CMO Lessons: Brand trust, creative strategy and agency audits—ICYMI

The checklist for effective marketing leadership has grown exponentially more complex—balancing trust and efficiency, growing loyalty in an age of skepticism and ensuring transparent agency relationships. Ad Age reporters share advice on all of these topics, and more, in this special edition of Ad Age Insider, which surfaces critical insights for CMOs across recent episodes. This ICYMI roundup features Creativity Editor Tim Nudd , Reporter Erika Wheless , News Editor E.J. Schultz , Senior Reporter Brian Bonilla , Reporter Ewan Larkin and Executive Editor Judy Pollack . Together, they make the case for why the power of the idea is more important than ever in an AI-saturated market, what Gen Z brand loyalty actually requires from marketers and what questions every CMO should be asking their agency right now. Listen to each episode in its entirety: ~ What's driving marketing impact: lessons from award-winning campaigns, with Tim Nudd ~ Winning Gen Z brand loyalty—quality, service and community, with Erika Wheless ~ Decoding 2026 hype vs. reality for marketers, with E.J. Schultz and Adrianne Pasquarelli ~ How to win new business in 2026, with Brian Bonilla ~ What are media rebates? Agency transparency in the hot seat, with Ewan Larkin ~ How to win the Ad Age A-List, with Judann Pollack

You can listen to CMO Lessons: Brand trust, creative strategy and agency audits—ICYMI online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

CMO Lessons: Brand trust, creative strategy and agency audits—ICYMI is an episode from Ad Age Ad Lib by Ad Age.

This episode is 12:15 long.

This episode was published on May 22, 2026.

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