Why More B2B Brands Should Play the Super Bowl Ad Game

When we think of Super Bowl ads, iconic consumer brands like Coca-Cola, Budweiser, and Doritos often come to mind. But in recent years, B2B brands have been stepping onto the advertising world’s biggest stage, proving that the Super Bowl isn’t just for B2C. With a captive audience of over 100 million viewers, the Super Bowl…

Esports Are Capable of Redefining Primetime Entertainment

In just a handful of decades, esports has leveled up from a niche, underground hobby to a heavyweight sporting contender commanding attention on a major scale. Global streaming audiences reached 625.8 million in 2024, stealing home from the MLB’s 171 million-strong fan base and even dunking on the NBA’s audience of 155.9 million. Meanwhile, the…

Why Connected TV Is Struggling to Deliver Personalization at Scale

The rise of connected TV has introduced a new era of opportunity for advertisers, marrying the precision of digital targeting with the immersive power of television. Technological innovation has enabled the delivery of hyperrelevant, personalized video content to specific audiences, promising better engagement, higher ROI, and more meaningful consumer connections. However, this promise remains largely…

Marketers Will Need to Double Down Against Divisiveness

The success of advertising rests on clear, concise, and culturally considerate communication. Yet only 22 days into 2025, legal mandates and corporate maneuvers would suggest that facts are not important to consider when crafting what we say, how we say it, or how we show it. Everyone was left a little shaken following Mark Zuckerberg’s…

With the TikTok Ban All but Confirmed, Here’s Where Marketers Can Still Focus Their Efforts

As the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the TikTok ban, brands and publishers are grappling with how to maintain their connection to young consumers. The reality of losing TikTok has sparked reactions ranging from strategic reevaluation to outright panic. However, history shows us that platforms evolve, algorithms shift, and audiences adapt. Here’s what marketers need to…

What the #$@! to Do About Your TikTok Shop

If you’ve logged onto TikTok within the past week (haven’t we all?), you’ve probably seen the latest #goodbyetiktok and #savetiktok content as users stateside prepare for the very real possibility that the nationwide ban on the app will go into effect on January 19. As we anxiously await the Supreme Court’s decision on TikTok’s fate,…

TikTok’s Ban Is Our Wake-Up Call to Do Better by Gen Alpha

TikTok’s potential removal from U.S. markets by January 19 has marketers and influencers racing to figure out how to reach the app’s lucrative audience elsewhere. With 44% of Gen Alpha using TikTok in 2024, it’s hard to imagine a world where this platform–a gateway of discovery (and brain rot) for millions of tweens–is suddenly gone….

The Biggest Agentic AI Trends at CES 2025

If you’ve been coming to CES for the past decade and hit the marketing panels and keynotes, you would think that every year promises a transformation for our business. This year, the pablum finally feels real and potent; artificial and augmented intelligence applied to marketing and advertising dominated the discussions on the stages and in…

Preserving Cultural Heritage Is a Safeguard for Creativity

Growing up as a Sri Lankan American immigrant, I remember my first visit to a museum in the United States. It was more than a building filled with objects–it was a portal. For me, it bridged the unfamiliar with the familiar, transforming the abstract idea of a new home into something tangible. Museums became spaces…

Beyond the Booths: 10 Ways Ad Execs Can Decode the Chaos of CES

CES is not a tech show–it’s a time machine. Each booth, keynote, and prototype offers a glimpse of the future. It’s a cacophony of innovation, yet hidden within the noise are the signals that define tomorrow’s consumer behavior, business models, and cultural shifts. For ad executives, the challenge isn’t merely surviving CES; it’s about seizing…

Adtech M&As Have Skyrocketed. What Else Is in Store for 2025?

The digital advertising industry had a lot to celebrate in 2024, as much of the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic was in the rearview mirror. Tech giants saw a spike in ad revenues: While Google’s ad revenue jumped more than 10% year over year, Meta saw a sales increase of 19% over the same…

Agencies Need Teams, Not Departments

Twenty-seven. That’s how many times I offered a brilliant freelance creative director a full-time job when I was chief creative officer. Twenty-seven times, they said no. It drove me crazy. They already freelanced with us regularly, loved the team, crushed the briefs, and (apparently) tolerated me just fine. The money was great. What was the…

How US Brands Can Keep Up With the Live Commerce Gold Rush

Live shopping and video commerce are exploding, driven by growing consumer interest and the success of global disruptors like Shein and Temu. These international players dominate their markets with highly engaging, frictionless shopping experiences and have expanded aggressively into the U.S., raising the stakes for domestic brands. This evolution parallels the introduction of TikTok in…

Meet the Incoming Weber Shandwick Collective CEO, Susan Howe

This month, The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC) got a new CEO–but it seems like there won’t be much of an adjustment period. Susan Howe stepped into the chief executive role at the communications agency on Dec. 2, and since joining nearly 29 years ago, she has held successive leadership roles running the gamut from regional…

I Sold My Agency to Edelman 20 Years Ago. Here’s What I Learned

Twenty years ago, I sold my namesake agency I founded at age 27 to Edelman. At the time, many accused me of being a sellout, but the truth is I would have sold out had I not sold the agency. I never intended to establish a shop of my own. But after a rather chilling…

The Holding Companies Have Lost Their High Ground—Here Are Some Reasons Why

As much as the story has generated a lot of buzz, I find the news of Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG to be unsurprising and part of the natural order. I am sad for the great agency legacies that will be mothballed. I am sad for the jobs that will be cut. I am sad that…

What the Omnicom-IPG Mega-Merger Could Mean for Agency Talent and Clients

The recent announcement of Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG got me thinking about my early days working for both holding companies. I started my career in media at BBDO, buying television. Back then, media and creative worked together under one roof, and holding companies were only beginning to consolidate their power. It was a simpler time…

Omnicom-IPG’s Strong AI Front Could Protect Against a Big Tech Takeover

On December 13, 1996, Miller Beer pulled all its business out of Leo Burnett, literally overnight. Officially, it was about lackluster sales, but rumors abounded that Miller discovered a subsidiary of Burnett had taken a small project from Anheuser-Busch, and Miller was livid. Now that holding companies own a huge part of the advertising landscape,…

Omnicom and IPG Fight a Perfect Storm on the ‘4 Cs’

In what is without a doubt one of the top five episodes of Seinfeld, George is regaling his moment as a “marine biologist” with Jerry, Kramer, and Elaine: “The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli!” George’s “perfect storm” also perfectly captures what…

Unlikability Could Be Your Brand’s Secret Weapon

Cue the scene: me, 14 years old, sitting in the bleachers at my middle school dance. Not one girl wanted to dance with me. I couldn’t figure it out. I had what I thought were top-tier dance moves. But there I was, sulking in a dimly lit corner, on the top row where no one…