The four-part limited broadcast series “More Than That with Gia Peppers” builds on three radio show seasons of the same name.
Wavemaker was the media agency with the best new business results for the first half of 2023, according to COMvergence’s “New Business Barometer” global study. The WPP agency brought in $1.2 billion in new business value, including $818 million in retentions from Huawei China and Adobe U.S., the report found. (COMvergence uses the term new business “value” to be inclusive of business both won and retained.)
Publicis’ Zenith came in second in the report, increasing its new business value by $581 million through its multi-market non-U.S. Adobe win and retaining L’Oréal in Iberia. IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative rounded out the top three, bringing in $555 million in new business, thanks to winning Constellation Brands in the U.S. Omnicom Media Group’s Hearts & Science and OMD closely followed the top three.
At the group level, Publicis Media ranked first in the COMvergence report, with a total new business value of $3.3 billion from the global win of Pfizer, LVMH in North America and Signet Jewelers and Walgreens in the U.S. Mediabrands took second with a net billings gain of $1.7 billion. GroupM ranked third, with the largest total retained billings of $1.1 billion.
Dentsu has partnered with Revolt and G|FACTOR Films to launch the four-part limited broadcast series “More Than That with Gia Peppers.” The series builds off the successful radio show of the same name, which led to $12 million invested into Black-owned media.
The series focusing on topics impacting Black Americans will be shown weekly on Revolt, a Black-owned multimedia company, and hosted by journalist Gia Peppers. The radio series covered topics including Juneteenth, journalism and sports, the environment, the Black family and more, and featured cultural trendsetters and educators such as comedian Baratunde Thurston, sports journalist Jemele Hill, rapper and producer Master P and film writer Kenya Barris.
“The television version of our beloved show is so impactful because we get to go inside of various communities, to explore how its leaders are identifying and solving problems that other places may also encounter,” Peppers said in a statement. “Our hope is that every viewer is informed, and then inspired to get to work in their community as well.”
“More Than That with Gia Peppers” is funded by Dentsu's U.S. media clients, including Kroger, which supported three previous radio seasons of the show.
Restaurant chain Shoney’s has selected Bernstein-Rein as its new full-service agency of record. The shop will handle brand, creative strategy and local restaurant marketing activities to strengthen Shoney's positioning across its 14 states of operation. The partnership will be led out of the agency’s Kansas City, Missouri headquarters, with media work to follow, according to Shoney’s.
Bernstein-Rein was previously Shoney’s AOR from 1995-1996. The casual dining chain recently worked with Tombras, but that relationship ended in 2022.
“While I have been familiar with BR’s reputation as a strong retail agency for years, throughout the entire recent process BR’s [local restaurant marketing] expertise resonated as the key differentiator,” Shoney’s Chief Marketing Officer Gill Duff said.
Duff also cited the agency’s ability to engage with local customers on social media through geo-targeted ads, local hashtags and community-oriented content.
A parent reading to their child determines future success more than family size, parental education or social class, according to the National Literacy Trust. But with 43 million low-literate adults in the U.S., many children are at a disadvantage.
Droga5 and Accenture have partnered with international nonprofit ProLiteracy to show it’s possible for low-literate parents to narrate stories for their children in their own voice. The docu-style film, called “The Impossible Bedtime Story,” follows Felicia, a mother of four who is learning how to read and write, as she uses technology to share a bedtime story with her children for the first time.
In partnership with voice cloning company Respeecher, Droga5 and Accenture used machine learning to match videos of Felcia’s voice with a voice actor narrating various children’s books. The result was an authentic recreation of Felicia reciting the children’s books.
“There’s a lot of people out there like me that don’t know how to read,” Felicia says in the film. “Maybe they will say ‘if she can do it, I can do it.’”
Wunderman Thompson has launched Reveal, an artificial intelligence-powered testing tool that helps brands evaluate their creative advertising assets. Developed in house, Reveal measures consumers’ attention and emotional responses to brand content through real-world environments.
The emotions detection model can accurately predict seven micro-expressions, including anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutrality, sadness and surprise by tracking muscle movement in the face, according to the agency. These involuntary and authentic movements are mapped using computer vision and machine learning algorithms to assess emotional reactions to content in real time. The tool can also detect the objects that consumers look at in the content and measure how much attention they pay to them.
Reveal is the latest tool built with Wunderman Thompson’s proprietary technology, following Brand Guardian, an AI-driven platform that it said gives total content quality assurance at scale; ShelfMaster, which helps brands adapt their content to every channel on which they sell; and Loom, which uses unified audience, content and performance data to hone a brand’s content planning.
Independent creative agency L&C NYC has named Bruno Franchino as group creative director, the agency’s first major U.S. hire since joining Serviceplan America in June. Franchino spent the last five years in the U.S. at BBH New York, The Community Miami and Mullen Lowe Los Angeles.
Social media agency Movement Strategy has hired Joe DeSalazar as executive VP, head of accounts. DeSalazar has worked on new business and client services teams at Digitas, Weber Shandwick, Edelman and Madwell. It could not be learned at press time who DeSalazar succeeds.
Los Angeles-based creative studio SixTwentySix has named Jonny Edwards executive producer and head of production. It was unclear at press time if this is a new post. Edwards joins the company with more than 15 years of experience in lead production roles at Herman-Scheer, 72andSunny and Hecho Studios.
Cultural marketing agency 160/90 has appointed Jody Friedericks as executive creative director, a new post. Friedericks joins from ATTN:, where she was head of agency creative and executive creative director. She also held creative leadership roles at Known and in-house at Princess Cruises.
