By Natalie Munio
The 4As launch an initiative to assist working mothers, The New York Times invests millions to cover Trump alone, a creative industry gives a digital standing ovation to Obama, Dentsu names a new CEO, and the Obamas play host in new VR tour of the White House.
Here are this week’s top stories in advertising and marketing:
The 4A’s is launching a 16-week program, Mothers@Agencies, in February that will directly address the barriers mothers in the working world face in having to divide up responsibilities between family and career. According to an IPG study cited in AdWeek, roughly 49 percent of women in the ad industry say that “family responsibilities are the key barrier to career advancement,” largely because long workday hours and meeting deadlines are often required to land significant leadership roles in the business. Mothers@Agencies will include eight one-hour session with coaches that offer tips for finding balance between family-life and career. The program was initially piloted in 2015 by another agency, but will now be passed over to the 4As to reach broader audiences.
Just days ahead of the Donald Trump’s inauguration, the New York Times executive and managing editors sent an email to the Times staff announcing plans to invest upwards of $5 million to cover the incoming President Trump and his administration. The email reads, “We will use these resources to ensure that we remain ahead in chronicling the Trump era in Washington, New York, the nation and the world. We will be adding to the ranks of our investigative journalists and subject-area experts, from taxes and immigration to education and climate change, to ensure that no one has more compelling coverage on the White House and beyond.” The email continued that NYT readers “want us to dig deeply into the story of Donald Trump’s arrival in Washington” and are “coming to us in record numbers because they know we are one of the few news organizations with the power and fortitude to cover all aspects of this historic shift in American power, and what it says about the country and its deep divisions.”
In keeping with the Inauguration ceremonies dominating the week, one agency decided to shift the focus back to President Obama and the legacy he leaves behind after eight years in the Oval Office. As a final “thank you” to the Obama administration, Deep Focus, a creative agency, partnered with Giphy to create “The Standing O,” which collects user-submitted GIFs of people around the country giving President Obama a standing ovation. Those GIFs are then organized to create a mosaic of President Obama himself, a recreation of an image which originally appeared on a 2008 cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The agency said they hope “someone will be able to share the link with Obama himself so he can see the thousands of people showing their appreciation for his service.”
Following the announcement that Tadashi Ishii would be stepping down from his role as chief executive of Dentsu, the company has named former senior vice president of Toshihiro Yamamoto as its new CEO. Ishii had formerly head the company for more than five years, but announced his resignation back in December following a few tumultuous months for the media network. In a statement about his new role, Yamamoto said his mission will be to “re-establish trust in Dentsu in Japan, and build a sustainable growth path for the long term. I believe it will become a reality where our diverse talents will thrive to help creative value for our clients and professional fulfillment for our people.” Yamamoto will step into his new role as president and CEO on Jan. 23, 2017. Dentsu is the owner of Dentsu Aegis Network, agencies Carat, McGarryBowen, 360i, iProspect and Isobar, and is the fifth largest global agency company by revenue.
In one of his final acts as the 44 President of the United States, President Obama joins First Lady Michelle Obama as tour guides during a virtual reality tour of the White House. As part of “The People’s House: Inside the White House with Barack and Michele Obama,” the Obamas take viewers through the oval Office, Situation Room and other notable areas through a VR experience, each narrating with historic and personal points of view. The White House experience is out of partnership with Facebook’s Oculus and virtual reality studio, Felix & Paul Studios, and is released in two parts. Part one is viewable through Facebook or by wearing Oculus or Samsung VR gear, and part two will likely be an extended piece that will give viewers access to more rooms throughout. At certain moments in the experience, Obama tells viewers, “Michelle and I always joke, ‘we’re just the renters here’… the owners are the American people and all those invested in creating this amazing place with so much history...” and that they wanted to be sure “as many as possible could come in and appreciate the place where Lincoln, FDR, or Reagan made the decisions that helped to shape America.”