The robots are coming for media planners, or so claimed a recent column here. As CEO of an independent media agency, I can assure you the obituary for human-led media planning is premature.

Consumers have no gripe with marketing, especially not with ads. Consumers like ads. What they dislike is clutter.

"In small stores, shoppers revisit aisles multiple times and so encounter the same ads and messages multiple times, creating a higher frequency of exposure. That builds memories through aggregate attention, which drives memory-based outcomes such as awareness, consideration and intent," explains Lumen's Mike Follett.

What types of media content do people share peer-to-peer with their closest inner circles? Snap puts a spotlight on that in a new study released this morning.

SUBJECT LINE: Adalytics Study -- "That release fell like a dud," a PR pro mused, referring to news about Big Tech enabling brands to show up next to child porn.

Brands and politics are a bad match. Politicians win with one more vote, so divide-and-conquer is a good strategy. Brands only win by selling to everybody.

CINCINNATI -- Retail media is hot. The ANA just held a members-only conference focused on retail media, hosted by Kroger Precision Marketing in Cincinnati.  We learned so much. Growth is dynamic. Retail media ad spending in the U.S. will be about $60 billion in 2025 and will grow to $100 billion by 2028 (per eMarketer). Retail media spend now rivals that of traditional TV. Think about that. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), it took paid search 30 years to reach $30 million in net advertising revenue and social media 11 years. Meanwhile, retail media accomplished that …

That seems to be what industry economist and former big agency insider Brian Wieser is suggesting in a new report being released this morning.