ADWEEK

On this week's episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Doug Sweeny joins Matt Britton to explore how ŌURA is building a health strategy centered on longevity and how technology can exist quietly in the background of a user's life. As Chief Marketing Officer at ŌURA, Doug explains the shift from niche sleep tracking toward a comprehensive health companion. He shares insights on why the brand prioritizes the accuracy of the finger signal over the wrist and how their "Give Us the Finger" campaign is redefining what it means to track personal performance across every decade of life. The conversation also moves into the realities of the modern CMO role. Doug reflects on his experiences at Nest and One Medical, discussing why resilience is the most critical trait for leaders navigating the high-stakes world of technology and hardware innovation. Listen now on... ▶️ Spotify: https://adweek.it/39NoWZ9 ▶️ Apple Podcasts: https://adweek.it/3PDdDTL

Publicis Groupe's chief strategy officer Carla Serrano is wary of a creeping issue: women are slowly but surely being erased from the boardroom. To be sure, AI is having a disproportionate impact on women. According to the United Nations, jobs at the highest risk of AI automation account for 9.6% of female employment, which is nearly three times the share for men. And progress is regressing as a result. In her speech at the New York Women in Communications Matrix Awards, Serrano cited an Ipsos global report that found 60% of Gen Z men think that women’s equality has gone too far. Read more from Serrano and Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun here 👉 https://adweek.it/4nEVre5

Omnicom CEO John Wren is raking in the big bucks. His pay jumped to $69.9M in 2025, a package that is almost double what the other six major ad holdco CEOs made combined and equal to 1,219x the median Omnicom employee’s salary. Outside of Wren’s spike, CEO pay across the group was mostly steady, even as the industry saw major shakeups like Omnicom’s $13.5B IPG Mediabrands deal, WPPS CEO transition to Cindy Rose OBE, and dentsu’s leadership reshuffle. Read more 👉 https://adweek.it/4uvhDtO

Community, courage, and connection. There are many qualities that make Marketing Vanguard valuable, but these things consistently stand out. At our recent Marketing Vanguard Summit, Kellanova's Charisse Hughes and United Airlines' Maggie Schmerin detailed how membership has impacted them. Learn more and apply here 👉 https://adweek.it/3ZZhtxZ

I don't think so honey: Going to Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and not attending ADWEEK house Register here and join us June 21-26: https://adweek.it/4tij4Lf

Apple exec Eddy Cue has been named Entertainment Person of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026, in recognition of his role in building Apple TV, Apple Music, and more into major global platforms. In a statement, Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook said Cue had “consistently pushed the boundaries of entertainment and storytelling, building platforms and experiences that have redefined how audiences engage with culture.” Read more 👉 https://adweek.it/42KJWrW

The demand-side platform Viant Technology has launched a partnership with Ad Fontes Media that will let advertisers target connected TV news inventory based on content-level reliability and political bias scores. The integration, which is live now in the Viant platform, is the first of its kind on CTV, according to the companies. “We’ve been working on trying to get advertisers to advertise more in news for years now,” said Vanessa Otero, founder and CEO of Ad Fontes Media. “The opportunity in CTV is very appealing, particularly because it’s hard to identify show-level activity in CTV.” Read more 👇

Publicis Groupe’s $2.2B acquisition of data firm LiveRamp aims to strengthen its position in commerce media by adding LiveRamp’s clean room, identity graph, and data-onboarding tech, plus a broad partner network across retailers and platforms like Meta, Pinterest, and Snap Inc., to improve privacy-safe data matching for targeting, measurement, and attribution. The deal follows similar moves by rivals including WPP’s purchase of InfoSum, though some observers question whether Publicis can sustain LiveRamp’s pace of innovation and manage potential conflicts as it expands offerings that could resemble an Amazon Marketing Cloud-style cross-channel measurement layer.

Agentic TV buying is arriving fast, but the term still means different things to different people. Coming out of upfront week, companies like Fox Corporation and Netflix are rolling out or planning AI “agents” that can surface opportunities, optimize media plans, and potentially execute and manage ad buys autonomously, prompting industry leaders to clarify what agentic buying will look like in TV ad sales and where it’s headed next. Read more 👇

On Wednesday, Vox Media announced that James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems has agreed to acquire New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network, and Vox. But what happens to the remaining brands that were not sold to Murdoch? Vox Media has said that Eater, Popsugar, SB Nation, The Dodo, and The Verge—will be spun into a second independent company under a still-to-be-determined name. However, Mark Stenberg thinks those remaining brands will face a different fate. Get the full story here 👉 https://adweek.it/4nJgTyv Sign up for On Background here 👉 https://adweek.it/4v8Cnbw