Most brands are sitting on a goldmine of customer intelligence and don't even know it. I'm talking about location data—the physical places your customers visit, when they visit them, how often they return, and what patterns emerge from their real-world behavior. Not hypothetical personas or demographic assumptions. Actual behavioral data that reveals how people move through the world and make purchase decisions. After 20 years in media strategy and planning, I can tell you th

For decades, brands have treated product sampling as a scrappy little tactic. A table at a trade show. A packet stapled to a magazine. A bin of mini shampoos at a hotel checkout. Cute. Memorable. But not exactly a strategy. That thinking is officially outdated. In 2026, sampling is one of the most powerful, measurable, and scalable media investments a brand can make — and the brands who recognize that first are building advantages their competitors won't be able to catch up

The CPG industry is booming — but 85% of new brands don't make it past year two. Here's what the data tells us about why emerging brands succeed or fail, and what it takes to break through. The CPG industry is one of the most exciting — and most unforgiving — places to launch a brand right now. The global CPG market is currently valued at approximately $2.3 trillion, growing at a rate exceeding 4% annually, and is projected to reach somewhere between $2.8 and $3.4 trillion by