Best Creative Adaptions of 2020

This was not a year that was conducive to brand activations—so there's a lot to be learned from the few that managed to pull off the impossible and connect with people safely. Adweek’s Ian Zelaya rounded up 10 of the most memorable, creative and impactful activations from the past year, and analyzed what lessons other marketers could draw from them. Adobe, HBO, Showtime, FX Networks and more created incredible events with interactive storytelling, choose-your-own-adventure elements and more.

What you'll learn: Discover how these brands pulled off virtual festivals, drive-in activations and hybrid experiences to connect with consumers.

Leadership in Crisis: In yesterday's live 150th episode of CMO Moves, Nadine Dietz talked with A-list CMOs Alicia Tillman, Antonio Lucio, Dara Treseder, Linda Boff, Marisa Thalberg, Martin Renaud, Raja Rajamannar and Vineet Mehra, who offered the ultimate playbook for high-powered, empathetic leadership. Watch the episode on demand here.

Exclusive on fastest growing brands: Each year, Morning Consult puts out a list of the brands blowing up in popularity. Last year, before food delivery was even essential, DoorDash topped the list. This year, the brand took fifth place. What's No. 1? Well, you probably have fatigue from it.

Coca-Cola is searching for new creative and media agencies for numerous brands across its roster. The brand, which spends over $2 billion on advertising each year, is looking to eliminate inefficiencies in its marketing.

Want to pursue Coca-Cola's business? Here's what the behemoth is looking for.

More agency news:

Supply-side platform PubMatic has officially gone public, trading on the Nasdaq under PUBM. The move is likely to be followed by other ad-tech companies like DoubleVerify and AppLovin in what is shaping up to be a wave of “public ad tech 2.0.” As it ushers in a new era in ad tech, we have a couple exclusive looks at PubMatic's business:

More ad-tech news: InfoSum has appointed Brian Lesser, who unexpectedly stepped down as CEO of Xandr in March, as CEO as part of an executive makeover following its latest investment round.

The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states filed separate suits to break up Facebook Wednesday, marking one of the most ambitious antitrust efforts in years. The suits target Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, which they say were illegal measures to stifle competition in the social media marketplace, and seek to force the company to divest from the brands.

Inside the suits: It doesn’t look good thatMark Zuckerberg once wrote “it is better to buy than compete.”

Google has a new page ranking factor, “Core Web Vitals.” It mostly boils down to gauging the speed of a webpage, but does so based on three metrics: the time for the main content to be viewable, shifting or displacement while the page loads, and the time until the page is interactive. That means it’s high time to ensure that your website performs well on this front.

Here’s how to find your ranking, plus a few tips for improving it before Core Web Vitals kicks in.

More of Today’s Top News & Highlights:

More people searched Google for queries beginning with “why” in 2020 than ever before—and that’s the focal point of the company’s Year in Search, a 3-minute film that was translated into more than 50 languages. The video explores some of the most troubling “why”s on everyone’s minds this year, from “Why is it called Covid-19?” to “Why can’t I sleep?” Read more and watch here.

Plus, now is the time of the Year in Review: Check out 2020 overviews and highlights from TikTok, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.

In many ways, 2020 has become the year of firsts. Consumer behaviors are shifting at an accelerated rate, paving a more challenging road ahead for brands to reach their audience and break-through.

Join Adweek and Facebook today for Breakthrough Brands: Creative Behaviors for Driving Business Impact Through Video, a live virtual event, to learn which creative strategies innovative advertisers are leveraging to build connections and drive results. Save your virtual seat.

People will be drawn to hues with connotations of strength and hope, Pantone Color Institute predicts.

The dairy brand also transformed Santa into a keto-loving fitness fanatic in holiday campaign.

DDB Chicago's 'Beerman' was created by the effects studio that made Baby Yoda.

All the warmth and glow of the Christmases you remember, minus the aroma of smoldering ornaments

Telecom company delivers home-cooked meals and video calls

Facebook led for monthly active users