One of MediaRadar’s key focuses is agencies – helping them uncover their best opportunities, identify the right people to contact, build stronger relationships, and win more business. That’s why we closely follow changes in the agency landscape. Let’s take a look at this week’s highlights.

Companies Hire New CMOs

Antonio Lucio has been hired by Facebook as their new CMO. He’ll be leaving HP, where he’s been the CMO for the last three years. Stepping into his new role may prove to be challenging, given the negative publicity Facebook has received since data privacy issues were revealed in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social media giant has been looking for the right person to fill the role since January, when Gary Briggs announced his resignation. But given Lucio’s comments at an Association of National Advertisers conference last year, he sounds like the perfect person for the job. “In this era of political division, partisanship, and misunderstanding, brands have a very important role to play to stand for the fundamental basic human truth that unites us all as human beings,” he said. “Politicians run every four years. They can thrive on division and short-term gains. As brands, we cannot afford that. Our customers vote with their trust and their wallet every day.”

Insurance giant, New York Life, recently hired Michelle Bottomley as their newest CMO. She got her start in the agency world, having worked for Ogilvy and Digitas. Bottomley then moved on to become the CMO of Staples, Mercer, and Barclaycard. “The leadership and expertise Michelle brings to the CMO role put us in a great position to develop the connected experiences that today’s clients expect,” said Matt Grove, Executive Vice President of New York Life. She’s also been recognized in the Marketing Hall of Femme, Women of Power and Influence Awards, and AdAge’s Women to Watch.

A Fortune 500 Pharmacy Selects a New AOR

Havas North America is creating its first formal, specialized in-house team after winning Rite Aid’s AOR account. The account will be run out of the agency’s New York office. The incumbent was MARC USA. Over the past year, money looks to have shifted out of Print and Digital into TV. With TV recently added, RiteAid may be reevaluating their marketing strategy.

An Hotelier Launches a New Brand

Red Roof Inn has invested $50 million to launch a new sub-brand in the extended-stay business called HomeTowne Studios by Red Roof. They’re planning to open 30 locations in targeted markets, which include Columbus, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Orlando, Atlanta, and Seattle. Red Roof Inn said that they would be focusing on companies with employees who require short-term living arrangements when switching jobs. “The launch of HomeTowne Studios by Red Roof is a natural progression, and key milestone, as we extend our portfolio for a range of guests, leveraging our solid industry reputation for knowing what guests want,” said the President of Red Roof, Andrew Alexander. Over the past year, money looks to have shifted out of digital into print. With print increasing by 12.1%, Red Roof Inns, Inc. may be reevaluating their marketing strategy.

An E-Commerce Giant Hopes to Acquire a Brick-and-Mortar Chain

Amazon already has a music service called Amazon Prime Music as well as a film and television studio known as Amazon Studios. But, the company still wants Landmark Theatres. Amazon.com, Inc. believes that the acquisition of Landmark would give it an additional outlet to distribute their films; Landmark has more than 50 theaters with 252 screens in 27 markets. The possible acquisition would also mark Amazon’s second meaningful foray into the physical retail space, following their acquisition of Whole Foods last year.

An American Supermarket Chain Launches an Online Ad Campaign

Whole Foods’ protein bar, RxBar, has been generating a lot of buzz lately, thanks to a perfectly cast campaign starring Ice-T. The 15-second online ads, created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland, are being lauded for their simple, witty, no B.S. approach to advertising. “Buy Chocolate Sea Salt RxBar. Or not. Whatever. I’m just saying some words in a commercial,” the rapper-actor-producer says in one spot, after briefly popping out of a concealed door. “When we looked at the whole campaign, what we’re trying to do is be aggressively simple and strip out all the gimmicks,” said Charlie Hart, RxBar’s Director of Masterbrand. “[Ice-T] embodied that perfectly.” Over the past year, spending is up across the board. RxBar took advantage of this hint and increased their marketing budget.

Creative Highlights

We’d like to give a shout-out to our new client, McKinney, who recently created this beautiful ad for Corian Solid Surface. The ad displays the resilience of the product as an artist skillfully illustrates a city scene on the countertop surface, using marker, red wine, ketchup, and other items known for their staying power, before wiping the solid surface entirely clean. We really enjoyed it at MediaRadar and think you will too.

After more than 115 years, the animals on Barnum’s Animal Crackers are finally out of their cages. Mondelez International decided to redesign the packaging after PETA reached out to them in 2016. The animal rights organization is “celebrating this redesign,” since it “perfectly reflects that our society no longer tolerates the caging and chaining of wild animals for circus shows.” We think the animals look much happier since being freed, don’t you?