Marketing
Inside the Science of Building Brand Trust Through Storytelling
In this episode of The New Mainstream podcast, Kate Smiley, Head of Global Employer Brand at GE Healthcare, emphasizes that in an era of skepticism, trust is essential. By combining storytelling, research, inclusivity, and emerging technologies like AI, brands can build authentic relationships and achieve real business results.
What Happens When Brands Stop Advertising?
It's no secret: marketers are under intense pressure to justify their investments and to prove the incremental effect those investments have on business performance. To be fair, finance teams likely feel they are doing their job in this regard, but when the marketing team can't properly measure results, they run the risk of having budgets cut significantly.
Neurodiversity Is DEI: Why We Must Speak Up Now
The national conversation around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has become increasingly polarized, and dangerously so. What began as a long-overdue effort to recognize and protect marginalized identities—based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and more—has turned into a political battleground. Conservative lawmakers in multiple states have pushed to defund DEI initiatives in public education, corporate training programs, and even health systems, arguing that they are divisive or ideological. But make no mistake: the people hurt most by these rollbacks are not ideologies. They are people. And among the most vulnerable are neurodivergent individuals.
Generational Marketing: Why marketers should not discount age in today’s media landscape
Marketers today have access to various sophisticated tools to segment audiences based on intricate behaviors and interests, aiming for sharper focus on audiences. Yet, even with this drive for granular segmentation, age remains a fundamental and powerful lens for understanding media consumption. The rarity of a video, meme, or trend that genuinely captivates everyone from teenagers to older generations speaks volumes about the enduring power of age in shaping our shared experiences and platform preferences—a reality that makes generational marketing an indispensable strategy.
Programmatic Transparency Benchmark: Q1 2025 Benchmark Findings [REPORT]
Launched in 2024, the ANA Programmatic Transparency Benchmark is a joint initiative by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), TAG TrustNet, and Fiducia. It was created in response to the ANA's 2023 Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study, which revealed that 25 percent of open web ad spending could be better allocated. Q1 2025 Findings: Progress and Opportunity
ANA/4As Client-Agency AOR Relationship Tenure [REPORT]
In a rapidly evolving advertising landscape, the dynamics of client-agency relationships are more critical than ever. What defines a "long-term" partnership in today's industry? How has the average client-agency relationship tenure changed?
Holdco clients: take charge in 2025
The world of large agency holding companies has lost its collective mind in the past 6 to 12 months. By Steve Boehler
Why C-Suite Execs Should Listen to Their Creatives on Generative AI
Around the world, talented creatives are considering, evaluating, and using generative AI (gen AI) for media content creation tasks, such as pre-visualization, virtual production, visual effects, and synthetic voice and music production. However, there is often a disconnect between executives and creatives regarding the adoption of gen AI tools.
Nearly Half of Consumers Expect to Buy More American Goods Amid Economic Uncertainty
A Gartner Consumer Community survey of 212 US consumers, conducted in March 2025, found that 42% consumers agreed that they have decided to wait to make a major purchase, up from 2024 when only 28% consumers were reconsidering such expenditures (see Figure 1). By the third quarter of 2025, Gartner predicts 60% of consumers will have elected to delay a major purchase. And by the end of the year, Gartner predicts 60% of consumers will buy on secondhand and peer-to-peer marketplaces.
2025 CMO Spend Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Flatlined at 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue
CMOs report that their marketing budgets for 2025 remain flat at 7.7% of overall company revenue, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. This is consistent with last year when marketing budgets represented 7.7% of overall company revenue
Marketers Need a Fresh Playbook for New Media Models
The media landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. Traditional media pillars are crumbling, giving way to a dynamic new ecosystem populated by influencers, creators, and niche players. Once-straightforward paths to consumers have splintered into a complex web of platforms, personalities, and algorithms.
2025 Hispanic Market Overview Report – DOWNLOAD for FREE
HispanicAd in association with Adam R Jacobson are proud to announce the availability of the 2025 Hispanic Market Overview – titled “VOZ of The American Influencer”
Understanding Usage and Attitudes on Broker/Agent Versus Principal Media Buying Models
For decades advertising and media agencies have acted as brokers/agents for their clients. An agent is authorized to act on another's behalf, with their best interests in mind and in a transparent manner. Increasingly, agencies are now offering services where they (or their affiliates) suggest that they are acting as "principals" rather than brokers/agents. That would mean they purchase media in advance of client demand and achieve lower rates that enable them to re-sell the media to their clients at a non-disclosed profit. If they are unable to sell the acquired media, they suffer the loss.
Three Ways CMOs Can Get Back in the Good Graces of CEOs
A recent Gartner study of 25 CEOs and CFOs that found that only 22 percent of the respondents say their CMO has significantly clarified marketing accountabilities. Amidst other disturbing trends, CMOs now must do whatever they can to get back into the good graces of the C-suite. They can start with these three tips from Matthew Schwartz.
From Distrust to Influence: How Advertisers Can Rebuild Consumer Confidence
Advertising has a trust problem. Consumers are skeptical, and for good reasons. Misinformation floods their feeds; ad saturation makes them tune out and opaque algorithms dictate what they see. Brands aren't just caught in the crossfire – they're often funding the very problem they need to solve.
Celebrating agency leaders: When Advertising and Theater connect for the Culture.
We all agree we are in the business of storytelling. Well, here’s a story that has a lot to do with our culture and that rich language many of our consumers speak —Spanish, the language of Cervantes, with all its many different accents. “Repertorio Español,” a cradle of great storytelling in Spanish, is celebrating two movers and shakers from our industry: Daisy Expósito-Ulla and Jorge Ulla, the founders of d expósito & Partners (dex). Considered the premier institution historically emblematic of great theater from Spain, Latin America as well as emerging Latinx playwrights, “Repertorio” has made a good choice of honorees on their 57th Anniversary. Yet the two honorees don’t want the celebration to be about them but rather about 20,000 young Latin students that each of us can help access “teatro en español” by helping with a donation to NYC’s “Repertorio Español”
Beyond Demographics: How Psychographics and Motivational Data Are Transforming Advertising – The evolution of audience understanding
Demographic data has long been the cornerstone of audience targeting. Age, gender, income, education, marital status and so on — these familiar attributes have shaped everything from media buys to creative briefs. But in today's marketing landscape, where personalization reigns and attention is scarce, knowing who your audience is simply isn't enough. To cut through the noise and truly connect, brands must understand why people act the way they do.
Is Branding the Missing Link for SMB Marketers?
Marcelo Kertész, CMO at MANSCAPED, says SMB marketers need to create content for venues in which their customers want to engage, not just convert. "Diversify your acquisition mix [and] don't rely solely on Meta and Google," he says. "Test into partnerships, affiliates, influencers, and even retail or experiential pop-ups if it makes sense for your brand."
The Purpose Era Isn’t Dead
In his recent article in The Guardian, Eugene Healey argued that purpose has too often been reduced to performance — values packaged into communications strategies, then abandoned when conditions shift; this has caused consumer skepticism.
Strategy and the Perils of Implementation.
What is strategy? Strategy is Future Competitive Advantage. By Rishad Tobaccowala
