| View in Browser | |  | | | | Happy Friday, everyone. It’s been one event after the next since we crept into September. Brandweek. UnBoxed. Soon we’ll have the new Jupiter Conference Miami (our senior tech reporter Kendra Barnett will be hanging out, so say hi to her), and the ANA Masters of Marketing (senior media reporter Mark Stenberg will be there). Next week is another big one with Advertising Week, which, for the record, is run by a different organization than ADWEEK. But we’ll have a full house there—an ADWEEK House, some might say. From October 5—8, ADWEEK House: Advertising HQ will set up shop at Gary’s Loft in Midtown Manhattan. Swing by for some candid conversations with Rob Gronkowski, Jessica Tarlov, IAS CEO Lidiane Jones, Digitas North America CEO Amy Lanzi, and Taboola CEO Adam Singolda, plus marketing brass from Noom, Mars, Supergoop! and more. Register now, and I hope to see you there. On with the news. Ryan Joe, editor in chief |
| | | 1. Red Antler-owned Creator Studio Wants to Fight AI Slop With UGC  Brand design agency Red Antler has launched Fat Earth Studios, a 12-person team that connects brands to creators to make social media videos and posts. Red Antler is betting that people are tired of AI slop, so its new unit is intent on helping build content with real people. As Christopher Cicchiello reports, Fat Earth chooses the creators, sometimes gives them light direction, and pays to boost the content across social platforms. There’s a practical reason for this: Meta’s ad engine demands high-quality ads, so hiring creators is cheaper than doing traditional shoots. Think of this strategy as using influencers to produce content at a reasonable rate, rather than the usual strategy of trying to glom onto their large follower count. Read more |
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| 2. OpenWeb Enters Insolvency After Dramatic Fall From $1.5 Billion Valuation  OpenWeb, once valued at $1.5 billion, was declared insolvent by a court in Israel. The company is now under court supervision with a temporary receiver appointed. CEO Jim Daily told Mark Stenberg that it’s still business as usual, and he hopes for a good resolution. What happened? Read Mark’s story to find out. Read more |
| 3. Sallie Starts Serving Ads to Students Looking for Scholarships  Sallie Mae’s scholarship search site, Sallie, is now selling on-site ads via its Backpack Media ads biz. It began placing the ads next to informational articles about scholarships and financial aid after testing to ensure they didn’t interfere with applications. Mitchell Parton has the deets. Read more |
| 4. Hallmark Gives Advertisers Early Holiday Gift: Outcomes-Based Measurement From iSpot  This holiday season, Hallmark has gotten cozy with iSpot for a new way to measure. Instead of just counting how many people watched an ad, the partnership will let advertisers know whether their ad drove business results—like visiting a website, buying a movie ticket, or buying something from a store. Bill Bradley has more. Read more |
| 5. Why Scarlett Johansson's Low-Profile Beauty Brand Couldn't Last  Scarlett Johansson’s skincare brand The Outset is shutting down only four years after it launched, during which it appeared in big outlets like Sephora and Nordstrom. Skincare is tough. The demand is there, but the market is competitive, and 75% of new store-sold products fail in three to five years. A skincare brand needs something special, but Johansson deliberately stayed in the background so the brand wouldn’t depend on her celebrity—a strategy that might have backfired. Read more |
| | |  - Michael Kassan invests in $80M startup OptimizeGEO, (ADWEEK).
- A U.S. federal judge has dismissed Chegg and Penske Media lawsuits against Google over AI Overviews, (Reuters).
- 5 takeaways from Trump’s combative Time interview, (Axios).
- Mattel share rise after reports that Authentic Brands wants to take it over, (CNBC).
- Despite BTS boycott, Grammys' new Asian pop category is staying, (Forbes).
- Columbia Journalism School will temporarily pause its M.A. program and launch an online degree, (Nieman Lab).
- Paramount's David Ellison is negotiating to keep CNN CEO Mark Thompson in place, without oversight from Bari Weiss, (NYT).
- How can publishers win subscribers in the agentic era? (Puck).
- OpenAI parts ways with researchers who allegedly shared confidential information, (WSJ).
- Paramount-Warner Bros. co-CEO Ynon Kreiz has a pay package worth over $46.5M, (Variety).
- Horizon Media expands HorizonOS Labs with third cohort, (PR Newswire).
- Kargo releases agentic media buying solution for small businesses, (PR Newswire).
- Meet the agencies turning TikTok discovery into business impact, (from ctrl-A with TikTok).
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| | |  - Acceleration Community of Companies names Rob Badgley president of Pink Sparrow, (Ads of the World).
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| | |  On, KFC, Reebok, Chili’s, the Washington Post, and more are behind the week’s most notable ads. Read more |
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