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.