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.

Home Centre Ramadan Campaign Drives 595% Uplift in Engagement
Home Centre’s Ramadan campaign leveraged three gamified hero films to transform passive viewers into active participants, delivering a 595% surge in comment activity compared with the previous year. The social‑first rollout across Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other channels reached 70% of the target GCC audience, surpassing its own reach goals. By integrating influencer‑led events that produced over 1,000 pieces of user‑generated content, the brand amplified cultural relevance and drove measurable footfall and website traffic. The initiative positioned Home Centre as the go‑to destination for Ramadan home preparation in the region.

Google Ranking Volatility Remains Extremely High in March
Google Search ranking volatility continues to be super heated into March https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-ranking-volatility-heat-march-41014.html #google #googleupdate #googlealgorithmupdate #googleseo #seo

TMW Raids TBWA\Media Arts Lab for New Strategy Chief
TMW, now part of Accenture Song, has appointed Jasmin Kocur as group strategy director to co‑lead its earned‑first team. Kocur arrives from TBWA\Media Arts Lab after a decade at Digitas, bringing deep social, creator and campaign expertise. The move expands...
10 Best Email List Management Tools for 2026 (Expert Comparison)
Neal Schaffer’s guide ranks the top ten email list management platforms for 2026, highlighting free‑plan generosity, automation depth, and integration capabilities. The analysis shows Sender and MailerLite provide the most generous free tiers, while tools like Klaviyo and ActiveCampaign excel for...

Sofology Scoops up the Positivity of Being a Bit Fussy
British sofa retailer Sofology is extending its “So fussy” creative platform with a new multi‑channel campaign that celebrates picky consumers as discerning shoppers. The ad, produced by TBWA\\MCR, uses an ice‑cream‑making metaphor to showcase attention to detail and premium quality....

Wickes Retail Media to Connect Brands with Home Improvement Customers
Wickes has launched Wickes Connected Retail Media, a first‑of‑its‑kind retail media network for the UK home‑improvement category, offering both onsite and offsite advertising capabilities from day one. The platform, built with Epsilon’s COREid identity graph, merges digital and in‑store signals...
One Clear CTA Beats Multiple Choices Every Time
Spotted three different CTAs on a single landing page yesterday: "Request a Demo" "Discuss Your ROI" "Explore the Platform" Two of them went to the same form. None had clear visual hierarchy. Users were getting decision paralysis. Most teams don't realize that every additional CTA...

Abstract Infosys Expands Digital Services Portfolio to Include Advanced SEO and Integrated Digital Marketing Solutions
Abstract Infosys announced a major expansion of its digital services, adding a full suite of advanced SEO and integrated digital marketing solutions. The new portfolio includes technical SEO audits, structured data, link building, local search, multi‑channel campaigns, and real‑time performance...

VisibleFirst Launches Free WordPress Plugin to Help Businesses Get Discovered by AI Search Platforms
VisibleFirst has released a free WordPress plugin that enhances AI‑search visibility, enabling businesses to be recommended by platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. The tool provides an AI Visibility Score dashboard, auto‑generates an llms.txt file, adds...

New “Voiceprint” Claude Plugin Clones Your Writing Style via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
A new Claude Code plugin called Voiceprint generates a linguistic fingerprint of a user's writing style by analyzing five sample texts across varied emotional tones. Leveraging stylometric techniques—function‑word frequency, sentence‑length burstiness, and punctuation habits—the tool creates personalized output that mirrors...
888 and William Hill Owner Appoints Search Agency
The parent company of online gambling operators 888 and William Hill has engaged a specialist search agency to lead a senior‑leadership recruitment drive. The move follows a closed internal review of the business’s strategic direction. The appointment signals a focus...

Structuring Problem-Solution Commercials
Jeffrey Hedquist outlines a proven framework for problem‑solution radio commercials, emphasizing that credibility begins with a believable problem. He advises sequencing the ad: present the problem, tell an emotional solution story, then, if needed, reveal price after trust and value...

Signals, Silos and Standardisation: Unpacking the Knowledge Gaps in CTV Trading
IAB Europe’s first Attitudes to Digital Advertising report shows programmatic CTV adoption rising but fragmented, with 21% of respondents handling over 81% of their CTV inventory programmatically while 18% cannot gauge their own activity. The survey highlights opaque supply paths,...
Free Guides Convert Far Better than Discount Pop-Ups
I've tested 100+ email pop-ups. Here's the pattern: '10% off' offers got a 2% conversion rate. 'Free guide to solving X problem' offers got 15%. Your assumption that discounts are king is wrong. Value is.

How to Restore Trust in Your Marketing Measurement
Platform bias and recent privacy changes have crippled traditional attribution, with Safari stripping click IDs and Apple’s ATT limiting app‑to‑web tracking. This erosion of reliable user‑journey data fuels distrust among marketers, finance leaders, and the C‑suite, who see rising unattributed...
Meta Ends Credit Card Payments for DTC Ad Accounts—Amazon Next?
Meta announced that, effective March 2, it will no longer accept credit card payments for high‑spend direct‑to‑consumer advertising accounts, requiring a switch to monthly invoicing by March 31. The new billing model extends a credit line based on account history...

Fibr.ai Wants to Re-Invent CRO with an Agentic Web Experience Layer. Here’s Why It Matters
Fibr.ai is launching an AI‑driven conversion rate optimization platform that automates hypothesis generation, variant creation, testing, and winner selection. The system scans URLs, builds personalized page variations, and monitors performance, while marketers retain a human‑in‑the‑loop for review. It extends personalization...
Plurio Raises $3.5 Million to Bring Agentic AI to Performance Marketing
San Francisco‑based Plurio announced a $3.5 million seed round to accelerate its AI‑driven performance‑marketing agent. The platform ingests cross‑channel campaign data, forecasts downstream results and can automatically apply approved changes on Meta, Google and TikTok. Plurio already oversees more than $100 million...
Chupa Chups Wraps up "Hardest to Open Lollipop Yet"
Chupa Chups partnered with ad agency BBH to launch a social campaign featuring a lollipop engineered to be the "hardest to open". The confection is encased in a carbon‑composite shell, coated with silicon carbide, wrapped in aramid fibres, and finally dipped...
Stagwell and Emberos Launch Agentic Tool to Help Brands Navigate AI Search
Stagwell, together with AI‑visibility startup Emberos, has launched Stagwell Search+, an AI‑agent‑driven platform designed to boost brand discoverability in AI‑generated search results. The solution, built by Assembly, combines monitoring, predictive strategy, workflow automation, e‑commerce focus, and governance across paid, owned,...
Why Binary Audience Decisions Aren’t Fit For The Agentic Era
The article argues that traditional Boolean audience segments have become a bottleneck in the era of AI‑driven, millisecond‑level ad decisioning. As publishers, measurement firms, and first‑party data sources flood the bid stream with real‑time signals, the combinatorial possibilities outpace any...

THE SHOUT GROUP and Tropicana Twister Scale Up ‘Multiply the Goodness’ for Ramadan and Raya
THE SHOUT GROUP and Tropicana Twister are relaunching the award‑winning “Multiply the Goodness” campaign for Ramadan and Raya, scaling it from a seasonal kindness drive to a lasting social‑impact platform. This year the focus shifts to Project 100, a partnership with Epic...

Bunnings’ Justine Mills & CommBank’s Jo Boundy Talk Retail Media’s Transformative Business Effects
Bunnings’ marketing chief Justine Mills and CommBank’s Jo Boundy discussed the disruptive potential of retail media during B&T’s CMO Power List interview. They highlighted how Hammer Media reshapes supplier‑to‑consumer engagement and how Bunnings is now acting as a publisher, leveraging...

TAG Wins Skin Control Account To Drive Next Phase Of Digital Growth
Digital growth consultancy TAG announced it has secured Australian skincare brand Skin Control as a new client, expanding its portfolio that already includes MYOB, Modibodi, Morgans, Australian Unity and Nala. The partnership tasks TAG with overseeing strategy, marketing and technology...

How Mars Australia and Amazon Ads Accelerated Growth for DINE with AI-Powered Cat Decoder Campaign via EssenceMediacom
Mars Australia’s DINE brand partnered with Amazon Ads and EssenceMediacom to launch the AI‑driven “Cat Decoder” campaign, letting cat owners upload photos and receive personalized video translations of their pets. The full‑funnel activation spanned Amazon’s canvas—including Prime Video and the...
Instagram Opens up Content Scheduling to All Users
Instagram is rolling out its creator‑focused tools to all public accounts, removing the previous requirement to switch to Professional Mode. The update adds the insights dashboard, content scheduling, and trending audio features for every user. More advanced options, such as...
X Tests Experimental Topic Feed Filter
X has begun a public test of a new topic‑feed filter that lets users emphasize chosen news categories in their For You stream. The feature debuted on iOS for U.S. and Canadian users and was quickly expanded to a slate...
TikTok Publishes Latest EU Usage, Enforcement Data
TikTok’s latest EU transparency report shows its monthly active audience in Europe rose to 178 million, an 8‑million jump and a 31% increase since October 2023. The platform removed about 112 million pieces of content between July and December 2025, with automated systems handling...
Instagram Introduces Thumbnail Post Editing for Grids
Instagram has added a new profile‑grid customization feature that allows users to edit the thumbnail images displayed on their profile grid. The update follows a January 2025 preview and coincides with the platform’s shift to larger, Reels‑compatible thumbnails. While casual users...

QBE and Sydney Swans Mark 40‑year Partnership with Integrated Campaign via The Core Agency
QBE Insurance marks 40 years with the Sydney Swans, one of the longest-running sports sponsorships in Australia. To celebrate, The Core Agency rolled out an integrated campaign featuring out‑of‑home billboards, a digital video series and season‑long online activations. The partnership...

Newcastle Permanent Is “Head and Heart Approved” In New Creative Platform via Enigma
Newcastle Permanent launched a new creative platform called “Head and Heart Approved,” developed by indie agency Enigma. The campaign visualizes the tension between rational and emotional decision‑making, positioning the bank as a choice both the head and heart can agree...

Build Assets for Predictable Revenue, Not Month‑to‑month Hustle
There’s nothing wrong with wanting more revenue. But if you’re only focused on this month, you’ll feel the pressure to start over next month. Predictable revenue comes from building assets. Courses. Memberships. Programs.

The Role of AI Transcription in the Future of Video Searches and Discovery
AI transcription is turning spoken video into searchable, time‑stamped text, addressing the long‑standing difficulty of locating specific information within video libraries. Modern speech‑recognition models now handle diverse accents and technical vocabularies with high accuracy, enabling instant transcript generation. By converting...
Blend AI and Human Creativity for Optimal Results
You don’t need to go all AI or NO AI with your creatives… leaning too far either way means wasting budget on low-quality output or falling behind brands launching faster. The smarter approach sits in the middle. We use AI as a...

Boost Leads 10x in 4 Weeks with AI
How I'd 10x leads in 4 weeks using AI, if I were starting my business from scratch.
What Is Happening With AI With Ann Handley – This Week’s Thinking With Mitch Joel Conversation
In a new episode of Thinking With Mitch Joel, marketing veteran Ann Handley critiques the panic surrounding AI, arguing that hype outpaces proof. She challenges the claim that AI will eliminate half of white‑collar jobs, emphasizing that technological capability doesn’t...
Followers Grow Fast, Revenue Grows Slow—Fix Pipeline First
The hidden cost of building attention that doesn’t convert It’s easier to add 50K followers than to fix inconsistent pipeline. That’s why so many B2B SaaS founders double down on visibility. Growth looks like traction. It feels like momentum. It...

Testing Titles Boosts Engagement: Four Tries, Big Lift
Always be testing your titles with X articles because you can see on the left the post totally bombed and when I changed the title, it took off. Took 4 attempts. https://t.co/4okRI65njq
Email Cadence: How Often Should You Email Customers?
Marketers are wrestling with the optimal email cadence – the frequency and sequencing of messages that keep customers engaged without causing fatigue. MailerLite’s analysis of over one million 2024 campaigns shows that twice‑weekly sends deliver the highest click‑through rate (5.8%)...

Predictable Revenue Brings Stability, Not Luck
Predictable revenue changes everything. Not because it makes you rich, but because it gives you stability. When you know consistent leads are coming in, you stop making decisions from panic. You stop delaying plans. You stop wondering if next month will work out. Predictable revenue...
Meta's New Metrics Overstate ROAS; Focus on Profit
Meta quietly rolled out two new breakdowns in Ads Manager. 1. First time vs. repeat purchase conversion data. 2. Visibility into how much of your performance is being driven by their AI. It’s worth pulling, but not worth trusting blindly. We've seen...

Modern Retail Podcast: Marketing Is Experiencing an AI Reckoning
In the latest Modern Retail Podcast, co‑hosts Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels, joined by executive editor Anna Hensel, examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping retail marketing. They note that rising customer‑acquisition costs and a more discerning shopper base are driving...
Try Sharing Honestly; Few See, some Love.
Are you 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 to put yourself out there? To be honest on social media, or build in public including failures? Totally fair. You don’t 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 to be public, you know. But, you could just try. Probably, no one will see anyway. And some will love...
AI Creates Month’s Video Ads in Just 30 Minutes
🤯 Generated a month of video ad creatives in 30 mins 🔥 AI wrote scripts from winning formulas 🛠️ Realistic AI avatars 🤵 Perfect voiceovers 📦 Ready to upload and test This is crushing $3k video editors Want the workflow? RT + comment 'AI VIDEO'
10 Best Ways for Indie Artists to Promote Their Music Online
Billboard’s 2026 guide outlines a step‑by‑step playbook for indie musicians to amplify their online presence. It urges artists to concentrate on one or two core social platforms, build a dedicated website for direct fan interaction, and integrate streaming, email newsletters,...

Your Creators Aren’t Lazy — Your Incentives Are Broken
In this episode, Brywin (CMO) and Parker (CEO) dive into the biggest challenge brands face on TikTok Shop: how to properly incentivize creators. They outline a four‑layer incentive framework—GMV leaderboard rewards, volume completion bonuses, fast‑mover contests, and daily raffle draws—to...

Microsoft Ads Launches Self-Serve Negative Keyword Lists
Microsoft Advertising has introduced self‑serve shared negative keyword lists, allowing advertisers to create, edit, and apply up to 5,000 negative keywords directly in the UI. The lists can be attached at the campaign or account level and support exact and...

Google Experiments Adding Web Mentions to Retailer Reviews
ICYMI: Google tests web mentions in the reviews section of retailer store pages https://t.co/SuUPYs3fu4 https://t.co/2sQKHp9rT9

Google Publishes New Google Ads Passkey Help Doc
Google has released a new help document that explains how passkeys work within Google Ads, offering a password‑less, phishing‑resistant login method. The guide details when passkeys are mandatory, such as for user‑access changes and account‑linking updates, and outlines device requirements...
Top Influencer Trends Shaping 2026, and How Brands Should Respond
Influencer marketing in 2026 shifts from one‑off campaigns to systematic, repeatable programs. Brands are prioritizing micro‑communities, long‑term creator partnerships, and creator‑led ads that function as performance media. AI integration speeds up content creation while prompting new compliance and authenticity safeguards....