Event Recaps
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Making B2B Marketing Feel Human Again
Event Recaps July 10, 2026At the 2026 ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference, Michelle Lynn of Bloomberg Media explained how B2B marketing has become more efficient but less distinctive. As AI-generated content increases and targeting signals decline, marketers must shift toward human storytelling, credible proof, and practical utility to build trust and influence complex buying decisions.
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Built to Last. Built to Lead: Growing a Global Brand in the AI Era
Event Recaps July 9, 2026At the 2026 ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference, Juliet Randall of SAP outlined how AI is reshaping the buying process and elevating the importance of brand clarity, trust, and alignment. She argued that strong brands will not be replaced by AI, but rather be amplified by it — making consistency, proof, and connected customer experiences essential to sustained growth.
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How DoorDash Uses 'Policy Marketing' to Grow Its Brand
Event Recaps July 9, 2026DoorDash is turning policy engagement into a brand-building discipline — and the results are measurable. A 28-point lift in issue support and a 9-point gain in brand favorability suggest that marketers willing to engage on policy could unlock growth others are leaving behind.
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How Forrester Reframed Principal Media for Marketers
Event Recaps July 9, 2026Principal media buying is moving from a whispered agency practice to a deliberate governance strategy as marketer adoption surges. Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Jay Pattisall says tighter contracts, spending caps, and consistent measurement could determine whether the model delivers savings without sacrificing accountability.
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How State Farm Lets Culture Carry the Brand
Event Recaps July 9, 2026State Farm's head of marketing reveals how a century-old insurer is letting creators, gamers, and entertainment communities reinterpret its brand. The strategy may redefine how legacy brands balance stewardship with cultural relevance.
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How Leading Companies Are Orchestrating Buyer Groups in an Age of Complexity
Event Recaps July 8, 2026At the 2026 ANA Masters of B2B Marketing Conference, Nalina Athyantha of ServiceNow and Emily Hean of Pretzl introduced the Buyer Group Index, a new benchmark based on global research. The session explored how leading organizations orchestrate buying groups, align sales and marketing, and use data and AI to improve pipeline velocity, conversion, and revenue growth.
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How AstraZeneca Turned Scope Data into Strategy
Event Recaps July 2, 2026AstraZeneca manages more than 1,000 scopes of work annually and is using aggregated scope data to shift procurement from cost control to investment strategy. The approach could reshape how marketers and agencies collaborate on staffing, pricing, and asset decisions.
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How General Mills Rebuilt MarTech Procurement
Event Recaps July 2, 2026General Mills is rebuilding its marketing technology procurement model around governance and capability — not cost-cutting. The approach may offer a replicable framework for marketers navigating fragmented vendor portfolios and constrained budgets.
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From MarTech Chaos to B2B Growth Engine
Event Recaps July 1, 2026John Hardy of the ANA and Robert Tas of McKinsey & Company introduced a new B2B marketing technology (martech) playbook built on global CMO research. They outlined how leading organizations align marketing and sales, integrate martech systems, and use data and AI to orchestrate account-based journeys that drive pipeline and revenue growth.
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Reed Smith Warns Brands to Treat Legal Risk as a Growth Variable
Event Recaps June 30, 2026Legal exposure is quietly eroding marketing value as contracts, privacy terms, and artificial intelligence governance fail to keep pace with modern practice. Reed Smith partner Keri S. Bruce, speaking at the ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference, outlines the risks that could reshape how brands manage agency relationships and campaign accountability.
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ServiceNow Built an AI-Native Studio to Consolidate Creative Production
Event Recaps June 26, 2026ServiceNow restructured its entire creative production model around a centralized, artificial intelligence (AI)-native studio after an internal audit revealed thousands of underperforming assets. The shift could deliver 15 percent savings from consolidation alone — with 30 percent more in first-year AI efficiencies on top.
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A Legacy Brand, Reimagined for the Member: An In-House Team's Journey
Event Recaps June 25, 2026A 93-year-old health insurer confronts uncomfortable truths to rebuild its brand around the individual member. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina approach to accessibility, skepticism, and in-house partnership may reshape how legacy brands modernize.
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An ANA In-House Award Winner Explains How Culture Is What Drives Stellar Creative
Event Recaps June 25, 2026Bruce Bildsten, who led Best Buy's in-house agency to ANA In-House Agency of the Year honors, argues that culture — not tools or process — drives breakthrough creative work. His framework for recruiting talent, protecting craft, and building inspiration rituals may reshape how in-house leaders think about their role.
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Building Creative Culture From Nothing — and What Happens When the Plug Gets Pulled
Event Recaps June 25, 2026At the 2026 ANA In-House Agency Conference, Todd Miller shared a candid account of building The Cooler, Experian's in-house agency, from scratch into a high-performing creative operation — and what happened when it ultimately got shut down. His session offered practical lessons on culture, creativity, business integration, and the realities of operating inside complex organizations.
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Built for Breakthroughs: How In-House Media Brings Pfizer Closer to the Patient
Event Recaps June 25, 2026At the 2026 ANA In-House Agency Conference, Joshua Palau, VP of performance media and enablement at Pfizer, outlined how an in-house media model enables faster decision-making, stronger alignment with business goals, and improved outcomes across the patient journey.
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How Taylor Morrison's CMO Revived the Brand by Bringing Everything In-House
Event Recaps June 25, 2026Taylor Morrison CMO Stephanie McCarty turned a two-person marketing team into a full in-house agency over seven years. Her approach may redefine how home builders and marketers of all kinds think about brand as a business asset.
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How Wolverine Worldwide Built a Scalable In-House Engine
Event Recaps June 25, 2026The Wolverine Worldwide in-house creative and production model now handles about 90 percent of campaign work across 11 footwear and apparel brands. The integrated structure — combining strategy, studio space, and embedded talent — could redefine how brand teams measure creative capacity.
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Inside Lenovo's Shift from Cost Savings to Strategic Power
Event Recaps June 25, 2026Quinn O'Brien, CMO of Carnegie Learning, argues that in-house agencies built around cost savings may be losing ground to artificial intelligence (AI). His Lenovo experience shows how pursuing the work that matters most to the CEO could redefine an in-house team's value.
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Keeping the Brand-Agency Spark Alive: Whirlpool's In-House Story
Event Recaps June 25, 2026Whirlpool's in-house studio, WoW Studios, is rewriting how internal creative teams earn bold mandates — from immersive trade show environments to a Big Boi sweepstakes that drove measurable market share gains. The studio's "anti-manual" approach may signal a broader shift in what proximity to a brand could make possible.
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The End of Mediocrity at Scale: Making Marketing Feel Human Again
Event Recaps June 25, 2026At the 2026 ANA Masters of Data Conference presented by TikTok, Dean de la Pena of Resonate explained why marketing has become less effective — and less human. De la Pena outlined how predictive, person-level intelligence can restore understanding and enable more relevant, measurable growth.
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