 Former Havas Media executive Michele Madaris, now Media Director of Boathouse on the agency side, believes media buying is at an inflection point. She explains why the future belongs to strategists who can unify creative intent with commercial precision.
You say media buying is at an inflection point. Why is that?
Media buying is at an inflection point because what used to drive predictable growth for the past decade have fundamentally changed. The platforms that once delivered dependable performance, like Meta and Google, are now oversaturated and more expensive, producing diminishing returns for many advertisers. At the same time, the proliferation of channels and devices has fractured audiences and disrupted the traditional linear funnel. The old model of optimizing within silos, brand on one side, performance on the other, doesn’t hold up in this environment.
Today’s marketer is being asked to do more with less, while connecting spend directly to business outcomes. That requires breaking down silos between brand building and conversion and rethinking how investment is allocated and measured across the full customer journey. The inflection point isn’t just about fragmentation, it’s about accountability, and truly understanding what is influencing the business outcome. Every dollar, whether spent on building brand equity in awareness channels or driving lower funnel conversion via acquisition channels, now needs to work together to drive growth.Â
Where will the next wave of growth come from?
The next wave of growth will come from marketers who think less about channels and more about outcomes. Growth isn’t going to be unlocked by finding the next new platform or tactic. It’s going to come from successfully integrating the ecosystem. That means using data, technology, and measurement to coordinate brand and performance efforts so they reinforce each other. Marketers who can connect brand storytelling with lower funnel precision will see more efficient and scalable results.
A cohesive approach that balances scale, trust, and intent is what drives growth. Premium video, linear, local, and CTV remains an essential growth engine because it delivers reach and emotional resonance that fuels performance downstream. When marketers understand how brand equity contributes to conversion efficiency, it changes how they invest. The next growth phase belongs to those who can effectively tie creative storytelling and targeting precision together.
How do you think the buyer/seller dynamic will shake out?
The buyer/seller dynamic is evolving rapidly because expectations are changing on both sides. Buyers are no longer satisfied with broad reach metrics or proxy measures of success. We want accountability of impact to business outcomes. Sellers who can effectively deliver truly transparent, flexible, and accountable solutions will win more share of wallet and ultimately trust of the buyer. That puts pressure on traditional media owners, particularly in TV and video, to modernize their offerings with smarter targeting, unified measurement, and more flexible buying models.
The most successful partnerships will be those built on shared accountability and insight. Buyers are bringing sharper analytics and performance expectations to the table, while sellers are investing in technology and data partnerships to prove their value.
How does marketing play into the evolving media landscape?
Marketing sits at the center of this transformation because it’s the connective tissue between creative, data, and business outcomes. As media continues to fragment, marketing’s role is to ensure that every channel, every message, and every dollar is tied to a brand and business objective. The strongest marketing organizations are those who are able to successfully understand all the levers across the marketing ecosystem and how they work to individually and collectively drive to the brand’s business outcome.Â
The old adage of “right message, right audience, right time” still applies. Marketing’s job is to systematically understand the interdependencies and be accountable and transparent to the business impact.Â
How is AI reshaping performance marketing?
AI is reshaping performance marketing not just through automation, but by fundamentally changing how consumers discover, evaluate, and decide. The rise of AI driven search and large language models (LLMs) is redefining the customer journey. Increasingly, consumers are turning to conversational AI tools, rather than traditional search engines as their first point of contact for information and recommendations. That means brand visibility is no longer about keyword ranking alone; it’s about contextual relevance within an AI curated ecosystem.
This shift has major implications for performance marketing. Marketers will need to optimize for AI discoverability ensuring their content, messaging, and data are structured in ways that these models can interpret, trust, and surface. In that world, performance is defined not just by clicks or conversions, but by how effectively a brand shows up in generative environments.
Frankly, AI is redefining performance marketing and what levers need to be activated in the performance ecosystem. Brands that are early adopters here will win long term.
