| | | | | First Things First | | March 13, 2020 | By Jess Zafarris |
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| In the Face of SXSW Cancellation, Austin Chooses to Band Together | |
| | Last year, SXSW’s conglomeration of festivals brought an estimated $356 million to Austin, Texas. This year, for the first time in 34 years, it’s not happening. After Austin Mayor Steve Adler declared a local state of disaster in the city in response to COVID-19—effectively canceling two weeks of simultaneous music, festivals, conference tracks and some of the ad industry’s most talked-about brand activations—bars, restaurants, music venues and other businesses started to worry about their prospects for the year. Read more: But many of them are hanging on to hope—and pivoting. Our Austin, Texas-based reporter Katie Lundstrom explains how locals are adapting. Key Coronavirus Developments
Coronavirus headlines today were dominated by a wave of suspensions and developments from the sports world. Other major announcements included Governor Andrew Cuomo banning gatherings of 500 people or more in New York, as well as the DNC moving Sunday's Democratic debate from Phoenix to Washington, D.C. Check out the highlights below, and keep up with the latest using our coronavirus tracker, which includes event cancellations and other impacts of COVID-19 on the advertising and marketing world. - Sports: Major League Soccer announced a suspension for the next 30 days, while the NHL suspended its season indefinitely, pending additional news. After college basketball conference tournaments were canceled, the NCAA pulled the plug on March Madness. Major League Baseball canned the first two weeks of the season, while the PGA canceled a number of its upcoming tournaments.
- Upfronts: At the start of Thursday morning, every major event planned for upfronts week in May was still going forward. Now, they’ve all been canceled in response to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. First, ViacomCBS and NBCUniversal said they were canceling their presentations, followed a few hours later by news that WarnerMedia/Xandr, The CW, Discovery and Fox had pulled the plug as well. The day ended with Disney canceling its May 12 upfront presentation, as well as Hulu’s NewFronts event on May 6. Additionally, Digitas and Roku both switched to streaming for their NewFronts presentations.
- More Advertising and Marketing Events: The ANA Media Conference, originally scheduled for late March, has been canceled, and Design Week Portland has been postponed from April to August.
- TV & Movies: CBS This Morning broadcast from D.C. Thursday after the CBS Broadcast Center was shut down following two positive coronavirus tests for CBS News employees. Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Late Show with James Corden soon tape without audiences, and the worldwide theatrical release of the ninth Fast and the Furious movie was pushed back almost a year, from May 2020 to April 2021.
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| Agencies Discuss Their Event and Travel Policies in Light of Coronavirus | |
"We are evaluating on a case by case basis for events, as we believe that health risks will always outweigh any potential business benefits for our employees attending. Whether a conference is canceled or a company decides to no longer attend, many in the industry may find that skipping conferences outside of the big, 'must attend' events may have little impact on their business." —Amanda Martin, vp of enterprise partnerships, Goodway Group "We are already cutting travel as part of a long-term commitment to cutting our environmental impact, but regarding COVID-19 specifically we’re following recommendations from the CDC and other government agencies on travel. We are still taking part in some events, but are monitoring the developments in those regions. If we see that there’s a risk to our staff’s health, we will cancel." —Anders Wahlquist, co-founder and CEO, B-Reel | | | |
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