Giving Thanks to WAP

Spotify always has a spectacular out-of-home campaign to end the year. Last year's campaign paid homage to a decade of crazy listening habits (check it out here) and 2018's campaign got very, very personal (uncomfortably personal, you could say). This year, Spotify knows it's been a tough year—a year in which music, podcasts and storytellers kept us dancing, inspired and sane.

See it: Check out a handful of out-of-home ads that give thanks to WAP, Bad Bunny and Michelle Obama.

Related: Spotify also released its Wrapped lists, which reveal the top performers on Spotify for 2020. Check it out here.

Speaking of out-of-home: Despite Americans staying home as much as possible during the pandemic, the medium had its moments in 2020. During yesterday's Elevate OOH virtual event, some of the brightest minds in the industry divulged their tips on succeeding at OOH. Get their insights here.

Small businesses are the driving force behind some good news in GroupM's year-end report on ad spend. In June, GroupM projected a 13% decline in ad spend for 2020. Ultimately, it will likely be around 9% thanks to small businesses that spent heavily on digital to drive ecommerce sales. However, the report revealed bad news for TV, radio and legacy print publishers.

What about next year? The report gives rosier projections for 2021.

Today, Discovery Inc. is going to reveal plans for Discovery+, which will feature content from popular franchises on Discovery, TLC and HGTV. Elsewhere in 2020, ViacomCBS bulked up its streaming service, FX made moves with Hulu and AMC launched its own offering. Plus, all the major players loaded their OTT cannons with any library content they could get their hands on (metaphorically speaking, it's like that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Orlando Bloom's character loads the cannons with silverware because there's nothing else left on the ship).

Has betting on streaming worked so far? All signs point to yes.

More TV News:

As we mentioned in the newsletter earlier this week, this year's shopping season should have been called Cyber Week. Thanksgiving and Black Friday both broke U.S. spending records, and cyber shopping drove that spending bonanza. Predictably, Amazon cashed in to the tune of one out of every five dollars spent over the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend were spent on Amazon.

One very unlikely winner: This retailer was one of very few chains to see an increase in foot traffic.

Animated Christmas spot for Austrian bank Erste Group explores loneliness, friendship and hope.

Join us for Adweek's annual Women Trailblazers summit, a live virtual event, honoring the women who are challenging the status quo and soared to new heights in media, marketing and technology. Featured speakers include Katie Couric, Paris Hilton, Jessy Dover of Dagne Dover, Alex Friedman of LOLA, and many more. Save your virtual seat and join us today.

Film by Crispin Porter Bogusky London talks up the brand's history.

Synesthetic stunt from AKQA shows how music can alter the senses.

The pandemic’s influence could be seen throughout the list.

Swedish agency Akestam Holst directed callers to recordings of women discussing their exploitation in the sex industry.

New CMO previously worked in the cannabis and alcohol industry

New ‘Black Paper’ outlines the power and value of the African American consumer.