Brands are experimenting with humor, honesty, and just enough weirdness to keep us watching. From supermarket fashion on the runway to gaming with a moral twist, this week’s ads find personality in unexpected places. Clash Royale calls on gamers to ‘Join the Skeleton Army Evolution’ Uncommon Stockholm marries in-game lore and real-world stakes by recruiting William H. Macy in a Halloween campaign that links the game’s Skeleton Army to organ donation via the UK’s NHS. Why it works: Read more here

Creative veteran Julie Seal’s Diary of an Agency Founder continues peeling back the layers of Republic of Imagination, challenging assumptions about indies, creativity and the future of social. Now, a few months in, Julie’s starting to get momentum. But the business is already evolving from what she originally had in mind. September 26, 2025: We’re not what you think we are... Read more here

One message when it’s rainy, another when the sun shines, and yet another when the local team wins the league. Joy Hines of Broadsign explains the endless possibilities of DCO. Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) may be an out-of-home (OOH) buzzword, but it’s often underutilized. Though its definitions vary across contexts, DCO is essentially the practice of optimizing OOH creative for real-world contexts and environments. With it, real-time triggers – such as weather, live sports scores, and financial market performance – are often employed to deliver more personalized, engaging creative. But these only scratch the surface of what’s possible. Agencies and brands can similarly leverage other first-party data signals, such as lottery odds, contest prize winners, and commute times, to customize creative. Layering in day and time targeting on the creative itself, or tailoring the creative messaging to the actual physical location of the screens and their proximity to major attractions, can also enhance the dynamic nature of a campaign. Read more here

As personal AIs and chatbots transform search behavior, WPP’s chief AI officer, Dr Daniel Hulme, explains why marketers must now optimize for what AI “knows” – not just what people type. “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain famously wrote to a newspaper that had (rather prematurely) published his obituary. The same could be said of SEO. Read more here

As part of The Drum Awards Festival’s Social Purpose jury, Danisha Lomax is challenging brands to move beyond slogans and treat purpose as something lived, measured and built into the core of business itself. At Digitas Publicis Groupe, where she serves as chief connected community officer, Lomax has spent her career weaving together creativity, inclusion and accountability. Named to the 2024 Advertising Hall of Achievement, she’s known for work that amplifies unheard voices and for her belief that disruption can be a creative force. Her mantra “lean into the glitch” has become a shorthand for embracing imperfections that lead to real progress. She believes the growing influence of AI will raise the stakes for authenticity rather than replace it. “AI won’t change the fact that audiences reward consistency, transparency and real commitment,” she says. “What it will change is the signal-to-noise ratio. Purpose-driven communication that is truly lived out by a company will stand out even more because people will crave rare authenticity amidst a flood of optimized narratives.” Read more here

The Drum is in the process of compiling the definitive list of the World’s Best Ever Out-of-Home Ads. Here, Meanwhile’s chief creative officer and founder, Tim Jones, selects his favorite out-of-home ads of all time, which was no easy feat. Paired with a packet of prawn cocktail crisps, he invites you to pore over his picks. When The Drum asked me to pick my five favorite posters, I thought: ‘Great, I love posters, this’ll be easy.’ Then I realized that choosing my five favorite posters is like choosing my five favorite prawn cocktail crisps in any given bag of prawn cocktail crisps. Which, by the way, is really hard. Especially if, like me, you love prawn cocktail crisps almost as much as you love posters. I mean, I could pick my five favorite Volkswagen posters. My five favorite PlayStation posters. My five favorite Dave Dye posters. My five favorite Paul Belford posters. My five favorite posters from any individual year since I started poring over D&AD annuals at college *cough* 20 *cough* years *cough* ago. Maybe. Read more here

DOOH allows you to get your ads in front of as many eyes as possible. Emma Labrador at Displayce explains how to get the most from new optimization tools. For decades, ‘primetime’ has been a familiar concept to advertisers: the moment when audiences gather, attention peaks, and impact follows. Yet in digital out-of-home (DOOH), the idea of prime time is still a new and unexplored concept. Traditional DOOH planning relied on fixed schedules and average audience estimates, assuming exposure was relatively constant. But the real world doesn’t work like that. People move in rhythms, not averages. Today, data finally allows us to map those rhythms. We can identify when and where audiences actually concentrate, whether that’s an industry conference, a football final, or the opening weekend of a cultural festival. The question is no longer just where to advertise, but when the audience is truly there. Read more here

Expert anthropologists Abi Posner and Tom Maschio argue that Outdoor Boys’ down-to-earth adventures hold the blueprint for brands looking to cut through the noise. The secret is flow. What if the secret to captivating millions and igniting creativity lies in the sheer immersion and genuine connection captured by YouTube’s the Outdoor Boys? The channel became a legend thanks to Luke Nichols’ rare ability to harness the energy of family adventure, skill-building and that elusive, turbocharged hit of flow. Read more here

The Drum sits down with the gambling brand and its agency, BBH, to hear what went into its surreal new campaign, which features the English actor in a bathtub. Paddy Power has once more teamed up with its cheeky brand ambassador, Danny Dyer, and this time he’s in the role of a casino king. To spotlight its online games, the brand enlisted the English actor and ad agency BBH to create a surreal setting, described by the team as “Vegas meets the Queen Vic.” The campaign, ‘Come Out and Play,’ started because the brand felt it wasn’t as synonymous with games as it was with football and racing. “We’re historically a sports brand,” explains Leah Spears, its head of brand strategy and games. “We really wanted to bring our gaming credentials into the ether. We needed something iconic that talks games, but never loses that Paddy style, wit, charm, and humor.” Read more here

From Annie Leibovitz shoots to Manhattan makeovers, Corcoran’s Christina Panos has spent two decades proving that bold ideas – and good taste – never go out of style. We’re spending a second week in the US for 10 Questions. More specifically, we’re heading to the heart of New York, to question Christina Panos, CMO of The Corcoran Group. No one knows NYC and the East Coast like Corcoran. Founded by the legendary Barbara Corcoran, it’s now one of the US’s most iconic real estate firms, and the number one in Manhattan. I lost a day lusting after apartments in the Flatiron Building, Central Park and the Hamptons (they also cover homes beyond the US – there’s a lovely one on the market in London that I’m only $8.7m away from buying). Read more here

Creative veteran Julie Seal’s Diary of an Agency Founder continues peeling back the layers of Republic of Imagination, challenging assumptions about indies, creativity and the future of social. Now, a few months in, Julie’s starting to get momentum. But the business is already evolving from what she originally had in mind. September 26, 2025: We’re not what you think we are... Read more here

Fluency’s Andy MacLeay calls on marketers to embrace operational change – building bridges between walled gardens and the open web, and putting AI to work to scale new channels faster, smarter and with more clarity. “Being able to be the bridge between the walled gardens and the open web, that’s really important,” says Andy MacLeay, VP of engagement and channels at Fluency, speaking with The Drum as part of our Media that Moves video series at Advertising Week New York. It set the tone for a conversation focused on operational clarity in a rapidly changing digital landscape. As media moves faster than ever, marketers face a growing challenge: fragmented ecosystems, each playing by their own rules. Read more here

Beyond “instant checkout,” the retail giant’s new partnership with the ChatGPT owner hints at a reordering of who controls data, trust and the moment of purchase itself. When Walmart announced that customers would soon be able to buy directly through ChatGPT, it sounded like a logical step in the company’s long march toward digital dominance. A single tap, one conversation and the order is on its way. But behind that clean interface sits a deeper purpose – one that could quietly reshape the balance of power between retailers, platforms and consumers. Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive, calls it a generational leap: “There is a native AI experience coming that is multimedia, personalized and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with [AI shopping assistant] Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI.” Translation: the world’s largest retailer wants to live inside the next interface people use to decide what to buy. Read more here

One message when it’s rainy, another when the sun shines, and yet another when the local team wins the league. Joy Hines of Broadsign explains the endless possibilities of DCO. Dynamic creative optimization (DCO) may be an out-of-home (OOH) buzzword, but it’s often underutilized. Though its definitions vary across contexts, DCO is essentially the practice of optimizing OOH creative for real-world contexts and environments. With it, real-time triggers – such as weather, live sports scores, and financial market performance – are often employed to deliver more personalized, engaging creative. But these only scratch the surface of what’s possible. Agencies and brands can similarly leverage other first-party data signals, such as lottery odds, contest prize winners, and commute times, to customize creative. Layering in day and time targeting on the creative itself, or tailoring the creative messaging to the actual physical location of the screens and their proximity to major attractions, can also enhance the dynamic nature of a campaign. Read more here

As personal AIs and chatbots transform search behavior, WPP’s chief AI officer, Dr Daniel Hulme, explains why marketers must now optimize for what AI “knows” – not just what people type. “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain famously wrote to a newspaper that had (rather prematurely) published his obituary. The same could be said of SEO. Read more here

Rokt’s Ashley Firmstone explains why the next wave of e-commerce growth won’t be won by the loudest ads, but by those that earn trust, add value and drive real performance. “Most people assume that advertising needs to feel disruptive to gain attention,” says Ashley Firmstone, senior vice-president at Rokt, who was in conversation with The Drum at Advertising Week New York as part of our Media that Moves video series. That’s a big misconception that Rokt sets out to change, as the focus turns to how e-commerce advertising is being reimagined around consumer expectations, not as an interrupter but an enhancer. Read more here

Surreal scenarios, sequins, sass and scene-stealing cameos take center stage in the brand’s casino dreamland from ad agency BBH. The Queen Vic meets Las Vegas in Paddy Power’s latest spot with its ambassador, Danny Dyer. ‘Come Out and Play’ aims to spotlight the brand’s online games to a wide-ranging audience. In the hero spot, viewers see Dyer acting as the ultimate casino guide. The actor leads a bizarre tour of madness, highlighting the unique mix of characters that populate the Paddy Power world, from ‘Cashed-Up Boomers’ to ‘Comeback Kings,’ ‘Finance Bros’ and ‘Pilates Princesses’. Read more here

Founders Kelsey Cross and Erin Toerner share how the ChatGPT developer tapped their lean global network to help land campaigns with cultural nuance – and what it says about the future of creativity in an AI-driven world. It seems that reports of the demise of human creativity, in this AI world, have been greatly exaggerated. The evidence? OpenAI – the company at generative AI ground zero – is hiring a human agency to make sure its campaigns land in the real world. That agency is Tower 28, a distributed network led by co-founders Kelsey Cross and Erin Toerner. The irony isn’t lost on them. “It’s quite something,” Toerner tells me. “It touts world-class translation and it still relies on us for translation and cultural nuance.” Cross smiles at the contradiction, but insists it’s the point: “AI can accelerate the work. It can’t replace taste.” Tower 28 was born, fittingly, on a lifeguard stand in Santa Monica – Tower 28 – where Cross and Toerner first plotted a networked alternative to the holding company sprawl they’d both lived through. Read more here

The checkout is marketing’s fiercest battleground where joy, trust and revenue collide and fleeting clicks can be turned into lasting value, say leaders from Rokt and Tails.com in a lively quiz show at The Drum Live. “Irrelevance, maybe 10 years ago, was neutral. It’s now damaging: consumers’ expectations have risen… so that moment when you’re given an irrelevant offer at the checkout has become the online equivalent of a shop assistant getting in your way,” says Marc Allsop, head of EMEA at Rokt. And the numbers back it up: 62% of shoppers say they’ll abandon their cart altogether if faced with an irrelevant offer. Read more here

OOH is an incredibly dynamic medium. Georgia Hamp at Grand Visual (part of Talon) explains how the element of surprise can help to elevate campaigns. As a creative strategist in OOH, I spend a lot of time thinking about how brands show up in the real world. In a world where we’re constantly glued to screens, doomscrolling, binge-watching, and multitasking, there’s something refreshing about a message you walk past on your way to work, spot from a bus window, or see towering over a street corner. We’re bombarded with ads on our phones, TVs, and laptops every day. There has also been a lot of talk at industry events this year about how people feel that ads on their phones are invasive. And let’s be honest, most of us have learned to tune them out. That’s why the brands that actually cut through aren’t just the loud ones, they’re the clever ones. The ones that make us look twice, laugh, feel something, or better yet, pull out our phones to share the moment. Read more here

With digital reaching saturation, Bradley Keefer of Keen Decision Systems says OOH is the most underfunded growth channel. With some strong numbers to prove it. Marketers today are under more pressure than ever to prove that every dollar works harder. For years, digital and social channels seemed to deliver just that: fast reach, precision targeting, and measurable returns. But after decades of heavy investment, those channels are showing signs of fatigue and saturation. Incremental spend is delivering diminishing returns, and efficiency gains are harder to come by. Marketers are reaching a tipping point where pouring more dollars into digital isn’t the answer. Where should marketers turn to? The answer is an often-overlooked channel that is sitting in plain sight: out-of-home (OOH). Read more here

Research from McKinsey describes a “readiness gap,” with users flocking to AI search and brands lagging behind. A report out of consulting giant McKinsey describes just how much AI ground has already taken on its path to being the “new front door to the internet.” 50% of us have already used AI-powered search tools, including ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, the research finds. Read more here

As part of The Drum Awards Festival’s Digital Experience jury, Jeremie Moritz brings a global marketer’s perspective on how technology and creativity can combine to make brands not just efficient, but emotionally resonant. With over 20 years in digital strategy, eCommerce and integrated marketing, Jeremie Moritz has helped shape how some of the world’s most iconic spirits brands connect with consumers. As global head of integrated marketing at Campari Group, he oversees transformation initiatives across more than 50 brands and 25 markets, blending innovation with the storytelling spirit that defines the company’s heritage. Moritz sees AI as fundamentally changing how brands design digital experiences. “AI is moving us from reactive to predictive,” he says. “Instead of waiting for customers to tell us what they want, we can anticipate needs and serve up content, offers or experiences at the right time in the right context. It’s not just about personalisation at scale, it’s about creating relevance that feels intuitive. Done well, it makes the experience feel less like marketing and more like a service.” Read more here

The Drum is in the process of compiling the definitive list of the World’s Best Ever Out-of-Home Ads. Here, Meanwhile’s chief creative officer and founder, Tim Jones, selects his favorite out-of-home ads of all time, which was no easy feat. Paired with a packet of prawn cocktail crisps, he invites you to pore over his picks. When The Drum asked me to pick my five favorite posters, I thought: ‘Great, I love posters, this’ll be easy.’ Then I realized that choosing my five favorite posters is like choosing my five favorite prawn cocktail crisps in any given bag of prawn cocktail crisps. Which, by the way, is really hard. Especially if, like me, you love prawn cocktail crisps almost as much as you love posters. I mean, I could pick my five favorite Volkswagen posters. My five favorite PlayStation posters. My five favorite Dave Dye posters. My five favorite Paul Belford posters. My five favorite posters from any individual year since I started poring over D&AD annuals at college *cough* 20 *cough* years *cough* ago. Maybe. Read more here

Comparison charts help us make choices – but it isn’t always the correct choice, warns Rory Sutherland. For the most part, marketers are not qualified to comment on possible miscarriages of justice in the trial of Lucy Letby. Few of us have any qualifications in neonatology, and I doubt many of us have read the transcript of the trial. However, there is one area where many of us might be called on to act as expert witnesses in any future retrial: to testify on the uses and abuses of the comparison chart. Read more here