In this episode of Screen & Sponsor, Olivia speak's with Sheila Holman, head of marketing at the U.S. Postal Service, and Brendan Gaul, president of Traverse32, about the revival of the classic USPS character Mr. Zip in a new animated children’s series.

Sheila explains why now was the right time to reintroduce Mr. Zip and how USPS is reaching preschool audiences on YouTube through a partnership with Moonbug Entertainment, the studio behind Blippi and Cocomelon. Brendan shares how the project fits into USPS’s broader branded entertainment strategy—including the Dear Santa franchise—and why narrative storytelling can sometimes drive deeper engagement than traditional ads.

• How Mr. Zip was reinvented for today’s audiences with new sidekicks B. Franklin and Farley
• Why USPS sees branded entertainment as a complement to traditional advertising
• The role of measurement and KPIs in long-form brand storytelling
• How USPS plans to expand Mr. Zip into books, licensing, and other revenue streams
• Why consistency in children’s programming matters, and what shows like Bluey and Scooby-Doo can teach marketers

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In this episode of Screen & Sponsor, Olivia Morley speaks with Ramon Soto, SVP and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Northwell Health, about how the health system is leveraging film, TV, and long-form storytelling to reimagine healthcare marketing.

Soto shares how Northwell built a branded entertainment studio inside a sprawling healthcare system, how the team navigates patient privacy and regulatory risk, and why emotionally resonant, journalistic storytelling is often more powerful than traditional advertising. He also reflects on past partnerships with HBO and Netflix—and what it taught him about the primacy of distribution.

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Have a story to pitch or want to collaborate? Email Olivia at olivia@fusionfrontmedia.com.

In this episode of Screen & Sponsor, Olivia Morley and Jessie Holder sit down with John Partilla, CEO of Screenvision Media, and Erik Dochtermann, CEO of MODCo Media, to examine the role of cinema in modern advertising—and whether the movie theater might be one of the last places to truly capture attention at scale.

John and Erik discuss how cinema advertising fits into broader media plans, what makes the format uniquely immersive, and how brands are using long-form creative in the theatrical pre-show. They also weigh in on shifting budget priorities, the limits of performance metrics in upper-funnel media, and the tension between nostalgia and measurement in today’s media mix.

Highlights from the conversation include:

• How attention metrics are reshaping interest in cinema advertising
• The challenge of balancing scale, narrative, and measurability
• Why some marketers view theaters as a brand-building “refuge”
• How longer-form creative is being used to establish emotional resonance
• What recession-era consumer behavior could mean for theatrical ads

Research suggests that cinema ads can deliver significantly higher engagement than traditional linear or streaming spots. But even as interest in the format grows, theater buys remain a small fraction of most advertisers’ budgets—raising questions about how to quantify their impact and where they fit in an omnichannel strategy.

For Partilla and Dochtermann, the medium’s value lies in its immersive nature and ability to deliver storytelling that connects with audiences—without the clutter of multitasking and second screens. Whether that’s enough to overcome marketers’ demand for real-time performance data remains to be seen.

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