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Driving down costs

Ridesharing giant Uber is laying off 3,700 workers, about 14 percent of its global workforce, according to a memo from CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The cuts, which come in the wake of a pandemic-fueled drop in ridership, will hit communications operations and recruiting. Khosrowshahi is also giving up his $1 million salary for the rest of the year. Uber has already ended Uber Eats service in seven markets and will close 40 percent of its Greenlight locations, which offer in-person assistance to drivers. The company reports first-quarter earnings later today.

Uber's announcement comes just a week after rival Lyft laid off 17 percent of its workforce and a day after Airbnb cut 25 percent of staff, just two of the many travel brands shedding costs and staff as quickly as possible.

The 'Truth' hurts

The New York Times continues its “Truth” campaign from Droga5, this time with a spot centered on misinformation around the coronavirus. “While the new spot maintains the style of the more recent ‘Truth Is Hard’ ads centered on NYT journalists’ reporting, this one is intentionally simpler, featuring just text and sound—an approach that somewhat hearkens back to the ad that introduced the Truth platform during the 2017 Oscars,” writes Ad Age’s Ann-Christine Diaz.

The Times also reported on an earnings call that it expects its ad revenue to drop 50 percent in the second quarter, despite adding more than half a million net subscribers in Q1, the largest ever jump in the paper’s subscriber base. It’s a prediction that bodes poorly for many media companies, most of which don’t have the kind of paid loyalty the Times commands.

Listenership of “The Daily,” the outlet’s flagship podcast, is also up 30 percent in Q1, even though podcast audiences are down overall, given the dearth of commuters.

Facing the music

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is getting a second opinion. The tech giant named the first 20 members of its content oversight board, which will have the power to overrule company decisions on whether particular pieces of content are appropriate for Facebook and Instagram.

Members include a former prime minister of Denmark, a former judge on the European Court of Human Rights, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the executive director of Internet Sans Frontières.

Of course, with literally billions of posts added to Facebook each day, this won’t be a proactive body. Instead, they’ll deliberate controversial cases about ads or posts that have been taken down or allowed to stay up despite public outcry. Members are paid by Facebook, so they’re not totally independent, but their decisions will be public and binding, and the board will be able to recommend policies which will prompt a public response from Facebook.

Pedal to the metal

Remember just last year, when Peloton was ridiculed for its “Peloton wife” holiday spot? No one’s laughing now. The at-home exercise brand reported a revenue increase of 66 percent, thanks to fitness enthusiasts looking for a way to stay in shape without leaving home. This, despite reduced media spend.

“Executives said the recent marketing pullback has been a learning experience in how Peloton will invest in media moving forward,” writes Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli. “We do think fiscal ’21 and beyond we should expect to see more marketing efficiencies than we originally forecast,” said the brand’s Chief Financial Officer Jill Woodworth on an earnings call. “In a recent survey with customers, more new buyers than ever before cited ‘word-of-mouth’ as influencing their purchase decision, according to President William Lynch,” Pasquarelli adds.

Pour one out, slowly

Tired of easy puzzles that your kids can help with? Bored of whales or flowers or impressionist scenes of idyllic French life? Well, Heinz Ketchup has just the thing for you: A 570-piece puzzle that is “nothing but Heinz red, with no pictorial cues to help players out,” writes Ann-Christine Diaz. The design, from Rethink Canada (the same agency behind last year’s tilted label), is “running in 17 countries around the world, with 57 puzzles up for grabs in each,” Diaz writes. “For a chance to win, consumers need to head over to @Heinz_ca on Instagram and add a comment on who they’d like to finish the puzzle with.” The puzzle is one of several that brands have created to take advantage of the latest stay-at-home craze. McDonald’s 500-piece burger puzzle looks decidedly simpler to solve.

Just briefly

Me time: Potbelly Sandwich Shops is giving stressed-out parents a place of their own—for a few minutes, anyway—with “alone time” parking spots. “Parents can order pickup through the app or site, park in one of the designated spots and then call the restaurant to say they’re ready for curbside pickup,” writes Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl. “A Potbelly staffer will walk the food out to the car. The chain does point out that any children should be left at home ‘with a trusted adult.’”

Pay it (way) forward: In 1847, the Choctaw Nation sent $170 to aid Irish families in the middle of the potato famine. The donation came not long after the Choctaw themselves had been forced off their land during the Trail of Tears, making the sacrifice all the more meaningful. Now Irish donors have raised money to support one of the areas in the U.S. worst hit by the coronavirus—the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, which is dealing with more than 2,700 cases of the disease. So far, donors have pledged more than $2.8 million out of a $3.5 million goal.

Weakest link: Nearly half of every ad dollar finds its way into the hands of so-called middlemen in the digital ad supply chain, according to a two-year study performed by PwC. Brands such as Unilever Nestle participated in PwC’s report, which traced the full cycle of transactions. “While previous studies have produced similar figures on the supply chain costs of digital advertising, most of these were based on estimates rather than tracing the full cycle of transactions,” according to the Financial Times.

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