We deliver the intelligence briefing marketers actually need: why short form video is eating 82% of internet traffic (and getting 2.5X more engagement), how Coca-Cola is doubling down on controversial AI holiday ads despite last year's backlash, and why live sports remain the last mass audience standing in our microsegmented world.

But here's where it gets good: Saucony's brilliant pivot from performance worship to emotional connection (46% brand search increase, 41% revenue jump), while we also unpack nudge theory—the behavioral economics hack behind Netflix's autoplay and that fake fly in the urinal that actually works.

No fluff. No corporate word salad. Just two veterans who've survived enough marketing disasters to know what's real and what's complete nonsense. In under 10 minutes, you'll walk away with insights you can use Monday morning—plus at least one laugh about being a fly in a urinal.

This is marketing intelligence that respects your brain cells.

🔗 **Join The Marketing, Machines & Mischief Community**

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Marketing, Machines & Mischief is produced by Chris Stone at https://CastAhead.net

If you're tired of wading through hour-long marketing podcasts that treat every social post like a Nobel Prize achievement, this episode cuts straight to what actually matters.

Matthew & Chris dissect WPP's new AI self-service platform (yes, the company that started as Wire and Plastic Products), Dommmino's smart rebrand strategy when sales are up not down, and why major brands like Dove and Heineken are publicly rejecting AI in their creative.

Plus: Target doubles down on Hot Santa with a full cinematic universe, and Ukraine's elite military brigades are running recruitment campaigns that would make Madison Avenue jealous.

Two marketing veterans who've seen it all—from payola wheelbarrows to AI-generated Christmas ads—deliver sharp insights, zero fluff, and at least one good laugh in under 10 minutes.

Tune in now for the weekly marketing intelligence briefing that respects your time and doesn't insult your brain.

🔗 **Join The Marketing, Machines & Mischief Community**

✅ Official: https://MarketingMachinesMischief.com

✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewnewell/

✅ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketingmachinesmischief

Marketing, Machines & Mischief is produced by Chris Stone at https://CastAhead.net

If you're wondering where $248 billion in digital ad spending is actually going this year (and why tariffs are messing with those projections), Matthew and Chris have the breakdown that cuts through the industry's latest "transparency" charade.

This week: the Media Ratings Council wakes from its periodic stupor to demand openness in an 80% closed-loop ad ecosystem dominated by Google and Meta (Matthew's betting $1,000 nothing changes), California just legislated the end of ear-splitting streaming ads, and Anthropic pulled off something most AI companies are too scared to attempt - they took their chatbot Claude offline and into a West Village popup that drew 5,000 actual humans.

Plus, Matthew celebrates Jardiance's bewildering commitment to producing six different Broadway-caliber musical commercials for an A1C drug (because when you're printing money, why not hire dancers and a real Broadway star?), and the duo breaks down why marketers need to stop pretending they're in sales.

Matthew and Chris don't regurgitate press releases - they dissect where the money flows, why most "industry wake-up calls" are performative theater, and which brands actually understand taste versus budget. Two decades of battle scars. Zero patience for BS. Just the curated intelligence that makes you sharper in under 15 minutes.

Hit play. Know more. Get back to work.

🔗 **Join The Marketing, Machines & Mischief Community**

✅ Official: https://MarketingMachinesMischief.com

✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewnewell/

✅ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketingmachinesmischief

Marketing, Machines & Mischief is produced by Chris Stone at https://CastAhead.net