UPCOMING ADVERTISING WEEK EVENTS

For years, marketers have been told to embrace omnichannel: connect the TV buy to social, bring experiential into the media plan, turn creators into commerce engines, make the physical and digital feel seamless.

Something ominous is happening in marketing right now, and no, it’s not AI.

As part of Advertising Week New York’s AWPlaymaker Awards series, we caught up with the Sports and Entertainment team at WPP Media to explore how creators are redefining fan engagement, why authenticity remains essential to successful brand partnerships, and how marketers can measure cultural impact beyond traditional engagement metrics.

The programmatic digital out of home (pDOOH) market in the United States has moved past the adoption stage.

The bigger mistake is assuming that America is a single, culturally uniform market. It is not.

Retail media is moving beyond the moment of purchase, with brands using shopping data and creative campaigns to reach consumers before they begin searching for a product.

Lana Busignani, Chief Executive Officer at MarketCast, led the conversation with Jim Mollica, President, Luxury Consumer Audio & Chief Marketing Officer at Bose. Jim described an approach that puts emotion first while using business results to earn the support needed to build the brand.

Choosing a position can make executives nervous. If a brand becomes more specific about what it believes and whom it serves, what happens to everyone else?

At Advertising Week New York 2026, Usercentrics’ Maureen Prado argued that clearer explanations and greater consumer control can help brands build the trust needed to sustain customer relationships.