O2, Oatly, EE: Everything that matters this morning

Good morning and welcome to Marketing Week’s round-up of the news that matters in the marketing world today.

Virgin Media and O2 merger given green light by CMA

Following a provisional clearance last month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is now allowing the £31bn merger of Virgin Media and O2 to go ahead.

O2, which also provides the mobile network for Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile, is the UK’s largest phone company. The merger brings together O2’s 36.6 million customers on its mobile networks with Virgin’s 5.7 million cable users and 3.4 million mobile subscribers.

The UK’s competition watchdog was initially concerned that Virgin and O2 could raise prices or reduce the quality of its services following the merger, forcing other companies to offer lower quality mobile services or increase their retail prices, which would negatively impact consumers.

However, the CMA has concluded the deal is unlikely to lead to “any substantial lessening of competition”. The transaction is expected to close on 1 June.

Mike Fries, CEO of Virgin Media owner Liberty Global, and José Maria Alvarez-Pallete, CEO of O2’s parent company Telefonica, say: “This is a watershed moment in the history of telecommunications in the UK as we are now cleared to bring real choice where it hasn’t existed before, while investing in fibre and 5G that the UK needs to thrive.

“We thank the CMA for conducting a thorough and efficient review. Lutz [Schüler] and Patricia [Cobian] are now set to take the reins and launch a national connectivity champion that will connect more people, ignite more businesses back to growth and power more communities for the greater good.”

With the merger having gained final approval, Nina Bibby will now step down as O2’s chief marketing officer after eight years heading up the brand’s marketing.

As she unveiled her last major campaign for the telecoms business last week, Bibby told Marketing Week that one of her proudest achievements in the role has been her team’s ability to drive commercial growth while delivering for customers, achieving the company’s highest NPS scores.

Oatly shares soar in stock market debut

Plant-based milk company Oatly saw its share price climb from $17 to $22 in opening trading as it launched on the stock market yesterday (20 May).

The Swedish-based firm, backed by celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z and Natalie Portman, now boasts a valuation of more than $13bn (£9.2bn). The brand hopes to raise $1.43bn to expand production.

Oatly, a milk alternative made of oats, is now sold in 60,000 shops and over 32,000 coffee shops across 20 countries. The brand has struck partnerships with the likes of Starbucks and Alibaba, and has expanded its range into yoghurts and ice cream.

However, Oatly has yet to record a profit. According to the business’ most recent SEC filing, its net loss increased from $35m in 2019 to $60.4m in 2020, despite more than doubling its sales to $421m.

The business says it anticipates its operating expenses and expenditures will continue to increase “substantially” in future as it continues to invest in production and distribution, research and development, and expanding its marketing channels.

In January, Oatly made its first foray into TV advertising in the UK with its ‘Help Dad’ campaign, which aimed to help teenagers talk to their parents about eating and drinking more sustainably.

The brand’s competitors in the plant-milk category include Rebel Kitchen, Pip & Nut, Alpro, Plenish and Rude Health.

EE focuses on performance and innovation in new campaign

Mobile network EE has launched a new multichannel campaign to highlight the reliability and coverage of its service, from a London barber to the peak of Mount Snowdon.

The TV spot sees Tom Ellis, star of Netflix’s Lucifer, undergo a tense post-lockdown shave on the top of the Welsh mountain. Shot live, the shave is executed by a robotic arm controlled by a barber in Clapton, London over the EE mobile network.

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, EE’s regular celebrity ambassador Kevin Bacon also makes an appearance in the ad, egging Ellis on via video call.

The campaign launches on television tonight (21 May) during ITV’s Coronation Street and The Masked Singer. It will be supported by activity across video, YouTube, digital audio, podcasts, social and out of home.

“As the world begins to open up again, we want customers to feel inspired about what they can do when armed with the EE network,” says EE’s brand and demand generation communications director, Kelly Engstrom.

“We shoot our campaigns live over our public network to show what’s possible, no matter how extreme. No smoke and mirrors, this really happened. Go more places and do more of what you love knowing that, like Tom, you can count on our high performing network in the moments that matter.”

WeWork posts $2bn loss in lead up to stock market debut

As it prepares to debut on the stock market, WeWork has reported a $2.06bn (£1.45bn) loss for the first quarter of 2021.

The office-sharing business has been hit hard by the pandemic, as social distancing and national lockdowns have kept people working from home en masse. The firm saw its revenue for the quarter almost halve year on year to $598m.

However, WeWork claims that people are now returning to its office spaces. Its occupancy rate edged up from 47% to 50% over the quarter.

Backed by Japanese tech giant SoftBank, WeWork first attempted to go public in 2019, but the effort collapsed over concerns about the sustainability of its business model and the leadership style of co-founder Adam Neumann.

Neumann subsequently left the business, leading to a major shakeup in its operations. WeWork closed around 100 locations around the world, pulled out of ventures including a dog walking app and a wave pool maker, and now employs only a third of the employees it did in 2019. Restructuring costs reached $494m in total.

WeWork is now valued at $9bn, approximately a fifth of its estimated worth before its initial IPO attempt.

CEO Sandeep Mathrani recently caused a stir by claiming that people who are keen to continue working from home are the “least engaged” with their company.

“It’s also pretty obvious that those who are overly engaged with the company want to go to the office two-thirds of the time at least,” Mathrani told the The Wall Street Journal. “Those who are least engaged are very comfortable working from home.”

Dettol, Vim and Lifebuoy unveiled as world’s fastest growing brands in 2020

New research shows hygiene and ‘convenience’ food brands benefited the most from the Covid-19 pandemic, as shoppers protected themselves and their homes while under lockdown.

According to Kantar’s ‘Brand Footprint’ study, which is based on actual shopping behaviour of more than a million shoppers, hygiene brands Dettol, Vim and Lifebuoy were the world’s fastest growing brands last year.

All three grew by more than 15%, with Dettol recording growth of 39%. Dettol’s growth was driven by an increase in penetration, with one in four households choosing the brand during the year compared with one in five in 2019. The brand was also purchased 10% more frequently.

Overall, 29 of the 50 biggest FMCG brands in the world grew as households spend more time at home in 2020, more than in any previous edition of the study.

Coca-Cola remains the most chosen brand for the ninth year, increasing the number of times it was chosen globally by 4% year on year to 6.5 billion, based on take-home grocery sales. However, out of home sales fell by 20%.

Rounding out the top five most chosen brands are Colgate, Lifebuoy, Maggi and Lays (Walkers).

“2020 was a challenging year for companies to navigate, but FMCG brands have remained consistent and responsive to consumer trends,” says Kantar’s global thought leadership director, Benjamin Cawthray.

“The events of Covid-19 turned the previously slow growth of FMCG brands on its head. Five of the top 10 gains are more extensive than any seen in 2019, pointing to more consistent global growth with shopper gains seen across more markets.”

Thursday, 20 May

Diageo reawakens ‘ghost’ whisky brand Brora

Production of Scotch whisky has resumed at the Brora distillery in Scotland this week, after a break of 38 years.

Brora closed in 1983, during a challenging period for the Scotch industry. Diageo has brought the brand back to life with a three-year restoration project that included a stone-by-stone rebuilding of the distillery, and the refurbishment of two classic copper stills. It has been brought up to date with a sustainable biomass boiler.

For decades Brora has been viewed as a ‘lost icon’ in the whisky world. “This is a new dawn for Brora – a distillery that is a beautiful new jewel in the crown of our portfolio in Scotland,” says Diageo president of supply and procurement Ewan Andrew. “I am particularly proud that Brora will be a carbon neutral distillery entirely powered by on-site renewable energy. This marks a major milestone on our journey to invest in Scotland, its rural communities and the future of Scotch whisky.”

Diageo has invested £35m to recommission two distilleries: Brora in Sutherland and Port Ellen on Islay. Brora is one of the smallest distilleries in Diageo, able to produce 800,000 litres of spirits each year.

Facebook tackles hate speech and misinformation

Facebook has further reduced the prevalence of hate speech on its platform, according to its latest report on the enforcement of community standards.

The social network faced an advertiser boycott last year, caused by criticism that it was doing too little to prevent hate speech.

Facebook says the prevalence of hate speech in the first quarter of 2021 was 0.05%, down from 0.07% in the previous quarter. This equates to a typical user experiencing five to six view of hate speech violating standards for every 10,000 views of content.

The brand has applied stricter penalties for Instagram users who send abusive direct messages, and used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to protect recipients from seeing them. More than 18 million pieces of content have now been removed from Facebook and Instagram for violating policies on Covid-19 misinformation.

“Advancements in AI technologies have allowed us to remove more hate speech from Facebook over time, and find more of it before users report it to us. When we first began reporting our metrics on hate speech in Q4 of 2017, our proactive detection rate was 23.6%. This means that of the hate speech we removed, 23.6% of it was found before a user reported it to us. Today we proactively detect about 97% of hate speech content we remove,” says Guy Rosen, Facebook VP of integrity.

New artist-first ads from Vans

Footwear brand Vans has unveiled 16 new artist stories as part of its artist-first ad campaign. The campaign, called ‘These Projects Are Ads for Creativity’ seeks to showcase creativity in its purest form.

The campaign enables a ‘family’ of international artists to make things, including spoken work poetry, music videos, songs, zines, VR, and murals. Examples include the work of Liverpool artist Lei-Mai LeMaow (pictured).

“I wanted to create something that everyone could enjoy after the isolating, strange times we are living in today, so I created a wall mural with an extra element of film layered onto the artwork with a projector to give passersby a feeling of inclusion and a moment of happiness. The mural sits in a large open space in Manchester City Centre’s Northern Quarter, so it is a safe space for people to stop and take in my cheerful creation,” says LeMaow.

“The best thing about creativity, and something Vans is helping spread, is that anyone can share their crazy ideas thanks to projects like this and the power of social media. It’s much easier for people who wouldn’t normally have the chance to show their visions to the world.”

Billboard campaign to ‘re-humanise’ refugees

UK billboard ads will seek to ‘re-humanise’ the global refugee crisis, as Conversations From Calais provides a platform to share conversations between refugees and the volunteer helpers they encounter.

The group documents conversations and pastes them onto walls to emphasise that it is real people, and not statistics, who are suffering. Ads have launched over the last week in eight UK cities, as part of the Your Space on Mine Project, run via the Buildhollywood group of creative agencies.

Conversations from Calais began as a DIY poster project by designer and illustrator Mathilda Della Torre, who was frustrated with the way refugees were portrayed by politicians and by the mainstream media.

“This ever-growing collection of conversations focuses on capturing the diversity of experiences and avoids creating new stereotypes of displaced people as villains, heroic figures or hopeless victims. There are so many different stories and some of them describe things like the beauty of a blue sky, the reassurance of a phone call with our mother or the need for hand cream. I think those are the ones that remind us that we are not as different as we are told,” she says.

Free bag loans by Freitag encourage access not ownership

Bags and accessories brand Freitag is reinforcing its commitment to preferring “access to ownership” by offering customers the free loan of a cyclist hip bag.

Anyone is eligible to borrow the product, an F153 Jamie Pro Messenger, for up to two weeks between May 15 and July 14, from any of Freitag’s physical stores, which are located in cities across the world. In return the brand asks users to share a souvenir photo of the bag with the hashtag #ridewithfreitag.

The brand has published a Cyclist Manifesto as part of a plea for more conscious consumption. It includes pledges to operate sustainably within a ‘closed cycle’ of manufacturing, and calls on supporters to only own objects that last, to repair things, and to prefer access over ownership.

“We think and act in cycles. And cycling,” says the brand.

Wednesday, 19 May

Premier Foods CEO hails ‘outstanding year’ as results announced

Premier Foods has announced its preliminary year results for the 53 weeks ended 3 April 2021.

Branded revenue was up 13.6% across the year and trading profit increased by 11.9% to £148.3m, taking into consideration increased marketing investment and costs incurred by Covid.

Reflecting a general trend in the sector under lockdown, the company enjoyed rapid growth in the online market, with sales increasing by 104%.

Grocery revenue for the 53-week financial year was £702.6m, of which £609.3m was branded revenue and £93.3m non-branded. The fourth quarter saw revenues grow by 3.6% to £172.4m, with brands up by 6.8%. The grocery portfolio gained 32 basis points of value share in the year, growing faster than a market which increased by 12.3%.

“This has been an outstanding year for the business with very strong financial metrics across the board,” says Premier Foods CEO Alex Whitehouse. “Throughout the year, we continued to drive our branded growth model, launching a series of new product ranges and increasing marketing investment with six of our major brands benefitting from TV advertising.

“This, along with a robust performance from our supply chain, ensured we delivered growth ahead of the market. Sales of our brands online more than doubled and our continued focus on this channel led to further market share gains.

“As we look to the future, with a transformed business in a demonstrably much stronger financial position, we will continue to move forward at pace and with rigour, applying our brand building skills to expand the business.”

Metro format to be scrapped by Tesco

Tesco is to ditch its Metro format, less than two years after a review on the future of the stores.

The supermarket brand began overhauling the Metro idea back in 2019 amid concerns about profitability, but is now reportedly readying to scrap the format completely.

Metro stores were designed to be town centre stores that could handle weekly shops as well as passing trade, but recent Tesco research revealed that less than a third of consumers use them for anything more than food-to-go or smaller purchases.

It is understood that 89 Metro stores will now be rebranded as Tesco Express and a further 58 as superstores.

A message sent out to staff explained that changes in consumer behaviour had prompted the decision: “Our Metro format was originally designed for larger, weekly shops, but today nearly 70% of customers use them as convenience stores, buying food for that day.

“To ensure our offer continues to serve the needs of our customers, 89 of our Metro stores will re-brand to Tesco Express.

“The remaining 58 Metro stores will have their Metro signage removed and be referred to as Tesco Superstores.”

Home Office partners with Channel 4 for police recruitment drive

A Home Office campaign exploring the public’s perception of the police and the experiences of black, female and LGBTQ police officers is airing on Channel 4’s TV, digital and social media channels.

‘Untold: The Police’ features unscripted conversations among members of the public and potential new police recruits, discussing the reaction of family and friends, inclusion, the Black Lives Matter movement, stop and search, and balancing personal life with work.

Created by the Armoury London production company, two 30-second ads will be broadcast on Channel 4 and will also run as a digital campaign on All 4, including an interactive format providing viewers with the option to click through to view the relevant full-length social film.

“Untold: The Police is a brilliant example of Channel 4 working with advertisers to create powerful content that reaches new audiences with a thought-provoking message – wherever they’re watching,” says the broadcaster’s head of digital innovation and partnerships, Jonathan Lewis.

“We’re really proud that Channel 4 is now the UK’s most viewed social branded entertainment content partner thanks to our unique and award-winning social-first offer.”

Costa Coffee creates its first TikTok campaign

Costa Coffee has launched its first TikTok campaign – ‘The Costa For You’ – which uses the platform’s For You page to target the audience via in-feed ads.

Featuring a number of ‘FYP Decides’-style videos, a TikTok format that’s basically an algorithm that dictates what content users get to see, Costa is looking to ‘hack’ the system to ensure its campaign is pushed to the front of the queue.

Created by creative agency AnalogFolk, each of the 14 videos feature the TikTok user’s algorithm, personified using the platform’s popular eyes and mouth filter.

Each taps into a different TikTok subculture, with the algorithm’s personality shifting and changing to match the various trends and in-jokes of that interest area.

“We love this fun, clever, unique way to seamlessly blend into and enhance consumers’ dynamic lifestyles,” says Costa Coffee’s senior social media and digital marketing manager, Adam Deal.

“It delivers the message that no matter who you are and what you’re into, there’s a Costa Coffee for you amongst our huge choice of products and services.”

Unilever introduces recyclable toothpaste tubes

Unilever brands including Signal, Pepsodent and Closeup will convert their toothpaste products to recyclable tubes by 2025.

The tubes will be available later on this year in two initial markets, France and India. Instead of aluminum, the new tubes will use a material made mostly of high-density polyethylene, one of the most widely recyclable plastics globally.

It will also be the thinnest plastic material available on the toothpaste market at 220-microns, which will reduce the amount of plastic needed for each tube. To encourage wider industry change, the innovation will be made available for other companies to adopt.

“Plastic pollution is undoubtedly one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time,” says Unilever’s executive vice president of global skin cleansing and oral care, Samir Singh.

“We can see its impact on our planet every day, including the billions of toothpaste tubes dumped into landfills every year. It’s been a long and challenging journey to get to this point, but we hope this transformation will inspire the wider industry to also make the change.”

Tuesday, 18 May

Burger King reveals Whopper’s secret ingredient

Burger King has launched a campaign revealing there are no secrets to the Whopper’s taste, it’s “just fire”, in the brand’s first major UK activity since rebranding in January.

The campaign, by BBH, is based on actual theories members of the public have shared on Reddit. The first ad shows customers discussing the theory that the smoky flavour comes from liquid smoke and ends with the line, ‘It’s not a secret. It’s real fire.’

The TV ads will be supported by an augmented reality experience at digital out of home sites from 21 May, which invites passers-by to scan a QR code to activate an Instagram lens. It will show users smoke coming off the Whopper and then lead them to the nearest Burger King to encourage people back to indoor dining.

Soco Nunez, marketing director, Burger King UK says: “We’re hopeful the experience will help see customers return through our doors for indoor dining following the easing of Covid restrictions, as well as providing a cheeky reminder of why the Whopper is one of a kind.”

Amazon could buy MGM Studios in $9bn deal

Amazon is reportedly in talks with MGM Studios to buy the Hollywood film company for $9bn (£6.35bn).

It’s understood MGM Holdings, which owns the studio, has been exploring a potential sale since the end of last year

If the deal goes through it would give Amazon access to nearly 100 years of content for its Prime streaming service.

MGM Studios, which features the famous roaring Lion logo, is home to movies including The Wizard of Oz and Ben-Hur, and more recently the James Bond movie franchise and The Handmaid’s Tale TV series.

It follows yesterday’s news that telecoms giant AT&T has agreed to combine its WarnerMedia unit with Discovery to create a new streaming giant to rival Netflix and Amazon. (See Monday, 17 May for more info)

PepsiCo reformulates Snack A Jacks to remove HFSS tag

PepsiCo plans to overhaul its Snack A Jacks rice cake range to ensure it is no longer classed as high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS), following the government’s ad ban last week.

The brand’s Kickin’ Sweet Chilli Crispies and Smooooth Caramel Jumbo Ricecakes will be the first to be reformulated, given they currently provides as much as 28g of sugar per 100g, as well as 8.2g of fat and 0.93g of salt.

“The majority” of the Snack A Jack’s range, which is often viewed as a healthier snack alternative despite the level salt, sugar and fat, will undergo similar reformulation to remove its junk food status.

The move means it can “say goodbye to red traffic lights on pack for good”, according to Lizzie O’Connell, Snack a Jacks brand manager.

“Healthier lifestyle choices are becoming increasingly important to consumers. Healthy eating saw a resurgence in priority towards the end of 2020 and with this in mind, Snack a Jacks is looking to improve the nutritional profiles of their products,” she adds.

The brand is also set to unveil new-look packaging from the end of the month, highlighting the fact products are popped rather than fried.

Bitcoin drops to three-month low after Elon Musk tweet

Bitcoin slipped to a three-month low yesterday (17 May) after Elon Musk raised further questions over Tesla’s billion-dollar investment in the cryptocurrency.

Musk responded to a tweet by @CryptoWhale’s, which said, “Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their #Bitcoin holdings. With the amount of hate @elonmusk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him…”. Musk’s one-word response – “indeed” – sent Bitcoin plummeting.

He later responded to another post, saying “To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin”.

It comes days after Musk said Tesla would stop taking Bitcoin as a payment for its cars after expressing concern over the energy consumption of the digital currency.

Tesla had previously been one of the biggest corporate champions of Bitcoin, investing $1.5bn dollars in February and soon after starting to accept the currency for its vehicles.

AXA pledges £50,000 to support two UK startups

Insurance firm AXA is offering two startups the opportunity to win £25,000 of funding and mentoring from three successful entrepreneurs, including Notonthehighstreet founder Holly Tucker.

AXA Startup Angel will launch across Global’s Capital, Heart and Radio X radio stations to help find aspiring business owners. As well as the cash injection and a year’s worth of mentoring, they will also receive AXA business insurance for the first year.

Alongside Notonthehighstreet’s Tucker, the other two mentors are Raphael Sofoluke, founder of UK Black Business Show, and Ian Theasby and Henry Firth of vegan recipe brand, BOSH!.

The initiative is part of AXA’s ‘Work Hard, Insure Easy’ campaign created by Publicis Groupe Power of One team, with media by Starcom and creative by Fallon.

Gordon Rutherford, marketing and customer experience director of AXA Commercial (Direct) says: “On average, starting a business costs £22,756 in the first year. That’s a barrier to most people who want to turn their business dream into a reality. We wanted to find two people with an incredible business idea and remove that barrier.”

Monday, 17 May

Ryanair records €815m loss

Ryanair has reported a loss of €815m (£702m) as the airline was decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.

In its full-year 2021 results (ending 31 March), Ryanair revealed customer traffic fell 81% “almost overnight” from 149 million last year to 27.5 million. Last year the airline posted a profit of €1bn but this has slumped to a loss of €815m.

The company says the loss happened as European governments gave “little notice or coordination” when imposing flight bans, travel restrictions and national lockdowns.

A partial recovery was seen last summer but wasn’t helped by “constantly changing” guidelines to tackle the second and third waves of Covid-19.

The airline says it “minimised job losses” via agreed pay cuts and participation in government job support schemes.

Ryanair says it does not see recovery in pre-Covid demand until the summer of 2022 if vaccination programmes remain on course. It forecasts full-year 2022 traffic to be between 80 to 120 million passengers enabling the airline to break even that financial year.

AT&T to merge with Discovery to create $150bn streaming giant

US telecoms firm AT&T is reportedly closing in on a deal to merge with Discovery that will create a $150bn (£106bn) streaming giant.

AT&T already owns CNN, HBO and Warner Bros after acquiring multiple brands from Time Warner for $108.7bn in 2018.

The Financial Times reports the deal is expected to be confirmed in the coming days and the merged entity will be separate from the telecoms giant.

AT&T will be acquiring Discovery for $30bn including debt, which has a stable of shows such as Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. It reaches more than 88 million US homes and has 15 million subscribers on its streaming service Discovery+.

AT&T began its strategy to become a media and telecoms giant after the acquisition of Time Warner three year ago. But the company added $14bn in debt as it acquired spectrum for 5G connectivity.

Amazon to create 10,000 UK jobs due to online shopping boom

Amazon will create more than 10,000 jobs in the UK by the end of the year as part of plans to rapidly expand.

The ecommerce giant plans to open a parcel centre and four new warehouses, increasing its workforce to 55,000.

Amazon says it will also invest $10m over three years to train up to 5,000 people in transferable skills that can be used outside of the company.

The new roles will be in engineering, human resources, computing, health and safety, finance and fulfilling customer orders.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng labels the news as “a huge vote of confidence in the British economy”.

Amazon UK country manager John Boumphrey says: “We’re creating thousands of good jobs across the UK from a diverse range of roles with excellent pay and benefits.

“We’re also delighted to be working with the British Chambers of Commerce on a pioneering approach to our career choice programme to provide the training, and skilled workers needed to boost local economies right across the country.

“We’re proud of the frontline roles we offer across Amazon, and we also know that they will be a stepping stone for some in their career journey.”

Alzheimer’s Society calls for dementia carer aid

The Alzheimer’s Society is calling on the government for a “cure to the care system” in its latest campaign highlighting the plight of dementia patient carers.

The ‘Cure the Care System’ campaign is aiming to gain government support for the 850,000 people living with dementia and their families, by encouraging people to sign a petition calling for action.

Created by agency Engine Creative, the TV advert shows a woman’s daily struggle in caring for her husband with dementia, ending with her sat dejected on a bed with the tagline, ‘Dementia is killing me’.

The Alzheimer’s Society is demanding reforms beyond funding including a restructuring to improve the social workforce including pay, training and working conditions and terms.

The campaign begins today (17 May) at the beginning of Dementia Action Week, and will run for six weeks on TV, cinemas and online. It also comprises OOH, press and social. On print, messages include ‘My wife has Alzheimer’s, I’m forgetting who I am’.

Advertising unites to support cinema

The advertising industry has come together to support the cinema sector through a campaign to encourage people to return to the big screen as lockdown restrictions ease in the UK.

The cinema industry has seen advertising revenues decline by 80% throughout 2020 compared to 2019.

The ‘Remember Cinema’ campaign created by Omnicom’s TBWA\London launches today (17 May) and will run throughout June across publishing, outdoor, digital display, social, radio and podcasts.

The deal was brokered by Manning Gottlieb (MG OMD), has multi-channel media owners sign up such as The Guardian, Twitter, Verizon and Twitter to name a few.

The campaign has been created 100% pro bono by MG OMD and TBWA\London.