News•Feb 4, 2026
Marketing Email Campaigns Reflected Tariffs, TikTok Trends in 2025
Omnisend’s 2025 analysis shows that three‑quarters of marketing email campaigns referenced tariffs or broader trade‑policy news, underscoring how supply‑chain costs dominate brand messaging. Thirteen percent of those emails highlighted “Made in USA” to reassure shoppers about product origin and pricing stability. TikTok trends heavily shaped internet‑related mentions, with the Stanley Cup craze accounting for over half of that activity, followed by Labubu and Dubai chocolate. Brands that contextualize price shifts are positioning themselves as transparent partners in a tariff‑sensitive market.
By Retail Customer Experience
News•Feb 4, 2026
‘Incestuous’ and ‘Harmful’ Mobile Ad Ripped Down by ASA
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a mobile ad for the game Animals Solitaire: Protect after finding it promoted a potentially incestuous scenario and objectified a step‑daughter character. The ad featured a lingerie‑clad woman with text suggesting sexual...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 4, 2026
Samsung Ads Expands Integration with Amazon DSP Into Europe
Samsung Ads announced that its premium Samsung TV Plus inventory is now available to marketers through Amazon DSP across Europe, extending the existing U.S. and Canada integration. Samsung TV Plus, the free ad‑supported streaming service on Samsung Smart TVs, serves...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 4, 2026
IG Turns to AI to Transform Marketing Compliance
IG Group has partnered with fintech compliance platform Adclear to embed AI‑driven checks across its UK and Ireland marketing and product content. The technology automatically scans promotions for finprom rule breaches, flagging required edits and accelerating approvals. In the first...
By Finextra
News•Feb 4, 2026
Hey Papi Promotions Launches AI Marketing Services to Help Businesses and Organizations Get Discovered on AI Platforms
Hey Papi Promotions, an award‑winning Christian digital agency, announced AI Marketing Services designed to make businesses, churches, nonprofits and event organizers discoverable on AI chatbot platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. The offering blends ethical, values‑driven marketing...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 4, 2026
Marketers Have the Data. Audience+ Finally Puts It to Work.
Stirista launched Audience+, a next‑generation audience platform that consolidates first‑party data, third‑party identity graph information, and website interactions into a single workspace. The tool offers real‑time audience building, multichannel activation and built‑in compliance safeguards, aiming to eliminate data silos that...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 4, 2026
AI Surpasses Google: 53% Of Marketers Turn To AI Over Search Engines For Information
A CoSchedule survey of 900 marketers reveals that 53% now turn to AI tools for information discovery, overtaking the 35% who still rely on Google search. This marks the first time AI has surpassed Google as the primary research source...
By AiThority
News•Feb 4, 2026
CoSchedule Expands Social Media Management Capabilities With Mobile Publishing To Every Network
CoSchedule has upgraded its mobile app to let users publish content to every major social network, adding support for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Mastodon, and Google My Business. The enhancements mirror the desktop experience, offering improved previews, color‑coded labels, first‑comment insertion,...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 4, 2026
Co-Op Price-Match Ad Banned After Aldi Complaint
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued three rulings on Co‑op’s price‑match campaign that compared its "Everyday Essentials" to Aldi. While two complaints – about the overall clarity of the claim and the completeness of the product list – were...
By Retail Gazette
News•Feb 4, 2026
When Shoppers Become the Audience: How Retail Theatre Is Rewriting the Store
Retail theatre is shifting stores from pure transaction hubs to staged experiences, where staff act as cast and purchases become props. In Melbourne, the MC Takeaway pop‑up replaces food with plush collectibles, turning a simple order into a nostalgic performance....
By Inside Retail Australia
News•Feb 4, 2026
The Modern Retail Marketing Summit Heads to Huntington Beach This April
The Modern Retail Marketing Summit will convene top brand and retailer marketers in Huntington Beach from April 20‑22, spotlighting how companies are navigating rapid shifts in SEO, influencer, and AI-driven channels. Speakers include ThredUp’s SVP Kristen Brophy, Thrive Market’s CMO Amina Pasha, PacSun’s CMO...
By Modern Retail
News•Feb 3, 2026
X Adds Images to In-Stream Polls
X has launched a new feature that lets users attach images to each option in in‑stream polls. The visual poll format mirrors similar tools on platforms like Facebook, aiming to make polls more eye‑catching and interactive. Users add images via...
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 3, 2026
How to Turn Packaging Into a Revenue Driver (Not Just Another Cost)
Packaging is no longer a hidden expense but a strategic growth lever. By treating packaging like a marketing asset, brands can boost conversion rates, lower customer acquisition costs, and increase average order value. Real‑world tests—such as a beauty brand’s $1.00...
By Total Retail
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News•Feb 3, 2026
GrowthRise Mastermind Recap Feb 3, 2026
The GrowthRise Mastermind on February 3, 2026 highlighted three core challenges for B2B marketers: low demo show‑up rates, confusion between demand generation and capture, and inefficient platform spending. Experts advised retargeting engaged audiences, layering educational content before live demos, and separating US‑Canada...
By GrowthRise
News•Feb 3, 2026
Microsoft Launches Publisher Content Marketplace for AI Licensing
Microsoft Advertising unveiled the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), a platform where publishers can license premium articles and media to AI developers and receive usage‑based payments. The system lets publishers set licensing terms while AI builders discover content for grounding specific...
By Search Engine Land
News•Feb 3, 2026
Google Updates Googlebot File Size Limit Docs via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google has reorganized its documentation, moving default file size limits to the broader crawler overview and refining Googlebot‑specific limits on its own page. The crawler infrastructure now lists a 15 MB default limit for all crawlers, while Googlebot is capped at...
By Search Engine Journal
News•Feb 3, 2026
Downloads of TikTok Alternatives Slow in the US
TikTok’s U.S. joint venture resolved a data‑center outage, restoring service after a week of zero‑view counts and restricted searches. The brief controversy sparked a surge in downloads for alternatives like UpScrolled and Skylight Social, but both have since slipped back...
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 3, 2026
LinkedIn Shares Key Trends in B2B Marketing
LinkedIn’s latest B2B marketing report highlights a shift toward human‑centric content, emphasizing video, events, and creator‑driven storytelling. The platform reports that 75% of decision‑makers view thought‑leadership pieces as more trustworthy than traditional product materials. Employee advocacy amplifies reach, with staff...
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 3, 2026
Arc’teryx Brings on Tommy Hilfiger Vet as First Chief Brand Officer
Arc’teryx has appointed Avery Baker, a former Tommy Hilfiger chief brand officer, as its first chief brand officer. Baker will oversee global brand strategy, marketing, communications and a new consumer‑experience team, reporting to CEO Stuart Haselden. The move coincides with the...
By Retail Dive
News•Feb 3, 2026
Machines Are Your Content’s New Audience
The episode explores how AI is reshaping content creation and consumption, introducing the new Business‑to‑Agent (B2A) model alongside B2B and B2C. It highlights that while many firms adopt generative AI, legacy workflows and siloed repositories limit impact, leading to wasteful,...
By Forrester Generative AI
News•Feb 3, 2026
Clutch Play: Advance Auto Parts Shifts New Loyalty Program Into Gear
Advance Auto Parts has introduced a three‑tier Advance Rewards loyalty program, replacing its Speed Perks scheme. The free‑to‑join tiers—1st Gear, 2nd Gear and Top Gear—award five to ten points per dollar and allow members to stack up to $100 in...
By Retail TouchPoints
News•Feb 3, 2026
Introducing the Agentic Customer Platform
HubSpot unveils the Agentic Customer Platform, a unified system that embeds business context into AI agents to bridge the gap between AI output and real‑world results. The platform layers a Smart CRM that aggregates structured records, unstructured communications, and industry...
By HubSpot Marketing Blog
News•Feb 3, 2026
Best SMS Marketing Company and Provider Guide: Choosing a Reliable, Efficient, and Affordable Global Two-Way SMS Marketing Platform
Businesses across e‑commerce and finance rely on global SMS marketing platforms to deliver timely notifications, verification codes, and interactive messages. The guide evaluates providers on reliability, two‑way capability, true global coverage, operational efficiency, and scalable affordability, highlighting ITNIO TECH as the...
By TechBullion
News•Feb 3, 2026
Why Buyers Buy: Books for Marketers
The article curates a list of must‑read marketing books that blend academic rigor with practical tactics, covering consumer psychology, digital advertising, first‑party data, emotional targeting, and behavioral economics. Titles such as Gareth J. Harvey’s *Applied Consumer Psychology* and Lisa L....
By Practical Ecommerce
News•Feb 3, 2026
Basware Appoints Chief Marketing Officer
Basware announced the appointment of Kira Mondrus as its new Chief Marketing Officer, joining the executive team reporting to CEO Jason Kurtz. Mondrus brings over 20 years of B2B technology marketing experience, most recently scaling Tricentis from $13 million to more than $500 million in...
By Finextra
News•Feb 3, 2026
Privy Acquires Sendlane to Strengthen Its Position as an Ecommerce Growth Platform
Privy announced the acquisition of Sendlane, an email and SMS marketing platform, to strengthen its unified ecommerce growth solution. The deal follows Privy’s 2023 purchase of Emotive and builds on a client base of more than 6,000 brands. Privy reports...
By MarTech Series
News•Feb 3, 2026
Google: Search Algorithms, Spam Detections & Policies Don't Fundamentally Change With AI Search
Google’s John Mueller told the SEO community that the rise of AI‑driven search does not fundamentally alter the core ranking algorithms, spam‑detection systems, or policy framework that have long governed Google Search. He emphasized that while the web is constantly...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 3, 2026
Bing Multi-Turn Search Rolls Out Worldwide
Microsoft has launched its multi‑turn search feature in Bing for users worldwide, extending a capability first tested in the United States last year. The new interface appears as a floating box at the bottom of the results page, allowing users...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 3, 2026
Walmart Connect Canada Academy Ad Certification Designed to Educate and Empower Advertisers
Walmart Connect Canada has launched the Walmart Connect Canada Academy Ad Certification, a free, self‑paced program designed to teach advertisers and partners the fundamentals of retail media and Sponsored Products on its platform. The certification includes two initial courses—Retail Media...
By Retail Insider Canada
News•Feb 3, 2026
Google's Top Crawling Challenges In 2025
Google’s 2025 crawling report, presented by Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt, highlights five primary URL‑parameter issues that strain Googlebot. Faceted navigation accounts for half of the problems, followed by action parameters, irrelevant tracking strings, WordPress‑generated URLs, and miscellaneous encoding errors....
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 3, 2026
Google: Don't Spend Too Much Time On Redirects Analysis For SEO
Google’s John Mueller warned that exhaustive redirect‑chain analysis is unnecessary for most sites, noting that problematic redirects and CSP settings are usually visible in a standard browser. He emphasized that simple tools like the Redirect Path extension can surface these...
By Search Engine Roundtable
News•Feb 3, 2026
How to Structure Pages for AEO and Answer Engines: A Quick-Start Guide
Consumers now pose questions directly to answer engines like ChatGPT, forcing marketers to move beyond traditional SEO and adopt Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). The guide explains how to structure pages—using explicit H1s, early TL;DR sections, question‑based headings, concise lists, and...
By HubSpot Marketing Blog
News•Feb 3, 2026
‘Ill-Prepared and Work Shy’ Graduates Being Left Behind
A Regent’s University London study of 552 recruiters reveals that recent marketing and advertising graduates lack the work ethic and soft‑skill maturity employers demand. Strong work ethic, communication, decision‑making and accountability rank as the top missing competencies, while 82% of...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 3, 2026
Brand Building: How Lowe’s Is Transforming Into a Culture-Driven, AI-Powered Lifestyle Brand
Lowe’s is repositioning from a traditional home‑improvement retailer to a culture‑driven, AI‑enabled lifestyle brand. The shift reflects a broader view of the home as a space for personal expression, supported by AI tools that help associates and shoppers visualize projects....
By Adweek AI
News•Feb 3, 2026
WordPress Publishes AI Guidelines To Combat AI Slop via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
WordPress has released a set of AI usage guidelines aimed at ensuring contributions remain transparent, GPL‑compatible, and of high quality. The five principles require contributors to take responsibility for AI‑assisted work, disclose any AI involvement in pull‑request descriptions, ensure AI‑generated...
By Search Engine Journal
News•Feb 3, 2026
“Everybody Wants to Win”
Seth Godin argues that the blanket claim ‘everyone wants to win’ oversimplifies human motivation. He shows that personal circumstances, priorities, and individual definitions of success shape behavior, making uniform measurement unreliable. By clarifying what ‘win’ means for each person and...
By Seth’s Blog
News•Feb 3, 2026
‘Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid’: Pot Noodle ‘Slurp’ Returns
Unilever’s Pot Noodle has re‑introduced its infamous “slurp” sound in a new advertising campaign developed with Adam & Eve TBWA. The 30‑second cinema spot, set among horror‑movie fans, emphasizes the brand’s “Nothing Satisfies Like Pot Noodle” platform and will run...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 3, 2026
Brands up Loyalty Spend as ROI, Data and Retention Soar
Brands are channeling more than half of their marketing budgets—51.5%—into loyalty and CRM programs, driven by a third‑year streak of rising returns. The Antavo Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026 shows an average ROI of 5.3:1, with 83% of program owners...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 3, 2026
Elvis Is King as Next 15 Takes Axe to House 337 Brand
Next 15 has retired the House 337 brand, folding it into its longer‑standing Elvis agency as part of a “simplification strategy” that cut its portfolio from 22 to 12 brands. The change saw Elvis CEO Tanya Whitehouse step down after...
By DecisionMarketing
News•Feb 3, 2026
Q&A with Ashley Burkle, Director of Business Development at Identiv
In a February 2026 interview, Ashley Burkle, Director of Business Development at Identiv, outlined the company’s push to embed secure digital identities into consumer packaging through NFC, BLE and UHF RFID technologies. Identiv’s solutions turn everyday products into connected data sources,...
By The Retail Bulletin
News•Feb 3, 2026
Svedka Bets on AI and Its Fembot to Make Super Bowl History
Svedka, now owned by Sazerac, launched “Shake Your Bots Off,” the first primarily AI‑generated Super Bowl commercial and the inaugural vodka ad in the game. The spot revives the brand’s Fembot after a 12‑year hiatus, adds a new Brobot character,...
By Adweek AI
News•Feb 3, 2026
How Tree Hut Used AI to Turn Customer Feedback Into Product Insights and Quadruple Social Engagement
Tree Hut integrated an AI tool into its social channels to automatically process community comments and direct messages, creating a searchable database of consumer requests. The system quantified demand for the Cinnamon Dolce scent, revealing thousands of mentions that justified expanding the...
By Modern Retail
News•Feb 3, 2026
How Tree Hut Used AI to Turn Customer Feedback Into Product Insights and Quadruple Social Engagement
Tree Hut, a bath‑and‑body brand under Naterra, has deployed an AI‑powered community‑management platform to mine comments, DMs and other social signals. The technology transformed routine engagement into a data engine that quantifies product demand, sentiment and collaboration ideas, enabling the...
By Glossy
News•Feb 3, 2026
Bain on China’s More Selective Luxury Consumer and What It Means for Brands
Bain & Company’s 2025 China luxury market report shows the mainland personal luxury segment contracted 3‑5% in 2023 after a sharper decline in 2022. Growth is now limited to affordable‑luxury and ultra‑premium categories, while mid‑priced items lag. Beauty products posted...
By Inside Retail Australia
News•Feb 3, 2026
Publicis CEO: We Won’t ‘Marry’ Our Business to One Single AI Player
Publicis Groupe posted strong Q4 and 2025 results, with organic growth of 5.9% and net revenue reaching $17.18 billion, up 5.6% year‑over‑year. The firm generated $8 billion in new business, adding major accounts such as Coca‑Cola North America, Mars, and Nespresso. AI...
By Adweek AI
![2026 Social Media Benchmarks [Infographic]](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/thumbnails/5919526f829cda574f17133163905ad3.webp)
News•Feb 3, 2026
2026 Social Media Benchmarks [Infographic]
Socialinsider released its 2026 social media benchmarks, analyzing 70 million posts across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X. The report shows TikTok’s engagement rate climbing to 3.70%, a 49% year‑over‑year increase, while Instagram remains flat at 0.48% and Facebook slips to 0.15%....
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 2, 2026
The New Digital Paradigm: How Your Brand Will Be Discovered in 2026
AI-driven search is redefining brand discovery as generative engine optimization (GEO) replaces traditional SEO. By 2026, consumers will phrase queries conversationally, prompting retailers to craft natural language content. AI chatbots already influenced 17% of Cyber Week 2025 orders and will...
By Total Retail
News•Feb 2, 2026
AI Is Not the only Threat Menacing Big Tech
Big tech’s revenue engine—digital advertising—is losing its perceived recession‑proof status. While the AI boom dominates headlines, analysts warn that a future economic slowdown could sharply cut ad spend, exposing firms like Meta and Google to revenue volatility. The sector has...
By The Economist – Finance & Economics
News•Feb 2, 2026
TikTok Shares Insight Into Effective Ad Measurement Approaches
TikTok, together with Ebiquity, released a research report showing that its premium ad formats generate substantially higher revenue per thousand impressions than standard inventory. Econometric analysis of UK brands isolates TikTok’s incremental sales lift, revealing a 3‑4× revenue advantage for...
By Social Media Today
News•Feb 2, 2026
The Performance Marketing Channel Retailers Are Overlooking
Retailers are rethinking costly search and volatile paid‑social spend as consumer budgets tighten, yet many still treat cashback as a peripheral affiliate tactic. In markets like Singapore and Europe, cashback platforms drive tens of billions in sales and deliver 18‑25%...
By Total Retail