It was a tale of two Sundays.

Last week, Bad Bunny stood on stage at the Grammys and said “ICE out” before thanking God for his success. 

The following Sunday, he headlined the most widely viewed concert in the world at the Super Bowl, an energizing performance that celebrated Puerto Rican culture (and even had a real wedding!) with cameos from Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga.

Few artists today spark as much conversation as Bad Bunny. He is polarizing, whether intentionally or not. But the NFL is no stranger to a controversial halftime performer. From Prince’s provocative silhouette to Shakira and J.Lo’s celebration of Latin culture to Rihanna’s pregnancy reveal, the league has repeatedly selected artists who spark conversation and connect to the cultural moment. 

But the Bad Bunny selection was a carefully planned chess move in service of global and Latino audience growth, despite rising anti-immigrant sentiment among parts of the U.S. audience.

The Super Bowl is for everyone in different ways. The game is for die-hard NFL fans. The halftime show and commercials are for a broader audience of people tuning in for entertainment and spectacle. 

Immediately following the halftime show, we surveyed more than 2,000 viewers across the U.S., Mexico, and Puerto Rico to understand how the performance actually landed.

The topline response was overwhelmingly positive. In the U.S., over half (57%) of viewers said they “liked” or “loved” the show, compared to just one-in-five (20%) who “disliked” or “hated” it. In Mexico, approval was even stronger: 74% liked or loved the performance, versus only 10% who reacted negatively. 

But the real story emerges when you look at who it spoke to most powerfully.

Among Hispanic audiences in the U.S., the halftime show created a sense of meaning and belonging. More than half (54%) said the performance felt meaningful to them, compared to just 30% of non-Hispanic viewers. Nearly half of U.S. Hispanic respondents (49%) said they loved the show, versus 27% of non-Hispanics.

For Puerto Rican consumers, the show was a representation of their culture on a global stage. 88% of those surveyed said the performance felt meaningful for them, while 91% said the use of Spanish and Latino cultural references made the performance more enjoyable. Mexico showed a similar pattern, with 83% saying those cultural elements made the performance more enjoyable.

Bad Bunny’s expansive performance, underscored with messages of love and acceptance, translated into a perception lift for the NFL as a whole. 

Nearly a quarter of U.S. viewers said the show made them feel more positive about the league. The positive effect was also significantly stronger in Mexico (35%) and Puerto Rico (47.5%), especially among younger, female, and Hispanic audiences.

The NFL is thinking far beyond a single Sunday or even a single season. Long-term growth won’t come from appealing only to existing football fans in the U.S., but from converting sports fans around the world into American football fans – and from making those audiences feel seen, included, and connected to the brand.

Category expansion rarely comes with a playbook. 

Marketers frequently wrestle with whether to play it safe and optimize for the broadest appeal, or to lean into cultural specificity. There’s no perfect answer. Where to land comes down to understanding your base and balancing that with who you want to reach. 

But having connected insights into who your consumers are today, and who you’re building for tomorrow, and the conviction to accept the trade-offs that come with those choices is what separates marketing from legacy-building.

Bad Bunny DID THAT. Se la rifo! 

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show arrived at a moment when most cultural conversations in the U.S. feel fragmented. Different feeds, different audiences, different realities depending on who you ask.

For 13 minutes in the middle of the Big Game, in front of 140 million viewers, that fragmentation paused. Millions of people, across hundreds of languages and thousands of backgrounds, reacted to the same moment at the same time.

Have a quick look at X, TikTok, Facebook, your WhatsApp group chat, or even a pit stop at the office watercooler, and you’ll find people discussing the symbolism in Benito’s love letter to Puerto Rico, translating lyrics for friends, and sharing what the performance meant to them.

This kind of collective cultural response has become rare. And that’s exactly why it matters.

A Spanish-language global artist headlining the halftime show reflected a cultural read of the moment: authenticity now scales further than neutrality ever could. The result was historic, the most-watched halftime performance ever, drawing record-level global viewership and sparking nonstop online conversation that extended far beyond the broadcast itself.

However, the significance of Bad Bunny’s show goes beyond ratings or headlines. What stood out most was the way communities participated. Viewers felt like they were part of the performance; they interpreted it, explained references, shared emotional reactions, and invited others into the experience.

Latino audiences saw themselves reflected on one of the world’s largest stages, while those outside the culture leaned in with curiosity rather than distance.

What emerged was a rare collective experience. In the hours since Bad Bunny took the stage, people have been connecting through culture, rather than through isolated algorithmic bubbles.

For brands and creative leaders, this Super Bowl moment offers several lessons.

1. Culture creates connections faster than messaging ever will.

Marketers often attempt to manufacture unity through campaigns built around togetherness, but connection rarely starts with slogans. It begins in cultural moments that people already care about. When brands understand where those moments are happening and participate with respect, the connection happens organically.

2. Authenticity expands the audience.

The Apple Music-sponsored performance didn’t attempt to translate itself for mainstream comfort. It operated confidently in its own language, symbolism, and creative identity. That confidence widened its appeal. Audiences outside the culture leaned in to learn, with demand for Spanish lessons soaring 35% on Duolingo. Elsewhere, those inside the culture felt recognized. 

3. Community amplification is the real multiplier.

The reach of the halftime show extended far beyond the broadcast because millions of people became interpreters of the moment, explaining meaning and sharing context across their own networks. The most powerful distribution today often comes from audiences themselves, not media budgets.

What was once labeled “multicultural” is increasingly shaping mainstream culture itself. The audiences historically treated as segments are now driving sound, style, language, and global attention at scale.

My personal favorite moment came near the end of the performance.

Flags from across the Americas filled the stage as a message appeared on a giant display in Levi’s Stadium, reading: “The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love”, before the show closed with a football bearing the words “Together, We Are America.”

At a time when national conversations often feel defined by division, the message landed as a reminder that unity is still possible and that culture often says what politics cannot.

The reaction online mirrored that feeling.

People across backgrounds, languages, and communities shared the same moment, the same pride, and the same sense of connection.

For a few minutes, the loudest message in the country wasn’t about what separates us, but what still brings us together.

Moments that generate collective emotional response at a global scale are becoming less common. When they happen, they remind us of something simple: shared cultural experiences still carry the power to bring people together.

For brands, the takeaway is to recognize where cultural energy is already forming and to have the conviction to invest early, support it respectfully, and build with communities rather than trying to take over the moment later.

¡Sigamos para adelante, mi gente!

The biggest Super Bowl moments don’t always happen on TV. 

That’s not a diminishment of the broadcast’s power. Instead it’s an expansion of the creative canvas around it.

Super Bowl 60 is primed for a massive creative reframing—one where relevance, proximity, and participation are increasingly gaining momentum. Culture moves faster than a single broadcast, and the brands that win on Sunday aren’t just the ones that show up during the game. They’re the ones that understand how to show up around it, and are designing quieter campaigns for the right people, in the right places, at the right time. 

Brands that succeed here start by identifying where their desired cultural attention actually shows up––in the host city of San Francisco, a specific platform, or a community—and showing up with intent rather than sheer scale. The work is quieter, but often more precise. 

Challengers that won around the fringes

Challenger brands have embraced this approach because they’ve had to. Without the budget or legacy presence, they look for the white spaces others often overlook or avoid. While some iconic Super Bowl ads trade on familiarity and repetition, which can be the right strategy for some brands, challengers have the unique opportunity to take smarter risks by showing up big in unexpected places.

Last year, Duolingo used their social accounts to comment on the program in real-time, from translations that threw shade at bad plays to dropping a music lesson on A minor to match up with Kendrik Lamar’s halftime performance. 

It resulted in a ton of posts that were hitting product RTBs while making a cultural statement on the moment, leading to 41 million impressions and zero ad spend.

Although Liquid Death ran a Super Bowl ad last year and will again this year, back in 2022, it ran a regional ad that was so impossible to ignore they knew the talk value would make up for the lack of a national media buy. Intentionally controversial, it racked up over 300,000 views in conversations on X, but received over 4 million views via people reacting to it in places like TikTok.

And an earlier use of this tactic is also one of the most effective.

In 2015, Volvo asked fans to tweet the hashtag #VolvoContest every time any other car commercial aired to nominate someone for a new XC60, activating an already engaged fan base and offering them something tangible. This led to a 71% sales jump and earned roughly $44 million in organic media coverage.

What people remember on Monday morning

For creative leaders, the biggest shift isn’t about abandoning the Super Bowl spot, but about reframing it. That means creative today has to be built with flexibility in mind. 

That doesn’t mean being impulsive or chasing every trend. It means planning for responsiveness, which can look like setting up creative frameworks, empowered teams, and clear guardrails so you can move quickly without losing your voice. 

That willingness to operate outside of airtime can give brands an edge. 

What people remember on Monday morning aren’t always the most extravagant traditional spots, but the ones that made people laugh, think, or feel seen. It’s ads that were clever, authentic, and self-aware. Audiences can spot overproduction, forced relevance, and opportunism from a mile away—and ideas last far longer than spectacle. 

Ultimately, non-traditional executions can work because they feel human. When brands show up without an explicit sell, they create space, where participation turns into connection, and connection turns into loyalty.
These ideas may never top the ad meters, and that’s kind of the point. Success here isn’t always measured in immediate recall or next-day rankings. It shows up in conversations, earned media, social trends, and long-term affinity.

It didn’t start well. 

Even Brian Niccol would surely accept that the optics of his first few weeks at Starbucks back in the summer of 2024 were hardly ideal. 

First, there was the messy scrap about wanting to work from home while leading a company insisting its managers return to the office. When your California abode is a thousand miles from headquarters, accusations of executive hypocrisy are inevitable. 

Then there was the salary: $96 million for his first four months’ work. That’s 6,666 times more than the median Starbucks barista earns. A multiple that followed him around like a corporate albatross.

And then something unexpected happened. Starbucks’ new CEO started fixing stuff. 

He had brought good people with him. Very good people. Tressie Lieberman from Chipotle as chief brand officer. He recruited Cathy Smith, the former CFO of Target and Walmart International, to run finance. He installed new leadership across all his stores. 

And he brought brutal simplification. At Taco Bell, Niccol had learned that complexity kills. At Chipotle, he perfected the art of cutting corporate noise. His predecessor at Starbucks, Laxman Narasimhan, had unveiled a strategy called “Triple Shot Reinvention with Two Pumps.” When asked about it, Niccol was characteristically blunt: “I don’t know what that means.” 

He replaced it with three words: “Back to Starbucks.”

Say what you mean, mean what you say

It’s here where Niccol and his team have particularly excelled. Not just simplifying operations but articulating the brand’s very reason for being. Consider the old mission statement: “With every cup, with every conversation, with every community—we nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection.” Overwritten. Vague. It reeks of the overstated era of Big Positioning in which so many marketers lost the strategic plot.

Too many brands are run by people who think positioning is an end in itself—one that requires a big societal purpose followed by a verbose set of statements and concepts. Positioning became a PowerPoint deck of overly complex ideas. 

It has to be simpler than that. Tighter. Humbler. Even the biggest brand has only a few of its consumers’ brain cells to operate with. Positioning became messy rather than the means to a more simple, prosaic end: salience and differentiation.

Niccol’s new position took less than a paragraph and returned the Starbucks brand to Earth: “A welcoming coffeehouse where people gather, and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas.” When Howard Schultz heard the new positioning, he reportedly did a cartwheel in his living room.

Remind people why they love you

An ostentatious, slightly absurd brand position won’t kill a company, but it sure as shit does not help much. 

I’ve worked on the positioning of many of the world’s biggest brands, and it’s been apparent throughout my career just how transformational a proper, tight position can be for a company. You clear the noise. Choices become obvious. It’s as if lights emerge from the ceiling and illuminate the things that are important, and go dark around the things that no longer matter. 

Working from the new position, Niccol cut 30% of the menu. Gone were drinks deemed too complex, too similar, or too niche. He brought back handwritten names on cups—200,000 Sharpies ordered. Restored condiment bars. Reintroduced ceramic mugs. Removed the extra charge for non-dairy milk. Each decision flowing from one idea: We are a community coffeehouse, not a mobile-ordering assembly line.

Then came Green Apron Service—the largest operating standards investment in Starbucks’ 54-year history. The $500 million program is built around five customer moments: greeting, glassware, a message on the cup, connection at handoff, and a clean café. Service choreography, not rocket science. But the 650 pilot stores outperformed the fleet by 200 basis points. 

He killed discounts. Starbucks had been drowning in promotions: half-price Frappuccinos, BOGO lattes, loyalty multipliers. Niccol shifted spend toward brand experience. Classic brand building: Stop bribing customers and start reminding them why they love you instead.

The proof is in the latte

On Jan. 28, the numbers confirmed what stores were already showing. Starbucks beat analyst estimates across the board for Q1. Global comparable sales rose 4%—nearly double Wall Street’s forecast. U.S. comps also climbed 4%, driven by a 3% rise in transactions, the first U.S. transaction growth in eight quarters. 

After two years of customers walking past the green mermaid, now they’re walking back in. Revenue hit $9.9 billion, up 6%. Rewards members reached a record 35.5 million. Both loyalty members and non-members grew their visits for the first time since early 2022. Niccol declared his “Back to Starbucks” plan as “working and ahead of schedule.” The company reinstated guidance for the first time in over a year. This is a turnaround with genuine, transaction-led momentum.

Niccol has a long tenure ahead, with his turnaround plan stretching into 2027 and beyond. Critics will keep pointing at the corporate jet, the Newport Beach office, and that $96 million number. But Starbucks stock now trades around $92, up from $76 the day before his appointment was announced. That’s roughly $18 billion in shareholder value. Or about $35 million for every day Niccol has been on the job. For once, the big salary is justified.

Just one more thing

Maybe, in Brian Niccol, Starbucks has the best CEO in America. A leader who understands that a brand’s position must be simple enough to execute, not grand enough to frame. A man who moves logically from the strategy of a new position to execute it tactically not just in superficial advertising, but across all the key touch points. A leader who knows that when you know what a brand stands for, everything else follows. 

The only remaining question is whether someone can convince him to move to Seattle. Because there is no amount of strategic genius, operational excellence, or shareholder value that excuses a grown adult choosing to live in Newport Beach. A city without seasons, any distinguishable culture, or a decent cup of coffee. 

Fix that, Brian, and the turnaround truly will be complete.

You don’t need to be chronically online to have your social media feeds overtaken by TV’s Heated Rivalry. My 21-year-old niece, multiple work Teams chats, Donatella Versace, hetero hockey podcasters, Helen Hunt, the NYC mayor’s Snow Day counsel, the Olympic torch relay committee and Naomi Fry in The New Yorker have all declared their intention to “come to the cottage.”  

As a gay Canadian who never fully got into hockey but has devoured more than two dozen (mainly hockey-based) MM romances (receipts in my Goodreads), my excitement began with the first announcement last year. (Full disclosure: I attended the same Montreal high school as the show’s writer/director, Jacob Tierney, though our paths since our star turns in a senior production of Fiddler on the Roof have diverged significantly.)

The show’s virality is staggering. Across Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, there have been more than 6,000 dedicated videos uploaded between Nov 15 and Jan 12 averaging 80,000 views each, with more than 6,200 engagements, according to research from the Weber Shandwick Analytics & Insights team using Tubular. A New York Times headline calls the “popularity of ‘Heated Rivalry’ a surprise even to TV executives.” Hits like these also often surprise marketers, who are left flat-footed. Case in point: no one at Harlequin Books foresaw the uptick in demand for Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, which are still frustratingly backordered on Amazon until the end of January.

It can be tempting to dismiss such cultural phenomena as flukes, but marketers have much to learn from successes like Heated Rivalry. Here are eight key lessons:

1. Community insights over trends

“What is the point of IP if you’re not respecting the people that made the IP valuable, which is the fans?” – Jacob Tierney (Writer/Director)

To say Heated Rivalry came out of nowhere is to ignore its foundation: a devoted fanbase. The six-novel series sold 650,000 copies before the show premiered, bolstered by active message boards, online reviews, and fan fiction. Tierney, who DMed author Rachel Reid directly to acquire the rights, recognized not just the quality of the material but the fervor of its fans. Marketers too often chase trends instead of tapping into communities with deep engagement. Niche stories can ignite mainstream excitement when handled with care. Heated Rivalry fans have been rewarded for their loyalty, creating a cycle of excitement between long-time readers and new viewers.

2. Passions, not demographics

“You’d never think it, but the baked-in audience for this is women. It’s wine moms. They love this stuff.” – Jacob Tierney

Streaming minutes for Heated Rivalry exploded from 30 million at launch to 327 million during its finale. This growth was driven by cisgender heterosexual women, who make up two-thirds of its audience. This shouldn’t be shocking. Female readers have always dominated the male/male (MM) romance book genre, citing its ability to equalize relationship dynamics and remove patriarchal tropes. Marketers often assume audiences must see themselves in characters. Instead, we must focus on connecting with their values, passions, and interests — not just gender or demographics.

3. Take more shots

“It is clearly a word-of-mouth sensation.” – Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max 

Heated Rivalry was made on a modest budget with relatively unknown actors, filmed in Canada, and supported by limited marketing. Its success proves cultural momentum and fan engagement outweigh flashy spending. Marketers often aim for “too big to fail” projects, diluting creativity to “hit every quadrant.” But taking more creative risks on smaller, targeted stories allows for authentic content with universal appeal.

4. Trust your creators

“They clearly know what they’re doing.” – Casey Bloys

Tierney credits Crave’s Canadian executives for funding the series without “death by a thousand studio notes.” And rightfully so. One potential collaborator reportedly suggested adding a female protagonist to broaden appeal. Too often, marketers micromanage creators instead of trusting their expertise. Tierney has proven success with Letterkenny and Shoresy.  It’s also a two-way street, and Tierney has confirmed that Heated Rivalry’s Season 2 budget will remain modest, ensuring he can retain creative control.

5. Real, complex inclusion

“Heated Rivalry’s Shane is autistic. If you didn’t notice, that’s the point.” – CBC Headline

Heated Rivalry doesn’t just focus on LGBTQ+ themes—it reflects intersectional stories. It portrays a Russian immigrant’s struggles, the lack of Asian representation in hockey, and includes Black, trans, and Latinx characters. The main character Shane is coded as autistic, but it’s never explicitly stated. For some, it’s deeply resonant; for others, it goes unnoticed. Inclusion feels natural, not performative—a model for marketers looking to connect with wider audiences. And it’s effective: one out of every dozen comments on Twitter/Reddit (via Tubular/WS A&I) includes a mention of “inclusion,” “representation,” and “feeling seen.”

6. Provoke, but follow through

“Come for the hot sex, stay for the warm love.” – Hudson Williams (Actor)

Headlines have underlined the show’s spice and nudity level, but it’s hardly racier than Bridgerton, Industry, or Outlander. It’s just different. Importantly, intimacy is not gratuitous but central to a plot that culminates in a satisfying happily ever after. Similarly, in marketing, you can lead with bold or provocative elements, but meaningful substance and a connection to your story is what drives long-term engagement.

7. The need for — and value of — joy

“This show is queer joy for adults.” – Jacob Tierney

In a bleak world, Heated Rivalry has been a balm for audiences, unabashedly embracing love and joy. Marketers often see value as transactional—solving problems—but joy itself is a value that enriches lives and strengthens emotional connections with brands.

8. Embrace the memes

“It’s very flattering to be on the receiving end of so much copyright infringement.” – Jacob Tierney

Fans have embraced Heated Rivalry with hilarious memes, song remixes, watch parties, fan edits, and homemade merch. Even the Canadian Olympic team is weighing in. Rather than shut it down, its creators are leaning into it, amplifying fandom instead of policing it. For marketers, co-creating with fans and empowering them to evangelize your brand is the way forward.

My genuine fear is that networks and producers are focused on replicating a ‘gay sports-themed show’ rather than uncovering the next underrepresented niche, where not just the quantity of people talking but the quality and intensity of their conversation have the power to fuel mainstream excitement and a viral hit. Marketers too have a similar chance to rethink how we approach culture, creativity, and community. Ignore these lessons, and you risk being frozen out—or stuck in the penalty box. 

OpenAI’s recent launch of Atlas marks a pivotal moment for digital marketing, and for the evolution of the internet itself. Atlas showcases the rise of the agentic web, an internet in which AI completes tasks on users’ behalf and actively represents them.

For marketers, this means algorithms will increasingly mediate how people discover, evaluate and interact with brands. The path forward lies in diversification and data: Expanding how we reach audiences and unifying how we measure performance across every screen. 

The Diversification Imperative

First, we have to acknowledge that AI is already reshaping online behavior. Gartner predicts that by 2026, traditional search traffic could decline by as much as 25%, largely due to the proliferation of AI-driven tools and intermediaries. For marketers, this means fewer touchpoints, increased competition for attention and greater urgency to diversify beyond search-centric strategies, as the traditional web is no longer the only (or even the primary) place for digital discovery. 

The good news, however, is that the broader, open internet—which includes mobile, connected TV (CTV), and beyond—is more measurable and performant than ever. 

Take, for example, the fact that consumers spend nearly 90% of their time on mobile within apps (a channel largely shielded from the volatility of search engines), generating more than $935 billion in annual revenue globally. Paired with other, high-attention environments, like CTV and digital out-of-home, mobile can help marketers maintain connection with consumers wherever they spend time. These environments also tend to offer greater engagement and measurement, allowing brands to connect media with storytelling in one continuous loop and build more resilient, diverse portfolios in the process. 

Data as the Demand-Side Advantage

Of course, diversification without data is just more noise. From the perspective of a demand-side platform like Nexxen, the most effective advertisers are going a step beyond diversifying channels and integrating data to inform every decision, including bid optimization and creative conquesting. 

To identify quality environments, track incremental reach, and optimize for outcomes that matter most to their businesses’ bottom lines, brands need to start crafting open, privacy-led data strategies that link mobile, CTV, and other channels into one cohesive framework. Put differently, we need to treat data as the connective tissue and infrastructure, rather than a campaign byproduct, to excel. 

Ultimately, by approaching campaigns with diversification and data top-of-mind, we can turn disruption into discovery—building brand value in places algorithms can’t define. The rules of online engagement may be changing, but we now have the chance to rewrite them on our terms, for good. 

In a climate where most brands would give anything for a case study boasting 10x growth, PacSun recently hit the ultimate benchmark: 200,000 pairs of jeans sold via TikTok, generating $20 million in revenue. 

But as the retailer is quickly learning, creativity without compliance is just a high-interest loan.

The very numbers that should be headlining quarterly business reviews are now being served as Exhibit A in a $43 million lawsuit from Warner Music Group. Seeking $150,000 in damages for each of the 290 instances of alleged music infringement, the label remixed a bop into a multimillion-dollar invoice anthem.

PacSun is just the latest in a growing gallery of high-profile offenders, including 14 NBA teams, Johnson & Johnson, and Chili’s. For years, the industry’s unspoken mantra has been “ask for forgiveness, not permission.” But as labels pivot from “whack-a-mole” enforcement to precise legal strikes, the industry is facing a reckoning: Our creative ambitions have outpaced our operational infrastructure.

The Business Affairs bottleneck

Working at the intersection of social and production, I see the gap daily. Social teams need to post at the speed of culture, yet “Business Affairs”—the gatekeeper of rights and clearances—remains a relic of linear advertising. We’re applying a 1990s legal framework to a 2026 feed. 

Agencies are designed to spend weeks negotiating a single track for a TV spot, but a social lead needs to post a trending reel within 30 minutes. This friction has created a dangerous vacuum where “trusting the algorithm” has replaced due diligence.

The math simply doesn’t track. It can cost between $3,000 and $5,000 to clear a single commercial track with a label for one organic post on one platform. Multiply that by more than 20 influencers—all using the same trending Drake or Beyoncé snippet—and you aren’t just looking at a budget line item. You’re looking at a fiasco.

From “mute” to modern infrastructure

With nearly 85% of TikToks relying on sound and more than 44% of users buying directly through the app, silence isn’t an option. But neither is the status quo. 

A major label recently disclosed it was tracking 22,000 brands illegally using between 10 and 20 songs per month. This is a gaping structural disconnect between how we create content and how we protect the enterprise.

Fixing this requires a fundamental shift in how we source sound. “Clearinghouses”—like Cipher and other pre-licensed libraries—are moving from niceties to requirements. These platforms are the first step toward a true ecommerce model for music. However, if you’re looking for a “see it, click it, buy it” solution for a Taylor Swift track, you won’t find one.

The barriers are deeply entrenched in the industry’s DNA. A single track often has a dozen songwriters, multiple publishers, and a record label, who all must give the green light. “Most-favored-nation” (MFN) clauses—which dictate that all rightsholders must be paid the same rate—are a massive brake on automation. A “no” from one minor songwriter could empty the whole digital cart. 

Until the industry can move toward automated, pre-negotiated bundles across a brand’s social footprint, the legal receipt will continue to outpace the creative win.

Creator-led collabs

By collaborating with artists, brands can stop borrowing trends and start owning them.

Skeptics argue that bespoke collaboration can’t scale at the speed of social. But scalability lives underneath the mainstream market. Independent music creators are often sitting on vast libraries of unreleased tracks, and they are far more agile than major labels. 

By tapping into this ecosystem, brands can move beyond superficially echoing a trend and connect with niche communities. Perhaps they can even start a trend of their own.

Intentional audio increases engagement far more effectively than a generic Top 40 snippet. It’s the difference between a travel brand using Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand” to create a genuine phenomenon versus an ice cream brand forcing a fit with a Drake track just because it’s “hot.” 

Facing the music

Some are holding out hope that countersuits—like DSW’s argument that platforms should be held responsible for the music in their libraries—will save the day. That is a slippery slope.

The era of “accidental” infringement is over, with labels carefully watching bottom lines. So, if your agency or brand team hasn’t updated its social-audio operations in the last 12 months, you aren’t just making content—you’re making a paper trail. 

In 2026, the only thing more expensive than a global ad campaign is a “free” song.

The most helpful leadership idea I heard this year wasn’t from a LinkedIn guru or a best-selling management book, but from Chinese Astrology.

It turns out that 2025 was the Year of the Wood Snake—in other words, the year of shedding. 

Look at what the advertising industry has shed this year: not just thousands of jobs, but entire agency networks. We’ve shed the faith that serving clients and making great work might save us from restructure. 

We’ve even had to discard the certainty that advertising is an industry with career paths. 

This stuff has been shedding for a while, but now it’s finally off. It’s painful. But with shedding comes new life.

Here is my counsel as we move into the next phase.

Let go of old structures

Nobody is looking to hire or buy the best agency of 2006 or 2016 today. This isn’t your model, or your reference point. 

Know that the old world has gone, but something new is being born. Use this opportunity to actively let go of any ideas or processes that were starting to feel uncomfortable or irrelevant. 

Identify your nuances

It’s no longer just about skills. Think beyond your title and your official deliverables to reflect on what sits beneath. What qualities do you possess because of this role, and how might that be relevant in new situations?

For example, you might be in client services, but as a result, you can quickly form deep, trusting relationships and clearly understand what others need. Use those qualities to your advantage as capabilities shift.

Take inventory of your resources

It’s easy to lose sight of the abundance you’ve accumulated. Most of the time, we don’t notice how much we have available to us. 

List out every single person in your network, every asset, every capability. I guarantee you will find that you have more to build with than you think.

The future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed

It really sucks to lose your job. But don’t let that feeling deprive you of the chance to figure out what’s next. 

The most energized people I meet are empowered to innovate in order to meet the forces reshaping the creative business. They are building distributed workforces. They are creating offerings that respond to the new world, not stripping existing businesses for shareholders. They are learning about what they as individuals can bring to this emerging world. 

Not many of them reside in the big holdcos. 

The Year of the Wood Snake clears the way for next year, the Year of the Horse: a time of energy, forward motion, decisive action. 

We shed a lot of things this year, and it hurt. It will continue to hurt for a while. But now we are lighter and ready to learn how to gallop for real. 

Sarah Watson is CEO of Luminous Coaching and former chairman and global CSO at BBH New York.