million guest experiences
  • And much more! 

We’ve included the full transcript of the conversation below for easy reading, and please make sure to have a listen on Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Audible, iHeart, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or wherever else you get your podcasts!

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NEW YORKMay 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Grocery stores are riding reputational highs two years after the start of COVID-19 – with regional chains in particular being recognized for weathering the supply-chain storm. At the same time, the pandemic-era halo many industries enjoyed are beginning to normalize.

Those are among the insights of the Axios-Harris Poll 100, an annual ranking of the reputations of the most visible U.S. companies, which was released today.

Trader Joe’s, HEB Grocery, Patagonia, Hershey and Wegmans have the top-five best reputations in America on the 2022 Axios-Harris Poll 100 list.

Social media platforms and companies with missteps on social issues are the ones with the poorest reputations or that suffered the steepest declines. This year, The Trump Organization, Wish.com, Twitter, Facebook and Fox Corporation are at the bottom of the 23rd annual list, with poor reputations.

“As Americans move on from COVID, they are looking at corporate reputation through a more practical lens,” said John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll. “Companies delivering on time and keeping their promises despite supply-chain issues are being held in high regard. Businesses that also do their part to create a better world – whether through sustainability or taking a stand on authentic social issues – also are being rewarded.”

The Axios-Harris Poll 100 has ranked reputation since 1999. The survey’s Reputation Quotient (RQ) ranking is based on companies that are most visible to the general population and on their performance in seven key areas:

  • Trust – “Is this a company I trust?”
  • Vision – “Does this company have a clear vision for the future?”
  • Growth – “Is this a growing company?”
  • Products and Services – “Does this company develop innovative products and services that I want and value?”
  • Culture – “Is this a good company to work for?”
  • Ethics – “Does this company maintain high ethical standards?”
  • Citizenship – “Does this company share my values and support good causes?”

“It’s back to basics with companies that offer quality products and are guided by steadfast values riding to the top,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “Those that became enmeshed in political quagmires tended to be set back.”

This year, grocery dominates the top 100 list. Three grocers (Trader Joe’s, HEB Grocery and Wegmans) are in the top five. Two other grocery chains (Publix and Kroger) are among the top 25.

“The poll reinforces what we have seen on the ground with our local news product Axios Local,” said Jim VandeHei, co-founder and CEO of Axios. “To reestablish trust with a skeptical population, you have to start closer to home, making a real impact within local communities. Consumers reward brands that deliver a trusted product on time and as promised.”

Among the insights from this year’s study:

  • Most visible: Amazon and Walmart are once again the two most visible companies in America, followed by Apple, Facebook, Google, Target, Nike, Microsoft, McDonald’s and AT&T.
  • New to the list: Newly added to the 100 most visible companies list for the first time ever are Trader Joe’s, Spotify, Big Lots, Shein and Subway.
  • Top 10: The most visible and most reputable companies – Trader Joe’s, HEB Grocery, Patagonia, Hershey, Wegmans, Samsung, Toyota, Amazon and Honda – are separated by only small degrees. All but Patagonia and Honda improved their reputations from last year’s highs.
  • Industry movement: As the world moves out of the crisis phase of the pandemic, industries that saw massive reputations boosted by the crisis have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Consumer products dropped 12 points from 2021, returning to 2019 levels (2022: 62% positive, 2021: 74%, 2019: 61%). Meanwhile, while the halo surrounding the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries is fading, both remain significantly above pre-pandemic levels (pharma 2022: 49% positive, 2021: 60%, 2019: 31%) and (health insurance 2022: 49% positive, 2021: 60%, 2019: 32%).
  • Perils of speaking out, or not: The economic and reputational loss from polarization hit companies once immune to politics and controversy. Disney fell significantly from last year – with the impact of being caught in a fight between politics and company values. Patagonia – which was number one on the list last year – continues its reputational high with great products combined with a strong societal view.
  • Biggest improvements: Companies with at least a good reputation and the strong year-over-year improvement include AT&T (up 6.3%), Google (6.1%), Starbucks (6.0%), Yum! Brands (5.4%), General Motors (4.7%) and The Home Depot (4.5%)
  • Biggest declines: Companies with the biggest reputational declines from last year include Stellantis (down 8.0%), Twitter (-4.9%), Pfizer (-4.7%), Disney (-4.3%), Trump Organization (-4.3%), Chick-fil-A (-3.7%), PepsiCo (-3.5%), eBay (-3.3%), ExxonMobil (-3.3%) and Electronic Arts (-3.2%).

“To excel at reputation, companies must deliver high marks on business performance, corporate character and trust,” said Ray Day, vice chair of Stagwell, which includes The Harris Poll. “While you can build a brand, you earn a reputation. Companies with strong reputations have a price advantage, a competitive advantage and a talent advantage. That’s why reputation needs to be a priority from the board room to the C-suite.”

The Axios Harris Poll 100 is based on a survey of 33,096 Americans in a nationally representative sample conducted March 11-April 3, 2022. The two-step process starts fresh each year by surveying the public’s top-of-mind awareness of companies that either excel or falter. These 100 “most visible companies” are then ranked by a second group of Americans across the seven key dimensions of reputation to arrive at the ranking. If a company is not on the list, it did not reach a critical level of visibility to be measured.

For information on all companies and their ranking on the 2022 Axios-Harris Poll 100, click here and here for an interactive graphic.

 

About The Harris Poll
The Harris Poll is one of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., tracking public opinion, motivations and social sentiment since 1963. It is now part of Harris Insights & Analytics, a global consulting and market research firm that delivers social intelligence for transformational times. We work with clients in three primary areas: building 21st century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. Our mission is to provide insights and advisory to help leaders make the best decisions possible. Learn more by visiting www.harrispoll.com and follow Harris Poll on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

About Axios
Axios is a digital media company launched in 2017. Axios – which means “worthy” in Greek – helps you become smarter, faster with news and information across politics, tech, business, media, science and the world. Subscribe to our newsletters at axios.com/newsletters and download our mobile app at axios.com/app.

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 10,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. 

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Mark Penn

FEATURING

Welcome to Hitting the Mark – a critical analysis of developments at the intersection of business, marketing, and politics meant for the modern C-Suite. For our inaugural edition, I tackle the issue keeping leaders awake at night: Russia’s war against Ukraine. Brand leaders: did you ever anticipate you’d be drafted into a war? Well, you have. And here are some thoughts on what to do.

Over two months into Russia’s brazen assault on Ukraine, brands are the newest foot soldiers in the economic warfare the U.S. is waging to isolate Putin and his regime from the rest of the world. The United States has decided it is too dangerous to confront Putin directly, instead electing to levy crushing economic sanctions on the country and encourage U.S. business leaders to do the same. Should U.S. corporations participate in this economic warfare against the Russian people? So far, the answer is a clear yes. Typically, involvement in political issues splits a company’s consumers; in contrast, this move appears to be bringing consumers together.

 

Unprecedented Consensus on Brand Withdrawal

Per a recent survey by HarrisX into voters’ perceptions on the ongoing Ukraine conflict, about 80% of voters believe all American companies should stop doing business with and in Russia. That holds across two key segments we polled for: tech companies and fast-food companies. Further, 90% of American voters agree that Putin has committed war crimes for his role in the invasion of Ukraine.

 

Of course, this decision is easy for companies who have little or no operations in Russia. It is more difficult for those companies that have made a major investment in the country. They may have thousands of employees, stores, and other investments. What will happen to those assets? Will they have an opportunity to re-open operations if peace is achieved? These are difficult questions given the larger ramifications those decisions have.

Given the illegal and immoral actions of Putin’s unrestricted shelling of innocent civilians, an overwhelming number of well-known brands have either pulled out of Russia or suspended operations there. Morality surely swayed many; Anonymous, the hacker group, also threatened cyber-attacks against companies that did not withdraw. In the U.S., the sentiment is so strongly in favor of Ukraine and against Russia that any company remaining in the region is likely to draw significant consumer and media disapproval. Watch Nestle closely: the brand took a middle ground, announcing it would continue to sell baby food and products while pulling out of more indulgent lines like KitKat, and are donating any profits to the Ukraine relief cause.

 

Tech in Hot Water

Tech companies are as likely to be banned by Russia as they are to ban operations in Russia. Tech companies have generally focused on US internal political battles and yet carried the accounts of the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran on an unfiltered basis. RT, a U.S.-based news operation that really was a Russia propaganda front, operated online here for years without interruption. By continuing to operate, tech companies argue they are serving as a communications channel into Russia. At the same time, they could be vehicles for the spread of Russia propaganda. As of now:

  • Facebook is banned in Russia while Goggle continues to operate there in limited fashion.
  • Google News has been banned though it appears search is still operating. Google advertising has been shut down voluntarily.
  • YouTube is operating but they have prevented the Russian military from posting videos of “liberation” on the site and so is under threat of being banned by Russia.

Business software companies like Salesforce, Slack, Dell, Microsoft and IBM stopped selling to new customers while supporting old ones for now. Many had policies of not doing business with the Russian military in any event. Perhaps the single most significant help from tech companies for Ukraine is the deployment of Starlink satellites by Elon Musk. These provide an uncuttable lifeline to the Ukrainian people and government to stay connected and communicate to the outside world.

 

Et Tu, Vodka?

Then there are the companies – especially vodka companies – that have for years traded on the idea they were Russian in origin, now communicating with consumers that they were really American or European after all. This is some careful marketing legerdemain.

Companies will not be able to right every wrong, and as a matter of policy we have encouraged companies to operate in areas like China as part of showing other cultures how democracy, and economic freedom work together. There is now far less belief that by working with rogue regimes, we can change them; 3 In 5 Americans in the latest HarrisX poll now reject that strategy and believe we are better off disengaging.

 

When President Bill Clinton addressed the conflict in Kosovo, a non-NATO country, in a speech that I helped work on, he argued stopping the atrocities against civilians there was an imperative because 1) it was morally right and 2) it was within our capacity to fix. The situation in Russia is similar as there is no real moral issue or debate – this is clearly naked and unjustified aggression on a scale we have not seen since World War II. American companies should feel confident that pulling out of their Russian operations will by and large not hurt their American operations. This is both the right thing to do and what is within our capacity as business leaders to do.

Have thoughts about the Russia-Ukraine war, brands’ responsibilities in it, or corporate purpose? Email me at mark.penn@stagwellglobal.com.

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By Lisa Rosenberg, Partner + President, Consumer Brands at Allison+Partners

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Marketing Frontiers is a new series from Stagwell exploring the methods, mediums, and messes modern marketers will grapple with over the next decade as they chart transformation in the discipline. This February, Stagwell is exploring NFTs.

Virtual worlds are on the rise – and the time people spend in them is only going to increase. With popular artists such as Justin Bieber, Travis Scott and Ariana Grande having already performed in the metaverse, brands know that the future is virtual and that the possibilities of marketing in the metaverse are seemingly endless. In the last few months, we’ve seen an explosion of brands using NFTs to connect with and engage their consumers.

As AOR for Budweiser, Allison+Partners supported the brand’s entry into the metaverse with the launch of the Budverse Heritage Collection on Cyber Monday 2021. The brand’s first-ever NFTs are a curated set of unique digital cans representing 1936, the year the first Budweiser can was created. This launch marked the brand’s first foray into the world of unique digital assets on the blockchain and represented Anheuser-Busch InBev’s first owned NFT marketplace, Budwesier.com/NFT.  Each Heritage Collection token is a one-of-a-kind digital asset generated using designs from throughout Budweiser’s history and was available to consumers of legal drinking age via two different token types at launch – Core Heritage Cans and Gold Heritage Cans. The Gold Heritage Cans are rarer, with only 36 in existence and included access to and/or exclusives for future Budweiser in-person events and early access to future brand NFT launches. There were 1900 Core Heritage cans released.  

The launch was incredibly successful, with the collection selling out within an hour, a fact the team quickly added to media follow ups, with efforts resulting in 243 million impressions, including coverage in Entrepreneur, Decrypt, and multiple stories in AdAge.

For an iconic brand like Budweiser, there are numerous benefits to being seen as an early adopter in this space. The brand has been a major influencer and contributor in sports and entertainment and NFTs represent the future of where consumers are going to socialize and be entertained. In addition, NFT marketplaces enable Budweiser to provide consumers with a richer and deeper brand experience, leveraging technology for increased engagement.

Late last month, the A+P team supported the brand’s release of its second NFT collection, The Budweiser Royalty Collection, which also quickly sold out. The brand partnered with 22 of the world’s top emerging music artists to drop their first-ever NFTs and provide them with a global platform they might not have access to otherwise. The drop also allowed fans the opportunity to support artists directly and potentially unlock exclusive experiences with them. Through the Budweiser Royalty Collection, Budweiser continues to give local artists a global platform and support their journey towards becoming the next Kings and Queens of the music industry. Coverage resulted in 144 million impressions and included stories in Benzinga, Medium, INSIDER and many more.

Earned coverage of Budweiser’s entry into NFTs successfully positioned the brand as an innovative leader in the space and demonstrated how AB InBev is leveraging technology to engage brand fans in an entirely new way. Both the Budverse Heritage Collection and the Budweiser Royalty Collection offered consumers the ability to collect and own a digital piece of the Budweiser brand, as well as gain exclusive access to brand experiences.

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