SIGNALS
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 […]
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, […]
From Puppets to Vinyl to Dogs: A Holiday Marketing Spirit That Signals a Bigger Shift
Why 2025’s joyful, imperfect holiday ads may be previewing marketing’s next big chapter. Holiday advertising always offers spectacle and sentiment, but 2025 may be remembered as the year marketers collectively embraced imperfection—leaning into instinct, nostalgia, and unpolished humanity to cut through the noise of an AI-saturated world. A Dog With a GoPro Steals the Season […]
Political Ad Rules Need Urgent Reform
Commentary from the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA). Editor’s Note:As election activity accelerates across Europe and beyond, the unintended consequences of new political transparency rules are becoming a global concern. What begins as regional policy often signals broader shifts in how platforms, agencies, and marketers must operate—particularly when major players like Google and Meta […]
What’s Next for Marketers — After ANA Masters and Beyond AI
Each year, the ANA Masters of Marketing serves as a barometer for what’s truly on marketers’ minds. This year’s gathering in Orlando, one of the best in the organization’s long history, overflowed with stories of reinvention, optimism, and creative courage. Yet, as the applause settled, the lingering question was not what worked—but what’s next. If […]
What Is Better Marketing Today?
This edition of COMMENTARY is by: Deborah Malone, Founder of The Internationalist After reviewing the winners of The Internationalist’s inaugural AI AWARDS FOR BETTER MARKETING, I found myself asking a deceptively simple question: What does “better marketing” really mean in the age of AI? The answers—if you look closely—are as powerful as they are uplifting. […]
The Trillion Dollar Blind Spot: Why Brands Are Ignoring Their 2025 Lifeline
By Lee Brody, Co-Founder and President at Openly Gray and Lee St. James, Co-Founder and ECD at Openly Gray Let’s be honest: Hitting your year-end 2025 goals is more of a pipe dream every day. The first half of 2025 has been unprecedented. Unstable global markets, pervasive downsizing, and shifting consumer sentiment have conspired against […]
The Inspiration Nonprofit Marketers Offer All Brands…
Few understand the challenges of effective marketing on a budget as well as nonprofit organizations do. From budget limitations and ROI scrutiny to audience challenges and accountability pressures, every penny spent on nonprofit marketing must yield results, particularly when fundraising. As a result, nonprofits prize the value of compelling marketing—whether through original content and emotional […]
Marketing’s Moment of Truth: In an Era Where Anything Is Possible, What Should Brands Do?
By Sebastian Jespersen – making a difference with Globant GUT For decades, marketers have operated within a world of constraints—of media limitations, technological barriers, and an incomplete understanding of consumer behavior. The fundamental challenge was always the same: how do we reach the right audience, at the right time, with the right message, in a […]
We’re All Marketers Now
It’s not often that a business headline captures your attention and then continues to make you think. “Is your entire company thinking like a marketer? It should be.” This simple question and answer appeared in a recent email newsletter from McKinsey, linking to a series of articles. It made me consider how attracting and respecting […]