Morning Consult Brands: Week in Review & What's Ahead

By Alyssa Meyers

Week in Review

Coronavirus: Event delays

The 2020 Summer Olympics, which were postponed due to the coronavirus crisis, will open July 23, 2021, in Tokyo and run through Aug. 8, organizers announced. Sports federation members voted unanimously in favor of the new date, which allows the games to avoid a scheduling conflict with most major sports leagues in Europe and the United States.

After advising NewFronts participants to prepare to stream their presentations as opposed to giving them in person this year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has pushed the event back from the end of April to the week of June 22. Amazon.com Inc. and Publicis Groupe SA’s Digitas are the latest companies that said they will not participate in the delayed NewFronts.

The 2020 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity said it is officially canceling the event and will next take place June 21-25, 2021. Major ad holding companies including WPP PLC and Omnicom Group Inc. and top creative agency Wieden+Kennedy had already decided they would not attend in 2020.

Coronavirus: Marketing

Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. have temporarily paused their commerce marketing deals with digital media companies such as BuzzFeed Inc. amid an advertising pullback due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Coronavirus: Workforce walkouts

Some workers at Amazon.com Inc.’s Staten Island warehouse walked off the job, employees of Instacart Inc. called for a nationwide strike and the Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market workforce called in sick for a day in an effort to pressure the companies to improve worker protections from the coronavirus.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he ordered the city’s commission on human rights to investigate Amazon’s decision to fire the Staten Island warehouse worker, Christian Smalls, who organized the walkout. Smalls said he was fired because he spoke out about safety concerns related to coronavirus, but Amazon denied wrongdoing and said Smalls did not adhere to company social distancing guidelines after coming in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

What’s Ahead

Companies reporting earnings this week include Levi Strauss & Co. on Tuesday and Delta Airlines Inc. on Wednesday.

The Advertising Research Foundation’s virtual town hall, “How COVID-19 is Affecting Public Attitudes, Emotions and Values,” takes place on April 9.

Consumer engagement platform Airship will host a webinar for marketers on April 9 about how top brands are responding to the coronavirus crisis.

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

View full calendar

Watch On-Demand: What New Data Tells Us About the Labor Market, Unemployment and a Recession

For a better understanding of the pandemic’s impact on unemployment and the broader economy, Morning Consult gathered a team of experts to discuss new data examining how prepared consumers are for the economic downturn and what consumer confidence tells us about a potential recession.

A copy of the presentation, a recording of the full webinar, and a copy of our recent white paper on using consumer confidence to track a recession can be accessed here.