The 37 | A Podcast for Marketing and Media People

At one point, $78 million was riding on a single game on Kalshi, and Chris put a small bet on it himself.

Chris Pyne and Jayde Chiaravalle open with the news. Meta's revenue is up 26% year over year while ad impressions grew 10%, Omnicom lands Coca-Cola's North American media business, 47% of US digital shoppers haven't used a retail AI chatbot, Walmart opens up to AI agents, and Salesforce agrees to buy Braze for about $5.66 billion. The main topic is prediction markets. They cover how Kalshi and Polymarket make money, why the ad spend that used to come from sports betting brands now comes from them, and how creator culture reaches young audiences. They finish with what marketers should do about it: be distinctive, not disruptive, and build brands that adapt to culture.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro

00:58 Meta's Q3 results: revenue up 26%, ad impressions up 10%

03:47 Coca-Cola goes to Omnicom

04:42 Forrester's agency forecast

06:41 47% of shoppers haven't used a retail AI chatbot

08:51 Walmart opens up to AI agents

10:47 Salesforce, Braze and the "SaaSpocalypse"

13:17 Main topic: betting on everything

13:51 What prediction markets are

16:26 Where the sports betting ad money went

17:49 Chris's Kalshi bet and the $78 million game

20:38 Parlays and how the platforms profit

21:51 Creator culture and the Miami Corolla

23:33 Casino logic: the top 1% take the winnings

25:33 Insider trading concerns

27:14 Who do you trust now?

29:53 What influencers cost

32:03 Pay your dues versus easy money

33:44 Quick-fix products and TikTok Shop

37:49 Lovemarks and brand loyalty

40:43 Be distinctive, not disruptive

44:07 The Atlantic survey: operations beat creative

45:17 Culturally adaptive brands

48:19 DCO explained

53:56 Sign-off

Topics covered:

Meta Q3 2026 results (Meta investor relations): https://investor.atmeta.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2026/Meta-Reports-Third-Quarter-2026-Results/default.aspx

Coca-Cola's media business goes to Omnicom (Digiday): https://digiday.com/media-buying/omnicom-lands-coca-colas-north-american-media-business/

Forrester's agency forecast (MediaPost): https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/418896/forrester-predicts-indie-agency-sector-will-shrink.html?edition=144249

Walmart and Amazon on AI agents (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/while-amazon-blocks-ai-agents-walmart-rolls-out-the-welcome-mat/

Salesforce to acquire Braze (Salesforce): https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2026/10/20/salesforce-signs-definitive-agreement-to-acquire-braze/

The Atlantic marketing survey: https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/contentful-2026/

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they're still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don't miss next week.

A political campaign’s digital ads meant for Portland, Maine ran in Portland, Oregon for four days. About $25,000 of spend was gone before anyone noticed.

Chris Pyne and Jayde Chiaravalle open with the news. Ferrero commits more than $50 million, including Super Bowl ads for Kinder Bueno and Nutella. Google adds about 400 news publishers to AI Overviews. Meta takes away placement controls. They also cover Dunkin’s unhinged social account, the new Tesla Roadster and the deposits behind it, and a chatbot that turned out to be one person typing. The main topic is email: the phrases that sound polite and mean the opposite, including “with all due respect,” “per my last email,” “let’s take this offline” and “just checking in,” and which ones to stop using.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:36 Super Bowl 61 and Ferrero’s Kinder Bueno spot
01:47 Ferrero moves into sports marketing
02:46 Google adds about 400 news publishers to AI Overviews
08:07 Meta removes placement controls
10:27 Meta and the first impression of the day
12:35 Nielsen’s portable people meter and 24 markets
15:51 A campaign’s ads run in the wrong Portland
19:10 Robitussin’s award-winning campaign
20:58 Dunkin’s unhinged social account
23:52 The Tesla Roadster: real or vapor?
27:07 ChatTJB: the AI chatbot that was a person typing
29:25 Main topic: With all due respect
30:22 How email length changes with seniority
32:25 The passive-aggressive phrases we all use
33:06 “With all due respect”
33:34 “Per my last email”
35:14 “Let’s take this offline” and “CC”
36:34 “Friendly reminder” and “As you no doubt are aware”
39:58 “Please see attached” and the reply-all heroes
43:07 “Just checking in” and why it weakens your position
45:13 Sign-off

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

Fortune reported that Meta allegedly used 60 trillion tokens in 30 days. At a blended $3.60 per million tokens, Chris puts that at about $221 million.

Chris Pyne and Jayde Chiaravalle start with the news: the cost of AI tokens, the leaderboard of “Token Legends” at some companies, Coca-Cola’s media review, Amazon merging its DSP with sponsored ads, and Super Bowl 61 selling out. Then the main topic: consumer confidence is at record lows, yet people keep spending. They read the numbers, talk through shrinkflation and the push to private label, and land on three things brands can fix.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:29 Mighty Mike’s dad and a $100,000 Google Ads bill
01:40 Tokens are real money
02:13 Meta’s 60 trillion tokens
03:18 The token leaderboard
05:06 Token maxing and the $1,500 cap
07:18 Coca-Cola’s media review
08:47 Amazon merges its DSP and sponsored ads
11:49 Super Bowl 61 on Valentine’s Day
16:22 Holiday ad fire sales
18:51 Main topic: can brands fix consumer confidence?
21:13 Skint but still spending
23:06 The Omnisend survey
24:01 Fix one: explain the price
26:04 Shrinkflation
28:14 Private label and the race to the bottom
31:40 Why premium brands win
34:34 The three fixes
36:16 Coke and Pepsi
37:52 What gives us confidence
39:50 Sign-off

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

A TikTok panel promised a 50% time savings based on two advertiser accounts. Then it announced a new ad network with one billion users and said almost nothing else about it.

Chris Pyne talks with Kayla Stass, Jr. Partner, Social / Performance at Junction 37, about what Advertising Week actually delivered. Kayla says most sessions felt like intro marketing seminars, the crowd was mostly agency people, students and creators, and AI and tech salespeople cornered her between sessions. They ask who is buying those pitches, why vague claims get a pass, and whether she’d go next year. Kayla also shares the one session that taught her something and the one she liked most.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:05 Chris’s welcome and Kayla’s intro
00:54 How was Advertising Week?
02:29 Who was actually there?
04:14 The AI and tech salespeople
05:02 Who is buying these pitches?
06:31 What Kayla learned: group creative by the problem it solves
10:01 The hype: a vague TikTok ads network announcement
13:28 When did we stop asking questions?
14:55 Chris’s theory: how one quote moves a whole industry
16:06 Would you go next year?
17:36 The session she loved: live social commerce
19:42 How does a regulated brand go live?
22:09 Sign-off

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

A multi-step campaign build dropped from 40 hours to 10 with an agentic workflow. It was one of the few hard numbers at Advertising Week, and Jordan Broihier says only about 15% of the sessions were great.

Chris Pyne talks with Jordan, Marketing Engineer at Junction 37, about what he took away. They cover why AI tools that look essential today may be built into the platforms next year, whether faster work means better work, and what hyper-personalized ads inside chatbots could mean for consumers. They also ask how much was vendor pitch, where the robots, the Teletubbies and a DeLorean fit in, and the three things Jordan is bringing back to the team.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:38 Jordan’s role at Junction 37
00:57 How was Advertising Week?
02:02 Sherlocking: when a platform absorbs your tool
02:40 Don’t build what you can download
05:13 Should you wait for the next model?
07:10 Is any of this tangible? 40 hours down to 10
07:54 Faster work or better work?
10:26 What was actually new: hyper-contextual ads in LLMs
12:12 Personalization’s track record and what changes
13:32 The skeptic’s view: slop emails and chatbot brand moments
16:03 The vendors, and where the value was
17:03 The pie chart: great, meh and okay
18:52 The weird stuff: robots, Teletubbies, a DeLorean
20:02 Any snake oil?
21:02 Three things Jordan is taking back to work

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

A panel at Advertising Week showed a campaign with three times its expected add-to-cart rate, higher household penetration and higher ROAS. It won on strategy. Nobody explained why it worked.

Jayde Chiaravalle sits down with Adrienne Mireau, Partner, Strategy at Junction 37, who went to seven to ten sessions on creators and came back with a question. Brands and creators both say creators need more freedom, so why isn’t it happening? Adrienne explains why attention isn’t enough anymore and fandom is, what the Bose CMO said about fixing performance before rebuilding the brand, why the Teletubbies stuck with her, and why the same shopper wants different things on Tuesday at 8 a.m. and Friday at 9 p.m. They close on which brands will break through.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Adrienne’s role at Junction 37
01:43 Creators and brands both say give creators the reins
03:55 Attention isn’t enough anymore. Fandom is.
06:05 The panel that won on strategy and never said why
07:55 The Bose CMO: shore up performance, then build the brand
10:16 Teletubbies and the shiny object problem
11:19 Luck isn’t a strategy
13:20 Same shopper, different intent: Tuesday 8 a.m. vs Friday 9 p.m.
14:15 AI is a shiny tactic. What actually helps brands win?
15:56 Who breaks through?

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

Conversions will double. Cost per click will drop 25%. Those are the claims from platform-run beta tests, and Joe has a name for them: controlled experiments designed to make the platform look good.

Jayde Chiaravalle sits down with Joe Mefford, Senior Partner, Performance at Junction 37, fresh from Advertising Week in New York. They ask whether an AI agent can plan your kid’s birthday party (Jayde would let it get three quarters of the way), what guardrails to set before you hand an agent your budget, and why brand versus retail is turning into brand through retail. Joe explains why he thinks the platforms win when they take the controls. Plus the session that named an agency by dropping a vowel from a random word, and ads on robots, twenty years later.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:39 Joe’s role: retail media at Junction 37
01:18 Advertising Week: the good, the bad and the ugly
02:57 Amazon Unboxed, Prime Days and Walmart Deal Days
03:23 Would you let an AI agent do your grocery shopping?
06:39 AI agents for marketers: handing over the budget
07:34 What guardrails do you set before you hit spend?
09:26 The sessions that hit the mark, and the ones that didn’t
11:11 Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper and “brand through retail”
12:31 Amazon wants the controls: DVA+ and the full funnel
15:22 Who wins when platforms run the budget?
18:09 The ugly: platform beta tests and AI that won’t say why
20:03 Ads on robots: everything old is new again
21:50 Was it a successful Advertising Week?
22:57 Walmart’s moves: Vizio, Vibe.co and The Trade Desk

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Chiaravalle, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

CPM means cost per thousand. Reach isn’t impressions. Demand Gen isn’t Lead Gen. And a bibliography at the end of your POV tells the client exactly who wrote it.

Dwight Schrute has a decision-making test: would an idiot do that? If so, don’t do that thing. Chris and Jayde run the media industry through it. The terms people throw around without knowing them, the “insights” that are just a reading of the weather, and the AI-generated decks, emails and question lists that are quietly costing agencies their accounts.

Plus: Advertising Week in New York, where they sent four employees to find out what’s real. Omnicom discovers that people avoid ads, then announces a fix that’s twenty-year-old technology with fresh paint. And Acxiom hosts a webinar on tracing results back to who you targeted, in 2026.

In this episode:
00:05 Intro
00:31 Advertising Week: long lines, no clients, and four employees sent to investigate
01:26 Omnicom says 65% of consumers avoid ads, then partners with Rembrand
02:51 Mirriad renamed: two-decade-old tech, reskinned for 2026
03:19 Acxiom’s webinar on things we’ve done for years
05:39 Main topic: the Dwight Schrute test
06:33 The creator who thinks CPM means cost per million
08:23 SEO, SEM, AEO, GEO and GAIA are five different things
10:25 Reach is not impressions
11:29 Demand Gen is not Lead Gen
12:30 An insight is not a reading of the weather
14:04 The detergent story: asking why five times
15:03 Why “best practice” is generic advice for someone else’s budget
16:02 eMarketer: 61% use AI for media buying, 86% for creative
17:02 You can spot an AI deck a mile off
18:33 Show your work
19:27 “I’m training it to sound like me.” No, you aren’t
19:59 How to use AI without outsourcing your judgement
22:05 The bibliography tell
22:35 AI-written emails to a client you’ve had for years
24:09 Getting AI-generated questions back about your own deck
25:46 Remove critical thinking and you’ll get fired

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Levesque, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

$10,000 for access to senior leadership. $26,000 to use your own sales data. It’s JBP season, the asks are up 20 to 100%, and almost none of it is media.

A nine-year-old runs $118,000 through his dad’s company card on YouTube ads and gets a better CPV than most media plans. LiveRamp and OpenAI build the first real measurement layer for ChatGPT. Tubi passes Apple TV. Then Chris and Jayde get into retail media: why 89% of incremental dollars go to Amazon and Walmart, what the closed-loop ROAS isn’t telling you, and what you stop looking at when the shiny object is working.

In this episode:
00:00 Intro
00:23 A nine-year-old spends $118,000 on YouTube ads
05:26 Dad loses his job, then threatens to sue the critics
08:07 You don’t have a media problem, you have a controls problem
09:38 LiveRamp, OpenAI, and measuring a zero-click environment
13:27 Forrester: big media growth engines hit their limit
14:14 Tubi passes Apple TV as FAST channels accelerate
20:13 We cut the cord and ended up back where we started
21:19 The IAB says 43% of CTV buyers don’t trust what they’re buying
23:59 Main topic: 51 retail media networks and counting
25:39 JBP season and the 20-100% ask
31:44 $10,000 for access to senior leadership
32:22 Paying to use your own data
36:00 What retail media makes you stop looking at
37:48 Closed-loop ROAS vs what the MMM actually says
40:19 What do you ask for next year?
43:19 Three actions to take into planning

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Levesque, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they’re still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don’t miss next week.

Open the kimono. Double-click into that. Can I get a copy of the deck? We rank the call phrases we can't stand, and the one that costs clients.

Cox Media Group's "Active Listening" pitch turns out to be resold email lists, ad fraud is forecast to pass $100 billion, and Google starts adding AI-generated creative to campaigns without asking. Then Chris and Jayde get to the big one: why "I'll get back to you" damages client relationships, and the simple in-meeting habit that fixes it.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro

00:22 Is your phone listening? The "Active Listening" story

02:13 Programmatic's growth and a $100 billion fraud problem

04:46 Google adds AI creative to your campaigns without asking

08:07 Main topic: The call phrases we can't stand

11:04 Growth hacking and "creative velocity"

12:08 Meetings that should have been an email

12:52 How to spot AI-written content

15:39 Why "I'll get back to you" costs agencies clients

17:52 The one habit that fixes it

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Levesque, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they're still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don't miss next week.

Tech cut about 1.6% of its workforce this year. Advertising and media cut about 4%. Everyone blames AI, so this week we look at offshoring instead.

Holding companies, publishers and newsrooms keep cutting. Chris and Jayde set AI aside to look at offshoring, nearshoring and the "follow the sun" model: what it saves on paper, what it costs the teams who wake up to clean up the mistakes, and what it tells people about how their work is valued.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro

00:24 Coca-Cola's CMO wants a new kind of agency

02:16 Holding company layoffs and the one exception

03:41 Publisher cuts: BuzzFeed, the Washington Post newsroom and more

05:40 A newscast with no anchor

08:08 Ad and media layoffs vs. tech, by the numbers

09:12 Main topic: Offshoring, nearshoring and "follow the sun"

11:59 Waking up to an offshore team's mistakes

13:21 What offshoring tells the people doing the work

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Levesque, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they're still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don't miss next week.

One hour of scrolling brought 120 pitches promising free clients, AI agencies that replace your team, and blind funding offers. We're not buying it.

Influencers on LinkedIn and TikTok are bragging about firing their agencies and marketing teams for AI agents that work for free. Chris and Jayde ask where the proof is, why automation keeps mistaking a few stray clicks for a 300% lift, and who trains the next generation if junior and middle-management roles disappear.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro

00:24 Omnicom-IPG layoffs and the Pepsi loss

01:24 ChatGPT cites Reddit less. Where are AI engines looking now?

03:07 Another round of brand ad controversies

04:35 Main topic: Fire your marketing team

05:52 One hour, 120 pitches: the inbox experiment

09:05 The "I fired my whole team" posts

12:03 When automation calls a statistical blip a win

12:36 Everyone has the same AI tools. What happens to originality?

14:08 Who trains the juniors?

15:31 Critical thinking, QA, and where in-platform jobs are headed

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris Pyne, founder and CEO of Junction 37, and Jayde Levesque, Chief Client Officer, have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they're still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don't miss next week.

General Mills cut prices and lost volume. Conagra held prices and lost more. Kraft Heinz spent more on marketing. Guess which one is turning around?

Marketing is almost always the first line item cut, and the damage doesn't show up for a year or more. Chris and Jayde dig into why CFOs and CEOs ignore what their marketing mix models tell them, the year-end budget cut trap, and how one brand facing a 7% volume decline invested instead and finished up 10%.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro

00:36 Amazon ads inside ChatGPT, and Amazon DSP vs. The Trade Desk

04:16 Will AI really manage only 27% of US ad spend by 2030?

05:55 Main topic: Running from the truth

06:08 General Mills, Conagra and Kraft Heinz: three CPG playbooks

08:17 Private label, GLP-1s and the race to the bottom

11:09 Marketing's share of revenue hits a multi-year low

13:05 Why the C-suite ignores the mix model

15:55 The year-end budget cut trap

17:06 How one brand turned a 7% decline into a 10% gain

The 37 is a show for media and marketing people where we remove the real from the rhetoric. Hosts Chris and Jayde have 50+ years in the business between them. Unlike most, they're still in the weeds doing the work every day.

Questions or topics you want us to cover? Leave a comment or email chris.pyne@junction37.com. Follow the show so you don't miss next week.