
How Jack Daniels Found Its Big Idea
Jack Daniel’s appointed Sophia Angelis as its first non‑US, female Managing Director in January 2020 and tasked her with modernising the heritage brand amid a global pandemic. She launched “Make It Count,” the company’s first truly global campaign, built on a universal insight that people crave meaningful moments. The platform was designed as a modular system that gave local markets creative flexibility while keeping core brand pillars fixed. As a result, Jack Daniel’s doubled its global media spend and extended the idea to premium product storytelling.
Marketing in the Agentic Era
On April 9 at 10:00 AM PDT, former CMO Lena Waters will host a new version of Theory Ventures’ Office Hours. Waters, who led marketing at Notion, Grammarly and DocuSign, will discuss how companies can redesign their marketing organizations for an AI‑driven world. The...

Consumer Reports’ Membership Model Shields Revenue as Traffic Declines
Consumer Reports, the 90‑year‑old nonprofit testing products, now earns about 70% of its revenue from more than 4 million paying members, insulating it from the double‑digit traffic drops—up to 30% in the past 18 months—driven by search changes and GenAI. The...

Results Are In: NBC’s Olympic Creator Bet Won Gold — Inside the Playbook
NBCUniversal’s Olympic Creator Collective sent more than 25 digital creators to the Milan‑Cortina Winter Games, generating over 4 billion impressions across its social channels – a 437% jump from Beijing 2022. The follow‑up Project Fortius program helped ten athletes add more than...

Results Are In: NBC’s Olympic Creator Bet Won Gold — Inside the Playbook
NBCUniversal’s Olympic Creator Collective delivered more than 4 billion impressions during the Milan‑Cortina Winter Games, a 437 percent jump from Beijing 2022. The program, now in its second iteration after a successful Paris pilot, paired over 25 influencers with athletes, while Project Fortius...
The Brand Signals Behind SKIMS, Adidas, and Bottega
Recent brand moves by SKIMS, Adidas, and Bottega Veneta illustrate how leading CMOs are redefining visibility, cultural relevance, and long‑term equity. SKIMS has transitioned from a celebrity‑driven launch to a product‑focused, inclusive category leader, emphasizing operational scale and trust. Adidas...

Why Celebration Is Better Marketing Than Outrage
The article argues that outrage‑driven marketing, while fast‑acting, yields fleeting attention and limits audience growth. In contrast, celebratory campaigns build lasting community, expand market reach, and generate durable brand loyalty. Examples such as Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, the Barbie film...
The CMO Between the CFO and the Algorithm: Why Marketing Is Entering the Decade of “Less”
The article argues that chief marketing officers are increasingly sandwiched between CFOs demanding fiscal discipline and sophisticated algorithms that demand real‑time performance data. As measurement tools become more granular, marketing budgets are being scrutinized with the same rigor as any...
Why Marketers Need to Take Control of Pricing Communication
Marketers are being urged to seize ownership of pricing communication rather than leaving it to finance or sales. The article argues that unified, data‑driven messaging across all touchpoints prevents consumer confusion and protects brand equity. It highlights how fragmented pricing...
Grokipedia as a Backdoor to Getting Found in LLM AI Search
Grokipedia, xAI’s AI‑generated encyclopedia, is rapidly becoming a cited source for large language model chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude. Launched last year, it relies on the Grok LLM to create and edit entries, offering marketers a new backdoor to appear...

Beyond Just Do It with Linda Cereda
Former Nike Global VP of Marketing Data, Linda Cereda, explains how the brand built a scalable marketing data engine by prioritizing operating model over technology. She details the SNKRS app’s scarcity‑driven launch, the use of zero‑party data to slash forecasting...

The Revisionists: Inside OpenAP With Brittany Slattery
OpenAP, founded in 2017 by the major broadcast networks, has evolved from a linear‑TV audience‑standardization consortium into a key player shaping streaming identity and ad‑currency frameworks. Its members—Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox—plus strategic investor Snowflake, use a shared foundation to...

Universal’s Michael Moses: My Modern Movie Playbook
Universal’s chief marketing officer Michael Moses argues that theatrical movies are far from dead, noting that Gen Z and Gen Alpha actually crave the communal cinema experience. Drawing on his 25‑year career behind hits like *Wicked*, *Oppenheimer*, and the *Fast...

The New Competitive Advantage
David Meerman Scott argues that the next competitive edge lies not in fleeting viral posts or new platforms, but in cultivating trust, generosity, and genuine human connections. By treating customers as fans and sharing the spotlight, brands create a sense...