The Advertising, Media, and PR Award Winners From the 30th Annual Webby Awards
The 30th annual Webby Awards announced winners in advertising, media and PR, highlighting the best digital campaigns across more than 100 categories. Jury‑selected honors went to brands such as Centivo, NikeSkims, LinkedIn, and Wieden+Kennedy, while a new AI category recognized Call a Pet for its machine‑learning driven activation. The awards showcase a mix of B2B, social impact, integrated, and real‑time campaigns that leveraged emerging tech and cultural moments. Full results, including People’s Voice winners, are available on the Webby Awards website.
Going Global? Contextual AI Needs To Be Your Strategy
US and UK brands expanding globally often rely on accidental attention, but contextual AI is essential. Eskimi’s research shows AI‑driven contextual targeting lifts attention per mille by 74% and reaches a 95% brand‑safety score, far above standard display and keyword...
How to Measure Demand Gen Creative Impact with Asset Uplift Tests
Google introduced asset uplift experiments for Demand Gen campaigns, letting advertisers run A/B tests that isolate the incremental impact of specific creative assets. The framework requires a minimum of 50 conversions, continuous budget, and a 50/50 split to achieve statistical...
Google: When It Comes To SEO, Nobody Knows Everything
Google’s search quality lead John Mueller reminded the community that SEO is not static and no one can claim complete mastery. He warned that self‑proclaimed “SEO gurus” often lack depth and can mislead practitioners. Mueller emphasized humility, acknowledging past mistakes,...
Google: You Can Do A Lot Of SEO That Don't Work & Still Do Ok
Google’s John Mueller reminded the SEO community that the discipline is inherently complex and resilient. He noted that practitioners can implement many tactics that ultimately have little impact and still maintain decent rankings. This underscores the difficulty of pinpointing which...
The Power of Creator and Brand Collaboration Put to the Test
At SMW 2026, Inmar Media’s Heather Riccobono demonstrated that creator‑led branded content can double sales lift, challenging the brand‑vs‑creator dichotomy. In a live 25‑minute UGC experiment, creator Hannah Lorsch shot and edited a dog‑tug‑toy photo with input from the audience...
‘Fastvertising’ Puts Real-Time Cultural Moments in Every Marketer’s Hands
Fastvertising leverages AI to let brands produce ads in minutes, matching the pace of viral cultural moments. The concept was highlighted by Fraser Woollard of MNTN, who cited a Nutella‑in‑zero‑gravity spot during the Artemis II mission as a real‑time win. AI...
DB Digital Appoints Piyush Thakur as Chief Revenue Officer
Dainik Bhaskar Group’s digital arm, DB Digital, has appointed Piyush Thakur as Chief Revenue Officer. Thakur, who spent nearly a decade at Inshorts and previously led its advertising business, will oversee ad revenue across DB Digital’s web and app properties. He reports to...
Mother Dairy Rides IPL Viewership with Targeted JioHotstar CTV Push
Mother Dairy has launched a high‑impact Connected TV (CTV) partnership with JioHotstar for IPL 2026, orchestrated by WPP Media. The campaign embeds the brand in live match feeds, pre‑show segments, and milestone moments such as half‑centuries and centuries. By leveraging...
JioHotstar Brings Purchase Intent-Led Ads to Streaming Platform
JioHotstar has rolled out a purchase‑intent advertising capability that ties streaming content to immediate product discovery. The solution uses aggregated, privacy‑safe data to form audience cohorts based on behavioural signals, moving beyond traditional demographic targeting. Instamart is the inaugural partner,...
Content Marketing Jobs Are Splitting in Two: Semrush
Semrush’s analysis of 8,000 U.S. content marketing job listings reveals a clear bifurcation of the role spectrum. Execution‑focused creator positions now account for about one‑third of openings, while senior leadership titles such as Head of Content have surged by more...
Groas Introduces a Fully Autonomous Approach to Google Ads Management by Groas
Groas unveiled a fully autonomous AI‑driven platform that handles every step of Google Ads management, from campaign creation to dynamic landing‑page testing, without human intervention. The system relies on a distributed network of specialized agents that process over 100,000 data...
AI Is The New Ad Space
Debra Aho Williamson, founder of Sonata Insights, argues that AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and retail assistants constitute a new media environment rather than just efficiency enhancers. She calls this “AI media,” where users can...
AI Is The New Ad Space
Debra Aho Williamson, founder of Sonata Insights, will keynote AdExchanger’s Programmatic AI conference in Las Vegas (May 18‑20). She argues that AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and retail assistants constitute a new media environment—“AI media”—that can guide consumers from query to...
Google Adds New Tasked-Based Search Features via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google rolled out three travel‑focused tools that push Search toward a task‑based model. Users can now toggle hotel price tracking to receive email alerts when rates fall, while AI Mode can launch an agent that calls nearby stores for real‑time...
12 Features Powering Affiliate Success with Affilka’s Affiliate Tracking Solutions
Affilka unveils a twelve‑feature affiliate tracking suite tailored for the iGaming sector, aiming to streamline partner management, payments, reporting and scalability. The platform integrates payment processors such as Skrill, Neteller, crypto and bank transfers, while offering flexible commission constructors for...
Signals in the Noise 2
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) released a new whitepaper, Signals in the Noise 2: Doing the Right Things, co‑authored by Work Research Partner Tony Regan and Barb CEO Justin Sampson. The paper warns that advertisers and agencies are increasingly dependent...
Axis Achieves Google Authorised Buyer Status, Expanding Premium Inventory Access for Partners
Axis, a multi‑product ad tech firm, has been granted Google Authorized Buyer status (Buyer ID 8045927652), giving it direct access to Google’s Ad Exchange. The accreditation confirms Axis meets Google’s strict standards for platform quality, financial health, and compliance. With this...
Retail Media Finds a New Signal: The Shopper’s State of Mind
Retail media is shifting from pure intent data to interpreting shoppers' cognitive and emotional states. Mental‑health experts highlight grocery trips as high‑stress decision points where fatigue, overload, and anxiety shape buying behavior. Platforms that can read in‑session signals—such as lingering,...
Index Exchange Welcomes DSPs Into New Cloud Infra, Bringing Bidders Closer to Ad Inventory
Index Exchange has launched Index Cloud, a neutral, containerized compute environment that lets demand‑side platforms (DSPs) run bidding logic directly within the supply‑side platform. The move aims to cut latency in programmatic auctions and lower operational costs. Bedrock Platform, an...
The Real Problem with Marketing Intelligence Isn’t Insight, It’s Execution. How Can AI Help?
The NinjaCat and UserEvidence report reveals that marketing intelligence is hampered more by execution bottlenecks than by lack of data. Marketers spend an average $26.2 million annually and juggle eight martech platforms plus three performance tools, yet only 37% have a...
The Deliverability Tax: Why Your Messages Are Disappearing
Marketers are seeing engagement drop not because of creative flaws but due to a growing "deliverability tax" that limits message visibility. MoEngage’s analysis of 40 billion messages shows behavior‑based pushes achieve 93% delivery versus 81% for generic broadcasts, with conversion rates...
Advanced TV Study 2026: Connected TV Becomes Primary Viewing Environment
The Advanced TV Study 2026, conducted by Azerion Austria and Goldvertise Media, finds that Connected TV (CTV) has become a core part of media consumption in Germany and Austria. Ninety‑four percent of German TV households own an internet‑enabled TV and...
Project Agora Brings Realize to North Africa, Expands Access to AI-Driven Performance Advertising
Project Agora has launched the AI‑driven performance platform Realize across North Africa, covering Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The service taps a network of more than 11,000 premium publishers and offers format‑agnostic ad placements, AI‑optimized bidding and predictive audience models....
Who Is Manufacturing the Faces We Trust?
Indian advertisers and brands are rapidly adopting AI‑generated digital spokespersons that can speak regional languages, adjust facial features, and deliver consistent messages without fatigue. Mankind Pharma announced a partnership to embed these generative systems across its marketing and multilingual communications,...
Marketing’s Ability to Game the System Is Diminishing: Anoop Manohar, Axis Bank
Axis Bank’s chief marketing officer Anoop Manohar argues that the era of blanket impressions is over, urging marketers to prioritize real engagement. He describes how the bank leverages AI‑driven real‑time signals to deliver personalized offers at key life milestones, while...
VML Singapore, Scoot and Singapore Tourism Board Turn Merlion Into Gen Z Travel Guide
VML Singapore, low‑cost carrier Scoot and the Singapore Tourism Board launched #MerlionMadeMeDoIt, a TikTok‑centric campaign that reimagines the Merlion as an 80s glam‑rock star to steer Gen Z travelers toward lesser‑known city spots. The initiative ran a five‑market contest—Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia,...
Why 94% of Marketing AI Fails?
The marketing technology landscape in 2026 shows a stark paradox: while 90.3% of companies claim to use AI, only 6.3% have fully integrated it into governed marketing stacks and just 23.3% have moved AI tools into production. Integration friction reaches...
More Brands Employing Affiliate and Partnership Marketing: IAB State of Nation Report
The IAB Australia released its 2026 Affiliate and Partnership Marketing State of the Nation Report, showing that affiliate programs are delivering strong commercial results for brands and agencies. Forty‑two percent of advertisers increased their affiliate spend over the past year,...
When AI Writes the Answer, Can Your Brand Still Earn Trust?
Marketers once relied on high search rankings to drive clicks and growth, but AI‑driven discovery platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity are shifting the focus to being cited within synthesized answers. In this new model, brand authority hinges...
Nielsen Gets More Heat
At the NAB Show, Nielsen was lampooned with a punching‑bag display as the ratings firm faces mounting criticism over its streaming measurement methods. Dan Rayburn, chair of the Streaming Summit, argued that the industry would be better off without Nielsen,...
Scape Turns Student-Inspired Stories Into National Campaign via Jane Doe Creation
Jane Doe Creation launched “You Had To Be There,” an integrated campaign for Scape that turns student‑inspired moments into national brand storytelling across YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Meta, Reddit and out‑of‑home. The mixed‑media films showcase everyday campus connections, from hallway greetings to shared...
Semrush Launches a Framework for Measuring Brand Visibility in AI Search as the Old SEO Playbook Breaks Down
Semrush unveiled a Brand Visibility Framework at Adobe Summit, introducing “Agentic Search Optimisation” to measure brand presence across AI‑generated answers, traditional search, and autonomous agents. The model draws on more than 213 million LLM prompts and highlights that organic click‑through rates...
Pinterest CPG Promotions Outperform Benchmark ROIs
Pinterest released research, commissioned by the platform and executed by Circana, that examined 17 matched market tests of Pin ads for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands across multiple regions. The study found that 82% of campaigns generated positive incremental ROI...
Kepler Taps Garcia To Lead Social, Entertainment, Culture Intelligence Efforts
Kepler announced Kim Garcia as Vice President, Head of Social, Entertainment and Culture, a role designed to expand the agency’s influencer‑marketing and cultural‑intelligence capabilities. Garcia arrives with nearly two decades of experience, including leadership stints at VaynerMedia, Tagger Media and...
Inside the Making of Peloton’s Viral Hudson Williams Ad
Peloton unveiled a new "Let Yourself Go" ad starring Hudson Williams dancing to David Bowie’s "Fame," directed by Bethany Vargas, whose résumé includes Lady Gaga’s "Abracadabra" video. The spot, rolling across TV, OTT, social and digital out‑of‑home in the U.S....
A Social Media Solution for Sparking Produce Sales
Social media is emerging as a powerful driver of produce sales, especially among Gen Z and millennial shoppers who spend over two hours daily on platforms. TikTok, YouTube and Instagram dominate meal‑inspiration sources for these younger consumers. Influencer‑led campaigns, such...
TikTok's Emerging Ad Formats Now Covered By Zefr
Zefr is extending its AI‑powered brand safety, suitability, viewability, and invalid‑traffic measurement to TikTok’s Search, Smart+ and TikTok Lite ad formats. The new integration lets advertisers verify safety across TikTok Search Feed, Search Results and automated traffic campaigns. It also...
How to Do AI SEO (GEO) in 2026? Compare Popular AI Visibility Checker in UK
Onrec evaluated three AI visibility checkers—BuildSOM, Profound, and Semrush—to determine the best solution for UK brands navigating Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) in 2026. The test used a multi‑regional, multilingual brand scenario covering 75 AI prompts across ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Google AIO...
All Things Creator Marketing with Becky Owen
Becky Owen, CMO of creator agency Billion Dollar Boy, explains why U.S. creator ad spend is expanding four times faster than the broader media market. She emphasizes that creators’ community‑driven, authentic approach delivers performance‑based results that traditional ads struggle to...
Wayvia Launches Shoppable Next Generation
Wayvia unveiled Shoppable Next Generation, an AI‑powered shoppable media platform that links every marketing touchpoint—display ads, social posts, email—to a real‑time purchase path. The solution surfaces live pricing and inventory from both physical and online retailers, and feeds confirmed sales...
Adobe Bets on Agentic AI to Rewrite SaaS for Customer Experience
Adobe unveiled its CX Enterprise suite at Adobe Summit, positioning the platform as a hub for agentic AI that orchestrates customer experiences across any tech stack. The offering combines customizable AI agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoints, and a new...
How Advertisers Are Thinking About Meta’s Affiliate Tool Rollout
Meta unveiled a suite of creator‑focused affiliate and checkout tools at Shoptalk, extending shoppable Reels on Instagram and product‑tagging on Facebook. The affiliate program, backed by partners such as Amazon, eBay, Temu, Shopee and Mercado Libre, lets creators earn commissions...
Focus on MarTech Integration, Not New Tools
B2B marketers are moving away from a "tool‑first" mindset, focusing instead on integrating existing MarTech platforms to unlock performance gains. While AI capabilities are proliferating across advertising, analytics and engagement tools, many firms adopt them without a clear strategic framework,...
Marketers Need to Stop Chasing Data and Start Harnessing Audience Signals
Marketers are urged to move beyond hoarding raw data and instead build a social‑intelligence loop that converts audience conversations into actionable insights. Hennessy outlined a five‑stage framework—conversation, detection, interpretation, activation, outcome—that feeds back into the data pool for faster response....
Consumers Are Taking a New Purchase Journey on Social
SMW 2026 research reveals that 82% of traditional search queries are fact‑seeking, while social search taps community advice to shape purchase decisions. The study highlights a "critical gap" where brands focus on factual answers but miss the emotional and comparative dialogue...
If Comments Are the New Frontline, How Is Your Brand Showing Up?
AI is becoming the frontline of social media engagement, with brands like Warner Bros. Discovery deploying AI to filter low‑value comments and beauty and CPG leaders using AI to discover where conversations happen. Teams aim to answer comments and DMs within 24 hours,...
Social Media Marketing Enters Its AI Intelligence Era
Viral Nation, a leading social media agency, has leveraged its 11‑year archive of 1.4 million video hours and 34 million posts to build AI tools that automate creator discovery, community management, and ROI measurement. Its creator‑discovery engine scans a database of over...
What Social Media Success Looks Like in a Post-Follower World
Free People achieved triple‑digit social media growth by abandoning follower counts and prioritizing views, shares, and a holistic Total Social Impact (TSI) metric. The brand’s organic and paid teams now operate in a unified structure, sharing insights and balancing content...
EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Deck Reveals StackAdapt’s Playbook for ChatGPT Ads
StackAdapt is launching a limited pilot that places ads inside OpenAI’s ChatGPT, offering CPM rates as low as $15 and reduced platform fees. The leaked pitch deck positions the program as early access to a new “discovery layer” where users...