Behind Pacsun’s Strategy for Keeping a Pulse on the Changing Tastes of Gen Z
Pacsun has launched a Youth Advisory Council and published its first Youth Report, gathering insights from 6,000 Gen‑Z and Gen‑Alpha respondents. The data fueled the creation of the PS Community Hub, a shoppable app that lets users curate purchases and earn commissions. Executives say the feedback loop drives product assortments, marketing, and tech features, enabling collaborations like the McDonald’s partnership and a rare increase in mall store openings. The strategy reflects a shift toward co‑creation and real‑time social listening to stay relevant with younger shoppers.
FTC Announces Appeal in Meta Antitrust Case
The Federal Trade Commission announced it will appeal the November district‑court ruling that rejected its antitrust case against Meta. The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleges that Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were intended to neutralize competition and should result...
WOW Index Shows In-Store Experience Slipping in 2026
Léger’s 2026 WOW Index reveals a measurable decline in in‑store experience across Ontario and Western Canada, driven by higher prices, longer checkout waits, stockouts and fewer staff interactions. The study surveyed over 18,000 shoppers, evaluating 264 retailers in 34 sectors....
OpenAI Search Crawler Passes 55% Coverage In Hostinger Study via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Hostinger’s analysis of 66 billion bot requests shows a sharp divergence between AI crawlers. Training bots such as OpenAI’s GPTBot saw coverage plunge from 84% to 12% as sites increasingly block them. In contrast, assistant bots that power AI search, like...
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SaasRise Enterprise Mastermind Call Recap Jan 20, 2026
The SaasRise Enterprise Mastermind call highlighted four critical growth levers for high‑ACV SaaS firms. It recommended starting with retargeting ads and LinkedIn sponsored messages, then scaling AI‑personalized cold outreach to improve lead response rates. The discussion also covered AI‑driven coding...
GrowthRise Mastermind Recap Jan 20, 2026
The GrowthRise Mastermind on Jan 20 2026 covered AI‑driven content creation, LinkedIn message ads, trade‑show marketing, and email list hygiene. Participants learned to use AI as a brainstorming aid, apply structured markup for SEO, and leverage tools like Canva, ChatGPT, and Gemini....
Organic Search Traffic Is Down 2.5% YoY, New Data Shows
A new Graphite analysis of Similarweb data for over 40,000 U.S. sites shows organic search traffic fell only 2.5% year‑over‑year, far less than the 25‑60% declines often cited. The largest publishers actually grew organic traffic by about 1.6%, while mid‑size...
Overcoming the Barriers to Omnichannel by Recognising that One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Omnichannel retail is no longer a one‑size‑fits‑all proposition; success depends on tailoring strategies to each retailer’s customers, operating model, and growth goals. Consistent experiences across digital and physical touchpoints are now a baseline expectation, not a differentiator. Persistent challenges such...
Google Shopping API Cutoff Looms, Putting Ad Delivery at Risk
Google is sunsetting its legacy Shopping APIs and mandating migration to the Merchant API, the new single source of truth for Shopping Ads. Advertisers using the beta version must switch by February 28 2024, while Content API users have until August 18 2024. Failure to...
Meta Adds More Languages to AI Translations for Reels
Meta has expanded its AI‑powered translation feature for Instagram Reels, adding Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Kannada to the existing English, Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish options. The new languages focus on India, now Meta’s largest single market for Facebook and...
How Brands Can Build AI that Inspires
The article argues that AI’s next evolution is moving beyond pure efficiency toward inspiration, creativity, and emotional engagement. Consumers now use generative AI for personal expression in areas like fashion, travel, and beauty, prompting brands to design AI that feels...
X Publishes AI-Powered Algorithm Code
Elon Musk’s X has finally published the source code for its AI‑driven “For You” feed on GitHub, revealing the new Thunder and Phoenix ranking modules. The algorithm, fully AI‑powered since November, blends posts from followed accounts with machine‑learned recommendations based...
Does llms.txt Matter? We Tracked 10 Sites to Find Out
A recent study of ten diverse websites tracked AI traffic before and after adding llms.txt files. The data showed that eight sites saw no measurable change, two experienced traffic spikes that were tied to unrelated PR and content initiatives, and...
What Brands Get Wrong About Personalization and How to Fix It in 2026
Brands claim to master personalization, yet most deliver fragmented experiences that break at channel handoffs. Maryna Hradovic outlines a three‑step framework—map distinct persona journeys, fix disconnects starting with website personalization, then iterate with AI and testing—to create real‑time, whole‑journey experiences....
Two Firms Whacked for Illegal Marketing Bombardment
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has imposed £225,000 in fines on two firms for massive unsolicited marketing campaigns. Allay Claims was fined £120,000 after sending more than 4 million text messages without valid consent, while Bristol‑based ZMLUK received a £105,000...
Pinterest Announces Two New C-Suite Leaders
Pinterest announced two senior‑level hires to accelerate its global advertising business. Lee Brown, former DoorDash CRO and Spotify ad chief, becomes the company’s first Chief Business Officer, overseeing sales, content, ad product marketing and customer operations. Claudine Cheever, who led...
FunnL Launches Unified End-to-End B2B Growth Engine with Video Production and Social Media Services
FunnL has expanded its B2B demand‑generation platform by adding social media management and video production services. The new creative capabilities integrate directly with its existing ICP development, multi‑channel outreach, and appointment‑setting tools, creating a single operating system for brand and...
What Is Bounce Rate? And How to Reduce It
Bounce rate measures the share of unengaged sessions—those that last under 10 seconds, trigger no conversion event, and view only one page—in GA4. The metric is not shown by default and must be added manually, but it serves as a...
Advanced Creative, Targeting, and the Home Screen Are Driving What Viewers Remember on Connected TV
LG Ad Solutions partnered with MediaScience to measure viewer attention on Smart TVs using biometric and eye‑tracking data, finding that attention remains steady from power‑on through Home Screen discovery to CTV video ads. The study shows that precise targeting combined...
SALESmanago Ramps Up AI and Messaging Tech to Redefine eCommerce Marketing in 2026
SALESmanago is rolling out a native WhatsApp integration and AI‑driven Recommendation Frames to give eCommerce marketers real‑time, hyper‑personalised customer experiences. The platform now supports multimedia messaging, automated journeys, and dynamic CTAs that target abandoned carts, restock alerts, and on‑site product...
Best Writing Tools for Business in 2026
The article reviews the leading AI‑driven writing tools for businesses in 2026, highlighting features, platform integrations, and pricing. Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Ginger, LanguageTool, Hemingway Editor, and Otter each offer free tiers and paid plans ranging from $9.90 to $120 per user....
What High Performing Email Campaigns Have in Common
High‑performing email campaigns share core attributes such as deep personalization, timely relevance, seamless automation, and relentless creative testing. Leveraging data‑driven insights and smart segmentation, especially through platforms like Klaviyo, enables marketers to tailor messages that resonate with individual recipients. Integrating...
AITech Interview with David Norris, Chief Marketing Officer at Boost.AI
David Norris, Chief Marketing Officer at Boost.ai, explains how his two‑decade marketing background shapes the company’s storytelling and trust‑first strategy for conversational AI. He stresses that in regulated sectors—banking, insurance, telecom—AI agents become the literal voice of the brand, making...
Perplexity AI Interview Explains How AI Search Works via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Perplexity AI’s interview with Jesse Dwyer reveals that AI‑driven search is becoming highly personalized, delivering different answers to identical queries based on user context. The core technical shift is from whole‑document indexing to sub‑document processing, where millions of granular snippets...
Google AI Mode Fan-Out Prompts To Narrow Your Query
Google is extending its AI Mode shopping experience with a "query fan‑out" feature that asks users clarifying questions to narrow product results. The system runs multiple simultaneous searches based on the user’s input, then surfaces the most relevant items in a...
Google Search Team Does Not Endorse LLMs.txt Files
Google’s Search team clarified it does not endorse the LLMs.txt files appearing on some Google properties. The files were introduced through a recent CMS update and added to developer documentation, but the Search team later removed them while other product...
Poll: More Advertisers To Add Microsoft Advertising To Marketing Mix?
A LinkedIn poll of over 200 advertisers asked whether Microsoft Advertising will be part of their 2026 marketing mix. Results show 42% already include it, 36% plan to add it, and 23% will not. The poll’s respondents are likely skewed...
Nativex Announces Strategic Partnership with Netflix to Bring Premium Streaming Inventory to Advertisers
Nativex announced a strategic partnership with Netflix to sell ad inventory on the streaming platform’s ad‑supported tier. The deal gives Nativex clients access to Netflix’s premium pre‑roll, mid‑roll, Pause Ads and QR‑enabled formats, backed by first‑party audience data. Netflix’s ad‑supported...
Google AI Mode Shows Product Inventory & Pricing In Light Font Color
Google AI Mode now displays product inventory and pricing in a much lighter font color, setting it apart from the standard Google Search interface. The change was first identified by Brodie Clark, who posted screenshots on X and SERP Alerts....
Yext’s Visibility Brief: Your Guide to Brand Visibility in AI Search by Yext
Yext released a new Visibility Brief that maps how brand visibility operates across traditional search, local listings, knowledge panels, and AI‑driven answer engines. The brief draws on data from thousands of brands to reveal where visibility gains are made and...
Ex-Pinterest Marketer Andréa Mallard Named Microsoft AI CMO
Microsoft AI (MAI) appointed former Pinterest global CMO Andréa Mallard as its chief marketing officer. Mallard announced the move on LinkedIn, emphasizing AI’s transformative impact and the need for trustworthy technology. MAI, led by DeepMind co‑founder Mustafa Suleyman, recently rebranded...
What Happens After a User Clicks Your Affiliate Link?
The article demystifies the post‑click journey in loan affiliate marketing, showing that a click is merely the entry point to a multi‑step process involving tracking, risk checks, and lender approval. It explains why many affiliates see clicks but no payouts,...
TikTok Turns to Pixels to Show Advertisers What Happens Beyond Its Walled Garden
TikTok has introduced an Off‑site Performance Analysis tool that uses a tracking pixel to follow user actions beyond the app. Launched on December 24, the feature links organic posts, TikTok Shop activity, live streams, and paid ads to purchases on...
Data Shows AI Overviews Disappears On Certain Kinds Of Finance Queries via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Recent BrightEdge data reveals that Google’s AI Overviews dominate finance queries with an educational focus, appearing in roughly 91% of “what is” style searches. In contrast, real‑time price lookups, calculator tools, and local “near me” queries trigger AI Overviews less...
Schuh Appoints Chief Marketing Officer
Schuh has named Laura King as its new chief marketing officer, effective immediately. King brings two decades of brand and agency experience, including nine years at Wieden & Kennedy managing Nike and recent leadership roles at Accessorize and Urban Outfitters. She will...
Dinosaur Wins Task to Cook up New Breville Ad Strategy
Breville has tapped UK creative agency Dinosaur to overhaul its advertising and marketing strategy, launching a long‑term partnership that will run through 2026 and beyond. Dinosaur will craft a new brand platform and integrated campaigns aimed at injecting colour, creativity...
Gen Z Is Changing Where Marketing Begins, Not Just Where It Ends
Gen Z’s purchasing power is set to hit roughly $12 trillion by 2030, turning the cohort into a primary decision driver rather than a peripheral audience. Marketers now see brand discovery moving from search engines to short‑form social clips on TikTok...
Cheil UK Hires Ex-MSQ Chief Nimmo to Head New Unit
Cheil UK has appointed former MSQ/MBAstack chief Nicola Nimmo to head a new data‑driven offering called Intelligent Engagement. Nimmo brings more than two decades of agency transformation experience, most recently launching MBAstack’s London office and expanding it to New York....
Comment: Overlook Older Shoppers at Your Peril
Retail and hospitality firms are overlooking older shoppers, even as the over‑65 population is set to double to 1.6 billion by 2050 and control a majority of discretionary spend. Older consumers are increasingly active on platforms like TikTok, where they favor...
Influencer Spend Set to Soar Despite Brands ‘Flying Blind’
Kantar’s 2026 Marketing Trends report finds that 61% of marketers will increase creator budgets even as they admit to lacking clear ROI evidence. The UK influencer market, valued at £1.8bn in 2024, is projected to surge to over £17.8bn by...
Albertsons Is Putting Digital Screens for Ads in More than a Third of Its Stores
Albertsons Media Collective is rolling out an in‑store digital screen network to 800 of its more than 2,200 locations in 2026 after a successful pilot in 80 stores. The expansion follows the onboarding of over 50 advertising partners and a...
![The Rise of Gen AI Apps [Infographic]](https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/render/image/public/images/thumbnails/0bba91b48eca0a5003b92a071cff6318.webp?width=1200&resize=contain&quality=75)
The Rise of Gen AI Apps [Infographic]
A Visual Capitalist infographic, using Sensor Tower data, shows generative‑AI apps have surged to become among the most downloaded mobile tools, trailing only utilities, banking and social media. Practical guidance tops the usage chart, with search and writing assistance in...
TikTok Adds Teen Safety Measures in EU, Outlines Economic Contribution
TikTok announced a rollout of enhanced age‑verification tools across Europe to block users under 13, adding facial‑age estimation, credit‑card checks and government ID verification. The platform says the new system, built on behavior analysis and specialist moderation, follows a pilot...
Meta Says That the Science Does Not Support Teen Social Media Bans
Meta pushed back against proposals to ban teens from its platforms, arguing that scientific research shows teen mental health is shaped by many factors beyond social media. The company cited the 2024 National Academies report, which acknowledges both risks and...
Thomas Rolls Out AI Search and Performance-Based Ads to Speed Industrial Sourcing
Thomas, operating under Xometry, unveiled an AI‑driven smart search that lets industrial buyers use natural‑language, multi‑attribute queries, delivering more than 15% higher supplier evaluations than its legacy tool. The platform also introduced performance‑based listings, where manufacturers pay only when buyers...
Inside SearchGuard: How Google Detects Bots and What the SerpAPI Lawsuit Reveals
Google sued SerpAPI for allegedly circumventing its newly deployed SearchGuard anti‑bot system, which monitors mouse, keyboard, scroll and timing signals to distinguish humans from automated scrapers. The lawsuit, filed under DMCA Section 1201, highlights Google’s effort to protect its search...
As AI Search Evolves, Dubai Businesses Strengthen SEO with Generative Engine Optimization
Dubai firms are adopting Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to adapt to AI‑driven and answer‑based search. Right‑Door, a local digital agency, is rebuilding SEO foundations for companies with little organic presence, layering GEO and AEO principles...
Toxic Backlinks: What They Are & How to Find Them
Toxic backlinks are inbound links that violate Google’s link‑spam guidelines and can erode a site’s trust signals, especially when they appear in manipulative patterns. While Google often ignores isolated low‑quality links, large‑scale spam can trigger manual actions that suppress rankings....
Viooh Partners With Atmosphere Tv To Unlock Programmatic Access
VIOOH has teamed up with Atmosphere TV to bring its premium programmatic supply‑side platform to the world’s largest place‑based streaming network. The deal unlocks more than 60,000 high‑traffic venues in the UK, North America and Australia, delivering over one billion monthly...