EU Puts Google’s AI and Search Data Under DMA Spotlight
The European Commission has launched two formal specification proceedings under the Digital Markets Act to dictate how Google must share Android AI capabilities and anonymized search data with rivals. The moves target Google’s control over hardware features used by its Gemini AI and the proprietary search ranking signals that fuel its dominance. Regulators will issue preliminary findings within three months and aim to conclude the process in six, setting clear, non‑discriminatory terms for competitors. This marks the EU’s first concrete enforcement of DMA rules on AI services.
Oreo Creme Egg Cookie Channels the Spoilt Nepo-Baby
Mondelez International is rolling out a limited‑edition Oreo Creme Egg Cookie, blending two iconic UK confectionery brands. The “Born of Two Icons” campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, leans into a tongue‑in‑cheek nepo‑baby narrative across OOH, DOOH, radio, social and podcast channels throughout the...
Walmart Connect Mexico Taps Advertima for In-Store Retail Media Strategy
Walmart Connect Mexico has teamed with Advertima to deploy Audience AI sensors across hundreds of Walmart Supercenters, creating a large‑scale in‑store audience intelligence network. The 3D sensors capture shop‑floor activity over 30 meters and support multi‑zone zoning, feeding data to both digital...
Virgin Wines Reports Strong Christmas Trading
Virgin Wines UK posted a 5% year‑on‑year revenue increase during the Christmas period, driven by a 40% surge in new customers. In the six months to 2 January, total revenue rose 2% to £34.7 million, with commercial partnerships and corporate gifting outperforming...
Krispy Kreme Jumps Aboard Ark for Advertising Rethink
Krispy Kreme has hired Ark Agency as its lead creative partner for the UK and Ireland, aiming to revamp its advertising in response to the UK’s new Less Healthy Food (LHF) legislation. The law, effective Jan. 5, imposes a near‑total ban...
Hackers Exploit SEO Poisoning to Target Users Seeking Legitimate Tools
Hackers are leveraging SEO poisoning to push malicious ZIP archives that contain BAT scripts masquerading as legitimate tools. The fraudulent pages rank highly in search results, directing users to fake repositories where the scripts contact command‑and‑control servers and download remote...
Visa Urges Banks to Rethink Loyalty Beyond Credit Card Rewards
Visa is urging banks to move beyond credit‑card‑centric loyalty programs toward contextual, data‑driven rewards. Margin pressure on interchange fees and the proliferation of consumer loyalty accounts are forcing banks to seek new funding sources, such as merchant‑backed offers. Visa’s suite...
95% of Shoppers Research Influencer Picks Before Buying
A new PYMNTS Intelligence study of 3,196 U.S. consumers finds that influencers act more as discovery catalysts than direct sales drivers. While 56% of shoppers purchase an influencer‑recommended item at least once a year, 95% conduct additional research before checkout,...
Canadian Retailers Urged to Build Trust and Personalization Through Technology: SOTI Study
Canadian retailers are under pressure to rebuild consumer trust and deliver personalized experiences as inflation curtails spending, according to SOTI’s latest global retail tech study. The survey of 1,000 Canadians shows 83% are shopping more carefully, while 53% expect retailers...
Sam Altman Says OpenAI “Screwed Up” GPT-5.2 Writing Quality via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Sam Altman publicly acknowledged that OpenAI "screwed up" the writing quality of GPT‑5.2, noting it feels unwieldy compared to the earlier GPT‑4.5. The company deliberately prioritized technical strengths—reasoning, coding, and engineering—over prose in the 5.2 release. GPT‑4.5 was marketed for...
Why the Brain Rejects Ads Marketers Love
The article presents a five‑question framework—attention, memory, choice, trust, and emotion—derived from cognitive psychology to evaluate ad effectiveness. It shows how inattentional blindness, the serial‑position effect, choice overload, thin‑slicing, and emotional resonance shape a viewer’s split‑second decisions. Practical tips include...
Aligne Appoints Ellie Dickinson as Global DTC Director
Aligne, the London‑based contemporary womenswear label, has named Ellie Dickinson as its global Direct‑to‑Consumer (DTC) director. Dickinson arrives from a commercial director role at Australian brand Dissh, where she oversaw the UK, EU and US markets since September 2024. Her...
Seeing Through the Marketing Data Mirage - and How to Avoid It!
DemandScience’s 2026 State of Performance Marketing reveals a pervasive "Marketing Data Mirage," where 99% of marketers rely on signals that don’t reflect real buyer intent. AI tools amplify the problem by producing generic, non‑data‑driven content that erodes brand distinction. The...
What Does It Mean to Be Visible in an AI-Curated World?
AI is reshaping FMCG product discovery by moving visibility from shelf placement to algorithmic shortlists that act as trusted advisers. Brands that lack structured, natural‑language product data risk disappearing from these AI‑curated conversations. Experts cite earned‑media signals—reviews, awards, editorial coverage—as...
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LinkedIn Shares Tips on How to Boost Organic Posts [Infographic]
LinkedIn has published an infographic detailing how marketers can use its paid “Boost” feature to amplify organic posts, mirroring Facebook’s simple boost workflow. The tool now supports boosting content created by other members, extending reach beyond a brand’s own updates....
Are Social Platform Subscriptions Becoming More Accepted?
Elon Musk predicts paid social will dominate, citing X Premium’s modest 1.5 million subscribers as a proof‑of‑concept. Major platforms—Meta, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube—have launched or expanded subscription tiers that offer verification, ad‑free viewing, and exclusive tools. These add‑ons serve dual purposes: new...
ChatGPT Ads Come with Premium Prices — and Limited Data
OpenAI is rolling out ads inside ChatGPT at roughly $60 CPM, about three times the cost of typical Meta placements. Advertisers will receive only high‑level metrics—total impressions and clicks—without insight into downstream actions such as purchases. The first wave targets...
How to Build a High-Quality Local Business Database That Drives Real Growth
Local businesses increasingly rely on high‑quality databases to drive sales and marketing efficiency. Fragmented lists and outdated spreadsheets cost time and revenue, while a systematic, verified data set enables precise targeting and stronger customer relationships. The article outlines a step‑by‑step...
ADWEEK to Debut the Super Bowl AI Influence Index
ADWEEK is partnering with AI‑search startup Emberos to debut the first Real‑Time AI Influence Index on Super Bowl 60 day, displaying the top seven advertisers based on their visibility in generative search engines. The index, embedded on ADWEEK.com’s sidebar, updates live...
From Cringe to Fandom: Social Media Reigns Supreme
We Are Social’s "Think Forward 2026" study finds 95% of marketers view social media as essential for brand building, with 63% already leveraging social selling and another 17% planning to start. AI‑generated content is flooding feeds, prompting a pivot toward...
Researchers Uncover “Haxor” SEO Poisoning Marketplace
Security researchers uncovered the HaxorSEO (HxSEO) marketplace, a Telegram and WhatsApp‑based service that sells over 1,000 malicious backlinks from compromised, decades‑old domains. Each listing includes trust scores such as domain authority and is priced at $6, allowing threat actors to...
You No Longer Have to Choose Between Insight and Impact
The article argues that the traditional split between qualitative insight and quantitative impact is becoming obsolete thanks to AI and advanced analytics. By applying generative LLMs and Bayesian methods, marketers can now achieve deep, nuanced understanding at massive scale. The...
Loyalty Didn’t Disappear. Brands Traded It Away.
Loyalty has not vanished; brands have diluted it by swapping genuine value for gimmicks and mistaking engagement for commitment. Traditional points and gamified programs generated activity metrics but failed to deliver incremental, margin‑adjusted revenue. As discount‑driven schemes compress profits, the...
How to Write Promotional Emails that Actually Convert
The MarTech article dissects why many webinar invitation emails fall flat, citing vague messaging, information overload, generic copy, weak subject lines, and poor timing. It then presents three proven copy frameworks—AIDA, PAS, and the 4Ps—to structure persuasive content. Best‑practice recommendations...
Google Ads New Billing Report
Google Ads is introducing a new billing report that provides a line‑by‑line view of invoices, displaying account, campaign, usage, and payment details. The interface lets users select custom date ranges, view data by account ID and type, and reconcile spend...
Google Ads Gambling & Games Certification Eligibility: Good Health
Google will update its Ads gambling and games policy on March 23, 2026, requiring advertisers to demonstrate good policy health before obtaining certification. The rule mandates a clean account history with few violations, and manager accounts with a significant number...
Google Ads Campaign Mix Experiments In Beta
Google Ads introduced Campaign Mix Experiments, a beta tool that lets advertisers run a single experiment across multiple campaign types, budgets, and settings. Users can assign existing campaigns to up to five experiment arms, enabling tests of account structures, consolidation,...
Google Ads Product Campaign View Report Is Useful
Google Ads introduced a Product Campaign View report that consolidates performance metrics for individual products across all active campaigns. Advertisers can click a product title to see conversions, spend, and other key indicators broken down by each campaign, including Standard...
EXCLUSIVE: YouTube Overtakes Reddit as Go-To Citation Source on AI Search
Recent analysis shows YouTube has become the most cited social platform in AI-generated answers, surpassing Reddit. Over the past six months, large language models referenced YouTube in 16% of responses versus 10% for Reddit. The shift stems from YouTube’s rich...
NCA Hires Creatives Behind Just Eat and Moonpig Ads
New Commercial Arts (NCA) has added four senior creatives—Adam Taylor‑Smith, Steve Yeates, Rose Power and Niamh McBride—to its team. Taylor‑Smith and Yeates bring experience from McCann London, including the viral Just Eat ads, while Power and McBride have shaped brand...
Google’s New User Intent Extraction Method via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google researchers unveiled a two‑stage, on‑device method for extracting user intent from UI interactions. The first stage generates per‑interaction summaries on the device, while a second, fine‑tuned model aggregates these summaries into a comprehensive intent description. This approach outperforms larger...
How Children with Cancer UK Is Getting a Fundraising Boost with Salesforce
Children with Cancer UK, which has raised over £300 million and helped lift childhood cancer survival from 67 % to 85 % since 1990, embarked on a digital transformation using Salesforce. The charity migrated to Salesforce CRM, Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud, creating...
Why Your ESP Alone Won’t Carry You Into 2026
Retail marketers still rely heavily on email and SMS, but traditional ESPs only reach customers they already know. With up to 95% of website traffic remaining anonymous, the gap between known and unknown shoppers is widening and eroding engagement. Adding...
The Analytics Blind Spot: Why 70% of Marketers Can’t Prove Social Media ROI (and How to Fix It)
Only 30% of marketers can prove social media’s business impact, leaving 70% stuck with vanity metrics. The root cause is fragmented data and simplistic attribution that obscure ROI. Experts recommend consolidating analytics, tailoring ROI definitions, and building multi‑touch attribution while...
Conversation with… People in Retail Awards Judge Giles Smith
Former Selfridges digital head Giles Smith discusses his return as a judge for the People in Retail Awards. He emphasizes the importance of celebrating frontline employees and unsung innovators rather than solely focusing on commercial metrics. Smith, now a technology...
SportsShoes.com to Open Flagship Experiential Store in Shoreditch
SportsShoes.com will launch its flagship experiential store, House of SportsShoes, on Shoreditch High Street in early March. The 5,000‑square‑foot venue blends digital‑first retail with a “no bags, no hassle” model, allowing shoppers to try over 100 running shoes and complete...
Gen Z Fuels Resurgence of Physical Music in Canada as Vinyl and K-Pop Sales Surge
Physical music sales in Canada have rebounded, with overall record sales rising 19.1% YoY and physical‑media purchases climbing 34% between 2021 and 2023. The surge is driven largely by Gen Z, who value tangible collectibles such as limited‑edition vinyl and...
Gentle Fawn Leans on Longevity over Trends as Vancouver Fashion Brand Marks More than Two Decades
Gentle Fawn, a Vancouver‑based fashion label founded in 2003, has shifted its focus from wholesale‑only to a balanced omnichannel model, with its e‑commerce site now the largest sales channel. The brand serves roughly 600 retail partners across Canada and the...
The $42.8B Retail Media Playbook
Retail media generated $42.8 billion for Amazon in Q1 2025, driven by a server‑side ad serving architecture that delivers native ads without latency or privacy trade‑offs. The eBook outlines a modern retail media stack featuring sponsored products, zero‑impact loading, full reach, built‑in...
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What Is Human-First Marketing? [Infographic]
Human‑first marketing shifts focus from product features to the personal benefits a brand delivers, emphasizing empathy and storytelling. The article warns that AI‑generated content can dilute authentic connections, making audience‑centric messaging essential for performance. Giraffe Social Media’s infographic offers practical...
Pinterest Adds Media Planner to Help You Manage Your Ad Campaigns
Pinterest has launched a native Media Planner within its Ads Manager, giving marketers a single dashboard to design, estimate, and model upper‑funnel campaigns. The tool lets advertisers explore high‑value audience segments, forecast impressions, reach, CPM and CPC by country, and...
Top Crypto SEO & AI Search Agencies for Web3 Projects
The article outlines the shift in crypto SEO from traditional rankings to AI‑driven visibility, highlighting agencies that specialize in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and LLM‑friendly content. It profiles eight firms, with Victoria Olsina’s consultancy leading in...
Get Ready for the AI Ad-Pocalypse
Generative AI is rapidly infiltrating advertising, with over half of brand marketers already using AI tools in 2025 and 90% planning AI‑driven video ads. Studies project AI‑generated content will power 40% of all ads by 2026, while human detection rates...
AI Leaders Diverge on Monetization and Personalization Strategies as Chatbots Evolve
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis cautioned against the rapid rollout of advertising in AI assistants after confirming OpenAI is testing ads within its chatbot. Hassabis said the move surprised him and raised trust concerns....
DAZN’s Hugh Cashmore on Unlocking the Power of Brand Milestones
DAZN’s global brand lead Hugh Cashmore explained how the streaming service turns brand milestones into growth engines. He emphasized selecting moments that genuinely reflect the brand, balancing scheduled sports events with agile, reactive activations, and grounding decisions in a strong...
Google Ads Bug Removes Notes Option for some Advertisers
Google Ads users are encountering a bug that removes the “Add note” option from the account‑change popup, making it harder to document campaign adjustments. The issue, flagged by paid‑search consultant Odi Caspi, appears intermittently over the past weeks. Workarounds include clicking...
How to Win AI Visibility with Semrush One
AI‑driven search interfaces are reshaping how users discover brands, allowing large language models to surface answers that bypass traditional SERP clicks. Semrush responded with Semrush One, a unified platform that combines classic SEO tools with an AI Visibility Toolkit to...
The Weekly Closeout: Reebok Teams with Karol G and Will January Storms Ice Out Retail Sales?
Reebok announced a multiyear partnership with Grammy‑winning Colombian star Karol G, naming her a global brand ambassador and co‑designer for upcoming Classics‑inspired footwear and apparel. Hasbro bolstered its board with former Nintendo of America president and COO Doug Bowser and...
Iceland Bolsters Retail Media with ‘UK First’ Sensor Technology
Iceland Foods has partnered with Stratacache to roll out Walkbase sensor technology across its 766‑store retail media network, making it the first European retailer to use camera‑free, privacy‑safe audience measurement. The sensor solution will provide real‑time, closed‑loop attribution for in‑store...
A Smarter Way to Approach AI Prompting
Generative AI’s rise has exposed costly hallucinations caused by vague prompts. The article proposes rubric‑based prompting as a systematic guardrail that defines decision rules, uncertainty handling, and failure behavior. By embedding concise rubrics alongside prompts, models prioritize accuracy over fluency...