How Pepsi DRIPs Turned Wicked Into an Experiential Beverage Moment
PepsiCo leveraged its DRIPS platform to launch two limited‑edition beverages for the theatrical run of *Wicked: For Good* at Regal Cinemas. The drinks—Mountain Dew Emerald Mischief and Tropicana Lemonade Good Witch Swirl—were crafted with bold colors, boba and edible glitter to become visual focal points. By restricting availability to a short window and a single venue type, Pepsi turned a routine concession purchase into a shareable, immersive ritual. The activation generated organic social buzz without a large media spend, demonstrating the power of experience‑first branding.
Welcome Words
Bruegel and the India International Centre hosted a multi‑day forum in Brussels to dissect the newly signed EU‑India Free Trade Agreement and its broader strategic implications. Sessions covered global challenges such as climate change, AI governance, and shifting trade dynamics,...
Puma CEO Cites $260 Hyrox Sneaker as Early Step in Turnaround
Puma CEO Arthur Hoeld is steering a turnaround by slashing staff, buying back excess inventory, and spotlighting a new training division. The company launched the $260 Puma X Hyrox Deviate Nitro Elite, its first shoe built specifically for the Hyrox fitness competition. Hoeld calls the...
Debit Card Fraud Losses Rise
A Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank analysis shows debit card fraud loss rates rose between 2021 and 2023, driven primarily by card‑not‑present transactions. While online fraud increased, in‑person fraud declined on dual‑message networks but grew on single‑message networks. The report...
Why Your Exporter Clients Need to Hear About IC-DISC Right Now
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision limiting presidential tariff authority under the IEEPA has heightened uncertainty for exporters facing new duties. In this environment, the Interest‑Charge Domestic International Sales Corporation (IC‑DISC) offers a tax‑saving mechanism that converts export earnings into...
Fiserv Appoints New Executives
Fiserv announced three senior hires this month: Lia Cao as chief revenue officer for enterprise and platforms, Robert Clarkson as chief revenue officer for small‑business and Clover POS, and Adit Gadgil as global head of business development. All three are...
National Restaurant Association CEO: ‘Cautious Optimism’ for Growth in 2026
The National Restaurant Association’s 2026 State of the Industry report shows 2025 delivered only 1% sales growth after inflation, with 42% of restaurants operating at a loss and food and labor costs soaring 38% and 35% respectively since 2019. Despite...
SOCAR Gets EU Green Light for Major Italian Petrol Bid
The European Commission has approved Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR to acquire 99.82% of Italy’s Italiana Petroli, including its two refineries and a network of roughly 4,500 fuel stations. The deal adds about 10 million tonnes per year of crude‑processing capacity to...
Outback Steakhouse, Noodles & Company, CAVA
Outback Steakhouse recorded a 0.9% traffic increase in Q4, its first rise in four years, driven by the popular Aussie 3‑Course value meals, though same‑store sales slipped 0.6% because of lower pricing. The chain will allocate $50 million toward further restaurant...
Sofa Club Appoints Stephanie Rackley to Head up Marketing
Sofa Club, the online furniture retailer, has appointed Stephanie Rackley as its group marketing director. Rackley previously served as a marketing consultant and social media strategist at Caroline Gardner, and held senior roles at Medik8, Bare Minerals and Champneys. In...
Dia Makes Impressive Comeback in Spain
Grupo Dia posted a profit in 2025 after seven consecutive loss‑making years, reporting €5.8 billion in total turnover, a 3.5% increase. In Spain, sales rose 8% to €4.6 billion, driven by a 7.4% rise in comparable turnover and the opening of 94...
Publisher Advertising Alliance Teams up with Microsoft Ad-Buying Platform
Ozone, a coalition of more than 500 UK and US publishers, has secured its first deal to list inventory on Microsoft’s Media Marketplace, exposing over 200 million monthly users to programmatic buyers. The integration leverages Ozone’s first‑party reader data, promising more...
India's Energy Demand to Surpass US by 2040s and China by 2060s, Report Reveals
Shell India’s new scenarios sketch projects that India’s total energy demand will outpace the United States in the 2040s and overtake China by the 2060s, driven by rapid economic and population growth. The report shows the fossil‑fuel share in the...
Papa Johns Will Close 300 Restaurants
Papa Johns announced it will shutter 300 underperforming North American restaurants by the end of 2027, targeting sites that generate less than $600,000 in annual sales and typically post negative four‑wall earnings. The closures are part of a broader transformation...
Target Leans Into Spirit of Adventure with Roller Rabbit Collab
Target is rolling out a limited‑time collaboration with cult‑favorite lifestyle brand Roller Rabbit on March 7, offering more than 250 items that span apparel, travel gear, home goods and new categories such as luggage and outdoor products. The collection is anchored...
Rotterdam Congestion Limits Benefit of Second-Half Surge in Imports
The Port of Rotterdam handled 14.2 million TEUs in 2025, marking a 3.1 % increase driven by a strong second‑half surge in Asian imports and expanding trade with North America. Despite this growth, persistent congestion and a carrier‑alliance restructuring forced a notable...
The CBN Has a Plan to Make Regulation Work for Fintechs. Here Is What It Looks Like.
On Feb 2 2026 the Central Bank of Nigeria published its Fintech Policy Insight Report, outlining a new regulatory playbook aimed at turning oversight into a partnership engine for the sector. The blueprint introduces a quarterly Fintech Engagement Forum, a Single Regulatory...
NASA Names Acting Leaders for Two Key Human Spaceflight Roles
NASA announced that Joel Montalbano will serve as acting associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate and Dana Hutcherson will become acting program manager of the Commercial Crew Program, effective immediately. Both officials previously held deputy roles and inherit...
SHINE Raises $240 Million in Funding to Advance Commercial Fusion Technology
SHINE Technologies announced a $240 million equity raise led by NantWorks, bringing its total funding above $1 billion. The round adds Dr. Patrick Soon‑Shiong to the board, linking the fusion firm with a serial biotech entrepreneur. SHINE will use the capital to...
After Hapag-Zim Deal, Premier Alliance May Be Next in the Spotlight
The Hapag‑Lloyd acquisition of Zim adds roughly 2.8 million TEUs to the carrier, cementing its position among the world’s largest shippers. Meanwhile, the Premier Alliance—Ocean Network Express, HMM and Yang Ming—has amassed just over 4.8 million TEUs of existing and ordered capacity. The...
How to Monitor Brand Mentions in ChatGPT
ChatGPT now influences buying decisions but offers no native analytics, forcing brands to devise a dedicated monitoring strategy. Mentions appear either from the model’s training corpus or real‑time Retrieval‑Augmented Generation searches. The guide outlines a quick manual audit using targeted...
Tesla Cybercab Program Manager Exits Ahead of Launch
Victor Nechita, the vehicle program manager who shepherded Tesla's purpose‑built Cybercab from concept to the first production unit at Giga Texas, has left the company. His departure follows a wave of senior program‑manager exits that have hit the Model 3, Model Y,...
IPG Integration Could Give OMC Indigestion
Omnicom Group announced its merger with Interpublic (IPG), creating a larger advertising conglomerate but triggering thousands of job cuts. The combined firm’s 10‑K highlights significant integration risks, including talent uncertainty, higher‑than‑expected costs, and possible loss of clients and vendors. Management...
Smart D8 Opens Doors to Health and Wellbeing Innovators for Sixth Consecutive Year
Smart D8, Dublin’s first health‑focused smart district, has opened its sixth open call for pilot projects, offering up to €10,000 per project to test innovations in real community settings. The 2026 call targets three priority themes—nutrition, social connectedness and workplace...
Boomer's Blueprint: Mind the Gap: Change, Talent, and the CPA Future
Boomer Consulting warns that the accounting profession faces a widening transformation gap between firms that evolve and those that remain static. Leadership must address talent alignment, business‑model redesign, and technology as a unified front to stay relevant. Automation is removing...
Home Improvement Loan Applications Moderate as Borrower Profile Gradually Ages
Home‑improvement loan applications peaked at 1.49 million in 2022 and have moderated to 1.20 million in 2024, remaining above pre‑pandemic levels. The borrower age profile is gradually aging, with the 65‑74 and 75+ cohorts expanding modestly. Meanwhile, the 45‑54 group stays the...
SA Express Wind-Up Nears End, Brand Value $10k
South African Express, the state‑owned carrier, is set to complete its liquidation by April 2026, six years after entering provisional liquidation. The liquidators have recovered movable assets, tax refunds and interest, leaving a free residue of roughly ZAR 3.7 million for distribution....
Contrast Security Integration Brings Verified Application Risk Into ServiceNow Workflows
Contrast Security’s integration with ServiceNow Application Vulnerability Response (AVR) streams verified, runtime‑backed vulnerabilities directly into ServiceNow tickets, uniting detection and remediation workflows. The bidirectional sync supplies exploitability evidence, code location and environment context, eliminating manual validation steps. This enables security...
Top Cloud Providers to Outspend Ireland's GDP on AI in 2026
Eight of the world’s largest cloud providers will collectively invest about $710 billion in AI servers and data‑center infrastructure in 2026, a spend that eclipses Ireland’s entire GDP. The capex represents a 61 percent year‑over‑year increase, underscoring the rapid scaling of AI...
ChatGPT Ecommerce Traffic Converts 31% Higher than Non-Branded Organic Search
Visibility Labs analyzed 94 ecommerce sites in 2025 and found that traffic referred from ChatGPT converted at a 1.81% rate, 31% higher than non‑branded organic search. While ChatGPT visits surged 1,079% over the year, they accounted for only 1.48% of...
World Briefs | Russia Says Sending British Troops to Ukraine Would Prolong the War, Not End It
Russia’s foreign ministry warned that deploying British troops to Ukraine would lengthen the war, countering the UK defence minister’s pledge to send forces after a cease‑fire. In Europe, ECB President Christine Lagarde reiterated she will serve her full term to 2027,...
MasterClass Is Working With OpenAI to Build a Business School for the AI Era
MasterClass, OpenAI, and the University of Chicago Booth School have launched MasterClass Executive, an AI‑powered, 12‑week alternative to traditional MBA programs. Priced at $2,500, the cohort‑based course blends Zoom lessons, AI tutoring, and in‑person sessions on Booth’s campus. Applicants face...
Paul Eckert Named Trailborn Hotels & Resorts COO
Trailborn Hotels & Resorts announced the appointment of Paul Eckert as chief operating officer as the brand accelerates its national rollout. Eckert will oversee operations for the expanding portfolio, including upcoming properties in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Mendocino, California. He...
India, Israel FTA: Next Round of Talks in May
India and Israel will reconvene for the next round of free‑trade agreement negotiations in May 2026, following a constructive first round held during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit. The initial talks covered goods, services, digital trade, rules of origin,...
The Loyalty-Building Advantages of Embracing Black Audiences
Brands that authentically engage Black audiences can unlock significant economic upside, as Black consumers are projected to wield $2.1 trillion in buying power by 2026. They are four times more likely than average shoppers to follow the WNBA and spend roughly...
Why Deep Analysis Is Essential for Influencer Marketing Governance
Influencer marketing budgets are set to surge, with 72% of marketers expecting over a 50% increase in 2026. This rapid expansion brings heightened scrutiny from finance, procurement and leadership, especially around audience authenticity, which 56% cite as their top risk....
Meta Andromeda Update Explained: How Meta Ads Work Now
Meta’s Andromeda overhaul replaces the legacy ad‑retrieval layer with a unified deep‑learning system, reshaping which ads enter the auction on Facebook and Instagram. The change was driven by exploding creative volume, the rise of Advantage+ automation, and the limits of...
Ryan Reynolds and Former Costco CFO Richard Galanti to Headline AICPA ENGAGE 2026
AICPA ENGAGE 2026 will feature a high‑profile keynote conversation between actor‑entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds and former Costco CFO Richard Galanti. The event, marking ENGAGE’s 10th anniversary, runs June 8–11 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas under the theme “the next wave.” Their dialogue...
Government Panel Said to Review Future of Key GM Food Crop
India’s ministerial panel will examine field trials of a genetically modified rapeseed (mustard) variety, a step that could reshape the country’s cautious stance on GM food crops. The review comes as the Supreme Court prepares to revisit a pending case...
Clearlake’s Feliciano Tells How to Pick Winners and Losers in AI Disruption
José Feliciano, co‑founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, told PE Hub that AI‑driven disruption in public tech and software markets is opening compelling opportunities in the private‑equity space. He explained that as public valuations compress, investors can target companies...
When Google Is No Longer A Verb: Search Becoming Infrastructure via @Sejournal, @DuaneForrester
The article argues that traditional keyword‑based search is being eclipsed by AI‑driven personal agents that handle the entire decision‑making workflow. As conversational interfaces reach massive scale, users shift from typing queries to delegating outcomes, turning the search loop into a...
Affordability Pyramid Shows Over Half of U.S. Households Cannot Buy a $300,000 Home
The National Association of Home Builders' 2026 Priced‑Out Analysis reveals that 52 % of U.S. households—about 70 million—cannot afford a $300,000 home, while the median new‑home price is expected to reach $410,000. The affordability pyramid shows 47.5 million households limited to homes under...
Heineken Recruits New Chief to Build ‘Digital Backbone’
Heineken has named Romain Apert, former Mars Petcare CIO, as its new chief data and technology officer, effective May. Apert succeeds Ronald den Elzen, who is stepping down after a 31‑year tenure that saw the launch of a “best‑connected brewer”...
Festival Place Leading the Way with New Inclusivity Initiative
Festival Place in Basingstoke has become the UK’s first shopping centre to launch a dedicated inclusivity partnership with disability consultancy Purple Advantage. The collaboration delivers bespoke training, practical tools and ongoing support to centre staff and retailers, aiming to make...
Kraft Heinz and the Structural Reckoning Facing Legacy CPG
Kraft Heinz’s recent decision to pause a split underscores a broader crisis for legacy packaged‑food firms. The company’s relentless focus on zero‑based budgeting and margin expansion delivered short‑term cash flow but culminated in a $15.4 billion goodwill impairment, exposing the limits...
BlackRock Appoints Citi to Provide Select ETF Middle Office Services on Aladdin
BlackRock has appointed Citi Investor Services to handle select middle‑office functions for roughly $4 trillion of U.S.-domiciled iShares ETFs on its Aladdin platform. The expanded role builds on a 2021 custodial mandate and aims to streamline the ETF order lifecycle, offering...
What’s Next For Nexstar? More Growth For The CW, NewsNation
Nexstar Media Group posted its fourth‑quarter 2025 results, beating Wall Street revenue forecasts while slipping into a net loss. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted free cash flow fell sharply compared with the prior year. CEO Perry Sook highlighted the company’s aggressive...
Women Regulators Network Launches Leadership Council
The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), in partnership with Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii), has launched a Leadership Council for its Women Regulators Network (WRN). The council, co‑chaired by the UAE Central Bank’s Fatma Abdulla Al Jabri and Bahamas Securities...
Elon Musk Threatens to Halt Tesla Giga Berlin Expansion over Union Vote
Elon Musk delivered a pre‑recorded video to Tesla’s 10,700 Giga Berlin workers, warning that the plant’s planned expansion will be halted if the IG Metall‑aligned works council gains influence. The threat follows a series of legal battles, an anti‑union concert, and...
Panama Growth Hinges on Cobre Panama Restart: Report
Panama’s economy expanded 4% in 2025, driven mainly by services, while manufacturing lagged at 0.46%. Business group SIP says reopening First Quantum’s Cobre Panama copper mine could lift GDP growth to 6% by 2027, versus a 3.7% slowdown if the mine...