This Nano Tool for Leaders from Wharton Executive Education offers techniques for developing an “awe mindset” for greater creativity, improved collaboration, and better decision-making. Nano Tools for Leaders® — a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management — are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly impact your success.

A new study from the American Association of Political Consultants Foundation suggests that AI disclaimers on political ads may be reducing voter trust rather than improving transparency. For local media sellers and ad agencies, the lesson is clear: political advertisers will need more than legal compliance—they will need credible media environments, careful creative execution and voter-sensitive messaging. Radio, TV, cable, print, outdoor and digital platforms can strengthen their value in political campaigns by helping candidates communicate clearly, disclose responsibly and avoid turning transparency into suspicion.

Performance is the conversation of the moment. Some leaders are concerned if remote and hybrid workers are getting their work done. The changes to how work gets done in the last several years have also made us question the performance metrics we’re using to gauge success. These are conversations we should have but aren’t the only levers of performance.

AI Overviews are accelerating a shift toward “Google Zero,” where users get answers without clicking through, weakening the value of organic search traffic. That is a warning sign for publishers and marketers, but also an opening for local media sellers and agencies to reposition radio, TV, cable, print, outdoor, and digital as channels that build top-of-mind awareness, trust, and demand before a search ever happens. In a world where discoverability is increasingly controlled by answer engines, advertisers may place greater value on media that makes brands known, remembered, and hard to ignore.

The podcast industry has evolved from a niche medium to a serious revenue generator, with ad loads increasing from 7.9% to 10.9% of runtime since 2021 and per-hour advertising rates tripling to 6 cents per listener hour in 2024, creating both competitive pressure and significant expansion opportunities for local media. While podcasts compete for advertiser attention, established local media companies possess crucial advantages including existing advertiser relationships, community market knowledge, and content creation infrastructure that position them to capitalize on podcast monetization rather than lose market share. Smart local media operators are launching complementary podcast offerings that create premium advertising packages, extend audience engagement, and generate new revenue streams while leveraging their trusted local brand positioning. The key opportunity lies in integrating podcast strategies into existing business models to offer advertisers multi-platform campaigns that command higher rates than traditional single-format advertising.

Sales meetings are a critical component of keeping your team aligned and motivated. But too often, they can feel like a chore rather than an opportunity for growth. With proper planning, these meetings can energize your media sales team and drive results.

My brother, Jake, is a comedian. It’s the only career he’s pursued since high school. In third grade, he had to write about the kind of work he wanted to do when he grew up. At the top of the paper, he wrote, “Comedy Man.” I’ve always wanted to introduce him on stage, but instead, he told me to do a 10-minute set. My wife and kids bought tickets to the show. My youngest was worried about my first comedy performance, despite my frequent use of humor when I speak at events and Sales Kickoffs.

It has been written that culture eats strategy for breakfast and that culture is a great differentiator among companies. If you query Google on “What is a good company culture?” you will get billions of results (6,250,000,000!) and if you click on the links of the results on the first page you will have a list of over 100 different keys to culture. Purpose, values, mission, respect, freedom, quality of leadership, great compensation, high growth, flexibility, diversity, multi-stakeholder capitalism and on and on the list goes.

Gen Z isn’t abandoning online shopping—but they’re showing a clear preference for in-store experiences when discovery, confidence, and social energy matter. Research points to Gen Z using stores as places to browse, validate choices, and turn shopping into an “event,” while still relying on digital tools to research and plan. The winners are retailers who remove friction (fast checkout, preferred payment options, inventory confidence) and make stores worth the trip with curated experiences and moments that feel shareable. For local marketers and media sellers, the opportunity is to shift campaigns toward driving measurable store visits through events, drops, and community-based messaging that turns foot traffic into habit and loyalty.

Most media have recovered as well as could be expected since the start of the pandemic, despite significant losses of ad spending and shifts in people’s media use. TV was able to benefit from its ubiquitous position, as viewers, including young adults, planted themselves in front of their TVs for news and entertainment to fill their additional time at home. Eventually, digital media benefited significantly (and still is), as well as many retailers from

Local media sales professionals and agency teams face rising operational pressures, making disciplined time management a critical competitive advantage in a fast moving advertising environment. By prioritizing tasks, implementing structured systems such as time blocking, and leveraging digital tools, professionals can convert daily chaos into predictable, high value workflow. A new force—client expectation inflation—has intensified the need for clearer boundaries, faster decision frameworks, and consistent communication rhythms. Those who master time not only improve personal productivity, but gain an edge in responsiveness, strategic insight, and long term client retention. close

Retailers are moving beyond AI chatbots and beginning to deploy “agentic” AI that can take real actions, from marketing execution to customer-service workflows. As that shift accelerates, many are discovering that broad, general-purpose large language models often struggle with retail’s rule-heavy, SKU-level realities—where accuracy matters more than eloquence. Smaller, domain-specific language models trained on a retailer’s own verified data can deliver more reliable outputs for tasks like product content, attribute extraction, recommendations, and support automation. For local media sellers and agencies, the opportunity is to help advertisers turn first-party product and customer data into scalable, compliant creative and smoother campaign workflows—positioning themselves as operational partners, not just inventory vendors.

The Association of National Advertiser’s latest report reveals that over $26.8 billion in programmatic ad spend is wasted due to inefficiencies like inflated metrics, bot traffic, and low-quality ad placements. Despite promises of automation and scale, programmatic advertising continues to struggle with transparency and performance, especially on MFA and AI-generated “slop sites.” In contrast, local media offers verified reach, trusted environments, and community relevance, making it a more reliable and impactful choice for advertisers. Emerging trends like email monetization and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) further highlight the need for direct, human-centered communication. For advertisers seeking real results, local media backed by audited data is not just a safe bet—it’s a strategic advantage.

BrightEdge’s 2025 industry report shows that AI-driven search is growing rapidly, but organic search remains the dominant driver of conversions and brand visibility. While AI referrals account for less than 1% of total traffic today, they are doubling month over month, signaling a major shift in how consumers discover products and services. For local media sales reps and ad agencies, this means combining traditional SEO with strategies that help clients appear in AI-generated results—through structured data, authoritative content, and local media mentions. The report emphasizes that local credibility and trusted content are becoming essential signals for AI models, giving local publishers and agencies a competitive edge. The key takeaway: success in 2025 requires selling not just impressions, but discoverability across both search and AI ecosystems.

Our presentations to our clients should be DIALOGUES not MONOLOGUES. Far too often, we ask for money by spouting all we know about our stations and our advertising in general. We talk about us, us, us instead of them, them, them. Turning monologues into dialogues is not difficult. We can begin the path to “Yes” by getting small agreements throughout our presentation. We get these “mini-contracts” by using “check-in” questions. Here are some examples: