GLOBAL MARKETING AT THE CROSSROADS
The 2026 Internationalists of the Year
The story of this year’s Internationalists is the evolution of marketing leadership itself. The most influential marketers today are not simply building brands. They are helping people navigate complexity, creating confidence in uncertain times, building communities around shared passions, humanizing technology, and finding new ways for organizations to create meaningful value. The 2026 Internationalists of […]
Most Marketers Value Creative Excellence. Few Deliver It Consistently.
Why the industry’s challenge may not be creativity itself—but the systems required to scale it. Most marketers believe creativity drives growth. Far fewer believe their organizations consistently deliver it. That is one of the most striking findings from new research by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Cannes LIONS, released as the industry gathers […]
TRENDSETTERS | Michael Fanuele on the Crisis of Inspiration
Organizations today have more information than ever before. Research is richer. Data is more accessible. Measurement is more sophisticated. Artificial intelligence can summarize, predict, analyze, and optimize at a scale that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Yet despite all this intelligence, many leaders find themselves confronting a surprisingly human challenge. How […]
The Hidden Cost of Global Marketing
The Big Idea Is Only as Strong as the System That Delivers It. Global brands have never invested more in creating big ideas. Brand platforms are centralized. Creative systems are increasingly sophisticated. Campaigns are built to travel across markets, formats, platforms, and channels. Strategy is aligned. Guidelines are documented. Master assets are approved. And yet, […]
Trusted Enough to Become the Answer
TRENDSETTERS | Martyn Etherington, CMO of BMC Software. There was something refreshingly grounded about speaking with Martyn Etherington recently. At a moment when much of the marketing conversation around AI feels dominated by acceleration, automation, and speculation, Martyn’s perspective was strikingly simple: the future may belong less to louder brands — and more to trusted […]
When Transformation Becomes the Default
If transformation is now the default, the question is simple: now what? It’s easy to assume that marketing’s current challenges stem from complexity. More channels.More data.More expectations. But that may not be the real shift. The deeper change is structural. The conditions marketing operates within keep shifting. From Phase to Condition For years, transformation was […]
When AI Becomes a Cost, Not a Capability
Most organizations don’t struggle with a lack of ideas.They struggle with the discipline to turn those ideas into decisions. AI has amplified that gap. What begins as exploration too often becomes a permanent state—an ongoing series of pilots, tests, and initiatives that never quite reach production. Investment continues. Progress is reported. But meaningful outcomes remain […]
THE CMO ROLE IS BEING REWRITTEN
It’s easy to look at the latest data and conclude that marketing has a performance problem. But that may not be the real issue. It may be a definition problem. Recent research from Boathouse suggests a growing disconnect inside organizations. CMOs are seen as more aligned with the business than ever before—more committed, more integrated, […]
When Great Ideas Don’t Survive Scale
The most dangerous moment for a great marketing idea is not when it is created. It is when it is scaled. A global idea is approved. The strategy is clear. The creative platform is strong. The brand team is aligned. Then the idea enters execution. It is adapted, resized, translated, rebuilt, localized, versioned, reviewed, approved, […]
Retail Media, Connected Commerce & the New CPG Playbook
A conversation with Mary Katherine “MK” Woltz of Danone on how media is being redefined—from a channel to a growth system. Media Isn’t Supporting Commerce Anymore It’s becoming inseparable from it. For years, retail media was treated as an extension of shopper marketing—a powerful but contained layer focused on conversion. That distinction is disappearing. As […]