Finding Meaning in a Saturated Market
The MediaPost Planning & Buying Insider Summit opened with a fitting metaphor: Nashville’s neon-lit strip, where dozens of bands battle for the same passerby’s attention, feels like today’s media marketplace, with endless placements across feeds, shows, and screens (even smart fridges) competing for a finite resource — attention. In this environment, the mandate has shifted from “buy more” to “mean more.” This recap distills the Summit’s most actionable themes: AI’s immediate impact on planning and discovery, the measurement frameworks required to prove value, and the strategic choices that help brands grow amid oversupply and rising noise.
AI in Planning: From Automation to “Vibe”
The conversation on AI in planning centered on the balance between automation and human oversight, where I introduced the concept of “Vibe Planning.” Building on the idea of Vibe Coding, this approach imagines more natural language prompts generating sophisticated audience strategies, something Harmelin has already begun testing with our internal Programmatic buying team. As AI capabilities accelerate, the opportunity is clear: planners can move beyond tactical efficiencies to shaping richer, more intuitive audience frameworks. But with that opportunity comes responsibility, and the role of the planner becomes not less, but more essential. AI’s acceleration elevates the human role:
- Garbage in, garbage out. Outcomes depend on clear objectives, clean data, and market context provided by planners.
- Guardrails matter. Teams must define brand-safe constraints without over-constraining models and stifling discovery.
- Critical thinking is core. The modern planner interrogates AI outputs, understands data lineage, and connects recommendations to commercial outcomes.
The new search frontier. With consumer queries moving to generative chat, the discipline is shifting from SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), ensuring brands are accurately represented inside AI answers. One apparel case study showed how an AI audit surfaced a blind spot: appearing only as a men’s brand in answers, missing a newly launched women’s line. AEO turns such insights into immediate corrections in positioning and content.
The Measurement Mandate: Proof Across a Fragmented Ecosystem
Speed without proof doesn’t scale. The state of the art is multimodal planning, combining:
- MMM for top-down channel contribution;
- Incrementality testing (e.g., geo-tests) for causal lift; and
- Attribution for bottom-up, rapid readouts.
Regeneron’s “measurement trifecta” links granular patient-level indicators to lagging outcomes like sales, aligning fast optimization with executive-level validation.
Bridge digital to physical. Most purchases remain offline. Deterministic location data (observed store visits) connects digital impressions to real-world outcomes and avoids the uncertainty of modeled signals.
The RMN conundrum. Retail Media Networks promise unmatched proximity to purchase but suffer from fragmentation and inconsistent standards. With 200+ RMNs, marketers face:
- Operational drag consolidating results across disparate platforms,
- Apples-to-oranges measurement as vendors grade their own homework, and
- Brand-safety risk from opaque off-site buys and MFA inventory.
The takeaway: insist on transparent reporting, clean-room collaboration, and incrementality/MMM to validate true lift.
Strategy for an Oversupplied Market
Challenger focus and emotional resonance. Mitsubishi’s Outlander launch prioritized psychographics over demographics targeting “momentum makers” and audiophiles, then partnering with Black Violin to spotlight an exclusive Yamaha sound system. The product truth became a cultural story, converting niche passion into outsized attention.
Disciplined brand building. Rhone’s “stairstep” media mix methodically shifts spend from lower-funnel to upper-funnel over time, building salience without sacrificing performance efficiency. The result: sustainable growth rooted in awareness, not just last-click wins.
Brace for the 2026 political surge. A projected $10B+ midterm flood will spike CPMs (often 60–70% week-to-week in hot markets), amplify consumer fatigue, and even influence spending behaviors. Brands should pre-plan flighting, creative rotations, channel diversification, and measurement baselines now.
Conclusion — From Algorithms to Meaning
The Summit’s signal amid the noise: AI is here, but the advantage belongs to humans who guide it. Planners who set the right objectives, enforce smart guardrails, and demand multimodal proof will convert computational speed into commercial impact. In a saturated market, growth favors brands that pair disciplined measurement with emotionally resonant stories and proactive planning for external shocks. The endgame isn’t the cleverest model; it’s the team that turns AI-enabled scale into meaningful consumer connection.
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