Heather Carver

Deepfakes are getting harder to spot. Here’s a marketer's guide to labeling AI video, keeping UGC truly human, and staying on the right side of trust.

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Marketecture Live just showed the ad industry how conferences should be done. Less marketing fluff, more news-to-use. The standout moment: Ari Paparo’s fireside chat with TTD CEO Jeff Green - covering OpenPath, SSP “house flippers,” chatbot ads, and a bold prediction about Amazon’s DSP. READ my breakdown of the most interesting conference in AdTech for FREE HERE: https://lnkd.in/gea4GKiw

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In light of BuzzFeed's plans to launch its own social media platform, the Media Briefing evaluates other media companies' past attempts to do the same. https://lnkd.in/eXir84YA

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Over and over again - we see great data on how OOH drives foot traffic. In NYC, LinkNYC’s massive 4000 screen network gets deep in the city, finding target audiences where they live work and play. In beauty, a brand can own the biggest city, and spark NYC’s trendsetting audience to go to retail and buy the product, as shown in this recent case example.

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🚀 Amazon and Roku Partner to Scale Addressable CTV Advertising Amazon and Roku are teaming up to unify their streaming audiences through Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP). This collaboration allows advertisers to target logged-in users across both Fire TV and Roku OS—boosting reach and improving ad efficiency. 🆕 What’s New -Advertisers can now access 80 million U.S. connected TV households via Amazon’s DSP. -The integration enables cross-platform identity targeting using logged-in user data. -The service will be available to all Amazon DSP advertisers in the U.S. by Q4 2025. -Early results show a 40% increase in unique viewers reached and a 30% drop in ad repetition. 💡 Why It Matters This partnership directly addresses two of the biggest challenges in connected TV advertising: (1) Fragmented audiences across platforms and (2) Inefficient frequency control leading to wasted impressions. By consolidating identity and scale across two dominant ecosystems, Amazon and Roku are offering advertisers a more precise, cost-effective way to reach viewers. It also signals Amazon’s growing ambition to compete with major players like The Trade Desk and Google in the programmatic space. ❓ Big Question for Marketers Are advertisers prepared to shift their thinking about how to create audiences from sources not previously available? #CTV #AdTech #AmazonAdvertising #Roku #ProgrammaticAds #MarketingStrategy #MediaInnovation #DigitalMarketing

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A new wave of agency-led models are ‘de-layering’ the sector and homing in on growth. Curation is going in-house, check out our article in The Drum:

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There’s a systemic disconnect between spend and insight, with chunks of programmatic spend never reaching working media due to stacked fees, duplicated services and supply path complexity. Curated Media explains how marketers can optimize their programmatic strategy now, https://lnkd.in/eJRjSvRv #sponsored #ctv #programmatic

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An awesome conversation with Instacart's very own Ali Miller and The Drum's Kiri Masters on how Instacart's platform allows retailers of all sizes to participate in retail media without contributing to the fragmentation that has been so challenging for brands and agencies to manage. Definitely worth the read! Here we go!

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Fragmentation is accelerating, and high-attention platforms are redefining where audiences spend their time. Independent creators, livestream shopping, and retail media networks are gaining influence. Success now depends on creator partnerships and data-driven personalization. Learn how to align your strategy for growth in our free Navigating the New Media World Outlook Report: https://hubs.ly/Q03Lp_gw0 #Media #FutureOfMedia #ConsumerInsights

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In this episode of 🎙️ The New Mainstream Podcast, Mario Xavier Carrasco sits down with Arnetta Whiteside (Publicis Groupe) to explore how culture, identity, and influence are reshaping marketing in the U.S.   🎧 Listen to the full episode and learn how brands can lead with culture, data, and real representation.   https://lnkd.in/eTgcKctn   #podcast #TheWorldInOneCity #ThinkNow #CulturalInsights #RepresentationMatters #FutureOfMarketing #MulticulturalMarketing #ConsumerInsights

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**AI Marketing's Dynamic Duo** Palantir & Stagwell unite! Their AI platform uses Foundry, Code & Theory, plus Stagwell's data to give marketers AI-driven tools. Imagine AI crafting campaigns, boosting local marketing, all while safeguarding user data. AI's impact? Faster workload handling, less coding needed. Domain experts can execute ideas quicker. Tailored solutions for each client, even in similar industries like hotels, are now reality. It's beyond SaaS! Why does this matter? Think hyper-personalized ads, locally targeted campaigns, and data privacy. This levels the playing field, empowering smaller teams with AI muscle. It's marketing, reinvented. *More Details:* https://lnkd.in/erwKiK-J

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If you couldn't make it to Las Vegas for #CES2026, ADWEEK just published the highlights from my conversation with Jenny Rooney. 👉 https://bit.ly/3NmAiai In the piece, we preview the AI Disruption Index, Moloco’s new research with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which maps 15 industries into four strategic realities. When 75% of consumers believe LLMs help them find better deals than they can find on their own, AI isn’t just optimizing discovery. It’s replacing it entirely. With the AI Disruption Index, we wanted to give brands a clear, data driven way to understand their exposure to AI driven disruption, based on the strength of their customer relationships. Check out the article for the initial breakdown, but stay tuned for the deep dive when the full report releases on January 21st. #AIDisruptionIndex #MarketingStrategy

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Retail Media Networks came up repeatedly at #CES2026, especially in a session with Instacart, TikTok, and The Trade Desk. What stood out wasn’t just performance. It was how much consumer data RMNs now sit on, and how that data can be applied beyond retailer-owned environments. As retail data is increasingly used to inform media on platforms like social, CTV, and programmatic, the opportunity is less about replicating on-platform efficiency and more about using those signals to guide broader marketing decisions. That only works if the impact of those signals is measured in the context of the total media investment. Who to reach, when to reach them, and in what environment. For CPG brands that rely on retailers as the front line of sales, this is an important evolution. Retail media is moving from a buying tactic into a strategic input for both marketing execution and cross-channel measurement. Thanks to panelists Ali Miller, Lorry Destainville, Elliott Nix and moderator Max Willens for sharing their insights!

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The next era of marketing is a single intelligent system: Paid + Owned, unified. MarTech + AdTech, converged. AI, orchestrating the whole loop — from intent to outcome.

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Chartbeat helps publishers strengthen content strategy and deepen reader loyalty, while Tubular Labs helps creators and brands uncover what drives momentum across social video platforms. Together, we reveal how audiences think, engage, and evolve so you can keep a pulse on the attention economy.

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The biggest lie in advertising? That tighter targeting = better results. EVP & Managing Partner Bill Raymond breaks it down: when you open up scale across linear + CTV, you unlock lower CPMs, stronger efficiency—and audiences you didn’t even know you were missing. Less restriction. More discovery. Bigger impact.

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What happens when one of the world’s biggest data engines meets one of the smartest media networks? That’s what we unpack in this new Snarketing Podcast episode -- and a whole lot more -- live from 𝗔𝗡𝗔 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 with Lucy Markowitz, SVP & GM at Vistar Media. She explains how T-Mobile’s acquisition of Vistar is more than a merger... It’s a blueprint for what happens when data, accountability, and creative media finally connect. And “𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙗𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨” isn’t just OUR tagline... For Vistar, it’s how smarter targeting and measurable outcomes are reshaping what’s possible in OOH and in-real-life media. Lucy really is everything we hoped she'd be... and occasionally a bit more than we bargained for. Join me and Valerie Vespa on yet another adventure! Full episode: 🟥 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eR3WMDwn 🟢 Spotify: http://bit.ly/48REo36 ♥️ iHeart: http://bit.ly/3LuJwjI

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