OpenAI Updates Privacy Policy as Ads Expand in ChatGPT
OpenAI has revised its privacy policy to detail how advertising will be integrated into ChatGPT. Ads will run for users on Free and Go plans, while paid subscriptions such as Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Business and Education remain ad‑free, with all sponsored content clearly labeled. Advertisers will receive only aggregated performance metrics; personal chats, histories, and user identities stay private. The update also adds optional contact syncing, clearer data‑storage timelines, and new safety tools for teen users.
Klaviyo and Shopify Deepen Integration
Klaviyo and Shopify have expanded their integration, adding a fully synchronized multi‑market data layer that pulls Shopify Markets' localized catalog information directly into Klaviyo. The new Locale Aware Catalogs feature automatically syncs translated product content, regional pricing, currency, and market‑specific...
The Best Way To Embrace Convergent TV? Break Down The Silos Between Linear And Streaming
Marketers must dissolve the linear‑vs‑streaming divide and adopt a convergent TV approach, blending programmatic and direct buying. At Convergent TV World, Tatari’s Mike Fogarty highlighted the $70 billion U.S. TV market, noting that only $30 billion is streaming‑focused and still largely direct‑sold....
An Opera Singer Who’s Made A Name As A Car Salesman
A classically trained opera singer has reinvented his career by becoming a car salesman who films himself belting arias on the dealership lot. He writes original lyrics that describe each vehicle and posts the performances on TikTok and Instagram, where...
Email Deliverability Technology: How to Ensure Your Campaigns Actually Reach the Inbox
The email deliverability technology market, valued at $4.5 billion in 2025, underpins reliable inbox placement for marketers. Success hinges on sender reputation, which reflects complaint rates, bounce metrics, and recipient engagement. Core authentication protocols—SPF, DKIM, DMARC—and practices such as IP warming...
Programmatic Advertising Technology: How Automated Media Buying Is Reshaping Digital Advertising
Programmatic advertising has become the default buying method, with spend projected to reach $25 billion in 2025, representing roughly 88 % of digital display ads. Real‑time bidding (RTB) executes auctions in under 100 ms, linking demand‑side platforms (DSPs) and supply‑side platforms (SSPs) through...
Fearless Journalist & Zeteo Founder Mehdi Hasan Enters Advertising Partnership with Libsyn for Two Flagship Podcasts
Libsyn announced a one‑year advertising partnership with journalist Mehdi Hasan to monetize his two flagship podcasts, *Mehdi Unfiltered* and *We’re Not Kidding Mehdi & Friends*. The deal leverages Libsyn Ads’ dynamic ad insertion, host‑read spots, and programmatic buying to connect...
Conversion Rate Optimisation Technology: How Testing Platforms and AI Are Maximising Digital Revenue
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) has become a $9.4 billion industry, delivering an average 223 percent return on investment for firms that adopt structured testing programmes. Modern CRO platforms now bundle A/B and multivariate testing, session‑recording heatmaps, AI‑driven personalisation, landing‑page builders and form‑analytics...
ADvendio Launches Ad Suite for Retailers Featuring AI Agents
ADvendio unveiled Revenue OS for Agentic Advertising, an AI‑driven suite that equips retailers with four specialized agents—AdOne, AdPortal, AdGateway, and AdFinance. The platform combines Salesforce’s reasoning engine with ADvendio’s operational logic to automate campaign planning, sales, data consolidation, and financial...
Affiliate Marketing Technology: Platforms, Tracking and the Performance Marketing Revolution
Affiliate marketing has evolved into a $8.2 billion technology sector, driven by sophisticated tracking, attribution, and publisher‑management platforms. Modern solutions now support server‑side, first‑party, and cookieless tracking to overcome privacy restrictions and enable cross‑device measurement. SaaS‑based platforms such as Impact and...
Pre-Launch or Post-Launch: Influencer Timing Explained for Gaming Brands
Influencer marketing is poised to shape the $386 billion gaming market in 2026, but timing determines its effectiveness. Pre‑launch campaigns generate hype, build wishlists, and educate audiences, leading to higher launch‑day conversions. Launch‑day influencer pushes capture peak attention, driving 20‑50% of...
VIOOH Partners with OUTFRONT to Add Expansive US Inventory to Its Global Programmatic Platform
VIOOH, the leading global digital out‑of‑home supply‑side platform, announced a strategic partnership with US media giant OUTFRONT. The deal brings more than 7,600 digital screens and roughly 18 billion monthly impressions onto VIOOH’s programmatic marketplace, covering highways, transit hubs and urban...
Costco Ties Digital Personalization to $470M in Sales Growth
Costco reported that personalized product recommendation carousels generated more than $470 million in e‑commerce sales during Q2 2026. The retailer also saw U.S. comparable store sales rise 5.9% year‑over‑year and net sales climb 9.1% to $68.2 billion, while membership grew 4.8% to 82.1 million...
Zero Click Is Here – Open Attribution Is the Fight Back
Affiliate marketers face a new attribution crisis as AI‑driven search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini deliver product recommendations without passing traditional click data. A recent webinar with Lee‑Ann Johnstone, Alex Springer and Leanna Klyne introduced Open Attribution, an open‑standard framework...
Intero Digital Releases Guide to Help Brands Measure Visibility in AI-Powered Search and Audit GEO Footprint
Intero Digital has launched a strategic guide that helps brands audit and improve their visibility in generative AI search platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. The guide introduces a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) footprint framework, detailing how often...
Horizon Media Pilots AI Solution to Detect Cultural Shifts Mid-Campaign
Advertising agency Horizon Media has begun piloting an AI solution jointly developed by marketing‑intelligence firm Sightly and AI‑research company Vurvey Labs. The platform merges Vurvey’s real‑time human sentiment model with Sightly’s cultural and contextual media data, allowing agencies to spot...
Burger King Names 2 New Agencies Following Viral Whopper Bite Moment
Burger King has tapped Mojo Supermarket as its U.S. social agency of record and Praytell as the public‑relations AOR, aiming to accelerate real‑time, culturally resonant content. The new partners quickly proved their impact with a viral video of President Tom...
Inside the CTV Contextual Advertising Toolset
At Streaming Media Connect 2026, Team Whistle and Intersection explained how CTV contextual advertising now hinges on AI‑driven tools and real‑time data pipelines. Team Whistle has built proprietary Looker‑based analytics that feed production, programming, and ad teams with live‑event and audience...
Studies Reveal AI Citation Clues
Two independent studies examined how generative‑AI platforms cite source content. Kevin Indig analyzed 1.2 million ChatGPT results, finding only 1.5 citations per query, while Daniel Shashko’s research across six tools showed Grok delivering 33 citations per query. Both studies reveal that...
TikTok Is Now a Search Engine. Here Is What That Means for Your Affiliate Program
TikTok is rapidly becoming a genuine search engine, with more than two‑in‑five Americans and 64% of Gen Z using it to find product information. Adobe Express research shows 62% of users favor video tutorials, while 39% seek product reviews, indicating a...
Zefr Receives MRC Accreditation for Content-Level Brand Safety and Suitability Reporting on YouTube
Zefr announced it has earned Media Rating Council accreditation for its content‑level brand safety and suitability labeling and reporting on English‑language in‑stream YouTube videos across desktop, mobile web, mobile app, and connected TV. The accreditation marks the first MRC‑approved third‑party...
Richmond Sausages Cooks up Masterbrand Campaign
Pilgrim’s Europe has commissioned agency Joint to launch a masterbrand campaign for Richmond sausages, rolling out across out‑of‑home (OOH) and social platforms. The initiative, titled "The Big Richmond Sit Down," showcases real families and friends enjoying the product in everyday...
Postscript and Tie Launch Integration to Help E-Commerce Brands Recover More Revenue From Abandonment SMS Automations
Postscript and Tie have launched an integration that links anonymous website visitors to existing opted‑in SMS subscribers, enabling brands to trigger 41% more abandonment SMS automations. The identity‑graph technology works across devices and browsers without relying on cookies, turning offline...
THG Ingenuity Launches Gift With Purchase Channel
THG Ingenuity has launched an external Gift‑With‑Purchase (GWP) channel, extending its proven retail‑media solution to third‑party brands. The service integrates curated gifting offers into key moments of the shopper journey across beauty, nutrition and lifestyle sites. Early campaigns on LOOKFANTASTIC...
Gartner Warns CMOs Against Using Agency AI Platforms
Gartner warns that up to half of agency‑built AI platforms could become obsolete within three years as open‑source solutions gain dominance. The firm predicts open‑source AI will support more than 75% of business deployments by 2028, offering greater customization and...
Picnic Launches ‘Quality Video’ to Bring Transparency to Open-Web Video Buying
Picnic has launched Quality Video, an extension of its PIQ platform that evaluates open‑web video inventory based on real‑time behavior rather than static DSP labels. The solution measures signals such as pause on scroll, simultaneous playback, auto‑play and audio settings,...
Nano Interactive Launches NanoQ Agentic Media Planner Built to Transform Programmatic Planning
Nano Interactive unveiled NanoQ, an agentic AI media planner that automates audience creation and activation. Built on the company’s intent data and the continuously refreshed Intent Library, NanoQ translates natural‑language briefs into custom and off‑the‑shelf segments. In internal tests the...
This Overlooked Instagram Feature Might Be the Most Powerful Tool in Your Marketing Stack
Instagram’s Close Friends, originally a privacy tool, is being reframed as a high‑intent marketing channel. By curating a small, exclusive list of creators, editors, and brand advocates, marketers can turn the green‑ring stories into a micro‑CRM. The invitation itself signals...
11 Best PR Analytics Software: My Picks Based on G2 Data
PR teams are shifting from simple clip counts to data‑driven measurement, prompting a surge in PR analytics software demand. The market is expected to grow from $2.3 billion in 2024 to $6.5 billion by 2035. G2’s analysis highlights seven top platforms, with...
John Lewis Invests in TikTok Shop Launch and AI-Powered Shopping
John Lewis has launched a 90‑day TikTok Shop trial ahead of Mother’s Day, offering a curated selection of beauty and gifting items that can be bought directly on the platform. The move is part of an £800 million multi‑year transformation programme...
Binance Announces Changes to Its Advertising Policy
Binance announced a policy change effective March 9, 2026 at 03:00 UTC. The exchange will cancel referral commissions when referrals are generated via prohibited advertising methods, including search‑engine ads and impersonating third‑party sites. Prohibited tactics cover URLs mimicking Binance’s domain, fake social media...
The Privacy ‘Zealots’ Were Right: Ad Tech’s Infrastructure Was Always A Risk
The article argues that ad‑tech’s reliance on granular identity data created an inherent privacy risk, a point long raised by privacy advocates. Real‑time bidding and massive data extraction expose location and behavioral signals to a sprawling ecosystem of unknown parties....
McCann Singapore Teams up with Adobe to Scale AI-Driven Creative Production for Brands
McCann Singapore has entered a strategic partnership with Adobe to embed generative AI tools such as Adobe Express, Firefly, and object‑compositing services into brand‑centric creative workflows. The alliance will run live pilots with select regional clients, provide priority technical support,...
X Quietly Adds Option to Block Grok From Editing Uploaded Media
X has introduced a hidden toggle in its post composer that lets users block the Grok AI from generating alternate versions of uploaded images or videos. The option is buried in the media upload settings and has not been publicly...
Kinnect Launches #ChangeTheDefaultSettings Film for Aditya Birla Capital
Kinnect India released a digital film titled #ChangeTheDefaultSettings for Aditya Birla Capital on International Women’s Day. The spot spotlights entrenched systemic defaults that often overlook women’s financial journeys, using a visual of outdated code being interrupted and rewritten. It aligns with the...
X Tests New Ad Format that Includes Product Mention Links
X is piloting a new ad format that automatically attaches product‑mention links to user posts, as seen with a Starlink CTA under a tweet. The format blends ads with organic content without compensating users, aiming to avoid skewed incentives. X...
Pre-Campaign Planning in Barb Ads Hub
Barb has added pre‑campaign planning to Barb Ads Hub, turning it into a single platform for UK advertising buyers and sellers to forecast and evaluate campaigns across linear and VOD services. The new planner, previously called Advanced Campaign Hub, merges...
How Outfit Formulas CEO Alison Lumbatis Turned 500 Followers Into Paying Members
Alison Lumbatis, CEO of Outfit Formulas, turned a fashion blog with roughly 500 followers into a subscription business charging $19 per month. She bypassed traditional affiliate and sponsorship models, instead surveying her audience to discover a demand for curated shopping...
The AI Attribution Blind Spot
Artificial intelligence assistants are emerging as a primary channel for product discovery, compressing the traditional list of search results into a single answer. This upstream shift moves the consumer decision point into a system retailers cannot control or directly measure....
Google’s Liz Reid Says LLMs Unlock Audio And Video Indexing via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google VP of Search Liz Reid said multimodal LLMs now let Google deeply understand audio and video, moving beyond transcription to grasp style and content. The technology also enables cross‑language translation, helping non‑English users access information. Additionally, Google is testing...
If They Knew…
Marketing strategies diverge on whether to inform or exploit consumers. Seth Godin argues that organizations either educate prospects, fostering informed decisions, or rely on confusion to close sales. The piece challenges marketers to consider if fully informed prospects would still...
They Quit an Influencer Marketing Startup and Built Their Own. Now They’re Projecting to Make $3M
Storytime, founded by former Lefty employees Aris Yeager and Philip Davis, is building a city‑by‑city influencer marketplace for local brick‑and‑mortar businesses. The platform leverages Yeager’s 3 million‑follower social presence to automate creator outreach, contracts, and performance tracking. It targets the inefficiencies...
What Social Listening Research Really Reveals About Your Customers (That Dashboards Miss)
Social listening research adds a question‑led, qualitative layer to standard dashboards, revealing why metrics move. It distinguishes monitoring, analytics, and research, focusing on emotion, language, and context hidden in raw conversations. The guide outlines a lightweight process—50 to 200 comments,...
The 10 Fastest-Growing Australian Instagram Accounts of February 2026
In February 2026 Korean‑Australian actress Yerin Ha topped the growth chart, adding 692.6 K followers to reach just over 1 million. Creative director Christian Watson, physiotherapist Heidi Barlow, radio host Liam Stapleton and UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski also posted sizable gains, each surpassing...
How the Best Brands Are Winning by Moving Faster
Brands that can activate creators within hours are out‑pacing competitors, not out‑spending them. The article outlines a speed‑to‑culture framework built on pre‑vetted creator rosters, master contracts, and a single decision owner, enabling rapid response to viral trends. Influencer‑marketing teams can...
Social Media Intelligence Gathering Tools: Clearly See What Your Audience Won’t Say Out Loud
Social media intelligence gathering transforms public conversations into actionable business decisions, moving beyond basic analytics and listening. By extracting objections, trust signals, and emerging desires from comments, forums, and creator content, teams can refine messaging, creator partnerships, and product priorities...
Pod Digital Media Expands Growth Audience Marketplace for Brands in 30+ Markets
Pod Digital Media (PDM) has entered a multi‑year partnership with One Venture Group to launch a growth audience marketplace spanning more than 30 U.S. markets and 72 live events. The platform matches brands with high‑value cultural audiences—such as jazz fans,...
Podscribe Launches AI Chatbot and Introduces YouTube SmartModeling to Improve Podcast & Video Ad Measurement
Podscribe unveiled two major product upgrades: an AI‑powered chatbot that lets advertisers query the platform’s podcast data in natural language, and YouTube SmartModeling, a new attribution framework for simulcast ads. SmartModeling replaces the old practice of mirroring podcast conversion rates...
Google Contacts Advertisers with a Mandatory EU Political Ads Deadline
Google is emailing all advertisers to certify whether their active campaigns contain EU political ads, with a non‑negotiable deadline of March 31 2026. The new EU regulation forces Google to verify political‑ad status across every campaign, and failure to comply could result...
Sevio Releases 2025 Programmatic Monetization Performance Report for Financial Audience Publishers
Sevio released its 2025 State of Financial Publishers report, analyzing programmatic monetization across 4.14 billion impressions from sites ranging from 1,900 to 95.1 million monthly visitors in eight countries. The data shows revenue growth stemmed from higher monetization per impression rather than...