Samsung Ads and Crumbl’s CTV Push Delivers 16,000 Installs and 23% Conversion
Samsung Ads partnered with Crumbl for a seven‑week CTV acquisition campaign that generated over 16,000 app installs and five‑figure revenue. The effort achieved a 23% conversion rate, outpacing the brand’s prior social campaigns, and saw a mid‑campaign reduction in guaranteed cost‑per‑install.
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By the numbers: Cvent completes acquisition of ON24
Albertsons Companies has entered OpenAI’s ChatGPT Ads pilot, joining Target, Williams‑Sonoma and Omnicom in testing conversational advertising. The retailer will run Valentine’s Day‑focused ads that appear when users ask for gifts, recipes or party ideas. Ads will be clearly labeled and linked to Albertsons’ local store brands such as Safeway and Vons. The pilot aims to gauge how AI‑driven ad placements can drive traffic and sales in a conversational context.
Do you follow @JoySharma_11 yet? If not let this video convince you that you should: https://t.co/6arD99vusY In the video Joy outlines the key focus areas for brands on the journey from $1M - $10M. He has intimately watched countless brands make this trek...

The DVLA has launched a new anti‑tax‑evasion campaign created by AMV BBDO, featuring a mascot called “Clampy” that personifies the agency’s wheel‑clamp enforcement tool. Two 20‑second films show Clampy confronting motorists who forget to tax their vehicles, ending with the clamp’s...

What Meta's Q4 Earnings Actually Mean for Your Ad Spend Meta dropped their Q4 earnings a few weeks ago, and most operators are completely missing the most important takeaways. - $59.89B revenue (+24% YoY), - ad impressions up 18%, - price per...

In this episode, the AdExchanger team examines OpenAI's rollout of ads on ChatGPT, turning the chatbot into a new advertising canvas, and contrasts it with Anthropic's public criticism aired during a Super Bowl commercial. They break down the potential impact...

In a recent Ads Decoded podcast, Google Search Ads product director Brandon Ervin clarified that campaign consolidation isn’t the end goal; the objective is equal or better performance with less granularity. He explained that Smart Bidding and AI now handle...

PQ Media’s 2026 Global Advertising & Marketing Spending Forecast projects worldwide ad spend to climb 8.8% and total marketing spend to rise 9.8% this year. The new data have been incorporated into MediaPost’s composite forecast, lifting the average industry growth...

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released the Direct Buy Addendum v1.0 along with updated General and Special Terms for digital advertising agreements, opening a 45‑day public comment window that runs through March 31. The framework is designed to replace bespoke contracts with...
82% of marketing teams are increasing content in 2026. The content boom isn’t slowing down. And brand-only publishing isn’t enough anymore. The most advanced teams are building what I call a trust portfolio. Marketing manages the systems, assets, and standards....
Enjoyed reading this former Highguard dev's thoughts on social media rewarding criticism. Game companies are increasingly focused on influencers to get the word out these days -- less so games press. But in a climate that rewards outrage, how does...

Publishers are rethinking first‑time interactions by offering a single, personal action that lets new visitors declare a preference, such as saving a story, following a topic, or joining a focused newsletter. Research shows these early choices generate stronger propensity signals...
If you are building content, build systems too. Systems are what keep you consistent when your life gets messy.
If you want content that converts, stop relying on vibes and start relying on repeatable frameworks.

Brian Solis, former Altimeter analyst, is being celebrated for creating the Generation‑C (Gen C) psychographic profile in 2012. Unlike traditional generations defined by birth years, Gen C groups people by a constantly connected, digital‑first mindset. The concept has resurfaced as marketers recognize...
Thanks to @ChouinardJC for flagging this important detail regarding Bing’s new AI search report and the grounding queries shown in it: https://t.co/8pHLKfFY1U
If your social media is growing but your lead gen isn’t, your ecosystem has a leak. Let’s find it.

Shelter has reappointed independent agency Beyond to manage its media account after a statutory pitch, extending a partnership that began in 2019. The two organisations have delivered high‑impact campaigns such as the 2021 “Fight For Home” brand relaunch, which lifted...
#AI Search Isn’t Replacing #SEO — It’s Rewriting Visibility: Key Insights from Conductor’s 2026 AEO / GEO Benchmarks Report - B2B Marketing Blog | Webbiquity - https://t.co/Cs3W27UiQI
If you want to batch 30 days of videos fast, stop filming full videos and start filming reusable clips.

Google Search Console (GSC) remains the free, central hub for monitoring a site’s visibility across traditional search, AI Overviews, and the emerging AI Mode. The guide walks users through adding either a domain property—verified via DNS TXT record—or a URL‑prefix...
The European Programmatic TV Initiative (EPTVI) has launched Stage Two of its roadmap, moving from strategic planning to concrete solutions for scaling programmatic TV across Europe. The new phase will produce three core deliverables – North Star principles, reusable core...

Artificial intelligence is reshaping user‑generated content (UGC) for marketing teams, turning raw consumer footage into polished ad assets at scale. AI‑driven platforms now analyze performance data, generate scripts, and edit videos, enabling brands to launch authentic creatives within hours instead...

Buffalo Wild Wings teamed with Grammy‑winning artist T‑Pain to launch a brand‑specific anthem, “Let’s Go Buffalo Wild (A Pick 6 Love Song),” promoting its new Pick 6 Meal for Two. The meal bundle, priced at $19.99 nationally, includes two entrées, two sides,...
You’re allowed to say, “I’m going to teach first, then I’ll share an offer.” That one sentence relaxes everyone.

The article cautions marketers against treating AI‑optimized search (AEO) as a blanket replacement for traditional SEO, urging a focus on where AI intersects the customer journey. It explains that top‑of‑funnel research queries are increasingly answered by LLMs, diverting low‑intent traffic,...

Amazon Ads unveiled Creative Agent, an AI‑driven partner inside Creative Studio that lets UK advertisers generate professional video and display ads via a conversational chat interface. The tool taps Amazon’s retail insights and product data to research audiences, brainstorm concepts,...

Intuit’s Mailchimp unveiled a suite of ecommerce‑focused enhancements that combine unified data, omnichannel campaign tools, and AI‑driven automation. The upgrades include an expanded Shopify integration, a Site Tracking Pixel, broader SMS capabilities, a consolidated performance dashboard, and migration utilities. Mailchimp...

Marketers are pulling back on AI‑centric messaging as consumer trust erodes. While 82% of ad executives think Gen Z and millennials view AI‑generated ads favorably, only 45% of those consumers actually feel positive, widening a gap since 2024. Studies show AI‑created...

APAC e‑commerce marketers are rapidly elevating personalization, with 71% ranking it a top priority and half claiming in‑house technical expertise. However, fragmented audience definitions, limited outcome‑based measurement, and constrained experimentation are eroding ROI and slowing growth. Mastercard’s latest maturity report...

Smart TVs can monitor content played on HDMI‑connected devices using two methods: HDMI‑CEC metadata and Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). ACR takes pixel‑level snapshots to fingerprint shows, movies, or games, while CEC logs device IDs and usage duration. The article outlines...
![#Outlook: How CMOs Will Measure Success in 2026 [Part 2 of 2]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://admin.marklives.com/temp/images/1770630728.png)
South African CMOs are redefining success for 2026 amid a sluggish 1.4% GDP outlook. Rather than increasing campaign volume, they will focus on brand purpose, customer loyalty, and measurable commercial impact. Executives highlighted the blend of AI‑driven analytics with human...

Hong Kong‑based Cathay Pacific has appointed Spafax as its exclusive media sales representative, consolidating advertising sales across its omni‑channel ecosystem. The agreement gives Spafax control over inflight entertainment, onboard publications, digital platforms and experiential formats on more than 200 routes....

[VIDEO walkthrough] - Here's me asking Claude about my GA4 data, I got a thought partner surfacing things buried in my data that I didn't even know was there. In my "data chat" with Claude I found: 📈 Notebook LM was a...
B2B marketing is in a wicked transformation. Buyer behavior exposes the fallacy of the obnoxious idea that B2B buying follows a funnel. Traffic to your website is down because buyers are asking LLMs for answers to their questions. Your email...

The episode explains how TikTok has shifted from a pure entertainment platform to a core marketing channel where users discover brands and make purchasing decisions, with 92% taking action after viewing short‑form videos. It highlights the challenges mid‑size and regional...
Someone on my SEO team said a task would take a week. I did it in 20 minutes. And I did 4x the work. Not because I'm smarter. Because I activated a set of marketing skills inside Claude Code that let...

The episode explores why tech giants like Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic are actively hiring SEO leaders, highlighting that these companies see SEO as essential for driving organic discoverability, traffic, and conversions across their AI-driven products. It explains that SEO is...

Your 3:1 ROAS looks great on the dashboard, but your P&L tells a different story. I've watched brands celebrate hitting ROAS targets even as their bank accounts BLEED out. What ROAS measures is revenue, not profit. It’s different in every situation. EX...
Mt. AI that's a good one. You scale content fast using AI to show up in AI and search then it comes crashing down. I think there's a human experiment somewhere in here, these "fast built pages" how do they resonate...

A new Norstat study of 175 UK decision‑makers shows AI tools now dominate the B2B buying journey, with 79% using AI daily or weekly and spending up to four hours each week on AI‑driven decisions. Buyers rely on AI summaries...

RT @Frank_Strong "A new Journal of Marketing study finds that the first like on a social ad has a profound impact, significantly boosting both clicks and likes. However, as the number of likes increases, their influence on clicks diminishes." ...

I've been looking closely at organic traffic trends vs. LLM citations: The below site's blog was hit by recent algo changes: 1st screenshot: organic traffic to blog 2nd: ChatGPT citations to the blog 3rd: AI Mode citations 4th: AI Overview citations https://t.co/1bSsAAUsWh

Grammy Best New Artist nominees KATSEYE, Olivia Dean and Leon Thomas are leveraging Spotify’s native tools to turn casual listeners into active superfans. KATSEYE used a Countdown Page and Clips to make its EP release an interactive event, while Dean...

Thinking a lot about ChatGPT ads, and took a comparison approach, and landed on maybe ChatGPT takes the immediacy and simplicity from Google ads while avoiding the attempt to infer what you want and interrupt what you want from that...

Updates on the Grokipedia drop in organic & AI search: 1st screenshot: Google US organic search visibility (@sistrix) 2nd: projected organic traffic decline (@ahrefs) 3rd: total ChatGPT citations (@ahrefs) 4th: AI Overview citations (@ahrefs) https://t.co/SAHtWofIWN

Sesame Street’s social media success hinges on three simple principles: a consistent brand voice, treating the brand as a relatable person, and an audience‑first mindset. Eder Reynoso coined the “Cookie Monster rule,” insisting every post sound unmistakably like the brand....
This is a super smart move by the NBA. But I'm watching snarky tweeters rip the move. Folks, it's 2026. Stigmatizing influencers, or thinking everything is influencer vs. journalist, is very silly. All-Star weekend is the exact right moment to try a...

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...

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,...

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...