17607: WPP Production Bids Farewell To Exclusive Bidding.

 

Campaign reported WPP Production has taken down its guidance on rigging the bidding system, a scheme that instructed staff to “actively convince” clients to assign all production work exclusively to the single White operating company, effectively avoiding the standard triple bid process.

The Trusted Growth Partner For The World’s Leading Brands appears to have reconsidered the questionable ethics and lack of transparency posed by such a maneuver.

Looks like WPP Production will have to earn jobs based on performance and capabilities—quite a challenge for the global flaming dumpster. Yikes.

17598: On WPP Production Triple BS.

 

MediaPost reported WPP Production aims to be the go-to vendor—and exclusive vendor—for every client served by the global flaming dumpster.

One controversial point involves the intentional goal to avoid standard triple bidding by offering three bids from enterprises within the WPP Production network.

In other words, the single White operating company theory is bullshit. WPP remains a confederacy of companies competing amongst themselves for billable hours—or outcomes-based remuneration.

Plus, it’s highly unlikely WPP would ever allow one enterprise to low-bid against sister firms. The scenario invites a rigged bidding system, whereby clients might be encouraged to choose a vendor sneakily pre-selected by WPP.

It all inspires a new tagline for WPP Production: From those wonderful folks who gave you a global crime scheme in media.

On a sidenote, the MediaPost report was illustrated with a metaphorical image of a funnel (depicted above). A more appropriate object would’ve been a toilet.

WPP Production, APA Lock Horns Over Triple Bids

By Steve McClellan

WPP Production is urging clients to do all of their production work with the holding company—thereby avoiding outsourcing to independent production houses-- and at least one production trade group says WPP’s stand is essentially an assault on “the free market in commercials production.”  

Leaked internal documents from the holding company’s production arm state that "Our goal is to avoid traditional commercial triple bidding by proving the value of a centralized partnership by positioning WPP Production as the default, trusted partner.” 

Triple bidding is the standard urged by trade groups like Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) in the U.S. and the Advertising Producers Association (APA) in the UK. 

The leaked documents suggest a way that WPP can circumvent the commercial bid process: 

“If a client or creative team requires triple bidding to assess different options, we should evaluate if WPP Production can provide all three bids internally from the same or different markets. We can satisfy this need by offering three different production approaches, locations, and director treatments within the same country or within the region—keeping the work entirely within WPP Production.” 

Steve Davies, CEO of the APA, issued a response that in part reads, “This is a serious threat to the free market in commercials production — and to the independent production, editing and post companies within it — but only if clients don’t see through it. I think they will.”
 
“Professionalism means putting clients’ interests ahead of your own. WPP has effectively announced it’s doing the opposite,” Davies asserted.  
 
The triple bid, he added, is central to the collaborative system between agencies and production companies that enables “great work.” 

WPP Production took issue with the APA’s assessment.  

“Any suggestion that WPP Production misleads clients or undermines fair competition is fundamentally wrong,” the firm responded. “Selectively quoting from a comprehensive document doesn’t fairly reflect what is a completely transparent process. 

“We respect competitive bidding and work with independent production companies, always adhering to client contracts and procurement requirements. We make decisions with clients, helping them find the right solution for each brief and considering WPP capabilities alongside specialist partners.”

17585: The WPP Empire Strikes Back.

 

MediaPost reported WPP is now demanding the New York State Supreme Court not only dismiss the whistleblower lawsuit, but also the whistleblower’s lawyers.

Apparently, the single White operating company isn’t satisfied with simply dismissing thousands of its own workers.

What’s more, WPP wants to go after the whistleblower’s sources and anonymous accomplices, particularly anyone involved in uncovering the Sony Pictures investigation allegedly charging WPP ran a “global crime scheme” through its media practice.

Not sure why WPP is so upset. After all, the company implemented a whistleblower hotline about a decade ago, encouraging employees to call out wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.

The whistleblower hotline was reportedly ringing off the hook in 2023, arguably showing its effectiveness.

Yet today WPP is on the offensive, attacking purported whistleblowers and anyone associated with them.

Hey, if you want to stop whistleblowers, consider avoiding behavior that incites whistleblowing.

Try earning the trust of a worldwide workforce.

WPP Moves To Have Foster’s Lawyers Dismissed, Sony Probe Sources Divulged

By Steve McClellan

WPP is demanding further action by the New York State Supreme Court Judge hearing the wrongful termination suit by former WPP Media (FKA GroupM) executive and purported whistleblower Richard Foster.  

Foster has alleged that WPP terminated him after he complained to senior executives at the company that it was systematically misappropriating media rebates that belonged to clients. 

Earlier this month in court papers Foster outlined a previously undisclosed investigation by client Sony that exposed a rebate scheme that cost clients hundreds of millions of dollars in China and possibly elsewhere.   

While WPP has not disputed the accuracy of Foster’s disclosures, it has asserted that Foster obtained the Sony report by inappropriate means and that all references to it be sealed. The company alleges that Foster and his legal team knew it was unlawful to disclose the Sony probe and separate confidential discussions that Foster had with senior lawyer Nicola McCormick.  

In a follow-up motion for oral argument, WPP is now arguing that redacting and sealing those references are not “workable options” to address the harm it has suffered and could suffer in the future.  

In addition to dismissing Foster’s amended complaint “with prejudice,” WPP wants monetary sanctions imposed on the plaintiff as well as the dismissal of the law firm, the Brewer Firm and its legal team from having anything more to do with the case.   

WPP is also demanding that Foster be ordered to disclose how he obtained information about the Sony investigation, “including when and how it was obtained, its source, all persons who received or reviewed it, and whether and to whom it was further disseminated.”

17540: Honestly, New Farmers Insurance Campaign Is BS.

Advertising Age spotlighted the newish campaign for Farmers Insurance produced by new White advertising agency Dentsu Creative, with media duties being handled by new White media agency Havas Media.

 

The campaign theme declares, “Honesty Is Our Policy.”

 

Good luck promoting that platform. After all, advertising practitioners and insurance salespeople are consistently ranked among the least-trusted professions.

 

Farmers Insurance unveils a pink-drenched refresh and tweak to its jingle

 

By Tim Nudd

 

Farmers Insurance is refreshing its brand with a coat of pink paint and a change to its famous jingle.

 

The company’s first major brand refresh in several years debuts in a campaign from new agency Dentsu Creative. The effort, themed “Honesty Is Our Policy,” debuts today (July 13) across TV, digital, social, out-of-home and experiential. It includes updated branding that prominently features bright pink visuals and a reworked version of the insurer’s longtime jingle.

 

A minimalist 30-second anthem spot … speaks directly to viewers against a solid pink background, delivering a straightforward message about understanding insurance. The spot also introduces a choir that will become a recurring brand element as part of the new platform.

 

Longtime spokesman J.K. Simmons is absent from the new campaign. “Professor Burke has been a strong and recognizable part of the Farmers brand for many years, but all professors reach their tenure, and we’ve retired him from the new campaign,” Farmers told Ad Age.

 

The choir sings much of the dialogue in the melody of the famous Farmers audio signature. At the end, the “We Are Farmers” refrain has been rewritten as “You Have Farmers,” shifting the focus from the company to the customer.

 

Supporting spots have a similar structure.

 

The repositioning reflects Farmers’ effort to address what it sees as lingering confusion around insurance policies and coverage details. Rather than emphasizing products or pricing, the campaign focuses on helping consumers better understand what their policies include and how coverage works, using more direct language across marketing and customer communications.

 

“The strategy is grounded in a simple belief: our customers’ insurance coverage should be easy to understand, with no jargon, no big words and no lawyer needed to make sense of it,” said Eleanor Solomon, head of creative for Farmers Insurance. “Farmers is introducing tools that help make insurance easier to navigate—highlighting what is and is not covered, offering coverage reviews even if your policy is with another insurer, and, in some cases, helping consumers explore alternatives when Farmers isn’t a fit for them.”

 

“The strongest brands don’t abandon their history, they build on it,” said Andres Arlia, executive creative director at Dentsu Creative. “We took the equity Farmers has earned over decades and reimagined it for a moment when consumers are looking for transparency over jargon and understanding over complexity. Every creative choice, from the visual refresh to evolving ‘We Are Farmers’ into ‘You Have Farmers,’ was designed to make the brand feel useful, human and relevant.”

 

The work is Dentsu Creative’s first major campaign for Farmers since being named the insurer’s creative agency of record. Before moving to Dentsu this spring, the Farmers account had been at RPA since 2010. 

17529: On Trust, Distrust, And Mistrust At WPP.

More About Advertising spotlighted troubles at WPP Media, including:

 

• The former head of WPP’s media operation in China received a life imprisonment sentence for charges stemming from a $176 million scam—and two others were also hit with stiff sentences.

 

• The former head of a GroupM division in New York City filed a ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit, charging he was fired for raising red flags that WPP’s trading division illegally retained profits that should have been passed back to clients.

 

Additionally, there’s a class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders charging WPP with deceptively sugarcoating profits last year.

 

It all makes for bad optics, especially given the single White operating company is restructuring itself as a media-first enterprise.

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose declared, “We want to be a trusted growth partner for our clients in the era of AI.”

 

The corporate website proclaims, “WPP Is The Trusted Growth Partner For The World’s Leading Brands.”

 

Okay, except WPP displays internal distrust. Media is globally viewed with suspicion and concern by clients. And Adland practitioners are consistently rated among the least-trusted professionals.

 

Trust is earned. So is distrust and mistrust.

 

WPP’s China crisis – why is the holding company so accident-prone?

 

By Stephen Foster

 

Any business handling millions, sometimes billions, of other people’s money on ultra-tight margins is open to fraud, indeed it may be tempted to try itself.

 

The former boss of WPP’s media operation (GroupM) in China has been sentenced to life imprisonment, accused of masterminding a $176m scam. Two others have also received stiff sentences. The Chinese judicial system is hardly famed for its transparency but WPP has been careful to distance itself from the three employees. Its business in China, hardly a surprise, has been hammered.

 

That isn’t the only cloud on the horizon though. Over in NYC there’s what’s being termed a $100m ‘whistleblower’ lawsuit from Richard Foster, one-time head of GroupM’s Motion Content Group (whatever that was) alleging that WPP fired him for raising concerns that WPP’s trading division used client spending power to secure cash rebates and volume-based discounts from media owners, illegally retaining profits rather than passing them back to clients. Ring a bell?

 

Also in NYC, there’s a class action by angry shareholders claiming the company failed to appraise them fully of the collapse in profits last summer which, ultimately, led to the departure of CEO Mark Read. Making overly-optimistic noises can be costly.

 

Finally (and there may of course be more) WPP is involved in a long-running dispute in Kenya with the founder and former CEO of WPP Scangroup Bharat Thakrar alleging that WPP, among other things, has been using Scangroup money to prop up the holding company, to the detriment of Scangroup. It’s redolent of other far-flung WPP disputes including its agencies in Australia.

 

Now WPP may deal with all these issues and emerge smelling of roses but they surely affect its ability to trade its way out of current problems. They must be especially galling for all those people at Ogilvy and VML who have just notched up a stellar Cannes Lions, seemingly doing a great job for their clients despite all the noise (and worse) around them.

 

WPP’s biggest problem – in a competitive field – is debt, around £3bn against a total company value of £2.64bn. New CEO Cindy Rose’s first job is to reverse these positions. But it’s hard to see what else she can sell to do it. It’s already sold out of research (Kantar) and PR (FGS Global) without making much of a dent in the debt. That in itself is something of a puzzle.

 

Then there’s what we might politely called proprietary media trading (or broking), the smokey activity behind many of the above issues, including China where media deals seem to have been carved up in a Shanghai poker game. Almost certainly more such cases will emerge, partly because no-one seems to know whether it’s legal or not. The US courts may help us out.

 

This Cannes Lions should be a turning point for WPP. But there’s still a lot of old baggage lurking in the undergrowth.

17522: WPP CEO Delivers Award-Winning BS.

 

More About Advertising spotlighted WPP at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, reporting VML and Ogilvy—White advertising agencies within the global flaming dumpster—scored significant recognition and trophies.

 

MAA reckoned WPP would have earned a Creative Company of the Year/Holding Company of the Year threepeat if the dubious award hadn’t been nixed.

 

The hoopla prompted WPP CEO Cindy Rose to uncharacteristically comment on creativity, including the following bullshit:

 

“Creativity is our superpower—it’s what builds brand differentiation and trust for our clients. WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands, and this year at Cannes Lions that showed: two creative networks in the top three, the number one PR agency, the most awarded media group for a second year, and so much exceptional work that came from our creative, media, production, and PR agencies working together.

 

“This is our integrated model in action, delivering growth for clients. I couldn’t be prouder of our talented people across the world, and I want to give a massive thank you to our extraordinary clients who partner with us to deliver brave, ambitious work.”

 

Interesting that Rose gushed about PR, as reports indicate the entire practice might be pruned from the worldwide network.

 

To declare, “WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands…” constitutes propagandistic puffery at its finest. Hell, many of the most iconic agency brands were erased over the years by the White holding company—before it changed to a single White operating company.

 

Finally, to say, “This is our integrated model in action…” is revisionist rhetoric. The awarded work was produced before Rose arrived, far preceding the Roserrection integrated model—which, incidentally, looks like a Hindenburg being built in fire-filled flight.

 

If Cannes presented a Lion for CEO bullshit, Rose would be a serious contender—although she’d have tough competition from all others leading holding companies.

 

It’s WPP top again at Cannes

 

By Stephen Foster

 

Last year WPP won Creative Company of the Year at Cannes Lions – and the organisers promptly retired the award as it seemed to reflect entries as much as anything else and, anyway, the wheels were clearly coming off WPP. It was just about CEO Mark Read’s last public appearance in the role.

 

It [would] have won this year too had there been such an award with Ogilvy winning network of the year with 81 Lions including three Grand Prix. Publicis’ Le Pub was agency of the year, WPP’s VML also scoring strongly while Rethink Toronto was independent agency of the year and Heineken creative brand of brand of the year.

 

Britain’s Mother won the Film grand Prix, still the highlight of the festival for many, for Anthropic’s Claude.

 

Ogilvy CCO Liz Taylor says: “We come to Cannes with one goal in mind: to proudly take the stage each night with our clients and celebrate the power of creativity in every corner of the world. To affirm their belief in ideas to solve any problem, overcome any challenge, and drive the impact they aspire to create.

 

“I am incredibly proud of Ogilvy’s performance this week, but more than anything, I’m proud of how we continue to show up for and with the biggest and boldest brands. To shape culture, inspire communities, reimagine entire categories, and to chart the future that we’re all, always, stepping into.”

 

WPP CEO Cindy Rose says: “Creativity is our superpower – it’s what builds brand differentiation and trust for our clients. WPP is home to the world’s most iconic agency brands, and this year at Cannes Lions that showed: two creative networks in the top three, the number one PR agency, the most awarded media group for a second year, and so much exceptional work that came from our creative, media, production and PR agencies working together.

 

“This is our integrated model in action, delivering growth for clients. I couldn’t be prouder of our talented people across the world, and I want to give a massive thank you to our extraordinary clients who partner with us to deliver brave, ambitious work.”

 

Should have earned a few more years of quasi-independence for the big two creative brands anyway. VML, a mash-up of JWT, Y&R and Wunderman, has done remarkably well.

17516: On Trials & Tribulations Troubling Black Publishers.

 

Adweek published content spotlighting Black publishers who stayed in the black when White brands pulled back performative DEIBA+ commitments.

 

The authors even connected matters to Juneteenth, noting “how the Black-owned media community has continued to be conditioned by a long-standing lack of support from advertisers.”

 

Call it being conditioned for crumbs—and systemic racism.

 

Black Publishers Knew the Ad Commitments Wouldn’t Hold. So What?

 

The ones who stopped waiting on promised ad dollars and built revenue they could control are the ones still standing

 

By Rhonesha Byng & DéVon Johnson

 

Since brands began to pull back their commitment to diversity ads in 2023, publishers throughout the BOMESI network have not been surprised. Many have rebuilt their business models with the knowledge that these ad dollars allocated post-2020 were not going to be there.

 

The lessons we learned over the last six years while operating BOMESI, which launched around Juneteenth in 2020, are very real. 

 

The date commemorates when an enslaved population in Texas learned that they were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. 

 

This delayed revelation indicates how the Black-owned media community has continued to be conditioned by a long-standing lack of support from advertisers.

 

Today, BOMESI has connected more than 300 Black-owned publishers with over 2,500 diverse-owned publishers to create a larger network of publishers reaching over 90 million households on a monthly basis. Currently, Black-owned media receives less than 2% of the total U.S. advertising spend, according to Nielsen; yet Black Americans represent approximately 15% of the population and consume more than 81 hours of media per week, 31.8% more than the general population.

 

Publishers made an expensive choice: trade advertising as the backbone of the business for subscriptions, events, licensing, and branded work on their own terms. Audience trust became the asset that mattered. Some turned down ad revenue outright because the strings attached would have meant covering their communities differently than they wanted to.

 

Here’s how two Black-owned publishers successfully adjusted, when advertisers stopped their commitments.

 

Black Girl Nerds expanded its product portfolio and partnerships

 

Black Girl Nerds sits at the intersection of geek culture and Black feminism, built for an audience that wanted both taken seriously. Broadnax didn’t wait for ad budgets to come back. Founder and CEO Jamie Broadnax built a Substack newsletter, launched a subscription book club through Bindery, and joined the Yahoo Creators program. The shift cost time, nothing more. It grew her Substack readership, brought brands back into her inbox, and gave the business steadier income through Yahoo Creators.

 

Snackable Media made an acquisition to better monetize its audience

 

Snackable Media started as a multicultural ad network, helping smaller, minority-owned publishers compete for big RFPs through bigger players’ programmatic reach. In April 2025, it acquired adtech company AdGrid, picking up its own wrapper, an SSP, rich media tools, and a new unit, Content Zebra, that helps publishers grow traffic and monetize it at once. Founder Justin Barton’s bet: brand attention has faded since 2020, so revenue now has to come from the audience itself—one he calls culturally relevant, high-spending, and worth unlocking through partnership, not a single ad deal.

 

The case for building audiences with brands can be tracked. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center study of 5,000 Black adults, 24% of respondents say they rely on Black-Owned media on a daily basis and 40% do so on a regular basis. Meanwhile, 63% of Black adults in this survey believe media coverage of Black people tends to be negative when compared to other minority groups. Additionally, 57% of respondents say they don’t get the full spectrum of news about Black communities.

 

Because brands are using the “general market” to reach their audience, they are essentially paying for something the audience has already decided is not relevant to them; therefore, brands are at a disadvantage when it comes to advertising to this group through general market channels. 

 

The DEI retreat makes the argument all even more clear. Since 2020, equitable advertising expenditures have served as a means of expressing values through inclusion as a separate line item for brands that include or exclude depending on optics. A Government Accountability Office report revealed that over the last 10 years, federal acquisitions of advertising accounted for $14.9 billion in total spent, but just 14% of that amount (which includes all businesses owned by minorities, women, and disadvantaged individuals) actually reached those businesses that the categorization was intended to serve.

 

Media owned by people of color was included in the 14% total, but not at the top. Publishers who were aware of that math before it was a “talking point” are the type of businesses to work with regardless of where the DEI falls on the public policy agenda.

17515: New Standard, Old Pitch Practices—Buyer Agent Buyers Beware.

 

MediaPost reported WPP Media is enacting IRL the theme emphasized in Publicis Groupe’s paradoxical propaganda.

 

That is, the White media firm unveiled a prototype for a new “buyer agents” standard for media-buying services.

 

The launch and ballyhoo pose questions, raise suspicions, and smell fishy—underscoring the lack of trust and transparency tainting the media field.

 

For starters, clients are not early adopters, typically waiting to see measurable proof of success before buying into innovations. So, it’s a safe bet WPP Media pitched with underhanded overpromising.

 

If WPP Media pushed outcomes-based payment schemes for the prototype, achievement in terms of revenue generation will likely integrate exaggerations and outright lies.

 

Finally, despite anything WPP Media might claim, utilizing a prototype means even executives at the White media firm are tinkering via trial and error, making things up while they plod ahead. As holding company wonks are wont to admit—at least internally—the plane is being built in flight.

 

In short, WPP Media appears to be introducing a new standard for bullshit.

 

WPP Media Unveils Prototype For New ‘Buyer Agent’ Standard

 

By Joe Mandese

 

An agentic bragging rights war appears to be heating up heading into the ad industry’s annual gathering in Cannes next week, with today’s news that WPP Media is developing a new industry standard for media-buying — specifically, for “buyer agents” purchasing video advertising inventory.

 

The first-mover announcement is consistent with big historical moves by WPP Media and its predecessor organization, GroupM, to move the industry forward by developing media research and/or technical standards for buying media — from Nielsen ratings to CTV — in order to prevent industry inertia around key media technology developments.

 

WPP this morning revealed it already is working with key media suppliers and industry standards bodies to “define how TV and video buyer and seller agents interact safely, transparently and at scale.”

 

WPP disclosed that the new agentic standards initiative includes Comcast Advertising and its FreeWheel ad tech unit, Disney Advertising, Fox, NBC Universal, Netflix and Paramount, as well as the IAB Tech Lab and Prebid.org, which are helping to “define how the WPP Buyer Agent and media owner Seller Agents communicate, validate, support approved media transaction workflows, and escalate decisions.”

 

“Two decades ago, the move to programmatic marked a fundamental change in how media was bought and sold. We expect agentic media to have an even bigger impact on our industry in the months and years ahead,” WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser said in a statement announcing the standards initiative, adding, “The companies that lead this next era will be the ones that combine intelligence, interoperability, and governance to define how media decisions are made. That’s what we are building with our partners: a trusted buyer-agent strategy designed to operate in our clients’ interests, maximize the value of their media investments, deepen consumer relationships, and translate intelligence into growth.”

 

IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur also disclosed that the initiative is benchmarking the new media buyer agent protocol on the tech lab’s AAMP (Agentic Ad Management Protocols) framework.

 

WPP said “initial testing” of the new media buyer agent has already begun with its supply-chain partners with a “goal of moving from alpha and beta testing to a model capable of supporting large-scale TV and video investment over the next 6–9 months” and plans to share its findings — as well as reference workflows, tech learning, and a formal proposed industry standard — in early 2027.

 

But the news is bound to generate even more agentic buzz at next week’s Cannes Lions festival, following a cheeky video released Tuesday by Publicis, as well as a white paper issued by influential advertising management consultant 3C Ventures late last week that cautions advertisers about using proprietary holdco agentic advertising systems.

 

And also this morning, Horizon Media announced a it has added its own proprietary “buying agents” to its HorizonOS Blu platform.

17503: How Consumer Trust Affects Brand Loyalty.

 

Adweek reported a McCann study showed 69% of consumers claimed they’d abandon brands they no longer trust, while 80% claimed they’d intentionally choose brands they do.

 

Can’t help but wonder how consumers’ trust and preferences might be impacted if they learned brands partnered with White advertising agencies mired in exclusivity and systemic racism. Don’t forget advertising practitioners regularly rank among the least-trusted professions too.

 

Those White advertising agencies, incidentally, include McCann.

 

Over Two-Thirds of Consumers Will Ditch Brands They Don’t Trust

 

New study from McCann unpacks a growing consumer trust crisis

 

By Robert Klara

 

Consumers are mired in a trust crisis—and that’s a problem for brands, according to a new study from McCann.

 

The Truth About Global Brands study, released Wednesday, surveyed more than 20,000 people across 20 global markets. It found that though 72% of respondents believe it’s “more important than ever to prioritize truth,” 55% say that brands were more truthful 20 years ago than they are today. 

 

AI has only made things worse: 76% of respondents feared that, before long, they’ll be unable to tell actual humans from computer-generated ones.

 

“There’s this yearning amongst consumers worldwide to find the truth,” McCann global CEO Tyler Turnbull told ADWEEK. “But it’s harder than ever to do so in terms of the content that we’re consuming, the AI generation that’s happening, and frankly, the decline that we’re seeing in trust amongst large institutions, governments, and brands.”

 

In this new dynamic, the risks and rewards are both high. Over two-thirds of consumers (69%) said they’d abandoned the brands they no longer trust, while 80% said they’d “actively choose” brands they do.

 

While that makes it a difficult environment for brands to communicate with audiences, that communication is key to rebuilding trust, Turnbull said.

 

AI transparency 

 

That starts with being truthful about AI use.

 

More than half (53%) of respondents said that the most effective way to secure their trust is for brands to be up front about whether they’re using AI in their ads.

 

Take influencers, for example. The FTC’s required disclosure of any “material connection” with the brand applies to all endorsers—human or not.

 

The marketing department may leave it at that, but McCann’s data makes clear that consumers want to be advised when an avatar is talking to them.

 

“There’s a need to be authentic and open and transparent,” Turnbull said.

 

From the west to the rest

 

Another important factor in building trust is a brand’s understanding of global culture.

While a flood of information online has left many consumers confused and dubious, it’s also opened them up to a wealth of new ideas, trends, and outlooks, often from the earth’s far corners.

 

The age when brands assumed that trends began on the American coasts and then spread to the rest of the world has given way to a more diversified and equalized exchange of ideas. Customers, the study found, are more likely to trust brands willing to embrace that expanse of influences.

 

“What we’re seeing is successful global brands looking everywhere for where culture is being created and moving, and then exporting that to other markets,” Turnbull said. “Every brand and consumer is craving the same thing: authenticity.”

17499: On AI Ignorance, Incapability, and Inaccuracy.

 

Mediapsssst reported on a study from Stagwell’s Harris Poll and Milken Institute that featured the following:

 

Eighty-five percent of business leaders admit to feeling pressure to appear further with their firm’s AI implementation plans than they actually are and almost as many (80%) admitted that while they “talk a good AI game” publicly they are still trying to figure out the technology.  

 

Advertisers should keep this in mind when White holding companies—including Stagwell—hype wondrous AI services and capabilities.

 

In Adland, AI stands for Actually Inept—or Advertising Incompetence.

 

Report: 68% Of Workers Are Navigating AI Transition ‘On Their Own’

 

By Richard Whitman

 

A new study from Stagwell’s Harris Poll and Milken Institute finds that a significant gap exists between what business leaders are saying about their companies’ AI readiness and the reality of the situation.   

 

Eighty-five percent of business leaders admit to feeling pressure to appear further with their firm’s AI implementation plans than they actually are and almost as many (80%) admitted that while they “talk a good AI game” publicly they are still trying to figure out the technology.  

 

Sixty-one percent of employees say their leadership “barely talks about AI” internally, while 41% report they have received no meaningful AI support from their employer in the past 12 months.  

 

And 68% of workers say they are navigating the AI transition largely on their own.  

 

The study is the latest installment of the Harris Poll Listening Project with the Milken Institute. This year’s study included surveys of 2000 US adults 18 plus, including 1,280 workers and a separate poll of 500 business leaders at the vice-presidential level or higher at businesses generating $2 billion or more in revenue.   

 

See the full report here.