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.
Amazon Bets AI Can Rewrite the Upfront Playbook in a Fragmented TV Market
Amazon is revamping its upfront pitch by marrying premium streaming content with AI‑driven ad technology. The company’s DSP now reaches roughly 90% of U.S. households through an authenticated graph and has added LinkedIn’s CTV inventory, tapping over a billion first‑party members. AI agents will handle campaign planning, audience selection, real‑time optimization and measurement, lowering entry barriers for SMBs while giving large brands deeper integration in sports and original series. The new approach promises a unified, full‑funnel solution for advertisers navigating a fragmented TV landscape.
Yahoo Uses Scout AI Campaign to Focus on Trust in AI Search
Yahoo launched its first ad campaign for Scout, the company’s AI‑powered search assistant, emphasizing source transparency to build trust. Scout, built on Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft’s Grounding with Bing, taps Yahoo’s vast data assets—including 500 million user profiles and a billion‑entity...
Emerging Channels, Cleaner Pipes: Assembly’s Tom Cogan on Where MENA Programmatic Is Heading
Tom Cogan, programmatic associate director at Assembly Global, says MENA advertisers must broaden beyond Google and Meta by embracing emerging channels such as connected TV, digital audio, programmatic DOOH and AI‑driven search. He points out that less than 10% of...
When Creators and Affiliates Stop Being Different Budget Lines
Todd Ulise, chief revenue officer of Nomix Group, says the creator‑affiliate split is a people problem, not a technology issue. He urges brands to align on a single definition of value and adopt unified measurement that treats creators as performance‑based...
Sainsbury’s Tech and Data Chief to Steer Future of ISBA
Mark Given, Sainsbury’s chief technology, marketing and data officer, has been appointed president of the Institute of Search & Business Advertising (ISBA), succeeding Pete Markey. He will chair the ISBA Council, guiding the trade body as AI and generative AI reshape...
Digest: ChatGPT Ads Manager Opens to All US Advertisers; Amazon Targets Supply Chain; Publishers Sue Meta Over AI Copyright
OpenAI has opened its ChatGPT Ads Manager to all U.S. advertisers, eliminating the previous $50,000 (≈ $49,000) minimum‑spend threshold to attract small and midsize brands. The beta now includes cost‑per‑action bidding and plans for third‑party measurement, signaling a push toward a...
Thrad Sponsors ADSN: The Ad-Supported Network, Bringing Real-Time Ad Tech to Industry Conversations
Thrad, the AI‑focused advertising infrastructure provider, announced a sponsorship of ADSN, the weekly ad‑tech podcast hosted by James Borow and Daniel Druger. The partnership aligns Thrad’s audience of AI publishers and Fortune 500 advertisers with ADSN’s listeners of agency leads, programmatic...
Google Proposes Spam Policy Changes To Avoid EU Fine
Google has offered to amend its anti‑spam policies and search‑ranking rules to address EU regulators' concerns that commercial content on publishers’ sites is being demoted. The proposals aim to avoid further penalties beyond the €9.5 billion (≈$10.3 billion) already levied under the...
B2B Podcast Strategy: The 2026 Demand Gen Guide
A new guide warns that B2B podcasts are becoming non‑negotiable by 2026. With 83 % of senior executives having listened to a podcast in the past week and the global audience projected to hit 619 million listeners, the format offers direct access...
HubSpot: The Top AEO Tool for AI Visibility
What's the best AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) tool? You know, the one that helps you optimize your visibility in ChatGPT and other AI apps... Why not just ask ChatGPT? :) hint: It's HubSpot. It says HubSpot is the best AEO...
Thailand Targets 6 Million Chinese Visitors via ‘Authentic’ Content on RedNote, WeChat
Thailand is targeting more than 6 million Chinese visitors in 2024, up from 4.5 million in 2025, by leveraging the RedNote travel app and WeChat. After a 30 percent drop in Chinese arrivals last year due to safety scares and economic concerns, the...
A Publisher Didn’t Get Its UID2 Setup Right. The Trade Desk Didn’t Notice. What Went Wrong?
Publishers are under pressure to embed The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) in CTV bid requests, but a major national publisher discovered that its UID2 tokens were incorrectly encrypted for three months. The Trade Desk, which both administers UID2...
The Practical Guide for Using AI in Marketing – What Actually Matters
The piece argues that AI is not a magic fix but a speed and scale layer on top of solid marketing fundamentals. Teams that already understand their customers can leverage AI for smarter acquisition, frictionless conversion, and proactive retention. It...
Canva Survey Finds 98% of UK Marketers Plan to Boost AI Budgets
Canva's latest study reveals that 98% of UK marketing leaders intend to increase AI spending, with 92% already using AI daily. The report also highlights a consumer backlash, as most prefer ads crafted by humans despite the efficiency gains AI...
Cloudinary Rolls Out AI Agents to Automate E‑Commerce Media Management
Cloudinary announced the general availability of a five‑agent AI suite that automates tagging, search, workflow, moderation and coordination of visual assets for e‑commerce teams. The tools integrate via APIs with existing DAM stacks, aiming to cut manual effort for its...
The Weather Company’s New Ad Play Aims to Sell Experiences and Hotel Bookings
The Weather Company and travel‑content platform Steller are piloting a new ad product on Weather.com that surfaces creator‑led destination videos and direct booking links whenever users search for out‑of‑town weather. Leveraging the site’s more than 400 million monthly users, the feature...
Adobe and OpenAI Link GenStudio to ChatGPT for AI‑Powered Ad Creation
Adobe and OpenAI unveiled an integration that lets enterprise marketers assemble, approve and activate ads directly inside ChatGPT using Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing. The workflow promises to cut creative production from days to minutes while preserving brand governance.
Dollar General Unveils Integrated On‑Site/Off‑Site Retail Media Platform
Dollar General announced a new retail media solution that links its DG Media Network on‑site inventory with off‑site activation through The Trade Desk, using Kevel’s ad‑serving technology. The integration promises advertisers a single framework for planning, activating and measuring campaigns...
Post Right, Not More: Daily LinkedIn Prompt Challenge
The Jobfather LinkedIn Challenge is not about posting more. It is about posting right. One focused prompt a day. No blank screen. No guessing. Free to join. May 19th: https://jupiterhr.myflodesk.com/jobfatherlinkedinchallenge
2026 SEO Stuck Between Personalized and Generic AI Results
SEO is in 2026 is hitting “try without personalization” every other time you search on AI Mode 🫠🫠
Bread Agency Is Appointed as MoleMap Social Media Partner
Bread Agency has been selected as the social media partner for MoleMap across Australia and New Zealand after a competitive review. The agency will handle MoleMap’s strategy, creative campaigns, influencer marketing, content production, and community engagement. MoleMap, which runs more...
How We Gained 15K IG Followers in 4 Days
we grew Malbon Home's IG to 15k followers in 4 days. this entire episode breaks down exactly how we did it.
Brands Abandon Strategy on Threads without CMO Presence
For whatever reason, Threads is the social network where brands just decided that social strategy literally doesn’t exist. It’s bizarre and I honestly think it’s because marketing directors & CMOs aren’t on the network.
#MasterclassNotes: Understanding Influence Marketing
Johanna McDowell hosted an online masterclass in April 2026 for South African marketers, drawing over 100 blue‑chip attendees. Three agencies—Clockwork, Publicis/MSL, and CoolR—each delivered 20‑minute showcases on influencer marketing tactics, pitfalls, and case studies. Scopen Africa data revealed influence marketing now...
Brandmovers India and Titan Smart Explore How Mothers Really Experience Time
Titan Smart launched the “Mom’s Standard Time” campaign on Mother’s Day, created by Brandmovers India, to illustrate how mothers experience time differently than the clock shows. The film pairs mothers with their children in candid interviews, then reveals smartwatch‑derived data...
How to Build a Viral Faceless Facebook Page in 30 Days (2026 Guide)
The 2026 guide outlines a step‑by‑step 30‑day plan to launch a faceless Facebook page that can go viral without ever showing a face. It leverages Facebook’s evolution into a content discovery engine, emphasizing Reels, saves, and early comment engagement as...
Self-Improving Agents & Knowledge Graphs: The Experimental Flywheel
The author compares manual LinkedIn posts to AI‑generated content (Cici), finding manual posts achieve 5‑6× higher impressions and restore course sales. He argues that scaling content improvement requires a self‑improving knowledge‑graph loop that can diagnose why a post works, prescribe...
How to Create a Social Media Viral Video
The guide explains that viral videos are the result of a disciplined content strategy, not luck. It outlines the psychological triggers—emotion, identity, and relationship building—that drive rapid sharing across platforms. Platform‑specific recommendations cover TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and X,...
Google Shares How Brands Should Use AI Creative To Stand Out via @Sejournal, @Brookeosmundson
Google highlighted its AI‑creative suite on the Ads Decoded podcast, emphasizing tools that expand creative variation while keeping advertisers in the loop. New controls—text guidelines, AI briefs, and Asset Studio—let brands steer AI‑generated assets, supporting up to 40 custom rules...
Is Your MAP a Junk Drawer? The Case for Composable Architecture
Marketing automation platforms (MAPs) have morphed from simple email tools into overloaded hubs handling data cleansing, scoring, routing, and identity resolution. This overextension creates operational bottlenecks and risky downstream dependencies. Experts recommend decoupling data‑heavy tasks to a dedicated orchestration layer,...
Threads Adds Playable Music Stickers In-Stream
Meta's Threads is testing playable music stickers that let users attach songs to their posts, displaying cover‑art thumbnails and a play button that streams a short sample. The stickers appear as a new option in the composer alongside images, polls...
OpenAI Unveils GPT 5.5 and Self-Serve Ads
In this episode, host Jaden Schaefer breaks down OpenAI's rapid rollout of GPT‑5.5 Instant, a self‑serve ads platform, and a $50 billion compute spend, while also covering Apple’s upcoming Siri extensions that let users choose AI models and a Chrome security issue...
Meta Adds More Insight Tools to Edits to Enhance Video Projects
Meta’s Edits video‑editing app rolled out a suite of new insight tools that surface engagement rates, peak viewing times, and follower‑versus‑non‑follower metrics for Instagram Reels. The update also adds comparative performance data, letting creators see how each Reel stacks up...
Google's Query Length Claim Overblown; Data Shows <3% Shift
Maybe this is totally innocuous, but it's still weird. Left: Datos numbers on query length in Google (10M+ devices, this is not a small sample set) Right: Public statement by Google's Liz Reid (via SearchEngineLand) Feels like a mild exaggeration by Google, but...
LinkedIn Certification Program Aims To Link Marketers With Experienced Agencies
LinkedIn has introduced an “Agency Certification” program that flags agencies with proven expertise in LinkedIn Ads. The certification requires a Business Manager account and completion of LinkedIn Marketing Academy courses, after which agencies earn a badge and promotional toolkit. Harmelin...
AI Lets Solo Founders Launch Billion‑dollar Startups
A GLP-1 telehealth company reportedly did $401M in 2025 and could hit $1.8B in 2026 with one employee. That’s the signal. Matthew Gallagher allegedly started with $20K, used AI to write code, produce website copy, generate ads, and scale the operation with...
Google AI Max Spurs 15% Rise in Search Budgets, Pushes CPC Higher
A year after Google rolled out AI Max for Search, advertisers report a 7‑10% year‑on‑year lift in spend and a 10‑15% jump in cost‑per‑click. The AI‑driven bidding model is expanding query coverage but also inflating budgets, prompting marketers to rethink...
Samba TV Elevates Jaya Aswani to CTO, Adds Ramzi Nasr as VP of Engineering
Samba TV announced that Jaya Aswani, who joined in 2021, will become chief technology officer, while Ramzi Nasr, PhD, will serve as vice president of engineering. The moves aim to accelerate the company’s AI‑centric media intelligence platform as advertising shifts...
Repeat Your Posts to Cut Through Algorithm Noise
Repeat yourself on social media. All the fucking time. Why? Algorithms are brutal. People's lives are busy. Between work, family, and endless scrolling, your meticulously created content is basically a whisper in a hurricane.
Dataline Launches Wodwo, AI‑Powered Self‑Serve Audience Builder for Marketers
Dataline introduced Wodwo, an AI‑driven self‑serve platform that creates custom digital audience segments in less than an hour. Leveraging a database of 230 million profiles, the tool promises faster, cheaper audience building for brands and agencies.
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Does The Right Buyer Even Know You Exist? Our LinkedIn Restructure That Took High Quality Lead Rate From 32% to...
The piece introduces a three‑stage LinkedIn framework—Be Seen, Be Believed, Be Chosen—to move B2B advertising from pure conversion to a full‑funnel approach. A healthcare client’s restructure cut quarterly spend from $64,000 to $33,000, lifted click‑through rates over 100×, and raised...
Linkless Posts Achieve Tenfold Reach Across Platforms
Great little example of ZCM: Post 1 - no link, 16k+ impressions Post 2 - same topic, but with a link, 1.9k impressions As usual, ~10X the reach with linkless content (this is LinkedIn, but we've seen the same pattern on Threads,...
Ask Three Questions Before Pausing High‑CPA Meta Ads
Do your Meta ads consistently spend with high CPA's? Before you turn them off, ask yourself these three questions:
The Search Engine Is Becoming a Decision Engine. Here’s How to Survive the AI ‘Zero-Click’ Era.
Search engines are morphing into decision engines, delivering AI‑generated Overviews that answer queries directly on the results page. These Overviews have slashed organic click‑through rates by up to 61%, turning traffic into influence rather than clicks. To stay visible, brands...
AI Mode Adds Entity Filter Checkboxes for Refined Searches
AI Mode now has these checkboxes to modify your search with the entities displayed https://t.co/pEw3uxl68l
Clients Demand True GEO Expertise, Not SEO Add‑ons
An RFP recently came in that wants a GEO-first agency, not an SEO agency that added GEO to their website. 😂 https://t.co/HWHaLnxJ79
New AI Mode, Answers, and UCP Updates Added
Updated the Algo / AI Changes update list with the changes announced for AI Mode and AI answers and also the appearance of UCP in traditional Search. https://t.co/0KdmuSXKw2 https://t.co/Po4SWV5XZV
Shorts Are My Top Growth Driver, Newsletter Coming Soon
Fascinating insights from my @YouTube channel: Shorts are WINNING for me, and I will be doing a deep dive on this in my newsletter very soon📈 https://t.co/81VS3AtmgC
Guest Posts That Actually Expand Your Blogging Network
RT @RyanBiddulph Writing Guest Posts for Blogging that Actually Grow Your Network https://t.co/Fa7HOkHaR4 via @InspireToThrive
AI Search Success Requires Third‑Party Brand Visibility
B2B SaaS companies really nailing AI search strategy right now are not just thinking about owned content; they're thinking about how the brand shows up across third-party sites, too. IMO, it probably always should have been this way. https://t.co/oVIRa7IDLM