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Welcome back to The Brief by Kuro House, your daily dose of the most important stories shaping the marketing, media, and creative industries. Today, we’ve got a lineup that covers blockbuster sports viewership, seismic agency mergers, creative industry shakeups, and the ongoing intersection of activism and advertising. Let’s dive in.
First up, let’s talk about an absolute ratings bonanza in the world of sports broadcasting. According to Adweek, this year’s NFL Thanksgiving games shattered viewership records across the board. CBS Sports’ matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys became the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history, drawing a staggering 57.23 million total viewers, as measured by Nielsen. That’s a 47% jump from last year’s Giants-Cowboys game and even eclipses the previous record of 42 million viewers set just last year. The audience peaked at over 61 million during the most dramatic moments, showing just how magnetic live sports can be. Fox’s early game between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions wasn’t far behind, hitting 47.7 million viewers—Fox’s own regular-season record—with a peak at nearly 58 million. Even the primetime NBC game, featuring the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, saw 28.4 million average viewers, making it the most-watched primetime game on record. These numbers are powered by Nielsen’s new big data + panel system, which combines traditional panel measurement with data from smart TVs and set-top boxes, capturing more out-of-home and digital viewing than ever. As Brian Fuhrer, SVP at Nielsen, put it, “Live sports is the most complex thing we measure,” and this year’s Thanksgiving games are proof that the appetite for live sports is only growing.
Next, a seismic shift in the agency world. Adweek gained exclusive access to Omnicom Media’s first town hall meeting after its parent company, Omnicom, closed its $13 billion acquisition of former rival IPG. The two-and-a-half-hour meeting, which was briefly available via an unencrypted Vimeo link, offered rare insight into how Omnicom Media is addressing both internal and external skepticism post-merger. CEO Florian “Flo” Adamski opened the meeting by openly acknowledging the negative press and social media chatter surrounding the acquisition, which only just cleared regulatory hurdles in the U.S. last week. The leadership team spent much of the session explaining the new company structure and expressing confidence in the future, despite what Adamski described as “a lot of haters” in the industry. The fact that Adweek was able to access the meeting due to a technical oversight only adds another layer to the story, highlighting the ongoing tension and scrutiny facing major agency consolidations in today’s market.
Shifting gears to the creative production world, a sobering story from Adweek: Freelancers who worked for the legendary production studio The Mill are claiming at least $280,000 in unpaid fees, with little hope of ever seeing those funds. The Mill, which was recently relaunched under new ownership by TransPerfect, left a trail of unpaid invoices when its previous owner, Technicolor, went through liquidation. Just a week before TransPerfect announced the revival of The Mill’s operations, freelancers received a letter from Colortech, the third-party assignee managing Technicolor’s U.S. asset liquidation. The letter bluntly stated there were no funds available to pay “unsecured creditors,” which includes the freelancers who are still owed for their work. This situation underscores the risks faced by freelance talent in the creative industry, especially when companies undergo ownership changes or financial distress, and serves as a stark reminder of the importance of contractual protections and industry advocacy.
In the world of advocacy and purpose-driven marketing, Clean Creatives—a five-year-old climate advocacy campaign—has announced a major leadership transition. As reported by Adweek, Laura Ranzato will take over as executive director from Duncan Meisel on December 12. Ranzato, who currently serves as Clean Creatives’ director of community, brings a wealth of experience from organizations like 350.org, NARAL, and the Sierra Club. Her background as a sixth-grade teacher in New Mexico, where she could see coal plants and a mine from her classroom window, deeply informs her environmental advocacy. Ranzato began working with Clean Creatives as a consultant in 2022 and joined full-time earlier this year. Her appointment comes at a critical time, as the group continues its campaign to pressure advertising and PR agencies to drop fossil fuel clients amid intensifying sociopolitical headwinds. Expect Ranzato’s leadership to bring renewed energy and strategic direction to Clean Creatives’ mission.
And finally, a quick note for those following the intersection of media and technology: While the full article is behind a paywall, Adweek’s On Background newsletter hints at a growing trend of publishers leveraging cooking apps and recipe content as a new secret ingredient for audience engagement and monetization. The anecdote-driven piece suggests that as publishers look for innovative ways to connect with audiences, cooking apps are emerging as a surprisingly effective platform. While details are sparse, this signals that lifestyle utility—think meal planning and recipe sharing—could become a bigger part of publishers’ digital strategy in the months ahead.
That’s it for today’s Brief. Whether you’re tracking the shifting agency landscape, watching the numbers on sports broadcasts climb ever higher, or fighting for a more sustainable creative industry, it’s clear that change is the only constant. Stay sharp, stay curious, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for more of the stories that matter most in marketing and media.
