• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 27, 2022

2022 proved to be another year full of challenges and potential opportunities for Adland if the top stories in MAD’s “Mediapsssst” column are any indication.

Big account reviews are perennial crowd favorites, like this year’s Federal Express and Mondelez pitches.

Stories focusing on new trends like the metaverse, and retail media also pulled large numbers of readers like GroupM’s September forecast for the latter, predicting that retail media will the fastest growing digital ad channel over the next five years.

Another widely read story: In January of this year the column reported on a provocative prediction by The Brandtech Group CEO David Jones that the hardware driving the metaverse era would be glasses not phones.

An August story about the shuttering of Palisades Media Group, a fixture on the West Coast media agency scene for decades reflected concern in industry circles about the future of small and mid-sized media shops and concerns about the economy—concerns that are still being debated today.

Stories about company reorganizations attract a following and one of the biggest of the year was Dentsu’s sweeping transition to a unified management team that brought together Dentsu International and Dentsu’s Japan operations.

Politics also proved to be a reader draw. A story last February reported on a new ad from the Lincoln project chronicling Trump’s loosening grip on the Republican party.  Since then of course Trump has announced he’s seeking the party’s nomination for a 2024 presidential run, although the current odds (according to vegasinsider.com) favor Ron DeSantis.