Acquisitions can put employees on edge and dilute the culture you've created. Learn how to ease minds and preserve your values from a founder who's been there. If you're a Founder or CEO in the process of selling your company, or just thinking about your future exit strategy, you'll need to be intentional about preserving the company values that made it successful in the first place. Company culture isn't just what's in your mission statement or posted on the wall; it's how your employees would describe their work life when you're not in the room. It's in lunchtime conversations and private Slack messages and work-from-home habits. A positive culture with team cohesion and high employee engagement requires active maintenance, and a merger or acquisition can seriously threaten it if you're not careful. Independent ad agency Exverus was built by 3 founders on the values of radical candor, work-life balance, passion, and service. So when we sold to Brainlabs (a much larger, but still independent agency); aligning company values was top priority. Exverus Cofounder and Managing Partner Talia Arnold joined the AdvertisingWeek Agency Alchemy Podcast to discuss how we've maintained our people-first, flexible yet high-quality work culture post-acquisition. Q&A about company culture Let's go back to the origins of Exverus. What defined the culture and operating philosophy? Well, the name Exverus is Latin for 'from the truth', and being founded by three partners who all came from larger agencies, we had a deep feeling that things could be done more directly, more straightforward without hiding. This was back in the days before transparency was a major catchphrase in the advertising world. And the idea of starting an advertising agency all around the truth, at that time, was very novel. So, that has always been our foundational value: telling the truth in the work we do for clients, how we charge them, whether or not their results are good or bad or ugly, and how we all relate to each other. We also have this big belief in radical candor, which is something that has not been written or talked about enough. How do you walk that line of telling the truth, even when it's uncomfortable, even when people don't want to hear it, while still being respectful and solution-oriented? That has always been our goal. Acquisitions can often dilute what made an agency special to begin with. What specifically made Brainlabs feel like the right partner for that, vs. any other growth opportunity for the sake of growth? It's something that any company that is thinking about selling will really have to search their souls to evaluate, because it depends on the reason you want to sell. A big part of the reason we wanted to sell was because we felt we were constrained by our ability to grow. We wanted to keep doing what we were doing, what we still believed in, but within a larger support system. And so, when we met Brainlabs, it was very much complementary services: They are very strong on performance, data, tech. They had developed a lot of their own proprietary tech, which we were desperate to take advantage of; and at the same time, we wanted to maintain our culture, our client relationships, the trust we built, our strategic value. We're really a strategy-based agency, so being able to combine the strategic thinking with acting on many areas of our clients' business with data, technology, creative services, and so on -- it gave us the confidence that the partnership would be very symbiotic. Digiday first broke the story of our acquisition in 2025. You've emphasized commitment to people, and the culture, and the service. How do those values actually show up in the day-to-day, and how do you protect them at scale? When you start a company with three people and see it grow one by one, you see how literally every individual employee transforms a company. And the way that plays out day to day is, we're very ownership-based, meaning employees feel a sense of ownership over their projects. They can come up with new revenue opportunities, new ideas, new solutions; and there's a lot of freedom to do that - there's not a lot of red tape or bureaucracy, still. We still very much have a remote work culture where that makes sense and a lot of together time. Our annual company retreats, the way we celebrate each other's personal lives and accomplishments. And my absolute favorite thing: We still have 3x week all-hands status meetings, and every Friday, we do shout-outs where individuals send gratitude to people on the team for their contributions that week. It's the most heartwarming thing ever. There's a lot of talk right now about AI replacing people or driving efficiency through cuts. You've taken a different path by building technologies in-house. What's the philosophy behind that decision, and how has your team been impacted by it? Like I spoke about earlier, the team has a lot of accountability and ownership over the work they do. We have basically individual labs where people can digitally develop their own tools using AI, to invite others to collaborate, to say, 'Here's a process we used to do, and I've created a program that automates it or evaluates it.' So, people are really excited about the opportunity to take control of not only the work, but how it gets done. For other agency leaders perhaps considering an acquisition, what do you think is the biggest misconception about maintaining culture? What advice would you give? The day one advice is, establish relationships with people as individuals. It's like any new relationship - dating, marriage - you've got to get to know each other and understand each other's values. It's definitely a learning process for us, understanding What are the Brainlabs values? How do they like to work? How's it different, or what can we take from it? For me, it was a bit like starting a new job, or the 'first day of school' kind of feeling. But at the same time, I had my family back home, my Exverus family where everything was consistent. How do you see growth now and moving forward, say 12 months from now? We've always seen growth as the power of the combined impact between both organizations. We're really seeing the benefit of the full-funnel media approach that Exverus has always had and the deep category knowledge in CPG, entertainment, tech, health and wellness; combined with what Brainlabs has brought in B2B, travel, and tourism. With those complementary skill sets, we can now to go market with so much more experience and credibility; that's the unlock. Links to the full podcast interview on all streaming platforms are on advertisingweek.com

The #1 burger has officially moved in with the #1 baseball team. Habit Burger x LA Dodgers: Hometown heroes in fresh heaven Habit Burger & Grill has set down roots in Dodger Stadium and transformed an existing Habit location on Sunset Blvd. into "Dodgers x Habit Home Base" — a dedicated fan destination open pre- and post-game. Supporting the whole effort is an iconic DOOH media campaign placed along actual fan game-day routes — meeting people where the energy already is, not interrupting it. The eye candy is a sweeping mural by celebrated LA artist Ali Gonzalez that makes the partnership feel less like a sponsorship and more like a love letter to the city itself. Two brands that have spent decades earning deep loyalty in LA are finally sharing the same stage, right as the Dodgers come off of back-to-back championship seasons. Like many brands in 2026, Habit recognizes that consumers are hungry for in-person, communal experiences, and nothing beats a baseball game for that. It’s part of Habit’s nationwide expansion that aims to be a good neighbor in each new local community they enter. Media planning, buying, and analysis is led by Exverus by Brainlabs, with creative by OptimismBH and OOH execution by Kevani. Leading the charge at Exverus is Media Director Georgia Schreiner, a 15-year advertising pro and Ad Age Media Planner/Buyer of the Year. About Habit Restaurants, Inc. Born in sunny Southern California in 1969, Habit Burger & Grill quickly gained a devoted following for its Charburgers, cooked to order over an open flame. Since then, the menu has grown far beyond burgers, offering a fresh take on Californian-inspired flavors. Guests can choose from a meaningful selection of handcrafted sandwiches, crisp salad bowls topped with hot, chargrilled chicken, and creamy handspun shakes, all made fresh and cooked to order. Habit has earned notable recognition over the years, including its Double Char being ranked #1 twice by USA Today 10Best*, its Tempura Green Beans named the #1 side twice by USA Today 10Best, and the brand itself recognized as the #1 Fast Casual Restaurant by USA Today 10Best. Connect with Habit: Instagram, TikTok, & LinkedIn About Exverus by Brainlabs Founded in 2014, Exverus is a global, independent media agency growing brands through full-funnel media planning & buying, traditional and programmatic advertising, retail media & e-commerce, paid search, paid social, and analytics. Our data-driven media plans combine brand and performance under one scientific brain to confidently allocate every ad dollar for the maximum return. Named for the Latin phrase "from the truth", Exverus (acquired by Brainlabs in 2025) is dedicated to transparency and long-term client trust. Learn more at exverus.com. Connect with Exverus: LinkedIn, Instagram, & YouTube

Programmatic digital out-of-home media is now more precise and more measurable thanks to advances in AI-powered ad placements. Forget static billboards on a dusty highway. Out-of-home media (OOH) is impactful, innovative, and drives major business growth downstream. Now that digital OOH media can be bought programmatically, it's easier than ever to both target audiences and measure outcomes more precisely. EMARKETER projects that DOOH will account for 45.2% of total OOH ad spending by 2028, more than doubling since 2016. This growth is largely driven by AI-powered innovations that enhance targeting capabilities, measurement precision, and creative possibilities. Photo Credit: Marcus Herzberg Benefits of AI-powered digital OOH media buying The integration of AI into digital OOH advertising has created significant advantages for marketers seeking impact beyond crowded digital channels. Real-time responsive adjustments According to the OAAA's 2023 OOH Tech Showcase report, AI-powered solutions are helping advertisers deploy more relevant content by analyzing real-time data feeds and adjusting creative elements accordingly. AI algorithms can analyze environmental factors such as weather, traffic patterns, and time of day to dynamically switch out creative assets, transforming what was once a static medium into a hyperresponsive digital channel. Efficient audience targeting AI-powered bidding platforms use up-to-date information on consumer behavior, location, and environmental conditions to deliver hyper-relevant ads, ensuring the right message reaches the right audience without wasting ad spend. Improved measurement Advances in measurement have addressed one of OOH media's historical challenges. According to a 2022 study by the Digital Place Based Advertising Association (DPAA), 64% of surveyed media planners and brands cite improved measurement capabilities as a key factor in increasing their DOOH investments. What gets measured gets managed, as they say. Omnichannel media plan integration With programmatic buying platforms, AI technology easily connects digital OOH media activations with other advertising channels, making it a key component of a unified media strategy. Programmatic DOOH campaign examples We used DOOH to take over Times Square in NYC with portraits of smash TV hit The Chosen, shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz! The client saw financial contributions spike instantly. We also knocked out a Times Square DOOH activation for Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), leading to expanded awareness and pay-per-view clicks. Photo Credit: NPRP Media And check out this award-winning example of a "living wall" we created in partnership with NPRP Media and Humanaut for SUJA organic juices: Current Limitations and Future Challenges Despite impressive advances, AI-powered digital OOH still faces certain limitations. Privacy considerations represent a significant challenge as more sophisticated audience measurement techniques emerge. A 2023 report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) highlights that while 72% of advertisers want more detailed audience data from DOOH networks, only 47% believe current privacy frameworks adequately address consumer protection concerns. AI-driven OOH will require careful navigation of data ethics and consumer trust. Technical infrastructure presents another hurdle. While programmatic DOOH spending is growing, implementation costs for advanced AI systems and the uneven distribution of digital inventory limit campaign reach in certain geographic areas. Measurement standardization continues to evolve but still lacks the universal acceptance found in online channels. Brands and their media teams will need to determine case by case which marketing metrics and KPIs truly drive the business outcomes they want to see. OOH is no longer just about broad scale; it’s about precision, personalization, and performance. AI is taking it there faster than ever. Break out of that small screen, and get ready to make a big impact your audience won't forget. For more advertising news and tips, join our free, weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter.

We took over Times Square with giantThe Chosen: Last Supper portraits by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz Courtesy of NPRP Media (LOS ANGELES) FEBRUARY 21, 2025 -- Ahead of its debut in theaters nationwide on March 28, creator/executive producer Dallas Jenkins and star Jonathan Roumie were in Times Square February 13 to reveal The Chosen: Last Supper (Season 5) key art with portraits by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. Shot in cinematic format, The Chosen: Last Supper features Holy Week, the most pivotal week in history, in this special theatrical release. Exverus by Brainlabs, 5&2 Studio’s media agency of record, worked with longtime collaborator NPRP Media to bring the takeover to life. “Times Square was the perfect place to showcase The Chosen’s beautiful photography in anticipation of the theatrical release to the public." - Exverus Media Director Anna Elema “We had 12 units surrounding Times Square for one hour with several units at eye level to be captured in The Chosen's livestreams and social posts. One of the digital wraparound units (TSX) is 18,000 square feet, so it’s fair to say we made a big impression!” - Brad Magers, CEO NPRP Media Annie Leibovitz, cast, and crew in Times Square for the reveal Then, the OOH campaign extended to Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Rome, Madrid, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paolo; translated to each local language. We selected these markets for the psychographic and movie-going habits of their locals. After the Times Square takeover, financial contributions to the show spiked significantly. Organic branded searches surged to 3.8MM in April alone! The DOOH media activation worked in harmony with the campaign's digital, video, and earned media strategies to lift brand awareness by 4.6x the Entertainment category norms! And most importantly, The Chosen: Last Supper sold 6.1MM tickets, grossing $50MM in theaters and setting a new record for the brand. ABOUT EXVERUS Founded in 2014, Exverus is a global, independent media agency growing brands through full-funnel media planning & buying, traditional and programmatic advertising, retail media & e-commerce, paid search, paid social, and analytics. Our data-driven media plans combine brand and performance under one scientific brain to confidently allocate every ad dollar for the maximum return. Named for the Latin phrase "from the truth", Exverus (acquired by Brainlabs in 2025) is dedicated to transparency and long-term client trust. Learn more at exverus.com. ABOUT 5&2 STUDIOS 5&2 Studios connects people around the world to stories from the Bible through uniquely human and authentic storytelling. Founded by Dallas Jenkins following the global success of The Chosen, 5&2 has expanded into producing both scripted and unscripted series, an animated series, and an expansive library of digital content. The independent studio also manages its own distribution, marketing, studio facilities, and consumer product line. For more information, visit 5and2Studios.com.

Buying digital out-of-home media programmatically offers stronger ROI, more precise targeting, and easier measurement than ever before. Photo by Marcus Herzberg Consumers are bombarded with digital ads daily, many of them skippable, ignorable, or forgettable. That's why out-of-home (OOH) media has grown as a popular alternative method for brands looking to reach a massive audience with high-impact visuals. OOH and digital out-of-home (DOOH) media reaches audiences in real-world environments, free from the distractions and ad-blocking capabilities of digital screens, making it a highly effective advertising channel. And, unlike the old traditional billboards of yesterday, DOOH media can now be purchased programmatically, applying the advantages of programmatic advertising to scale and memorability of OOH. What is programmatic DOOH media? Programmatic digital out-of-home media (prDOOH) is optimizing the process of planning and buying out-of-home media by facilitating trades through programmatic display-side platforms (DSPs). By leveraging data-driven technology, advertisers can now purchase OOH inventory in real-time, ensuring that their ads reach the right audience at the right time. This level of precision and efficiency is a far cry from the more traditional methods of OOH planning and execution. One of the key benefits of prDOOH is its ability to integrate seamlessly with other digital channels. By combining OOH with programmatic display, social media, and search advertising, brands can build omnichannel campaigns that create a halo effect for maximum impact. Studies have shown that campaigns that allocate spending across multiple media channels are significantly more effective than those that rely on a single channel. What is an example of out-of-home media? Some examples of OOH media include billboards, bus or car wraps, bus station screens, wallscapes, sidewalk prints, or posters. OOH media also includes experiential activations like branded pop-ups, stadium signage, and cinematic advertising. Check out this award-winning example of a "living wall" we created in partnership with NPRP Media and Humanaut for SUJA organic juices: Think beyond the screen and bring your brand to life. Measuring ROI in DOOH For years, OOH advertising has been criticized for its lack of measurability. However, the advent of prDOOH has changed that. By tracking audience impressions, dwell time, and foot traffic, advertisers can now quantify the return on investment (ROI) of their OOH campaigns. We can also measure the interactive effects of DOOH with lower-funnel conversions using marketing mix modeling (MMM), marketing cloud software (MCS), and AI-powered predictive analysis tools. The integrate data capabilities of programmatic buying platforms allow brands to make more informed decisions about their media spend and optimize their OOH strategies going forward. Learn how building giant brand awareness drove major ticket sales for The Chosen in 2025. Emerging trends in programmatic DOOH As programmatic DOOH continues to evolve, we are seeing a number of exciting new trends emerge. These include: Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): DCO allows advertisers to personalize their OOH ads in real-time based on audience demographics, weather conditions, and other factors. This ensures that ads are always relevant and engaging. 3D Creative: 3D OOH ads offer a more immersive and attention-grabbing experience for consumers. Studies have shown that 3D ads can increase conversion rates by up to 40%. Sustainability: Consumers are increasingly concerned about environmental issues, and brands are responding by incorporating sustainability into their marketing strategies. prDOOH can be a sustainable advertising option, as it often involves less waste than traditional forms of OOH. In-Store Retail Media Networks: As more consumers shop in-store, retailers are leveraging their physical locations to deliver targeted advertising messages. In-store retail media networks provide brands with opportunities to reach shoppers at the point of purchase. For more media buying news and tips, subscribe to our weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter.

Media agency recognized by annual WARC Effectiveness Awards for ingenious e-commerce advertising campaign in 2024 (MAY 23, 2024) LOS ANGELES -- Exverus Media's 'Premier Nutrition: Winning Prime Day' campaign is the proud winner of a Silver WARC Effectiveness Award, presented in association with Cannes LIONS, for Best Path to Purchase North America 2024. The campaign demonstrated ingenious tactics for successfully bridging social media with e-commerce, making Premier Protein shakes one of the top-selling items on Amazon during its October 23 Prime Day event. What is a WARC Effectiveness Award? The North America WARC Effectiveness Award for Best Path to Purchase "recognises how brands have used omnichannel strategies to optimise the customer journey across the funnel. The judges reward activity that has driven businesses forward through a successful orchestration of e-commerce, social commerce, and physical channels." The campaign challenge: Amazon Prime Days are always sales-driving events, but outperforming the heavy competition there required thinking along the entire purchase path. Instead of just loading up on targeted ads on Amazon, we took a risk by meeting our target consumers where they are (largely, social media) - something extremely rare and perhaps never done before in this way. The winning strategy: On TikTok and Instagram, we served up the kind of influencer content our target enjoys to create awareness; nurtured consideration and urgency with TikTok’s timer features; and attached shoppable links from the social videos directly to the Amazon product pages with excellent deals to follow through with purchase. The future of omnichannel marketing success lies in seamlessly guiding a potential consumer from wherever they naturally gravitate toward a purchase with a single click. The results: Premier Protein Shakes were the #1 item sold on Amazon across ALL products and categories during Prime Day! This exceptional achievement garnered widespread attention in leading national press outlets like CNBC, Rolling Stone, Retail Dive, and The Messenger, among others, resulting in millions of press impressions. Total New-To-Brand Customer Revenue also soared, showing a remarkable +56% growth compared to past Prime Days - these were new customers. Additionally, Total Brand Engagements experienced a substantial +47% surge over prior Prime Days. We exceeded the results of every brand in North America by reimagining the social media and e-commerce playbook for a new age. About Exverus by Brainlabs Founded in 2014, Exverus is a global, independent media agency growing brands through full-funnel media planning & buying, traditional and programmatic advertising, retail media & e-commerce, paid search, paid social, and analytics. Our data-driven media plans combine brand and performance under one scientific brain to confidently allocate every ad dollar for the maximum return. Named for the Latin phrase "from the truth", Exverus (acquired by Brainlabs in 2025) is dedicated to transparency and long-term client trust. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

The 4-Step SAP framework developed by Exverus transforms reactive marketing to agile advantages A year ago, none of this was in your media plan: shoppable CTV, LLMs shaping purchase decisions before a search even happens, agentic commerce marketing. Now it's all part of your customer journey, ready or not. Your media performance can turn on a dime, and if your strategy can't move with it, it doesn't matter how elegant your annual plan looks in a deck. Where most teams fail on agility Agility in marketing is not about trend-hopping; in fact, quite the opposite. Most teams are failing at it in predictable ways: They plan for a funnel that no longer exists. If each impression can't simultaneously build the brand and drive action, you're too slow. They lock decisions too early, with annual plans and rigid allocations becoming a liability in a market that moves monthly. They confuse reaction with agility — cutting brand spend when budgets tighten feels decisive, but it's short-term thinking that hollows out future performance. And they can't execute when things change: creative expires, a platform underperforms, legal delays a launch. If your team goes dark for weeks when any of these happen, you don't have an agility problem; you have an operating model problem. There are better ways to visualize the complex, fractured customer journey today. Click to steal ours. The answer is situation adaptive media planning Situation adaptive media planning (SAP or SAMP) is a proactive framework for anticipating and responding to unexpected shifts like platform volatility, consumer behavior swings, sales fluctuations, or competitive spend spikes before they become crises. It runs on 4 steps: Media Playbook: Establish initial direction for how strategies and tactics flex when the unexpected hits. This is built on past learnings, industry best practices, and media mix modeling tools. Collaborative Monitoring: Keep a shared eye on signals across the ecosystem: sales trends, emerging platforms, distribution changes, competitive moves. Tailored Response: When a situation surfaces, adapt the playbook to the specific goal, KPI, and parameters at hand. No two situations are identical. Optimization & Learnings: Execute real-time budget reallocations, then capture what worked to sharpen future responses. The framework only works when the brand brings the intel — sales patterns, supply chain pressures, distribution changes, seasonality signals — and the media team brings the systems to act on it fast. Exverus by Brainlabs developed this 4-step framework for situation adaptive planning (SAP) in marketing and media strategy "The biggest challenge in SAP is effective collaboration between all involved parties: intel from the brand client, planning from the media perspective, and cooperation from creative agencies, PR departments, or other external teams." -- Tasha Day, VP of Media Planning & Strategy, Exverus Examples of agility in practice Nike didn't get lucky during COVID. When the pandemic forced a shift from physical retail to digital channels, they leaned into their existing app ecosystem — the Nike Training Club app, Run Club, and their retail app — to connect directly with consumers. Digital sales grew 75% in Q4 2020, and the brand finished the fiscal year at $5.5 billion in digital revenue, up 47% from the prior year. That's SAP in action: Recognize the shift. Adapt the approach. Leverage what you have. Measure and move. Closer to home, our partners at Kargo applied the same logic mid-campaign: when they identified performance decline from creative fatigue, they pivoted to an A/B test rather than riding out a bad result. The creative refresh boosted performance. The outcome beat the original plan. In 2026 and beyond, audience segments will reshuffle; media channels will converge; paths to purchase will shorten; and AI will optimize everything. Build your exit ramps before you need them The best defense in media planning is a good offense: Know where the budget goes if a channel stops working — before it stops working. Manage your mix the way a portfolio manager manages assets: continuously, not annually. Let MMM, incrementality data, and retail signals drive in-flight decisions, not just post-mortems. The brands thriving right now aren't reacting faster. They're not reacting at all — because they already planned for this. That's the difference between a media plan and a media system. For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter.

We found unmatched engagement and measurability with a Reddit Reminder ad campaign for sports marketing.

The Exverus by Brainlabs Media Director earned the prestigious industry title of 2026 for her work on TV show "The Chosen". MARCH 26, 2026 (LOS ANGELES) -- CampaignUS magazine has awarded Anna Elema the prestigious title of Media Planner/Buyer of the Year 2026 for her work at Exverus leading media strategy for TV's "The Chosen." The trade publication's annual Agency of the Year Awards recognize excellence in marketing, advertising, and paid media strategies for brands large and small. See all the 2026 winners here. As one of Exverus' four original employees, Anna has been loyally smashing campaign goals for over 11 years, putting together full-funnel media plans for brands as varied as "The Chosen", Stella & Chewy's pet food, MasterClass, and Premier Boxing Champions. She has served as a mentor and role model for her direct reports along the way. Anna follows in the footsteps of Exverus VP Tasha Day, who earned the same title in 2023. CampaignUS writes: As lead media planner for The Chosen, Elema's team faced an unusual challenge: bringing a streaming-native series to movie theaters for its Season 5 finale. The multi-platform campaign spanned YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix, TikTok, Snapchat AR lenses and massive out-of-home placements including a Times Square takeover. The results exceeded every benchmark. Non-viewer awareness jumped 44% to reach 72%, aided awareness hit 4.6 times entertainment category norms and video completion rates reached 98.6%. The campaign sold 6.1 million tickets and grossed $50 million at the box office, earning coverage from Variety, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and The View. Elema then turned to the show's merchandise operation, tasked with hitting $50 million in sales on 37% less media spend than the prior year. By building a media mix across video, social commerce and search that pulled double duty on brand awareness and direct sales, her strategy delivered an $11.90 return on ad spend from Amazon in the first half alone. An Exverus founding team member who has watched the agency grow from four people to over 50, Elema's path from fashion modeling in Paris to media psychology studies in the Netherlands to over a decade in LA media planning gives her a perspective most planners simply can't replicate. Click to learn more about the 2025 full-funnel media campaign Anna led that broke records for an underdog brand! Anna leads her teams with the same core values that make Exverus by Brainlabs an outstanding independent agency: truth, passion, service, and creativity. She makes every new Exverian feel welcome and included; whether in the office in Los Angeles or while working remotely from the Netherlands for a month every year. She encourages her direct-reports to take the time they need, and she embraces new ad-tech offerings with a sharp eye for client opportunity. Throughout her decade at Exverus, Anna has mastered the cosmic shifts in media buying, from the rise of retail media to in-house programmatic trading, AI search, and many more. She is known for building out creative media campaigns with fresh ideas that go beyond the basics and leverage midsized budgets for outsized impact. There’s a reason Anna’s campaigns keep winning the top industry awards – they prove that originality and technical precision are the magic ingredients for media excellence, today and tomorrow. "Anna does an amazing job at listening to our vision and needs and turning it into a world-class campaign that drives results. The Exverus team is an active partner with us, not only planning and executing the campaign, but also making real-time optimizations based on what they are seeing. They do not ‘set it and forget it’ – they are a close partner truly obsessed with our success.” - Andrew Young, Head of Global Advertising & Insights for "The Chosen" More examples of Anna Elema's effective media campaigns 'The Chosen App: Download Your Calling' wins the 2024 MediaPost OMMA for Best Mobile Marketing Campaign 'Stella & Chewy's: America's Next Top Petfluencer' wins the 2024 Adweek Media Plan of the Year Award for Best Use of Mobile Media Adweek. This Interactive Ad Format Helped Stella & Chewy's Reach Pet Parents. Nov 2023. In 2023, Anna's team built a multichannel sweepstakes to get feet in the door of neighborhood pet shops and drive sales of Stella & Chewy's pet food. Areas of Anna Elema's expertise as a media planner & buyer Full-funnel media planning: FAQs & examples for brands Hyperlocal advertising How brand lift studies illuminate marketing performance Integrated marketing communications (IMC) Ready to build a full-funnel media strategy that delivers results? At Exverus by Brainlabs, we combine strategic planning, data-driven optimization, and cross-channel expertise to help brands navigate the complexity of modern media. Let's talk!

Properly placed video media assets can serve the full funnel, even for alcoholic beverage brands facing decline. "A lot of brands are still sleeping on using YouTube as more than Video. It’s Social, it’s CTV, it’s Audio, and even Commerce.” - Lexi Semanskee, senior programmatic trader, Exverus Although YouTube has risen to become the world's largest media company in 2026, estimated $40.4 billion from advertising alone  in 2025, many brands still have yet to use YouTube and other video marketing channels to their full growth-driving potential. In April 2026, Exverus by Brainlabs Senior Programmatic Advertising Trader Lexi Semanskee, M.S. , headed to New Orleans to present her team's successful 2025 video marketing strategy that grew an anonymous beer brand despite category decline. Lexi covered: Alcoholic beverage industry challenges Campaign parameters Media innovation within brand constraints Insights tracking by channel Learnings & recommendations You already know the importance of optimizing for brand equity. But if you need hard data to convince the CFO, click to download. Alcoholic beverage industry challenges Declining demand The U.S. beer category is in a genuine structural headwind. Over the past four years, the alcohol industry has seen an estimated $830 billion drop in revenue, and the trajectory continues. Beer volumes fell -3% in 2024 , consistent with the -3% CAGR decline recorded over the full 2019–2024 period, per IWSR. The reasons are well-documented: Gen Z entering the 21+ market with reduced consumption rates, and the simultaneous rise of cannabis and non-alcoholic alternatives. Only 58% of U.S. adults reported consuming alcohol at all in 2024  — a figure not seen since 1996. Beyond the macro decline, Lexi identified the internal obstacles her team navigates on every alcohol campaign: Creative barriers Even when creatives are fully compliant with TTB federal advertising regulations  — which govern alcohol advertising across all digital platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok under Industry Circular 2024-1  — campaigns can be rejected or paused without warning. A client may want to be on a specific platform lineup, and it may simply not be available to alcohol advertisers. Scalability The audience funnel for an alcohol brand shrinks fast. You're already restricted to 21+ content, then you layer in age, demographic, geographic, and third-party audience targeting. By the time you've done it right, the addressable pool is a fraction of what a standard CPG marketer works with. Maintaining CPM efficiency at scale requires deliberate architecture from the start. Campaign parameters Before diving into tactics, a quick look at what the team was working with: Budget:  Under $10 million Channel preference:  A preferred mix of CTV partners Primary KPIs:  VCR, CPCV, CPM, CTR, VTC, Reach, Frequency, and a cross-channel brand lift study (BLS) Available creative:  Video, social display, creator content, and custom content Stretch goal:  Be first in uncharted territory — test new formats in alcohol before anyone else does With those parameters set, the team evaluated the most-talked-about trend in full-funnel video: rich media and enhanced CTV. The pitch is compelling — enhanced CTV is one of the first formats to enable genuine engagement measurement beyond view-through on connected TV. But for this client, the team said no. The reasoning is worth noting: the brand had exceptional creative built to own the full screen. Choosing an interactive or enhanced format would have compromised that creative impact — and the campaign was anchored in an awareness mandate. Good strategy sometimes means declining what's new in favor of what's right for the specific brief. Learn when and how to think about integrating Shoppable CTV ad units into your video marketing strategy. Media innovation within brand constraints Here's where the actual work gets interesting. Rather than defaulting to off-the-shelf audiences and standard placements, Lexi's team built a layered, custom-architected approach across three innovation areas. Strategic audience sourcing The team deliberately avoided pre-built Trade Desk audience segments, despite the range available. Every audience was custom-built, with a lean toward first-party-quality shopper data: Third-party purchase data  drawn from trusted shopper and receipt sources — purchase-verified audiences rather than broad interest proxies. Resonate , an AI-powered audience platform, generated audiences from real-time behavioral signals and activated them across CTV, Meta, and TikTok. Lexi described it as "a first-party, third-party audience source" — third-party data powered by first-party-grade AI modeling. Retargeting  built not from general site visitors but from video-exposed, social-exposed, and  search-exposed users — then activated on standard CTV to raise frequency in Q2 and Q3 as the campaign pivoted toward consideration. Retail media via Walmart Connect & Kroger Using both Walmart Connect and Kroger through the Trade Desk, the team unlocked something most programmatic beer campaigns don't get: direct ROAS measurement on upper-funnel tactics. The approach paired standard CTV inventory with accompanying display, targeting net-new audiences on the retail platforms. Walmart's ROAS benchmark range was $0.91–$10.33; Kroger's was $0.60–$17.00. Performance came in within those benchmarks. Audience-driven genre & content targeting → YouTube The most analytically interesting move started as a contextual CTV play and became something else entirely. The approach: take the target audience profile, run it through emerging AI tools to identify what content and genre trends they were engaging with, then use those findings to inform targeting. The contextual layer on CTV didn't work — niche CTV setups with multiple priority audience segments already stacked in don't have headroom for additional contextual filters without collapsing delivery. So, the team pivoted: they pushed the content trend insights into YouTube activations and cinema instead. A brand marketer's guide to retail media buying strategies for sustained business growth Insights & tracking by channel YouTube as a full-funnel video marketing strategy "I feel like there are a lot of brands that are still sleeping on the opportunity to utilize YouTube as more than just video," Lexi said. "It's social, it's CTV, it's audio, and it's even commerce." YouTube's practical advantages the team identified for alcohol brands specifically: Greater CPM efficiency and reach  versus standard CTV buys Multi-touchpoint exposure  across Shorts, YouTube Select, and YouTube TV — all on the largest screen in the house Lower barriers to entry for brand lift and search lift studies  — every brand lift study the team ran on YouTube showed positive lift Over 70% of all impressions served across the full campaign — awareness and consideration combined — were on CTV devices. On YouTube Select alone, that figure rose to 95%. The brand was reaching people on the biggest screen in the house, through a platform with digital targeting precision, at costs that outperformed standard TV. The brand lift study confirmed the approach: YouTube Video and CTV both drove higher favorability lift year-over-year. Overall CTV awareness lift increased with the addition of retargeting audiences in Q3. Cinema: The surprise showstopper Cinema was largely managed as a direct partnership rather than through programmatic, but the results earned their own section. Using the content trend insights from the AI analysis, the team identified select genres and releases whose audiences overlapped with the target consumer profile. A 30-second spot ran across those titles at seven test sites nationwide. An intercept study surveyed approximately 250 moviegoers: Ad recall: 75%  — on par with the NCM category norm of 76% Aided awareness: +200%  — ranked #1 in category (category average: -27.28%) Brand opinion: +46%  — ranked #1 in category (category average: -0.20%) Future consideration: +50%  — ranked #1 in category (category average: -2.32%) Cinema is a leaned-in environment with near-zero distraction. When the targeting is right — content that aligns with the brand's creative message, audiences who match the target profile — the impact is disproportionate to the spend. Stand out from cluttered digital media channels with big, creative ideas for building a brand. Learnings & recommendations for the brand Lexi's closing recommendations were honest about what worked, what was left on the table, and where the strategy grows from here. On CTV:  Lean harder into Resonate and retargeting audiences in 2026 to maximize first-party data signals and frequency. Continue prioritizing retail tactics paired with display — the combination of awareness reach and measurable ROAS is too valuable to treat as a one-year test. On YouTube:  Prioritize Select placements to maximize premium YouTube TV content and engagement metrics. Continue testing new formats — sequential messaging campaigns are a priority for the next cycle, and pause ads remain unexplored territory in the alcohol category. On Cinema:  Continue aligning with tentpole cultural moments where brand messaging fits organically. The lean-in environment remains one of the highest-impact channels per dollar when the content context is right. On the horizon:  Atmosphere (for digital out-of-home ) and GSTV (at gas station screens) are being added to the 2026 mix — extending the brand's video footprint into high-frequency, purchase-adjacent environments. The broader opportunity, in Lexi's framing: the future of video and TV is more social and engaging than ever. Go beyond awareness to give audiences the full picture. You can watch Lexi's full presentation here: For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

Exverus' Cofounder & Head of Operations was given Honorable Mention for outstanding culture-building in the 2026 IMPACT Awards. 4 Key Takeaways Workplace culture that actually works is built through sustained, deliberate systems — not one-off initiatives or performative programs. Exverus by Brainlabs maintains 80% women or POC in leadership, demonstrating that inclusion at the top is a strategic choice, not a byproduct. Responsible AI adoption means building understanding and integrating tools into real workflows — not just writing a policy and walking away. Values-driven leadership that extends beyond the office — like Jack's work with the Asian Hustle Network — is what separates culture as a talking point from culture as a practice. Good workplace culture is easy to describe. It's much harder to build — and even harder to sustain as a company grows, goes remote, and operates across a distributed team. That's exactly what makes this recognition meaningful. Jack Win , Co-founder and Head of Operations at Exverus by Brainlabs , has been named an honorable mention finalist for the 2026 Reworked IMPACT Award in the Workplace Culture Leader of the Year category. What is the ReWorked workplace culture award? Reworked is one of the leading communities for employee experience professionals, and this year's program — spanning seven categories across workplace culture, technology, employee journey innovation, and vendor excellence — recognized practitioners who didn't just design initiatives. They shipped them, measured them, and improved the experience on the other end. Jack was evaluated by a judging panel of workplace practitioners and industry specialists led by Reworked Editor-in-Chief Siobhan Fagan . The feedback they offered wasn't the kind of boilerplate praise you'd expect. It was specific, considered, and pointed at something real. Judges highlighted that Jack has built an environment where employees don't just perform — they stay. High retention and long-tenured staff aren't accidents; they're the outcome of deliberate systems : biannual retreats, a modernized 360-degree feedback process, positive incentive programs, and an open-door leadership style that makes people actually comfortable walking through it. One judge noted that Jack is a clearly "accessible" executive in a way that's become rare — someone people aren't apprehensive about approaching on a wide range of issues. That kind of psychological safety doesn't happen by default. It's designed. The panel also called out the intentionality behind Exverus's leadership composition (with 80% of leadership being women or people of color) as well as Jack's responsible approach to AI adoption. Rather than issuing rules and moving on, Jack has integrated AI education directly into workflow through tools like the internal Xavier chatbot and Brainlabs' AI media planning software Cortex. Judges found this particularly striking: most companies either over-restrict AI or ignore it entirely. Jack did neither. He built a culture where AI is understood, used responsibly, and genuinely accelerating what the team can deliver — including making enterprise-grade media planning capabilities accessible to growth-stage brands that otherwise couldn't afford them. Beyond the agency, Jack's involvement with the Asian Hustle Network — supporting AAPI creatives and entrepreneurs — was noted as an extension of the same values driving his internal culture work. This isn't a leader compartmentalizing "culture" as an HR function. It's someone for whom inclusion and community are the operating system, not a program. As one judge put it: "Nothing feels performative. It feels like steady choices over time that put people first and let the results follow." That's the Exverus way. Read the full 2026 Reworked IMPACT Award announcement here. For more media buying tips, agency news, and case studies, subscribe to our weekly   Paid Media Insights  newsletter.

Social media advertising continues to evolve as one of the most powerful tools for brand growth and customer acquisition. As we move into 2026, understanding where to allocate your social media advertising budget can mean the difference between breakthrough results and wasted spend. Key Components: Strategic platform selection  based on verified audience insights and engagement patterns Scientific creative testing  across social media channels to identify high-performing formats and messaging Regular performance analysis  to optimize social media advertising spend allocation Agile budget management  that shifts investment based on actual results rather than assumptions or trends Social media planning: A scientific approach A. Understand your audience Effective social media advertising strategy begins with understanding your audience's digital behavior. Optimizing your social media mix requires clearly mapping where your customers spend their online time and attention. For businesses without enterprise-level analytics platforms, we recommend two accessible approaches to inform social media advertising decisions: Customer research : Survey your existing customer base about their social media usage patterns, preferred platforms, and content consumption habits Platform analytics : Utilize native analytical tools within each social media platform. Meta's insights dashboard, for example, reveals engagement distribution between Instagram and Facebook audiences—providing clear direction for social media budget allocation. B. How to allocate your social media advertising budget At Exverus, we have refined a proven social media advertising rule-of-thumb through years of running campaigns for brands like Premier Protein, Theralogix supplements, and New Belgium Brewing: 60% Meta  (Facebook and Instagram) 30% TikTok 10% Reddit or emerging platforms This distribution maximizes social media advertising ROI while maintaining agility for testing new opportunities as the landscape shifts. Platform-specific strengths Meta: The ROI champion Social media advertisers industry-wide agree that Meta is the strongest performer for your paid social return on investment (ROI) . The platform's sophisticated targeting infrastructure, extensive user data, and conversion optimization tools make it the foundation of most successful social media advertising strategies. Instagram Reels beats TikTok on several key metrics, and Meta's ad capabilities are only getting stronger. Click to learn how. TikTok: A brand exploder TikTok has emerged as a social media advertising powerhouse for brand awareness campaigns. The platform offers unique ad placements that other social media advertising channels cannot match - including positioning alongside trending content, securing first-open placements, and appearing as the initial video users see upon launching the app. Although TikTok Shop was a powerful sales-driver in the holiday shopping season of 2025 for product-based brands, most brands see more success with TikTok as an awareness-builder, rather than a converter . Social media platforms are now brand discovery hubs, and search engines are now mid-funnel. Learn how to meet savvy consumers everywhere they search. Reddit: The community educator For brands with products requiring education or strong community engagement, Reddit represents an underutilized opportunity. The platform enables advertisers to integrate messaging within authentic user conversations and valuable community discussions. Reddit's keyword-based targeting is a significant advantage for social media marketing campaigns. This functionality mirrors Google Search capabilities and enables more cohesive cross-channel marketing strategies. TikTok has similarly introduced keyword targeting, further expanding strategic social media advertising options. Reddit has evolved from a niche forum into a marketing powerhouse, reshaping how consumers make decisions & how AI answers their questions. C. Measurement & Attribution Effective social media advertising requires rigorous measurement to understand what's working and where to optimize spend. Without proper tracking and analysis, even well-allocated budgets can fail to deliver maximum value. Essential Paid Social Metrics Different platforms and campaign objectives require different measurement approaches. For conversion-focused social media buying , track: Return on ad spend (ROAS) : The revenue generated for every dollar invested in social media advertising Cost per acquisition (CPA) : How much you're spending to acquire each customer through social media advertising Conversion rate : The percentage of users who take desired actions after engaging with your social media advertising ROAS and last-click metrics can be misleading because they capture a narrow slice of the journey, understating long-term brand impact. For brand awareness-building social media buying , especially on platforms like TikTok, monitor: Reach and impressions : How many unique users are seeing your social media advertising Engagement rate : Likes, comments, shares, and saves relative to impressions View-through rate : Completion rates for video-based social media advertising content Brand lift studies : Changes in brand awareness, consideration, and preference metrics Brand lift studies demonstrate the impact of your marketing on real brand growth over time. Attribution in Social Media Advertising Modern social media advertising measurement must account for complex customer journeys. Users rarely convert on first touch—they might discover your brand on TikTok, research on Reddit, and convert through an Amazon Display ad. Implement multi-touch attribution models that credit multiple social media advertising touchpoints along the conversion path. Digiday confirms that agencies large and small are using agile, new marketing mix modeling (MMM) tools to track how upper-funnel media leads to sales downstream. Platform-specific attribution windows (typically 1-day view, 7-day click for most social media advertising) provide baseline data, but cross-platform analytics tools offer more complete visibility into how your social media advertising channels work together. Predictive analytics and big-picture insights make marketing mix modeling tools invaluable to brand marketers of all industries in 2026 and beyond. Testing and Optimization Cycles Successful social media advertising programs establish regular measurement cadences: Weekly analysis : Identify trends, pause underperforming social media advertising creative, and scale winners Monthly reviews : Evaluate overall media strategy, test new platforms, and adjust budget allocation Quarterly planning : Reassess platform mix based on cumulative performance data This structured approach to social media advertising measurement ensures you're making data-informed decisions rather than relying on assumptions or outdated performance patterns. E. Case Studies & Examples Theralogix enters the Reddit chat In Q4 of 2024, our Reddit Ads brand campaign contributed to the supplement maker's +33% lift in web traffic and +634% lift in cross-network search! Click to read more below. Exverus' new Social Reach ad unit beats Meta's efficiency In 2025, Exverus partnered up with SeenThis to build a whole new ad unit called Social Reach , which splashes a brand's vertical video assets across Pubmatic's premium open web supply with zero additional production cost. Click to learn more below. Premier Protein was the first brand to test Social Reach and outperformed Meta Ads by 50% efficiency! 'The Chosen' integrates search & social to drive app downloads For TV's "The Chosen" mobile app campaign , we stitched Search and Social Media advertising initiatives together in a cohesive digital strategy that successfully drove nearly 1 million app downloads in 3 months at half the projected cost! Learn more below. To entice viewers, we teased behind-the-scenes footage, access to the stars, and app-exclusive trailers. In 2026 and beyond, the key to social media advertising success lies not in following industry trends, but in developing deep knowledge of where your specific audience engages and what creative approaches drive them to action. For further reference: Creator Marketing: FAQs for brands in 2026 Social media advertising: How it works & tips for success Link in Bio by Rachel Karten Based on insights from Inc. magazine's interview with Blake Anderson (founder, 10x) and Ryan Schuster, MBA (Director of Paid Search and Social, Exverus by Brainlabs). Original article: " How to Get the Most Out of Paid Social in 2026 " by Annabel Burba, Inc., December 23, 2025.