VAB Pushes Broader Guarantees Based on Households, Persons 2+

• by Wayne Friedman , January 6, 2026

TV advertising trade association the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) is recommending a shift to broader viewership guarantees, amid concerns over data stability for niche audiences, driven by declining linear TV ratings.

The VAB is guiding brands and TV networks to agree to audience guarantees based either on households or persons two years and older -- and dropping specific demographic-age guarantees such as 18-49 and 25-54.

The VAB says this guidance should go into effect immediately for current, near-term scatter market deals -- as well as the upcoming TV upfront marketplace that begins in early June and continues through the summer.

Brands begin to secure inventory through upfront advertising deals for the TV season starting in September and running though August of the following year.

“With 2026 buyers and sellers having such precision targeting insights refined so deeply on behaviors and identity that so surpass partial age/sex groupings, those aggregations seem outmoded and artificial,” says Sean Cunningham, chief executive office/president of the VAB.

Although making guarantees across wider audiences provides stability, Cunningham adds that brands can then use all the advanced targeting that comes with their first-party focused too

In addition, the VAB says, this will help evaluating with more of an apples-to-apples comparisons when brands make more cross platforms media buys.

This recommended change is occurring as linear TV networks -- broadcast and cable -- continue to lose audiences to alternative digital media channels, especially streaming platforms.

For some time now, Cunningham has been highly critical of Nielsen, pushing the measurement company to update its process to reflect new digitally focused fragmented viewing habits, especially coming from streaming, to offer more granular, transparent data for advertisers.

Late last year, he heavily criticized Nielsen's newly installed Big Data + Panel TV measurement system which started up for the TV season in September 2025 for its "deep instability" and "high variability".

WBD Rejects Paramount's Deal - Again

WBD Rejects Paramount's Deal - Again

• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Warner Bros. Discovery has again put the kibosh on Paramount Skydance's effort to buy the company.

"Paramount's latest offer remains inferior to our merger agreement with Netflix across multiple key areas," said Samuel DiPiazza, Jr., chair of the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors, in a release.

Di Piazza says there is insufficient value to WBD shareholders -- as well as lack of protection for shareholders -- if the $30-per-share-in-cash offer is not completed.

WBD reiterated that Netflix's offer of $27.75 in cash and stock for WBD’s studios and streaming business is still a superior value without any significant risks, adding that the Paramount deal contains an “extraordinary amount of debt financing” that as a leveraged buyout, would in effect encumber the company with $87 billion in gross debt.

The company also is concerned that the long period needed to complete the deal -- estimated to be 12 to 18 months -- would affect ongoing programming and sports licensing deals.

By comparison, Netflix is in a strong financial position, with a market capitalization of $400 billion.

After WBD's initial rejection of Paramount’s offer, the company added a personal guarantee from billionaire Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount chief executive David Ellison, for $40.4 billion of equity financing.

The key, says Richard Greenfield, media analyst of Lightshed Partners, is what value WBD gives to its cable TV networks, previously intended to be spun off under the name Discovery Global.

Paramount's deal includes cable TV networks, while Netflix's does not.

“It is crystal clear that the WBD Board sees tremendous value in splitting the company up as soon as possible,” writes Greenfield. “Taking the Paramount offer would force WBD to abandon its plans to split the company.”

In addition to high expected value in a spinoff, Greenfield believes other higher value could be gained for Discovery Global by just a sale to another company.

“We firmly believe Discovery Global is for sale,” he says. ”Bidders have already approached WBD as part of its strategic review process.”

He believes that Paramount “not only needs to raise its bid substantially above $30/share (one or two dollars incremental is likely irrelevant), it also needs to change the composition of its bid to absorb the billions of costs associated with abandoning the Netflix bid and shift the financing from mostly debt to mostly cash.”

 

From Inertia to Action: Marketing's AI Reckoning and the Road Ahead

• by Shoshana Winter , January 6, 2026

If 2025 had a soundtrack, it would have been a long unresolved chord, tension without release, motion without movement. On paper, it looked like a breakthrough year. AI promised acceleration, markets hinted at recovery, and brand leaders felt early sparks of momentum. But somewhere along the way, the industry sunk into quicksand.

After three decades in this business, I thought I’d seen it all: the commercial internet boom, ecommerce, mobile, social media, streaming wars. Each disruption forced adaptation—testing new channels, hiring digital-first partners, failing fast. We didn’t always swing right, but at least we swung. In 2025, that spirit stalled.

Marketers Did a Lot of Thinking and Not a Lot of Doing
As I spoke with colleagues, one word defined the year: inertia. The C-suite spent more time scenario planning than executing. AI fears, tariffs, and macro uncertainty became excuses for indecision. Budgets froze. Briefs languished. RFP timelines stretched from three months to nine. Media budgets were revised endlessly as every dollar demanded legal justification.

AI: Disruption or Distraction?
AI wasn’t catastrophic, but it was paralyzing. It became scapegoat, savior, and boogeyman. The truth? AI didn’t break marketing. It exposed deeper issues: lack of skill development, obsession with short-term savings, and vanity metrics that never reflected real impact. Clients noticed. Trust wavered. Agencies scrambled to prove value beyond dashboards.

The Great Measurement Meltdown
AI quietly rewrote the rules. Search visibility destabilized. Organic and paid channels reshuffled. Attribution—the industry’s security blanket—frayed. The scaffolding built for incremental ROI proved flimsy. Yet chaos brought clarity. Studies like the World Advertising Research Center’s “The Multiplier Effect” reminded us: User-centric storytelling matters; trust is infrastructure; brand health outlasts channel hacks. Affiliate content blurred lines, Reddit rewired influence, and neglected narratives showed fragility.

Fear is Not a Marketing Strategy
2025 felt heavy. Holding companies preached consolidation while cutting jobs. Creatives questioned their worth. Media planners wondered if platforms would erase “hands on keyboards.” Both client and agency teams reassessed careers and priorities.

The dust hasn’t settled. We don’t know what the next five years hold—but maybe this reckoning was overdue. Many admitted the year forced uncomfortable soul-searching, the kind that precedes progress.

So, was 2025 a loss? No, it was a wake-up call. Automation won’t solve an identity crisis. Measurement was humbled. Legacy models cracked. Brands rediscovered connection. If 2024 was AI hype, 2025 was the hangover: messy, revealing, necessary.

2026: The Year of AI Action
The fear fog is lifting. Marketers can’t sit still. The mandate: Make AI-driven marketing effective now. Reinvent performance marketing—balance brand and demand, measure full-funnel, prove impact. Integrate AI into that mindset. New roles will emerge to manage AI like media once was. Storytelling will democratize as AI enables premium creative for all. Pricing will shift to outcomes, not usage. Performance marketing evolves from ROI to orchestrating results across human and machine contributors. The brands that thrive will embrace complexity, leverage AI for efficiency, and double down on creativity.

 

Commentary

Answer Engine Optimization for Brands Marketing to Moms: Schema Is Essential

• by Maria Bailey , Columnist, Yesterday

If your brand sells to moms, your content is already competing in a different arena than it was even a year ago. Search is no longer just about ranking. It’s about being chosen as the answer by large language models and highlighted in AI search results.

For brands marketing to moms, answer engine optimization (AEO) is quickly becoming one of the most important levers you can control.

The brands winning right now are not just producing content. They are structuring it, so machines understand it clearly and trust it.

The most overlooked tool in that equation is schema.  Schema is structured data that tells search engines and AI systems what your content is, not just what it says. When you use schema correctly, you remove the guesswork for large language models (LLMs).

LLMs seek out credible, well-organized content for AI search responses, and schema increases the likelihood that moms searching will find you and your product.

Schema tells LLMs that content on your web pages was written by an expert and contains real questions with real answers -- content that reflects verified experience and will help someone find a solution.

Why moms changed search first

Moms have always searched differently. They don’t browse casually. They ask specific, emotional, high-stakes questions like “Is it safe?” and “What age is best for this product?”

LLMs and AI-powered search engines are designed to answer those kinds of questions exactly. That’s why mom-focused content is disproportionately surfaced in AI results -- but only if the content is structured properly. This is where most brand blogs fall short, because they lack schema.

Not all schema types are created equal. A few do the heavy lifting for brand managers running content programs:

Blog Posting or Article schema
Every educational blog post, buying guide, or brand story should use this as a foundation. It establishes legitimacy and gives AI confidence that your content is informational, not just promotional.

FAQ Page schema
This is the single most powerful schema type for mom-focused content. Moms search in questions, and AI answers in questions. FAQ schema bridges that gap cleanly. Brands that add FAQs intentionally and mark them up correctly are far more likely to be pulled into AI-generated answers.

Product schema
If your blog includes product recommendations, usage guidance, or feature explanations, product schema helps AI understand when your content is relevant to a purchase decision. Make sure to number or bullet your information so the models can easily scan your content.

Review and Rating schema
Trust matters more to moms than to almost any other audience. Reviews signal experience and for AEO, they tell AI that your content reflects real-world usage, not just brand messaging.

How To schema
This is especially valuable for brands that publish routines, setup guides, or usage steps. If your content includes steps, it should be treated as instructional content by AI, so make sure you number each step.

Person and Organization schema
These establish authority. They connect content across your site, reinforce credibility, and help AI understand who stands behind the information.

Common mistakes brands make with schema

1. Overusing schema on every element
2. Stacking multiple plugins that conflict
3. Adding review stars where no review exists
4. Ignoring FAQ schema entirely
5. Relying on default SEO settings without customizing for your brand

Brand managers should apply schema across content creator social posts, brand and product blogs, YouTube descriptions and mom blogger reviews.

When schema is paired with strong messaging and real insight into mom behavior, the impact compounds.  AEO allows brands to show up on Google when moms are searching for products, services and solutions.  Schema helps your content appear when moms search.