FINNY Partners with Osaic to Expand AI Prospecting for Advisors
FINNY, an AI‑powered prospecting platform for financial advisors, has partnered with Osaic to roll its technology out across Osaic’s network of more than 270 institutions and roughly 11,000 advisors. The integration gives users access to FINNY’s predictive F‑Score engine, real‑time intent signals and automated multi‑channel outreach tools. By automating lead identification and outreach, the solution aims to cut prospecting time from hours to minutes while driving organic client acquisition. Osaic’s $700 billion asset base and extensive advisor footprint amplify the platform’s reach.
The Role of AI Transcription in the Future of Video Search and Discovery
AI transcription is turning spoken video into searchable, timestamped text, addressing the long‑standing difficulty of locating information within growing video libraries. Modern speech‑recognition models now handle diverse accents and technical vocabularies with high accuracy, enabling instant navigation to exact moments....
EXCLUSIVE: X’s Memelord Product Chief Has a Plan to Save the Platform—If Grok Doesn’t Destroy It First
X’s product chief Nikita Bier unveiled a multi‑phase strategy at CES 2026 aimed at reviving the platform by leveraging meme‑centric content and AI‑enhanced advertising. The plan introduces AI‑curated meme feeds, new short‑form ad formats, and tighter integration with the upcoming...
Crocs Puts Self-Expression over Algorithmic Sameness with New Platform
Crocs introduced its first global brand platform in nearly a decade, "Wonderfully Unordinary," to replace the 2017 "Come As You Are" campaign. The new platform emphasizes self‑expression and real‑world experiences as a counterpoint to the algorithmic sameness dominating digital culture....
Toimi Expands SEO Optimization Capabilities Using AI-Powered Analytical Tools
Toimi has launched AI‑powered analytical tools to overhaul its SEO workflow, focusing on content structure, semantic clustering, and search intent analysis. The technology processes massive datasets, enabling strategic planning of site architecture rather than chasing short‑term ranking spikes. AI insights...
Social Media Marketing Outlook 2026: What to Expect in the Year Ahead
The 2026 Social Media Marketing Outlook predicts short‑form video will cement its role as the primary brand engagement tool, while platforms like Reddit face growing user resistance to advertising. Algorithmic shifts are expected to heighten tension between creators and networks,...
How to Find Great Writers (and Other Content Marketing Struggles)
The article outlines a practical framework for locating and retaining great content writers amid a crowded marketplace flooded with AI tools and low‑cost freelancers. It stresses evaluating fundamentals such as grammar, readability, and audience focus, and prioritizing writers skilled in...
Starbucks Canada Rolls Out Tiered Rewards Program
Starbucks Canada launched a revamped Starbucks Rewards program on March 10, introducing three tiers—Green, Gold, and Reserve—to deliver faster, more personalized benefits. The redesign, driven by extensive member feedback, adds features such as a 60‑Star $2‑off redemption, non‑expiring Stars for higher...
Salesforce President Ariel Kelman’s 25-Year Playbook for Marketing at Scale
Salesforce President and CMO Ariel Kelman shared his 25‑year marketing playbook on the Marketing Vanguard podcast, emphasizing trust‑driven storytelling, AI grounded in first‑party data, and executive‑led AI experimentation. He illustrated the “show, don’t tell” approach with the AgentForce City exhibit,...
Google Ads Advertiser Verification Page Moving
Google has relocated the Advertiser Verification page within the Google Ads console to the Admin → Policy → Account section, renaming it simply "Account." The new hub consolidates verification tasks with business information, certifications, and compliance status. The change was highlighted by industry voices...
Shoppers Want to Feel Seen and Understood, Suggests New Tesco Media Report
Tesco Media’s third annual "We Know the Nation 2026" report reveals British shoppers are seeking community and shared values, moving beyond pure transactions. With roughly 80% of UK households holding a Clubcard, the data shows event‑driven sales spikes—such as scones...
Google Personal Intelligence Creates AI Frankenstein Recipes
Google’s Personal Intelligence (PI) is delivering AI‑generated “Frankenstein” recipes that blend content from multiple sources. In a recent test, the tool produced a Key Lime Pie recipe attributed to the food blog Inspired Taste but with incorrect ingredients, bake time,...
Google Ads API Version 23 Now Available
Google has launched version 23 of the Google Ads API, marking the first release of 2026 and a shift to a faster release cadence. The update adds dozens of new features, including expanded asset and reporting metrics, granular billing data, and...
Most Consumers Can Identify AI Videos
According to Animoto’s 2026 State of Video Report, 83% of consumers say they can identify AI‑generated videos, and they perceive such content as diminishing brand trust. The study found that robotic gestures, unnatural voices, and lack of emotional tone are...
Particular Audience Introduces Modular Retail Media Solutions to Cut Costs and Accelerate Innovation for RMNs
Particular Audience unveiled a Modular Retail Media (MRM) suite comprising 13 interoperable modules that can be added to existing retail media networks without replacing legacy adtech. The AI‑driven components, ranging from semantic search to automated product bundles, promise higher‑margin ad...
Jotform Brings AI-Powered Chatbots to Canva Designs
Jotform has launched Jotform AI Chatbot for Canva, the first native AI chatbot integration within Canva’s design platform. The tool lets viewers interact with designs to ask questions, book appointments, track orders, or submit inquiries without leaving the editor. Users...
Webflow and Google Ads Narrow the Gap Between Ads and Site Results
Webflow has launched a native Google Ads integration that lets marketers create, run, and monitor campaigns directly from the Webflow design environment. The new app, available in the Webflow Marketplace, supports Google’s Performance Max campaigns and pulls site assets such...
EBay Advertising Launches 2026 UK Marketing Trends Calendar
eBay Advertising has unveiled its 2026 UK Marketing Trends Calendar, a data‑driven guide that maps seasonal moments, micro‑trends and high‑intent shopping periods across the year. The calendar, built on eBay UK marketplace data, highlights demand spikes such as a 76%...
Exposed: Why Launching an Agency Is a Risky Business
A new analysis by digital‑marketing firm Avid Panda shows that 39% of marketing companies launched between 2021 and 2025 cease trading within five years, with advertising agencies the most vulnerable at a 41% failure rate. The study compares incorporation data...
DfE Woos Bored Professionals in VCCP Training Debut
The Department for Education has launched "Give Your Skills New Life," a national recruitment drive created by its new agency VCCP to entice professionals to become further‑education teachers. The campaign uses authentic stories of real trainers and students across colleges...
Real-Time Blackhole List – How to Remove an IP From It?
Email senders increasingly encounter DNS‑based Real‑Time Blackhole Lists that block IPs suspected of spam, phishing, or compromised servers. When an IP lands on a blacklist, major ESPs reject or filter messages, causing bounce errors, silent drops, and plummeting engagement metrics....
![The Way Your Agency Handles Leads Will Define Success in 2026 [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/1-105.png)
The Way Your Agency Handles Leads Will Define Success in 2026 [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
The webinar hosted by Search Engine Journal highlights that agencies’ ability to manage leads after capture will determine their success in 2026. It stresses that missed calls, delayed follow‑ups, and poor handoffs are eroding conversion rates and wasting ad spend....
Ain’t No Stopping Us Now: 2026 Adspend to Top £50bn
The Advertising Association and WARC report projects UK advertising expenditure to surpass £50 billion in 2026, following a 10.1% rise to £46.9 billion in 2025. Q3 2025 saw ad spend climb 11.4% to £12.5 billion, with search and online display making up 83%...
Introducing the Klaviyo App in ChatGPT
Klaviyo has launched a new app that embeds its marketing automation data directly into OpenAI’s ChatGPT. By tagging @Klaviyo, marketers can query real‑time campaign performance, revenue trends, and unsubscribe drivers, receiving results as interactive cards and plain‑language recommendations. The integration...
EDO Launches ‘EDO Always-On’, Delivering Automated, Scaled Outcomes Measurement for Convergent TV
EDO announced the launch of Always‑On, a cross‑platform measurement solution that streams automated outcomes data into media partners' analytics platforms. NBCUniversal and Paramount Global are the first to integrate the service, feeding real‑time performance insights for linear and streaming inventory....
The State of Browsing in 2026: Why Digital Burnout Is Now a Marketing Problem… and Opportunity
Shift’s 2026 State of Browsing Report finds digital burnout now prevalent in browsers, with 62% of U.S. adults reporting recurring fatigue. Users juggle many tabs—one in five has 11+ open—and experience frequent attention loss, costing significant time. Marketers are implicated...
StackAdapt Achieves EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework Certification
StackAdapt announced it has earned certification under the EU‑U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the European Commission‑approved mechanism that legitimises transatlantic personal data flows. The certification confirms the platform’s GDPR‑aligned privacy program and eliminates the need for supplemental transfer tools such as...
Put a Face on It: Unpacking the Uniquely Australian Obsession with Heads in Logos
Australian retailers frequently feature founders' heads in their logos, a trend highlighted by Dan Murphy’s recent eye‑contact campaign. The practice taps into a cultural love for personable, “battler” narratives that signal authenticity and local origin. Both real and fictional founder...
The Hidden SEO Cost Of A Slow WordPress Site & How It Affects AI Visibility via @Sejournal, @Wp_rocket
A slow WordPress site now hurts both traditional SEO and emerging AI visibility, with research showing higher bounce rates, lower conversion, and fewer ChatGPT citations for sluggish pages. Google’s Core Web Vitals remain a ranking factor, yet only 50 % of...
Starbucks Says Digital Platforms Are Key Piece of Turnaround Strategy
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said digital platforms are central to the company’s turnaround, emphasizing the progress of the "Back to Starbucks" plan. In Q1 FY2026, global comparable store sales rose 4%, with U.S. comparable transactions up 3%—the first increase in...
How Did Yves Saint Laurent Build a Long-Term Retail Strategy?
Yves Saint Laurent built a durable retail strategy by pioneering owned boutiques that separated ready‑to‑wear from haute couture, giving the brand direct control over pricing, presentation, and customer experience. The 1999 acquisition by the Gucci Group (now Kering) introduced corporate discipline,...
Bing Ads Revenue Up 10% - Is Growth Slowing?
Microsoft reported second‑quarter 2026 results showing Bing Ads revenue grew 10% year‑over‑year, a slowdown from the 16% and 21% gains in the prior two quarters. Overall company revenue reached $81.3 billion, up 17% YoY, while operating income rose 21% and net...
AI Local Visibility Is up to 30x Harder than Ranking in Google: Report
SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index reveals that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity surface far fewer business locations than Google’s local 3‑pack. Only 1.2% of 350,000 locations appear on ChatGPT, 11% on Gemini, and 7.4% on Perplexity, compared...
Clay, an A.I. Sales Start-Up, Lets Employees Cash Out. Again.
Clay, an AI‑driven sales and marketing startup, announced a second employee tender offer, letting staff sell shares at a $5 billion valuation—up from $1.5 billion in its first tender. The new offer arrives nine months after the initial buyback and follows a...
Canadian Government Looks to Bring News Content Back to Facebook
Two and a half years after Meta blocked Canadian news, the Canadian government is negotiating with Meta to restore news content on Facebook and Instagram as part of revisions to the Online News Act. The original act would have forced...
Google Launches New Google Ads Insights Podcast
Google has introduced the "Ads Decoded" podcast, hosted by Ads Product Liaison Ginny Marvin, to bridge marketers with the Google Ads product teams. The series will feature interviews covering the latest trends such as AI, SEO, and analytics. The debut...
Fintech Thisbank Plays on Heritage Through Equimedia
JN Bank, a 150‑year‑old Jamaican financial institution, has been rebranded as Thisbank following a takeover by UK and US investors. The new digital platform, designed by Equimedia, showcases a customer‑centric interface that highlights fixed‑term savings, competitive loan products, and interactive...
TikTok Shop Now UK’s Fourth Largest Beauty Retailer
TikTok Shop has become the UK’s fourth‑largest beauty retailer, posting a 60 % year‑on‑year rise in beauty sales. The platform’s discovery‑first model drives a “search‑learn‑buy” flow, moving one product per second on average and peaking at five every two seconds in...
Google Adds One-Click Ad Previews to PMax
Google has added a one‑click preview feature to Performance Max, allowing advertisers to click directly on images or videos within the Asset Groups table to see how ads will appear across placements. The update eliminates the need to navigate to...
Social Campaigns Alone Won’t Win Over Gen Z. Here’s What Will
Gen Z’s inflation sensitivity and mobile‑first habits make brand values essential for purchase decisions. While social platforms remain a discovery hub, 65 % of this cohort demands clear moral stances, and authenticity is now a prerequisite. Mobile‑native ads, shoppable videos, and...
Google Searches per U.S. User Fell Nearly 20% YoY: Report
U.S. desktop Google searches per user dropped nearly 20% year‑over‑year, while Europe saw only a 2‑3% decline. The fall reflects fewer repeat queries as AI‑generated answers satisfy users instantly. Zero‑click searches now represent about 20% of desktop events, but growth...
How Macy’s Is Flexing Its Style Crew Affiliate Program Beyond Social Media
Macy’s is scaling its Style Crew affiliate program from 600 to 1,000 creators, adding storefronts on macys.com and offering 12% commissions. The initiative drove a 315% revenue jump, 327% traffic surge, and 30‑40% conversion lift among top influencers in 2025....
Acoustic Launches Native Integrations with Leading Commerce Platforms
Acoustic announced native, bi‑directional integrations with Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce inside its Acoustic Connect platform. The connectors deliver real‑time catalog, order and behavioral data sync, giving retailers a continuously updated view of each customer. Marketers can now trigger omnichannel journeys...
Dmr Advertising Chooses Pentaleap to Modernize Its Retail Media and Accelerate Growth
Retail media marketer dmr Advertising has selected Pentaleap as its technology partner to modernize its retail media operations for DocMorris. The transition began with a collaborative upgrade alongside the incumbent system, delivering immediate relevance and user‑experience improvements, before expanding to...
Drupal Reinvents Open Source Content Management with Launch of Drupal Cms 2.0 — New Visual Builder, AI and Templates Redefine...
Drupal Association unveiled Drupal CMS 2.0, the most significant upgrade in its 25‑year history. The new version adds Drupal Canvas, a visual drag‑and‑drop builder, and pre‑configured site templates that can be installed in under three minutes. Optional AI tools let...
MNTN’s Latest Innovation, QuickFrame AI, Scales Rapidly With New AI Video Features Including Consistent Characters, Products, and Locations Across Campaigns
MNTN unveiled major upgrades to its QuickFrame AI platform, enabling brands to generate professional TV and social video in minutes. The new release introduces reusable brand building blocks for products, characters, and locations, director‑level controls, an effects library, and an...
Incubeta Launches New Agentic AI Products to Help Brands Understand What Truly Drives Marketing Performance
Incubeta unveiled two agentic AI solutions—Creative Performance Index (CPI) and OutperformBI—to give marketers clearer insight into what truly drives campaign results. CPI analyzes granular creative elements such as branding, calls‑to‑action, and emotional cues, linking them directly to live performance data...
Purple Launches ‘Engage’: The All-in-One CRM and Email Platform to Help Venues Turn Visitors Into Regulars
Purple has unveiled Engage, an all‑in‑one CRM and email marketing platform that turns venue Wi‑Fi connections into a compliant customer database. The solution bundles data collection, segmentation and automated email campaigns in a hardware‑agnostic interface designed for small cafés to...
Social Channel Insights In Search Console: What It Means For Social & Search via @Sejournal, @Rio_seo
Google is piloting Social Channel Insights within Search Console, adding metrics that show a website’s social reach, referral traffic, and the search queries that lead users to social posts. The feature appears only for sites where Google can associate official...
Google Search - Add Splash Of Color With Color Picker
Google is experimenting with a new color‑picker feature that lets users add a custom hue to the top of the Search results page. An icon above the results bar opens a palette where users can choose any shade, effectively personalizing...