Partner Content

Amid the acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) and a full lineup of major TV events on the horizon — from the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics to Super Bowl LX to the FIFA World Cup — 2026 is expected to be a defining moment for TV advertising for both traditional and streaming networks.

While marketers know multiscreen TV — both traditional and streaming — drives brand awareness, it has seldom been easy to demonstrate its direct influence on sales and business outcomes. Amid the expansion of social media, artificial intelligence, and data, brand marketers need to prove the value of their TV media spending just as they do with their digital campaigns.

The brands that garner trust in an era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence show up consistently, with a clear, distinct voice and a trusted digital footprint. But like relationships people have with their friends and family, trust takes time to cultivate and is built methodically through acts of service.

When it comes to giving feedback on creative projects, shifting the focus from prescribing solutions to defining problems is the key to unlocking work that will help to distinguish the brand. By grounding all critiques in a well-crafted strategic brief, this method builds trust and collaboration, rather than stifling creativity.

Agencies can't control inflation, interest rates, or client budget cuts. But they can control how well they manage spending and the cash available to invest in the business. Agencies that continue to rely on manual accounts payable processes will struggle with visibility, inefficiency, and profitability.

A micro-analytics approach, or single "tree" view, to marketing and advertising is valuable, but it risks missing the broader perspective of the "forest." Macro analytics — an aggregated look across all brands, agencies, and regions — can reveal strategic opportunities that individual scope reviews simply cannot.

Some marketers may be quick to dismiss direct mail, believing it's an outdated mass-blast relic that's too complicated to track, too difficult to optimize, and too expensive to be worth it. But today's direct mail is as measurable as digital, offering real-time customer insights and clear attribution metrics.

The growing complexity of the marketing data landscape only increases the risk of misalignment. Customer journeys span dozens of touchpoints across digital, offline, and partner channels. When the data and its interpretations don't align, organizations lose the clarity they need to act decisively.

Marketing managers often hesitate to provide feedback on a creative project. They want to be helpful, of course, but don't want to clog the creative flow. The ultimate solution for marketers is to shift their focus from telling creative teams that something needs to be fixed to pointing out the problem(s).

The pharmaceutical industry's reliance on formulaic messaging and clichéd imagery is no longer enough to capture attention, let alone drive action. Consumers are taking more control of their health, approaching their wellness with a more holistic view, and expecting brands to meet them wherever they reside.

In the hypercompetitive world of marketing, the pursuit of optimal ROI often feels like chasing a mirage. Marketers obsess about strategy, ad creative, and channel allocation, but tend to overlook a foundational element that dictates the success of every campaign: data quality.

While connected TV (CTV) remains the center of gravity for live sports, it's no longer the only screen in town, as fans engage with games in multiple layers. What used to be a single broadcast has evolved into a cross-platform narrative that stretches across myriad channels and continues long after the match ends.

Despite the growing acceptance of client-agency team performance evaluations, the discipline to act upon the results remains a challenge. The failure to respond calls into question the value of the entire exercise, but both sides of the table are eager to find ways to improve the process.

Under increasing pressure to drive measurable results, advertisers are forcing themselves to choose between branding and performance marketing. The beauty of audio — especially radio — is that it makes it easy for ad buyers to achieve ROI for both.

Marketers love to talk about creativity, but their confidence is another story. A recent survey shows that 41 percent of marketers still see creativity as a risk, which holds brands back from making bold, emotionally driven work that can boost engagement and expand their audiences. To reverse course, marketers need a new toolkit.

Direct mail marketing offers a tangible way to engage consumers who are increasingly fatigued by digital ads. By integrating physical mail with digital technologies, marketers can create memorable campaigns that cut through the digital noise and encourage customer interaction.

As developing clean, ready-to-use data becomes a bigger challenge for marketers, the move to more structured and standardized data lakes is helping brands and organizations boost meaningful, timely customer engagement and achieve a higher marketing ROI.

Direct mail cuts through digital fatigue by combining physical touchpoints with smart tech — QR codes, PURLs, CRM data, and automation tools — to drive action. Learn how to build omnichannel campaigns that boost engagement, increase conversions, and deliver measurable results.

To bolster the value of marketing procurement and improve its methodology, companies need a dedicated plan. The Sweet Spot Framework fits the bill. Under the framework, success is no longer about savings at any cost, it's about facilitating outcomes.

Digital ad fatigue is rising, with gen Z wanting to spend less time looking at screens and engagement rates dropping. Enter direct mail. Tactile, targeted, and tech-enhanced, modern mail drives greater emotional impact, improved ROI, and complements digital for deeper consumer connections and lasting brand loyalty.