Media buyers look to next year’s budgets as this year’s volatility leaves a lingering sting

It’s difficult to contextualize how marketers are strategizing for next year as this year’s books close without acknowledging these unprecedented times — or these emotionally charged times — or whatever “brand safe” language PR teams are pushing to say that the news cycle and unstable tariff policies have deeply affected media buying.

Tim Ringel, global CEO of Meet the People, a collective of agencies, called out the issue on stage at Digiday’s Media Buying Summit in Phoenix last week, conceding that it was a year of “tariffs and all the beautiful things the world has thrown at us.”

“A single person — not to name names — can post something on their own social network and the stock market plummets,” Ringel said. “And a day later, that changes again. How do you operate in an environment like this as a brand? You have to be really careful.

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Sora 2 copyright calculations highlight new role for agencies as risk whisperers

OpenAI’s launch of Sora 2, its video generation tool and would-be social network for the slop age, was the latest attempt by the generative AI developer to expand the copyright Overton Window.

Sora 2 initially shipped with an “opt-out” policy for IP rightsholders. If an artist or advertiser didn’t want their work to be used in the tool’s model, they would need to get in touch. It wasn’t a popular move. “Early returns from rightsholders have suggested that they are not opting in,” said Glenn Pudelka, a copyright and privacy attorney at Troutman Pepper Locke, told Digiday.

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Within days, OpenAI founder Sam Altman rolled back the policy in a blog post following criticism from publishers, movie studios and artists — shifting to an opt-in approach.

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