Kelly Scott Madison

Thanks to iHeartMedia Chicago for hosting the 2025 iHeartMedia Chicago Broadcast Summit earlier this week! We had a great time connecting with the iHeart team and exploring the theme of relevance in today's audio landscape. Increasingly, consumers look to trusted voices in radio and podcasts, and smart brands are leveraging this space to cut through the noise.

Chicago Agency Softball is back. We had a thrilling start to the 2025 season with one win and one loss—though both games were close! Good times and lots of laughs had by all, and we're looking forward to the rest of the season.

We had a great time at the Chicago Conference last week, and heard from some innovative marketers who are really delivering results for their brands.

Across case studies and conversations, three themes emerged:
1. Human-centered marketing is everything. This true for all verticals, including B2B brands.

2. Advertising is about “pull” as much as it is “push.” A great quote from one session: "It is NOT about connecting with your consumer. It IS about your consumer wanting to connect with you."

3. Media is more human and personable than ever. “Personas” will only get a brand so far—developing insights and media plans around real people is key to engagement.

The upfronts are right around the corner, and Sy Chaba has two things on his mind when it comes to live sports:

1. multi-platform deals with analytics that actually help advertisers understand the impact of their investments
2. hyper-local opportunities with Regional Sports Networks

Read more predictions from Sy and other media buyers and sellers in the latest from Ad Age, and thank you to Ad Age for including us!

7 live sports predictions for the TV upfronts Media buyers and sellers track the top trends in live sports impacting this year's upfront deals, as well as the rising sports properties to watch.