Author: Dereka Smith

CTV Isn’t Just a Brand Play —Here’s How to Make It Perform

You’re hearing a lot about CTV. It’s one of the fastest-growing channels in digital marketing. And not only are more advertisers starting to invest, more viewers are watching CTV content for more time every day. So why are marketers still hesitant? Part of the reason is that CTV’s optimization levers are slightly different from the […]

Boost Customer Lifetime Value with Performance Branding

As digital marketers, we often find ourselves under immense pressure to deliver immediate sales results, justify every dollar spent, and satisfy leadership with quick wins. However, these instant conversions might be quietly undermining the long-term health of our brands – and our overall marketing. Not All Shoppers Are Equal When analyzing customer lifetime value (CLTV) […]

Why Your Paid Media Strategy Is Maxed out—and What Comes Next

I was working on my laptop at a cafe the other day, eavesdropping (unapologetically) on the two baristas behind the counter. “You remember those old ads?” one of them said. “Like the ones with the jingles that got stuck in your head for days? Or the ones that were like little movies?” The other barista […]

How Smart Marketers Use AI to Elevate Creative Advertising

Ian Garcia, Playbook Media’s Director of Paid Social, has a simple approach: work smarter, not harder. When it comes to marketing and advertising, he doesn’t see AI as a creative replacement—it’s an assistant that speeds up research, generates fresh ideas, and refines messaging with precision.  Here’s how Ian blends both to develop high-performing creative across […]

Why Top Marketers Are Ditching Safe Data for Bold Ideas

In an era where marketers obsess over every decimal point in their analytics dashboards, a quiet rebellion is brewing. The pendulum of data-driven decision-making has swung too far, and industry leaders are starting to push back. When Marketing Lost Its Soul The digital advertising landscape has become a sea of sameness. According to Dr. Karen […]

Why Your Best Customers Aren’t Clicking Your Ads: The Performance Branding Secret

“We’ve been sold a lie about attribution modeling that benefits ad platforms, not advertisers.” -Bryan Karas Competitive costs in the digital marketing world are at a breaking point. With Meta’s ad costs up 30% and every brand fighting over the same pool of ready-to-buy customers, something’s got to give.  In a recent episode on the […]

Run These Incrementality Tests to Free Up Wasted Marketing Budget

  With the new year in full swing, many marketing teams sit on unused budgets from the last fiscal year. Rather than lose those funds or scramble to reallocate them, now’s the perfect time to run incrementality tests: show where your spend is working, and where it’s not, to inform optimizations for the months ahead. […]

Performance Branding: The Strategy to Reduce CAC and Boost Customer Loyalty

Picture a new sneaker brand launching in a crowded market. Instead of shouting “Buy Now,” they take a smarter approach. They release a short film of a runner training for her first marathon, collaborate with fitness influencers sharing real stories, and launch a campaign inviting people to share their “firsts” tied to stepping forward in […]