Not long ago, the advertising business was headed toward pariah status. Ad-free streaming services like Netflix were booming and ad blockers for the web were thriving. It seemed like people were ready to tune out ads completely.

“The way we know advertising today is dead,” warned Mastercard Chief Marketing Officer Raja Rajamannar during the ad industry’s annual festival in Cannes, France, in 2019. Citing ad blockers and consumers migrating to ad-free environments, he urged fellow marketers to find new ways to reach consumers. “It’s imperative that we need to have alternative ways of showing up and generating brand awareness.”