AI can write emails and summarize meetings, but it cannot detect emotional nuance, disengagement, or the subtle signals that require human leadership. Strong communication—not automation—is what drives productivity, trust, and team cohesion, especially in high-touch industries like media and advertising. For local media sales reps and ad agency professionals, relying too heavily on AI risks weakening client relationships and team dynamics that depend on empathy, accountability, and real conversation. Smart leaders use AI to support their work—but they lead through human connection, not machine-generated messages.

Department stores are still shrinking in 2026, with more closures expected as Saks Global restructures in bankruptcy and Macy’s continues its downsizing plan. But “decline” doesn’t mean “dead”—these chains still generate billions in sales, and shoppers will keep spending; the difference is where those trips happen. For local media reps and agencies, the opportunity is in the disruption: anchor changes reset traffic patterns, create conquest moments, and open “displaced budget” conversations with specialty retail, off-price, and emerging replacement anchors. The winning local pitch is simple: shopping trips are being reassigned—let’s make sure your client is where they land.

Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) is a technology embedded in smart TVs that identifies what content viewers are watching—across broadcast, cable, and streaming—by matching pixel or audio samples to a vast content database. This allows advertisers and local media reps to move beyond traditional ratings and gain precise, real-time insights into audience behavior and engagement. ACR empowers local advertising to evolve from broad media buying to data-driven strategy, enabling more targeted, measurable, and effective campaigns. It also democratizes access to advanced analytics, giving small businesses the same tools as national brands. As Keith Kazerman of Locality notes, “ACR allows us to truly understand the engagement that audiences are having across every screen,” marking a new era of precision and partnership in local media.

Parents, teachers and other influential adults teach the members of each generation the skills they need to lead a fulfilling and healthy life. Navigating an ever-more complex consumer landscape is one of the most important sets of skills. Gen Zers like recent generations were born into a world driven by consumption. That consumption engine is responsible for approximately 70% of the United States GDP, and Gen Zers are expected to keep stoking that engine.

Change sucks. It requires one to step into the unknown. To twist and turn into a new transformed self, team or firm. To leave the safety of the known path. Lift anchor and sail into a foggy horizon with no guarantee of safe harbor. Difficult as it is … irrelevance is worse. Individuals, teams and companies that wish to transform must endure change. Successful change requires six steps

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Selling with purpose starts by solving with empathy.
At Marketing Insights, we believe the best sales conversations feel less like a pitch—and more like a partnership.

Solution-oriented selling is rooted in service. It’s about asking the right questions, listening deeply, and offering value that aligns with real needs. When we shift from pushing products to providing meaningful solutions, we build trust, loyalty, and long-term success.

This collection of quotes highlights:
✨ The mindset of service over pressure
✨ How understanding creates stronger outcomes than persuasion
✨ The power of offering real value through authentic connection

The shift to AI-driven search is inevitable and shows rapid consumer adoption, but its immediate dominance is hindered by severe economic and infrastructural constraints, meaning the revolution will likely manifest closer to 2028-2030, not the projected 2026. The core friction is the astronomical operational cost, as a single AI query consumes ten times the electricity of a traditional search, preventing mass rollout and necessitating selective feature integration by major platforms. Although AI-driven referrals currently account for less than 1% of total web traffic, these users convert 23 times higher than traditional organic search traffic, signaling a profound shift in consumer intent that is projected to drive $750 billion in spending by 2028. For advertisers, the immediate strategic imperative is adapting to the "zero-click" economy by prioritizing authoritative content for AI citation and dedicating greater resources to paid search, as its premium placement above AI Overviews has become critically important for visibility.

Large language models are rapidly becoming standard tools in advertising—speeding up planning, reporting and workflow—but they’re still being kept away from the moment where real ad dollars are actually spent. Across agencies and ad-tech platforms, the industry is drawing a firm line between automation that helps humans move faster and automation that replaces humans at the point of financial accountability. The hesitation isn’t just cultural; it’s driven by flawed measurement signals, unreliable bidstream data, and the risk of scaling today’s attribution blind spots into machine-driven decisions. For now, the industry is modernizing infrastructure and using LLMs in orchestration layers, while keeping core bidding logic deterministic—because the real battle is less about AI capability and more about control of the money.

Sales teams are vital to business growth, yet they often face high turnover and low morale. Effective sales training programs not only enhance performance but also play a crucial role in boosting employee morale and retention. Investing in sales training provides salespeople with the skills and confidence they need, reducing stress and increasing job satisfaction. Research indicates that companies with robust sales training programs experience significantly lower turnover rates, with improved employee income and retention.

The pandemic’s devastating effect on retail motivated many local retailers to change their business models significantly. In the process, many discovered new methods to engage and attract new customers and created businesses better prepared for future crises. Despite many consumers eagerly returning to in-store shopping, retailers face a new set of challenges. Supply-chain issues and a lack of sufficient inventory have created a frustrating situation for retailers since they can’t serve consumer demand.

As leaders, we most often look to blogs, books or boardroom meetings for guidance, and yet sometimes it’s everyday life that hands us the best leadership insights. Recently life gifted me just such a lesson: the importance of asking, “How is this different?” While preparing for work in another part of the world, I took part in a security briefing.

During the age of the Internet, gathering, reporting and delivering the news has become very competitive. Despite the increasing number of news sources, local TV news is still where more American adults seek information about the day’s events and the all-important weather forecast and sports headlines.

A new survey from the Local Media Consortium finds that 83% of local media professionals expect digital revenue to grow or remain steady in 2025, with gains driven by video, subscriptions, and newsletters. While some challenges persist—particularly around digital ad revenue and staffing—AI adoption, cross-platform content strategies, and audience engagement are gaining ground. These trends provide a strong foundation for media sellers to deliver smarter, more tailored solutions to local advertisers. The data underscores the continued relevance and revenue potential of trusted local media in a fragmented digital landscape.

Often, when I talk to managers, they tell me how much time they spend coaching. They tell me stories of meeting, weekly, with their people, doing reviews, pipeline discussions, activity discussions—-all sorts of “coaching meetings.” They say, “Dave, coaching is important and we are spending a lot of time coaching…..”