More Americans Want Brands To Get Political
Ipsos’ February 2026 Consumer Tracker of 1,085 U.S. adults shows a nuanced shift in attitudes toward corporate political engagement. While a solid majority—57% on social issues and 56% on political issues—still prefer brands to stay neutral, the share that endorses brand activism is climbing, especially on racial‑justice topics (48%) and LGBTQ+ visibility (31%). Purchase intent reflects this split: 49% say they’re more likely to buy from a company that opposes racism, yet 56% would avoid brands whose political stance conflicts with their views. The poll also reveals that only 13% support government penalties for controversial corporate statements.
Cendyn Honored With Three Adrian Awards at HSMAI Celebration
Cendyn was honored with three Adrian Awards at the 69th HSMAI ceremony, winning a silver for its multi‑channel campaign with The Watergate Hotel and bronze awards for a paid‑media campaign for Royalton Resorts and a website redesign for The Maven....
Create Studio-Quality Marketing Assets with Photoshoot in Pomelli
Google Labs launched Photoshoot, a new feature in its free Pomelli platform that transforms basic product photos into studio‑grade marketing images. The tool leverages Business DNA and the Nano Banana image‑generation model to apply brand‑specific aesthetics automatically. Users select a...
From Prime Day and Black Friday to Surprise Spikes: Why Retailers Are Rethinking Peak Sales Readiness
Retailers are abandoning the outdated notion of seasonal peak‑sales windows and adopting a year‑round growth‑readiness mindset. Unexpected demand spikes—from TikTok trends to surprise influencer drops—can now rival traditional events like Prime Day, exposing fragile point‑to‑point integrations. Mark Simon of Celigo...
2026 Leaders Interview – Caroline Orange-Northey – Pinterest
Caroline Orange‑Northey, newly appointed Managing Director for Pinterest UK & Ireland, outlines her first 6‑12 month priorities, emphasizing accelerated advertiser adoption and AI‑driven product enhancements. She explains why Pinterest remains a compelling platform for 2026, highlighting its visual discovery engine,...
Accounts in Transit: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry Picks Up Pendulum
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry has been appointed U.S. agency of record for Pendulum, an AI‑driven social listening platform that captures brand mentions across text, audio, video and images. Marino will serve as the U.S. agency for Italian food icons Pasta...
AI Startup Hightouch Launches AI Tool To Repurpose Existing Marketing Creative
Hightouch unveiled Content Assembly, an AI‑driven tool that repurposes existing brand‑approved assets into new campaign materials. Marketers describe desired outputs in plain language and AI agents scour DAMs, Figma, Adobe, Google Drive and other repositories to assemble on‑brand emails, ads,...
Watch NetLine’s Josh Baez The Hidden Moments of the Buying Journey Webinar on Demand Now
NetLine’s senior demand manager Josh Baez hosted a webinar titled “The Hidden Moments of the Buying Journey,” revealing why traditional linear funnels are obsolete. He explained how privacy regulations have crippled identifier‑based tracking, forcing marketers to shift toward proactive, programmatic...
Retail Influence Vs. Conversion: Turning Sports Advertising Awareness Into Action
Sports advertising continues to capture massive audiences, but only 1% of viewers make an immediate purchase while 43% express interest. The gap reflects modern, multi‑screen consumer behavior, positioning sports slots as demand‑creation engines rather than direct‑response channels. Brands are responding...
Butterball Names Carmichael Lynch AOR in Reach for Year-Round Relevancy
Butterball, the leading U.S. turkey producer, has named Carmichael Lynch its new agency of record for creative, social, and media planning. The partnership aims to shift the brand from a holiday‑centric image to year‑round cultural relevance, emphasizing its purpose of “helping...
Why AI Misreads The Middle Of Your Best Pages via @Sejournal, @DuaneForrester
Large language models exhibit a "dog‑bone" weakness, performing well on the opening and closing sections of long texts while struggling with the middle. Research from Stanford and recent papers such as ATACompressor confirm that attention bias and aggressive context compression...
CTV Should Be Automated – But It Doesn’t Need To Be Programmatic
Upstream, formerly TheViewPoint, launched an automated platform that handles direct‑sold CTV campaigns at the ad‑server level, deliberately avoiding programmatic intermediaries. The solution integrates directly with publishers, bypassing SSPs and DSPs, and is already used by NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Paramount and...
35-Year SEO Veteran: Great SEO Is Good GEO — But Not Everyone’s Been Doing Great SEO via @Sejournal, @Theshelleywalsh
In a recent interview, 35‑year SEO veteran Grant Simmons clarified that great SEO and generative‑engine optimization (GEO) are fundamentally the same when executed holistically, emphasizing topical authority and brand consistency. He explained that LLMs evaluate content at the passage level,...
Serviceplan Group Partners with Luma AI to Deploy AI for Creative Across Global Ops
Serviceplan Group announced a strategic partnership with Luma AI to embed generative‑AI tools across its global creative operations. The collaboration introduces a "House of AI" digital twin that mirrors the agency’s entire marketing‑communication value chain, covering strategy, development, production and delivery....
Harrods Collaborates with Regional Creatives for GCC Ramadan Campaign
Harrods has launched a Ramadan and Eid campaign running from 20 January to 20 March, aimed at luxury‑focused customers in the UK and GCC markets. The initiative partners with Dubai‑based studio Bigsea.tv, photographer Mazen Abusrour, art director Serge Asaad and local stylists to blend...
How Build-A-Bear’s Sharon Price John Made the CMO to CEO Jump Flawlessly
Sharon Price John, former CMO, has become President and CEO of Build‑A‑Bear, steering the 30‑year‑old retailer into an IP‑driven, multi‑vertical business. Under her leadership, digital commerce now accounts for 40% of sales and the brand is expanding globally. In a...
The End of ‘Good Enough’ Data: Advertising’s Shift Toward Defensible Performance
The advertising industry is moving away from a "good enough" data mindset toward defensible performance, where outcomes must be explainable and resilient. Accountability now begins with identity verification, not downstream reporting, as identity decay and fraudulent signals erode model reliability....
Why Do Budgets Overspend Even With A Target ROAS or CPA? – Ask A PPC via @Sejournal, @Navahf
Budgets on auction‑based platforms are averaged over roughly 30.4 days, not enforced as strict daily caps. When a target ROAS or CPA is applied, the algorithm treats these as optimization signals and may spend beyond the nominal daily limit to...
Beyond Influencers: How Multicultural Creators Are Shaping the Future of PR
The article argues that the creator economy is moving PR beyond generic influencers toward multicultural creators who bring authentic cultural insight. These creators act as strategic partners, not merely message amplifiers, and their influence is measured by deep community engagement...
Google AI Mode Works In 53 New Languages
Google announced that its AI Mode now supports 53 additional languages, bringing the total to just under 100. The expansion covers languages spoken by more than a billion people worldwide, ranging from major tongues like Hindi and Arabic to regional...
Google: We Do Not Have A Bad Title Algorithm Filter Of Sorts
Google’s John Mueller clarified that there is no blacklist or filter that penalizes sites solely for having poorly written title tags. He explained that the title displayed in search results is often generated automatically from a variety of signals, not...
EQ Dry & Teads Redefine Diaper Marketing with a Campaign That Wins Hearts & Attention
EQ Dry partnered with global media platform Teads and agency UM to launch an omnichannel, attention‑driven campaign for its diaper line. The initiative leveraged Teads’ contextual targeting, inRead video and connected TV formats to reach parents across mobile and big‑screen...
FixEd Podcast: The Guide to Running Newsletters in 2026, with Dan Oshinsky
In a FixEd podcast episode, newsletter veteran Dan Oshinsky outlines how AI, quality content, and strategic partnerships will shape newsletters in 2026. He warns that AI‑powered inbox tools could either elevate newsletters into curated feeds or diminish engagement if they...
Jon Nash & Danny Moggs Join UK Ad Tech Firm 59A to Drive North American Expansion
UK ad‑tech firm 59A announced the appointment of Jon Nash as US CEO and Danny Moggs as SVP of Sales to spearhead its North American launch from a new Venice Beach hub. Nash, a longtime collaborator with founder Adam Ray, will...
“AI Didn’t Create the Cracks in the System, It Exposed Them”: Q&A with Oz Etzioni, Clinch
In a Q&A with Clinch CEO Oz Etzioni, the interview highlights how AI has exposed deep fractures in traditional advertising workflows built on siloed point solutions. The surge in creative permutations and real‑time media demands has turned these fragmented systems...
Walmart’s Ad Business Grew 46% in 2025, Hitting Nearly $6.4B
Walmart’s advertising arm surged 46% in 2025, generating nearly $6.4 billion, while the broader company posted $713.2 billion in revenue. Walmart Connect alone grew 41% in Q4, and the Vizio acquisition added high‑minimum‑price inventory. AI chatbot Sparky, now tested with ads, drives...
Booze Giants ‘Exaggerated Threats to Overturn Ad Ban’
A new Institute of Alcohol Studies report reveals that UK alcohol producers and pub operators exaggerated economic threats to block proposed advertising restrictions, leading to the removal of the measures from the Government's 10‑Year Health Plan. The report, based on...
TBWA Alum Launch AI-Native Shop with Hitachi as Founding Client
Two former Omnicom executives, James Sparano and Kevin O’Sullivan, are launching JK, an AI‑native creative and strategy shop that promises to shrink traditional planning cycles from months to days. The boutique is self‑funded and begins operations on Feb. 19. Hitachi has...
8 Ways to Automate X (Formerly Twitter)
Zapier now offers eight pre‑built Zaps that automate key X (formerly Twitter) workflows for businesses, from archiving brand mentions to turning tweets into support tickets. The templates let marketers log every mention in a spreadsheet, push real‑time alerts to Slack,...
Bringing Together PPC and SEO for Agents
The Negotiator article urges estate agencies to integrate pay‑per‑click (PPC) advertising with search engine optimisation (SEO), arguing that combined data and testing can sharpen messaging, boost keyword intelligence, and stretch limited budgets. It highlights rapid ad‑copy testing via PPC, leveraging...
South African Startup Naritive Is Fixing Banner Blindness with Interactive Advertising
South African startup Naritive has launched an ad‑tech platform that turns static display ads into interactive “Ad Stories” and “Ad Social” formats. The platform, now used by more than 100 brands and agencies across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia...
Adland’s Top Strategists on AI, Tools & the Strategic Human Advantage
South Africa’s top ad strategists warn that while AI can accelerate data collection and pattern detection, the true strategic advantage remains human deep thinking and cultural insight. Leaders such as Pepe Marais and Neo Makhele stress that only a small minority who...
#ClicksnTricks: The 3′ Banana & the Great Content Credibility Collapse
The article warns that AI‑driven content saturation and the rise of fabricated experts are eroding trust in both media and brand communications. Over 50 non‑existent "experts" have been quoted in UK outlets, illustrating how cheap synthetic voices infiltrate reputable sources....
#ThisWeek on MarkLives MEDIA: Conscious Uncoupling — Media Inhousing • #NextWeek: How Saffers Eat
Brands are increasingly pulling media strategy and buying in‑house, a trend dubbed “conscious uncoupling.” Executives cite greater accountability, faster decision‑making, and tighter budget control as primary drivers. Agencies are no longer full‑service partners but are retained for niche expertise, audits,...
ChatGPT Search Often Switches To English In Fan-Out Queries: Report via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
ChatGPT Search rewrites user prompts into multiple “fan‑out” queries for its search partners. An analysis of 10 million prompts and 20 million fan‑out queries found that 43 % of those sub‑queries run in English, even when the original prompt is non‑English. Overall, 78 %...
If You’re Not Tracking These 10 PR KPIs in 2026, You’re Already Behind
The article outlines ten essential PR KPIs that have evolved for 2026, integrating AI-driven metrics such as Share of Search Influence and Emotion‑Weighted Sentiment. Traditional measures like Share of Voice remain core, but new dimensions assess message semantics, outlet authority,...
PepsiCo’s First Creator-Led Product Launch Reimagines Chips for Gen Z
PepsiCo Foods unveiled its first creator‑led "Flavor Swap" snack line, teaming influencers Madison Beer, iShowSpeed and Dude Perfect with new chip‑flavor mash‑ups. The products launched exclusively on TikTok Shop with a nationwide rollout slated for March, aligning the launch with...
Top 5 Creator Affiliate Marketing Agencies in 2026
The Influencer Marketing Hub has identified the five leading creator affiliate marketing agencies for 2026, highlighting Hamster Garage, Acceleration Partners, PartnerCentric, Peekabo and Sociablestack. The report underscores a 171% rise in creator acquisition budgets and notes that affiliate marketing now...
Every Trend Looks the Same in a Dashboard (Until You Zoom Out)
The article argues that standard post‑level dashboards flatten very different content behaviors—short‑term spikes, campaign arcs, and compounding formats—into identical metrics, leading marketers to chase fleeting reach. By grouping content by theme, intent, or format and evaluating it over weeks or...
Potbelly Partners with Flybuy to Elevate Off-Prem Operations
Potbelly is integrating Flybuy’s AI‑powered location platform into its digital ordering system to streamline off‑premise service across more than 450 sandwich shops. The technology provides real‑time order‑time estimates, status updates, and location‑based in‑app messaging, reducing customer wait times by over...
Reddit Shares Insight Into Rising World Cup Discussion
Reddit reports that World Cup chatter has already generated over 77 million U.S. views of the term “FIFA World Cup,” with conversation tripling compared to last year. The platform ranks as the fifth‑most‑googled term in the United States and the top‑cited...
Williams-Sonoma to Test Ads in ChatGPT
Williams‑Sonoma has joined OpenAI’s ad pilot, becoming one of the first retailers to test sponsored placements inside ChatGPT. The experiment will surface high‑end home‑goods ads to free and Go users as they ask product‑related questions, while paid subscribers remain ad‑free....
AppsFlyer Talks Buyer Signals, Player Targeting and Staying Legally Compliant
At Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026, AppsFlyer executives Edik Mitelman and Adam Smart unveiled a data‑collaboration platform that taps consumers' real‑world credit‑card spend to identify high‑value gaming audiences. By partnering with Mastercard and other financial institutions, the firm can segment...
Are We Entering an Era in Which Engagement Is As Important as the Promotion Itself?
Promotions are evolving from simple price cuts to interactive experiences that require customer participation. Leading online casinos and e‑commerce giants like Shein and AliExpress now embed daily spin games, resource‑management mini‑games, and scarcity‑driven challenges into their offers. These engagement mechanics...
Zip Launches a Branding Campaign Aimed at Winning Consumers’ Trust
Buy‑now‑pay‑later firm Zip Co. launched a new branding campaign centered on trust, positioning its users as responsible borrowers. The "In You We Trust" message is built on real customer stories and features social‑media strategist Destiny Modeste. The ads run on...
Three CMOs Weigh in on the Power of a Marketing Campaign Tagline
The article gathers insights from three chief marketing officers—True Religion, Rambler and Shutterfly—on why campaign taglines still matter. True Religion’s 2025 holiday tagline “Wrapped in True” doubles as a gifting cue and a brand‑value statement. Rambler’s playful “Chug Life” taps...
5 Ways QR Codes Help Grow Restaurant Catering
QR codes are emerging as low‑cost, trackable tools for restaurant catering growth. Kelly Grogan outlines five intentional placements— in‑store contests, bag stuffer flyers, local leave‑behinds, catering order collateral, and thank‑you cards— each designed to capture leads and drive repeat business....
Frosted Flakes Remixes ‘90s Jingle to Reintroduce Tony the Tiger
Kellogg's Frosted Flakes teamed with rap artist JID to remix its classic “Hey Tony” jingle, releasing the track on Spotify and Apple Music. The song launches at the Frosted Flakes Day Ones Bowl Game on Feb. 22, accompanied by limited‑edition apparel and a collectible box sold...
AI Figures Heavily Into CMOs’ Strategic Considerations
Chief marketing officers are increasingly prioritizing emerging media such as entertainment IP and FAST platforms, with Black audiences driving a disproportionate share of streaming time. CMOs expect most of their revenue in five years to stem from products that do...
New Ecommerce Tools: February 18, 2026
This week’s ecommerce rollout spans AI‑driven marketing, new payment options, and expanded livestream shopping. Mailchimp unveiled predictive analytics, ChatGPT‑powered content tools, and an omnichannel dashboard, while Klarna entered Google Pay in the UK and Amazon launched Pay by Bank for...