In this episode, Jason Fairchild, CEO of tvScientific, discusses how performance marketing principles are being applied to connected TV advertising. The conversation covers deterministic attribution matching household ad exposure to outcomes, supply path optimization through direct publisher relationships, and radical transparency, including log-level data access. Fairchild explains how the platform brings search and social advertisers to television, the role of incrementality testing in measuring TV impact, and targeting capabilities from demographics to neighborhood-level geography. He also addresses how large language models will disrupt search advertising and create opportunities for television to reclaim its demand creation role in the marketing funnel.

Guilherme Ramos, assistant professor of marketing at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Larissa Elmor, PhD student at FGV Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration and visiting scholar at Imperial College Business School, discuss their research published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing. Their study of nearly 8,000 consumers across three countries examines the gap between what shoppers say they value and what they actually consider when making purchases. The conversation explores why sustainability rarely comes to mind during shopping decisions and what businesses can do to bridge this attitude-behavior gap through cognitive accessibility and contextual salience.

In this episode, Dave Bernath, CEO of Wurl and former Comedy Central GM, explains the technology infrastructure behind ad-supported streaming TV. The conversation covers how FAST channels work, the relationship between content owners and platforms, and why major studios sometimes cede advertising control to distributors. Bernath discusses contextual targeting that matches emotional tone between ads and content, the gap between streaming viewership (45%) and ad spending (15%), and attribution challenges on connected TV. He also addresses YouTube's dominance on connected TVs, metadata inconsistencies in programmatic advertising, and opportunities for small and mid-sized businesses to access TV advertising at scale.

MaryLeigh Bliss from YPulse reveals how media headlines systematically misrepresent Gen Z through sensationalized claims based on viral social content rather than representative research. The conversation debunks major myths about financial expectations, workplace behavior, technology adoption, and mental health by contrasting bold headlines with actual survey data from thousands of young consumers. Bliss explains how to distinguish between micro-trends and mass behavior, why seemingly contradictory data points require nuanced interpretation, and what marketers risk by accepting oversimplified narratives. The discussion offers frameworks for evaluating claims about generational behavior and understanding the gap between media perception and reality.

Attribution has always been a challenge for marketers, and today's internet only makes it harder. Cookie banners frustrate users, bots distort signals, and brands face growing liability for the data they collect. What if there were a way to fix all of this while giving individuals true ownership of their online identities?

In this episode, Gabriella Mirabelli speaks with Patrick Moynihan, co-founder and president of Tracer Labs, about Trust ID, a portable, user-owned digital identity built on blockchain technology. Trust ID enables consumers to control consent on a site-by-site basis, reduces friction in online experiences, and provides a digital wallet for secure transactions. For brands, it offers cleaner CRM data, stronger attribution, and less exposure to privacy risks.

Patrick shares how the concept evolved from a referral-tracking tool into a potential new standard for digital trust, why adoption is easier than many assume, and what the future might look like if individuals—not platforms—hold the keys to their own data.

Pierre-Yann Dolbec and Andrew Smith discuss research explaining creator monetization. The conversation covers three value capture modes that determine creator monetization: advertiser mode, selling attention through partnerships, entrepreneur mode, exploiting market opportunities through product launches, and professional mode, packaging expertise for direct sale.

The researchers explain why mode-spanning creators demonstrate greater resilience, how authenticity struggles stem from violating audience expectations rather than commercialization itself, and why the industry is shifting from single-mode influencers to multi-mode creators building sustainable businesses with assets driven by burnout prevention.

MaryLeigh Bliss from YPulse reveals 2026 predictions for Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and millennial behaviors. After accurately calling 2025 trends, including livestream shopping's breakthrough and local experience resurgence, Bliss forecasts surprising shifts in how social media functions, dramatic compression of cultural cycles, and the evolution of fan creativity through emerging technologies. The conversation covers unexpected entertainment format changes, authenticity concerns reshaping content consumption, and economic anxieties influencing consumer responses to brand behavior. These predictions offer strategic insights for marketers navigating rapid generational shifts in digital behavior and cultural values.

Ullie Appelbaum, brand strategist and author of The Science of Brand Associations, explains how cognitive psychology's associative network theory and neuroscience research inform brand building. The conversation covers how information is stored as connected nodes in memory, the 5-95 rule showing brand predisposition represents 70% of future sales, and the 60-40 optimal mix of brand building to performance marketing. Appelbaum discusses how cultural associations age and require modernization, methods for shifting brand associations, creating differentiation in commodity categories, and why internal stakeholder alignment on brand positioning is essential before external execution.