LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- American Family Insurance VP-Marketing Lisa Bacus recently spoke with Ad Age about lessons learned from her entertainment programs, the importance of bringing all her agency partners together for quarterly creative meetings and why branding should always prevail over tactics. […]

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Newspapers' resistance to pay-per-inquiry advertising may be beginning to crack a little for an industry beset by recession, digital competition and other changes. […]

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Quick: Name one highly creative advertiser. Bet your first choice wasn't Kraft. The food giant is making strides toward updating the look and tone of its advertising while keeping it as accessible as possible for consumers. […]

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler ought to send Toyota a thank-you card. Toyota's recall is boosting the quality reputation of its domestic rivals in the eyes of consumers. […]

If you're a certain sort of still-employed media person, you're probably wondering how much longer you can hold on to your job. But the larger question might be: Just how unreal -- illusory, delusional, unmoored from the realities of the marketplace -- has your job been all along? […]

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- According to Edelman's latest Trust Barometer, the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008. […]

The single biggest challenge marketers face in the next 10 years is attention scarcity. Bank on it. […]

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Even as major marketers once again threaten to pull back on TV spending -- a new survey indicates they will allocate only 41% of their budgets to the medium this year -- the TV networks are gearing up for an "upfront" ad-sales market they expect will be more robust than in the recent past. […]

Without a visual hammer, an advertising campaign is almost certain to fail. […]

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After last week's shuttering of the highly regarded, 4-year-old boutique agency Toy, Ad Age queried small-agency leaders across the industry to see how they're tackling the times. […]