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Lob's _State of Direct Mail: Business Insights 2026 _is here, and the data is clear. Companies are dedicating more marketing budget to direct mail (25%) – but 87% say logistics remains a blind spot. Top-performing teams are closing that gap with tracking, automation,
A sneak peek at the data:
Trust is becoming more personal and insular, which is reshaping the creator economy and how brands build influence. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer finds that 70% of people are hesitant to trust those who differ from them, and only 32% believe the next generation will be better off. Audiences now favor smaller creators who share their values over large accounts, which shifts success from scale to alignment and community depth. This creates opportunity for niche creators and for brands that partner closely with trusted voices instead of relying on broad campaigns. The report concludes that influence now flows inward toward tight communities where relationships matter more than reach.
Generative AI is reshaping the labor market by shifting demand rather than broadly eliminating white collar jobs. After the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, US job postings for routine and automation prone roles fell 13%, while demand for analytical, technical, and creative roles grew 20%. The study reviewed nearly all US vacancies from 2019 to March 2025 and found the biggest declines in finance and technology. Researchers also saw a 7% drop in listed skills for automation-prone roles and rising demand for AI-related skills in augmentation-oriented jobs. It concludes that outcomes will depend on how each company invests in reskilling and uses AI to support human work.
Images in PR pitches rarely improve engagement and should be used selectively based on story type. Only 18.8% of pitches include inline images and just 0.1% use attachments, while open rates rise only about 1.25% when images are present. Journalist surveys show moderate interest, as 30% want multimedia and 36% want high resolution images, but most reporters say the strength of the pitch matters more. Images are most useful for product PR, expert credibility, and data visualization, while excessive or large images can hurt deliverability and increase spam risk. The best practice is to include relevant visuals when they add clear value and provide links to full assets instead of relying on heavy email embeds.
Start in Plan Mode to save credits and get early directional guidance, using AskUserQuestion to surface ideas you might not have considered. Take screenshots whenever things go wrong instead of trying to explain, as this is the fastest way to troubleshoot. Set up modular skills and provide API keys upfront for tasks like messaging, content examples, ICPs, and brand assets to streamline work. Finally, connect available extensions and plugins, which continually improve outputs by letting Claude experiment with multiple tools until one works consistently.
Opal U is offering a free 5-day live cohort for senior marketing leaders to build three AI agents that automate tasks. Participants spend one hour daily learning to prioritize workflows, engineer effective prompts, provide business context, and connect agents to real data. By the end, they demo fully functional agents and join a graduate community for ongoing support. The cohort is limited to 50 seats and begins on March 9.
Nicole Baer (CMO at Carta) and Rachel Fields (Head of Marketing at Section) will share how to rewire a marketing team's structure, habits, and tools around AI. The discussion will focus on how marketing leaders operationalize AI, not just bolt it onto surface-level tasks. The free event will take place on March 12 at 2:00 PM ET.
AEO is an early but critical growth opportunity because large language models shape buyer perception before site visits. ChatGPT queries have a median length of 11 words, versus 3.4 words on Google, which signals a shift toward natural language questions that startups should mine and answer directly. Startups should use an Inclusion Stack approach that focuses on question ownership, onsite clarity, offsite credibility, and structured content that earns citations. Measure success based on visibility, share of voice, and citation frequency instead of clicks. Companies that start now can build compounding advantages as AI systems increasingly define how categories are understood.
When marketing and creative teams blame each other for delays or shifting briefs, the root issue is often an outdated operating model. Marketing now moves continuously across channels, tools, and customer expectations, while many organisations still rely on rigid workflows built for predictability. This mismatch creates backlogs and constant urgency, forcing teams to rely on extra effort to keep up. The problem is not output but structure. By reassessing how work enters and is measured, organisations can move from constant catch up to sustainable momentum.
High-awareness legacy brands often decline not from sudden collapse but from years of incrementalism that focus on protecting presence without rebuilding relevance. The strategic options are to commit to revival with multi-year reinvestment, reframe around one priority audience to restore retail incrementality, or retire intentionally before erosion consumes capital and credibility. Not choosing a clear path drives escalating trade spend and declining leverage, while decisive positioning can reset the brand's structural trajectory.
AI will transform advertising more than any other creative industry.
LinkedIn comments are now 15X more valuable than likes.