Ad Age Insider

Agentic shopping is already shaping holiday 2026, even though most consumers aren't ready to let an AI agent use their credit card. Brandon Doerrer, media reporter at Ad Age, explains how AI shopping agents like Muse and ChatGPT Dots handle product discovery and consideration, and why brands that ignore them could vanish from gift searches. He covers where to start with product feeds, inventory details and agent access to your website, plus how agentic commerce overlaps with answer engine optimization (AEO), branded conversations and retail media networks. Host Parker Herren and Doerrer dig into what marketers can act on now including giving agents richer product detail, planning for every agent instead of just one and building on the AEO work you already have. Doerrer also explains why agentic media buying is still more hype than reality. Follow Ad Age Insider so you don't miss the next conversation. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~How brands should prepare for an agentic holiday shopping season ~Amazon launches Branded Conversations at Unboxed 2026—what buyers think ~Media channels are changing rapidly—how to strategize for AI search, social commerce, total TV and IRL ~Enter the 2026 Ad Age CMO Impact Awards ~Listen the the Marketer's Brief podcast

Hertz, Subaru and Liquid Death are building pet-focused campaigns and products to tap into surging pet spending, but marketers warn against forcing the fit. Plus, Chemistry acquires design agency Colossus; Apple's iOS 27 update blocks The Trade Desk's ad tools on Safari; mid-size brands drop follower counts and reconsider linear TV; Herb Light launches ScareBnB, a Halloween contest for cannabis horror stories. Host Parker Herren breaks down what each story means for marketers navigating category entry, independent agency consolidation, identity-free measurement and outdated metrics. Subscribe for weekly industry news roundups, plus biweekly deep-dive conversations with Ad Age reporters. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~2030 advertising predictions—tracking potential hits and misses, and what's too early to call ~How brands are winning over dog and cat lovers—even when they don't sell pet products ~Chemistry acquires Colossus in an expansion to Boston, which it sees as ripe for a challenger ~Apple blocks The Trade Desk—what marketers must know about renewed anti-tracking push ~Why mid-size brands are rethinking long-established marketing and media strategies ~Herb Light turns cannabis horror stories into 'ScareBnB' stays for Halloween

In the AI era, company culture is the real differentiator. Ad Age's Senior Editor Adrianne Pascarelli breaks down the workforce gap nobody's solved, the AI overhype she's most suspicious of and the influencer disclosure loophole about to blow up in brands' faces. She also shares the three words marketers put in a live word cloud when asked to sum up the moment (humanity, insanity, never-ending change), and the one workforce question she's still trying to get answered. Listen to the full conversation from Ad Age Insider wherever you're currently listening.

Rich Silverstein is stepping down as co-chairman of Goodby Silverstein & Partners after 43 years, with an AI hotline trained on his voice now fielding creative pitches in his place. Plus, Burger King turns its own product failures into ad material; Meta's Muse and Anthropic's Claude Commerce Blueprint push brands toward agentic holiday shopping prep; CampStudios, Pufferfish and StudioB pull creator-led work into agency rosters once reserved for traditional shops. Host Parker Herren breaks down what each story means for marketers navigating agency succession, AI's expanding role in creative work, transparency as a trust-building strategy and the shift toward agentic commerce. Subscribe for weekly industry news roundups, plus biweekly deep-dive conversations with Ad Age reporters. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~Rich Silverstein steps away from Goodby Silverstein & Partners—inside the art director's storied career ~Rich Silverstein's unfiltered wisdom lives on in the AI-powered 'GPT Rich' ~Burger King's CMO on why the chain keeps turning failures into ad campaigns ~How brands should prepare for an agentic holiday shopping season ~Where creator-led agencies are winning work from traditional shops

Marketing budgets are tight across the board, but mid-size brands—companies roughly between $50 million and $1 billion in revenue—have been finding ways to make theirs work harder. Adrianne Pasquarelli, senior editor of CMO strategy and commerce at Ad Age, digs into how these brands operate with fewer resources, fewer layers of approval and a lot more speed. She breaks down what's driving bolder creative risks, how AI is showing up in unexpected ways and what bigger brands could actually learn from smaller ones. Parker Herren talks with Pasquarelli about why mid-size CMOs are willing to take creative swings that bigger legal departments would shut down, how one baby food brand built an internal AI tool to keep its marketing on-brand without slowing anyone down and why leaner teams often mean less data and more gut instinct. It's a look at what happens when constraints force creativity instead of killing it. Subscribe to Ad Age Insider so you don't miss the next conversation. Dig deeper on the topics mentioned in this week's episode: ~Introducing the 2026 Ad Age Mid Size Brand Leaders ~How mid-size marketers are turning budget constraints into a competitive edge ~What 15 mid-size brand leaders are prioritizing—and cutting—right now