Capturing attention — the first job of advertising — has never been so difficult.
With consumers distracted by alerts, texts, posts, emails and likes — not to mention the constant churn of daily life — it’s little wonder that more advertisers are breaking tradition and experimenting at a dizzying pace. In just the past few months, Netflix granted a marketing partner permission to put its well-known ad character into one of its series in a cameo, and Zoom tapped a prominent news influencer to help examine what the company calls “solopreneurs” in a sponsored video series.
No one is giving up on good ol’ TV ads. But never before have advertisers seemed so willing to embrace something else.
Recent financials tell the tale. In the industry’s most recent upfront market, when U.S. media companies tried to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory, ad spending on broadcast TV dropped by approximately 5.3% compared to 2025, according to an analysis by Media Dynamics, a consulting firm that tracks such outlays. Spending on cable TV fell even more, with marketers cutting outlays by 7.7%. Meanwhile, the volume of ad commitments put toward streaming rose a whopping 30%.
With new types of advertising come new challenges. Those issues and the wealth of new opportunities will be on display Oct. 7 as Variety assembles marketing and advertising leaders in New York for the Variety Experience and Culture Summit: The IRL Advantage Presented by OUTFRONT. In preparation for a day of conversations, insights and analysis, we’ve studied five major areas of expertise that modern Madison Avenue leaders need to master:
Influencers and Creators: Digital-native personalities born of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, et al. are the most au courant vehicle in the business of ballyhoo. The data is clear: more young consumers recognize authenticity in creators and influencers than they do in many celebrities and journalists attached to traditional TV vehicles and movies. And yet, influencers aren’t immune to boneheaded moves. Good Good Golf, a popular golf content channel on YouTube, generated an unwelcome controversy in August after a 15-second clip from a commercial Good Good made went viral for all the wrong reasons,showing one of Good Good’s founders shoving a woman. It was meant as a spoof on golfers’ obsession with their beloved golf clubs, but it backfired — to say the least. The uproar from consumers costGood Good its advertising partnership with Callaway Golf, and it led to the exits of Good Good’s CEO and president.
Measurement: Advertisers have, for decades, struggled to determine exactly how many people were exposed to a commercial, but that task has become exponentially more difficult in the digital age. Nielsen and a bevy of rival upstarts are all working to find new ways to capture all types of viewing. Still, the market is splintered around various techniques and proprietary audience-tracking systems devisedby media giants and the ad community. The absence of a common yardstick to measure success — a la Nielsen ratings and box office receipts — makes it harder to tell if marketers are getting any bangfor their bucks.
Programmatic buys: The rise of streaming has spurred the embrace of ad purchasing done on a programmatic basis that relies on specific algorithms designed to ensure that the spots are put in front of a specific target audience, like first-time car buyers or expectant mothers. But doing so also means in many cases that consumers see the same ads repeatedly — a condition that leads to what is known as “wear out,” or resistance to engaging with the spot.
Sports: Advertisers still want to put their spots in an arena — programming that reaches millions of people all watching at once. As streaming makes scripted fare and reality shows available at the click of a button, sports are seen as one of the last places to capture the biggest crowds. That has spurred dozens of advertisers who normally didn’t spend a lot of money on sports to start doing so, driving up prices and crowding the marketing field.
AI production: Ad agencies can cut costs by relying on AI and other types of technologies tocreate all kinds of visuals. But should they? Sharp-eyed viewers may already have noticed fine print running in some TV ads that discloses how AI was used in the creation of a commercial. Some of the efforts are obvious and the graphics look off-kilter. As time goes by and such sights become more common, will there be any pushback?