Ad Age Marketer's Brief

Evermark CMO Rachel Behm unpacks how a recent social-first campaign for Suave is winning new Gen Z customers craving entertainment, including episodic and comedic marketing content. She also discusses the idea of reframing the value of Evermark brands, including ChapStick and Q-tips, as smart luxury in order to capture shoppers eager to trade down to cheaper, drugstore brands amid economic anxiety.

Genesis CMO Amy Marentic describes how the auto brand took a blank canvas approach to raise awareness in a segment dominated by older brands like BMW and Mercedes. She describes how the marketing department sold a campaign pivot internally. Marentic also dishes some advice on experiential marketing, including how the automaker uses its Genesis House in New York City as a brand equity play channeling Korean hospitality. Also, hear how she approaches marketing metrics.

Consumer Reports CMO Khalid El Khatib explains how the independent nonprofit brand's 90-year history of testing products is creating trust amid AI slop and misinformation, reflected in its recent $3 million "We Never Stop Questioning" campaign. He also discusses how the membership-based organization is adapting its strategy to reach audiences across generations—from boomers spending more time online to younger consumers encountering the brand for the first time—and what that shift means for building credibility in a rapidly changing media environment.

Chief Marketing Officer Jessica Jensen is positioning the platform as a "port in the storm" for job seekers navigating a tough market. She discusses how the message is coming to life in a new campaign from McCann NY. Plus, Jensen describes how LinkedIn is changing its tactics as AI and macroeconomic factors reshape the future of work. She also talks about how LinkedIn is attracting new users, including creators and advertisers beyond its typical B2B target audience.

SkyPop CMO Dave Cohen discusses the protein boom on the beverage aisle, and how the brand uses TikTok and audio sampling in their marketing gameplan. He also discusses how the brand, which formerly went by Don't Quit, positions their protein soda as a product for everyone and not just athletes.

Crunch Fitness CMO Chad Waetzig talks about the brand's recent New Year's campaign "Feel More" and how Crunch is promoting itself as a social destination for younger consumers facing post-pandemic loneliness. He also discusses how Crunch is programming around the rise in GLP-1-medication use and helping customers combat "skinny fat."

TV advertising is increasingly leaning on AI as a prominent tool. Viewers saw this during the Super Bowl with some brands making entirely AI-generated ads. Mark Douglas, president and CEO of MNTN, joins Brandon Doerrer on the Marketer's Brief podcast to discuss AI in TV, misconceptions that first-time TV advertisers often have and how MNTN's AI tools have been a benefit for their business. He also offers advice for navigating the changing landscape.

For the past several years, Columbia Sportswear's marketing was indistinguishable from the rest of the category. It wasn't until August last year that it adopted a much bolder strategy, bringing a distinct edge to all of its campaigns. "Engineered for Whatever" painted a different picture of the great outdoors, positioning it as a cruel and deadly mistress, and Columbia products as armor in a battle against death itself. Since then, the brand has brought that edge to a variety of campaigns. Matt Sutton, senior VP and head of marketing at Columbia Sportswear, joined this week's edition of the Marketer's Brief podcast to discuss this work and advise brands interested in making a similarly drastic pivot.

Gatorade has been a top sports drink for more than six decades, with a spot in Super Bowl history as people bet on the color poured on the winning head coach. Gatorade's Chief Marketing Officer Anuj Bhasin talks about how to maintain authority in the space as new brands crowd the category. Bhasin discusses Gatorade's post-Covid reset, relaunching the classic "Is It In You" advertising campaign, and how being "moment-centric" is bringing Gatorade closer to the sports culture space where the brand typically thrives.

Matt Hocken, head of creative at London-based agency mongoose, discusses the subtle difference between American and British consumers and what the sports and entertainment agency is doing for U.K.-based fans on Super Bowl Sunday. He also shares more general, TikTok marketing advice and gives tips on how American brands can curry favor with U.K. audiences.

New Balance Global Brand President and CMO Chris Davis talks about how fashion partnerships with Sezane and Miu Miu and sports partnerships with the Australian Open and Josh Allen have helped New Balance resonate with everyone from "supermodels in London to dads in Ohio." He also discusses why the brand keeps returning to its 'We' Got Now' brand platform with VML. And he talks about how the sneaker brand's 120-year-history helps New Balance operate like a challenger brand focused on the future.

Retail media is moving beyond scale, and Roundel wants marketers to rethink what performance really means. In this sponsored episode of Marketer's Brief, Ad Age's contributing editor, Natalie Zfat, sits down with Matt Drzewicki, senior vice president and general manager of Roundel, Target's retail media network, to discuss how guest-centric strategies, responsible AI and deeper partnerships are reshaping the retail media landscape. Drawing insights from CES and early results from Roundel's new Precision Plus offering, Drzewicki explains why relevance is outperforming repetition, how first-party data and closed-loop measurement are helping brands prove incrementality, and why discovery increasingly happens offsite through creators, video and social platforms. Tune in to hear how AI-powered optimization is improving efficiency across the funnel, the role of storytelling in an always-on shopper journey, and what marketers should prioritize as signal loss and fragmentation accelerate.

In December, Vineet Mehra formally added growth officer to his chief marketer remit. He's spent much time thinking about how CMOs can maintain relevance by adding a broader business focus to their role. He joins the Marketer's Brief podcast to discuss these thoughts and offer marketers advice, as the rest of the industry wonders if the CMO role will even still matter by 2030. He also discusses opportunities for brands to meet growing financial anxiety among consumers, and new agentic media opportunities.

Clear consumer targeting and aggressive pricing are helping Outlaw carve out space in a troubled category

Mike Zeman talks about how marketing is fueling the brand's evolution into a "family super app"

Byron Sharp, author of "How Brands Grow," and director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of Marketing Science, espouses an approach that flies in the face of much modern marketing wisdom about the importance of media targeting, personalization and incentivizing customer loyalty. He explains his views, including why he thinks brands with the most "physical availability" (i.e. broadest retail distribution) and "mental availability" (top-of-mind awareness) will win.

Former Mediahub CEO John Moore and former BMW CMO Trudy Hardy on how clients and agencies can work better together, including why CMOs should take some control back from their procurement departments. Hardy and Moore, now both with marketing and agency consultancy Harmonium also weigh in on the Omnicom-IPG merger and share their perspective on what agencies can deliver to clients when it comes to AI.

In today's fragmented sports and entertainment economy, brands face unprecedented competition for cultural relevance and authentic fan connection. In this episode, Lou Kovacs, President of Marketing, North America at Octagon, shares how the agency's insight-powered creative approach helps brands break through, shape culture, and unlock new markets around the world. Lou dives into Octagon's evolution as a creative powerhouse, spotlighting how the agency's integrated Creative, Digital, and Branded Content teams work together to deliver ideas rooted in fan behavior. He also highlights Octagon's industry-leading momentum, including recent recognition from Cannes Lions, Sports Business Journal and The Clios, showcasing how creativity has become a core driver of value in sponsorship and brand storytelling. The Custom Marketer's Brief episode features a look at Nutrafol's first-ever sports partnership, a category-first campaign with MLB, and a breakthrough example of how Octagon blends creative concepting with high-stakes strategic negotiation. We also explore the agency's influential role in the rise of women's sports.from creative programs like Delta's "Power Forward" docu-series in partnership with the WNBA, to major sponsorships for brands including NYX and Mastercard, as well as the agency's representation of iconic athletes and personalities such as Simone Biles, Trinity Rodman, Aly Raisman, Hannah Storm, among many others. For marketers seeking to stay ahead of culture, fandom, and global market opportunity as we prepare for 2026, tune into this episode for a fresh, creative point of view that is redefining what brand impact looks like today.

Susan Coghill, who has been overseeing Australia's tourism marketing since 2019, on how the Come and Say G'day campaign localizes is marketing for the U.S., U.K., China and other countries, including by using local talent. She also updates us on broader tourism trends and how her organization views more people using AI to make travel plans. Plus, how Australia is leveraging wildlife conservationist and "Dancing with the Stars" star Robert Irwin.

Avery Akkineni, VaynerX's chief marketing officer, has tips for CMOs riding the social media lightning, and she tells us why VaynerMedia has not followed the whole industry into an AI rebranding.

Local advertising is one of the most effective methods for brands of all sizes to reach the audiences that matter most, and platforms like Locality's LocalX are becoming industry leaders by enabling advertisers to plan, buy and measure local broadcast and streaming in one intelligent workflow. LocalX was purpose-built for local advertising, and by using real-time insights and unified data, the platform empowers agencies and partners to maximize impact with confidence." At the end of the day, the reason we're targeting local is to drive a better outcome for our brand in a local community or local space," said Zach Mullins, chief strategy officer at Locality, on a special edition of Ad Age's Marketer's Brief podcast. "By creating unification at scale, we can do that much more effectively in local markets." Tune in to hear more about how LocalX works to combat the increasing complexity and fragmentation within local markets, advance the local ad-buying ecosystem, and the future the company sees for the local media market.

Debbie Woloshin talks about the brand's generative AI-powered styling tool

Linh Peters, now CMO at science-backed hair care brand Seen, talks about marketing as a growth engine

Chris Curtin arrived as chief marketing officer of Sam's Club in May just after the retailer, little sibling of Walmart, finished an agency review. But the veteran of Bank of America was familiar with his new agency, Publicis Groupe, from his old job. And he hit the ground running by overseeing a new holiday campaign starring Chris Pratt. Here, Curtin talks about what it's like coming in right after an agency review and just before Sam's Club's biggest season in retail, as well as how he's bringing finance and fintech experience to retail.

Blumhouse CMO Karen Barragan gives tips and tricks for Halloween marketing as well as the value of seasonal fans for expanding Blumhouses reach. She discusses the increasing mainstream attention on horror, beginning with Warner Bros. 2017 "It" campaign, and how brands can lean in. Plus, behind the scenes of the creation of the "Black Phone 2" and "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" marketing campaigns, and lessons from "Megan 2.0's" box office flop.

Zelle has tweaked its marketing strategy as it has looked to embrace being an emotionally resonant brand. Last month, it worked with its creative and strategic agency of record Pereira O'Dell to launch "When It Counts," a new brand platform that positions everyday payments as acts of care. It also marks a new level of maturity for the brand, which in 2014 saw Americans send more than $1 trillion across 3.6 billion transactions. Andrea Gilman, chief marketing officer at Zelle and Paze network operator Early Warning Services, discusses this change, Gen Z behavioral changes she's observed this year and Early Warning's AI approach, including how it used the tech in Zelle's latest campaign.

Athena Kasvikis is managing iRobot amid a turnaround more than 18 months after regulators nixed its acquisition by Amazon. But she's also been an entrepreneur who led Behave Bras to success on "Shark Tank." She brings classical Procter & Gamble marketer training to bear on Roomba, arguably the most iconic brand in robots, as interest in robotics and AI soars, in part thanks to Elon Musk. Here she talks on those things plus her outlook on CTV, data-based targeting, agency relations and how that "I, Robot" movie wasn't named after the company, or vice versa.

Meta's top marketer discusses the latest strategies digital advertisers need to know from search engines to social media. And he weighs in on agencies, automation and AI, in an industry worried about its future.

Spectrum Reach shows how having the right data can drive performance, brand safety and advertiser confidence.

How the owner of Lunazul tequila, Deep Eddy vodka and a high-end bourbon and whiskey portfolio is tapping into fast moving social media and food trends without losing sight of its roots. Blevins also discusses new agency relationships with Mono and Assembly.

Creator marketing is a huge part of Blizzard Entertainment's strategy. As the developer of properties with global appeal, such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo, it has no trouble finding fans in all corners of the world, including basketball player Luka Dončić, who plays at one of the highest possible ranks in Overwatch. CMO Monica Austin discusses a recent partnership with Dončić, plus why Blizzard sees value in partnering with creators who are vocal critics of its work. She also discusses balancing Blizzard's global marketing strategy with region-specific campaigns.

Ad Age technology reporter Asa Hiken breaks down the state of AI search advertising, what ads on ChatGPT may look like, how much they'll cost and the different approaches companies including OpenAI, Google, Meta and Perplexity are taking. Plus, how marketers can strategize for consumers' changing AI habits. YouTube announced new ad tools that will give creators more power to curate sponsorships across their content libraries. Read how YouTubers are becoming more like traditional media networks. And a tax change set for 2026 threatens the future of free agency food. Get the info on how lunches might become the next differentiator for recruiting talent. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~Everything to know about AI search ads ~Inside Perplexity's ad test ~Answer engine optimization tips ~Listen to Grillo's CMO on the importance of experiential activations

On this episode, Luker also talks about what Grillo's looks for in partnerships.

Ad Age agency reporter Ewan Larkin demystifies the changing power dynamics at agency holding companies such as WPP, Publicis and Omnicom. Global account leads are becoming more important to agency growth, changing the position of regional and agency brand CEOs. Plus, Netflix announced it would make ad inventory available through Amazon's DSP. The partnership is a milestone in both companies' ad journeys—read more on the implications. And Goodby Silverstein & Partners named Sarah Thompson as its first-ever CEO. Go inside the reasons why. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~The meaning of agency holding companies' changing power dynamics ~Dentsu's strategy to stand out amid industry M&A ~Behind the scenes of the updated "How Many Licks" campaign ~Listen to Little Caesar's CMO talk sports marketing strategy

Greg Hamilton joins the Marketer's Brief Podcasts to talk about the chain's four years as an NFL sponsor.

Ad Age senior agency reporter Lindsay Rittenhouse goes inside the growing trend of brand-agency marriage counseling. Rather than jumping straight into a costly and time-intensive agency review, consultancies are increasingly suggesting services that evaluate the existing relationship, and potentially improve both the agency and brand's practices. Plus, Group Black is changing its name to Portrait Media Group. In an exclusive interview with Ad Age, co-founder Bonin Bough explained the reason as well as the company's future path. And one change for future CMOs is the rise of test-running roles before committing full-time. Read more on how to get noticed for interim marketing positions. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~Inside brand-agency marriage counselling ~The stats on client-agency tenure ~Google won't be forced to sell Chrome ~What Kraft Heinz's reorganization means for its future ~Keep up with the latest account reviews ~Buy tickets to Ad Age's Business of Brands conference ~Listen to Manscaped's CMO talk unconventional media strategies

Kertesz reflects on three years in the CMO role, including how media placements have become a form of creative messaging and how the DTC-born brand is embracing multichannel marketing. Plus, how the brand's "Send Face Pics Instead" went viral.

Ad Age reporters Erika Wheless and Gillian Follett break down the brand lessons from the recent Cracker Barrel and American Eagle dramas: How can marketers better prepare for social pushback, what to know about official brand responses and how the brand-consumer relationship is changing on social media. Plus, AI ad networks are beginning to emerge, which place paid content in chatbots such as ChatGPT. Dig into the debate between maintaining chat quality and monetizing the technology. And Svedka has resurrected its Fembot character in a plea for people to put down their phones and go out with friends. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~The latest on the Cracker Barrel rebrand saga ~Refresh yourself on American Eagle's Sydney Sweeney campaign backlash ~Inside E.l.f. Cosmetics' Matt Rife social campaign ~Keep up with the latest account reviews ~Buy tickets to Ad Age's Business of Brands conference ~Listen to Hinge's CMO talk connecting with Gen Z

Jackie Jantos, Hinge's president and CMO, shares tips for winning with Gen Z and how Hinge has been able to see growth when other dating apps are seeing declines

Jackie Jantos, Hinge's president and CMO, shares tips for winning with Gen Z and how Hinge has been able to see growth when other dating apps are seeing declines

In Ad Age's Marketer's Brief podcast, CMX's Parbinder Dhariwal shares how CVS connects brands with health-focused shoppers to drive growth.

Ad Age Creativity Editor Tim Nudd reveals the creativity trends of 2025 so far, including the impact of AI on brand marketing, the resurgence of experiential activations and the secret to an effective modern Super Bowl campaign. Plus, data reveals the impact of AI search on brand's website visits—some categories are seeing a lift while others are staying flat. Dig deeper into the differentiators. And E.l.f. Cosmetics finds itself the latest subject of consumer scrutiny after partnering with controversial comedian Matt Rife. Find out where experts are saying the brand went wrong. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~Tim's list of the top ads of 2025 so far ~Coca-Cola's AI-generated holiday campaign ~Google's not-so-good Olympics AI ad ~Walton Goggins' Doritos porn spoof ~Apply to join Ad Age's Small Agency Network ~Keep track of agency account reviews here

Ed Beadle, Honda VP of digital services and marketing, reveals how the automaker is getting more efficient with its marketing and how his background as a media strategist and Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master shapes his approach and leadership style.

Alvaro Luque talks tariffs, media mix and his guacamole recipe