The Marketer’s Questions Haven’t Changed. The Industry Has.
In a world of shiny and new, marketers need a filter
Each year, Advertising Week New York is a temperature check for marketers on what’s trending, what’s changing, and what is here to stay. But the real value is not learning every new platform, acronym, or capability; it's in learning how to pick through the buzzword salad and hundreds of panel discussions to figure out what marketers should demand from their advertising investments.
But with so much shiny and new advertising innovation coming at marketers all the time, how do marketers stay focused on the questions that really matter?
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of sitting at the table where the tough questions are being asked. Whether on the agency side pitching brand marketers, as the marketer pitching my CEO, or on the sell side pitching agencies, I’ve found the questions to be remarkably similar, year over year.
- Who is my audience?
- How do I reach them?
- What channels actually work?
- How do I know the investment worked?
- What is my ROI?
Five years of VAB’s Advertising Week conversations reinforce that idea. The industry has changed dramatically, but the fundamental questions marketers need to answer have remained shockingly consistent.
Also Read: Google’s 2027 Ad Impression Update: Why Publishers Need to Prepare Now
Who is my audience?
In the past, when brand marketers talked about audience, it meant, “What are their demographics?” As access to data has grown, that question has become much more nuanced: Who are they? What do we know about them? What are they interested in? And, increasingly, what matters to them right now?
I’ve spent countless hours building audience profiles-from demographics and psychographics to the brands they love, the cultural moments they connect with, and even the celebrity personality they embody. The more we know about people, the more precisely we should be able to reach them. But more data doesn’t necessarily make that easier–and it may create more signals to sort through.
How Do I Reach Them?
The advertising industry is rife with innovation, and the learning curve can be steep. One day you’re hearing a platform name for the first time; the next, you’re wondering whether you’re already behind the curve.
I’ve sat through plenty of presentations where the newest platform, technology or media opportunity sounds like the answer to every marketer’s problem. But innovation for innovation’s sake isn’t a strategy. As Amie Owen, Global Chief Commerce Officer at IPG, said at our panel, The Retail Media Revolution, “AI has helped us to focus on the things that matter, like strategy, versus execution . . . but we want to be responsible in how we use it and ensure it drives efficiency for us and our clients.”
Not every new platform needs to make the media plan. Not every new capability deserves a test. The challenge is understanding what a new opportunity uniquely enables and whether that advantage matters for your audience and your business.
Over the years, VAB’s Advertising Week conversations have helped marketers understand emerging platforms like FAST, explored the convergence of CTV and retail media, and now, this year’s conversation puts a spotlight on creators and Premium Video, showcasing how they work together to drive discovery and demand.
Don’t miss us at Advertising Week, The New Entertainment Engine: How Creators & Premium Video Platforms Are Driving Discovery and Demand on Monday, October 5, 11:30 AM.
What Channels Actually Work?
For years, there were behind-the-scenes battles between above-the-line and below-the-line marketing, or brand versus performance. As a former creative agency marketer, putting your heart and soul into a big brand idea, only to see it translated into a spots-and-dots TV buy and a search campaign-could be disheartening, to say the least. Not being able to effectively prove the ROI of the big idea was even more frustrating.
For too long, brand and performance were treated as competing objectives, with different channels assigned to each job. But consumers don’t experience brands that way. They move across screens, platforms, and moments without caring which part of the funnel a channel is supposed to own.
Brian Danzis, CRO of Seedtag, spoke to this at VAB’s panel on Streaming’s Strategic Advantage. He said, “Advertising done right is organically relevant, and it can energize our own values. True contextual advertising will find natural connections with the audience.” Increasingly, the question isn’t whether a channel is a “brand” channel or a “performance” channel. It’s what role it can play across the consumer journey-and whether it can deliver measurable value along the way.
VAB’s Advertising Week conversations have exemplified this shift, from the importance of engagement, consideration, and intent in 2024, to streaming’s ability to balance brand equity and performance in 2025, to this year’s upcoming conversation showing how premium video is increasingly being evaluated not just for awareness but for its ability to contribute to measurable brand and business outcomes.
Be part of the conversation with CTV’s Performance Revolution: From Brand Building to Measurable Business Impact, on Wednesday, October 7, at 11:40 AM on the Media Stage.
How Do I Know My Investment Works?
In all my years in advertising, no pitch was complete without talking about measurement. How will we prove success? What should we measure? And perhaps most importantly, can we trust the data telling us whether our investment worked?
As the number of platforms, data sources, and measurement solutions grew, so did the complexity. Marketers weren’t just asking how to measure a campaign. They were asking which solutions they should trust, how different platforms could work together, and whether the numbers were telling the whole story.
Looking back at five years of VAB conversations at Advertising Week, the evolution of that challenge is striking.
The question has evolved from simply measuring media to making measurement useful-not just reporting what happened but using it to determine what to do .
Don’t miss this year’s session, The Next Era of Audience Intelligence: A New Standard for Precision & Performance, on Monday, October 5, at 3:10 PM on the Innovation Stage.
What is my ROI?
At the end of the day, every marketer has to answer the same question: Was the investment worth it? But ROI isn’t simply about finding the cheapest impression or squeezing the most reach out of a dollar. It’s about understanding the value of that impression.
Did it reach the right audience? Did the environment create attention or engagement? Did it move consideration or intent? Ultimately, what did my investment actually accomplish?
That is why the conversations around measurement, premium environments, audience intelligence, and full-funnel performance are ultimately connected. Aisha Khan, Head of Client Engagement - Global Commerce at WPP Media, said it best while speaking on VAB’s retail-focused panel: “We’ve had this convo about the funnel for a long time. The consumer doesn’t think, ‘I’m in my discovery phase or in my purchase phase.’ We need to be thinking of it as really just one moment.”
Over the past five years, VAB’s Advertising Week conversations have increasingly moved in that direction, starting with asking whether impressions are created equal, to measuring impact, to examining outcomes beyond the cart, and ultimately to measurable business impact.
This year, VAB President & CEO Sean Cunningham takes the stage to discuss what constitutes Premium Video and its inherent value with ‘Premium' Video's Two Ultimate Yes/No Toggles, on Monday, October 5, at 12:20 PM on the Media Stage.
The questions haven't changed. The complexity of answering them has.
The industry will continue to evolve, and marketers will continue to evaluate what belongs in their plans. That doesn’t mean they need to chase every innovation. It means they need a filter.
For marketers, in a world of constant innovation, the real advantage isn’t keeping up with every shiny new trend – it’s knowing what to look for, what to value, and what to .
Those are the questions VAB continues to put at the center of its work and will be on the VAB stage at Advertising Week New York. We will uncover the actionable insights that move the needle and provide perspectives to help your advertising investments work harder than ever.
