The Zeitgeist: March 22, 2024

Today's Edition: Drones, Dynamic Pricing and Facebook Pokes

Good morning. March Madness is underway, and brands are teaming up with and putting players front and center - from State Farm’s Caitlin Clark commercial, whose rise to stardom signals more opportunity for women’s athletes, to SKIMS’ new loungewear campaign. Unilever announced it’s spinning off its ice cream business, right before ice cream season. And Fast Company released its annual Most Innovative Companies list.

Also, don’t miss our Reporter Spotlight, a new, monthly feature on what journalists are interested in, how their editorial process works and more.

Campaigns

Earned-friendly campaigns & clever moments

Also, ​Barilla x Marie Kondo’s sustainable packaging campaign for Global Recycling Day, Sony Pictures x Snapchat’s AR “Slimer lens” for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Dunkin’ “Short King,” Keds x Magnolia Bakery, Jameson’s Patrick’s Day Eve campaign and Jeni’s Ice Cream’s “Punk Stargonaut” collection for the Solar Eclipse.

Culture 

Snackable bites of consumer culture

Corporate

Commerce

Shopper society snapshot

Connections

Feed intelligence

Reporter Spotlight: John Kell

This month’s reporter spotlight is on John Kell, a freelance reporter for Fast Company and Fortune and a former PR professional. He primarily covers business, food and beverage, technology, retail and AI. Prior to freelancing, John held staff positions at Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. He also spent three and a half years as the Media Lead of Corporate Affairs at Chobani. Here are four things to know about working with John:

  • He’s behind Fortune’s newest newsletter CIO Intelligence, geared toward helping IT leaders stay ahead of the evolving IT landscape. He wants to speak with CIO/CTO title executives.

  • He finds many of his sources on LinkedIn. Once he’s secured four to five sources, he’ll stop taking new ones because he hates having to cut interviews.

  • As a freelancer, story corrections can be more difficult for him to make since he has to go through an editor and can’t do them himself. He’s very particular about clarifications vs. factual errors.

  • He’s interested in exclusives, three makes a trend and tension in a story is key.

Media Moves:

  • Ryan Watts, formerly data news editor at The Times of London, is now director of visual storytelling at The Wall Street Journal, working with coverage chiefs and visual journalists across the newsroom to set an ambitious strategy for compelling, visually-led stories.

  • Nate Becker, formerly finance editor at The Information, is leaving the outlet and has yet to announce his new role.

  • Lindsay Blakely, formerly deputy business editor at The Los Angeles Times, is joining Bloomberg News on the global business team working from the LA bureau starting in April.

  • Ryan Joe, formerly managing editor at AdExchanger, is now editor in chief at Adweek.

  • Jennifer Cunningham, formerly editor in chief at Business Insider, is now executive editor at Newsweek, overseeing all news content and strategy.

  • Marina Temkin, formerly financial news writer at PitchBook, is now reporter at TechCrunch covering venture capital firms and startups.

  • Karla Alindahao, formerly senior contributor at Forbes, is now senior editor at Food & Wine, overseeing news and trends. She’s interested in restaurant trends, fast food and snack news, viral food-related social media explainers and upcoming releases (spirits, food, wine) and is looking to do longer-lead zeitgeist-y pieces.

  • YeEun Kim, formerly senior editor at Hypebae, is now freelance.

Also... take a look at the 60 finalists of Smithsonian Magazine’s annual photo contest.

Thanks for reading.

Let us know what you think of our new layout. If you need help accessing the full text of any of these stories, drop your team a line and we'll send it right over.

—The Editors

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe to the Confidant Zeitgeist here.