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

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

Brands

Essential marketing and PR news & intel to start your day.

March 5, 2023

By Ellyn Briggs

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Welcome back to the Sunday edition of the Morning Consult Brands newsletter!

Spring might be right around the corner, but many of the headlines that have dominated this winter are still hanging around. Government bans of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok are escalating across the globe. Elon Musk continues to lay off more and more Twitter Inc. employees. Yet another candy brand is facing conservative backlash for a diversity-focused ad campaign. The nostalgia trend has started infiltrating social media filters. It appears everything old really is new again.

Before turning our attention to what’s next, take a moment to put your knowledge of recent consumer trends to the test via our latest MCIQ quiz, which features a question based on data included in one of my stories this week: What percentage of Gen Zers believe recent mass layoffs could have been avoided?

Onto the week ahead…

What’s Ahead

Digiday’s Media Buying Summit runs Monday through Wednesday in New Orleans.

Media professionals from all sides of the advertising ecosystem will gather to discuss best practices for ad creation, buying, measurement and more. Featured speakers include Jessica Malloy, vice president of marketing at Marvel Entertainment and Shelby Saville, chief investment officer at Publicis Media Exchange.

Qualtrics is hosting its X4 Summit Tuesday through Thursday in Salt Lake City.

This three-day event features more than 100 breakout sessions — ranging in style from executive keynotes to interactive workshops — offering a deep dive on how to leverage experience management to drive meaningful brand loyalty among both customers and employees. The keynote speaker list is star-studded: Ryan Reynolds, Chip Gaines, Martha Stewart and Malala Yousafzai are among those scheduled to deliver remarks.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau puts on its annual PlayFronts showcase in New York on Wednesday and Thursday.

PlayFronts provides gaming and esports professionals with the opportunity to highlight new advertising and partnership opportunities for brand marketers, as well as report out on updated consumer insights collected from across the industry.

Spotify Technology SA’s Stream On event returns Thursday in Los Angeles.

During this in-person and live-streamed summit, Spotify leaders will share the latest internal developments in features, creator tools, ad capabilities and more.

Week in Review

This week, I wrote about souring public sentiment toward the aviation industry after a string of incidents impacting multiple airlines and air travel entities.

As part of our research, Morning Consult asked respondents their opinions of eight major U.S. airlines. Delta Air Lines Inc. was the clear favorite among frequent flyers (those who said they fly three or more times per year for business or leisure) with a net favorability rating of 61, beating outUnited Airlines Inc. (53) and American Airlines Inc. (50). (Net favorability rating is the share of respondents with a favorable opinion minus the share with an unfavorable opinion.)

The story was quite different for Southwest Airlines Co. Although the Dallas-based airline is routinely one of the largest carriers of domestic passengers, its net favorability rating of 32 ranked second-to-last among frequent flyers, ahead of only low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. (8).

More news from this week…

Microsoft Corp.’s offer to license its Xbox video games to rival companies is expected to appease European Union regulators’ concerns about the tech giant’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Formal EU approval would clear a major hurdle for the deal, which was first announced in January 2022. (Reuters)
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted along party lines on Wednesday to advance a bill that would grant President Joe Biden the power to ban ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok. The legislation, which passed with unanimous Republican support and no Democratic votes, would also require the Biden Administration to impose broad sanctions on any Chinese-owned companies that engage in the transfer of Americans’ “sensitive personal data.” (Reuters)
The Coca-Cola Co. announced NBA star Ja Morant signed a multiyear endorsement deal to be the new face of its Powerade sports drink. The Memphis Grizzlies point guard will begin appearing in commercials, on billboards and at events for Powerade later this month in what executives say is the brand’s biggest marketing push in its more than three-decade history. (Bloomberg)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday replacing the board of The Walt Disney Co.’s special taxing district in central Florida with a hand-picked, five-member oversight committee. The move is largely viewed as a retaliatory one orchestrated by Florida Republicans against the entertainment giant, which publicly opposed the passing of the “Don’t Say Gay” measure last year. (Reuters)
The Biden Administration said government agencies have 30 days to delete TikTok, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd., from all federal devices and systems following a ban ordered by Congress late last year. (Reuters) Meanwhile, Canada issued a similar prohibition against using TikTok on government-issued devices Monday, as concerns about the video app’s data privacy practices continue to swell. (The Wall Street Journal)

Stat of the Week

59%

The share of employed Gen Z adults who said they would be unlikely to work for a company that had recently expressed opposition to employee unionization efforts, according to a new Morning Consult survey. Permanent remote work, meanwhile, is a significant attraction for young people, as more than 3 in 5 employed Gen Z adults (65%) and millennials (61%) indicated interest in employment at organizations with such a policy. Read more about the potential risks and opportunities of corporate behaviors here: Younger Americans Aren’t Buying the Idea That Recent Mass Layoffs Were Unavoidable.