How Quibi fell apart in 199 days

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for October 26. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter at Business Insider. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Send me feedback or tips at LJohnson@businessinsider.com.

Today's news: How Quibi fell apart, inside The Richard Group's troubles, and the execs leading the e-commerce advertising industry.

The 199 days that doomed Quibi: How $1.75 billion couldn't save the most hyped app of the year from a pandemic and apathetic users

• Mobile content app Quibi, backed by $1.75 billion and some of Hollywood's top names, launched in April and died in October.
• Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman led the company, which missed warning signs and took costly missteps in the leadup to and after its debut.
• Rob Price, Meghan Morris, and Becky Peterson tracked the buildup to and aftermath of Quibi's ill-fated launch.

Read the entire story here.

Inside the biggest independent ad agency, The Richards Group, where some say an old-school culture that included all-male retreats fueled racism and sexism

• Patrick Coffee and Tanya Dua report that independent ad agency The Richards Group is facing steep revenue and staff losses after founder Stan Richards made racist comments that led several clients to fire the firm.
• Insiders said there have been other racially tinged incidents at the agency, including a late 2019 one where staff parodied Asian cuisine. Some connected those episodes to the agency's rigid, traditional culture that included strict check-in times, no paid parental leave until mid-2019, and all-male retreats with the founder.
• Stan Richards defended his approach to running the agency and blamed his exit on company leaks and the media.

Read the full story here.

E-commerce is skyrocketing during the pandemic while traditional ad budgets shrink. Meet the 8 insiders at places like Walmart, Amazon, and CVS tasked with turning retail into big ad businesses

• Advertising has been a bright spot during the pandemic for retailers as e-commerce shopping takes off.
• I identified the eight people leading advertising at the retailers. They include Walmart Media Group's Rich Lehrfeld and Instacart's Seth Dallaire.
• Amazon has long been the biggest ad platform but Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid and others want to challenge its dominance by pitching advertisers things like more granular data and new audiences.

Read the full story here.

More stories we're reading:

• IHeartMedia is buying a podcast startup to keep up with Spotify and Google in the race for automated advertising
• Facebook pulled 48 Trump election campaign ads which told people 'your vote has not been counted' (Business Insider)
• These are the 25 fastest-growing DTC brands for Q3, according to growth in digital traffic (Business Insider)
• 'More than a moment': SPACs give DTC startups a potential new exit strategy (Modern Retail)
• The white issue: Has Anna Wintour's diversity push come too late? (New York Times)
• A leaked internal report reveals the Wall Street Journal is struggling with aging readers and covering race (BuzzFeed News)

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at LJohnson@businessinsider.com and subscribe to this daily email here.

— Lauren