News•Feb 9, 2026
Snapchat Launches AI-Powered Lens Promotion With Gucci
Snapchat has introduced an AI‑powered Lens in partnership with luxury fashion house Gucci, allowing users to transform their selfies into six distinct Gucci outfit styles. The generative‑AI experience goes beyond traditional AR overlays by fully reimagining the user’s image rather than merely adding digital effects. The launch marks Gucci’s first AI Lens and showcases Snap’s move toward more immersive, brand‑centric experiences. The new tool also hints at a streamlined workflow for creating future lenses, as AI handles much of the visual transformation.
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 9, 2026
In an Era of Accountability, Third-Party Measurement Is Retail Media Networks’ Biggest Asset, Not Enemy
Retail media networks (RMNs) are facing budget pressures, making accountability essential. Brands increasingly demand third‑party measurement to validate incremental sales, visits, and ROAS across channels. Independent metrics reveal the “halo effect,” capturing off‑premise purchases that in‑house reporting misses. By embracing...
By Total Retail
News•Feb 9, 2026
Google AI Mode Doesn’t Favor Above-the-Fold Content: Study
A SALT.agency study of 2,318 URLs cited by Google’s AI Mode found no correlation between a text’s above‑the‑fold position and its likelihood of being quoted. Researchers measured pixel depth across travel, e‑commerce and SaaS verticals and observed citations from deep...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 9, 2026
A Preview of ChatGPT’s Ad Controls Just Surfaced
OpenAI has surfaced a detailed ad‑settings panel for ChatGPT, revealing separate History and Interests tabs, privacy safeguards, and user‑controlled personalization toggles. The interface assures advertisers never access chat content, IP addresses, or personal identifiers, and lets users delete ad data...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 9, 2026
Still Looking to WFH? You’ll Be Lucky as Roles Dry Up
Vestd’s Remote-friendly Industries Study finds only 5.3% of new marketing positions in the UK are fully remote, marginally above the 4.75% national average. Across 29 sectors, just 5% of 113,874 new listings offer full‑time work‑from‑home options, with financial services topping...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 9, 2026
Google On If A Younger Web Site Can Beat An Older Website In Search
John Mueller clarified that a website’s age is not a decisive ranking factor; success depends on the value it delivers. Older sites may have accumulated authority, but newer sites with modern architecture and quality content can compete. Mueller advises focusing...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 9, 2026
Google Preferred Sources Deeplink Button Is Broken
Google’s Preferred Sources deep‑link button, launched globally in December 2025, is currently malfunctioning. The button no longer auto‑populates the site URL, forcing users to type it manually. Multiple publishers have confirmed the issue across browsers, and Google’s Rajan Patel acknowledged...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 9, 2026
Google Ads API Developer Token Access Applications Delayed
Google announced that a surge in demand for Google Ads API developer tokens has created a backlog, delaying the review and approval of applications. The company has responded by adding extra reviewers and fast‑tracking select requests, but many developers still...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 9, 2026
TikTok Shop Buyers Expect 4x Faster Response than on Amazon
eDesk’s 2026 research shows TikTok Shop shoppers expect seller replies within 1.1 hours, nearly four times faster than Amazon and six times faster than eBay. The rapid‑fire environment of live‑stream commerce pushes retailers to answer questions within minutes or risk...
By ChannelX (formerly Tamebay)
News•Feb 9, 2026
Marketing Compliance in Cryptocurrency – Lessons for Martech
Cryptocurrency marketers, led by exchanges such as Binance, have made regulatory compliance a core design constraint rather than an after‑thought. By embedding automated approval workflows, jurisdiction‑aware messaging, and transparent disclosures into their martech stacks, they maintain scale while avoiding violations....
By Marketing Tech News
News•Feb 9, 2026
GUEST COMMENT Retail Media and Voice Commerce – the Power Duo Shaping Retail Growth
Dom Coleridge argues that pairing retail media networks with voice commerce creates a high‑impact growth engine for brands in 2026. Retail media captures shoppers at the moment they express purchase intent on platforms like Amazon and emerging retailer networks, delivering...
By InternetRetailing
News•Feb 9, 2026
Social Media Platforms Earn Billions From Scam Ads
European social media platforms earned nearly £3.8bn ($5.2bn) from scam ads in 2025, driven by almost one trillion impressions across eleven markets. Scam‑related posts represented about 10% of the 993bn ad views, inflating platform revenue while undermining user trust. Juniper...
By Infosecurity Magazine
News•Feb 9, 2026
Stepan Kazaryan on Search and Trust
Stepan Kazaryan argues that online search has become the primary trust filter, shaping perceptions before any direct interaction. He highlights that credibility now hinges on the structure and consistency of digital signals rather than volume or promotional activity. Neutral, informational...
By TechBullion
News•Feb 9, 2026
Rankpage Introduces Expanded AI-Driven SEO Offerings to Support Businesses of All Sizes Across Malaysia
Rankpage, a Malaysia‑based AI‑driven SEO agency, announced an expanded suite of AI‑powered search optimization services. The rollout includes a fortified Search Dominance Framework—featuring SERP‑Dominating Technology, Global AI Connectivity Backlink, and a Satellite Ecosystem—and tiered packages priced from RM1,500 to over...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 9, 2026
What Makes Commerce Media so Hot and How Fluent Embraces the Heat
Commerce media is emerging as the next evolution of retail media, unlocking a compounding effect that pairs expanded inventory with broader audience reach. Fluent highlights this dynamic through its Fluent Flywheel, which synchronizes customer acquisition and monetization across its network....
By Retail Dive
News•Feb 9, 2026
Weight Watchers Hires Media Shop to Bulk up Business
Weight Watchers International has appointed Omnicom’s Hearts & Science agency to run its international media planning and buying across nine markets, aiming to accelerate its digital‑first strategy after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The agency will handle both brand and performance...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 9, 2026
7 Insights From Washington Post’s Strategy To Win Back Traffic via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
The Washington Post announced staff reductions while unveiling a new strategy to recoup plummeting search traffic, which has dropped nearly 50% over three years. Executive editor Matt Murray emphasized listening to reader signals and building a stable content foundation that...
By Search Engine Journal
News•Feb 9, 2026
Alibaba’s Overloaded AI Chatbot Stops Issuing Coupons, Asks Shoppers for Patience
Alibaba’s Qwen AI chatbot temporarily stopped issuing coupons after an overwhelming response to its Spring Festival promotion. The campaign, part of a 3‑billion‑yuan plan, generated 10 million orders in the first nine hours, prompting the bot to announce overload on Weibo....
By Indian Express AI
News•Feb 9, 2026
Blind Boxes Are Here to Stay, and Brands Are Leaning Into the Mystery Product Format
Blind boxes are cementing their place in retail, with beauty brands leading the surge. Gisou, Emi Jay, Ipsy and major retailers like Walmart have launched limited‑edition mystery boxes that sell out within days. Ipsy’s monthly mystery bags posted a 30%...
By Modern Retail
News•Feb 9, 2026
Canadian Retail News From Around The Web For February 9, 2026
Canadian retail headlines on Feb 9, 2026 highlight heightened regulatory pressure, aggressive discount expansion, and a surge in experiential initiatives. Canadian Tire agreed to pay a $1.29 million fine for false‑pricing in Quebec, while Loblaw rolled out new Maxi discount stores and Walmart...
By Retail Insider Canada
News•Feb 9, 2026
How I Built Singapore’s 8th Fastest-Growing Company without Investors
In 2020 a 25‑year‑old ex‑agency manager founded KPI Media on a bold promise: refund half of any retainer if key performance indicators aren’t met. The agency operates solely with month‑to‑month contracts and a performance‑based guarantee, remaining fully bootstrapped. Five years...
By e27
News•Feb 8, 2026
Why Australian CMOs Are Turning to Academia for Marketing Answers
The Marketing Analytics Symposium Sydney (MASS) returns on 24 February 2026 to bridge the widening gap between academic marketing research and Australian CMOs facing intense budget scrutiny and AI implementation challenges. Professors from UNSW, Goethe, Northwestern and Vienna will present...
By Marketing Magazine (Australia)
News•Feb 8, 2026
AI Content Generation for SEO: Pros, Cons & How to Use It
AI content generators can dramatically accelerate the drafting phase of SEO copy, but they are not a shortcut to higher rankings. Effective results depend on precise prompts, structured outlines, and rigorous human editing to meet E‑E‑A‑T standards. Neil Patel’s study...
By Neil Patel’s Blog
News•Feb 8, 2026
Meta’s Recurring Marketing Messages API Will End This Week
Meta will retire its recurring marketing messages feature on its Messenger API on February 10, 2026, forcing businesses to stop using the existing follow‑up notification flow. The new Marketing Messages API introduces stricter limits, extending the cooldown period from 24 to 48...
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 8, 2026
YouTube Shares Insights Into NFL Engagement
YouTube’s latest Culture and Trends report reveals that NFL content drives massive engagement on the platform, with fans flocking to highlights, game clips, and halftime moments. The study shows that 30 % of NFL‑related views occur during the off‑season, underscoring year‑round...
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 7, 2026
Amanda Farley Talks Broken Pixels and Calm Leadership
Amanda Farley, CMO of Aimclear, discussed the pitfalls of broken tracking infrastructure and the broader need for data hygiene during episode 340 of PPC Live. She highlighted how a global campaign’s pixel failure revealed systemic onboarding and validation weaknesses, prompting...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 6, 2026
From Svedka to Anthropic, Brands Make Bold Plays with AI in Super Bowl Ads
The 2026 Super Bowl featured a wave of AI‑centric ads, with brands like Svedka debuting a primarily AI‑generated commercial and Anthropic using its spot to mock OpenAI. Meta highlighted AI‑powered glasses, while Amazon introduced Alexa+ through a tongue‑in‑cheek narrative. Ring...
By TechCrunch AI
News•Feb 6, 2026
How to Automate Google Business Profile Management with Semrush
Semrush Local’s GBP AI Agent automates core Google Business Profile tasks such as posting updates, uploading photos, and replying to reviews. The tool begins with an audit that evaluates current posting frequency, photo activity, description quality, and keyword relevance, then...
By Semrush Blog
News•Feb 6, 2026
It Just Got Easier for Claude to Check in on Your WordPress Site
WordPress introduced a new Claude connector that lets site owners share back‑end data with Anthropic’s chatbot on a read‑only basis. Users can select which data to expose and revoke access at any time. The integration enables queries such as traffic...
By TechCrunch AI
News•Feb 6, 2026
Performance Max Built-In A/B Testing for Creative Assets Spotted
Google has launched a beta feature that lets advertisers run structured A/B tests on creative assets within a single Performance Max asset group. Users can define control and treatment asset sets, split traffic—commonly 50/50—and run the experiment for several weeks...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 6, 2026
Google Ads Adds a Diagnostics Hub for Data Connections
Google Ads has introduced a diagnostics hub within Data Manager that monitors the health of data connections such as offline conversions, CRM imports, and tagging. The centralized dashboard assigns status labels—Excellent, Good, Needs attention, or Urgent—and provides real‑time alerts for...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 6, 2026
Saks Global Brings Back Neiman Marcus Exec to Oversee Marketing, E-Commerce
Luxury retailer Saks Global has appointed Cheryl Han as its new Chief Marketing & Digital Officer, a role that consolidates marketing strategy and e‑commerce oversight. Han, a former Neiman Marcus executive, previously held senior digital positions at both Neiman Marcus...
By Retail Dive
News•Feb 6, 2026
Freemans Hails ‘Exceptional’ Growth over Golden Quarter
Freemans reported an "exceptional" 12% sales surge in the four weeks to Christmas, driven by a first online‑only holiday advert that ran on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Over the 12‑week period to 2 January, total sales rose 9% after a 16%...
By The Retail Bulletin
News•Feb 6, 2026
3 Performance Max Updates for 2026
Google introduced three 2026 updates for Performance Max: Experiments that let advertisers run split‑tested campaigns against Shopping, Search, or Display; a new data exclusions feature that adds customer‑match and remarketing lists to the audience blocklist; and a Product Overlap view...
By Practical Ecommerce
News•Feb 6, 2026
How PR Teams Can Measure Real Impact with SEO, PPC, and GEO
PR measurement often stalls due to siloed teams and limited analytics resources. By partnering with SEO, PPC, and emerging Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) teams, PR can link media coverage to concrete customer actions. The article outlines a three‑step framework—connecting outreach...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 6, 2026
Google AI Mode Follow Up Search Suggestions
Google is testing a new set of follow‑up search suggestions within AI Mode results, displayed as short prompts in white bubbles beneath the AI‑generated answer. The layout replaces the earlier arrow‑based follow‑up prompts and resembles traditional query boxes, similar to...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 6, 2026
Bing Unshipping Frankenstein Recipes In Search
Microsoft Bing is removing its AI‑generated "Frankenstein recipes" feature after criticism that it mashed steps from multiple publishers into inaccurate suggestions, such as substituting ginger with mace in pho. The problematic feature sparked backlash from publishers like Inspired Taste, who...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 6, 2026
Report: ChatGPT & Perplexity Treat Structured Data As Text On A Page
A recent test by Mark Williams‑Cook showed that ChatGPT and Perplexity treat JSON‑LD schema markup as ordinary page text, extracting data even when the markup is invalid. The experiment used a fictitious company, DUCKYEA t‑shirts, and placed its address solely inside malformed...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 6, 2026
Opinion: In-Game Advertising Can ‘Enhance Relevance’
ITV introduced picture‑in‑picture advertising during the opening match of the 2026 Six Nations, using a split‑screen format that aired alongside live action. Ease Live CEO Kjetil Horneland argues this reflects a broader industry need to monetize premium sports rights without...
By TVBEurope
News•Feb 6, 2026
How CMOs and CEOs Are Rewriting the Rules of Leadership in the AI Era
ADWEEK convened a select group of CMOs and CEOs at Davos for its inaugural Marketing Vanguard Inspiration Excursion, partnering with Adobe and Microsoft. Over two days, participants explored agentic AI, ethical governance, brand evolution, and the necessity of C‑suite alignment...
By Adweek AI
News•Feb 6, 2026
Sacked Postie’s Start-Up Takes on Royal Mail and Whistl
Former Royal Mail postman Mark Redmond has launched The Private Postman, a start‑up that claims its Core One Step software can verify leaflet delivery down to the individual letterbox. The company now delivers over one million leaflets each week across...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 6, 2026
Consumers Approaching Valentine’s Day Comfortably and Intentionally: Lightspeed Commerce
Lightspeed Commerce’s latest consumer data shows Valentine’s Day is shedding traditional gifting pressure, with 62% of North American shoppers feeling little obligation to spend. Instead, more than a quarter are already purchasing gifts for themselves, and 57% say they spend...
By Retail Insider Canada
News•Feb 6, 2026
Bondi Sands Bets on Feeling, Not Forecasts, with ‘Summer Never Ends’
Bondi Sands launches the "Summer Never Ends" global platform, shifting its narrative from a seasonal tagline to a year‑round confidence mindset. The campaign relies on authentic, mood‑driven creative and diverse ambassadors, extending across social, OOH, digital and in‑store touchpoints. It...
By Inside Retail Australia
News•Feb 6, 2026
Mrge Releases New Industry Report “State of Commerce Advertising 1/2026”
mrge released its semi‑annual “State of Commerce Advertising 1/2026” report, highlighting a market shift from pure traffic provision to trusted authority. The study finds consumers increasingly rely on AI‑summarised results, making “zero‑click discovery” a critical factor. Only 11.3% of companies...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 6, 2026
Glossy Pop Newsletter: Why Are so Many Skin Care Brands Hitting the Slopes?
Beauty brands are turning ski resorts into experiential marketing stages, hosting influencer trips and multi‑year resort partnerships to showcase product performance in cold, high‑altitude conditions. Rhode’s Snow Club activation in Big Sky, Montana features top beauty creators and pre‑seeded product...
By Glossy
News•Feb 6, 2026
Affirm Details New AI Tool for Merchants
Affirm is piloting BoostAI, an AI‑driven tool that lets merchants A/B test promotional financing offers to identify the most effective rates and terms. Early adopters—47 enterprise clients and hundreds of SMBs—report a 5%‑15% lift in gross merchandise volume. The initiative...
By American Banker Technology
News•Feb 5, 2026
AI Can Make You Multilingual Overnight — Or Create Chaos Just As Fast
The episode explores how generative AI and machine translation are reshaping enterprise localization, turning multilingual content from a niche function into a pervasive capability across all business units. It warns that treating AI translation as a simple toggle leads to...
By Forrester Generative AI
News•Feb 5, 2026
DX3 2026 Reimagines Canada’s Leading Retail Conference
DX3 2026 will return to Toronto with a redesigned, intimate format that moves away from traditional trade‑show crowds toward senior‑level strategy sessions and curated networking. Under the Economic Club of Canada’s ownership, the conference positions itself as a thought‑leadership platform...
By Retail Insider Canada
News•Feb 5, 2026
Google Shows How To Check Passage Indexing via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
John Mueller clarified that Googlebot rarely hits a 2 MB HTML limit and that page size is not a primary factor for indexing. He emphasized that what matters is whether important passages are indexed, not the total bytes. Mueller suggested checking...
By Search Engine Journal
News•Feb 5, 2026
Threads Looks to Tap Into Super Bowl Engagement
Meta is turning the Super Bowl into a launchpad for Threads, installing a branded studio in the NFL media center to host podcasters and creators. The move aims to cement Threads as the go‑to venue for real‑time sports conversation, building...
By Social Media Today