Kick off the week with strong co-op campaigns built to drive seasonal demand and customer action.
• Spring Into Savings With Michelin! — Trusted tires engineered for safety, durability, and performance you can rely on every day.
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Weaving Influence is a full-service digital marketing agency. Since launching 10 years ago, Weaving Influence has helped clients launch more than 150 books, carving its niche in working with authors, thought leaders, coaches, consultants, trainers, nonprofit leaders and speakers to market their services and books. This post is by Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley. Have you and your team been experiencing any change recently?

Industry Press Highlights, Media, Retail, Advertising and the Economy

AI tools are helping media sales and local marketing teams improve their work. They support sales management, content creation, ad optimization, and customer engagement. These tools speed up tasks and help teams connect better with local audiences.

As advertising agencies and media sales professionals mature in their AI capabilities, the focus shifts to building custom workflows, automating complex processes, and driving innovation. This article explores advanced strategies such as developing proprietary AI models, leveraging real-time data processing, and using AI for deep customer segmentation and creative optimization. It highlights real-world applications from companies like Heinz, Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sephora, and The Trade Desk to illustrate how AI is transforming marketing and sales at scale. With the right tools and integration, AI becomes a strategic partner that enables faster decision-making, greater personalization, and a sustained competitive edge.

Local businesses are making costly generational marketing mistakes by relying on oversimplified stereotypes, with Harvard Business Review research showing that generational boundaries are often fuzzy, yet widely used labels create ineffective campaigns that alienate existing customers while failing to attract new demographics. Common errors include creating separate campaigns for each generation that fragment brand identity, using outdated assumptions about preferences, and focusing on channels over meaningful messaging. Successful businesses are shifting toward authentic multi-generational messaging that emphasizes universal values like trust and community connection while adapting communication styles for different platforms rather than creating different brand personalities. Media sales reps can add value by helping clients conduct cross-generational audience analysis, develop platform-appropriate messaging frameworks, and measure success through both generational response tracking and overall brand health metrics.

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Winterberry projects U.S. advertising, marketing, and related data spend will rise to $664.2 billion in 2026—a 9.4% gain—powered in part by major event spending (sports + midterms) and continued shifts toward digital channels. The most important signal for local sellers and agencies is that budgets keep migrating away from traditional offline media and toward CTV, social video, search, and data-driven buying, where advertisers feel they can better target and measure results. Marketers are also spending more on the “plumbing” behind performance—AI and data infrastructure—which will raise expectations for smarter targeting, clearer reporting, and faster optimization in local campaigns. The opportunity for local media and agencies is to repackage their value around video, sponsorships, and defensible outcomes, helping advertisers buy with confidence—not just buy impressions.