Despite ongoing economic challenges, marketers are not only maintaining their momentum, they’re reinventing it. Faced with inflationary pressures, tightened consumer spending, and shifting media consumption patterns, brands are leaning into innovation and demonstrating remarkable adaptability by reshaping strategies, testing emerging touchpoints, and rebalancing their media mixes.

In particular, Retail Media Networks (RMNs) and Connected TV (CTV) have emerged as two of the most critical platforms for modern marketers looking to reach consumers closer to the point of purchase and within highly engaging environments. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is accelerating campaign optimization and unlocking new levels of personalization and efficiency.

A new report by Nielsen which engaged 1,400 global marketing professionals revealed that these evolving technologies continue to play a huge role in helping matketers adapt to changing market trends.

Campaigns of the week

The triangle-shaped Toblerone returns by taking a stand for how chocolate should be enjoyed. “Chocolate Like Nobody’s Watching” is the brand’s new global campaign that shows how beautiful giving into chocolate can be, with scenes and portraits of people enjoying Toblerone chunks without fear of judgment.

Online protection company McAfee has launched Keep it Real, a new campaign created to raise awareness about the rise of AI-driven scams, while also working to shift the culture of shame that surrounds being scammed.

In Doro’s latest campaign for its new Aurora smartphone range, the brand humorously illustrates the absurdity of gifting older relatives things that don’t suit them—like giving a vegan mother a fur coat or an Italian grandad a pineapple pizza—and draws a parallel to smartphones that aren’t built with their needs in mind.

Agencies and accounts

Karo, the European Consumer Healthcare company, has selected MSQ to join its global creative roster. MSQ secured the role after a competitive pitch managed by Flock Associates, which saw participation from several global marketing groups. MSQ will now be part of Karo’s global agency network, responsible for creating campaigns across Karo's iconic brands.

Havas and YouGov, the international online research data and analytics technology group, has announced an expanded partnership that now spans 30 markets across the Media, Creative, and Health networks and incorporates bespoke health insights through proprietary panel data on chronic and seasonal conditions.

Captains of industry

This week, Marketing Report had a chat with Marta Blanco Sampedro the European Communications Director for Independent ad agency GUT about her priorities and strategies, communication trends shaping European agencies and brands among other topics.

Partnerships and acquistions

Publicis Groupe has announced the acquisition of Captiv8, the world’s most advanced end-to-end influencer marketing platform. Captiv8 will be positioned within Publicis Connected Media and integrated with Influential to power Publicis Groupe’s global Influencer offering world.

Nectar360 and OMG UK have been collaborating on retail media strategies, best-in-class campaign delivery, and thought leadership and training for OMG UK’s clients and agencies, since 2021. Moving forward, OMG will serve as a key strategic beta partner, collaborating with Nectar360 to provide testing and feedback.

Social-powered agency Movement Strategy has acquired production agency Newfangled Studios, resulting in expanded reach and capabilities on a path to becoming the industry’s most innovative leader in social-powered brand-building.

Other major news of the week

Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, is helping automakers transform their vehicles into premier sports destinations by aggregating sports-centric radio, podcast and related content.

As the rise of AI-powered platforms upend how audiences discover information, Edelman has announced the launch of GEOsight, a distinct offering designed to help brands manage their presence in AI-generated search results.

The Coca‑Cola Company has unveiled Project Fizzion in collaboration with Adobe —a groundbreaking design intelligence system. Fizzion transforms traditional brand guidelines into intelligent, adaptive assets, enabling creative teams to produce content up to 10 times faster without compromising quality, integrity, or originality.

The International News Media Association (INMA) Board of Directors has approved an Advertising Initiative aimed at equipping media leaders with practical guidance on first-party data activation for advertising, premium ad products, revenue diversification strategies, measurement and attribution, AI, navigating brand safety, and evolved selling approaches.

Bob Koigi is the editor-in-chief of Marketing Report.One

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