Up Next with Gabriella Mirabelli

MaryLeigh Bliss, Chief Content Officer at YPulse, has been tracking what young consumers find cool and what keeps them loyal to brands. The two things turn out to be driven by different forces, and understanding the gap between them can change how brand investment decisions should be made. Bliss brings data from YPulse's brand tracker, which covers affinity for over a thousand brands among 13-to-39-year-olds, alongside a separate brand loyalty study. The findings on loyalty, in particular, point to a shift in consumer behavior that happened fast and has a specific cause.

Rick DeLisi, Lead Research Analyst at Glia and co-author of The Effortless Experience, discusses research showing that less than 30% of organizations achieve full value from customer support AI investments. The conversation covers the "AI maturity gap" where adoption does not equal adaptation, why focusing solely on cost reduction limits AI potential, and barriers, including organizational readiness gaps and measurement challenges. DeLisi explains how high-performing organizations approach AI differently through operational changes beyond technology deployment, why low-effort experiences drive loyalty more than delight, and how contact centers can transform from cost centers into strategic growth engines.

Finola Kerrigan, professor of marketing at Birmingham Business School, spent ten years with colleagues studying James Bond fan communities online. Their findings, published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, upend a basic assumption in brand management: that loyal, vocal fans are always an asset. The research identifies a pattern called regressive nostalgia, where a subset of fans resists a brand's cultural evolution and pulls it toward an idealized past. The conversation covers how brand stewards can distinguish between constructive loyalty and regressive attachment, why listening to the loudest voices can backfire, and what the Bond franchise reveals about managing heritage brands through social change.

In this episode, Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases, explains how small businesses can access national press distribution at a fraction of standard costs through eReleases' partnerships. The conversation covers why 97% of press releases fail to generate earned media, the importance of story arc elements like use case studies, and strategic approaches, including industry surveys and contrarian viewpoints. Kennedy discusses how AI replicates unsuccessful patterns, why journalist inboxes have become chaotic from database blasting, the limited value of pay-for-play placements, and how earned media functions as social proof that improves conversion rates and reduces customer churn.

MaryLeigh Bliss, chief content officer at YPulse, breaks down new survey data on how 8-to-12-year-olds consume media. Based on a survey of 1,500 tweens in North America, the findings show YouTube operates as the dominant platform in this age group's life, preferred over streaming services by 66% of respondents. Bliss explains what Mr. Beast's formula gets right, why 70% of tweens still have weekly family movie nights, how short-form content breadcrumbs viewers into bingeable series, and what it means that 87% of tweens want diverse representation on screen.

Rachel Boucher, head of content at Event Marketer magazine, discusses how experiential marketing has evolved from tactical activations to strategic campaign hubs. The conversation covers how the pandemic accelerated planning cycles and hybrid integration, why networking ranks as the top attendee goal at B2B events, and how Gen Z drives demand for offline connection around niche digital communities. Boucher explains why content generation became the number one investment area, how nano-influencers with under 100,000 followers enable personalized messaging at scale, where AI meaningfully improves personalization, and why mobile tours remain among the most affordable and effective formats.

Henri Weijo is an associate professor of marketing at Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki. His research examines how algorithmic recommendation systems are reshaping how consumers build identity and compete for cultural status, particularly in fashion. In this episode, he walks through field research conducted across multiple countries examining how mainstream and indie consumers respond to the same algorithm in opposite ways, and what that split means for brand managers trying to grow without destroying what makes their products desirable.

Tina Dietz, founder of Twin Flames Studios, explains how audio content builds trust through intimacy and strategic development. The conversation covers why vocal variety maintains engagement while presentation-style delivery fails, how podcast saturation fears are overstated with only a couple million active shows worldwide, and the difference between podcasting as a business versus for business development. Dietz discusses why audiobooks have grown double digits for fifteen years, where AI voice cloning currently works effectively, how over 80% of audio consumption happens during multitasking, and methods for extracting business intelligence from podcast archives.

MaryLeigh Bliss, Chief Content Officer at YPulse, discusses findings from two reports: the Social Media Monitor tracking platform usage trends and a deep dive into YouTube's role in Gen Z's lives. While marketers have focused intensely on TikTok, YouTube has maintained steady relevance as a multimodal platform serving simultaneously as entertainment hub, search engine, TV replacement, and trusted information source. The conversation examines how young people navigate six platforms at once, each serving distinct purposes, and why YouTube's embedded presence since childhood creates advantages TikTok hasn't replicated. Bliss explains shopping behavior shifts, the rise of reposting over creating, and why YouTube creators command more trust than traditional public figures.

In this episode, Jason Fairchild, CEO of tvScientific, discusses how performance marketing principles are being applied to connected TV advertising. The conversation covers deterministic attribution matching household ad exposure to outcomes, supply path optimization through direct publisher relationships, and radical transparency, including log-level data access. Fairchild explains how the platform brings search and social advertisers to television, the role of incrementality testing in measuring TV impact, and targeting capabilities from demographics to neighborhood-level geography. He also addresses how large language models will disrupt search advertising and create opportunities for television to reclaim its demand creation role in the marketing funnel.

Guilherme Ramos, assistant professor of marketing at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Larissa Elmor, PhD student at FGV Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration and visiting scholar at Imperial College Business School, discuss their research published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing. Their study of nearly 8,000 consumers across three countries examines the gap between what shoppers say they value and what they actually consider when making purchases. The conversation explores why sustainability rarely comes to mind during shopping decisions and what businesses can do to bridge this attitude-behavior gap through cognitive accessibility and contextual salience.

In this episode, Dave Bernath, CEO of Wurl and former Comedy Central GM, explains the technology infrastructure behind ad-supported streaming TV. The conversation covers how FAST channels work, the relationship between content owners and platforms, and why major studios sometimes cede advertising control to distributors. Bernath discusses contextual targeting that matches emotional tone between ads and content, the gap between streaming viewership (45%) and ad spending (15%), and attribution challenges on connected TV. He also addresses YouTube's dominance on connected TVs, metadata inconsistencies in programmatic advertising, and opportunities for small and mid-sized businesses to access TV advertising at scale.

MaryLeigh Bliss from YPulse reveals how media headlines systematically misrepresent Gen Z through sensationalized claims based on viral social content rather than representative research. The conversation debunks major myths about financial expectations, workplace behavior, technology adoption, and mental health by contrasting bold headlines with actual survey data from thousands of young consumers. Bliss explains how to distinguish between micro-trends and mass behavior, why seemingly contradictory data points require nuanced interpretation, and what marketers risk by accepting oversimplified narratives. The discussion offers frameworks for evaluating claims about generational behavior and understanding the gap between media perception and reality.

Attribution has always been a challenge for marketers, and today's internet only makes it harder. Cookie banners frustrate users, bots distort signals, and brands face growing liability for the data they collect. What if there were a way to fix all of this while giving individuals true ownership of their online identities? In this episode, Gabriella Mirabelli speaks with Patrick Moynihan, co-founder and president of Tracer Labs, about Trust ID, a portable, user-owned digital identity built on blockchain technology. Trust ID enables consumers to control consent on a site-by-site basis, reduces friction in online experiences, and provides a digital wallet for secure transactions. For brands, it offers cleaner CRM data, stronger attribution, and less exposure to privacy risks. Patrick shares how the concept evolved from a referral-tracking tool into a potential new standard for digital trust, why adoption is easier than many assume, and what the future might look like if individuals—not platforms—hold the keys to their own data.

Pierre-Yann Dolbec and Andrew Smith discuss research explaining creator monetization. The conversation covers three value capture modes that determine creator monetization: advertiser mode, selling attention through partnerships, entrepreneur mode, exploiting market opportunities through product launches, and professional mode, packaging expertise for direct sale. The researchers explain why mode-spanning creators demonstrate greater resilience, how authenticity struggles stem from violating audience expectations rather than commercialization itself, and why the industry is shifting from single-mode influencers to multi-mode creators building sustainable businesses with assets driven by burnout prevention.

MaryLeigh Bliss from YPulse reveals 2026 predictions for Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and millennial behaviors. After accurately calling 2025 trends, including livestream shopping's breakthrough and local experience resurgence, Bliss forecasts surprising shifts in how social media functions, dramatic compression of cultural cycles, and the evolution of fan creativity through emerging technologies. The conversation covers unexpected entertainment format changes, authenticity concerns reshaping content consumption, and economic anxieties influencing consumer responses to brand behavior. These predictions offer strategic insights for marketers navigating rapid generational shifts in digital behavior and cultural values.

Ullie Appelbaum, brand strategist and author of The Science of Brand Associations, explains how cognitive psychology's associative network theory and neuroscience research inform brand building. The conversation covers how information is stored as connected nodes in memory, the 5-95 rule showing brand predisposition represents 70% of future sales, and the 60-40 optimal mix of brand building to performance marketing. Appelbaum discusses how cultural associations age and require modernization, methods for shifting brand associations, creating differentiation in commodity categories, and why internal stakeholder alignment on brand positioning is essential before external execution.

Siyun Chen, associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, discusses her research showing masculine brands perform better with simple ad designs while feminine brands achieve better results with complex designs. The conversation covers how visual complexity is determined by element count, detail level, and arrangement irregularity, why the effect works through subconscious conceptual fluency, and how brand gender can be manipulated through names, colors, and visual elements. Chen explains the role of holistic versus analytical thinking styles, why following design trends without considering brand fit is the biggest mistake practitioners make, and practical guidelines for determining appropriate complexity levels.

Former Uber Head of Marketing Data Science Sundar Swaminathan shares how he uncovered that Uber's massive Facebook ad spend wasn't driving real growth. He explains what companies can learn about incrementality, brand investment, and making data-driven decisions without overcomplicating the process. A must-listen for marketers navigating performance vs. brand spend.

In today's episode, MaryLeigh Bliss, Chief Content Officer at YPulse, discusses insights from their recent fashion preferences report based on a survey of 1,500 young North American consumers. She explores how the fear of seeming "cringe" leads many to avoid clothes that look "try-hard," and how comfort has become a defining aesthetic—with sweatpants now acceptable almost anywhere. The conversation also looks at how TikTok and Instagram often act less as discovery tools and more as validation loops that reinforce existing styles. Bliss explains why luxury branding struggles to resonate with generations raised on big-box retail, how thrifting is motivated more by price than sustainability, and why the renewed interest in "going-out" clothes may reflect a broader desire for in-person connection.