Advertising Week 2025: The Remix
6 Key Takeaways About Culture, Commerce, And Creativity
Advertising Week 2025 felt like a remix — familiar hooks, but with some new beats. The industry didn’t reinvent itself but it refined its sound. If last year was about survival, this year was about strategy — getting back to the basics that still move people and business alike.
Here are Eastport’s six key takeaways that defined the week.
While AI continues to redefine how marketers operate, many speakers emphasized that technology alone can’t sustain brand meaning. Genuine human connection — especially through in-person experiences — remains essential to earning Gen Z’s trust and attention.
Wendy Kupsis-Robino, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Events & Publicity at Warner Brothers, highlighted the importance of real world experiences to drive fan engagement around the Minecraft movie premiere, saying “What we realize is that because they’ve (Gen Z) been so digitalized they actually crave IRL experiences. They actually want to see, touch, hear, smell, taste, and have that immersive experience.” Her point underscored a larger truth — even the most digitally native audiences seek tangible connection when it comes to brands they love.
But this craving for shared, in-person moments extends far beyond Gen Z. The power of real-world experiences — both as human connection and business driver — transcends generations. Just look at Taylor Swift, who became AI’s unexpected partner in Advertising Week buzzwords this year. Peggy Roe, Marriott’s Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, answered a question regarding the increasing spending power of Millennials, saying, “People traveling based on their passions is what we see…instead of waiting for the events and concerts to come to them, they’re going after it…in the case of Taylor Swift, people were traveling to new destinations in combination with that experience because it was the discovery of something new.”
That same insight — that experiences drive emotion, and emotion drives loyalty — came through clearly in Canva’s approach to brand building. As Jimmy Knowles, Canva’s Global Head of Experiential, explained: “I think, especially now as the rise of AI starts to integrate itself more and more into our everyday lives and into every touchpoint of what we’re doing, emotional connection and humanity is more important than ever. And I don’t think there’s a single better tool in the marketing mix than experiential to deliver on that emotional connection for consumers.”
The Takeaway: As AI accelerates efficiency, human experience anchors meaning. From Gen Z gamers to global travelers, in-person connection isn’t competing with technology — it’s completing it.
Culture remains the fastest way for brands to earn relevance — and the easiest way to lose credibility. It’s both a growth engine and a minefield, demanding precision, empathy, and self-awareness. As Jo Fox, Senior Vice President of Marketing at ESPN, reminded the room: “It’s good to think about who we are — but (also) who are we not?
”That restraint resonated across panels, an important reminder that participation without purpose can quickly backfire. Leslie Malcolm, Vice President Marketing at Molson Coors Canada, captured the tension perfectly, posing the question: “Is this a space we should play in? Just because we can doesn’t mean we should… but if it’s a yes, we jump in.
”In 2025, cultural engagement isn’t about chasing moments — it’s about earning them. The smartest brands are curating the spaces where they authentically belong, building credibility through alignment rather than ubiquity. Or as Nick Tran, President & Chief Marketing Officer at Cîroc and Lobos 1707, put it: “Culture moves so fast and if you’re not moving at the speed of culture it’s really tough to have your marketing land… (you must) be able to find the cultural tie into one of the insights for your brand…while staying true to what your brand stands for.”
The Takeaway: Cultural fluency isn’t about keeping up — it’s about knowing when and how to show up.
Move from being noticed to being needed.
As brands navigate fragmented platforms and increasingly skeptical consumers, “trust” isn’t a buzzword — it’s a business model. It’s the invisible currency that determines whether audiences engage, convert, or walk away.
“Trust is synonymous with care,” said Arielle Friedman Sheridan, Director of Consumer Product Marketing at Instacart, underscoring that every touchpoint — from product to push notification — is an opportunity to show people you mean it. In a landscape where consumers are bombarded by messages, it’s not the volume of communication that matters, but the authenticity behind it.
Hilary Fischer-Groban, Senior Director of Global Brand, Insights, and Comms at Tripadvisor, said it perfectly: “Trust in 2025 is showing up and delivering on your brand promise — and doing it consistently.” That reliability — day in and day out, across every experience — is how brands move from being noticed to being needed.
The Takeaway: Consistency is what separates campaigns from connections — the difference between a message that lands and a relationship that lasts.
Forget reach. The new metric is belief. Attention may be fleeting, but allegiance lasts. Today’s strongest brands aren’t counting impressions — they’re cultivating believers who move culture forward with them.
“Everything you do should be driving fandom — whether that’s engagement, sentiment, or some sort of intentional action — but you should never be within two degrees of separation of revenue,” said Stephanie Rogers, Executive Vice President of Marketing for the San Francisco 49ers. In other words, fandom isn’t just about attention — it’s about advocacy that moves business forward.
Daisy Boateng, Head of Global Brand Engagement for IT Cosmetics at L’Oréal, took it further: “We realize that fandom is a defining factor between a single purchase and a lifetime purchaser…if you tell someone why they buy the brand story, they are ready to march in the streets for you because they believe in the ideas and beliefs in what you are doing.” Fandom, in her view, transforms customers into believers — a multiplier effect that turns marketing into momentum.
That belief is also measurable — a truth underscored by Drew Panayiotou, Chief Marketing Officer at Keurig Dr Pepper: “The health of a business and the health of your brand really depends on the core, the minority, the raving fans — it’s the 30% that really drive the rest of the mass market.”
Nowhere was that dynamic more evident than in the rise of women’s sports — a recurring theme throughout Advertising Week. Brands are realizing that fandom built on authenticity and community is one of the most potent growth drivers in the game. The partnership between Smucker’s Uncrustables and the WNBA captured this perfectly. Kelly Sweeney, Senior Director, Integrated Media Collective at The J.M. Smucker Co., said: “The train has left the station for women’s basketball. It’s about who’s going to get on board, or are you going to miss the train?”
The Takeaway: Fandom isn’t just emotional equity — it’s financial. The connection must ladder back to the bottom line.
Stephanie Rogers
Executive Vice President of Marketing for the San Francisco 49ers
Legacy brands are rewriting their playbooks to stay relevant without losing their roots. They’re learning to honor the past while designing for the present — translating legacy into language that today’s consumers understand. Because staying power isn’t just about endurance; it’s about evolution.
“It’s important when you have a brand that’s been around… understanding the ethos of the brand and why it exists,” shared Todd Kaplan, Chief Marketing Officer of North America at KraftHeinz, noting that “brand architecture is critically important” when navigating innovation and heritage. His point underscored that longevity only matters when it’s paired with clarity of purpose.
Marie-Jeanne Matei, Vice President and GM of eCommerce & Omnichannel Shopper Experience at Ferrero USA, echoed the sentiment: “We have iconic brands in our portfolio… we recognized that Keebler needed some ‘bring it back to the present’ activity. But the nostalgia wasn’t translating into sales.” For Ferrero, revitalization meant more than nostalgia — it required reintroducing timeless brands to modern audiences with new energy and relevance.
Kheri Holland Tillman, Chief Marketing Officer at Primo Brands, discussed their partnership with Major League Baseball, saying “Some of our brands are over 100-180 years old, it’s about keeping them relevant and making sure you’re telling stories that consumers understand and putting your brands in a cultural moment where they can understand and take from it.” Her perspective reinforced that heritage isn’t a constraint — it’s a creative
The Takeaway: The future of brand growth lies in balancing history with momentum — remixing legacy, not replacing it.
The smartest brands aren’t going it alone — they’re remixing their agency, tech, and media relationships to work symbiotically. Collaboration has become a competitive advantage, where shared data, shared goals, and shared accountability fuel stronger, faster growth.
As Mark Kirkham, Chief Marketing Officer at PepsiCo, put it: “You have to realize what you’re really good at and where you need help… in today’s world you need an ecosystem that actually works together symbiotically — it’s not as easy as just briefing an agency — you need to have shared KPIs, shared business interests, shared partnerships and shared ethos.
And for BODYARMOR Sports Drink, collaboration isn’t just operational — it’s foundational. “We see the power in what our partners do, and we know that we are the best at reaching our target consumers when we let our partners do their job,” said Sara Weaver, Vice President of Marketing at BODYARMOR.
The Takeaway: Partnership today isn’t about outsourcing — it’s about orchestration. When trust drives collaboration, performance follows
From fandom to trust, culture to collaboration, the through-line was clear: consumers crave brands that mean something — not just say something.
Or, as Sally Barton, Mondelez’s International’s Marketing Excellence U.S. Lead, reminded us: “What really fuels the power of this industry is our people.”
Advertising Week 2025 wasn’t about new formulas — it was about getting the mix right