NEW YORK—The Lower East Side buzzed with professionals across the marketing, media, advertising, and technology industries Oct. 17-20 for the 2022 iteration of Advertising Week New York (AWNY). This year, the four-day event fittingly moved from its usual location in Midtown Manhattan, downtown to The Market Line—a three-city-block-long underground marketplace with more than 100 local vendors serving up foods from around the world, which seemingly personified AWNY’s celebration of the convergence of culture, commerce, and creativity.
Panel discussions dominated programming, featuring 800-plus speakers across 20 stages and 28 tracks centered around social impact, entrepreneurship, the creator economy, cross-screen engagement, content and pop culture, and audio and podcasting—just to name a few.
David Marine, the CMO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate (pictured right), shared in his session, titled “The Power of a Dream: How a National Marketing Campaign Became a Hyper-Local Strategy,” that "building a better mousetrap starts with better cheese."Photo: Courtesy of G&S Business Communications
BizBash was on site and pared down the seemingly infinite insights shared throughout the on-stage sessions into three industry-transcending takeaways.
Here’s what stood out…
1. Building a better mousetrap starts with better cheese.
David Marine, the CMO of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, shared this sentiment in his session titled “The Power of a Dream: How a National Marketing Campaign Became a Hyper-Local Strategy." Ultimately, he challenged marketers to think of their site as the mousetrap. “It’s where you want your customers to come, engage, and hopefully convert,” he said to BizBash in a post-AWNY interview. 
Contrary to most signage, Meta's signs encouraged attendees to take photos and videos throughout the activation.Photo: Shannon Thaler/BizBash
He added on the analogy as it pertains to his role at Coldwell Banker: “When you think about it, every real estate website does the same thing, and none of them really have anything tailored to appeal to sellers.” He explained that this is “where better cheese comes in,” noting that the effort to differentiate the company resulted in the “Move Meter tool, which compares cities across the country and provides a customer score to rate that move. It’s something no one else has given as an appeal to sellers."
CJ Bangah, a customer transformation practice leader at PwC, advised that such differentiation in the future will depend on “advertising that is optimized for specific formats and experiences,” citing the current video game craze that has led many marketers to look to gaming platforms as a means to garner business.
She added: “With in-person events coming back in full force, brands need to be ready for opportunities to bring these virtual experiences to life with in-person activations that create engaging moments consumers are looking for.”
2. Leverage the “experience economy”—IRL and via URL.
AWNY had an entire track centered around "experience economy." (Move over metaverse, could this be the next hot topic?!) Built off the idea that providing goods and services is no longer enough, the “experience economy” is the idea that companies must now also offer experiences to keep their consumers engaged. (Event planners, rejoice!)
Meta’s on-site activation brought a case study to life in a surprise-and-delight moment where a photo of luxury eyewear brand DEZI’s Instagram ad opened like a door.Photo: Courtesy of Meta
As if to provide an IRL example of the “experience economy,” Meta’s on-site activation brought a case study to life and tapped creative agency R/GA and experiential agency MKG to develop and manifest the experience before inviting nearly 400 attendees to go on a journey. To set the scene, in a minimalist room outfitted with oversized Instagram posts, attendees could learn more about the platform’s advertising capabilities. And in a surprise-and-delight moment, luxury eyewear brand DEZI’s post surprised guests by opening, leading to an LED-lit tunnel that opened into to a photo studio. From there, a curtain guided guests to the beach and, finally, a sunglass display.
Along the way, AWNY attendees learned about the impact of DEZI’s Instagram ads (the brand sold 3,000 shades in 48 hours with an exclusive Instagram campaign)—all while getting inspired by the experiential production of it all. "With this pop-up experience, we are putting a spotlight on how brands can connect with customers today with tools like Reels and products like Shops while looking ahead to the future with the metaverse," Michelle Klein, the vice president of global business marketing at Meta, told BizBash.
"We spend so much time talking to each other on screens and describing our tools and platforms to each other virtually, we wanted to take the opportunity to bring the industry together during AWNY to connect and view this unique physical manifestation of how brands are activating across our platform," the exec added.
After stepping into a DEZI photoshoot, then a beach scene, guests ended their journey in this eye-catching (see what we did there?) product display.Photo: Courtesy of Meta
Attendees were given a pair of DEZI eyewear upon exit—a sweet token to remember the case study by.Photo: Courtesy of Meta
"A very robust [live] events strategy” is also important to Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Marine noted, as a means of “physically manifesting our brand culture." Meanwhile, Brad Simms, the CEO and president of business agency GALE, argued during his panel that “out of home” (OOH) strategies are changing.
“Media is the new experiential, and OOH is where people are. The technology that sits behind OOH is driving a different strategy lens, a different creative lens, and a different content lens,” Simms said. Oddly enough, social media was cited as a top destination for OOH ad visibility.
The Harris Poll found that 82% of TikTok users noticed OOH ads (think: billboards, indoor/outdoor signage, posters on street furniture, etc.) while on the platform, while 81% of Instagram users and 80% of Facebook users said the same thing.
David Low, the CMO of Talkwalker, advised professionals to really take advantage of social media during his panel, citing that 44% of U.S. social media users have made a purchase through a social platform. Sure, convenience helps, but he attributed the behavior to the “unique experience for consumers.”
Twitter’s senior director of U.S. sales Amanda Farrell teased how the networking platform is taking advantage of these stats with Live Shopping that’ll be available as an on-platform experience to utilize during Cyber Monday (taking place Nov. 28 this year). The inaugural Live Shopping experience will blend shoppable elements with live video and fan engagement capabilities for brands, in partnership with Twitter’s first publishing partner, The Wall Street Journal. 
Twitter’s senior director of U.S. sales Amanda Farrell shared a slideshow of statistics from a case study with Amazon Games during the panel titled "Buy Side from WSJ: Commerce Content and Twitter Live Shopping Experience."Photo: Courtesy of Twitter
3. Culture is the new KPI.
Suzana Apelbaum, the head of creative and innovation at Google, said this during her panel on day two of AWNY, titled “Unifying Creativity and Context.” If this isn’t industry-transcending, then what is? She noted that in her own role at Google, she’s had to rethink everything thanks to the cultural shift that’s ever-present in modern-day media. “Mainstream media is no longer driving trends in the community; the community is driving the trends,” Apelbaum said, advising that “if you don’t pay attention to this, then no one will care.”
The Accord Group LLC founder Sonia Jackson Myles touched on the same sentiment during her session, “Lessons for Being a Great Leader,” sharing how the new era of leadership is spearheaded by kindness. “Leading with kindness takes more intention,” said Jackson Myles, who’s also the founder of The Sister Accord Foundation, which aims to eradicate violence against girls and women while enlightening them on the power of sisterhood.
She also brought up "quiet quitting"—a concept that’s not new, yet has seemingly just received a name—where employees don’t leave their position, but cease to do anything but what’s on their job description and within their pay grade. To prevent this, she advised fellow leaders to pay less attention to numbers and instead get to know their workers on a personal level. “Do you know your people? Their superpower?” Jackson Myles asked.
Another tip? Focus on engagement rather than attendance, adding that “a level of consistency comes with engagement.” With these things in mind, “the numbers will fall in place,” Jackson Myles said.
Offstage, AWNY was also chock full of couldn’t-miss moments.
Capitalizing on the influx of professionals in town, Cloudy Bay celebrated the launch of its 2022 sauvignon blanc with a multi-sensory dining experience hosted by Cloudy Bay’s senior winemaker Nikolai St. George.
On Oct. 19, 80 members of press, creators, and Cloudy Bay friends gathered around a table at Hudson Commons, notable for its floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the NYC skyline. Yet the scene indoors was equally captivating, with tablescapes inspired by New Zealand’s landscape—a nod to Cloudy Bay’s origins—and elevated, photo-worthy dishes helmed by chef Yann Nury. 
The event space featured one long table, with tablescapes and surrounding greenery inspired by New Zealand's landscape—a nod to Cloudy Bay’s origins.Photo: Courtesy of Cloudy Bay
On the menu: an amuse bouche of bluff oysters on the half shell served with caviar and Meyer lemon mignonette; New Zealand crayfish with marinated celery root and sourdough croutons for the first course; roasted lamb with Swiss chard leaves for the main dish; and a pavlova-style dessert with figs and thyme. 
Eighty guests were invited to the multi-sensory dining event, which celebrated the launch of Cloudy Bay's 2022 sauvignon blanc.Photo: Courtesy of Cloudy Bay
Event design and production was helmed by Mazarine NYC, while ManscapersNY handled the landscape, Oxygen Eventworks did the lighting and audio, Sets & Effects spearheaded set design, and Cutting Edge Elite handled staffing.
Looking ahead, ReachTV announced an exclusive strategic partnership with Advertising Week to develop B2B-focused content to be streamed on ReachTV’s 2,500-plus airport screens across the U.S. The first series, titled More Than a Celebrity, will showcase episodes featuring entrepreneurial-minded celebrity from global Advertising Week stages, including the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Emma Stone.
A final noteworthy announcement: Advertising Week has teamed up with Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat News for the first-ever Advertising Week Africa, slated to take place Feb. 14-19, 2023.
Come the long-awaited debut—which was postponed due to the pandemic—Hartbeat will debut the “Branding with Hart” thought leadership track on the state of entertainment, diversity, and storytelling across the African diaspora. Oh, and Kevin Hart will fittingly attend for a keynote session.
