ADWEEK

Having the ultimate good neighbor rate how you say State Farm's iconic tag line IS a lot of pressure!! At Brandweek, we had Jake from State Farm rank folks reciting the tagline that everyone knows and loves. It's safe to say everyone is welcome in Jake's neighborhood ❤️

As AI-generated content reshapes the internet, brands are increasingly finding themselves at the center of viral moments they never planned. In this keynote at Brandweek, Newell Brands' Jimmy Jia, shared how the brand transformed an AI-generated viral moment into a marketing opportunity—revealing what every marketer should consider when the internet starts telling your brand's story before you do. Attendees explored how marketers can evaluate unexpected AI-driven attention, balance authenticity with brand stewardship, and decide when joining the conversation creates more value than staying silent.

Scent may be the most powerful—and most underutilized—brand-building tool available. Backed by neuroscience and accelerated by AI, it's becoming accessible to brands of every size for the first time. At Brandweek, this session brought Osmo's Alex Wiltschko, Red Antler's Emily Heyward, and ADWEEK's Brittaney Kiefer demonstrated how AI can create a custom brand scent in real time. A process that has traditionally taken two to three years will unfold live on stage in just minutes. As attendees experienced the scent samples firsthand, they gained a deeper understanding of the science behind scent and left with practical ideas for incorporating this often-overlooked sensory asset into their own brand strategy.

Social media is in constant evolution, but human nature hasn't changed in millions of years. Every behavior we associate with these platforms: the obsession with faces, desire for connection and the need to feel seen - was present in primates millions of years before us. And rather than inventing these behaviors, social platforms simply gave our oldest human desires a powerful digital amplifier. At Brandweek, Viral Nation’s Nicholas Spiro explored the evolutionary biology behind the way we connect, compete, and communicate. Featured Conversation with Viral Nation

Kim Gravel knows what it takes to build a businessand a career filled with purpose. From founder of LWYA and Belle by Kim Gravel to author to reality TV star and QVC leader, Kim has become the ultimate multihyphenate. At Brandweek, she shared her advice for anyone looking to pursue multiple passions and build a career on their own terms. ✨

Companies often use buzzwords like “pivot” or “reset” to signal change, but author and creative executive Michael Ventura argues for a different approach. Speaking at Brandweek, he promoted “constellation thinking,” the idea that brand purpose and values aren’t one-size-fits-all but a shifting set of interconnected elements—inner self, outer self, and everything in between—that evolve over time, a concept he explores further in his upcoming 2027 book Constellation Thinking.

At Brandweek, Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know hosts Ben Bowlin, Noel Brown, and Matt Frederick, fresh off more than 2,000 episodes and a spot in the U.S. top 100 podcasts, joined iHeartMedia CEO Conal Byrne to reflect on what’s fueled the show’s longevity: staying open to “no bad ideas,” treating listeners as collaborators who actively shape episodes, and balancing hard performance metrics with softer gut-checks like whether the conversation still feels fun and worth doing again tomorrow.

AI can generate a campaign in seconds. But without a clear view of the customer, how smart can its decisions really be? In this provocative session at Brandweek, Cox Automotive Inc.'s Callie Cogley and Treasure AI's Rafa F. alongside ADWEEK's Ryan Joe put AI to the test, showing what happens when it works with fragmented customer data versus a connected view of identity, behavior, consent, and context.

This week's AI, Tech, and Money tackles Dreamforce, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, who took to the stage to debate a more consequential question: Does AI development need to slow down? Read more 👇

The New York Times celebrated its 175th anniversary on September 18, and part of the commemoration included a look back at the advertisers that have supported the paper over the years, including Tiffany & Co., Ford Motor Company, Kraft Heinz, IBM, Delta Air Lines, E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley, and L'Oréal. The ads were selected for their cultural relevance, iconic status, and the advertisers’ long relationships with the paper, according to Tusar Barik, senior vice president of marketing at New York Times Advertising. None of the featured brands paid to be included. Read more on the campaign 👉 https://lnkd.in/euZtFVsJ