In today’s fast-paced and digital-first media era, focusing on community and cultural relevancy is key to brands earning their place in the media landscape.
In a conversation presented by The Weber Shandwick Collective, Karen Pugliese, its global president, sat down with Amanda Smith, chief executive officer of Fairchild Media Group, to discuss how brands can find their place among a crowded media ecosystem.
Pugliese shared at the 2025 WWD x FN x Beauty Inc Women in Power summit that her career journey started as a journalist, then transitioned into public relations. Her roles at the company since 2009 have included working in P&L, new business acquisition, chief of staff and chief growth officer. She was appointed global president last December.
Over the course of her career, Pugliese said she was fortunate to be mentored by women leaders in editing, publishing, CEOs and more. She said women are the drivers and doers of the world and they deserve to be the designers and the dreamers. Her advice for her fellow women leaders is: “Don’t just make the company run, run the company.”
You May Also Like
The Weber Shandwick Collective has utilized what it dubs “cultural choreography,” which is the intersection of earned, paid and owned media, to help brands earn their place in the cultural landscape.
“We’re no longer just talking about demographics and audiences,” Pulgiese said. “We’re talking about communities. What are their passions? What are their values? What do they care about? And the minute we can tap into that — we can have way more interesting conversations.”
Pulgiese said AI is still in its early stages. By using both human creativity and AI, Pulgiese sees that its impact will see the two come together to scale, provoke and spark conversation.
But she noted that original thoughts and understanding nuance such as humor and emotion will not change anytime soon — “creativity is what we do as humans.” She’s betting on human creativity to continue to be a driving force.
Through predictive analytics, The Weber Shandwick Collective uses AI-driven models to accelerate paid media and create lasting impact.
“What we’re able to bring through all of our data through the insights, through the analytics is an understanding of how different stakeholders are going to react to a campaign,” Pulgiese continued. “If you’re going to roll out a new campaign, you might feel like you have a tremendous understanding about how the target consumer is going to react.”
Moreover, the data models the agency uses give its clients insight into how their employees, investors, activist investors, boards and more will react. She said this allows them to predict these reactions and campaigns going into the market with accuracy.
One example of this is Kellanova’s Pop-Tarts. Pulgiese shared that the brand wanted to transition from being seen as a breakfast food to an afternoon snack and engage with Gen Z. With Pop-Tarts’ college football sponsorship, they went directly to the community to find out what mattered to them most: nostalgia and the macabre. Thus they created a Pop-Tarts mascot, which was eaten afterward.
“I knew it was a hit, not because the client said so but because all my kids and their friends were engaging with it. They were going wild and it was one of the biggest viral sensations of 2024.”
The company won the Cannes Golden Lion in the experiential category, which a PR firm had never done before. Steve Cahillane, the CEO of Kellanova, later told Pulgiese that it was one of the best marketing moves he’d ever seen. Beyond its widespread cultural impact, the brand sold 21 million more Pop-Tarts.
When looking at cultural behavioral shifts in the landscape Pulgiese is most excited about, she believes that Gen Z will be the ones to save the world.
“What I have observed is that they are adaptable, they’re entrepreneurial and they’re earnest in a way that’s endearing. They also love to create and be a part of things. And when you look at Gen Z, you say to yourself they have the smarts and the savvy to actually change the future and how businesses and brands interact. They will do good,” Pulgiese concluded.
