Good morning. Today, a bookish style of lettering comes roaring out of obscurity; Alembic lands new funds from investors including Accenture and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo; and the streaming era ushers in... a new cable network.

Serif typefaces, with their small lines and decorative “wings,” have gone mainstream—again.

The likes of Baskerville Regular and Editorial New are everywhere, Katie Deighton writes, from ads for New Balance sneakers to David protein-bar packaging to White House websites. Nike, Pepsi, Oakley and Perplexity are also in.

Serif had spent decades in typeface oblivion as startups, luxury brands and food companies adopted blocky letters. The Arials and Helveticas of the world were viewed as more readable while fonts that evoked booktype were dismissed as old-fashioned.

Backlash eventually inevitably followed. Serif fans railed against what they called “blanding.” By 2023, serif fonts began to return.

How long until the pendulum swings once again? It’s already in motion.

“The problem isn’t the font, it’s the herd mentality,” said Fons Mans, founder of the design studio Offgrid. “We’re in an era where every company wants to be ‘distinct,’ yet they all end up choosing the same typeface.”

AI-generated ads get the headlines (and social-media disdain), but artificial intelligence is also playing a growing role for brands behind the scenes.

Alembic, a startup that offers AI-powered data analytics for marketers, has raised $145 million in a fundraising round that values the company at $645 million, Patrick Coffee reports.

Prysm Capital and Accenture led the new round, which also included WndrCo, an investment firm co-founded by former DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, and venture-capital firm SLW.

WndrCo, which led an early 2024 round valuing Alembic at $49 million, has introduced the company to clients including Mars and Delta Air Lines, Katzenberg said.

Performance marketers have for some time been able to demonstrate returns on their digital spending, but the same hasn’t been true for marketers with broader branding goals, according to Katzenberg.

Recent advances in AI have changed that, he said, by enabling companies to draw new connections between points in advertisers’ massive data sets.

NBCUniversal is adding to its mix of sports offerings Monday by launching a new cable channel dubbed NBCSN, Joe Flint writes.

The network will carry mostly sports that are also streamed on Peacock, including NBA games, Big Ten college football, golf and Premier League soccer. YouTube TV, one of the country’s largest pay-TV providers with roughly 10 million subscribers, has already agreed to carry the channel.

Launching a new cable network in today’s media environment would seem counterintuitive, with subscribers ditching channels in favor of streaming services, and some entertainment companies are contemplating cutting channels. Cable ad revenues have declined significantly in recent years.

But hardcore sports fans are typically the most loyal pay-TV customers.

This Nov. 18 and 19, CMOs will gather in New York for The WSJ CMO Summit, featuring marketing leaders such as Ryan Reynolds of Maximum Effort, Bobbi Brown of Bobbi Brown and Jones Road Beauty, Craig Brommers of American Eagle, Vanessa Broadhurst of Johnson & Johnson, Alicia Tillman of Delta Air Lines, Laura Jones of Instacart, Behnaz Ghahramani of Marriott International, Kristen D'Arcy of True Religion, Faby Torres of Gap and more.

Together, they’ll explore fan-fueled growth, AI in marketing and the evolving CMO-CEO partnership. Join the CMO Council and be part of the conversation shaping the future of marketing leadership.

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Burberry’s sales have begun to grow for the first time in two years, suggesting the British group’s turnaround plan is starting to pay off. [WSJ] 

Aston Martin’s F1 team is capitalizing on the momentum around the sport by forming unexpected partnerships with Elemis skincare, Glaize nail polish and Pixar’s “Toy Story.” [THR] 

UFC owner TKO struck a multiyear deal to integrate prediction-market data from Polymarket into telecasts of fights. [CNBC]

ESPN told at least some of its on-air staffers to stop promoting the mobile app Solitaire Cash. [Front Office Sports] 

Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun says Omnicom Group should report net revenue like other major agency holding companies so investors can better compare them. [Ad Age]

New York Attorney General Letitia James took part in a rally outside Condé Nast to support four employees fired after their confrontation with the magazine giant’s HR chief. [BI] 

Sienna Long, the University of Miami advertising and marketing major who made a tearful TikTok about the plight of influencers with smaller followings, is selling hoodies and t-shirts that read “Micro-influencer” and “Underappreciated.” [Washington Post]