GLOBAL MARKETING AT THE CROSSROADS
Longevity Is Reshaping Brand Strategy — Not Just Representation
Marketing has spent years treating demographic aging as context. It is not context. It is structure. The first phase of The Internationalist’s GenMORE+ Index — based on 268 cross-generational evaluations of 40 curated ads featuring people over 50 — suggests that longevity is not a niche consideration. It is redefining the architecture of brand growth. […]
The End of Time as Currency
AI, Agency Economics — and the Reinvention of Value For decades, agencies have measured value in time. Hours sold.Teams staffed.Retainers calculated against capacity. Artificial intelligence is now quietly dismantling that logic. A new report from VoxComm, entitled Redesigning the Agency Value Model, argues that AI is not simply transforming agency workflows — it is destabilizing […]
Signal: The Age of Scaled Sameness
If AI risks making brands invisible through sameness, marketing’s real work is to build a collaborative architecture of meaning, authenticity, and trust that creates enduring relationships and distinguishing relevance — which become the actual drivers of value and true growth. For years, marketers have worried about distrust. But the more immediate danger may be quieter […]
Reinventing the Familiar: How Fujifilm Is Turning Transformation Into Belief
When Anthony Farina talks about joining the Fujifilm Corporation, he doesn’t describe it as a career move. He calls it, “Stepping into one of the most compelling transformation stories in modern business.” For decades, Fujifilm was synonymous with photography. Today, it is a diversified global company spanning healthcare, life sciences, advanced materials, and imaging technologies […]
Marketing Is No Longer the First Conversation — Say Acumion’s Founders
Sebastian Vedsted Jespersen and Kasper Ulf Nielsen contend that AI-mediated discovery is compressing differentiation into summary — and that brands must now encode proof to avoid flattening into parity. It is always wonderful to see our Internationalist Innovators do well. It is rarer to watch two of them quietly build something that may alter the […]
Fifty Is Box Office Gold — And Marketing Has No Excuse Left
Hollywood has just confirmed what many marketers have been slow to fully act on:Age is no longer a proxy for relevance — or restraint. New research from AARP shows that audiences 50 and over are not only watching more movies and streaming content — they are shaping how stories about aging, ambition, romance, and relevance […]
Marketing at the Crossroads: Bob Liodice on AI, Authenticity, and What Comes Next
ANA’s CEO Discusses Trust, Brand Loyalty, and What Marketing Must Get Right in 2026 As marketers enter 2026, the tension between acceleration and trust has never been more visible. New technologies—especially AI—are unlocking extraordinary possibilities, yet recent consumer backlash to AI-generated advertising is reminding brands of a timeless truth: innovation without authenticity erodes trust. That […]
Signal: CMO Hiring Is Booming—but the Role Is Being Set Up to Fail
The CMO job market is no longer in recovery. It’s in overdrive. According to new data from executive search firm Taligence, global CMO appointments rose more than 60% in 2025, extending a multi-year surge in senior marketing leadership movement. On the surface, it looks like a vote of confidence in marketing’s strategic importance. Look closer, […]
What EACA Research Reveals About a Trust Gap Between CMOs and Agencies
For years, the marketing industry has spoken the language of partnership. Long-term relationships. Strategic collaboration. Shared ambition. New research from the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA), however, suggests a growing disconnect between what marketers say they want from agencies—and the conditions they create for those relationships to succeed. Based on responses from nearly 150 […]
Davos 2026 and the New Shape of Global Cooperation
As formal multilateralism weakens, smaller alliances are holding—while polarization, consumer anxiety, and geopolitical risk rise beneath the surface. Opening: A Tense Davos Moment Davos has always been a mirror of the moment. In past years, that mirror reflected confidence in globalization, faith in multilateral institutions, and—at times—an optimism about the power of collective action. Davos […]