Why CTV Transparency Matters for Local Advertising
Connected TV (CTV) has become a primary growth channel for local advertisers, but transparency has lagged behind the rapid scale. Peer39 reports that 60% of CTV bid requests lack usable program‑level data and only a third contain genre tags, creating opaque buying environments. At the local level, however, news‑focused CTV inventory is far more transparent, with 84% of impressions tied to known programs and 71% achieving over 80% visibility. The article outlines four practical steps for local media teams to improve visibility and confidence in their CTV reporting.
Kikkoman Embraces Gen Z’s Love of Japanese Culture in New Campaign
Kikkoman has unveiled a multiyear, anime‑inspired campaign called “Unleash Legendary” aimed at Gen Z home cooks. Developed with agency BSSP, the effort features a 30‑second spot voiced by Christopher Sabat and two 15‑second videos, running across YouTube, paid social, connected TV, programmatic...
Five Guys Serves up Largest Integrated Brand Campaign to Date
Five Guys unveiled its "Your Burger Guy" campaign, the chain’s largest integrated brand effort to date, featuring three 30‑second spots and a multi‑channel rollout across film, social, digital, audio and in‑store media. Developed by independent agency Chemistry, the campaign leans...
Sundar Pichai Sees Google Search Evolving Into an ‘Agent Manager’
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google Search will evolve into an "agent manager," coordinating multiple AI agents to complete user tasks rather than merely returning links. He noted that the AI‑powered "AI Mode" is already prompting longer, research‑intensive queries...
Retail Media Is a $69B Opportunity. So Why Is It Still So Hard to Get Right?
Retail media is projected to reach $69.3 billion in 2026, cementing its place as one of the fastest‑growing ad channels. The surge is driven by retailers leveraging first‑party shopper data to sell ads on‑site and off‑site. However, most retailers juggle 15‑20...
YouTube, CBS Sports and The Walt Disney Company Are Among the 2026 Digiday Video and TV Award Winners
The Digiday Video & TV Awards 2026 honored brands that are reshaping video through technology, creator collaboration, and immersive storytelling. YouTube took home Best Digital Video Platform and Best UGC Integration, highlighting its global scale and community‑driven content. CBS Sports HQ...
Retail Media Has Reached Its Accountability Moment
Retail media, once celebrated for its closed‑loop attribution near the point of sale, is now confronting an accountability crisis. Advertisers are demanding proof that spend drives incremental lift beyond a single retailer’s ledger. In response, major networks are expanding into...
As CFOs Scrutinize CTV Spend, Incrementality Emerges as a Differentiator
CFOs are tightening scrutiny on connected‑TV (CTV) spend because traditional metrics like impressions and modeled ROAS fail to prove incremental revenue. The article argues that the trust problem stems from over‑attributed conversions and fragmented measurement infrastructure. Incrementality testing, which isolates...
Bobbie's Chief Brand Officer on the Cardi B Partnership that Sparked a Cultural Conversation
Bobbie teamed with Cardi B as its "Chief Confidence Officer," launching a bold campaign that lifted brand awareness 16% in the first week and drove a 195% surge in Net Promoter Score among Gen Z parents. The partnership sparked a cultural conversation...
Influencer Collabs Account for 50% of an Indian Soundtrack’s Promotional Budget, Says Report
Indian film soundtrack promoters are allocating roughly half of their promotional budgets to influencer collaborations, according to a recent Economic Times report. Paid YouTube advertising has slipped to about 30% of spend, while the remaining budget supports audio‑streaming discoverability. Promotion...
Northbeam Adds The Third Leg Of The Attribution Stool With Incrementality Testing
Northbeam has launched an incrementality testing feature, completing its promised "triad" of attribution tools alongside multitouch attribution (MTA) and marketing mix modeling (MMM). The new product adds a calibration layer that estimates cross‑platform conversion influence without tracking individual users, addressing...
Sprinklr Unveils Spring '26 (26.4) Release
Sprinklr launched its Spring ’26 (26.4) release, adding a suite of AI‑powered features to its Unified‑CXM platform. New capabilities include Customer Feedback Copilot, Marketing Copilot, Autonomous Evaluation, and AI‑driven governance tools that promise more transparent, test‑backed automation. The update also...
LiveRamp and Akkio Partner
LiveRamp, a leading data collaboration firm, has teamed up with AI infrastructure provider Akkio to embed Akkio's artificial‑intelligence tools into its platform. The integration adds a conversational AI layer that surfaces media measurement insights in natural language and powers end‑to‑end...
The Insightful Leader Live: AI and Advertising … This Time It’s Personal
Kellogg professors Jacob Teeny and Brett Gordon hosted a free webinar on April 7, 2026 discussing how AI will reshape advertising through hyper‑personalized content. The session covered AI‑driven customer profiling, the latest research on personalized persuasion, emerging industry trends, and the ethical...
Google Starts Showing Sponsored Ads in the Images Tab on Mobile Search
Google has begun serving sponsored ads inside the mobile Images tab, inserting full‑image creatives labeled “Sponsored” directly into the grid. The placement leverages existing image assets from Search or Performance Max campaigns, requiring no changes to keyword targeting or campaign structure....
Most Content Doesn’t Build Credibility: Let’s Fix That
Marketing teams are flooding the market with content, yet most of it fails to earn buyer trust. As AI‑driven research tools synthesize information from multiple sources, they quickly expose generic, self‑referential messaging. Surveys reveal 68% of buyers are more skeptical...
Haus Survey: Half of Marketing Leaders Can’t Explain ROI Measurement
The inaugural Decision Confidence Index surveyed 500 U.S. senior marketing and finance leaders and found only half can clearly articulate how they measure marketing ROI to the board. While 90% believe marketing drives growth, 35% say more than a fifth...
Medialister Opens Editorial Media Marketplace to AI Agents with MCP Server
Medialister, a PRNEWS spin‑off, launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini query its editorial media marketplace directly. The platform replaces the decades‑old email‑heavy workflow with a searchable, automated hub where...
AI Creative Tools in Google Ads
Google has launched Asset Studio, an AI‑powered creative suite inside Google Ads that lets advertisers generate and edit images and videos with simple text prompts. The tool can produce lifestyle product shots, turn a single photo into a 5‑second video,...
Meta, Google Verdicts Should Change How Marketers View Social Media
The March antitrust verdicts against Meta and Google signal a shifting regulatory landscape for social platforms, turning algorithm design into a legal risk for advertisers. At the same time, Gartner research shows growing audience fatigue, with over 40% of users...
Google Ads Testing New Layouts for Multi-Location GBP Assets?
Google Ads is piloting new ad formats for Google Business Profile (GBP) location assets. The test introduces a vertical layout that displays individual location reviews alongside directions, exposing each store’s rating rather than a single brand score. A second variation...
GPMA 2026: Reimagining How Industry Excellence Is Recognised
The Global Performance Marketing Awards (GPMAs) celebrate their 10th anniversary in 2026 with revamped categories and judging criteria. The ceremony partners with PI LIVE Europe, turning the awards into a relaxed, networking‑focused event during Festival Week. Open to brands, agencies,...
Petri Kokkonen Appointed Co-Lead of IAB Europe’s Programmatic Working Group
Petri Kokkonen, CEO of Relevant Digital, has been appointed co‑lead of the IAB Europe Programmatic Working Group alongside Sportradar’s Ralf Ollig. The group unites European ad‑tech stakeholders to shape standards, drive research, and improve transparency as AI reshapes programmatic buying....
Data Dominion: How Zeta Global Cracked the AI Code for the Next Generation of Martech
Zeta Global, led by CEO David A. Steinberg, has positioned its AI‑first data platform as a core infrastructure for marketers, now serving 51% of the Fortune 100. The company launched Athena, a voice‑enabled AI copilot built with OpenAI, after proving that...
Google Tests AdSense Privacy Updates In Two Phases
Google is piloting a two‑phase update to AdSense that begins on April 20 and rolls out a second wave in June, targeting the European Economic Area, the U.K. and Switzerland. The rollout introduces a shortcut list of ad‑technology partners, letting publishers...
fullthrottle.ai® Expands Into Audio With Premium Inventory, Streamlined Activation, and Unified Measurement
fullthrottle.ai has added audio advertising to its platform, giving marketers direct access to premium streaming and podcast inventory, including iHeartMedia. The new capability lets brands plan, activate, and optimize audio campaigns within the same workflow used for CTV and display,...
In-Store Marketplace Launches New Framework for In-Store Media Success
In-Store Marketplace (ISM) partnered with Catalyst Media Consulting to publish research exposing a critical measurement gap in in‑store media, where brands, retailers, agencies, and retail media networks (RMNs) use divergent metrics. The study argues that applying digital‑style attribution to physical...
Video Innovation Drives 2x Higher Purchase Intent, Study Finds
A new "State of Video Technology" study of 2,500 U.S. and U.K. adults finds 80% of consumers want more brand video, yet 46% say they never receive it. Personalized video content makes shoppers twice as likely to buy, and AI‑generated...
Why Brand Size No Longer Determines Visibility in AI Answers
The rise of AI answer engines is reshaping how brand visibility is earned, shifting focus from sheer scale to the clarity, credibility, and structure of content. Traditional PR tactics that rely on reach and long‑standing narratives no longer guarantee inclusion...
AI Digital Relaunches Elevate: The AI-Powered Intelligence Platform Built to Break Open the Black Box
AI Digital has relaunched Elevate, an AI‑powered marketing intelligence platform that unifies research, planning, optimization and reporting across the digital ecosystem. The tool promises up to 90% reduction in manual research and planning time and 70% faster reporting, while remaining...
Inside Walmart’s Creator-Driven Social Commerce Playbook
Walmart is building a creator‑driven social commerce engine that blends shoppable ads, influencer networks, and AI‑powered trend tools. The retailer treats social platforms as search venues, targeting Gen Z and millennial users who spend hours daily online. Its Walmart Creator program,...
Sell-Side Decisioning for Media Owners: How To Create More Value in Programmatic
Sell-side decisioning is reshaping programmatic advertising by giving media owners direct control over inventory, data and pricing at the moment an impression is generated. Index Exchange’s recent Live event highlighted that the top 100 owners using its Index Marketplaces saw...
Happydemics Launches ‘In-Flight Mode’ to Optimise Brand Outcomes While Campaigns Are Still Airborne
Happydemics has introduced “In‑Flight Mode,” a real‑time brand‑lift measurement tool that embeds outcome tracking directly into live campaigns. Marketers can now monitor consideration, purchase intent and other brand KPIs as ads run, and instantly tweak creative, targeting or media mix....
Social Media Editor
The Axis, a podcast production agency serving aesthetic medicine, plastic surgery, and addiction‑recovery clients, is hiring a freelance Social Media Clip Editor for $50 per episode. The remote‑US role focuses solely on editing 1‑3 short‑form clips per episode for YouTube...
Clarvos Unveils AI-Driven Workflow Platform to Streamline Marketing for Smaller Businesses
Marketing tech startup Clarvos LLC launched an early‑access AI‑driven workflow platform aimed at small and midsized businesses. The agentic system integrates audience discovery, creative generation and multi‑platform campaign execution across Google, Meta and TikTok, allowing users to move from concept...
Dairy-Free Creamer Brand Nutpods Is Cracking Fragmentation With AI-Powered Insights
AI Digital launched Elevate, an AI‑powered marketing intelligence platform to combat ad tech fragmentation. Nutpods, a dairy‑free creamer brand, used Elevate to unify data across channels and receive near‑real‑time insights. The platform revealed audio ads outperformed other placements, allowing Nutpods...
Dairy-Free Creamer Brand Nutpods Is Cracking Fragmentation With AI-Powered Insights
Nutpods, a non‑dairy creamer brand, partnered with AI Digital to use its new Elevate platform, an AI‑powered marketing intelligence suite designed to dissolve ad‑tech fragmentation. The tool slashed Nutpods’ reporting lag from weeks to roughly one day, delivering real‑time performance...
Instagram Now Lets Creators Tag Affiliate Links Directly in Reels
Instagram is rolling out a new feature that lets creators tag shoppable products directly in Reels, supporting up to 30 items per video. Creators can add products by pasting affiliate URLs or selecting items from a brand’s Meta commerce catalog,...
Affiliates, To Stay Relevant, Move Beyond Mere Execution
Artificial intelligence is rapidly automating routine tasks in affiliate marketing, from matching affiliates to offers to generating performance dashboards. While AI boosts efficiency, it also exposes limits, requiring human oversight to correct errors and prevent fraud. The article argues that...
Flamel.ai Launches Luna to Fix Franchise Marketing Execution
Flamel.ai unveiled Luna, an AI‑powered agent that executes, analyzes, and optimizes franchise marketing across all locations, completing a broader platform expansion that unifies paid media, local SEO, social and review tools. The system lets corporate teams build a single campaign...
Lucozade Woos ‘Believers’ for Grafruitti Flavour Relaunch
Lucozade is re‑launching its Grafruitti flavour, first introduced as a limited edition in 2015, with a community‑centric campaign aimed at the brand’s self‑identified “Believers.” The rollout, crafted by We Are Social, began with teaser posts and a logo swap before...
From T-Shaped To M-Shaped: The PPC Career Evolution Nobody Is Talking About
The article argues that the traditional T‑shaped PPC professional—deep in one specialty with a broad supporting base—has become the industry floor due to AI‑driven skill inflation. It introduces the M‑shaped model, featuring two or three deep pillars built on a...
How Reuters Unlocked 58% More Suitable Inventory with IAS Context Control
Reuters partnered with Integral Ad Science to replace traditional keyword blocklists with IAS’s Context Control semantic solution. By analyzing meaning, sentiment, and entity relationships, the platform identified safe articles previously flagged by keywords, especially on the Lifestyle subdomain where 13.4%...
Volkswagen Appoints Global Social Media Agency
Volkswagen has appointed a new global social media agency to steer its digital presence across markets. The agency won the account following a rigorous, multi‑stage pitch that evaluated creative, data, and technology capabilities. The partnership is intended to refresh Volkswagen’s...
KFC Takes a New Step with Its Marketing: An Entire Music Track
KFC launched a 90‑second music single titled “Finger Lickin’ Machine” to promote its new Value Feast menu, featuring bundled meals priced at $7, $9 and $11. The ad, produced by agency Highdive and music house Heavy Duty, showcases Colonel Sanders...
When Fashion Influencer Campaigns Go Wrong: How Bad Briefs Break Influencer Collaborations (and How to Fix Them)
Fashion influencer campaigns often stumble not because of the wrong creator, but due to poorly crafted briefs. Vague prompts, over‑scripted captions, and conflicting instructions lead to off‑brand, inauthentic content that frustrates both brands and influencers. The article outlines common brief...
5 Content Marketing Ideas for May 2026
May 2026 presents ecommerce marketers with five timely content ideas—from the historic Freedom 7 anniversary to Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, National Paper Airplane Day, and Miles Davis’s centennial. Each theme is positioned to generate organic search traffic, feed‑algorithm visibility, and AI‑readable snippets that...
Google Explains Why It Doesn’t Matter That Websites Are Getting Larger via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google’s Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt clarified that growing page weight isn’t inherently harmful, emphasizing that page size depends on what’s measured—HTML alone or the full bundle of assets. They highlighted how compression, especially Brotli, can mask the true amount...
How Marketing Leaders Are Getting Unstuck From Salesforce by Stitch
Stitch is hosting an April 14 fireside chat for brand‑side marketers who feel trapped by Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The session will explore why many enterprises view their data as tangled, contracts as restrictive, and email programs as stagnant. Attendees will learn...
How Marketing Leaders Are Getting Unstuck From Salesforce by Stitch
Stitch is hosting a fireside chat for brand‑side marketers who feel trapped by Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s complexity and contractual lock‑ins. Attendees will hear why data entanglement, repetitive email flows, and patchwork solutions are common complaints. The session outlines how moving...