Today's Marketing Pulse
McKinsey predicts agentic AI will power two‑thirds of marketing activities
McKinsey’s new report forecasts that agentic AI could drive up to two‑thirds of marketing activities, shifting AI from a productivity add‑on to a core campaign engine. Early adopters are already using generative tools, while the next wave will involve autonomous agents that coordinate decisions across workflows. The firm outlines a five‑step roadmap for implementation.
AI Search Is Growing — But Most Companies Aren’t Tracking It. Here’s How to Turn That Gap Into a Real...
AI‑driven search is funneling qualified visitors to websites, but Google Analytics 4 routinely misclassifies this traffic as Direct, Organic or Referral, leaving marketers blind to its impact. The lack of a dedicated AI channel means attribution and budgeting decisions are based on incomplete data, undervaluing high‑intent content. Leading marketers are deploying Google Tag Manager to flag known AI sources, consolidating them into a custom “AI Search” channel in GA4, and feeding the data into Looker Studio or BigQuery for deeper analysis. This visibility quickly reveals AI traffic’s strong engagement and conversion metrics, turning a measurement gap into a competitive advantage.
Multimodal Analytics: Decode Video, Audio and Images
Snowflake’s Cortex AI adds true multimodal analytics to its data platform, letting enterprises turn video, audio and image files into structured, queryable data. The service runs natively in Snowflake, so media stays in place and extracted metadata can be joined...
Sony Halts PC Ports for Single‑Player Games, Shifts to Console‑First Marketing
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that all future first‑party single‑player narrative games will remain exclusive to PlayStation consoles, ending the PC‑port strategy launched in 2020. The reversal, confirmed by studio head Hermen Hulst at an internal town‑hall, marks a decisive pivot...
ITV Launches Live Addressable+ with Omnicom
ITV has introduced Live Addressable+, its first addressable advertising solution for live linear channels, in an exclusive beta with Omnicom Media Group. The trial involves more than 20 brands across automotive, retail and telecoms, leveraging ITV’s first‑party audience data and...
LinkedIn Launches Paid Consulting Feature with Zero Platform Fee
LinkedIn is rolling out Advice Sessions, a feature that lets Premium subscribers add a “Get advice from me” button to their profile and offer paid one-on-one consultations directly through the platform. 💼 Bookings, payments, and video consultations are all handled natively...
How Creators Fuel Brand Discoverability in the Age of AI
The rise of AI‑powered answer engines is reshaping brand discoverability, shifting the focus from traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Creator‑generated content now serves as the primary third‑party signal that AI models trust, delivering 33× more social volume and...
Accounts in Transit: Thunderly Adds Celebree School
Thunderly Marketing has been hired by early‑childhood education franchisor Celebree School to run a full‑scale digital marketing and franchise development program, covering paid media, SEO content, website optimization and analytics. CIIC PR added luxury travel client Kemetale, a provider of...
Microsoft Has Sought Ad Compatibility For Many Years
Microsoft Advertising is intensifying its push for cross‑platform ad compatibility, adding immediate performance recommendations after each import and enhancing Performance Max to capture new customers. The company’s recent upgrades aim to cut manual resizing, speed time‑to‑launch, and boost ROI, positioning Microsoft...
Bad Bunny Teams with Zara for Limited‑Edition "Benito Antonio" Collection
Zara has launched a limited‑edition apparel line with Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny, titled "Benito Antonio," at a pop‑up in San Juan on May 16 before an online rollout on May 21. The partnership underscores how celebrity influence fuels...
ADvendio & Kevel Launch New Integration to Power the Next Wave of Campaign Management
ADvendio announced a strategic partnership with Kevel, integrating the retailer‑focused ad‑serving platform into its omnichannel advertising management suite. The new integration, rolling out in the Spring 2026 release, automates key campaign‑management tasks such as trafficking, forecasting, targeting and billing through AI‑powered...
Olipop Launches ‘The Feel Good Soda’ Platform, Complete With a Refreshed Identity and Sonic Signature
Olipop has rolled out a new creative platform called “The Feel Good Soda,” featuring a refreshed visual identity, updated packaging, a distinctive sonic signature, and a national advertising push. The initiative builds on the brand’s 2018 launch that helped spark...
Wellbeing Nutrition Launches ‘Skincare Hotline’ Campaign with Shalini Passi
Wellbeing Nutrition has unveiled a new digital film starring Indian influencer Shalini Passi as part of its ‘Skincare Hotline’ campaign. The short film spotlights the brand’s Korean Marine Collagen line, emphasizing nano‑hydrolysed peptides that support skin elasticity, hydration and firmness....
Saudi Report 2026: A Market with a Different Brief
Saudi Arabia’s marketing landscape is shifting from traditional performance‑driven tactics to demand‑creation strategies. Brands must not only compete for existing shoppers but also introduce and legitimize entirely new categories in tourism, entertainment, culture and lifestyle. Scale in this market means...
Why Incrementality Testing Alone Won’t Fix Your Paid Media Budget – The Missing Metric via @Sejournal, @Tonyadam
Direct‑to‑consumer brands are increasingly relying on lift studies, but incrementality alone can mislead budget decisions. The article argues that Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)—total revenue divided by total ad spend—provides the essential business‑level anchor. By stacking MER, incrementality, and attribution, marketers...
AnyMind Launches AI Platform to Link Online Ads with Retail Sales
AnyMind Group unveiled AnyAI OMO, an AI‑driven platform that ties online advertising and social media activity directly to offline retail sales in Japan. The service combines the firm’s data infrastructure with Japanese distributor Sun Smile’s network, offering real‑time insights and...
Why AI Might Do More For Challenger Brands
AI is reshaping advertising, but large brands often wrestle with enterprise tools that don’t fit marketing needs. Challenger brands like Orange Theory are finding value by adopting purpose‑built AI platforms such as Passionfruit, which streamline data aggregation and media‑mix analysis....
A Brand Built to Challenge, Not Conform
Back Market has become the UK’s largest refurbished‑tech retailer, yet brand awareness remains modest at roughly 18% in London and 13% nationwide. Head of Marketing Luke Forshaw emphasizes preserving a challenger mindset, refusing to soften the brand’s edgy tone despite...
Industry Snapshot: The New Rules of Engagement in Saudi Arabia
Kliq’s Asma’a Al Maraghi warns that Saudi brands can’t rely on simple translation; true cultural fluency and hyper‑authentic storytelling are essential. Global marketers must partner with local creators who command community trust, turning influencer content into a measurable performance channel. Real‑time...
Lowe’s Teams with MrBeast for Kids DIY Workshops, Aiming for ‘Lipstick Effect’ Sales
Lowe’s announced a partnership with influencer MrBeast to launch in‑store DIY workshops for children on May 30, coupled with $14.98 build‑able toy kits. The retailer hopes the program will drive “lipstick‑effect” impulse sales and boost app registrations as it navigates...
Adapt or Die: AI Adoption to Double Within 18 Months
A new Gartner survey shows AI‑driven automation of marketing work is set to more than double, climbing from 16% of activities in 2026 to 36% by 2028. The same firm forecasts worldwide AI spending to reach $2.59 trillion in 2026, a...
Asian Footwears Launches ‘Mojo Clay’ Sneaker Campaign
Asian Footwears unveiled its limited‑edition “Mojo Clay” sneaker, capping production at 1,500 pairs. The launch is anchored by a two‑phase Instagram campaign that encourages buyers to sculpt designs with clay kits and share them for a chance to win miniature...
Zambuki Unveils AI-Focused Blog for Home-Services Contractors
Zambuki, a Florida-based digital marketing agency, launched a dedicated blog to deliver AI-powered lead generation and SEO insights for home‑services contractors. The platform aims to bridge the gap between complex AI tools and practical marketing tactics for service‑based businesses.
Influencer Marketing Grows Up
Influencer marketing has shed its gut‑feel origins to become a measurable performance channel, with creators now viewed as standalone media assets. Publicis’ 2024 acquisition of AI‑driven platform Influential for $500 million integrates creator data into its broader ad tech stack, linking...
Lesson From Scaling Codecademy From $10M to $50M ARR with Daniel Layfield #241
In this episode, host Akhil Jabbar talks with Daniel Layfield, founder of Subscription Index and former head of growth at Codecademy, about how the company scaled its ARR from $10 M to over $50 M. Layfield explains that the key to that...
Pinterest in 2026: Cold Traffic, AI Slop, and Smarter Search with Kate Ahl
In this episode, Pinterest expert Kate Ahl explains why Pinterest is a prime source of cold traffic for businesses, especially B2C brands in food, fashion, DIY, and lifestyle. She emphasizes a long‑term, slow‑burn strategy focused on high‑quality vertical images, consistent...
KidZania India Names Bloomingdale PR as Influencer Marketing Partner
KidZania India has hired Bloomingdale Public Relations to serve as its influencer marketing partner, aiming to amplify digital storytelling and creator‑led engagement across the country. The agency will orchestrate influencer collaborations, creator experiences, and digital‑first campaigns that showcase KidZania’s immersive...
Searchable Raises $14M, Hits $85M Valuation as AI Search Reshapes Marketing
Searchable, the AI performance‑marketing platform, closed a $14 million funding round led by Headline, bringing total capital raised to £31 million (≈$38 million) and valuing the company at $85 million. The cash will accelerate product development and expand the firm’s US‑UK footprint amid a...
Consistent Posting & Engagement Drives Massive Follower Growth
I've Tweeted 682 days in a row. And added 400k+ followers. Here are 4 easy tactics: 1. Publish content 2x daily 2. Write 2 articles a week 4. Reply to every comment 3. Comment under creators you love You got this.
India’s DNPA Conclave Calls on Tech Giants to Revise Revenue‑Sharing with Publishers
India’s Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) conclave saw Union Minister Aswini Vaishnav demand that technology platforms overhaul their revenue‑sharing models with news publishers. The minister warned that failure to act could trigger legislative measures, underscoring the growing tension between advertisers,...
TikTok’s Popular Microdramas Shrink TV Into Bite‑sized Chunks
In January 2026 TikTok introduced PineDrama, a dedicated app for short‑form scripted microdramas in the United States and Brazil. By March the platform was already casting new series, and in April Issa Rae’s debut "Screen Time" surpassed 100 million views within...
TitanX Launches TitanTV to Redefine How Modern Sales Teams Learn Precision Outbound
TitanX announced TitanTV, a new media channel that streams weekly episodes on outbound sales mastery. Hosted by founder Joey Gilkey and top B2B revenue leaders, the series aims to replace outdated volume‑based tactics with precision‑focused frameworks. Available on the TitanTV...
Nectar Social Lands $30 Million Series A From Menlo Ventures to Scale AI Marketing Platform
Nectar Social announced a $30 million Series A financing round led by Menlo Ventures. The funding will fuel product development, team expansion, and deeper enterprise adoption of its AI‑powered social intelligence and marketing automation system.
Meta Ads Strategy: How to Avoid Common Pitfalls and Optimize for Success
Meta’s ad platform is riddled with default settings that can siphon budget away from real revenue. The article walks marketers through the most critical toggles—from choosing a leads or sales objective to configuring attribution windows and audience targeting. It stresses...
Topsort Launches TikTok Offsite Ads to Extend Commerce Media Beyond Onsite Placements
Topsort unveiled TikTok Offsite Ads, a new AI‑native capability that lets marketplaces and vendors run TikTok campaigns directly from its commerce media platform. The feature integrates TikTok advertising into the same catalog, budgeting, scheduling and reporting infrastructure that powers onsite...
Aftermarket Auto Parts Retailer Grows AI Search Revenue 344% in Six Months, New Visibility Labs Case Study Shows
Visibility Labs released a case study showing its six‑month AI SEO campaign propelled Private Label MFG, an aftermarket auto parts retailer, from under 1% to more than 20% visibility on generative‑AI prompts. The effort generated a 344% jump in AI‑driven...
The 4-Step Multi-Agent System I Use for Zero-Touch Outreach (And 5 Reasons Your Current AI Fails)
The post details a four‑step multi‑agent workflow that transforms chaotic, single‑prompt AI outreach into a reliable zero‑touch sales engine. It uses separate agents for research, copywriting, fact‑checking and management, eliminating hallucinations that plagued a merchant‑services broker who mistakenly promised 0%...
Performance Marketing: The Growth Engine GCC Is Building On
Performance marketing has moved from a supplemental tactic to a primary growth engine across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Mobile‑first consumer habits and app‑embedded commerce create a structural advantage that brands are leveraging. Rising acquisition costs on Meta and Google,...
Why Thinking Like an AI Agent Matters to Marketing
Brands must shift from traditional SEO to generative engine optimization (GEO) as AI agents like ChatGPT become primary product recommenders. GEO focuses on appearing in a single AI‑generated answer—the “third shelf”—instead of ranking among many web pages. Joseph Levi of...
Visibility, Not Scaling, Is D2C Brands’ Biggest Challenge
Most D2C brands don’t have a scaling problem. They have a visibility problem. If your tracking is broken: • ROAS lies • CAC gets distorted • Winning ads get killed • Bad campaigns survive You can’t scale what you can’t measure.
It Works Until It Doesn’t: AI Content Strategies That Backfire via @Sejournal, @Lilyraynyc
AI content creation tools have been adopted widely for scaling SEO and GEO output, but a new analysis of over 220 sites shows the gains are short‑lived. Most sites experience a rapid traffic surge followed by steep declines, with 54%...
Saudi Report 2026: From Campaigns to Ecosystems
The Saudi market is moving from simple localisation of global campaigns to fully integrated go‑to‑market ecosystems that connect brand, product, and experience from day one. Young, digitally native consumers demand culturally relevant, data‑driven interactions across every touchpoint. Technology—AI, data analytics,...
How Properly Positioning My Product Helped Me Compete Against Google — and Win
The article recounts how PayPal’s founders abandoned a Palm‑Pilot‑only digital wallet and repositioned the service around email‑based money transfers, unlocking mass adoption. It argues that proper product positioning—clarifying why customers should choose you—can turn a good idea into a market...
Restoring Trust in AI-Generated Marketing Content Workflows
In this episode, Jordan Cooney talks with Holly Enneking, VP of Marketing at Markup AI, about the challenges of scaling AI‑generated content while maintaining brand trust and quality. Holly explains Markup’s “content guardian agents” that embed directly into tools like...
War Child Appoints BigSmall for Strategic Brand Refresh
War Child, the international charity supporting children in conflict zones, has hired UK agency BigSmall to lead a strategic brand refresh. The partnership follows a competitive pitch process that evaluated multiple agencies. BigSmall will overhaul visual identity, messaging, and donor‑engagement...
Gucci Turns Times Square Into a Night‑time Runway for Cruise 2027
Gucci closed the central pedestrian plaza at 48th & 7th Avenue in Times Square to stage its Cruise 2027 runway, commandeering the iconic LED billboards for a night of AI‑generated ads and high‑profile guests. The spectacle blends luxury fashion with urban advertising, signaling...
Squiz Unveils Content Intelligence Platform to Boost AI Search Visibility and Accessibility
Squiz, the global Digital Experience Platform provider, introduced Content Intelligence, a CMS‑agnostic solution that audits an organization’s full content estate for AI‑search visibility and accessibility. The tool promises to deliver a prioritized fix list in days rather than months, addressing...
AI Turns One Tool Into Full‑Scale Viral Content Agency
This is wild. Last month they let you generate AI influencers. Now they turned it into a full-blown viral content machine. > paste your website > Fastlane learns your product > generates endless TikToks/Reels/Shorts > clones viral formats automatically > schedules 30 days of content in seconds And...
How to Automate Ad Personalization in 7 Steps
Automating ad personalization in 2026 hinges on centralizing first‑party data in a CRM or CDP, using AI to segment users by intent, and deploying modular creative assets through dynamic creative optimization (DCO). These personalized ads are then pushed to platforms...
Google Tightens Spam Rules to Block AI‑Generated Search Manipulation
Google has revised its search spam policies to treat AI‑generated content manipulation as a violation, extending rules to AI Overviews and generative answers. The move targets mass‑produced low‑quality articles and tactics that try to bias AI recommendations, signaling a stricter...
Clear LinkedIn Strategy Drives 500K Impressions
February is when I doubled down on LinkedIn, got *really clear* about what my content would look like/be about, and got a strategy in place for consistency. Coming up on half a mil impressions and more than 135K reached there. No...