The 2026 Marketing Makes a World of Difference™ winners suggest that marketing’s contribution may be expanding—from communicating value to helping create it. Each year, The Internationalist’s Marketing Makes a World of Difference™ Awards look for work that meets a deceptively simple test: Something meaningful happened because marketing got involved. That means looking beyond awareness, engagement, […]
As the first Chief Marketing Officer of Love’s, Patrick McLean is helping one of America’s largest family-owned businesses move from decades of growth through expansion to its next stage of growth through marketing—without losing what made the company successful in the first place. When most people think of Love’s Travel Stops, they probably think of […]
Out-of-home advertising has been refusing to stay politely inside the rectangle for a very long time. In mid-century Times Square, the famous Camel billboard blew actual smoke over Manhattan. Maxwell House poured an endless cup of coffee. Signs flashed, moved, and became part of New York City’s visual identity. So spectacle isn’t new. Neither is […]
Kevin Freedman on AI, brand drift—and the growing risk of “international marketing debt.” Great global marketing tends to be celebrated for the things we can see: the idea, the creative, the media, the results. Kevin Freedman thinks we should pay considerably more attention to what happens underneath. “Creative often gets the credit for campaigns and […]
For Momentum’s Mollye Rhea on why the strongest cause partnerships are becoming more integrated, more enduring—and more valuable to everyone involved. Cause marketing has come a long way from asking consumers to add a dollar at checkout or promising that a percentage of every purchase will go to a good cause. Those approaches haven’t disappeared—and […]
New global research on “aging well” reveals a striking disconnect between enormous consumer power—and how little attention marketers give it. Ask more than 30 creative directors and advertising experts around the world to name memorable wellness advertising aimed at people over 60, and something unusual happens. They struggle. Some can’t think of an example at […]
What one of the world’s greatest shared cultural experiences can teach us about multigenerational marketing. Before the FIFA World Cup began, The Internationalist’s GenMORE+ Initiative posed a slightly different question about the world’s biggest sporting event. Not simply: Who is watching? But: Who is watching together? We wondered whether a tournament capable of bringing much […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
