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.
Body Parts Get Vocal in New Holland & Barrett Ad Push
Holland & Barrett, working with agency Lucky Generals, launched the "Back Your Body" platform to encourage a proactive health mindset. The multi‑million‑pound (≈ $3 million US) campaign features TV spots where body parts sing Robin S’s 1990s hit, complemented by creator‑led social and out‑of‑home activations. The brand will also provide 300,000 free Wellness Check‑Ins each month across its stores. The effort targets 25‑ to 39‑year‑old consumers who are already wellness‑focused but view the retailer as outdated.
The Email Most Creators Are Too Nice to Write
A creator who coaches entrepreneurs writes upbeat, helpful emails for a corporate‑still audience, but sales remain flat. The readers are stuck in salaried jobs and haven’t yet taken the entrepreneurial leap. The coach realizes her messages never name the underlying...
The Art and Science of Brainrot
Meta has open‑sourced TRIBE v2, a foundation model that predicts second‑by‑second brain activity from video, audio, or text inputs. Trained on over 1,000 hours of fMRI data from 720 volunteers, the model often outperforms noisy individual scans by filtering out...
Olivia Rodrigo Sets April 17 Release for New Single "Drop Dead"
Olivia Rodrigo announced that her next single, “Drop Dead,” will drop on April 17, 2026, two weeks after unveiling her third album’s title and June 12 release date. The move ramps up anticipation for the album You Seem Pretty Sad...
GeeLark
GeeLark launches a cloud‑based social media marketing platform that blends mobile‑first cloud phones, antidetect browser profiles, automation, and AI tools for high‑volume, multi‑account growth. Its modular pricing starts with a free tier, then $9.75 Base and $14.25 Pro plans, while...
Simaia Rolls Out AI‑Powered ‘Search on Autopilot’ for APAC B2B Lead Generation
Simaia has launched an AI‑driven marketing service that automates search‑engine visibility and lead capture for APAC B2B SMEs and startups. Early‑access pilots reported up to a six‑fold lift in AI‑driven traffic and a 2.5‑times increase in qualified leads, challenging the...
Stop Optimizing Channels. Start Managing a Marketing Portfolio.
Marketing leaders are moving away from channel‑centric planning toward a portfolio‑based model that treats platforms like Google, Amazon, and Meta as strategic assets. AI‑driven decision engines now automate audience targeting, creative selection and real‑time optimization across these ecosystems, collapsing traditional...
Sweetwater Labs Scales Skincare Brand Using Pure Word‑of‑Mouth, No Paid Ads
Sweetwater Labs, a New York‑based natural skincare label, has built a sizable, loyal customer base without spending on influencer deals or paid advertising. Founder Nadia Doh credits product performance and organic referrals for the brand’s growth, a model that challenges...
I Quadrupled My Revenue With a Newsletter in 6 Months. Here’s How Startup Founders Can Do the Same
Newsletter platforms are experiencing explosive growth, with Beehiiv reporting $19 million in paid subscriptions for 2025—a 138% jump from 2024. A founder who focused on email newsletters doubled his revenue every quarter, ultimately quadrupling earnings in six months. The piece outlines...
Brands Vs. Bots: CMOs, Ad Agencies Tell All About What They’ve Learned Marketing to Our New AI Overlords
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is emerging as the new frontier for brand visibility as large language models (LLMs) become primary sources of product recommendations. A McKinsey report projects AI‑summarized searches to generate $750 billion in U.S. revenue by 2028, warning that...
How to Monitor Live Streams for Optimal Ad Server Performance
Industry leaders at Streaming Media Connect 2026 highlighted the observability gaps that can cripple live‑stream ad insertion. They stressed that encoding quality, manifest integrity, and SCTE‑35 cue signals are the first line of defense against broken ad breaks. Real‑time “eyes on...
TikTok vs Instagram vs YouTube: Which Platform Converts Fastest?
The article compares time‑to‑conversion across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, showing that TikTok fuels impulse buys in minutes, Instagram spreads purchases over several days, and YouTube’s trusted long‑form content can shave up to six days off a buyer’s journey. It highlights...
2026 FIFA World Cup Viewing Set to Fragment Across Linear & Streaming in UK, Nexxen Forecast Finds
Nexxen released a forecast for UK audiences of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, showing that while TV remains dominant, viewing is increasingly split between linear and streaming platforms. The report finds 24% of fans will blend traditional TV and streaming,...
Meta Rolls Out AI-Led Shopping Tools Across Reels and Creator Ecosystem
Meta unveiled a suite of AI‑driven shopping tools that embed product tagging directly into Reels and expand creator‑brand collaborations. The updates add generative AI voiceovers, automatic translation, and product‑set optimisation to streamline multilingual video ad creation. Reels Trending Ads now...
Rapido Rolls Out ‘First Ride Free’ Campaign During IPL 2026
Rapido has launched a "First Ride Free" campaign timed with IPL 2026, featuring 10‑second regional‑language films that dramatize the instant confirmation of a ride. Created by tgthr. and directed by Arjuna Gaur, the ads blend exaggerated scenarios with everyday commuter...
Grab Uses AI to Change How Brands Are Discovered in Its App
Grab Holdings announced 13 AI‑driven features at its GrabX 2026 event, branding the app as an "Everyday AI Companion" that suggests food, rides and payments based on user habits. The new Intelligence Layer draws on more than 20 billion rides and...
Livpure Appoints SW Network to Handle Digital Communications
Livpure has appointed SW Network as its digital communications partner to shift the brand narrative from product‑centric messaging to a lifestyle‑led focus on health and wellbeing. The agency will develop social‑first campaigns that tie everyday water consumption to broader wellness...
Brunei Tourism Names Global Agency for Digital Content and Strategy
Brunei Tourism has appointed Denver‑based ELMNTL as its first international agency of record to drive social media strategy and content production. The partnership gives ELMNTL responsibility for creative direction, paid‑media optimisation, and performance reporting across key markets, while collaborating with...
Google’s March 2026 Core Update Hit Affiliate Sites Harder Than Any Other Category
Google’s March 2026 Core Update, rolled out on March 27, dealt the steepest ranking blows to affiliate sites, with 71% of the 600,000+ pages tracked showing measurable drops. The update followed a spam‑targeted sweep and re‑evaluated rankings without link‑spam signals, exposing thin,...
Rodd & Gunn Appoints The Thoughtful Agency for Full-Service Digital Performance in Australia
Rodd & Gunn, the New Zealand premium menswear brand, has appointed The Thoughtful Agency as its full‑service digital performance partner for the Australian market. The collaboration will manage the brand’s e‑commerce operations and its hospitality division, The Lodge Group, delivering...
INTERVIEW: How Wayfair Uses Creators and TikTok to Drive Growth
Wayfair is leveraging TikTok creators and influencer‑driven content to fuel its next growth phase, positioning social platforms as the primary discovery engine for home‑ware shoppers. The company pairs inspirational videos with personalized product curation, encouraging users to explore multiple style...
Scaling Success: How AI Is Reshaping Publisher Deals
Advertisers and publishers are turning to contextual AI to replace static private marketplace (PMP) deals with dynamic, real‑time audience expansion. Illuma’s AI analyzes live content consumption, scaling reach while preserving relevance without relying on cookies or personal identifiers. A pilot...
Digest: CMO and Execs Exit The Trade Desk; BBC Studios Launches Airline Streaming; Tesco Media Introduces Premium Video Ads
The Trade Desk announced a leadership shake‑up, with CMO Matthew Henick and two senior executives departing and Anna Sayre stepping in as interim CMO while Rob Caruso leads its Ventura TV platform. BBC Studios launched BBC Player, a rights‑cleared streaming...
MLS Pens New Deal to Get Greater Insights Into Brand Exposure and Fan Engagement
Major League Soccer has inked a multi‑year agreement with Vision Insights to integrate its Decoder Media platform, an AI‑driven tool that scans broadcasts and flags sponsor logos in real time. The system will generate a visibility index for MLS and...
Martech in 2026: The Shift Toward Data-Centric Engagement Platforms
Martech in 2026 is defined by data‑centric engagement platforms that fuse data, analytics, automation and personalization into a single ecosystem. The shift eliminates siloed tools, giving marketers a unified view of every customer touchpoint from web to in‑store. AI and...
Nectar Social and Reddit Announce Strategic Data Partnership
AI‑native social commerce platform Nectar Social has entered a strategic data partnership with Reddit, gaining access to the Reddit Data API. The integration allows enterprise brands to pull real‑time conversations from over 100,000 Reddit communities and combine them with data...
YouTube Cuts Affiliate Shopping Threshold Eligibility to 500 Subscribers as Platform Race Heats Up
YouTube announced on March 25, 2026 that creators need only 500 subscribers—down from 1,000—to join its Shopping affiliate program, which lets them tag products and earn commissions. The reduction applies across Shorts, long‑form video, and Live, but creators must still...
From ₹20L to 8‑Figure Months with Automated Ads
Since 2015, I’ve built 3 businesses and helped scale 9 online ventures with my team spread across India and beyond. We’ve generated over ₹150 crore in revenue. Now, I help ecommerce and business owners go from ₹20L–25L to 8 figure per month...
Rare Perth Brings Media Capability Fully In-House as the Final Step in Integrated Agency Model
Perth’s largest independent creative communications firm Rare has fully brought its media capability in‑house, ending its licensing agreement with Hearts & Science. The integration folds planning, buying and partnership functions into Rare’s Client Solutions unit, completing a three‑year restructuring that...
The Washington Post’s Arc XP Adds TollBit to Help Publishers Make Money From AI Bot Traffic
The Washington Post’s Arc XP platform is integrating TollBit to let publishers block and charge AI bots that scrape their content. AI‑bot traffic has surged, with a 300% year‑over‑year rise and a ratio of one bot for every 31 human visits...
Ford, Nissan and State Farm Are Embedding Their Brands in Sports as They Chase Fandoms
Ford, Nissan and State Farm are moving beyond traditional sports sponsorships by creating original, brand‑centric content that lives within streaming and digital platforms. Ford’s "Bronco Off Course" pairs its SUV with a desert‑golf challenge, while Nissan’s "CarJitsu" stages jiu‑jitsu inside...
Email SEO Best Practices for Small Businesses
Email SEO blends email marketing with search‑engine optimization to amplify an ecommerce brand’s online visibility. While email content isn’t crawled by Google, the data it generates—click‑through rates, high‑intent keywords, and shareable assets—feeds SEO strategy and drives qualified traffic. Marketers can...
Prioritize the Right Audience over Viral Reach
This reel has gotten more reach than any of my reels in years. I could keep posting content like this to appease the algorithm but it has almost nothing to do with my business. I'd rather reach less people, as...
Coca-Cola’s New Campaign Challenges Japan to Separate the Fizz From the Sizz
Coca‑Cola Japan launched the “Fizz or Sizz” campaign, a sound‑based guessing game that asks consumers to tell whether they hear the fizz of a Coke or the sizzle of karaage. The activation runs for a week across radio, digital out‑of‑home,...
SharkNinja Powers Sales Surge Through Retail Media Campaign via Zitcha and Market Media
SharkNinja partnered with Zitcha and Market Media to run an always‑on retail media campaign across Noel Leeming’s in‑store screens, on‑site displays, EDMs and off‑site social ads. The full‑funnel effort generated more than 830,000 impressions, 6,400 clicks and delivered a return...
Sinch Mailgun Report: Companies Are Leaving Email Performance on the Table
Sinch Mailgun’s Email Impact Report 2026, based on 400 billion emails and a survey of 1,200+ senders, reveals that 18% of messages fail to reach inboxes, jeopardizing up to a fifth of potential ROI. While 78% of respondents deem email critical, only...
Add One Extra Offer, Earn 50% More
5 ways to monetize a paid newsletter beyond subscriptions: 1. Template packs 2. Monthly subscription 3. Paid webinars 4. Low-ticket upsells in welcome emails 5. Quarterly digital product drops Most writers would *easily* take home 50% more money just adding one of these.
Canva Acquires Ortto, Simtheory to Complete Marketing Stack
Canva Buys the Marketing Stack It Was Missing: Ortto, Simtheory, and the Bet on Canva Grow https://t.co/u3vP4WiL3Q
#ThisWeek on MarkLives MEDIA: Nick Grubb on Kagiso Connect • #NextWeek: WhatsApp in the Media Mix
Kagiso Connect CEO Nick Grubb announced the company’s strategic move beyond its radio roots into insurance, lifestyle services, and data analytics. The shift reflects broader ad‑spend migration toward diversified, performance‑driven channels. Grubb highlighted that these new verticals will leverage the firm’s...
HubSpot vs RecurPost 2026: Which Platform Actually Helps Ecommerce Brands Grow?
HubSpot Marketing Hub and RecurPost are pitted against each other as the go‑to platforms for ecommerce marketers in 2026. HubSpot offers an all‑in‑one suite that merges ads, email, landing pages, CRM data and AI‑driven automation, enabling revenue‑linked reporting. RecurPost focuses...
IAB Hunts Down Speakers For MeasureUP 2026
IAB Australia has opened speaker submissions for MeasureUp 2026, its 10th‑year media measurement conference scheduled for 2 September 2026 in Sydney. The event will showcase the first wave of findings from the Future of Measurement project and feature ten curated sessions plus new...
When Everything Looks Like AI, Being Real Becomes the Advantage
Brands are confronting a flood of AI‑generated content, which now accounts for roughly 57% of online material. A Gartner survey shows 68% of U.S. consumers frequently question whether digital ads are real, and half prefer brands that avoid generative AI....
For Creators – What Brands Actually Look For In Creator Partnerships
Brands now prioritize niche alignment, authentic engagement, content consistency, audience demographics, and professionalism over raw follower counts. Nano and micro creators (1K‑100K followers) consistently out‑perform macro influencers on engagement and trust, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub 2026 Benchmark Report....
Belong Turns Reddit Hacks Into National Media Campaign via OMD and Pembleton
Belong, an Australian telecom brand, launched the “Simple Solutions” national campaign with OMD and Pembleton, converting Reddit conversations into a media‑led showcase of its “Just BE” platform. The activation curates authentic community‑sourced advice and amplifies it across Reddit, out‑of‑home billboards...
JCDecaux Lands At Western Sydney Airport
JCDecaux has won a ten‑year advertising contract for the new Western Sydney International (WSI) Airport, taking charge of 27 fully digitised out‑of‑home assets across the terminal and surrounding roadways. The airport, designed by Zaha Hadid and partners, is slated to open...
AI‑automated SEO Agency Scales Profits and Efficiency
Automating every single action of my SEO agency with AI so that I can make more money with each of the different pieces of the puzzle. That's how you want to make money with Claude Cowork and Code. Trimming down so that...
YouTube Tests 90-Second Unskippable Ads on CTV
YouTube is piloting 90‑second unskippable ads for content streamed on connected‑TV (CTV) devices. The test follows earlier experiments with hour‑long ad blocks that only appear when ad‑blockers are detected. YouTube’s CTV audience now exceeds a billion hours per day, putting...
GrowthRise Mastermind Recap Apr 7, 2026
The GrowthRise Mastermind call on April 7, 2026 tackled five core B2B marketing challenges. Participants learned to treat LinkedIn thought leadership as a demand‑generation tactic measured with view‑through and API‑based conversion tracking. The panel outlined a cost‑effective media mix—leveraging Meta for cheap...
TikTok Launches Updated Integration for Wix Users
TikTok has released an updated integration for Wix, now available through the Wix App Market, that lets merchants connect their sites directly to TikTok for Business. The upgrade simplifies adding the TikTok Pixel and Events API, enabling real‑time visitor data...
Snapchat Makes a Push for Snapcodes as a Marketing Tool
Snapchat is promoting its Snapcodes—a branded QR‑code format that embeds logos and links to interactive experiences—as a core tool for advertisers. Available since 2017, Snapcodes now support AR lenses, instant coupons, and detailed performance analytics. The company argues that these...