Malicious online ads have become a leading route for malware, and the risk is rising fastest inside programmatic buying—where complex supply chains make accountability hard and bad actors easy to hide. For local media reps and agencies, the issue is immediate: when something goes wrong, clients don’t blame “adtech,” they blame the people who planned, placed, and approved the spend. The opportunity is to win renewals and trust by selling “safe reach”—and by leaning into the local publisher advantage: controlled environments, fewer intermediaries, and faster accountability.

Weekly Newsletter March 16, 2026

The ability to imagine the future is something only the human species possesses, and it can be leveraged to help us feel more confident about our actions and be prepared for tomorrow. For centuries crystal balls have been objects connected with clairvoyance, fortune-telling and predicting the future. Looking into the crystal ball, or the process of “seeing” into it, is known as scrying –

Follow Sarah, a fictional seasoned local media sales rep, as she explores how AI can help her work smarter and sell more effectively. Through tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Drift, she automates routine tasks, prioritizes high-value leads, and personalizes her outreach. AI also helps her optimize ad performance, manage social media, and generate compelling proposals—freeing up time for strategic selling. Sarah’s journey illustrates how any sales rep can start small with AI, build confidence, and gain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced media landscape.

Clarity fuels progress—and growth begins with intention.
At Marketing Insights, we believe that setting bold goals and committing to personal growth isn’t just smart—it’s essential.

Success in today’s world demands more than just talent. It requires vision, discipline, and the willingness to keep evolving. Whether you're leading a team or navigating your own career, growth happens when you set clear, purpose-driven goals and show up for them—day after day.

This collection of quotes celebrates:
✨ The power of intentional goal setting
✨ Growth as a lifelong practice, not a final destination
✨ How reflection, learning, and resilience create lasting momentum

How a War Veteran Built Canada's Most Influential Youth Media Empire and Changed Pop Culture Forever
Allan Waters, a World War II veteran, transformed a failing Toronto radio station into CHUM Limited, one of Canada’s most influential media empires. He pioneered youth-focused programming and launched iconic platforms like MuchMusic, while supporting Canadian artists through initiatives like VideoFACT. Waters succeeded by deeply understanding underserved audiences and building cultural institutions that fostered trust and loyalty. His legacy teaches media professionals that long-term success comes from innovation, community connection, and purpose-driven leadership.

Steve Jobs fused craftsmanship and commerce, turning Apple into a culture-shaping brand through ruthless focus, taste as strategy, and storytelling that sold meaning before specs. Formed by a machinist father’s “back of the cabinet” ethic, Reed calligraphy, Zen simplicity, and partnership with Steve Wozniak, he built products—and narratives—that felt humane. Fired in 1985, he reinvented himself at NeXT and Pixar, then returned to save Apple by subtracting complexity, staging launches, and insisting on outcomes, even while his perfectionism and abrasiveness carried real costs. His private life—minimalist habits, walking meetings, family, music—underscored a philosophy of clarity and intention. For media sellers and agencies, the playbook is concrete: lead with a promise, reduce to essentials, rehearse obsessively, measure what matters, and “ship”—because trust and renewal are built on disciplined wonder.

Increasingly, you hear the argument being made that CEOs need to allow their employees to do more — that is to say, to take part in the leadership process. The upshot? As the senior leader, it’s no longer about asking your team to blindly execute a job description or tasks you feed to them and judge them by, then wonder why they seem less than engaged.

Frustrated with failed sales strategies? You put together a robust sales strategy—a strategy that you worked extremely hard on and believed to be near flawless—only to see it fail in the long run. Frustrating, right? In my years of consulting, I have rarely (and I mean rarely!) come across a seriously flawed sales strategy. However, I have come across many (and I mean many!) sales strategies which ultimately fail.

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.

Most sales leaders talk too much about new business development. The truth is: they would be better off yapping less about selling new customers and yapping more about growing existing customers. New call-to-action5 Selling Techniques That Grow Revenue Without Selling New Customers

Despite the lingering impact of the COVID-19 virus, a substantial increase in inflation and the war in Ukraine and other world and national events, American consumers plow ahead, continuing their decades-long role as the drivers of the US economy. Although negative news often receives almost all the headlines, it’s important to emphasize the March 2022 unemployment rate was 3.6%, the lowest since February 2020, and March 2022 retail sales increased 8.4% YOY and 18% from March 2020.

We know that individuals with Drive make great salespeople, but there are a number of other traits that complement Drive and are important to consider when looking to hire top-producing salespeople. These are sales traits that you just cannot identify from an interview alone. That is why it is critical to start out with an assessment that measures Drive, because coaching salespeople after hiring isn’t always the best way to find success.

(By Pat Bryson) I was on a market visit with one of my stations a few weeks ago. We were discussing how to sell a sports team whose games we carry. Traditional sponsorship offered the choice of day games or night games. Take your pick or buy both. There are many more night games than day games. Which one would you buy?