Sumo in Chicago, a Hotline for a Neighborhood and Other Ideas That Left the Screen

Ran 212,961 NFL fan comments from Weeks 1–9 through its cultural intelligence platform ellain to rank all 32 fanbases by sentiment. The San Francisco 49ers top the list at +25.99%, while Los Angeles Chargers fans sit at −31.50%. League-wide, sentiment slid from +4.19% in Week 1 to −2.21% by Week 9.

Laid out what one second of load time costs a store, citing Portent data on 27,000+ landing pages. Ecommerce pages that loaded in one second converted at 3.05%; at four seconds that fell to 0.67%. With code freeze arriving, the window to fix it before Black Friday is about closed.

Pushed back on the idea that social search is just a Gen Z habit. Its research found 37% of shoppers 60+ have used TikTok search for beauty, and people in their 30s are the most active TikTok searchers of any age group.

The agency also picked up two Drum Awards nominations, including one for earning L’Oréal Paris 944 AI citations across five engines.

Its weekly Wire reports that 92% of HCPs use AI and 94% verify what it tells them. The same roundup covers findings on women’s experiences of having symptoms dismissed.

Found that 64% of fans have already written, drawn or built something that adds to a world they love. In its Future of Entertainment research, it calls them “Active Authors” and argues most location-based entertainment is still designed for spectators who queue, photograph and leave.

Put it plainly in an unpopular-opinion post: AI made standing out harder, not marketing easier. Nobody remembers a brand in January because it ran the most versions in December.

Brought home a similar conclusion from Advertising Week, boiled down to five trade-offs like quality over quantity and judgment over observation.

Kevin Walker argued in It’s Nice That that AI needs mascots, and only humans can make them. The more we need technology to feel human, the more human creativity matters.

Trish Nugent wrote for Destinations International about where synthetic audience research helps and where it falls short for destination marketers.

Dawn Ridge spent ANA Masters of Marketing listening to big brands talk AI and came back telling LBB that the next competitive advantage is being human.

Made the opposite case, using AI filmmaking to direct a regal dog for Artemis Royal and fine-tuning its expressions and continuity without the usual round of animal retakes. The crown is real foam.

Made a micro-drama called “SITUATIONSH!P” for A1 Telekom Austria, eight episodes about a guy named Lorenz’s complicated love life. The product’s flexibility runs through the plot rather than interrupting it, on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts.

Is going a step further with Chasing Grace, an original vertical series for Healing Hands. The agency is turning the show’s characters and world into a full 360 campaign, so the story keeps going after the credits.

Rolled out a three-part Netflix campaign, “Find the Thing You Never Knew You Needed,” with spots named Hypersleep, Axolotl and Dawn.

Paired Michael Bublé with The Elf on the Shelf for bubly Canada, a casting decision that more or less wrote its own pun. Two more spots run through the end of the year.

Asked why a neighborhood shouldn’t onboard people the way a company does. For Hudson Square, it created Grant King, a fictional Chief Neighborhood Benefits Officer with a proudly dated onboarding film and a hotline that works: 1-607-HSQ-PERK. The campaign made Ad Age’s “17 Creative Campaigns to Know About Today.” The full story is on Indie Agency News.

Separately, Six+One built “This Is Our War,” a campaign across Chicago, LA and New York made from the names of more than 10,600 people lost to gun violence. It supports the release of the Denzel Washington–produced documentary Chicago: America’s Hidden War on Prime Video.

Brought the Sumo Championship League to Chicago and turned the city into its ring, putting the sport in places where people weren’t expecting it.

Took Upward’s Chivalry Mode off the app and onto College Square in Athens, Georgia, with seven Banana Ball players holding doors, handing out roses and coaching guys on their game.

Launched the Keurig Alta System with The Boston Coffee Party, where creators ceremoniously threw outdated coffee-making methods overboard (“in a non-littery way”).

Got the handwritten letters from its First Graduate film, written by parents, siblings and mentors, onto billboards and BART stations around the Bay.

Wants you to skip the gag gift this year and give the Greatest Sh*tty Gift instead: diapers. Nearly one in two U.S. families with young children struggle to afford them.

Partner Jim Johnston talked to World IP Review about Erling Haaland’s dispute with Norwegian Air Shuttle. The airline put a digital version of the striker’s blond ponytail on the tail of a Boeing 737 under the line “We’ve never looked more Norwegian.”

Johnston’s question for real-time marketers: could that use dent Haaland’s value for a future deal with a different airline?

Drew McLellan and fractional CFO Niall Cotter dug into why so many agencies are “confidently wrong” about their finances. Cotter’s sharpest point is that a 5% margin on a $20 million agency is far more fragile than a 20% margin on a $5 million one, and one owner cut his business by 75% and came out healthier.

CEO Danielle Wiley and co-host Casey Benedict explain why a single percentage fee tells you almost nothing about what an influencer campaign takes to run. Managing 25 micro creators isn’t the same job as two celebrity contracts.

Says brands that add an agency to their in-house team too often pay twice and get less than half. It blames tired briefs, too little contrast in the team and blurred lines between buyer and seller.

Has a year-end contract warning: if your MSA was written before your team used AI on client work, it probably promises full IP ownership you can’t deliver. Sharon Toerek walks through 5 steps to reduce agency AI legal risk on December 3.

Got two clients into one story. Economists from both Glassdoor and Indeed appeared in The New York Times’ jobs report coverage, and the Glassdoor quote landed above the fold.

Is now Mizkan America’s Social and Cultural Agency of Record across RAGÚ, Bertolli, Mizkan, Holland House and Nakano.

Is the National Peanut Board’s new AOR, covering media, strategy and creative.

Won the strategic and creative assignment for Reser’s Fine Foods deli salads and side dishes.

Picked up two more mandates from Lufthansa Group and Lufthansa Airlines: email and CRM, plus creative lead on global B2B marketing.

Was named ADCC Agency of the Year for the sixth year in a row, along with 4 Gold, 40 Silver and 28 Bronze awards.

Was named Agency of the Year at The Lovie Awards, winning 5 Gold, 6 Silver, 1 Bronze and 4 People’s Lovies across seven projects, including “Sheep Happens” for PENNY and “Balls for Balls” for Borussia Dortmund.

Its “Do more. Do less. Do something.” campaign for the Denver Climate Project earned an Award of Excellence in the Communication Arts 2026 Advertising Annual. It was one of 96 entries chosen from 980 submissions, and one of only 12 integrated campaigns. The work ran from 70 headlines to a custom ice cream flavor.

Its “Check, Mate” for Voices of Alzheimer’s took Gold and Silver at the Ad Age Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards, for a film about two friends whose weekly chess games slowly start to change.

Won the Tiny but Mighty category award for Norton Healthcare at the same show.

Took Bronze for Experiential Campaign of the Year for Hartford HealthCare. It also won Bronze in Self-Promotion at The Drum’s B2B Creative Aces for a holiday vinyl record that made the case for AI.

Won Gold and Silver at the 2026 London International Awards for Grow Therapy in Health & Wellness Film Series and Original Music with Lyrics.

Won 3 Golden Drums at The Drum Awards for Pearson’s “See Yourself Bigger,” which used generative AI to let graduates speak to their younger selves.

Its QuikTrip Home Bun work won Gold at the 2026 Clios Sports Awards, arriving the same year the agency turns 50.

Won Gold at Good Design Australia in Branding and Identity for Breadcetera’s naming and branding.

Marked Veterans Day with its Tilt Original on the Donut Dollies, the women who brought comfort and morale to soldiers on the front lines in Vietnam. The Donut Dollies: 627 Women Who Also Served in Vietnam comes to public television nationwide in March.

Remembered co-founder Jim Hall, a U.S. Air Force veteran who received the Purple Heart and the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters after being wounded in Vietnam. The agency says the standard of truth-telling he set still guides its work more than 50 years later.