The U.S. political advertising season continues to gain momentum -- slowly accelerating to a total $6.1 billion through Aug. 24 -- according to the most recent estimates from political ad tracker AdImpact. This is about halfway to the estimated total spend by the media researcher for the entire political season -- $11.6 billion. The August reading is up $1.3 billion from the reading on July 16 of $4.8 billion.

Quad/Graphics, Inc., a marketing experience company that solves complex marketing challenges for its clients, has appointed Kristin “KJ” Jones and Evan Hughes as Senior Vice Presidents at Rise, a Quad agency. Building on a long-standing rapport and deep industry experience, Jones and Hughes now lead integrated teams together at Rise, focused on transforming the go-to-market approach for clients. Their work will combine their extensive agency experience with the power of Quad’s proprietary household-based data stack and omnichannel media solutions to help brands connect with target audiences through intelligent segmentation, modeling, testing and measurement. This unique data capability gives Rise and Quad a differentiated position in the market and unlocks greater value for clients. Both executives report to Joshua Lowcock, Quad President of Media. “KJ and Evan are exactly the kind of leaders Rise was built for: agile, transparent, and results-focused,” Lowcock said. “In an industry that is often opaque and unnecessarily complex, Rise delivers measurable value to clients with speed, smarts, and scruples.

Utah State University’s Outdoor Recreation Archive (ORA) currently encompasses around 3,000 outdoor catalogs from around 200 companies, ranging from a 1905 Abercrombie & Fitch catalog to a 2020 Altra Running catalog. Created as a joint effort between Utah’s State University’s Special Collections & Archives and the Outdoor Product Development and Design undergraduate program, the ORA is, in simple terms, a research collection of outdoor recreation history. And yet the seemingly niche academic project happens to fit perfectly with the ever-growing popularity of the outdoor style in contemporary fashion. 2020 saw the outdoor aesthetic boom in even greater popularity, with notable collaborations such as the Salehe Bembury x New Balance 2002 sneaker, the Greater Goods x Arc’teryx Artist Series, the Palace x Salomon XA COMP ADV sneaker taking center stage. The physical collection, initially launched back in March 2019, is currently housed at the University and a digital exhibit lives on Utah State’s library website for anyone to access. The ORA has also taken to exhibiting the archive on Instagram, launching an account in September later that year to reach a wider, non-academic audience and help grow interest around the history of the outdoor industry.