Today's Digital Marketing Pulse
Accenture Song Acquires Whalar to Bolster Influencer Marketing
Accenture Song announced the acquisition of Whalar, adding a 170‑person global creator agency and keeping co‑CEOs Emma Harman and Jo Cronk in place. The deal also includes a three‑year strategic partnership that gives Accenture access to Whalar’s talent‑management, technology and venture assets, integrating the creator network with Accenture’s data and AI capabilities.
McCann Singapore Teams up with Adobe to Scale AI-Driven Creative Production for Brands
McCann Singapore has entered a strategic partnership with Adobe to embed generative AI tools such as Adobe Express, Firefly, and object‑compositing services into brand‑centric creative workflows. The alliance will run live pilots with select regional clients, provide priority technical support, and fund extensive AI training for McCann’s creative teams. A joint data‑creative intelligence lab will prototype new formats and measure AI‑driven performance metrics. Both firms also introduced a Creative AI Usage Charter to govern brand safety and responsible AI use.
X Quietly Adds Option to Block Grok From Editing Uploaded Media
X has introduced a hidden toggle in its post composer that lets users block the Grok AI from generating alternate versions of uploaded images or videos. The option is buried in the media upload settings and has not been publicly...
Kinnect Launches #ChangeTheDefaultSettings Film for Aditya Birla Capital
Kinnect India released a digital film titled #ChangeTheDefaultSettings for Aditya Birla Capital on International Women’s Day. The spot spotlights entrenched systemic defaults that often overlook women’s financial journeys, using a visual of outdated code being interrupted and rewritten. It aligns with the...
X Tests New Ad Format that Includes Product Mention Links
X is piloting a new ad format that automatically attaches product‑mention links to user posts, as seen with a Starlink CTA under a tweet. The format blends ads with organic content without compensating users, aiming to avoid skewed incentives. X...
Stop Over‑Segmenting: One Persona Beats Six Empty Versions
If you’ve created 6 different buyer personas - it’s time to be honest with yourself. Are you really going to create 6 different versions of your content? A version for each one? You could. It is possible. But I would...
Pre-Campaign Planning in Barb Ads Hub
Barb has added pre‑campaign planning to Barb Ads Hub, turning it into a single platform for UK advertising buyers and sellers to forecast and evaluate campaigns across linear and VOD services. The new planner, previously called Advanced Campaign Hub, merges...
Stop Overpaying Agencies: Cut 60% TOF Spend
The number of 7 & 8 figure brands that we audit whose agencies are running clicks / leadgen and very very TOF metrics is mind boggling to me. Yes these events “can” have their place as a % of your budget...
Focus on One Platform Instead of Spreading Thin
That 'Be everywhere' advice doesn't work for everyone. Sometimes, it's best to pick 1 platform or path and stick with it.
Why Google Hides Your Slow Website From Potential Clients
Google now treats page speed as a core ranking signal, especially for mobile users, and law‑firm sites that load slower than two seconds are often pushed down or off the first page of results. The search engine measures performance through...
How Outfit Formulas CEO Alison Lumbatis Turned 500 Followers Into Paying Members
Alison Lumbatis, CEO of Outfit Formulas, turned a fashion blog with roughly 500 followers into a subscription business charging $19 per month. She bypassed traditional affiliate and sponsorship models, instead surveying her audience to discover a demand for curated shopping...
Sudden CPA Spike Signals Broken Fundamentals, Not Trend Collapse
I was talking to a 7-figure founder recently who was convinced his trend was dying. He has a clothing brand, he rode the wave hard, and did $100K+ months for the first four months. Then in September, his CPA doubled overnight and...
Meta's New Ads Breakdowns Overstate True Performance
Meta rolled out two new breakdowns in Ads Manager, and I strongly suggest taking them with a grain of salt. More data does not always mean more truth. They give you a cleaner look at new vs. returning customer splits,...
The AI Attribution Blind Spot
Artificial intelligence assistants are emerging as a primary channel for product discovery, compressing the traditional list of search results into a single answer. This upstream shift moves the consumer decision point into a system retailers cannot control or directly measure....
Use Controversy, Secrets, and Stories to Earn $10K
Content ideas that will make you $10,000: • Ask a controversial question • Teach something new • Share a success story • Share a failure story • Make a bold claim • Share a secret • Be contrarian • Use curiosity The list is WAY longer But you get the...
Organic Social Beats Expensive TV for Modern Brands
If you sell something .. please lean into social media marketing, more posting without paid media support, more content , more platforms (Facebook, YouTube shorts) more creativity, trying new things. This talk was at a Fortune 500 companies marketing off...
You're Sitting on a Content Goldmine. Here Are 5 Prompts to Dig It Up.
The recreation market is projected to exceed $1.8 trillion in 2026, but inflation is compressing margins and slowing growth. Many operators suffer from the “curse of knowledge,” leaving valuable expertise untapped while rivals flood channels with generic AI content. The article...
Google Penalizes AI‑written Casino Sites with Manual Actions
Remember this story about journalists being replaced by AI writers? Seems that may have caught the attention of Google's webspam team. Looks like two of their sites might have received manual actions this weekend. And that could be for 'Site...
LinkedIn Ghostwriting: Massive Untapped Market for 2026
At 26, I quit my minimum-wage copywriting job. 18 months later? I was generating $180k/month ghostwriting for industry leaders. But if I was starting over in 2026, I'd become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter. Why? Because it has 1.15 billion users. And less than 1% are posting...
Google’s Liz Reid Says LLMs Unlock Audio And Video Indexing via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google VP of Search Liz Reid said multimodal LLMs now let Google deeply understand audio and video, moving beyond transcription to grasp style and content. The technology also enables cross‑language translation, helping non‑English users access information. Additionally, Google is testing...
Organic Threads Buzz Drives 534 Monthly Visits
A number that keeps me up at night: 534. That's how many people visit BlackTwist from Threads every month. Not from ads. Not from SEO. From Threads itself. People on Threads are talking about us — without us asking. That's the kind of...
DTC and Influencers Can Outpace Wholesale Dramatically
MVMT went from $1M to $60M in revenue in just 2 years using DTC and influencer marketing. No retail stores. Got acquired by Movado for $300M. Meanwhile you're still chasing wholesale deals. That's the gap.
If They Knew…
Marketing strategies diverge on whether to inform or exploit consumers. Seth Godin argues that organizations either educate prospects, fostering informed decisions, or rely on confusion to close sales. The piece challenges marketers to consider if fully informed prospects would still...
Ecom Founders Turn Sundays Into Strategy Sessions
Everyone on Sunday morning: Sleeping in. Ecom founders on Sunday morning: Reviewing last week's ad performance and planning this week's tests. Different mindset. Different momentum.
Google Allows Whole‑TLD Disavowals, But It’s Overkill
News on the disavow front. It ends up you CAN disavow an entire TLD (like xyz, biz, info, etc.) This was never documented by Google, but John Mueller explained you can actually do that. He also said that Google probably...
They Quit an Influencer Marketing Startup and Built Their Own. Now They’re Projecting to Make $3M
Storytime, founded by former Lefty employees Aris Yeager and Philip Davis, is building a city‑by‑city influencer marketplace for local brick‑and‑mortar businesses. The platform leverages Yeager’s 3 million‑follower social presence to automate creator outreach, contracts, and performance tracking. It targets the inefficiencies...
Marketing Spend Drives E‑commerce SERP Dominance
eCom is a low opex game. He who can spend the most on marketing wins the SERP. The 25>15>10% evolution is underway. https://t.co/MP1L7T7MZ5
What Social Listening Research Really Reveals About Your Customers (That Dashboards Miss)
Social listening research adds a question‑led, qualitative layer to standard dashboards, revealing why metrics move. It distinguishes monitoring, analytics, and research, focusing on emotion, language, and context hidden in raw conversations. The guide outlines a lightweight process—50 to 200 comments,...
The 10 Fastest-Growing Australian Instagram Accounts of February 2026
In February 2026 Korean‑Australian actress Yerin Ha topped the growth chart, adding 692.6 K followers to reach just over 1 million. Creative director Christian Watson, physiotherapist Heidi Barlow, radio host Liam Stapleton and UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski also posted sizable gains, each surpassing...
AI Empowers Solo Entrepreneurs to Build End‑to‑End Businesses
We are seeing the rise of the full stack entrepreneur. AI is expanding the scope of what an individual entrepreneur can do. She can have the idea. She can test it using a virtual customer panel constructed with LLMs. She...
How the Best Brands Are Winning by Moving Faster
Brands that can activate creators within hours are out‑pacing competitors, not out‑spending them. The article outlines a speed‑to‑culture framework built on pre‑vetted creator rosters, master contracts, and a single decision owner, enabling rapid response to viral trends. Influencer‑marketing teams can...
Social Media Intelligence Gathering Tools: Clearly See What Your Audience Won’t Say Out Loud
Social media intelligence gathering transforms public conversations into actionable business decisions, moving beyond basic analytics and listening. By extracting objections, trust signals, and emerging desires from comments, forums, and creator content, teams can refine messaging, creator partnerships, and product priorities...
Pod Digital Media Expands Growth Audience Marketplace for Brands in 30+ Markets
Pod Digital Media (PDM) has entered a multi‑year partnership with One Venture Group to launch a growth audience marketplace spanning more than 30 U.S. markets and 72 live events. The platform matches brands with high‑value cultural audiences—such as jazz fans,...
Podscribe Launches AI Chatbot and Introduces YouTube SmartModeling to Improve Podcast & Video Ad Measurement
Podscribe unveiled two major product upgrades: an AI‑powered chatbot that lets advertisers query the platform’s podcast data in natural language, and YouTube SmartModeling, a new attribution framework for simulcast ads. SmartModeling replaces the old practice of mirroring podcast conversion rates...
Google Contacts Advertisers with a Mandatory EU Political Ads Deadline
Google is emailing all advertisers to certify whether their active campaigns contain EU political ads, with a non‑negotiable deadline of March 31 2026. The new EU regulation forces Google to verify political‑ad status across every campaign, and failure to comply could result...
Sevio Releases 2025 Programmatic Monetization Performance Report for Financial Audience Publishers
Sevio released its 2025 State of Financial Publishers report, analyzing programmatic monetization across 4.14 billion impressions from sites ranging from 1,900 to 95.1 million monthly visitors in eight countries. The data shows revenue growth stemmed from higher monetization per impression rather than...
Recruitment Marketing in 2026: Top Types of Video Editing Every HR Team Should Use
Recruitment marketing in 2026 hinges on video, with HR teams using edited footage to showcase culture, processes, and employee stories. The article outlines seven editing styles—from basic trimming to motion graphics, color grading, audio polishing, social‑media optimization, and interactive formats—each...
AI Marketing Is Reactive; Brands Need Proactive Awareness
There is still a big brand marketing gap in the industry and the massive push to use AI isn't solving it. Most of what's being done to attract business with AI right now is reactive marketing - showing up in...
How Schools Can Keep up as AI Changes College Search
Nearly 80% of prospective students now rely on Google’s AI-generated overviews for degree information, often bypassing university websites entirely. This shift forces colleges to rethink digital visibility, ensuring that AI tools surface accurate, institution‑specific data. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and...
Introducing London: The AI Agent Rebuilding Influencer Marketing
Creator.co unveiled London, an AI‑powered influencer marketing agent built directly into its platform. The tool automates three core execution steps—brief generation, creator matching, and personalized outreach—using a database of over 400 million influencer profiles and a community of 270 k creators. By...
Start at the Funnel Bottom for Rapid Pipeline Results
If paid media is set up correctly, you should start seeing a qualified pipeline within 30–45 days. Here's how we achieve that for our clients: Many B2B teams end up running paid media backwards. They start with awareness, build an...
Google Warns Disavow Tool Is More Harmful than Helpful
From Barry: "As a reminder, John Mueller of Google often says that disavowing links is a waste of time. Heck, like Bing, Google may remove the disavow tool at some point. In fact, Google said the disavow tools hurts many...
Week in Review: BBC Mulls Opening Up iPlayer to Other PSBs, Video Leads Digital Ad Growth in the UK, and...
The BBC warned that declining licence‑fee revenue and rising streaming competition threaten its funding model, and proposed opening iPlayer to other public‑service broadcasters while keeping BBC content ad‑free. Meanwhile, UK digital video advertising grew 20 % to £9.3 billion, now accounting for...
Daily 3‑minute Habit Builds Massive LinkedIn Audience
Anyone can build a massive LinkedIn audience in 2026. Here's how: Publish 1 piece of writing per day. To do this, you don't have to be a prolific writer. Just use this simple 3-minute habit (it's how I never run out of ideas to...
When SEO Webinars Turn Into Weekend Exit Signals
Someone just sent me a high-profile webinar about “SEO vs AEO” where the AEO part apparently focused on “adding FAQ schema to product pages” Ok. That’s my sign that it’s officially time to log off for the weekend 👋🏽👋🏽👋🏽 https://t.co/zWCUoVLqIw
Why Unleashed Brands Tapped VaynerX to Pump up Social Media Marketing
Unleashed Brands, the youth‑enrichment operator behind Urban Air Adventure Parks, appointed former Burger King CMO Pat O’Toole as chief marketer and enlisted VaynerX to overhaul its social media strategy. Moving away from a purely lower‑funnel, conversion‑heavy approach, the partnership launched...
Tracking Organic Visibility in Public AI Search Cases
It’s always a fun ride checking organic visibility for the public AI search case studies 😂
Make Your Ads Bold, Iconic, and Unapologetically Cool
Who said watching an ad has to be boing? Your ads can be bold, truly iconic, and unapologetically cool, just like this one we did for Zenni 😎. Want your ads to stand out? Work with me! https://t.co/X6hPr0FQwZ
Influencer Pay Lacks Transparency: Here’s What the Numbers Say
Marketers are increasingly splitting influencer efforts between in‑house teams and agencies, with 52% adopting a hybrid approach and 16% moving fully in‑house. Only 25% of agencies tie compensation to key performance indicators, and just 51% of marketers have full visibility...
Master Offer Testing to Scale Beyond Seven Figures
Scaling your brand past 7 figures in revenue requires mastering offer testing. Retweet and Comment "OFFER" and I'll send you my new guide for how to structure and properly test offers. *** Must be following for me to DM ***...
Most Sites Don't Need Link Disavow, but some Do
Google's @johnmu says most sites don't need to disavow links but that is not all sites https://t.co/cliyEKeuoM https://t.co/Bsc0HcEkY2