Hi! July has been a busy month for Business Insider’s advertising and media team with lots of deep reporting on a wide breadth of companies. As we hit the middle of the summer slump, today’s Insider Advertising newsletter highlights our most popular stories from the past month.
These stories are part of Business Insider’s subscription service that helps fund our reporting. If you’d like to subscribe to Business Insider, here is a 20% discount code for an annual subscription. There is also a one-month trial for $1. And to get this newsletter in your inbox daily, sign up here.
Here are the can’t-miss stories that our readers loved in July:
Red Bull fires top North American executives following internal controversy over Black Lives Matter and the leak of an offensive presentation slide
Patrick Coffee broke the news about Red Bull firing North American CEO Stefan Kozak and president and chief marketing officer Amy Taylor. The fires happened after employees leaked a letter to leadership criticizing Red Bull’s response to Black Lives Matter and an offensive slide from a company presentation.
Insiders at Complex Networks said the company was built on Black culture but that the sales team ‘whitewashed’ advertising deals for brands, replacing Black people with white people in pitch decks
Ashley Rodriguez and I dug into Complex Networks after former employees said ad-sales team at times downplayed the company’s Black audience in sales pitches.
Meet 12 top public relations recruiters to know right now
Contributor Michael Kaminer identified the top PR headhunters that help link job candidates with employers. With the recent slew of layoffs created by the coronavirus, the recruiters said that there are still opportunities in areas like pharma, tech and healthcare communications.
19 media startups that top VCs say are poised to take off in 2020, as the pandemic reshapes the industry
With the media and advertising industries taking a hit during the pandemic, Ashley Rodriguez and Dan Whateley asked 11 venture-capital investors which companies are poised to take off this year. Their picks include esports company PlayVS and food media company Food52.
As part of an ongoing series where creators break down how much money they make, Amanda Perelli talked with Shelby Church about how she monetizes 1.5 million YouTube subscribers. Her videos with about 1 million views make between $2,000 to $5,000.
Walmart is pushing harder into advertising with a new tool that shows if people buy a product after seeing an ad for it
Walmart has steadily been building up its advertising business to compete for e-commerce ad dollars that primarily go towards Amazon. In Walmart’s latest move, it created a measurement tool to show advertisers how many people buy a product in-store or online after viewing an ad. Walmart tested the feature with big packaged goods companies like Procter & Gamble and Nestle.
Fewer than 3% of US executives at ad giant Havas are Black. Read the deck outlining its ambitious plan to increase diversity.
Ad holding companies that have long been criticized for their diversity efforts are starting to shine light on their practices. Patrick Coffee reported that Havas Group’s data shows that 2.67% of its US executives are Black and that the company has a new seven-step plan to increase diversity.
The 19 advertising execs who wield the most power and sway over Facebook
Tanya Dua has been covering this month’s Facebook boycott that hundreds of brands are participating in. She identified the marketers who are part of Facebook’s invitation-only global client council that wield the most influence, including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global marketing chief Pedro Earp and Steve King, chief operating officer at Publicis Groupe.
GMMB insiders say the top progressive ad and PR agency has a problem with microaggressions
Sean Czarnecki dug into Omnicom Group’s advertising and PR firm GMMB. The firm is known for its progressive work, but some former and current employees said microaggressions against people of color were commonplace.