Ad Age Insider

Ad Age Creativity Editor Tim Nudd breaks down this year's Halloween marketing trends: the move from ads to products and experiences, the blend of horror and comedy, nostalgia and IP tie-ins and a wave of brand-to-brand partnerships. He covers Pringles' burial urn, Rivian's Ghostbusters campaign, Twix's Zombie Claus and Cheetos' horror shorts with Blumhouse, plus the horror-parody trope he'd like t...

Bose topped Ad Age's Gen Z brand tracker, ahead of Liberty Mutual, The Farmer's Dog, Electronic Arts and Hollister—what it reveals about humor and nostalgia, in-person experiences, and growing AI skepticism among young consumers. Plus, Dentsu Creative hires Michael Aimette as U.S. chief creative officer; ChatGPT begins running ads alongside AI-generated images; the ANA, 4As and IAB team up on AI,...

Novig released a second Sydney Sweeney ad after the first drew criticism and tripled trading volume, and what it reveals about celebrity partnerships. Plus, Vice Media named Shannon Washington president and creative leader of Virtue Worldwide; Apple fixed the Safari change that blocked The Trade Desk's ads; Parke, Reale Actives, and Dairy Boy showed how creator-led brands use social listening and...

Agentic shopping is already shaping holiday 2026, even though most consumers aren't ready to let an AI agent use their credit card. Brandon Doerrer, media reporter at Ad Age, explains how AI shopping agents like Muse and ChatGPT Dots handle product discovery and consideration, and why brands that ignore them could vanish from gift searches. He covers where to start with product feeds, inventory de...

Hertz, Subaru and Liquid Death are building pet-focused campaigns and products to tap into surging pet spending, but marketers warn against forcing the fit. Plus, Chemistry acquires design agency Colossus; Apple's iOS 27 update blocks The Trade Desk's ad tools on Safari; mid-size brands drop follower counts and reconsider linear TV; Herb Light launches ScareBnB, a Halloween contest for cannabis ho...

In the AI era, company culture is the real differentiator. Ad Age's Senior Editor Adrianne Pascarelli breaks down the workforce gap nobody's solved, the AI overhype she's most suspicious of and the influencer disclosure loophole about to blow up in brands' faces. She also shares the three words marketers put in a live word cloud when asked to sum up the moment (humanity, insanity, never-ending cha...

Rich Silverstein is stepping down as co-chairman of Goodby Silverstein & Partners after 43 years, with an AI hotline trained on his voice now fielding creative pitches in his place. Plus, Burger King turns its own product failures into ad material; Meta's Muse and Anthropic's Claude Commerce Blueprint push brands toward agentic holiday shopping prep; CampStudios, Pufferfish and StudioB pull creato...

Marketing budgets are tight across the board, but mid-size brands—companies roughly between $50 million and $1 billion in revenue—have been finding ways to make theirs work harder. Adrianne Pasquarelli, senior editor of CMO strategy and commerce at Ad Age, digs into how these brands operate with fewer resources, fewer layers of approval and a lot more speed. She breaks down what's driving bolder c...

X&O co-founders Brett Banker and Eric Segal play a game of overrated or underrated, dishing on the holding company vs. independents debate, spec work, content creators and more. Check out Ad Age's full conversation with the duo in the first episode of Agencies on Record, a new quarterly podcast from Ad Age.  Don't miss the full conversation with Brett Banker and Eric Segal

Creative studio Basura's satirical "Adopt a Data Center" campaign imagines AI data centers as rescue animals. Plus, Applebee's names BBDO Chicago its new creative agency as CMO Michelle Chin looks to reverse falling same-store sales; Subway casts Will Arnett as America's tempted subconscious in its first campaign from new AOR Martin; OpenAI rolls out chat-based ad formats, tightening advertising's...

Develop the strategic idea, then step back—the client can take it in-house, hand it to another agency or bring X&O back to build it themselves. That's the split that co-founders Brett Banker and Eric Segal say powers their sprint model: five-to-six-day timelines, a top-to-top rule that puts C-level talent in the room from day one and a hard "no" on pitching for free, even against a strong prospect...

Creators aren't just making content anymore—they're getting pulled into the actual strategy conversation. Ad Age social and influencer marketing reporter Gillian Follett explains how creators are shaping product decisions and campaign direction with brands, not just showing up in the final cut. She also weighs in on the branded-series gold rush (and why most of it isn't landing), a friend-group co...

Viral videos of influencers disrupting US Open matches exposed how many brands still lack clear systems for briefing talent, picking the right creators or vetting whether an event even fits their brand. Plus, WPP is set to retain Coca-Cola's global media, data and technology business but won't compete for its North America media pitch; KFC's new Open House concept restaurant joins a wave of experi...

Gillian Follett, social marketing and influencer reporter at Ad Age, breaks down how brand-creator partnerships have evolved in 2026, from creators taking on strategic roles in product development and marketing decisions to equity deals reshaping the influencer economy. The conversation covers creator advisory boards at holding companies, the rise of creator-founded agencies producing social-first...

Planters named Martin, the agency behind the Geico Gecko, its creative agency of record without running a formal review, betting on character-driven branding to sharpen Mr. Peanut's point of view. Plus, Callaway ended its Good Good Golf partnership after a controversial ad, exposing gaps in how brands vet creator-made content; The Trade Desk overhauled Kokai with more visibility into automated ad...

Catch the full conversation: https://adage.substack.com/p/ai-is-all-over-earnings-calls-ai Ad Age's senior tech editor Garett Sloane joins Parker to answer the question everyone's asking: is the AI bubble about to pop, or are we still just getting started? They get into AI search (AEO), the OpenAI-vs-Google power struggle, and why Garett thinks holograms are the next big sleeper trend—plus a chatb...

YouTube is doubling the watch time and engagement thresholds creators need to qualify for its Partner Program starting February 2027, a shift that matters less than it sounds since brands are already striking direct deals with creators regardless of their eligibility status. Plus, The Variable acquired Gen Z and Gen Alpha-focused agency Carson+Doyle; Athleta launched "My World, My Rules," aiming t...

Ad Age senior tech editor Garett Sloane unpacks why AI dominates earnings calls at companies from Meta and Google to Colgate-Palmolive, Amazon and Booking Holdings even if it's not yet moving the bottom line for most. The conversation covers AI search and chatbots reshaping consumer discovery, ChatGPT's ad business outlook, agentic commerce experiments and the slow, standards-limited rollout of ag...

This week: PepsiCo is running a global agency review focused on building out AI marketing capabilities, with Omnicom, Accenture, Deloitte, and Publicis Sapient all vying for the assignment.  Plus, Google enlists creatives Susan Credle, Tiffany Rolfe and Jayanta Jenkins to make AI-generated ads using Flow and Gemini to shift industry sentiment on AI; OpenAI's CMO for business argues ChatGPT is lett...

Dollar Tree named independent agency Tombras its first-ever creative agency of record ahead of a September brand campaign—what it reveals about the shift from performance marketing to full-funnel brand building. Plus, Quality Meats co-founders launched cannabis beverage Herb Light, using retro beer nostalgia to help THC drinkers understand dosage before they try it; OpenAI expanded ChatGPT's ad in...

Erika Wheless, consumer culture and brand behavior reporter at Ad Age, breaks down the consumer trends shaping the back half of 2026, and how they connect to the brands gaining the most ground with Gen Z. The conversation covers why credibility is starting to matter more than authenticity, with audiences favoring "frontline authority" voices—actual employees and experts—over traditional influencer...

This week on Ad Age Insider's Weekly Report: McDonald's opens up about how an overloaded promotional calendar, stacking a K-pop Demon Hunters tie-in, value messaging, beverage launches, and a FIFA World Cup push, confused customers and dragged down second-quarter sales, and what it reveals about the real cost of promotional saturation and the discipline brands need to know what to cut. Plus, the M...

This week on Ad Age Insider's Weekly Report: creators like Alix Earle are increasingly chasing equity stakes instead of traditional brand deals, and what it reveals about creators becoming long-term business partners rather than just marketing assets. Plus, Popeyes names Stagwell's Anomaly as its new U.S. Creative Agency of Record following a sales decline and roster overhaul; Equinox pulls an AI-...

The leaders of the 2026 Ad Age Small Agency Awards—Judy Pollack, Brian Bonilla and Ewan Larkin—break down what actually separated this year's winners from the pack. They dig into why small shops are ditching billable hours for outcomes-based and equity models and how agencies like Conscious Minds and Zambezi rebuilt their entire structures to compete at scale. They also talk about why social-first...

This week on Ad Age Insider's Weekly Report: Taco Bell's Cyclospora outbreak and what it reveals about crisis communications, food safety, and brand trust. Plus, four Madwell alumni launch independent agency Five Cherries; ChatGPT's advertising platform shifts toward conversion-based pricing; creators Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill talk brand partnerships without sanitizing their content; and Plato's...