Kristen Faust

At #PortadaChicago we will learn how cultural relevance can significantly boost advertising performance across different target segments. Sonia Morales, EVP, Head of Agile Planning, Starcom, John Marson, SVP, Managing Director, Horizon Media, and Sergio Leon, SVP Group Creative Director, VML will discuss the crucial role of cultural relevance in: - Messaging (creative) - Advertising around tentpole events - Engagement provided by the media used   - Programmatic vs. non-programmatic buys  - AI: Incorporating a Predictive View into the Media Planning Process 👉 👉 👉 https://lnkd.in/ei6XY_2y

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Today at Portada Chicago, I had the opportunity to sit in on a panel exploring what cultural relevance really means in today’s landscape, and more importantly, what it demands of us as marketers and leaders. Cultural relevance isn’t something you add on to a plan. It’s something you build from the start with intention, empathy, and a deep understanding of the communities you’re trying to serve. It’s not about chasing trends. It’s about recognizing signals, respecting context, and showing up in ways that are meaningful while still driving business outcomes. Reach gets you seen. Cultural relevance gets you chosen.

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Personalization isn’t about channels or platforms. It’s about giving customers what they actually want. In this episode of Here’s the Deal, I share the marketer’s checklist for data activation, from unifying your data to optimizing campaigns in real time.

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Jennifer Kattula, could not agree more -> "Generative AI is transforming marketing and how brands engage with their audiences. As much as I love AI, robots will not replace human taste, craft, curation, or nuance" What a wonderful conversation with Kristin Reagan from Annalect. Highly recommend this read.

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AI agents can’t operate in silos. Learn about the main components required to make them work by downloading Merkle's Agentic AI Playbook: https://bit.ly/4kUIF8P

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More tech doesn’t always mean better results. In The Drum, Merkle’s Dan Knauf shares how agencies can avoid Frankenstacks and focus on tech that delivers clarity, efficiency, and growth: https://bit.ly/3SXgU38

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“Build Agents that drive strategic value. Most AI agents lack memory and strategic design, making them ineffective for optimizing consumer journeys. True value comes from context-aware systems that can support multi-step tasks without disconnection and can adapt to shifting customer data.” #ai #agentic #media #trends #data #customers #consumers #search

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UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol)- the new open standard built for Agentic Commerce. Allowing AI agents to shop with or on behalf of users - whilst supporting core commerce actions like Product Discover, Order Management & Payments. So what does this mean for enterprise organisations?

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🖥️✅ AdExchanger (6/16): “Because both platforms require users to be “100%” logged in, said Roku. In other words, those audiences are very easily identifiable thanks to a wealth of first-party data parameters, so it’s easy to target and measure them with a higher degree of accuracy compared to other available methods. The two companies expect that their combined data footprint will allow advertisers to reach roughly 80 million CTV households through Amazon’s DSP. According to data from Comscore, this represents over 80% of the total CTV households in the United States. Not surprisingly, much of that coverage comes from Roku. Roughly 50% of the total streaming consumption in US households already happens via the streaming provider’s own operating system across all their devices, Roku told AdExchanger. Although the public launch won’t actually occur until Q4 of this year, so far both teams are happy with the outcomes of the initial closed tests. Per Amazon DSP, the combination of Roku and Amazon’s data has achieved three times improvement in return on ad spend, as well as 42% more unique reach at the same media budget and a 27% frequency reduction, meaning how often users see the same ad. Ideally, the final launch will benefit all the different players within the digital advertising industry. Publishers will have an easier time serving ads to the right customers, marketers will reach those same customers with more precision, and the users themselves will have a better experience, said Amazon.” ⬇️ #programmatic #biddable #upfronts #ctv #ott #fast #tvos https://lnkd.in/eQtyxtyt

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Dentsu just launched dentsu.Composable on Snowflake, empowering marketers to activate data, AI, and insights faster and more securely. As part of this innovation, Merkle will use dentsu.Composable to advance enterprise data strategy and our Consumer 360 offering. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/48SDYsY

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Dave Sargent , Mindshare’s UK Head of AV, I loved your article. very interesting read on CTV. Key take out for me - CTV measurement can be too focused on campaign outcomes and not enough on supply quality and environment. Check out the article below: https://lnkd.in/ehP_e7zr #CTV #Quality #Reach VideoWeek

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CMOs Are More Focused On Growing Revenue Than Brand Awareness https://lnkd.in/g8jyVmuY Chief marketing officers are increasingly prioritizing direct revenue outcomes over traditional brand awareness efforts, influenced by economic pressures, performance measurement demands, and AI‑enabled tracking. This shift reflects a need for more measurable impact on business performance, with revenue growth becoming a leading strategic metric for modern marketing leaders. #CMOInsights #RevenueGrowth #MarketingStrategy #BrandVsPerformance #BusinessImpact #DataDrivenMarketing

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Personalization isn’t about channels or platforms. It’s about giving customers what they actually want. In this episode of Here’s the Deal, Daniella Harkins shares the marketer’s checklist for data activation, from unifying your data to optimizing campaigns in real time.

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Merkle's latest ebook dives into the evolving content landscape and how brands can scale smarter in the age of AI. With content consumption at an all-time high, the pressure is on to create efficiently, connect authentically, and stay ahead of the curve. Don’t get left behind—discover how to future-proof your content strategy today: https://bit.ly/433avJv

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Content strategist roles are shaping how companies build trust, grow brands and drive revenue. Curious what the job really involves—and how AI is changing it? This guide breaks it down for 2026. https://bit.ly/3ZJ66ZW

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Today Omnicom Group reports its first earnings since acquiring IPG. CMO's shouldn't care. Wall Street's financial view diverges from marketer's customer growth view. Look no further than Wall Street reaction to Publicis' strong earnings or Dentsu's stalled talks with PE. A fixation on the financial concerns of agencies distracts from the value they produce for marketers and brands. Our advice, brush off the earnings hyperbole and focus on the structural improvements needed to create and deliver brand value. This blog post explores how CMOs can do so with the new Omnicom Group. #forrester #cmos #aimarketing Mike Proulx Keith Johnston Emily Collins https://lnkd.in/eTk8XX63

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Much of my time has been helping marketers best allocate their budget. Media efficiency measurement is well served with multiple data streams and automation. Interesting to see that Gartner's CMO respondents are spending so much time on the productivity of their marketing teams including how they work with partners. It takes thoughtful planning to do this in a way that encourages the honest self- and team-appraisal that can lead to more productive work. Ideally this could free up resources to reinvest in topline growth - that's what's been under-resourced while we've been so focused on optimizing for media efficiency.

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Another call for program-level buying in CTV. I wrote about this six months ago from the advertiser perspective. This needs to happen for both advertisers and publishers. It’s a win for both. Take a look: https://lnkd.in/eJvGknBe

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The Nobel prize-winning field of Behavioral Economics revealed how consumer decisions are actually made subconsciously, and it unleashed a whole field of Behavioral Science-based market research. Protobrand was a pioneer and remains dedicated to Behavioral Science as necessary for (almost) every investigation. Why, you ask should you care about behavioral science approaches when you just want to know something simple? Because now we know how consumer decisions are often made almost entirely subconsciously, and you can’t just ignore that process when it is known knowledge. A fast inaccurate answer does not have a better ROI than the correct one; in fact it usually has a negative ROI. The wrong answer is still wrong even when it is instantly available for free. Smart marketers and insights leads focus on connecting the consumer subconscious to the marketer’s next decision.

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