Signals, Insights, & Perspective – Interpreting What Matters in Global Marketing

When Celebrity Becomes Credibility: Why the Best Endorsements Shorten the Distance to Trust

August 12, 2026August 12, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged BrandTrust, CelebrityEndorsement, MarketingStrategy

Rob Gronkowski’s relationship with regenerative technology company DNA Vibe offers a timely reminder that the most powerful endorsements don’t simply attract attention. They help consumers understand why they should care. (Image courtesy of DNA Vibe.) Celebrity endorsements are hardly new. For generations, brands have borrowed fame, familiarity and cultural relevance in hopes that some of […]

7 mins read

Are Movements Becoming the New Media?

August 12, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged BrandParticipation, ConsumerEngagement, MovementThnking

When content is abundant, participation may be the harder—and more valuable—thing for brands to create. What if the next important evolution in media isn’t another channel? It may be something people choose to join. That’s the provocative possibility that emerged from a recent Internationalist conversation with Scott Goodson, Founder and Chairman of StrawberryFrog and creator […]

5 mins read

Creator Marketing Enters Its Next Phase

August 4, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged CreatorMarketing, InfluencerMarketing, MarketingAccountability

As investment grows, the conversation is shifting from authenticity alone to creativity, effectiveness and professional standards. For more than a decade, creator marketing has been one of marketing’s fastest-evolving disciplines. New platforms emerged, creators built loyal communities, brands experimented with new forms of storytelling, and investment grew at an extraordinary pace. Today, creator marketing has […]

6 mins read

THE EDIT | The Best Marketing Solves Something

July 26, 2026July 26, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged BrandStrategy, CustomerExperience, MarketingInnovation

Sometimes through design. Sometimes through humor. Sometimes through the smallest of ideas. Every once in a while, a handful of seemingly unrelated ideas begin to feel strangely connected. At first glance, they have very little in common. Different companies. Different countries. Different categories. Some are recent. Others are not. Yet I found myself lingering over […]

5 mins read

How Marketing Is Quietly Evolving

July 22, 2026July 23, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged BrandTrust, PurposeDriven, Technology&Humnity

One of the privileges of publishing The Internationalist is seeing remarkable marketing from around the world before anyone has labeled it a trend. At first, it’s simply an interesting campaign. And another. Eventually, patterns emerge. Across the work we’ve been reviewing lately—from World Cup activations, Cannes conversations, AI innovation, discussions with marketing leaders, to past […]

3 mins read

BEYOND BECKHAM: The World Cup Marketing that Added Something to the Experience

July 21, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged BrandExperience, BrandsAndCulture, MarketingStrategy

The official sponsors of the 2026 FIFA World Cup certainly received what they paid for: extraordinary visibility among one of the world’s largest shared audiences. And then there was David Beckham. The former England captain seemed to be everywhere—appearing in campaigns for nearly a dozen brands across sportswear, banking, food, technology, home improvement and telecommunications. […]

4 mins read

Mike Nelson: The Delicate Art of Brand Evolution

July 20, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged AccessibleLuxury, BrandHeritage, MarketingAuthenticity

For nearly two centuries, Martin Guitar has balanced craftsmanship with innovation. Mike Nelson explains why enduring brands don’t choose between heritage and progress—they learn how to honor both. Marketing has always celebrated the new. New technologies. New platforms. New audiences. New ways of reaching consumers. Yet some of the world’s most admired brands have endured […]

6 mins read

Interconnected Threads: Looking Beyond the Headlines from Cannes

July 16, 2026July 16, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged BrandTrust, CannesLions, MarketingStrategy

Signals Every year, Cannes Lions produces a long list of trends. AI. Creators. Retail media. Commerce. Cultural relevance. Trust. Measurement. Brand experience. Purpose. This year was no different. But looking across the conversations, jury discussions and industry announcements, something more interesting began to emerge. The biggest story wasn’t any one trend. It was the growing […]

2 mins read

The Future of Marketing Depends on Better Questions, Not Just Faster Answers

July 9, 2026July 16, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged ArtificIalIntelligence, ConsumerInsights, MarketingLeadership

AI & Humanity | Before becoming a technology entrepreneur by founding quantilope, Dr. Peter Aschmoneit spent more than a decade making the same kinds of decisions that today’s CMOs face. His experience as a brand marketer at Unilever, Danone and Fuchs—and his doctorate in marketing—led him to a simple conclusion: the future of AI depends […]

5 mins read

Jared Belsky: Trust, Collaboration—and Why Marketing’s Best Days May Still Be Ahead

July 7, 2026 Deborah Malone0Tagged ClientAgencyRelations, FutureofMarketing, MediaRebates

When Jared Belsky decided to return media rebates to Acadia’s clients, he knew people would notice. The decision challenged one of the marketing industry’s least-discussed practices. Instead of keeping rebates earned through media buying as agency profit, Acadia redistributed them to nearly 50 clients based on their share of spending. “It wasn’t my money in […]

5 mins read