SIGNALS
When Efficiency Becomes Easy, Difference Becomes Scarce
After 17 years of studying what makes brands meaningful, Havas’ Mark Sinnock is asking a different question: What makes them worth choosing… and, in an age of AI abundance, worth choosing again? Marketing has never had more ability to make more things. More content. More personalization. More optimization. More precise targeting. More interactions across more […]
Why Are We Still Trying to Fix the Client-Agency Relationship?
Marketing, procurement and agencies agree on more than you might think. So why do the same problems persist? For an industry obsessed with change, marketing has a remarkable ability to keep returning to the same relationship problems. Briefing. Communication. Compensation. Trust. Transparency. Respect. The meaning of partnership. None of these are new concerns. Yet they […]
Why More Marketing Data Isn’t Producing Better Decisions
Marketers have more data, more sophisticated measurement tools and more AI-powered analytics than ever. Ebiquity Global CEO Ruben Schreurs believes the next challenge isn’t measuring more. It’s building organizations capable of acting on what they already know. Marketers have never known more. They have more data, more dashboards, more attribution tools, more sophisticated modeling and, […]
AI Is Changing How Consumers Find Brands. Not Necessarily How They Trust Them.
New research from Net Conversion reveals an emerging divide between how consumers choose to use AI—and how they respond when brands use it. Consumers are watching their spending. They are reconsidering what earns their loyalty. They are tuning out advertising more aggressively. And they are adopting artificial intelligence as a shopping tool at remarkable speed. […]
Why Some of Advertising’s Oldest Real Estate Suddenly Feels Surprisingly New
Out-of-home advertising has been refusing to stay politely inside the rectangle for a very long time. In mid-century Times Square, the famous Camel billboard blew actual smoke over Manhattan. Maxwell House poured an endless cup of coffee. Signs flashed, moved, and became part of New York City’s visual identity. So spectacle isn’t new. Neither is […]
The World Cup Brought Generations Together. Did Marketing See It?
What one of the world’s greatest shared cultural experiences can teach us about multigenerational marketing. Before the FIFA World Cup began, The Internationalist’s GenMORE+ Initiative posed a slightly different question about the world’s biggest sporting event. Not simply: Who is watching? But: Who is watching together? We wondered whether a tournament capable of bringing much […]
When Celebrity Becomes Credibility: Why the Best Endorsements Shorten the Distance to Trust
Rob Gronkowski’s relationship with regenerative technology company DNA Vibe offers a timely reminder that the most powerful endorsements don’t simply attract attention. They help consumers understand why they should care. (Image courtesy of DNA Vibe.) Celebrity endorsements are hardly new. For generations, brands have borrowed fame, familiarity and cultural relevance in hopes that some of […]
Are Movements Becoming the New Media?
When content is abundant, participation may be the harder—and more valuable—thing for brands to create. What if the next important evolution in media isn’t another channel? It may be something people choose to join. That’s the provocative possibility that emerged from a recent Internationalist conversation with Scott Goodson, Founder and Chairman of StrawberryFrog and creator […]
Creator Marketing Enters Its Next Phase
As investment grows, the conversation is shifting from authenticity alone to creativity, effectiveness and professional standards. For more than a decade, creator marketing has been one of marketing’s fastest-evolving disciplines. New platforms emerged, creators built loyal communities, brands experimented with new forms of storytelling, and investment grew at an extraordinary pace. Today, creator marketing has […]
THE EDIT | The Best Marketing Solves Something
Sometimes through design. Sometimes through humor. Sometimes through the smallest of ideas. Every once in a while, a handful of seemingly unrelated ideas begin to feel strangely connected. At first glance, they have very little in common. Different companies. Different countries. Different categories. Some are recent. Others are not. Yet I found myself lingering over […]