Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there—“there” being the Netflix show Running Point.

On Monday, the insurance company announced a collaboration with the streamer, which includes a co-branded ad featuring characters from Running Point, the basketball-centric comedy starring Kate Hudson. As part of the deal, Jake from State Farm is set to appear as a character in Season 2 of the show.

State Farm has inserted Jake in fictional worlds before, but only in ad form, and having him show up in an actual television show is a first, according to State Farm Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin.

“We like to create conditions over time that allow us to take advantage of lightning in the bottle, should it present itself, and this is one of those moments,” she said. “Jake from State Farm is a character unlike any other that moves in the world, really—that can show up to support a Caitlin Clark in the stands, who can dap up Travis Scott in real life, who can walk around Coachella, who will be in the stands with Mama Kelce at an NFL game. It’s like he is real.”

While getting Jake cast in a show is a new move for State Farm, the effort is indicative of the company’s broader approach to brand marketing, which Griffin said revolves around using assets like Jake to get involved with major sports and entertainment moments to drive reach, engagement, and buzz.

Continue reading here.—AM

It’s been more than 10 years since The Trade Desk was named to Forbes’s list of America’s Most Promising Companies. This year, despite industry-wide challenges and a belief among some in the industry of a widespread contraction of the open web, the largest independent demand-side platform in the world is looking to keep that promise alive.

Amid a crowded DSP landscape and slowing growth in the programmatic ad-tech space, questions about the company’s future viability are unavoidable, and investors have taken a critical eye to the company’s value proposition as rival DSPs Google DV360 and Amazon DSP continue to grow. More recently, both Omnicom and Publicis have undertaken agency audits to review The Trade Desk’s fee structures, according to reports.

But The Trade Desk is forging ahead. Jeff Green, the company’s founder and CEO, recently said he bought about $150 million of The Trade Desk stock to signal his confidence in the company. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the company posted about 19% YoY revenue growth (excluding political ad spend), on par with the 18% YoY revenue growth it reported in Q3 2025 and 19% YoY revenue growth in Q2 2025. The company attributed the revenue growth to product innovations, including upgrades to its AI-based ad platform Kokai.

This year, the ad-tech company is focusing on strengthening its relationships with advertisers by building more direct relationships with brands and catering to performance-obsessed CMOs looking for more robust measurement. But it will also do so under new leadership: Last Tuesday, Ian Colley, The Trade Desk’s CMO and EVP, and two other executives announced that they were leaving the company as part of a broader “changing of the guard” at the top of the company. VP of Marketing Anna Sayre, who has been at The Trade Desk for seven years, will take over for Colley as interim CMO.

Read more here.—JS

Syd’s back, tell a friend.

This morning, American Eagle unveiled its newest Sydney Sweeney campaign, continuing a top-dollar partnership from last summer that led to much conversation, controversy, and, ultimately, big results for the clothing brand.

CMO Craig Brommers told us the first round of Sweeney ads was the “most successful campaign in the history of [American Eagle],” and comparable sales for the brand in its third and fourth quarters were up slightly, offsetting slight declines in the first two quarters of the 2025 fiscal year.

Now, the brand is betting it can run it back.

The latest campaign, “Syd for Short: American Eagle Jean Shorts,” spotlights Sweeney with a shortened name—and haircut—against a beachy backdrop to promote the brand’s shorts offerings, with a subtle nod to the virality of the past campaign.

“What brand am I wearing?” Sweeney asks in the campaign hero video. “Yeah,” she says, “that one,” before laughing.

Absent from this year’s more subdued Sweeney campaign is any reference to “genes” or genetics, which caused controversy last year. Brommers said while the brand is “informed of the past,” this campaign is all about a fresh, down-to-earth reintroduction of its spokesperson.

Continue reading here.—KH

On April 23, hear how brands are rethinking primetime in a world where attention rarely sits still. This session will dig into connecting CTV, social, and search into one cohesive strategy—and how to measure what’s actually moving the needle.

Wishing you were at Coachella this year? Yeah, that’s what most brands are counting on. In this week’s episode, we talk billboards, Bieber, and the brand moves that keep Coachella relevant, year after year.

Some brands are using generative AI to parody generative AI itself. Many campaigns from brands are tapping into consumer fatigue with “AI slop” while still embracing the tech. Here’s why the strategy can work—and where it risks backlash.