Narrative Beats Production Values. Punch's fame didn't come from a 4K nature documentary. It came from a story of rejection and resilience. The Ichikawa City Zoo didn't just post 'cute' photos. They specifically asked the public to 'support Punch's effort' as he integrated with older, aggressive monkeys. They gave us a hero's journey. AI is a tool to amplify the story, not replace it.
Digiday's survey found that, overall, a good chunk of marketers saw their revenues rise in 2025. Significantly more than a third of marketer pros (39%) told Digiday in Q4 that their 2025 revenues increased over their 2024 revenues. But, looking more closely at the data, the increase was slight: Just short of a quarter of marketers (23%) said their 2025 revenues were up by 10% or less over 2024. Meanwhile, just 11% of marketers said their revenues increased between 11% and 25% last year.
Let's rewind for a 10-second Super Bowl ad history lesson that goes like this: In 2011, Volkswagen decided to drop its full ad-called " The Force "-online the Wednesday before the Super Bowl. This was brand marketer blasphemy! But it worked. Ever since, more and more brands began dropping ads earlier and earlier, which then evolved into creating teasers for the ads to run even earlier.
"We found that in China, three out of four Gen Z said 'I'm not disconnected and actually if I was disconnected, I might as well have disappeared'. That's how important and real digital life is. This struck us is quite a profound insight, because our digital connection has basically been asynchronous, for the entirety of human existence so far. Suddenly we're hitting this point, which is now synchronous, so it's happening at the same speed as real life,"
Procter & Gamble is emphasizing its strengths in data and artificial intelligence as the packaged goods giant contends with a fragmented "new media reality," executives said on a call discussing earnings earlier this week. The owner of brands like Tide and Downy is working to redefine its brand-building framework to deliver more relevant marketing and better capitalize on emergent channels like retail media that are rewriting the CPG advertising playbook.
Taking home the top prize, the Grand Prix, is Sips and Bites for its 'Doritos Silent' campaign, which saw it create the world's first AI-augmented snack. Despite being popular with gamers worldwide, Doritos had a problem in that its much-loved crunch disrupts and annoys other gamers subjected to the noise in their earphones. The brand turned this intrinsic snacking gripe into a marketing opportunity, creating the world's first AI-augmented snack that removes every Doritos crunch from every game.
As a professional bartender with years of behind-the-bar experience, I've tasted, mixed, and served my fair share of spirits - from obscure craft distilleries to globally recognized icons. Over time, I've noticed a recurring pattern: certain brands achieve fame, hype, or luxury pricing that their actual liquid rarely justifies. That's what I mean by "overrated." For the purposes of this article, an overrated brand is one that is sought-after, valued, or frequently discussed, yet, in terms of aroma, flavor, or overall drinking experience, fails to live up to its popularity, demand, or price point.
Brand builds long-term awareness, perception, and emotional connection. Performance marketing focuses on immediate, measurable actions and specific behaviors like clicks, sign-ups, purchases, or downloads which drives conversions and business goals. The most successful companies know that true growth happens when these two objectives work in harmony, not in opposition. The evidence is now clear: Brand and performance are not opposing forces; they are multipliers.
For more than a century, Red Wing Shoe Company has designed and manufactured work boots in the United States with leather sourced from its own tannery. The family-owned, privately held business, which was founded in 1905 in Red Wing, Minnesota, wanted to remind its customers of that commitment to craftsmanship, so the shoemaker decided to add some distinctive texture to its advertising.
marketers face a growing question: How do you make sure your brand shows up in the answers? Semrush thinks it's found an answer - and it's launched an award program to highlight the brands leading the way. The newly announced AI Visibility Awards recognize the companies most cited, recommended, and surfaced in AI-generated responses, drawing from Semrush's AI Visibility Index - a dataset built on over 2,500 real prompts run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Mode.
According to the company's 2025 Replay report released on December 16, users conduct more than 50 million searches on the platform per day, most of them discovery-led rather than tied to specific games - users are looking for broad themes or activities, such as "roleplay," "horror" or "dance," for example, especially since avatars were given "movement" capabilities. Users also update their avatars an average of 274 million times daily,
Evans said in conversation with Beauty Inc editor in chief and WWD executive editor of beauty Jenny B. Fine. "When we talk about fandom, it really is different than just a community. The defining thing is that as fans or listeners, for your favorite music or podcast, it's how you engage with and interact with your favorite artists, podcasters and creators. So we say that Spotify is made by fans, for fans."
In 2021, Prada created "Candy," an influencer designed to sell perfume. With an appearance rendered using then-state-of-the-art tools, Candy's not-quite-real vibe felt straight out of the Silicon (Uncanny) Valley. It was peppy, but cartoonlike, and it was hard to see how Candy could sell perfume it could never smell. Since then, technologies have greatly improved. A brand can now render any persona with a product, create movies with that model persona animated in a realistic way, and show them demonstrating products.
The list will feature early- and mid-career marketing professionals from consumer and business-to-business brands who are demonstrating their potential to become future leaders. These talented marketers are helping position their marketing departments as growth centers for their companies. They may be breaking new ground in areas such as artificial intelligence, influencer marketing, partnerships, and data analysis. They will have demonstrated how they have pushed their teams and their companies forward.
On Monday, the German athletic company said it is creating a new structure in the division to include product creation, innovation, go-to-market as well as brand marketing. Puma noted that the move is aimed at enabling "stronger and more consistent" storytelling for its products. As a result of this move, Maria Valdes, who was previously chief product officer, will become chief brand officer to oversee this new organization at the management board level.
When AI wearable company Friend blanketed New York City with ads last month, there was significant backlash. Many of the company's ads (which included rage-baiting copy like, "I'll never bail on our dinner plans") ended up defaced with graffiti that called the product "AI trash," "surveillance capitalism," and a tool to "profit off of loneliness."
Marketing is often undervalued, which is not news to many reading this newsletter. When companies are looking to make budget cuts, they often begin by looking to their marketing teams and campaigns. But a new white paper from insights company TransUnion and marketing trade organization MMA Global uses their Brand as Performance (BaP) framework to determine the true value of campaigns, and finds that traditional measurement methods have undervalued brand marketing's impact on sales by as much as 83%.
In July, Sundberg published a newsletter headlined "1 in 3 Feed Me readers surveyed use a GLP-1." Despite being sponsored by a company that sells weight-loss medication, the post doesn't shy away sharing its negative perceptions. In one anonymous quote submission, a reader said, "It's kind of cheating, shouldn't we all work to get healthy, not thin?" Another said: "I am still embarrassed for other people if they get on them."
First, changes to the search landscape, which have companies thinking about visibility and LLM citations over SERPs and clicks, are seen as brand marketing efforts. But brands also made news by taking actions that seem to go against their brand values or upset customers. Southwest Airlines, which for years touted "Bags fly free" started charging for checked bags. Cracker Barrel tried to update its logo and faced a backlash from its customer base that threw the brand into national politics.
Vodafone made a commercial starring an AI avatar posing as a real lady. This is interesting because Vodafone is a major global brand and not a fly-by-night TikTok company using a ridiculous deepfake of Jackson Galaxy to sell cat toys. The tells in the commercial are obvious and what one would expect. The AI avatar's hair is a bit off, which ruins the charade that this is a real person.
It was the ideal duration for those watching at home (mainly women) to become familiar with a product and (hopefully) become convinced of its benefits. Sixty seconds was chopped to thirty in the 1970s - not because of changing attention spans, but because of cigarettes. To make up for revenue losses following the ban on cigarette adverts, television networks started shaving down ad lengths, and this shaving continued into the 1980s, when 15-second commercials were introduced.
Deema has an impressive background, spanning Xbox, Microsoft, YouTube, Google, Flipboard, Unity, Scribd and Figma. She joins us to share her experiences and insights on the fast-paced changes in marketing and tech, primarily driven by AI advancements. Our discussion covers the resurgence of brand marketing, the evolution of advertising and how AI is transforming creative and performance marketing. Deema also reflects on her involvement with nonprofits and the potential of AI to revolutionize this sector.
Most importantly, her ring with an Old Mine cut diamond the size of a gigantic movie theater ice cube came courtesy of Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry. Brides magazine interviewed Benjamin Khordipour, a specialist in antique and vintage jewelry, who estimated the rock's cost at around $550,000. The ring was handcrafted in 18k yellow gold and the center diamond is set with needle point prongs that perfectly match the antique style. Smaller diamonds and hand-engravings adorn the shoulders of her setting, Khordipour said.
