JOE MANDESE
Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.
- U.S. Ad Market Reaccelerates Despite Tough Year Ago Comps in
MediaDailyNews on
11/03/2025
Following months of deceleration, the U.S. ad market posted a nearly 4% expansion in September, according to just refreshed data from Guideline's U.S. Ad Market Tracker. Combined with upwardly revised
estimates for August ad market gains, the U.S. ad market has turned in two consecutive months of gains, despite tough comps with Olympics and elections spending a year earlier.
- The President's Party Is Dead, Long Live The King's in
Red, White & Blog on
11/03/2025
I don't publish Red, White & Blogs like this because I want to change the country. I publish them so the country doesn't change me.
- Forget About The Bots, Here's How Humans Decide in
Planning & Buying Insider on
10/31/2025
That's actually the title of a new, comprehensive communications planning study released by WPP Media, which reinforces half a century of comparable studies -- at least until agents are the ones
making the decisions.
- 3.know: A Conversation With AI Agency TheBrief's Tammy Nam in
Media 3.0 on
10/30/2025
Amid a swirl of new "end-to-end" AI agency launches, I sat down with the CEO of one of them -- TheBrief.ai's Tammy Nam -- to get the skinny on their business model, how they differentiate from
traditional ad agencies, and how they will continue to evolve in an increasingly agentic era.
- The Divided States Of America: Pragmatists Vs. Experientialists in
Red, White & Blog on
10/31/2025
Politics aside - or implied - that's how new research from "everything-in-between" agency Bailey Lauerman divvies America up with implications for brands, as well as voting.
- It's Moron Again In America in
Red, White & Blog on
10/24/2025
Or, as the 40th President of the United States might have said to the 47th: "There you go again."
- ANA Cross-Measurement Platform Aquila Taps Samba For Streaming Data in
MediaDailyNews on
10/22/2025
The deal follows one with Comscore for linear TV data and Kantar to manage a calibration panel that is at the heart of Aquila's audience reach deduplication system.
- Amid A Changing Of The Ad Forecast Guards, A New Player Steps In in
MediaDailyNews on
10/22/2025
On the cusp of its merger with Omnicom, Interpublic is not releasing a third-quarter ad forecast for the first time in years, raising questions about its future. Interpublic has published industry
forecasts since 1948. Omnicom never has.
- Saying The Suddenly Quiet Part Out Loud in
Red, White & Blog on
10/21/2025
The elephant-in-the-room moment at an industry ethics summit last week happened when someone asked about something not on the agenda: Dark DEI.
- Have You Ever Heard Of 'My Terms?' You Will in
Media 3.0 on
10/22/2025
It's the nickname for a new technical standard that promises to revolutionize consumer marketing by putting consumers - or their agents - in charge of the process. Think C2B, not B2C.
- It's Moron Again In America
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
10/24/2025)
@Andrew Susman: I'm proud to say I broke the story that the Tuesday Team had created "There's A Bear In The Woods" spot, and got to interview Hal Riney after it broke. If he were updating it today, it would probably be more like, "There's an unbearable in the woods..."
- It's Moron Again In America
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
10/24/2025)
@Joshua Chasin: Tough to beat the NY Post. Thrilled to be a runner-up.
- ANA Cross-Measurement Platform Aquila Taps Samba For Streaming Data
by
Joe Mandese
(MediaDailyNews on
10/22/2025)
@Ed Papazian: Oh you were talking about Aquila's calibration panel, not the Samba TV data that will be used to measure the reach/deduplication of the streaming component of its cross-media measurement platform. To be clear, the calibration panel is just a small panel Big Data-plus measurement services are using to calibrate their massive Big Data sources. It's the same model being used by Nielsen and other Big Data-plus panel services. In Nielsen's case, the calibration panel is bigger -- about 42,000 homes/100,000 individuals, but it's not the same as a conventional audience measurement panel. It's just their to tune the massive Big Data sources that go into the hybrid service. I have no idea whether Aquila's 5,000 household calibration panel should be deemed small, but it's not intended to be used as currency-grade measurement for media-buying. It's intended so marketers can understand their audience reach, deduplicate audiences, minimize excessive frequency and inform their marketing mix models. Maybe another reader can weigh in on whether a 5,000 household calibration panel is small to do that? I'm just a journalist.
- ANA Cross-Measurement Platform Aquila Taps Samba For Streaming Data
by
Joe Mandese
(MediaDailyNews on
10/22/2025)
@Ed Papazian: Small sample? I just did a cursory search and found that Samba TV collects data from about 28 million TV devices in the U.S. and 46 million globally and that its weighted research panel is more than 3 million households.What's your definition of a small sample?
- Saying The Suddenly Quiet Part Out Loud
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
10/21/2025)
@Anna McAlister: Thank you for confirming. Updated now.
- Synthesizing Human Experience
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
10/13/2025)
@Joshua Chasin: I can't wait until the MRC releases standards for filtering invalid human traffic.
- Red, Purple & Blue: The History Of American Media Political Bias
by
Joe Mandese
(Red, White & Blog on
10/10/2025)
@Leo Kivijarv: Thank you. I will check it out.
- State-Level Ad Spend Predicts Economic Downturn
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
10/02/2025)
@Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Rude? Your inference, not what I was implying. I was merely setting the record straight on a false assertion. I don't know where you are drawing it from, but what you are asserting is NOT how Guideline does it. I suggested you contact them to find out for yourself, because you appear to be misinformed. If you make false statements we only have two options to deal with them. One is what I'm doing here: fact-checking and setting the record straight. The other is deleting your false comment. Which would you prefer going forward? I don't want to upset you, but I don't want other MediaPost readers to be misinformed either. You are welcome to share your opinions here, but you can't state false facts.
- State-Level Ad Spend Predicts Economic Downturn
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
10/02/2025)
@Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Classic supposition. But you're wrong. Guideline's data comes right out of MediaOcean's data pack of invoice-level media buys made by the world's biggest ad agencies -- $100 billion+ actual spending -- including digital (including local, etc.). If you really want to know how they tabulate data you should contact them. They'd be happy to explain.https://www.guideline.ai/contact
- State-Level Ad Spend Predicts Economic Downturn
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
10/02/2025)
@ Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Literally what Guideline is doing.