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.
OpenAI: ChatGPT Now Has 900 Million Weekly Active Users
OpenAI announced that ChatGPT reached over 900 million weekly active users, marking its first public disclosure of this scale. The milestone accompanies a $110 billion funding round and reveals more than 50 million paid consumer subscribers and 9 million business users. The growth underscores AI chat’s emergence as a major discovery and research channel, rivaling traditional search. Marketers now need to consider how content is surfaced and cited within AI-generated answers.
Know Your 12 Key Ecom Metrics or Fail
Ecom operators are surrounded by data meant to guide them, yet they’re still operating in the dark. Plenty of brands know their ROAS. Far fewer know their: - Break-even ROAS - Blended CAC against contribution margin - CPMs relative to 2026...
Digital Advertising Industry Snapshot 4Q'25
The fourth quarter of 2025 reveals a shifting balance in digital advertising, with Meta’s market share rising to 34 percent and Alphabet’s falling to 48.1 percent after a four‑year decline. Meta’s incremental share has consistently exceeded 40 percent over the past three years,...
Founders Overlook Core Messaging, Fuel Misaligned Growth
We surveyed 50 SMB founders on their marketing priorities and pain points. Buried in the data is a pattern nobody's talking about: Founders know their messaging is broken. And they're not fixing it. Direct quotes: "Our messaging is inconsistent and unclear. Docs site doesn't...
AI Platform Cuts $26.5K Monthly Marketing Costs
I replaced $26,500/month in marketing headcount with one AI platform. 37 agents. Zero full-time hires. Most agencies pay $26,500/month for SEO, content, social, competitive intel, and marketing ops. We built the AI CMO Platform. 37 agents that coordinate and execute like a full...
Later CEO Scott Sutton Breaks Down How Later 360 Unifies Creator Marketing Measurement
Later introduced Later 360, a unified analytics platform that merges organic content, paid amplification, and verified commerce data into a single reporting environment. The tool delivers granular visibility down to the SKU level, allowing marketers to trace every dollar, click,...
Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren Top New York Fashion Week Social Media Rankings as Total Media Value Reaches $275M
New York Fashion Week FW26 generated $275 million in total media value, a 73 % increase year‑over‑year. Calvin Klein led with $81.3 million, followed by Ralph Lauren ($58.4 million) and Michael Kors ($56.7 million). Their success stemmed from distinct tactics: APAC‑focused celebrity partnerships for Calvin Klein,...
Study of $1.3B in Meta Ad Spend Suggests Creative Output, Not Creative Intuition, Drives Results
Motion’s analysis of $1.29 billion in Meta ad spend across 600,000 ads shows that only 4‑8 % of creatives become “winners,” yet they capture roughly 55 % of total budget. Advertisers that produce the most winners do so by scaling creative output, launching...
Tagshop AI Expands AI Ad Creation With Kling 3.0, Seedance Models, New Templates, and Upcoming AI Ad Clone Feature
Tagshop AI unveiled a major upgrade that integrates Kling 3.0, Seedance V1 Pro and 2.0 models, expanding its AI‑driven video ad creation suite. The enhancements deliver cinematic visual quality, faster multi‑variant generation, and a library of professionally designed templates for...
Google May Auto‑create AI Landing Pages for Weak Sites
Google Patent Info: If you thought AIOs angered people, just wait for AI-generated landing pages from Google. Yes, Google could create new landing pages from the SERPs if yours isn't good enough (based on this patent). Great catch from Joshua...
Integrate Shared & Paid Media to Capture Fragmented Attention
In the first article in this series about the PESO Model Certification® , I shared what’s new and why it’s been rebuilt for how people find information today. In the second, we went deeper into how owned and earned work...
Sandbox Guide :: Vibe Coding for Music Marketers
Music Ally’s Sandbox Guide titled “Vibe coding for music marketers” introduces a new methodology that converts audio characteristics into actionable audience insights. The guide, part of a series released ten times a year, combines case studies, expert interviews, and benchmark...
AI Threatens Marketers: Paid Media’s Uncertain Future
The death of marketers, is it over for paid media?, the bear and bull case for AI https://t.co/9NjhfPjOfn
SEO Agencies Now Prioritize Profit over Client Success
There’s a new one. Right. Totally. SEO agencies suddenly stopped caring about their clients’ success. Yep. https://t.co/256DkiWsAT
Bing Tests 2x2 Video Grid Layout
Microsoft Bing is piloting a new two‑by‑two video grid layout on its search results page, replacing the traditional vertical list view. The change was first spotted by Frank Sandtmann, who shared side‑by‑side screenshots on LinkedIn. The grid displays four video thumbnails...
Google Shares Key Insights on HTML Parsing & Search Experience
Google Videos (1) from Google Search team on parsing HTML and (2) from Google Ads team on search experiences - both worth listening to https://t.co/wD0y4Gz8yc https://t.co/rsldIPjJbz
The Future of B2B Marketing? Committee-Level AI Targeting
B2B marketers are shifting from single‑persona campaigns to committee‑level targeting, recognizing that buying decisions involve 5‑50 stakeholders across decision‑makers, influencers, and executors. Artificial intelligence now classifies each prospect’s role, predicts their buying stage, and orchestrates personalized messages in real time....
Mortar AI & DAIVID Partner to Integrate Creative Effectiveness Into MMM
Mortar AI has partnered with creative‑data specialist DAIVID to embed creative effectiveness metrics into its Marketing Mix Model (MMM). The integration brings DAIVID’s AI‑driven emotional analysis—covering 39 distinct emotions and predictive metrics—directly into Mortar’s MMM engine. Advertisers can now quantify...
Bringing HIV Prevention DTC: Q&A with Ashley Gildea
Gilead’s U.S. HIV prevention VP Ashley Gildea unveiled a direct‑to‑consumer campaign for Yeztugo, the first twice‑yearly injectable PrEP. The campaign, anchored by a music‑driven “One2PrEP” spot, aims to lift awareness among the estimated 2.2 million Americans who could benefit from PrEP...
Top Brands Face Boycott over Aggressive Email Practices
Clean Email’s 2025‑2026 report reveals that aggressive email campaigns from major brands such as LinkedIn, Uber One and McDonald’s are now the leading cause of spam complaints, eclipsing traditional scammers. While global email users are projected to reach 4.73 billion in...
‘Just because You Can Do It Doesn’t Mean You Should’: PepsiCo's Sorin Patilinet on AI and Marketing Restraint
PepsiCo’s global marketing effectiveness lead, Sorin Patilinet, cautions that the proliferation of AI tools will not automatically grant a competitive edge. While AI can generate endless creative variations, the true differentiator will be human judgment and disciplined restraint in campaign...
Volt Agency Details Advanced Hyper-Personalisation Strategies on Wix Web Design
Volt Agency, a Wix‑focused web design firm, published a report detailing hyper‑personalisation strategies on the Wix platform. The study claims conversion lifts of up to 60% and revenue gains of roughly 40% when businesses shift from static sites to intent‑driven...
WPP Is Betting Its Future on Getting Paid for Outcomes
WPP announced a strategic pivot toward outcome‑based agency fees, linking compensation directly to client sales and brand performance. The move is anchored by a pending global creative contract with Jaguar Land Rover that would tie fees to measurable results. WPP’s data platform,...
Cheaper AI Call Tools Could Replace $10k Gong Subscription
Hive mind: i'm thinking of replacing a mid 5-figure @gong_io subscription (Thousands of dollars per AE per year) with a $19 / month TL;DV or FirefliesIO. our core use case is call recording, AI summaries and CRM integration. Has...
Creators Express Frustration with Instagram’s Latest AI Experiment
Instagram has rolled out an AI‑powered shopping test that automatically tags products and suggests similar items when users tap “Shop the Look.” Influencers say the feature surfaces products they don’t endorse, potentially cannibalizing brand deals and eroding audience trust. Creators...
Google Explains Why Its Crawler Ignores Your Resource Hints via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google’s Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt explained on the Search Off the Record podcast that Googlebot disregards resource‑hint tags such as dns‑prefetch, preload, prefetch and preconnect because its internal infrastructure eliminates the latency those hints address. They emphasized that metadata—including...
Joost De Valk Exits Federated WordPress Repository Project via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Yoast founder Joost de Valk announced he is stepping away from the Linux Foundation’s FAIR project, citing insufficient financial backing and industry reluctance to fund a politically sensitive initiative. FAIR was launched in 2025 to create a federated, independent repository for...
X Invites Advertisers To Recycle Creative From Other Platforms
Elon Musk's X has launched a new ad feature that lets advertisers upload existing social‑media creatives and automatically apply expanded aspect ratios, including 4:5 and 2:3, without needing AI‑driven editing. The tool is available through Media Studio, Composer, and the...
Publicis Groupe ANZ CCO Dave Bowman Named to NYF Advertising Awards Global Executive Jury
Publicis Groupe Australia & New Zealand’s Chief Creative Officer Dave Bowman has been appointed to the 2026 New York Festivals Advertising Awards Executive Jury. The jury, led by Andrea Diquez of GUT, comprises 15 top creative leaders from agencies and...
Samba: Essentials, Utilities Tally Most Ad Impressions in 2nd-Half 2025
Samba TV’s H2 2025 advertising report shows a sharp pivot toward essential and infrastructure categories, with utilities ad impressions jumping 48%, insurance up 18% and pharma rising 12%. Discretionary sectors such as career services, apparel and food & beverage posted double‑digit...
Minecraft Creators Want to Do More Brand Integrations in 2026
Brands are increasingly favoring in‑game integrations over fully owned virtual worlds, a trend already evident on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. In 2025 advertisers shifted spend toward embedding logos and branded assets within popular user‑generated experiences. Minecraft creators, however, feel...
Tube Trends: MrBeast Uses Giveaways To Hit New Highs
Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, has leveraged giveaway‑centric videos to set new viewership records on YouTube. In the past 90 days his "Subscribe For An iPhone" clip topped U.S. charts with over a billion views, while a holiday $100K giveaway...
Most Brands Ignore This Visibility Engine — It Builds Credibility, SEO and Media Reach at Scale
Brands that scale fastest rely on distribution infrastructure, not louder messaging. Digital newswires act as a scalable engine that moves verified content through media ecosystems, delivering immediate reach and credibility. By syndicating releases to online publications, financial platforms, and AI...
ChatGPT Lets Users Critique Ads, Pressuring Brands
OpenAI's @fidjissimo explained on the ACCESS Podcast with @alexeheath that the ChatGPT ad experience is will be unique since users could even ask ChatGPT about the ads running. The model will not know about the ads but a user could...
Top Social Monitoring Tools Helping Brands Stay Ahead of Conversations
Brands risk missing fast‑moving conversations on TikTok, Reddit, and other platforms. Social media monitoring provides real‑time detection of mentions, spikes, and sentiment shifts, while listening analyzes longer‑term themes and analytics measures owned‑content performance. The article outlines how teams should define...
Framing the Agentic Advertising Management Protocols (AAMP) Initiative
The IAB Tech Lab unveiled the Agentic Ad Management Protocols (AAMP), an umbrella initiative that consolidates its Agentic Real‑Time Framework, Agentic Audiences, and buyer‑seller SDKs. AAMP is organized around three pillars: a high‑performance execution plane (ARTF), open‑source agentic protocols, and...
Master Incrementality Testing: From Replication to Golf Handicap
"I think it’s the most sophisticated conversation that will exist on this topic." @oliviaakory's feedback after watching back this episode. She and @Davisg207 came by the office to talk about Cozy Earth's incrementality testing journey. I think it is incredibly instructive...
Why Segmentation Just Became the Top Database Priority for 2026
The 2026 Database Strategies & Contact Acquisition Benchmark Survey shows segmentation has vaulted to the top database priority, with 73% of marketers citing targeted segments as their primary focus. Unlike the 2024 era of retroactive measurement, firms now design databases...
Organic Surge: 307 Signups & New Editing Features
⚡️ WEEKLY VLOG 02 @ @ChoppityAI Founders are never truly satisfied with the speed of shipping, but looking back at this week... we’ve had some absolute bangers. We hit an all-time high of 295 signups in a single day (We broke...
Director of Customer Success
Fairing, a marketing measurement platform used by more than 3,000 brands, is hiring a Director of Customer Success to own the end‑to‑end post‑sale journey—from onboarding to renewal and expansion. The role centers on net revenue retention, requiring deep expertise in...
Programmatic Live Sports: How SMB Advertisers Can Tap Into The Cultural Moment
Live sports remain a high‑impact ad environment, delivering strong attention and recall. A 2025 LG Ad Solutions study shows 48% of U.S. streaming sports viewers notice ads and 54% find them entertaining. Programmatic technology now offers SMBs access to premium...
Google Nano Banana 2 Promises Smarter, Faster Image Generation
Google DeepMind unveiled Nano Banana 2, the Gemini 3.1 Flash Image model that blends the intelligence of Nano Banana Pro with the lightning speed of Gemini Flash. The new model adds real‑time web grounding, sharper visual fidelity, and production‑ready outputs ranging from 512 px to 4K....
Consistent Brand Threads Beat Outdated Mood Boards
the best brand accounts have a through line of familiarity. content woven together by a thread that makes people comment “my show is on”. the old mood board model does not work anymore.
Podcast Advertising Projected to $1B/Year by 2029 (EMARKETER)
A new eMarketer survey of 100 U.S. marketers shows digital audio advertising is gaining traction, with 67% of respondents already allocating budget to the channel. While only 25% plan to increase spend within the next year, 83% view incremental reach...
Unified Email and SMS Boosts Retention Trust
The retention stack at most brands is three platforms pretending to be one. Email in one tool. SMS in another. A "customer journey" that's really just a guess stitched together from disconnected data. Attentive solves this by putting email and SMS in...
COMvergence: 2025 Marcom M&A Volume Grew Slightly
Marcom M&A activity in 2025 edged higher to 55 deals, reflecting a modest rise from 2024 but still far below the 2016 peak. The sector’s focus has shifted from expansion‑driven roll‑ups to infrastructure‑led consolidation centered on AI, cloud, and data...
Product Feeds, Entity Consistency, and Taxonomy Drive 2026 Retail SEO
💰 What is the most underrated retail SEO lever for 2026? Key takeaways from an insightful roundup by @SearchPilot : * Feeds decide eligibility. Weak product data does not push you down a few spots. It can remove you from...
LinkedIn Flags Shady Connection Request with Warning
Imagine being so shady that LinkedIn literally sends a warning with your connection request 👀
AI SEO Hype Outpaces Real Results, Says Brand Leaders
SEO for AI—or AEO—is having a moment Profound just raised at $1B valuation But after talking to many brand leaders this week, most agree much of the hype in the space is outpacing results & no dashboard does the work for...
Cheap Experiments Outperform Expensive Guru Courses
I spent $10k on a Facebook ads course from a famous 'guru'. My ROAS went down. I spent $200 testing my own weird ad angles. Found a 5x ROAS winner in 48 hours. The market doesn't care about experts. Test...