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 orders to personalize recommendations within the Discover feed. Merchants gain AI tools such as a virtual store manager for performance monitoring, while drivers receive voice‑assistant routing help. The rollout aims to shift brand discovery from external search and social platforms to Grab’s superapp ecosystem.
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...
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...
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...
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...
#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...
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....
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...
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...
Canva Acquires Simtheory and Ortto in a Twin Deal Aimed at Turning a Design Tool Into an End-to-End Work Platform
Canva announced the simultaneous acquisition of Simtheory, an agentic AI collaboration platform, and Ortto, a customer‑data and marketing‑automation suite. Both firms were founded by Australian brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will now lead Canva’s AI and marketing‑technology groups. The...
Top 7 Local Businesses That Need SEO Services
Local service firms—from cleaners to lawyers—are losing leads because they aren’t visible in Google’s local results. The article explains how local SEO places businesses in front of high‑intent customers at the exact moment they search, turning organic rankings into a...
JCDecaux Wins Advertising Tender for Western Sydney International Airport, Sydney’s New 24-Hour Airport
JCDecaux has been awarded the advertising contract for Western Sydney International Airport, slated to open in October 2026. The long‑term deal will see the French out‑of‑home leader install a premium digital out‑of‑home (DOOH) network across the airport’s internal and external...
Whitney Leavitt Says This Utah Company Is the New Stanley Cup
HydroJug, a Utah‑based water‑bottle maker, is being hailed as the new Stanley cup after a design tweak—flexible, lock‑able straws—won over celebrity Whitney Leavitt and Gen Z consumers. The brand surged 9,032% since its 2017 launch, hitting over $10 million in revenue within...
Disney, Google Seek Dismissal Of Children's Privacy Claims
Disney and Google are asking a California federal judge to dismiss a class‑action lawsuit that accuses them of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by failing to label child‑directed YouTube videos as “Made for Kids,” which allegedly enabled targeted...
‘Influencer Marketing Is Replacing The Role TV Once Played’
Influencer marketing is rapidly eclipsing traditional television as the primary channel for brand building, a trend highlighted at a recent gathering of digital creators hosted by Sunshine Socials. Two young marketers shared data showing that influencer‑driven campaigns deliver higher engagement...
What Most Brands Get Wrong Measuring Influencer Marketing ROI
Influencer marketing ROI should be measured by engagement, user‑generated content, intent signals, and retail impact rather than mere impressions. Brands that focus on engagement rates above 1% and total interaction volume capture genuine consumer interest. Leveraging UGC not only reduces...
Current TikTok Trends to Try in 2026
TikTok now serves as the primary discovery engine for 61% of its users, a rate 1.5 × higher than other platforms. The 2026 trend forecast reframes trends as early signals of shifting consumer behavior, emphasizing real‑process videos, search‑led answer content, comment‑driven...
AI Bot Traffic Surged 300%, Hitting Publishers Hardest: Report
Akamai’s latest report reveals AI‑bot traffic surged 300 % in 2025, with publishers hit hardest. Users increasingly rely on AI chat interfaces, generating zero‑click experiences that divert traffic from organic search. The shift has slashed pageviews, raised infrastructure costs, and weakened...
Leveraging Google Ads for Local Businesses: Tactics to Dominate Your Market
Local businesses need a different Google Ads strategy than national brands because search intent is immediate and budgets are tight. The article outlines six tactical levers—geo‑bid layering, hyper‑local RLSA structures, call‑only ad scheduling with conversion thresholds, asset‑level creative pruning, time‑based...
“The Rate of Change Is Exponential”: Nick Fletcher on Consumer Journeys, Tracking and Industry Convergence
Nick Fletcher, SVP EMEA at Rakuten Advertising, warned that the pace of change in digital marketing is now exponential, driven by AI‑powered consumer tools and fragmented journeys. Marketers are struggling with unclear signals as traditional deterministic tracking falters, prompting a...
Google Tests Swipeable Location Carousel in Search Ads
Google is piloting a swipeable carousel within search ads that consolidates multiple business locations into a single, scrollable unit. The carousel displays key details such as ratings and proximity, letting users swipe through options without leaving the results page. Early...
Google Launches Developer Hub for Ads and Measurement Tools
Google unveiled an Advertising and Measurement Developers Hub, a single portal that aggregates documentation, tools, and support for its ad‑tech suite. The hub brings together resources for the Google Ads API, Google Analytics, AdMob, and Google Ad Manager, organized by...
Google Rolls Out Onboarding Guide for Universal Commerce Protocol
Google has released an onboarding guide for its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) within Merchant Center, enabling merchants to embed checkout directly into AI‑driven search experiences like Gemini. The guide walks merchants through technical integration, interest‑form submission, and sandbox testing before...
Meta Simplifies Pixel Setup with Official Google Tag Manager Template
Meta Platforms introduced an official Google Tag Manager (GTM) template for the Meta Pixel, eliminating the need for third‑party workarounds. The template leverages existing GA4 dataLayer events and automatically maps key e‑commerce actions, streamlining cross‑platform tracking. By reducing duplicate tagging...
Is Adobe Bringing AI-Driven Automation to Marketo?
Adobe is expected to announce a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Marketo Engage at its upcoming Summit in Las Vegas. An MCP server acts as a bridge between AI tools and data, allowing marketers to issue natural‑language prompts to create...
Quantilope Launches ‘Ad Optimizer’: Leveraging AI to Bridge the Gap Between Creative Intuition and Brand Strategy
Quantilope has introduced Ad Optimizer, an AI‑driven research tool that evaluates advertising creatives frame‑by‑frame against Category Entry Points. The platform analyzes visual and audio elements, delivering actionable recommendations and intuitive dashboards within hours. By integrating this capability into its Consumer...
Refining an Audience Can Sometimes Lead to Decreased ROI. Audience Expansion Can Help to Mitigate the Problem
Marketers often assume that tightening audience criteria improves lead‑generation performance, but excessive refinement inflates cost‑per‑lead and erodes long‑term ROI. Charlie Swift argues that the real lever is expanding to like‑minded, adjacent audiences while anchoring decisions to dollar‑based outcomes rather than...
Well Spirit Collective Bets That Trust Outlasts Scale in the Wellness Creator Market
Well Spirit Collective, a women‑owned, BIPOC‑led Los Angeles agency, prioritizes selective partnerships over volume, believing trust outweighs scale in the wellness creator market. COO Haley Oberon, who joined in 2021, has grown the firm by refusing misaligned deals, even when...
Publicis, Microsoft Partner On Agentic Marketing
Microsoft and Publicis Groupe have deepened their alliance to create a full‑stack marketing platform that unites legacy software, AI agents and identity‑based data. Leveraging Microsoft Azure AI, Office 365 and Copilot tools, the solution will run on Publicis’ cloud‑native Slingshot...
The Living Room’s Front Page: Why Home Screen Ads Matter
Home screen advertising is becoming the new front page of television, offering advertisers a high‑attention, native environment. Studies from LG, Omnicom and Telly show double‑digit attention gains, lower media waste and up to a 250% lift in brand recall versus...
Google Confirms March 2026 Core Update Is Complete via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google confirmed that its March 2026 core update finished rolling out on April 8 after a 12‑day rollout that met its two‑week target and was faster than the December 2025 update. The update followed a rapid 20‑hour spam update and a Discover‑only core...
GEO Was Invented On Sand Hill Road
The article exposes Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) as a venture‑capital‑driven hype rather than a genuine technological shift. Andreessen Horowitz’s May 2025 blog post seeded the term to promote portfolio tools, while fabricated memos and inflated statistics were amplified by engagement farmers....
Podscribe Announces SiriusXM Radio Airchecks, Podcaster Logins, and Automated Pixel Email Scheduling to Enhance Audio Attribution and Reporting
Podscribe unveiled three major upgrades—SiriusXM Radio Airchecks, automated pixel email scheduling, and podcaster‑specific logins—to tighten audio ad attribution and streamline reporting. The SiriusXM aircheck feature delivers verified, timestamped proof of ads on satellite radio, closing a long‑standing measurement gap. Automated...