A Peak Inside Chrissy Teigen's Mind

During Adweek's Brand Genius Awards gala at Brandweek, John Legend spoke to a crowd of 700 marketers about why brands flock to work with our Brand Visionary, Chrissy Teigen.

“You were always worried that brands would never hire someone as unpredictable, as unfiltered, as filthy-mouthed as you,” Legend said. “But then they all realized what I’ve known for years, that it would be a privilege and an honor for them to bask in your brilliance, your candor, your hilarity, your beautiful visionary mind.”

Before accepting the award, Teigen launched a new website, CravingsbyChrissyTeigen.com, which promptly crashed due to the sheer volume of fans trying to reach it.

Read more: Streaming editor Kelsey Sutton recapped both Legend's and Teigen's speeches at Brand Genius.

Related: We also spoke to the pair on the red carpet, where Teigen explained it's not about being an influencer. It's about being a brand ambassador.

Related: Former Amazon Marketing Chief Mike Benson Named Grand Brand Genius for 2019

Benson received Adweek's Grand Brand Genius award for his exceptional work promoting Amazon Originals’ flagship programs. He worked with an in-house team and agency partners to conceive a variety of head-turning installations that pushed the envelope on experiential marketing.

As White Claw became the most memeable alcohol on the planet (shout-out to this White Claw/Toy Story mashup on TikTok), Anheuser-Busch was pouring resources into innovation to stay on top of a rapidly evolving industry. That required adjustments across the board as AB-InBev introduced new products—think Bon & Viv, Natural Light Seltzer and Michelob Ultra Gold—created Draftline to take marketing in-house and evolved its marketing, often crossing into current events with Game of Thrones, Cleveland Browns Victory Fridges, Dwyane Wade's retirement and more.

Read more: Learn how Anheuser-Busch, which accounts for almost half of the U.S. beer market, a $114.2 billion industry, adapted to the shifting beverage industry.

More stories from the latest issue of Brandweek magazine:

Even as Facebook's brand suffers, the company continues to connect its name to the other platforms it owns. First, it rebranded Instagram and WhatsApp as "From Facebook," leaving us to wonder if that move would help Facebook or hurt Instagram and Whatsapp. Yesterday, Facebook revealed its first corporate logo. Or should we say FACEBOOK? The company's logo changes colors depending on the setting. For Instagram, it’s colored in the familiar yellow-purple-pink ombre. On Facebook.com, it comes in the familiar blue. On its own, it’s a neutral shade of gray.

Read more: We spoke with Facebook CMO Anthony Lucio and the company's top designers to get the lowdown on the logo.

Disney’s global media review was one of the most closely watched pitches of the year. Omnicom and Publicis grabbed large parts of the business, but who was the real winner? Well, it depends on how you look at it. Publicis Groupe may have won a wide plurality of regions globally, but since the majority of the account spending is in the U.S., Omnicom still has the larger portion of the business by spending.

Read more: Agency reporter Erik Oster broke down who won which parts of the business and how Disney decided on the winners.

Best of the Rest: Today's Top News and Insights

No one loves talking about their inevitable death or that of a loved one. But the alternative is a lot worse. No one wants to be stuck making decisions for you after you're gone and hoping you would have approved.

So a U.K. nonprofit called Marie Curie and agency Saatchi & Saatchi London have created a somewhat unnervingly upbeat ad about death, with the goal of laughing off the stigmas around end-of-life conversations and getting people talking.

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Bre Rossetti, evp, strategy, Havas Media
1. Don’t get attached to your blackberry. It will be useless in a few years. And when it becomes and iPhone with never ending emails remember to sometimes put it in a drawer. The emails will never stop, but try to remember the work you will be most proud of will not include “doing emails."
2. Take as many meetings as you can in person. It’s so much easier working with people once you realize they are human beings instead of [email protected].
3. Tag along. When you get an invite, take it. If you are included as optional, go. When you look back you’ll realize it’s the sidetracks and the detours that will get you where you are headed.
4. Say thank you.
5. It goes a long way. Live abroad. Or in another state. Go without any best friends or guarantees and figure it out. You will lean in more and figure out how to make it work. I moved to London without any safety net when I was 22 and it changed everything; not only did I have to step outside my comfort zone, but I literally had to learn about an entirely new media market that I hadn’t grown up in. That experience inadvertently helped me understand how much media and culture can shape a person’s identity—and that learning is something that I use every day.

FCB Canada and its advocacy client launch Project Understood.

More cars and cities added to Amazon Key mean more convenience for holiday shoppers.

Takeaways from Bud Light’s quick response during the World Series.

Brand's holiday campaign won't run on traditional TV channels.

Consumers might not be able to recognize the brand in that quick burst.