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.
Kotex Serves up Brand Platform, Refreshed Identity with ‘Own Your Flow’
Kotex unveiled a global brand platform called “Own Your Flow,” pairing a refreshed visual identity—highlighted by a bold red palette—with a 90‑second AI‑enhanced video that uses tennis as a metaphor for the pressures women face. The campaign, produced by MJZ and Labhouse, features a remake of Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” and will run across U.S. digital and social channels including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snap and Pinterest. Creative development shifted to McCann after Omnicom’s post‑merger restructuring, building on Kotex’s long‑standing purpose‑driven work to dismantle period taboos.
From Click to Conversation – Why India May Define the Next Retail Era
Retail giants such as Target and Walmart are shifting from search‑based e‑commerce to conversational AI, echoing India’s traditional “conversation‑first” shopping habit. Mastercard research shows 51 % of Gen Z trust AI product recommendations, and Fynd’s Kaily assistant has earned 86 % positive ratings,...
Is Your Brand Visible in AI Search Results? Here’s How to Find Out
The article outlines how brands can verify their presence in AI‑driven search results, recommending automated solutions like Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit that scan millions of prompts. It highlights the inconsistency of manual queries—100 identical prompts can produce 100 different brand...
Fix Activation, Not Features, to End Plateaus
A plateau is not a failure. It means people are paying. Every month. They find enough value to stay. The problem isn't your product. It's your funnel. We found that only 25% of signups ever made their first post. That was the whole leak. Not...
The Growth of AI Influencers and How They Are Being Leveraged to Drive Reels and TikTok Sales
AI-generated influencers such as Lil Miquela, Lu do Magalu, and Noonoouri have transitioned from tech curiosities to major commercial assets, with agencies mass‑producing virtual personas and brands allocating sizable budgets. Ogilvy forecasts that AI virtual influencers will command 30% of...
Website Audit Tools Used for Ongoing SEO Maintenance in 2026
In 2026 website audits have evolved from occasional checks to a routine maintenance function, addressing crawl inefficiencies, indexation drift, and performance regressions before they become emergencies. A range of tools—from all‑in‑one platforms like Ubersuggest, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz to specialized...
How Social Commerce Became a Real Retail Channel as AI Shapes How People Buy | Reimagining Retail
In this episode, the hosts explore how social platforms have evolved into a genuine retail channel, highlighting the strategies retailers use to make social commerce feel like traditional shopping. They discuss the shift of creators from mere marketing tools to...
Thrive Market’s Amina Pasha Believes Brands that Focus on Trust Will Win in an AI-First World
Amina Pasha, CMO of Thrive Market, argues that trust will be the decisive advantage for brands in an AI‑first landscape. The online grocery retailer, with over 1.7 million paying members, is leveraging AI to personalize discovery while reinforcing its mission of...
Etsy Is (Technically) Funding Coupons in Targeted Promotions
Etsy is distributing platform‑funded coupons, like the recent SHOP15 code offering up to $20 off, to a select group of buyers. These promotions are invitation‑only, have a 2026 expiration, and can be used with any shop that accepts Etsy gift...
OpenAI's Fidji Simo on Ads in ChatGPT and Ending the Code Red
In this extended interview, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, explains how the upcoming ChatGPT ad model will resemble Google’s intent‑based system rather than a traditional Facebook‑style feed, with ads remaining a small, transparent part of revenue. She discusses the...
17 Best Shopify Watch Stores That Nail Design And Branding
The episode breaks down 17 standout Shopify watch stores, highlighting the design, branding, and marketing tactics that set them apart. It emphasizes the importance of high‑impact visuals, virtual try‑ons, storytelling, collaborations, trust signals, social‑proof video content, and flexible payment options....
Why Consumers Are Choosing Liquid Assets Over Points – Loyalty in 2026
The episode explains how 2026 consumers are abandoning traditional points‑based loyalty programs in favor of liquid rewards like cashback, crypto, or universal digital currency. It highlights the friction of closed‑loop, expiring points—such as breakage, complex tiers, and opaque value—and shows...
Brands Illegally Use Celebrity Images Without Permission
I can’t believe how many Social Media Brands just actively break copyright & name / image / likeness laws. You would hateee if a brand you didn’t use put your personal picture on their social media, yet SMMs regularly use celebrity...
625: The $1M/Month Brand Strategy That Most Amazon Sellers Are Missing with Janelle Page
In this episode, branding expert Janelle Page reveals the $1 M‑per‑month framework that helped her generate $475 M in e‑commerce sales and scale clients like Glamnetic from $80 K to $3 M monthly. She emphasizes that getting chosen beats merely being found, teaching listeners...
Kochava Launches Atlas Performance™: The Industry’s First Supply Performance System for Premium Publishers and Platforms
Kochava unveiled Atlas Performance, the first Supply Performance System designed for premium publishers and platforms. The solution integrates with existing ad servers, SSPs, and DSPs, delivering privacy‑safe first‑party data ingestion, AI‑driven optimization, and independent outcomes verification. A leading CTV OEM...
No Customer Service in the Evenings at 72% Online Stores
A joint study of the 100 largest Belgian and Dutch online stores found that only 28 percent provide evening customer‑service and just 44 percent use WhatsApp, despite strong consumer demand. Delivery performance remains strong, with 91 percent meeting promised times and over half...
Stop Guessing Your Ecommerce Budget
In this episode, Richard and Luke introduce a systematic approach that helps eight‑figure ecommerce brands move from guesswork to data‑driven budgeting, creative planning, and channel testing. They walk listeners through three core models—the Spending Power Model for setting realistic budget...
Google's Review Rules Crush Self‑Ranked Listicles
I think some marketers forgot (or maybe didn't know in the first place?) that Google has specific guidance for how to write good reviews. This documentation originated from Google's Product Reviews updates - a specific ranking system they launched in 2023,...
EXCLUSIVE: These Super Bowl Ads Won With AI, but Not Social Media
Emberos’ AI Influence Index reveals that several Super Bowl 60 commercials are ranking highly inside AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok, even when their social‑media engagement lags. The study shows social activity accounts for only 30‑45 % of...
Cowboys, Lassos, and Nudity: AI Startups Turn to Stunts for Attention in a Crowded Market
Lunos spent $3,500 to stage a cowboy lasso stunt in front of Manhattan’s Wall Street bull, using the spectacle to promote its AI‑driven accounts‑receivable automation. The move reflects a broader trend where AI startups, amid a market of over 90,000...
Use a Creative Brief: The Secret Weapon for Getting Better AI-Generated Images
The post argues that a well‑crafted creative brief is the missing link for producing higher‑quality AI‑generated images. By supplying AI tools with detailed project context, goals, audience, and visual guidelines, users can achieve results that match human designers’ expectations. The...
LNER Plays on the Jam to Highlight Ease of Train Travel
LNER has launched a new "freedom all the way" campaign that pits the frustration of motorway jams against the ease of long‑distance train travel. Developed by McCann London, the second‑year effort gives the brand’s red‑haired character Eleanor a distinct Newcastle‑inspired...
Hand Gestures Can Help You Sell. Here’s Why
Wharton professor Jonah Berger and colleagues examined how hand gestures shape persuasive communication, using an automated video‑analysis system on 200,000 TED Talk segments. They grouped gestures into unrelated, highlighters and illustrators, discovering that illustrators most strongly increase audience understanding and perceived...
Make Your Brand the Generic Verb of Its Category
Every brand should have one goal: Be like Kleenex. People ask for Kleenex all the time, when really, they're asking for a tissue. The last generation said "Xerox this for me" as much as "copy this for me." ChatGPT has already become...
Pinterest’s Kate Hamill on Visual Search, AI, and the New Path to Purchase
Pinterest is shifting from a pure inspiration platform to a measurable commerce driver, according to VP of North America enterprise sales Kate Hamill. The company is leveraging visual search and AI to compress the funnel between discovery and conversion, enabling...
OpenClaw Unlocks Business Leverage Through Proactive Automation
“OpenClaw is overhyped.” Only if you don’t know how to use it. It’s just like having a weapon you can’t wield. Most people are just not using it for max leverage. Here’s how it’s helping from a business standpoint: 1 It’s logged into ClickFlow,...
Moburst Launches Growth Labs Initiative to Enhance the Development of AI-Powered Solutions to Supercharge Client Growth
Moburst has unveiled its Growth Labs initiative, a dedicated AI innovation unit that builds, tests, and scales AI‑driven marketing solutions for its clients. The agency has embedded AI across all 29 service offerings with the help of 16 cross‑department AI...
Word of Mouth Trumps Paid Ads by 20×
42% of CMOs rank word of mouth #1. 2% rank paid ads #1. That's a 20x gap between what drives consideration and where most budgets go. We asked 101 B2B SaaS CMOs to rank what actually gets a vendor into their consideration set. %...
Stop Chasing Leads: Fix Systemic Blind Spots
Why your lead gen isn’t working: 4 systemic blind spots you’re missing. Most B2B Marketers and Founders think their lead gen is broken because of tactics, but the real causes run deeper. 1. Chasing Volume Over Relevance I’ve seen so...
Drivers Wanted (Again): Volkswagen Balances Automation With the Human Side of Mobility
Volkswagen is reviving its iconic "Drivers Wanted" campaign as a cultural statement that champions personal mobility in an era of ride‑sharing and autonomous tech. The brand’s recent Super Bowl spot reinforces this narrative, uniting dealers, employees, and partners around a...
Similarweb Launches AI Studio: Enterprise Intelligence That Puts Expert Market Research at Every Employee’s Fingertips
Similarweb introduced AI Studio, an AI‑powered enterprise intelligence platform built on its massive digital data repository. The solution offers conversational chat, automated deep‑research reports, and AI‑generated dashboards, allowing any employee to retrieve market insights instantly without specialized training. Beta testing...
Bots Are Taking Over the Web. Why that May Not Be a Bad Thing for Retail Marketers
WP Engine’s 2025 Website Traffic Trends Report shows bots now generate roughly one‑third of all web requests, with AI‑driven agents consuming up to 70% of the most expensive dynamic resources. Retail marketers must therefore optimize for two audiences: human shoppers...
Google Can Now Monitor Search For Your Government IDs via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google expanded its “Results about you” tool to let users monitor and request removal of search results containing government‑issued IDs such as passports, driver’s licenses, and Social Security numbers. The feature builds on existing monitoring for phone numbers and home...
Most Engagement Data Is Compromised and That’s a Major Security Problem
Most digital engagement metrics are being polluted by bots, synthetic traffic, and identity spoofing, turning them from reliable signals into attack surfaces. Datavault AI is addressing this by building a verification‑first platform that authenticates human actions at the point of...
Should I Optimize My Content Differently For Each Platform? – Ask An SEO via @Sejournal, @Rollerblader
The article stresses that content must be optimized differently for each platform—LinkedIn, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, and traditional search engines—because they impose distinct metadata limits, audience demographics, and algorithmic signals. It advises customizing titles, descriptions, and images to fit pixel or...
AI Automates Company-Wide Content Sharing at Scale
🛑 STOP SCROLLING 🛑 🛑 STOP SCROLLING 🛑 Remember that AMAZING blog post, white paper, video or podcast your team published last year? I have a simple way for you to get more out of it in 2026... It's a simple tool...
Building a Trusted Audience Is Ultimate Leverage
Is there a higher leverage activity than building an audience of people who know and trust you? I can't think of one.
Google Search Ranking Volatility Gets Heated Again February 10th
On February 10, 2026, the SEO community observed fresh Google Search ranking volatility, distinct from the February 5 Discover core update. Multiple third‑party tracking platforms—including Semrush, Sistrix, and Mozcast—showed simultaneous spikes, echoing earlier volatility periods in January and December 2025. Analysts...
Super Bowl Ads: Not Worth the Cost for Small Marketers
"Here's why Super Bowl ads aren't worth it" - marketers who've never had the budget for a Super Bowl ad
Free Tool to Amplify Your AI Brand Visibility
If you're trying to: - grow your brand's presence in AI tools - get more press mentions - increase the likelihood you'll be in Google's instant answers - boost brand awareness among your audience Well... @alertmouse is free🔔🐭
ON24 Celebrates 2025 Winners of the Digital Engagement Excellence Awards
ON24 announced the 2025 Digital Engagement Excellence Awards, honoring firms such as Fortinet, Salesforce, and Travel Media Group for outstanding virtual event performance. Winners leveraged the ON24 Intelligent Engagement Platform to drive revenue, accelerate AI adoption, and scale personalized experiences....
AI SaaS Floods Web with 122 Spammy Listicles
Another example. I think this makes about 15 sites (and counting) with 100+ self-promoting listicles, whose blogs were hit hard between Jan 20-30. This is another AI SaaS company (shocker) with 122 self-promotional listicles and spammy review Schema. https://t.co/EG2AbExB6S
Excessive Spammy Listicles Trigger Multiple Google Core Penalties
Wow... this site tried everything and got hit by the March '25 core update, June '25 core update, Aug Spam Update, Dec core update & recent Jan algo update. It has *over 3,000 self-promotional listicles,* incorrect/spammy/duplicate AggregateRating Schema, & scaled AI...
Why E-Commerce Needs a Social Media Talent Agency in 2026
In this episode, Loieto Tugas explains why e‑commerce brands and Amazon sellers need a social‑media talent agency in 2026 to harness influencer marketing at scale. He outlines how agencies act as matchmakers, negotiators, campaign managers, and analysts, enabling brands to...
Distribution Beats Product: MrBeast’s Fintech Play
MrBeast buying a fintech isn’t about finance, it’s about distribution. Hundreds of millions of loyal users > any marketing budget. In the next wave, distribution is the moat, products come second. https://t.co/JgEKK0wRLl @forbes
![Retention Marketing: Strategies, Metrics, And Examples [2026]](https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/thumbnails/69f6151ec0d28dcb5bf2289fd05f3448.webp)
Retention Marketing: Strategies, Metrics, And Examples [2026]
In this episode Vytautas Palubeckas breaks down retention marketing, explaining how nurturing existing customers drives higher lifetime value and lower acquisition costs. He contrasts retention with acquisition, outlines key metrics such as retention rate, churn, and CLV, and shares proven...
Sales of Fresh Flowers Surge on TikTok Shop Ahead of Valentine’s Day
TikTok Shop’s flowers and gardening category posted a 440% year‑on‑year surge, driven by a 75% increase in LIVE shopping sessions. Independent UK florist Oh So Floral saw orders jump 85% in the fortnight before Valentine’s Day and will host over 50 hours of...
Ask an Expert: Should Merchants Block AI Bots?
E‑commerce veteran Scot Wingo argues that merchants must decide whether to block or welcome AI bots that now crawl retail sites. Four major agents—ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity—collectively command roughly one billion monthly active users, and Google’s shift to AI...
Publicis London Hires Duo as Global Creative Directors
Publicis London has appointed Bronwyn Sweeney and Loren Cook as joint global creative directors, expanding chief creative officer Noël Bunting’s leadership team after a strong 2025 client acquisition year. The duo, long‑time creative partners, arrive from a decade at MullenLowe...
Why It’s Not Google’s Fault when Your Campaign Flops
Marketers often blame Google, Meta or TikTok when campaigns underperform, but the real issue lies in shifting audience behavior and fragmented creative planning. Consumers now drift across search, social and niche platforms without a linear path, exposing weak, broadcast‑style ideas....