As the World Cup brings together fans from every corner of the globe, it highlights the fact that the rules may be shared, but the expression of the game reflects culture, history, and identity. You can see it in the way teams move and celebrate.
_Editorial
Creator marketing is no longer operating at the edges of the media mix. Increasingly, it is becoming the media mix.
I’m already seeing some of the least engaging advertising of my life out in the world because someone who doesn’t know better—or in some cases, should know better– thinks it looks “good enough”.
Streaming gets most of the attention in today’s TV landscape, for good reason.
Fees can pay for execution, but they don’t perform. Advertisers need to investigate to ensure as much of the budget is going towards working media as possible.
The future of marketing may be powered by AI, but it will be enabled by the systems that allow data, platforms, and agents to work together.
For brands that are still treating physical presence as a line item rather than a platform: the research is in. Gen Z made their choice. The question is whether you’ll meet them there.
Technology continues to transform how people discover brands, but it has done very little to change how people build trust.
As advertisers search for more effective, accountable, and attention-rich media environments, supermarkets deserve to be recognised not as a secondary retail touchpoint, but as a core part of modern media planning.
By Stan Turek, General Manager, Measurement at InMarket For too long, consumer packaged goods (CPG)…
Creativity Needs Receipts: AI Is Helping Marketers Connect Bold Ideas to Measurable Business Impact.
AI improves marketers’ ability to understand, test and optimize creative performance, the industry can move toward a more complete definition of excellence: work that captures attention, builds meaning and proves how deeply it mattered.
By Hugo Welkers, CEO, Refinery89 The classic list of blue links is an afterthought in…
McDonald’s, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026, made the savvy decision to let Grimace represent the brand in this year’s marketing push.
By David Graham, COO, Mobsta The advertising industry already operates within an overwhelming volume of…
By Dharmesh Patel, Global Curation Strategy Lead at OnAudience As agentic AI systems take on…
By Spencer Potts, CEO, Precise Programmatic was built for speed. Agentic buying will be built for…
By Arthur Larrey, CEO at Audion Even though podcast advertising has become one of the…
A clear and well-communicated policy will help prevent employees from feeling that the enforcement of norms is an ad hoc, case-by-case, discretionary practice.
The most interesting creative businesses right now aren’t the giant monoliths.
As FIFA prepares to welcome the world to North America next summer, Maple, Zayu, and Clutch offer an early glimpse into how the organization plans to market the largest World Cup in history.
At a time when brands are searching for new ways to break through fragmented media environments and shrinking attention spans, Formula 1 offers a compelling reminder that the most valuable marketing asset may not be a platform.
The future of AI may look like magic to the end user. Behind the scenes, however, it will be powered by something far more practical.
Technology alone does not create value. Only a solid data foundation can turn AI from a costly experiment into a genuine growth engine.
The mandate for marketers is clear: Stop chasing the myth of the Gen Z monolith.
The companies outperforming in retail media aren’t usually the ones with dramatically different tools.
With many concerned about job losses due to AI, AR technology has the potential to create new jobs to support the development of AR marketing experiences.
By Nataly Kelly, CMO, Zappi OpenAI’s ads pilot reportedly crossed $100 million in revenue within…
Live Matches, Pregame Shows, Daily Highlights and Premium Shoulder Programming with Sports Wall Activations Planned in FIFA World Cup 2026™ Host City Airports
The shift required is not complicated, even if it demands more intention.
The next decade of AI is being built right now, in decisions happening this quarter inside companies whose leaders are reading this piece.
By Julian Diep, Paid Acquisition Consultant, Blue Grid Media Only 11% of cited domains overlap…
The star of Extra Gum’s latest campaign “Chew Into It” is a wad of gum named Chewbert and he’s on a mission to get gum chewers everywhere to lock in and be present in the moment.
The pattern is rather clear: Trust is becoming even more critical in the age of AI and LinkedIn is doing everything they can to protect its public image.
Whether that future becomes reality may depend less on the technology itself and more on the choices the industry makes along the way.
This is the part to keep saying out loud to your teams, your CFO, and your board: the foundation we’ve all been operating in is different now, and more changes are coming.
Research exists to help companies understand how real people behave, not to produce cleaner-looking outputs.
For decades, soccer in North America occupied an unusual position. It was undeniably popular among participants yet the sport often remained on the periphery of mainstream cultural conversation.
The future of marketing is unlikely to belong to either humans or machines alone. Instead, it will belong to organizations that understand how to combine the strengths of both.
Creator marketing doesn’t reward optimization, it rewards rigor.
The AI referral moment will not be won in the answer box alone.
By Esther Raphael, CMO, Intersection Major cultural milestones don’t just capture attention. They create collective…
The brands that consistently create experiences people remember are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most elaborate fabrications.
If the existing model continues to deteriorate, the answer cannot be to simply hope that the market corrects itself.
What Google quietly taught marketers about quality control, and the lesson goes well beyond local search.
With full data integration, marketing leaders can also get more value from their martech stack’s real-time monitoring and learning capabilities.
The marketers who win the zero-click era won’t be the ones with the best schema markup.
If agency leaders don’t exemplify Possibilitarian attitudes and behaviors, the culture won’t either.
Google may lose its crown, and search and marketing, plus story-telling, may become easier and less costly for the small and the bif enterprises.
The dark funnel needs to be strategically navigated and understood.
Consumer behavior is too ingrained, and the broader commerce ecosystem too entrenched, for any single platform to fully contain the journey.
Daily use of custom-built, AI-enhanced workflows and processes will be standard practice across our global workforce by year-end, and EMEA is tracking nicely against the ambition.
By Giulia Mazzei, Influencer Marketing Director, Greenpark Brands have long treated search as a technical…
ICYMI, a clothing collection starring Pillsbury’s beloved Doughboy mascot dropped on Friday May 15, 2026.
The real question is not whether AI will make advertising more efficient. It almost certainly will. The real question is whether the industry can prevent “better performance” from becoming a euphemism for worse markets, weaker trust, and bigger external costs.
When these elements align, brands can turn attention into measurable outcomes and improve the return on every campaign.
In an era where brands and agencies are under increasing pressure to prove social impact isn’t just performative, partnerships that combine community, culture and long-term commitment are beginning to stand out from the noise.
A reminder that attention is still shaped by what we allow to linger.
At the end of the day, AI stands for different things to different people and, in my experience, it is artificial and its “intelligence” is debatable.
The move toward agentic systems will not happen all at once, but many of its components are already in place.
Where does interest genuinely begin, and how easy is it to act while that interest is still there?
Adlook research across six markets shows how casual fans and match outcomes can change everything about campaign timing.
By Shane Buckley, Head of UKI Restaurants, Uber Advertising From pre-match snacks to watch parties…
The answers to these questions are the beginning of your experiential principles.
Those who cannot move beyond calendar-based marketing are actively losing relevance.
In a world where everything is optimized, automated, and increasingly controlled, the advantage doesn’t go to the brands with the best tools.
The industry has done something genuinely impressive within media innovation.
Marketing leaders do not need another year of chasing disconnected innovation.
Understanding where GenAI Search fits in the funnel, keeping governance at the forefront, and having SEO and SEM strategies designed to reach consumers at both the top and bottom of the funnel, will support success in the AI era.
This is the final call for airlines that want to differentiate themselves in the modern travel landscape.
In the end, my take on Kellogg’s strategy is that it is a great idea for this moment in marketing, authentic to the brands, and offers a great creative canvas, but Kellogg’s should start planning what’s next because these strategies have a shorter shelf life than the products they are helping sell.
The founders I’ve seen complete a sale process successfully are well prepared from the outset.
Durable media businesses own the customer relationship, shape the advertiser relationship, and maintain control over the environments where monetization happens.
Search marketers must also become experts in the evolving effect of AI on search.
The audience is guaranteed. The revenue is not.
As categories continue to slide into a homogenous and undistinguished middle, a mindset shift is required.
Do you remember when a typical bag of plain M&M’s didn’t have blue candies inside it?
By Julia Pascual, Social & Influencer Strategist, AntiSocial To say that culture is demanding is…
The brands still treating privacy and performance as a trade-off aren’t just leaving money on the table.
By Karim Rayes, Chief Product Officer, Nexxen Brands and advertisers have spent the past several…
By Elissa Brown, North America E-Commerce Industry Lead As agency holding companies fuse and expand…
By Chengcheng LI, Account Hero at SuperHeroes For years, the fashion industry operated on an…
By Tomas Forsbäck, CEO and Founder, Readpeak In November 2025, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and…
By Brock Berry, Founder and CEO of AdCellerant The advertising industry loves to talk about…
By Jenn Scilabro, Chief Growth Officer at Ribeye It’s no secret that local media is…
By Paul Sobel, CEO, Dataline The April 20 edition of Marketecture is perfect. It’s the…
By Megan Gall, VP of Strategy, Innovid There was a time when digital strategy meant…
By Sarah Potemkin, Canvas Worldwide, SVP- Managing Director-Performance Media In the mid-1970s, Kodak invented the…
Retailers should have a goal enabling brands to reach high-intent shoppers at the precise moment of purchase decision, with measurable, closed-loop attribution tied directly to POS sales data, something few digital channels can replicate.
When the data is clean, wastage drops, performance improves, and user experience is better.
Martech buying needs to get back to the fundamentals of what a market is supposed to do: connect serious buyers with qualified vendors.
The next phase of advertising will not be defined simply by who automates the bid best.
In 2026, the businesses that win aren’t the ones launching the loudest campaigns. They’re the ones showing up consistently.
Consumers move seamlessly across environments throughout the day. Media plans should work the same way.
What do you know about the Dole Food Company mascot, Bobby Banana?
If there is one lesson I’ve learned running multiple ad campaigns in FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships is that it’s important to advertise early.
Much of the fragmentation that defines digital advertising today exists because humans are stitching together dozens of tools, intermediaries and data layers.
Awareness months provide an opportunity to reflect on how the industry is evolving and where it can improve.
Programmatic has become more powerful, but also harder to manage. For many teams, the challenge isn’t access to tools. It’s understanding what’s working, where spend is going, and how to act on it quickly.
The organisations that will thrive in the next phase of data-driven marketing are not necessarily those with the biggest datasets, but those with the most collaborative and privacy-focused approach to using and connecting them.
The brands that win in this environment will not be the ones producing the most content. They will be the ones producing the most distinct, credible, and contextually relevant content.
AI isn’t rewarding whoever publishes the most content. Instead, it’s rewarding whoever is the most believable and credible.
The brands that win aren’t the ones with the boldest ambitions. They’re the ones honest enough to name their actual constraints—and ruthless enough to exploit them.
An uneven focus on owned inventory means retailers are failing to maximise opportunities or accommodate the true nature of multi-media buying.
A new campaign from Heineken® 0.0 has revealed Serena Williams as its new global ambassador in a multi-year partnership, seeing her step back on court to surprise unexpecting padel players.
As marketing strategies are constantly changing, brands should be focused on talking to their customers in a more personalized and meaningful way after their order.
The next phase of marketing will be defined by who removes the most friction from decision-making.
The question isn’t whether your brand is ready for AI. It’s whether your operating model is ready for anything at all.
Modern marketing is all about who has the most agile talent. By the time a performance gap is visible in your data, the opportunity to lead the market has already passed.
The audience isn’t going anywhere. The targeting, measurement and self-serve tools will get built because OpenAI can’t scale a real ads business without them.
In the end, the goal isn’t a satisfied client who got the marketing equivalent of a pair of khakis. It’s a client who gets promoted because the work surpassingly worked.
As fandoms continue to mature into cultural ecosystems, physical environments will carry greater emotional weight. Guests want places that validate their passions, reflect their identities, and create moments worth revisiting in memory.
Hybrid campaigns that blend in-person moments with digital amplification turn a single sensory trial into cross-platform engagement and real retail impact.
One of the biggest reasons brands struggle with gaming is deceptively simple: they don’t know what it is.
We can build a web where creating genuine value for users is the most direct path to sustainable revenue. We know what that looks like.
This is retail media’s own MACH moment, and this shift into open and transformative technologies is essential for those who are serious about making retail media work to its full potential by cutting costs and speeding up innovation.
By Ben Bloch, Founder & CEO, VenturePR For decades, the world operated within a very…
By pairing a flexible mindset with thoughtful, incremental adoption of technology, marketers can move beyond rigid strategies and truly ride the waves of modern consumer behavior.
The most effective marketers don’t see OOH as an awareness medium that needs to be backed up by social, display and digital video, but as a starting point that signals intent and creates a buzz for omnichannel campaigns.
By moving away from black-box buying and using intelligent, transparent AI to embed Relevance into every impression, advertisers can finally escape the race to the bottom.
The “AI vs. Human” debate is a distraction. The real competition is between brands that are stuck in the rigid workflows of the past and those that have built a flexible foundation for the future.
It seems nostalgia is everywhere these days – even in digital media and advertising.
It’s tempting for large, established brands to believe they’re insulated. History suggests otherwise.
By now we should all be able to agree that design is not disposable—so why are we allowing brands to treat it as such?
Last-click attribution was meant to be a shortcut. But somewhere along the way, it became a strategy for the unimaginative.
Don’t try to please everyone. Know your audience, stay true to your DNA, and update with intent, not panic.
The $1 trillion question isn’t how to make more. It’s how to finally know what works.
In this environment, success will come down to making smarter decisions: where to invest, where to show up, and how to find real users in a fragmented landscape.
Building authentic, human connections with consumers requires marketers to lead with empathy, build community, invite participation, and champion new possibilities.
Whether knowingly or not, these brands are tapping into the power that shared beliefs have in drawing people closer together in the name of something bigger than themselves.
Understanding the present, systematically, professionally, and deeply catching its trends will become increasingly vital for any company or entrepreneur.
The Smart TV Home Screen isn’t just another ad slot. It’s the entry point to the entire CTV experience, guiding attention, shaping engagement and influencing what viewers do next.
We’ve engineered all the danger out of the work. And in doing so, we’ve engineered out everything that matters.
2026 is not a year for sitting on the sidelines. Despite economic challenges, the overwhelming strategy is investing strategically instead of pulling back.
If your AI strategy is not designed to deepen what your organisation uniquely knows, it is not a strategy. It is an efficiency programme looking for a narrative.
Small businesses that invest in structured content, social-search synergy, technical consistency, short-form optimization, and measurable trust signals won’t just rank better — they’ll convert better.
The future belongs to franchises that treat fandom not as a moment, but as a continuously evolving relationship—powered by intelligence, scaled by technology, and grounded in human emotion.
Publishers may be getting the legal framework, but what they still lack is the measurement layer that tracks what actually happens to their content once it enters an AI system.
What’s it like to be the face of the “World’s Most Famous Building?” It’s the kind of question only Emma Pire, the Empire State Building’s mascot and beloved social media sensation, can answer.
The AI era feels like the dot-com era of the late 1990s. There was a huge surge of interest and investment, and when that investment got a little bit ahead of the market, there was a crash.
Supply path optimization is talked about like a major initiative, but many brands don’t respond accordingly.
Authenticity comes at a premium, and in a media landscape dominated by personal devices and algorithm-driven content, appearing visibly in the real world carries a different kind of impact.
Weak signals produce weak outcomes. Strong, intentional signals—even imperfect ones—give automation something real to learn from.
With the right strategy, Mother’s Day becomes more than a seasonal promotion — it becomes a moment to deepen engagement, increase conversions, and position your brand as part of your customers’ most meaningful celebrations.
The question isn’t “what should our new brand look like?” It’s “what is the old brand preventing us from becoming?”
Industry leaders share their takeaways from this year’s Advertising Week Europe.
Without modernizing the enrichment layer, agentic programmatic risks becoming a faster orchestration engine optimizing on yesterday’s data.
veryone has tools and scale, today’s advantage comes from combining multiple validated data sources, understanding where that data originates, and using it to tell a more authentic story to your audience than your competitors can.
In an era where every dollar is scrutinized, confidence in measurement may be one of the most valuable signals of all.
Creating a world-class client experience isn’t a methodology or a set of processes. It’s about showing a genuine interest in your clients every step of the way.
Apple didn’t succeed in OOH despite constraints. It succeeded because it embraced them.
Colonel Sanders pitches the KFC Box Feast meals to a group of shareholders. They’re outraged about being encouraged to sell value meals to consumers and demand to know who the Colonel thinks he is.
Attention is now giving way to transaction-level signals. Each step has brought marketers closer to the bottom line, and each step has also narrowed the definition of success.
The brands that adapt will invest in credible partnerships, understand how AI systems surface information, and design strategies that connect influence to outcomes – not just impressions.
YouTube leaving BARB isn’t a failure of the system, but confirmation that independent measurement still matters. Walled gardens will always struggle with shared accountability because it dilutes control.
James Cornish, senior VP of international sales and partnerships at Vevo, began this session with a presentation on how brands can leverage global moments across music, sport, and tech.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Although we are not leaving optimisation behind, brands must make a more conscious effort to identify the messages that travel across content.
Experiential success will no longer be measured by weekend footfall alone. It will be measured by the connections and culture that flourish within a space.
A lot of advertisers are talking about using AI to build new creative from scratch but that misses the point.
Music isn’t just an accessory to content – it’s a launchpad for discovery.
This generation isn’t rejecting digital media; they’re rejecting anything that feels passive or disconnected from the world around them.
Only one cookie company is known for having Scottish terrier-shaped treats and that’s Walker’s Shortbread.
The future of marketing isn’t something that will arrive—it’s being built right now, and it requires partnership.
The sound-off era is over. Jenny Haggard, the Global Head of Thought Leadership at Spotify, gave an introduction into how audio innovations are altering the media landscape.
By Helen Myers, Advertising Week Correspondent Milka Privodanova, VP Large Customers International at LinkedIn, led…
Every new targeting signal follows the same curve. Early movers get premium performance at low competition. Then the market catches up.
AI audiences are at the beginning of that curve. The publishers who build the muscle now — who learn which segments perform, which formats convert, which AI sources deliver the best ROI — will have a structural advantage when this becomes the default.
Ultimately, the job of a brand in 2026 is to make space for stories to unfold: stories sparked by real experiences and carried forward by the people who lived them.
By combining insights into community influence with precise mail targeting, brands can convert human trust into commercial outcomes, proving that traditional channels still have a role to play in a modern, data-driven marketing strategy.
Communities do not exist for the benefit of brands. They exist because people want to spend time developing the interests they care about with others who share them.
Until the industry starts talking seriously about share, what drives it, what limits it, and how to grow it, OOH’s future will be defined more by comfort than conviction.
AI may industrialise advertising, but it will not automate taste.
The industry will need new frameworks and better technology to help clarify what “real” engagement actually means, and it needs them today, not tomorrow.
In a media landscape defined by fragmentation and algorithms, formats that generate both real-time engagement and sustained distribution are poised to hold the advantage—and livestreaming, amplified by clipping, is quickly becoming one of them.
From the moment someone decides where they want to go, they expect the journey, both digital and physical, to feel smooth, personal and well considered.
The brands that performed best on Oscar night were not the ones with the biggest budgets. They were the ones that understood their audience and showed up with intention.
For rights holders seeking to future-proof their sponsorship strategy, the AI Experience Room may represent the next generation of monetizable sponsorship assets.
In “A Story Inspired by True Memorable Moments,” we see the travel experience told through Pilot Parker’s eyes. Let’s watch.
Social media is a fickle and fluid beast. Avoiding these mistakes is your best chance to master the small business social media marketing space for the long haul.
The World Cup offers a global stage. It should not become a case study in how advertising changes the game. It should be an example of how advertising evolves to support it.
Agents, with buyers and sellers as their masters, provide an opportunity to reshape all facets of the digital advertising market in the interests of its participants, not its gatekeepers.
Just because the ecosystem continues to become more complex, advertisers should not abandon hope for a simplified path to performance.
Everyone has an AI agent now. Very few have one that actually knows what it’s looking at. That distinction is the whole game.
The value proposition of social commerce is clear. Audiences are fracturing, and it’s getting harder to reach Gen Z with conventional advertising.
A smart, timely billboard speaks volumes. It can react, adapt, and connect in a way no 15-second skipable video ever will.
In 2026, production isn’t a scarce resource, but perspective can be.
AI-built models are designed specifically to take advantage of correlations between a brand’s audience and behaviors exhibited within a database, no matter how counterintuitive those correlations may seem on the surface.
There’s an irony buried in the AI revolution that nobody wants to talk about.
Some luxury marketers do stand out for the way they apply these sort of principles to position aged products, historical places and various heritage and legacy brands.
Marketers are stuck in Plato’s cave. Attribution, experiments, and MMM each cast different shadows. None reveals true incrementality. The truth remains unknowable.
Commerce media is a growth engine. But it is system intelligence, not isolated optimization, that determines how powerful that engine becomes.
For marketers and brands, the takeaway is clear: nostalgia doesn’t just tell us what people like — it tells us why they buy.
The next era of brand experience won’t be defined by prediction, but by stewardship.
What comes to mind if you’re tasked to come up with a mascot for a weed killer brand? Your brainstorm session might be more likely to include a live-action spokesperson or an animated ornery weed — and less likely to consider a dog.
Thomas’ Breads made headlines in 2024 when the breakfast breads purveyor announced the debut of Thom, their first-ever character.
To explore how brands can build sustained cultural impact, leaders have shared their perspectives on what brands still misunderstand about IWD.
In an industry where loyalty often depends on understanding as much as visibility, giving consumers a space to ask questions, explore ideas, and discover products in their own way may prove to be one of the most meaningful innovations of all.
Automotive media isn’t becoming more effective by adding more channels. It’s becoming more effective by becoming more aligned and eliminating silos.
Integration should simplify the stack, not add to it. The goal is fewer systems, fewer dashboards, and fewer reconciliations—without sacrificing visibility or control.
Better questions allow systems to produce better answers, and better answers lead to better decisions.
Global campaigns should be the most powerful work a brand produces. Yet somehow, they’re often the most forgettable.
Across the industry, CMOs are confronting an uncomfortable truth: the dashboards they’ve relied on for years often provide a distorted picture of what drives growth.
When measurement frameworks help answer questions about revenue growth, profitability, and long-term brand equity, marketing becomes easier to defend—and easier to expand.
Marketing will remain data-driven, but insights will come from aggregated patterns and trusted collaboration rather than ubiquitous tracking.
If you’re doing these tasks manually or not at all, now’s the perfect time to let AI share the workload.
Overreach can feel opportunistic very quickly, particularly when emotion is involved. Brands that navigate these situations successfully tend to share three characteristics.
The future of advertising will not be won by whoever finds the cleverest place to stick an ad in a chatbot.
Before we prematurely write the obituary for creativity, let’s focus on the opportunity to make meaning.
The lesson for marketers is simple: protect what makes you distinctive, but express it in a way that feels current.
If machines outperform us at ads, that may simply mean we have treated ads as the primary battleground for too long.
By Mark Bradbury, VP, Research & Insights AARP Media Advertising Network (AMAN) Marketers have made…
That is where the next era of enterprise software is going. Not the end of SaaS. The end of SaaS that never earned the right to exist in the new world.
Let’s stop asking what AI might take away, and start designing for what it can help people become.
The next era of marketing won’t be defined by automation alone, but by the intelligence that comes from understanding what to automate, what to measure, and what to humanize.
The question for every brand right now isn’t “how do we buy more attention?” It’s “why would anyone choose to participate?”
For marketers watching the AI race, the takeaway is which company is structurally positioned to monetize AI at scale.
For advertisers, the smartest media bets are on partners that know exactly who they are, who they serve and how your message fits naturally into that story.
Every scene is a potential brand moment. The question is whether you’re in them.
For marketers facing personalization fatigue, the solution isn’t more precise targeting. It’s more meaningful presence.
The agencies that move decisively in 2026 will look back on this moment as the inflection point. The ones that don’t will wonder why they missed it.
By embedding these questions into your content process, you make every page more likely to surface in AI answers, without sacrificing human readability.
Audio already has the audience and the cultural relevance. Now it’s time for it to earn its performance credentials.
The brands that win will be those that show up early, align with passions, and use trusted environments, combined with smart first-party data targeting, to influence decisions before a booking is made.
Commerce media spent its first decade inside walled gardens. The next decade will be defined by what happens now that it’s free.
Netflix isn’t betting on any single show to secure its future. It’s betting that habit, built from moments that bring people in and libraries that keep them there, is the most defensible advantage in modern media.
Luxury will always be defined by craftsmanship and creativity. But in the modern era, digital experience is becoming just as important as physical expression.
Advertising has yet to determine how brand mascots can successfully retire, if they should retire at all.
The agentic era is here. The question is, will we shape it with intention, or will we let it shape us?
Pam Kaufman’s hire marks the end of pretending this was optional, at least for brands that want to stay culturally present.
February campaigns should be a ramp up that starts off slow before building to Valentine’s Day.
The future belongs to those who control and take ownership over their data. For agencies who embrace this in 2026, the future is bright.
The future of brand influence is not about the loudest single moment. It is about the longest presence.
The forces reshaping agencies are not simply cost-cutting measures, they are a response to how brands market and how consumers behave.
The AI search reckoning isn’t a temporary disruption. It’s a permanent restructuring of how audiences discover and consume content.
Ultimately, the reason everyone has their own “flavor” of SPO is because SPO is not one-size-fits-all.
Antonia Faulkner, Head of Corporate Communications and Ads Marketing, Analytics and Insights EMEA, Samsung Ads explores how the home screen is evolving from a passive starting point into one of the most compelling marketing environments.
Marketing has always been about creativity, connection, and impact. Today, thanks to AI, it is also about precision.
The future of performance marketing isn’t about choosing the right channel. It’s about understanding contribution and rewarding it accordingly.
This isn’t just an AriZona story. It’s a warning for every brand navigating inflation, loyalty, and cultural relevance. When trust is part of your equity, protecting it isn’t optional—it’s the work.
From AI to ROI, the path is clear. Brands that focus on trust today will be in a strong position, regardless of how technology evolves.
PopIcon spoke to Allison Feldman, Vice President Fabric Softener and Personal Care Brands at Snuggle, to learn more about the Bear’s rebranding.
Every platform requires its own strategy. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are not interchangeable.
It’s time for agencies to get beyond the Mad Men thinking. Their job isn’t to ask how to get the right message across a particular channel to maximise efficiencies, it’s how to get the most useful message out to drive growth where it’s most needed.
Metrics like view-through conversions, watch time, video completion rate and thumb-stop rate offer a far more accurate view of effectiveness.
Bear with me here—Bad Bunny delivered the best ad of the Super Bowl. Not the best halftime show (who cares about that ranking?), but the best ad.
AI shows advertisers how well an ad is understood and which components within the creative are going to appeal to the needs and tastes of the target audience.
If your measurement only exists inside the platforms, your strategy isn’t owned, it’s rented.
Retail media’s next chapter will be shaped by whoever succeeds in making the broader retail landscape work as a system rather than a collection of silos.
With the FIFA World Cup less than six months away, are your advertising and marketing plans set?
Is it possible to build your dream man? The answer is yes, according to Pringles Big Game ad (and their mascot Mr. P.
AI promises to redefine MMM entirely, ushering in an era of live, organic intelligence systems that fundamentally alter the human role in strategic marketing.
Publishers have split into two camps: those who license, and those who sue.
In an AI-obsessed world, the brands that stand out will be the ones that truly know when technology enhances the human experience and when it gets in the way.
The collective turn-away from traditional media combined with the fragmentation and saturation of social media makes it harder for brands to cut through. But there is one channel that is largely underused, despite high engagement: live entertainment.
With all eyes on the TV and let’s be honest, TikTok. Super Bowl commercials have always been the main event.
Agencies that emerge stronger will be the ones that treat flexibility (organizationally and technologically) as a core business strategy, not a contingency plan.
In a crowded and competitive media environment, incrementality is becoming a practical way to understand performance — and for marketers prove CTV’s value.
For agencies, this work serves as a wake-up call for 2026. Generative tools are accelerating, but the creative standard is not.
We asked industry leaders if they are expanding their thinking, or shifting it away from craft and judgement towards systems, speed and scale.
The real shift isn’t that machines replace humans. It’s that the way performance decisions are made changes. AdTech taught the industry how to automate buying and selling.
AI does not need to be expensive to be transformative, allowing for processes that were previously out of reach to become a reality.
If Valentine’s Day hasn’t been a high priority in the past, now is the time to explore how you can create meaningful consumer connections in February that will last year-round.
The future of the open web depends on the ability to prove that an audience is paying attention, not scrolling through content mechanically.
Systems scale assumptions quickly, whether they are sound or flawed. Reexamining how audiences are defined and managed is not a technical exercise. It is a strategic one.
Effective media buying doesn’t start with activation. It starts with the right planning elements combined with up to the minute knowledge of pricing and opportunities in the media marketplace.
At what point does buyer insecurity harm conversions? It could be argued that it reduces purchase intent even before web visitors have taken their first action.
Football’s biggest night, Super Bowl LX, is shaping up to be a little lighter than usual when it comes to brand mascot appearances.
This is what it would look like for pharma marketing to truly catch up to the rest of digital, not in theory, but in practice.
These brands don’t just grow faster—they’re also more resilient. During economic downturns, Go-to Brands lose only half as much market value as their peers.
The tech startup playbook has been straightforward for decades: Raise capital, hire aggressively, scale fast. The correlation between funding and headcount was nearly linear.
Creators with meaningful audience relationships demonstrate that influence isn’t about size, it’s about impact
The green economy isn’t just a movement. It’s a structural shift in the market. The first wave of sustainability may have faded, but a second is already emerging.
The Olympics no longer signal the future of programmatic. They reinforce its role at the center of premium media.
The bottom line? 2026 looks like a year of maturation. The shiny-object syndrome is fading, replaced by a focus on what actually works.
Retailers and media buyers want to influence the same moments, but still operate on different datasets, measurement models and incentives. The technology already exists to unify them.
Advertising’s introduction to the Jet-Puffed marshmallow mascots occurred five years ago in August 2020.
Brand leaders, you’re in the care business now, whether or not “health” is on your label. That means you need to play a more supportive role in people’s lives.
With game day just around the corner, now’s the time to pressure-test whether your measurement setup reflects how marketing actually works: in spikes of attention, shifts in timing, and campaign effects that ripple across channels.
Continuous, in-context research keeps advertisers close to audiences as viewing habits change, helping them stay a step ahead of what people will watch, share, and buy next.
Brands that build assets with these models in mind, and supply them with consistent, well-defined signals, are more likely to appear accurately and consistently as AI-first experiences expand.
In 2026, we’ll separate the marketers chasing efficiency from the ones building effectiveness. The difference will come down to who can prove it.
CES 2026 reinforced a simple truth: the future of experiential marketing belongs to brands that combine intelligent technology with deeply human design.
In the here and now, the challenges and opportunities around interoperability will continue to shape open web advertising’s supply chain and the priorities of those who operate within it.
AI search isn’t killing marketing fundamentals. It’s exposing how fragile our assumptions about measurement have become.
Athlete – and fan-owned media distribution and entertainment network adds media veteran Ghee (CNN, BET,…
In 2026, the luxury sector is poised to regain its sparkle, but only for the brands willing to rethink the fundamentals.
The future belongs to businesses that combine data intelligence with brand-led creativity. When used well, data amplifies both trust and targeting, without bogging teams down in shallow click metrics.
Agentic buying won’t change agency economics because it’s innovative. It will change them because, built on better data and tighter publisher connections, it delivers outcomes the old stack simply can’t.
Q5 offers an opportunity to move beyond one-size-fits-all discounting. Instead of rewarding everyone simultaneously, brands can reward those who truly deserve it, for the work they do to better our communities.
Dos Equis announced on January 16, 2026, their iconic spokescharacter known as “The Most Interesting Man in the World” is back to encourage and inspire the next generation to “Stay Thirsty.”
In a world where attention is ever scarcer and AI is reshaping discovery, trust is the key.
2026 won’t reward businesses that simply do more—it will reward those that focus on what matters most.
The most critical step in prepping for an AI bubble is recognizing what the bubble is: neither a certainty nor a fantasy, but a nontrivial risk.
Playable ads will enrich the user experience, spurred on by no-code tools that incorporate more marketing expertise into the creation process. Automated media buying and targeting will expedite decision-making and redefine media roles.
The infrastructure for performance-driven programmatic is already here. The question for 2026 isn’t whether performance partnerships will redefine the ecosystem; it’s who will lead the shift and who will be left behind.
The consolidation theme is about finding trusted vendors with the expertise to build lasting, cost-efficient solutions that withstand scrutiny and deliver results in the current media outlook.
The best experiences don’t need to explain the technology behind them. They’ll reflect confidence, clarity and care in how they were made.
Audio is everywhere, yet too many advertisers are still treating it as background noise. That’s a missed opportunity.
The question is not whether privacy controls will drift in a dynamic, AI-accelerated environment. They will.
The successful CMO of 2026 treats culture as a field study. They understand customers as people navigating identity, community, and meaning.
Brands that show up authentically during this full window—supporting all of the active behaviors just listed out—can earn something more durable than seasonal sales from Latine consumers: trust, loyalty, and long-term relevance.
Sean Adams, chief marketing officer, Brand Metrics, believes we can predict future ad outcomes using the unprecedented power of consistent measurement data
Festival season isn’t a date in the diary. It’s a mindset. And it starts long before the fields fill up.
What comes to mind when you think of nature’s greatest mascots? Odds are pretty good you’ll refer to animals like Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl.
Steve Stretton, Executive Creative Director for global marketing activation partner, HH Global, explores shifting attitudes towards AI and a new opportunity for brands that need to promote AI capabilities
Pinterest saw these forces clearly. Others will follow. The main question now: Who will adapt quickly enough to lead in the Outcomes Era?
If 2025 was a year of change in the marketing world, 2026 will be even more transformative. We can anticipate significant leaps in AI, which will extend to creative decision-making, media targeting, and influencer marketing.
To explore where AI enhances branding and where it risks homogenising it, leaders have shared their perspectives on why brand identity still needs a human core.
In this collection of perspectives from agency and consultancy leaders, a clear throughline emerges: the businesses that win in 2026 will be those that use technology to amplify — not replace — human insight, creativity and leadership.
As editing becomes more embedded in how people learn, work, and connect, CapCut will continue to focus on intuitive tools that support creativity without friction.
What comes next is bigger than a new tactic; it’s a shift in how we plan, activate, optimize, and collaborate across the open web.
The next wave of innovation in CTV won’t come from more data. It will come from making the data simple enough for everyone to use.
This fusion of data, cognitive science, and personalization gives political campaigns the power to transform passive audiences into active participants.
AI will shape the future of creativity, advertising, and media. But only if it’s built on a foundation that respects the people whose work makes it possible.
Your relationship goes beyond simply selling them a product. You want them to buy from you multiple times.
We were lucky enough to chat with John Ludeke, SVP of Global Marketing at Dr. Squatch, who explains the surprising reason why their mascot is a sasquatch, the one question fans can’t stop asking him, and where we might see the mascot land next in 2026.
SEO has historically been often underfunded and overlooked. But today, both SEO and GEO are business critical.
As marketers shift more budget into connected TV (CTV), identity continues to be the biggest success hurdle for the channel.
David Nelson, co-founder and CEO at Limelight Inc. praises the multifaceted expertise of ad networks in managing the omni-chaos of today’s programmatic space, and offers one critical piece of advice
As pressure mounts for marketers to prove what truly moves the needle, a new frontier is emerging inside Marketing Mix Models: creative effectiveness.
The future of retail media hinges on a single question: Who wins the user?
Agentic AI is eating the world because it tells systems and processes what to do — across your entire stack.
The year 2025 has brought back onto the agenda the legacy systems of measurement and decreasing usefulness under the weight of accelerating signal loss.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Every product search that starts inside an AI assistant is one less opportunity for a publisher or creator to influence the shopper.
We’ve just launched our first-ever Holiday Sweepstakes, with ten grand prizes for ten small businesses in ten cities: $10,000 in IRL ad media, each.
CTV advertising is one of the fastest-growing areas of marketing worldwide, and voice commands are the new frontier. It’s not a chocolate bar coming through your TV, but it’s getting pretty close.
A well-designed martech stack leads to better personalization, drives more sales at velocity, and gives clear oversight into the specific actions that move the business.
As AI accelerates and marketing budgets tighten, creativity is thriving in chaos, but only when guided by clarity. The boldest ideas are coming from brands that turn evidence into conviction and use data to bring creative freedom.
Marketers cannot overlook top- and mid-funnel tactics if they want to make a real impact in peak shopping season.
Attribution can tell a story. Incrementality tells the truth. And in a world defined by shrinking signals and rising expectations, the truth is what will win the battle for ROI.
The next phase of local ad sales won’t involve chasing the newest channel or adopting the latest acronym.
The brands that learn fastest from their failures will be the ones leading the pack by year-end. Start building that capability now, while you have the space to get it right.
Going viral is a sugar rush. Belonging builds enduring brand equity—the kind that keeps you relevant long after the spotlight fades.
The age of the “10 blue links” is ending. Here is how to measure your brand’s health when consumers stop searching and start asking.
This time, the new year is less about what will happen with cookies and more about what happens right now
Brands that invest in communities, foster dialogue across lines of difference, and tell honest stories don’t just earn attention—they earn loyalty.
The 2025 Go-to Brands List is a reminder that, even in a world obsessed with tech, trends, and transformation, the brands that win are the ones that make people feel seen, supported, and empowered.
The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl will be more than a football game this year. It’s a homecoming celebration for Cheez-It’s beloved, and previously retired, mascot Prince Cheddward.
At its best, this Americana goes global moment isn’t about one side winning. It’s about consumers on both sides of the Atlantic looking for the same thing.
Sustainability needs to taste simple, actionable, guilt-free, and unlock value pools that would be impossible to activate in a world pre-AI and pre-efficiency fever.
Organizations that adapt early will gain an edge. Those that continue to optimize only for traditional search will find themselves increasingly invisible to the intelligent intermediaries shaping tomorrow’s information ecosystem.
As vehicles and mobility become more complex and shopper expectations rise, a new form of intelligent, conversational digital engagement is reshaping how consumers explore, understand, and choose their next vehicle.
As human beings we tend to romanticize the past. A harkening back to times when the world was less complicated.
Once everyone has AI, the real advantage for marketers will come from the data no one else has — both their own and their partners’
The future of influencer marketing isn’t transactional. It’s relational. And it starts with recognising that influencers are brand partners, not adverts.
With 2025 poised to be the first quarter trillion-dollar holiday season, it’s a time of opportunity for brands ready to embrace the challenge and deliver meaningful, memorable experiences.
Economic cycles aren’t new and many brands have successfully navigated a path through. Those that do have asked and answered the following questions.
Privacy by Design as a Competitive Edge: Embedding privacy safeguards from the ground up—such as differential privacy mechanisms and zero-knowledge proofs—builds user loyalty.
The 2026 World Cup will be the largest yet, with matches spanning stadiums in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Its scale means both the potential rewards and the risks will be greater.
By Peter Wilmot, chief product officer at Shopsense AI For years, holiday shopping has been…
We have spent years teaching AI to sound human. The next step is teaching it something far more valuable: humility.
Brands are voting with their feet. CPM fees on first-party data are on their way out. And once they’re gone, they’ll be gone forever.
As we enter 2026, one thing is clear. AI may be the engine of modern marketing, but data is the driver’s seat. Those who own it, protect it, and understand its value will lead the way.
What the industry needs to do is to create brand governance measurement so that we have a similar language and framework for this idea.
It’s 27 years since The Experience Economy was written, but it’s only now thanks to innovations like TVOOH that the concept is coming to full fruition.
The future of creativity is neurodiverse. Agencies and brands that embrace that truth won’t just build stronger, more inclusive cultures – they’ll deliver better, more resonant work.
If the deal sounds too good to be true, it’s probably because you’re paying for it somewhere you can’t see.
The future of growth belongs to the leaders, and the CMOs, who understand that visibility isn’t just exposure. It’s equity.
They said I do! Kevin the Carrot has officially wed his longtime sweetheart, Katie, close to 10 years after they first met.
The franchises that find success won’t just be fielding a team to compete; they’ll become a publisher and media platform in their own right. The blueprint for success is already out there. Now is the time for the leagues and franchises to take the ball and run.
SMEs must be prepared to learn and experiment, but they don’t need to sit on the sidelines of programmatic. With the right guidance, they can claim their seat at the table – and challenge the dominance of legacy players with smarter, leaner campaigns.
The AI industry will be stronger if more women are visible making claims, predictions, and statements as freely as men do.
Start saying no, to vanity, to product-first thinking and briefs with no heart. Tell your product team you’ll take it from here.
Gaming isn’t just a category to consider, it’s a cultural phenomenon that intersects with fashion, music, film, and more. The good news is it’s not too late – brands can show up authentically with custom in game experiences.
Black Friday isn’t just a day for customers to grab the best deals – for businesses, it’s an exercise in testing their systems and proving that they can handle anything that comes their way.
The media lift effect offers a way forward by connecting performance, creative excellence, and media precision into one finely tuned engine.
Retailers have a chance to turn the pet aisle into something immersive, blending data-led understanding with creativity.
Signals, not segments, will define how we buy media, optimize creative, and measure media going forward.
The label ‘influencer’ no longer captures this reality. It reduces a diverse ecosystem into a single, superficial category.
As large language models evolve from summarizing content to performing actions, publishers’ monetization models must evolve too.
Before selecting or evaluating an AI partner, ensure they understand retail’s unique physics by asking these critical questions.
Remember how groundbreaking it was for the 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl to have not one, not two, but three edible mascots? Game day will reach next-level intensity at the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl.
Thanks to the streaming revolution, viewers are turning away from linear TV in droves. Even sports are seeing seismic shifts in how fans engage with content.
The bigger task is strategic: Atlas ushers in the cognitive internet, where brand visibility depends on how clearly you can be read, reasoned with and recommended. The only question is, who will be ready first?
We all know markets and media spaces are fiercely competitive and budgets are under the cosh. So, we don’t believe in only instinct to land unfair ideas.
The world of digital luxury is underserved right now; but it’s also full of potential. Research shows that luxury retailers who can nail customer experience will reap the highest levels of revenue.
Even the most conscientious, emotionally intelligent leaders have blind spots when it comes to truly understanding everyone on their team.
The next phase of AI-driven marketing will be defined by who has the best data.
True brand power comes from people talking about you because they want to – not because they were paid to.
While brands are unwilling to relinquish hard-won cohesion, there’s some movement toward pushing against monolithic rigidity, in favor of a more flexible, realist’s approach.
There’s still plenty of creative voices in the industry who think embracing AI is like joining the dark side.
What do we really pay when we buy cheap data? Often, far more than the price tag suggests.
By Romulus Stoian, Regional Director Strategic Partnerships at VIOOH Picture this: it’s Black Friday, 9:32…
When you start with the business challenge—not the technology—you make better investments, unlock faster value, and build solutions that actually scale.
For years, the narrative has been that malls are relics of the past, casualties of e-commerce and shifting consumer habits. But Gen Z is rewriting that story.
Aldi UK’s spunky mascot has been a fixture in Christmas adverts for the last 10 years, dabbling in a bit of everything.
Most healthcare marketers are chasing visibility, and it’s costing them patients.
In a world optimised for clicks, the real opportunity lies in connection. And connection, when it’s done well, is still the most human story we can tell.
With a clear strategy, streamlined process, and creative bravery, brands can be both trend-savvy and authentic.
Display once evolved from fixed placements to programmatic targeting. CTV is evolving in the same way — from static ad pods to dynamic, creative-driven experiences.
The message is clear: contextual is no longer a fallback. It is becoming one of the most sophisticated tools in digital advertising – privacy-first, brand-safe, scalable, and now, emotionally intelligent.
In a noisy, metrics-driven world, brands that master storytelling will do more than convert – they’ll connect. And connection is what drives sales, repeat purchase, and long-term growth.
Brand marketers should explore how real-world influence networks and word-of-mouth hotspots enable more effective omnichannel strategies. Understanding group behaviour is the skeleton key to unlocking full-funnel growth.
Brand lift is an important and under-valued campaign metric. It measures the change in attitudes towards a brand as a result of an advertising campaign.
CMOs may have one of the largest technology budgets in the company, but they are not focused on technology. They are focused on transformative growth.
The 99th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will be full of larger-than-life balloons, floats and balloonicles, but one float is making a splash for its extra small size.
While the industry debates Transaction IDs, another transparency signal demonstrates how we can serve both buyer and seller interests: Mediation Auction IDs.
We spoke with Michael Pavone, the CEO and Founder of Philadelphia-based food and beverage marketing agency quench, about what he’s seeing in 2025 so far and what that might portend for 2026.
Every major shift in ad tech triggers a race for control. The rise of artificial intelligence is no different. This time, the prize is data.
Music tourism isn’t just a cultural trend – it’s an economic force. It’s reshaping travel and changing the ways consumers are choosing to spend their money.
When the brand promise and employee experience don’t align, you lose talent, creativity and growth. That’s why the CPO + CMO Power Partnership matters, says Carol-Ann White, Group Chief People Officer at Landor.
The Q3 2025 IPA Bellwether Report arrives at a delicate time, as the market slowly regains its footing after a period of hesitance.
OOH doesn’t just accompany the journey, it moves it. The channel’s strength is simple: physical context that prompts real action, right now.
The 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is already shaping up to be quite different than previous years when it comes to which brand mascots will and won’t be featured as balloons and floats.
Innovative collaboration creates personalized experiences reaching over 50 million monthly travelers
The return of the Heathrow Bears is being celebrated in an extra special way in their fourth advert.
In a year where politics dominate the headlines, your brand doesn’t need to compete with the noise. It needs to be something people can trust. And trust is built through presence, purpose, and proof.
Jamie Maw, Business Director at Advertising Week, led a round table discussion on transparency and authenticity in digital advertising presented by SonicOrigin.
In this interview, Ivan Doruda, CEO of MGID, explains why the industry’s protective systems have backfired, how this has weakened the media ecosystem, and what advertisers can do to reverse the trend.
As commerce and retail initiatives take centre stage, PrOOH is uniquely placed to drive measurable outcomes – whether that’s influencing purchase intent, reinforcing key messages close to point of sale, or boosting ROI when paired with other channels.
If we use our new skills and tools, combined with great strategy, surprising ideas and expert craft, maybe we can get better and faster at making…you know, things people are actually interested in.
Teams that survive won’t be the ones with the most experience or fanciest portfolios. Original thinking, quick adaptation, and creative edge will matter more than tools. AI won’t replace creative talent.
Reach may open the door, but resonance is what closes the deal. In today’s creator economy, performance is the premium, and it’s time our contracts caught up.
The future of B2B marketing isn’t about brand versus performance. It’s about accountability to revenue outcomes.
With markets populated by near-identical products and differentiation becoming increasingly difficult, it’s not hard to see why brands are turning to mascots en masse.
Innovative ad formats are an opportunity for advertisers to get their message across in new ways, and to avoid disrupting programming as a typical ad break might.
Thanks in part to recent data collecting enhancements by Media Monitors, radio now possesses additional leverage in market level discussions.
The future of programmatic video is not just more automation or more inventory. It’s smarter, more intentional media buying.
As AI continues to transform this industry, companies need to prepare their teams to thrive in an AI advertising era not just from the top down, but from the bottom up as well.
The hospitality industry’s century-old expertise in relationship-building is translating into media strategies that retail networks would be wise to consider.
How Mindie Kaplan Applied Innovation Principles to Build a Viral Purpose Campaign, and What it Teaches the Industry About Authentic Advocacy
By strategically leveraging their e-commerce platforms, big box retailers can win the holiday season – and power growth throughout the year.
For UK marketers, success in uncertain times comes down to clarity: know your audience, measure what matters, and align every action to revenue.
We sat down with Chris Hogg, Chief Revenue Officer at Lotame, to talk about what’s new and what isn’t with AI, why a consistent identity strategy is essential for leveraging the technology, and what marketers should be putting in their data portfolio.
The challenge for marketers is to ride the wave, using personalized, shoppable CTV to capture attention within a high-growth vertical.
It’s important we remember the store isn’t just the finish line. It’s still a touchpoint where influence is still up for grabs. Gen Z won’t be won over by clutter or noise, but with unified, consistent experiences.
The companies that thrive in the coming years will be those that master the balance: creating AI experiences that feel magical in their relevance without triggering privacy concerns. They will be the ones that choose to be helpful, not creepy.
Unless the industry embraces open collaboration and consistent standards, the default solution will always be centralized intermediary control.
In a country increasingly divided along political lines, the media we consume should strive to maintain balance and fairness.
If AI is a new engine of creative output, the (human) creative must become the emotional alchemist whose role it is to transform raw data into gold.
ontextual continuity isn’t a trend. It’s AdTech 3.0. It applies to both established and emerging brands, and the ones that master it now will own the next decade.
Relying on TV or radio alone, or ignoring the power and measurability of digital, will usually lead to inefficiencies or missed opportunities.
Whether neural data powers more relevant, empathetic campaigns or sparks a new wave of mistrust will depend on the standards we set.
By focusing on these five areas, advertisers can unlock the full potential of the open internet. In so doing, they can make every impression, every signal, and every dollar deliver real business value.
The success of the genre confirms that 50+ isn’t just a consumer group worth chasing — it’s one that the smartest brands can’t afford to let get away.
2025 continues to be the year of brand mascot firsts including the first time a character has ever intentionally lost their two front teeth.
The future belongs to brands that can maintain creative coherence while delivering contextual relevance.
Winning a championship is never about one pass or one game; it’s about consistent teamwork across the season. The same is true for data collaboration.
The brands that will win the loyalty of the next generation will be the ones that show up authentically, contribute meaningfully, and become a part of the community.
Gen Z isn’t one thing and that’s exactly the point. They can be pragmatic and idealistic, ambitious and burnt out, skeptical and deeply loyal when you earn it.
By making sure your tech stack is aligned to support and execute on their visions, marketers will be best positioned to win in 2026 and beyond.
In a world where AI is perfecting every brand’s grammar, who’s perfecting your brand’s personality?
In a market pressured by tariffs, supply chain constraints, and rising consumer expectations, auto brands cannot afford inefficiency in their media strategies.
The next era of targeting belongs to AI systems that see the whole picture — and to the leaders who know how to orchestrate them.
At Advertising Week New York, MasterCard announced the launch of its new Commerce Media Network, positioning the company at the forefront of a rapidly evolving marketing landscape where commerce, data, and digital media converge.
This shift demands a new approach and those who want to stay ahead need to rethink how they reach their audiences. A surprising growth lever in this new reality? The mobile app ecosystem.
In a panel presented by Koddi, Kathryn Lundstrom, Commerce and Sustainability Editor at AdWeek, led a discussion on the integration of programmatic retail media.
Dion Baez, VP Music Marketing at SoundCloud, sat down with artist Honey Bxby to discuss the intersection of culture and brand.
At Advertising Week, the message from the room was clear: people are done with promises. They want results.
Platforms like Cinco’s AI Experience Room are paving the way, merging the scale of digital with the warmth of human-like conversation.
The Pillsbury Doughboy, one of advertising’s smallest mascots at five inches tall, repeatedly rose to new heights this year.
Nicholas Ward, the President of Koddi, spoke with Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst at Forrester, about their recent work on running commerce media surveys.
In a panel presented by Chalice AI, brand leaders discuss the practical applications of AI in advertising.
Andy Schonfeld, CRO at Tatari led a fireside chat with Nick Fairbairn, VP of growth marketing at Chime.
Jenny Haggard, Head of Global Thought Leadership at Spotify, led a panel on the power of fandoms in the advertising and marketing realm.
Christi Geary, Head of AMP Agency (Advantage Marketing Partners), led a fast-paced discussion on thriving in today’s shoppable world—where brand love meets buyer behavior.
Tina DeSarno, Chief IA Officer at MarketCast, kicked off the panel by setting the scene and describing the current issues marketers face.
Lauren Johnson, Deputy Editor of Retail Media and Commerce of Adweek, led a panel on how PayPal is working to uplift small businesses.
Picture this: You’ve just landed your dream job.
In a world where negativity often dominates our feeds, a quiet revolution is underway—led by creators who use their platforms to uplift, heal, and inspire.
In a landscape where everyone’s chasing cultural relevance, music remains the most immediate and emotionally resonant signal of what’s next.
With over half of the Gen Z population now shopping inside social apps — and Gen Alpha, raised on ad-free streaming and algorithmic curation, rarely encountering traditional ads at all — the rules of brand engagement are due for a reset.
Cancer affects everyone, fans, players, families, and entire communities.
What does it take to reimagine and revitalize the biggest events in pop culture?
As TV, digital, and mobile continue to converge, performance marketing is entering a new era — one powered by CTV, AI, and cross-screen connectivity. In this conversation, Jay Freedman, VP of Sales at Viant, explores how connected TV has evolved from a branding play to a measurable performance channel and what this shift means for marketers building strategies across every screen.
What separates good marketers from great ones? It’s not just data, creativity, or even strategy — it’s an unmatched understanding of their customers.
Born in a Harlem apartment, now one of the Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies—Elite Media flips the script on what a creative agency can be.
Gaming is no longer a niche pastime, it’s a cultural crossroads where music, sport, entertainment, and storytelling collide.
AI is changing marketing at an incredible pace, from how campaigns are created to how brands connect with customers.
OOH is an unmissable, unblockable medium that connects with consumers where decisions happen, on the sidewalk, curb, and corner.
For more than two decades, the internet followed a predictable logic.
From cult indies to bigger-budget titles, Horror flicks tout a ferociously engaged fandom – reliably making it out to the theaters to prove that being terrified is a dish best served as a community experience.
Gaming isn’t the future, it’s the now. For Gen Alpha and Gen Z, gaming is overtaking streaming and social as the main arena for entertainment, connection, expression and influence.
The landscape of major life decisions has shifted dramatically.
Paramount Pictures has made influencer marketing central to its theatrical strategy, using creators to spark cultural moments and drive box office success.
In this SheFront Interview, attendees will hear from Carol Haynsworth, Global Chair of Interpublic’s Women’s Leadership Network and leader of a groundbreaking new initiative.
Gen Z is rewriting the rules of brand engagement, yet many marketers continue to rely on stereotypes.
This panel will share lessons from a Panera, Digitas, and Variety influencer-driven campaign around one of pop culture’s biggest nights with fashion, style, and croissants.
Every major societal institution has some sort of scam culture in its bones.
What really happens when journalists “go to the dark side” and become publicists—or move into adjacent fields like film or marketing?
From sunsets to passport stamps, travel creators make it look effortless – but the reality is far richer.
How do we define fame in a world where everyone is visible?
What do today’s most innovative creators bring to the table?
This interview explores how the most overlooked part of the consumer journey — the point of payment — can become a powerful lever for building trust and loyalty through seamless, secure experiences consumers can count on.
Proven Q4 Playbook You Can Activate Now Walk away with a simple, actionable checklist of strategies to drive immediate holiday results—no theory, just practical steps you can implement the next day.
In a cola showdown few thought possible, Dr. Pepper surged past Pepsi in market share to become the number 2 in the cola wars, proving that bold strategy, foresight, and relentless creativity can topple even the most entrenched rivals.
The business of influence is no longer confined to social feeds. Creators are jumping from social to securing bigger deals in culture.
At Autodesk, design isn’t just about the software, it’s about the experiences that bring bold ideas to life.
Join the senior marketers from Fidium and creative hot-shop Bray & Co as they share how their partnership has in a short time produced record results for the Fidium business, all centered around a creative approach that broke the category mold and produced one of the most effective campaigns of the year.
Crafting signature, soul-infused moments within brand systems—whether digital or physical—that feel human, compelling, and authentically you.
Memes aren’t just content – they’re a cultural language.
Why does a song from 20 years ago still spark instant emotion – and why are brands tapping into that more than ever?
Learn how Unified Marketing Measurement is transforming the future of retail growth in a privacy-first world.
Public health messaging has long relied on fear and tragedy, but that doesn’t always move the needle, and not every cause can be served by playing it safe.
For four decades Flavor Flav has defined culture and brand authenticity.
Join Loren Brill Castle, founder and CEO of Sweet Loren’s, in conversation with digital media coordinator Ryan Weitz to explore the brand’s swift pivots and creative approach to a recent TikTok naming mishap that resulted in millions of views, a massive sales jump and huge increase in followers. It’s a Sweet Loren’s + RYAN collab.
