A few years ago, Sweden’s official Twitter account revealed that—gasp—Swedish meatballs aren’t actually Swedish. Naturally, you’d expect a response from Ikea, which slings its iconic meatballs like there’s no tomorrow, but none came… until now. Ikea is introducing truly Swedish meatballs made by Swedish chef Alexander Magnusson—although they’re actually Swedish, they’re not actually meat(balls).

Watch a video about the plant-based products.

HBO is well-known for its immersive, massive scale SXSW experiences, usually dedicated to one of its high profile shows, like it's life-saving Game of Thrones activation or real-life Westworld town. This year its presence won’t just focus on one show, but all of the shows on HBO Max with its digital experience, HBO Max Orbit. The experience creates personalized recommendations including more than 150,000 from the streamer’s offerings—all based on voice cues and tracked facial movements.

It’s even gamified: Learn how the experience works.

• Also in SXSW news: Mashable is also creating a virtual activation this year, this time collaborating with Walmart on an immersive, 360-degree shopping experience with interactive programming and games.

Following Eric Toda’s powerful and heartbreaking Voice piece imploring the industry to stand up against hate crimes and discrimination against Asian communities, Joanne Chan, CEO of Turner Duckworth, followed up with this voice piece considering next steps for #StopAsianHate and the BLM movement.

"The path forward requires a practice of radical inclusion, along with multicultural community engagement,” she writes. 

• WPP reported its fourth quarter earnings, sharing that its organic revenue fell 6.5%.
• Exclusive: COMvergence’s Media Agency New Business Barometer results are in. For 2020 media account moves, perhaps predictably, there was less up for grabs than in previous years, with a reduction of about $4 billion in spending. Explore more of the data.
• SourceCode Communications has launched agency WeRaisePR, which aims to help working mothers and make quality marketing solutions available for smaller-budget companies.
• Omnicom agency PHD U.S. appointed Joshua Palau, former head of media at Bayer, as its chief media and activation officer.
• Erik Sollenberg is leaving his position as global CEO of CPB, a role he took on in 2017, to move back to Sweden for family reasons.
• Following the brand’s acquisition by Beiserdorf in 2019, Coppertone has appointed Huge as its creative agency of record.

The next major milestones for chatbots will be the ability to handle complex, multi-step tasks and carry on conversations around ongoing projects. To that end, Amazon has introduced a competition challenging developers to create apps with that capability—one that will grant up to 10 university teams research grants of $250,000 to help Alexa multitask better. Adweek’s Patrick Kulp has the details.

Briefly:

• Cannabis Brand Viola Is Pursuing Equitable Growth in the Industry
• Trust, Demand, Sustainability: What’s Next for the CPG Industry?
• Crackle Plus Will Sell Plex’s US Advertising Inventory in Expanded Deal
• #AskNewser: Anchors, Correspondents Recall Their Most Memorable Pandemic Moment During the Past Year
• Logitech to Present Song Breaker Awards on TikTok
• Exclusive: Havas CX Releases X Index on Important Factors for Customer Experience Success

Too often, we plan to achieve our goals “someday”—and then someday never comes. But a new campaign from Ace Hardware is making Some Day a real day, April 3, and on that day it hopes to inspire people to tackle those long put-off home improvement projects. The brand is offering promotions to encourage participation, including babysitting search services, free paint samples, delivery and more. Learn how the campaign marries procrastination and inspiration.

Join Adweek April 6–7 for a virtual summit focusing on best practices for upholding diversity, equity, inclusion and sustainability. Centered around both people and planet, this live event will showcase best-in-class brands and leaders who have successfully implemented these principals into their company’s brand purpose and DNA. Sign up for free today.

Private labels have soared during the pandemic.

The auction house uses Quantcast Platform to find high-net-worth clients.

It teamed up with The Home Edit founders Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin on the 'Lighten Up' campaign.

With support from SiriusXM, Pandora and Stitcher, Studio Resonate confronts the 'sonic color line.'

The career journey of the Co-Founder behind a Black-Owned Millennial Led Creative Agency.

The social network confirmed that it is testing a Tip Jar for its Clubhouse-like audio feature.