Your weekly roundup of the articles and insights we’re sharing internally, updated for the week of April 5th, 2021.


Here’s How Major Ad Agencies Like WPP And Omnicom Are Planning A Return To The Office

Business Insider

Omnigroup Group CEO John Wren says that when the company brings people back to the office, it will adopt a hybrid work model that emphasizes the importance of culture. Many employees will be partially remote and about eight percent will be permanently remote.

Why it matters: Wren tells Business Insider that they’ll insist, to the extent that it’s safe, new employees go into the office because “you can’t create culture remotely.” That will require them to bring managers back full-time, he adds.


Study: $5.2B In Monthly Earned Social Media Lost For Travel & Tourism

Hotel Business

IZEA’s study revealed that COVID-19 cost the global travel and tourism industry $5.2 billion in lost earned media per month due to a 92 percent decline in relative volume for organic social media content mentioning brands between February 2020 and March 2021. In addition, relative content volume for sponsored posts remains down 61 percent from February 2020.

Why it matters: With consumers not traveling as often, marketers must aggressively invest in influencer marketing to inspire an “I want to go there” moment in potential travelers and take advantage of pent-up demand after a year of no traveling.


4 Trends Driving The Future Of Retail

Ad Age

The pandemic has spurred a new era that emphasizes customer-first services. Trends that will shape this next phase of retail include long-term programs dedicated to social justice and delivering entertaining online shopping experiences such as livestream events.

Why it matters: It’s no longer enough for brands to simply offer an online checkout experience or check a box when it comes to diversity initiatives. Brands like e.l.f and American Eagle are investing in new social initiatives that cater to the former trend, while Barbie and Foot Locker have implemented long-term products that celebrate equity and inclusion.


The New Age Brand Strategy: Trends, Opportunities And Challenges

The Fashion Law

Lorraine Tay, joint managing partner of Bird & Bird ATMD, asserts that to continue shaping a brand’s essence, a brand must remain accountable to the global community for the social, cultural and environmental impacts of its decisions, as well as recognize that social media can cause the brand to lose some control of its image, which necessitates the patrolling of online narratives.

Why it matters: As the essence of branding shifts from a “badge of origin” to the equivalent of a lifestyle choice or representation of fundamental values, so too must the tactics used to cultivate that essence, writes Tay. As a result, a business should arm itself with an arsenal of innovation and creation as it builds on the foundation of goodwill that it generates.


Marketers Escape From ‘The Upside Down’ Now

Forbes

Media agencies’ insistence on purchasing 100 percent viewability ads and the carelessness of ad tech vendors have together exposed marketers to even more fraudulent sites and financial loss.

Why it matters: The actions of dishonest agencies and ad tech vendors have adversely affected the performance of marketers’ digital marketing and required them to spend even more on things like viewability detection vendors, fraud verification vendors and brand safety detection.