Talk to the leaders of any holding company and they will be the first to tell you that they are misunderstood. They feel vilified by all the independent agencies looking to poach their smaller clients who may feel neglected or underappreciated. They are feeling downward pressure from procurement and client-side finance, who view media spend […]
For agency holdcos, the problem is in the name
What makes holdcos stumble isn’t just economics or technology. That’s semiotics. Once upon a time, the label had a clearly defined job: you represented clients, you worked the market, you did introductions, and you got paid for it. But modern conglomerates – Publicis Group, Omnicom, WPP, Havas and Dentsu – no longer operate that way. […]
Highguard: Danger of Shadow Drops
High GuardThe launch path was anything but conventional. Announced at The Game Awards 2025 to close out the event, Wildlight Entertainment’s free-to-play PvP raid shooter spent just 45 days in limbo before launching on the 26thth January. This very short window and sudden announcement constitutes a “shadow drop” launch strategy – a technique used (to […]
Hearst rethinks brand safety for news advertising results
Hearst adopted a new approach to increase advertising results across its news outlets, properties that have historically been difficult to monetize, especially during periods of political polarization. Publishers of titles like the San Francisco Chronicle and Connecticut Post have partnered with Mobian to reassess how brand safety and suitability is applied across local print and […]
The Most Popular Games of 2025 On Live Streaming
2025 is a year full of contrasts in the world of gaming. Indies rocked it critically and commercially Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 made history at The Game Awards as the first indie debut to win Game of the Year. But on the other hand, dark times were brewing as the industry faced massive layoffs that hit […]
Gale surveyed more than 1,200 US consumers
Social media has now been around long enough that it can be a very powerful marketing channel, especially for lower funnel advertisers. Even as signals erode about what made them click. So it’s high time to understand social platforms from a 2.0 perspective — at least that’s the thinking behind the Gale institute’s research into […]
WTF is vibration coding? – Digi Day
Generative AI is everywhere, whether we like it or not. Content creation is no exception, with AI influencers signing brand deals and real-life influencers using AI tools to help plan content schedules or write scripts. The latest trend? Vibe coding, a new way for content creators to create advanced computer programs without knowing how to […]
The era when advertising data stayed in advertising is over
The privacy debate in advertising is entering a phase where decisions remain to be made. Yes, the industry has heard it before. This was heard when the General Data Protection Regulation came into force and data privacy officers increased in number across Europe. This comes as the California Consumer Privacy Act prompts privacy audits across […]
Goalhanger is updating its podcast for the video economy
On YouTube, The Rest is History podcast attracts about 500,000 viewers, lasting an average of about 48 minutes. That’s close to the length of a traditional hour-long show and even longer than the average audio power podcast of around 40 minutes. For the production team, seeing that level of engagement, especially on the TV screen, […]
Robyn Freye was CA’s first president and chief growth officer
If you can’t beat them, sometimes you have to hire them. That’s the approach CourtAvenue took when facing Stagwell in several tosses it didn’t win. The independent multi-branch agency run by former WPP executives Dan Khabie, Kenny Tomlin and Michael Stich, hired Robyn Freye to be CourtAvenue’s first president and chief growth officer. Most recently […]