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 all marketing functions, shifting AI from a productivity add‑on to a core strategic engine. The analysis notes early adopters are using generative tools, while the next wave will involve autonomous agents that orchestrate decisions across workflows, guided by a five‑step implementation roadmap.
'What's Your RAV4?' Celebrates SUV Built For Every Lifestyle
Toyota introduced the 2026 RAV4, the sixth‑generation model, with an inclusive "What’s Your RAV4?" campaign. The effort highlights individual driver lifestyles and is built for multicultural audiences. Agency partners Saatchi & Saatchi, Burrell Communications, Conill and Intertrend produced a suite of 30‑second and short‑form spots. The media buy spans linear TV, digital video, streaming audio, programmatic, paid social and experiential activations, with all spots available on Toyota’s YouTube channel.
OpenAI Preemptively Drops News to Steer Narrative
A few thoughts on OpenAI’s wild news week: They knew the New Yorker piece was coming and pushed to get other news (especially exec departures/changes) out beforehand so it couldn’t be interpreted as a response to that piece -...
Distribution Beats Product: Build Your Brand’s Delivery Engine
Build Scalable Distribution The best brand in the world dies in obscurity without distribution. Amazon didn't win with one great product. They built the engine to deliver everything, everywhere, consistently. Your personal brand needs the same infrastructure.
These Absurd, Eye-Catching Ads From The Zebra Expertly Fuse AI and Live Action
The Zebra’s latest ad campaign, directed by Zack Seckler, pairs absurd, humor‑driven concepts with cutting‑edge AI and practical effects. Four spots—Jungle Rotisserie, Falcon Ride, Mountain Biker, and Window Washer—use custom rigs, stunt talent, and Unreal Engine‑generated environments to create hyper‑real...
Most Restaurants Are Missing Out on the Platform That Brings Customers In — Here’s What a Google Strategist Recommends
Google’s strategic partner manager Farah Shirzadi urges restaurants to treat YouTube as a core discovery engine, not just a marketing add‑on. By publishing short clips, long‑form videos, and live streams, eateries can showcase kitchens, chefs, and sourcing stories before a...
Instagram Looks to Grow Notes Engagement
Instagram is expanding its Notes feature so that any follower, not just mutual connections, can view a creator's brief comments. The change follows strong adoption among teens, who post ten times more Notes than older users. Earlier attempts to place...
AI Builds Marketing Tools in Minutes, Not Wishes
Me to my business partner for BRDGE: I wish I had {insert like 3 things} to help me with marketing for us. Him: Builds an AI agent in 10 minutes while I'm talking to him.
YouTube Expands Media Kit Insights and Adds AI Tools
YouTube has upgraded its Media Kit, now including family‑status and household‑income metrics to give creators richer audience demographics. The enhanced kit helps creators produce data‑rich PDFs for brand‑sponsored deals. In parallel, YouTube’s Create app gains Google’s Nano Banana AI image‑generation, letting...
Why CTV Transparency Matters for Local Advertising
Connected TV (CTV) has become a primary growth channel for local advertisers, but transparency has lagged behind the rapid scale. Peer39 reports that 60% of CTV bid requests lack usable program‑level data and only a third contain genre tags, creating...
Animated Lemons Show Sassy Personality For Mike's Hard Lemonade
Mike’s Hard Lemonade launched a new "Made with Real Character" campaign featuring three animated lemons—Sonny, Cal and Tina—as brand ambassadors. The ads showcase the characters going "hard," "harder," and "dirty," promoting the brand’s expanded lineup that now includes a non‑carbonated...
Nutella’s Zero‑Gravity Cameo on Artemis II Becomes the Biggest Free Ad in Digital Marketing History
During NASA’s Artemis II lunar flyby, a jar of Nutella drifted across the live feed, instantly trending worldwide and delivering what marketers are calling the greatest free advertisement ever. Ferrero embraced the moment, while NASA officials denied any brand partnership, igniting...
Beyond The BLT: IHOP Aims To Trademark Acronym For Latest Menu Item
IHOP has added a new BLTAF sandwich—bacon, lettuce, tomato, and fries—to its value menu, priced between $6 and $7 and available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The chain is also seeking a trademark on the BLTAF acronym and has seeded it...
How Oral-Care Brands Win With Smarter DTC Merchandising
Oral‑care brands are moving from commodity shelf‑ware to direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) models that embed the toothbrush into a daily habit rather than a one‑off purchase. By bundling starter kits, offering scheduled brush‑head replacements, and creating tiered product ecosystems, they turn a...
Kicking Horse Coffee Brand Platform Is an Ode to the ‘Hellbent’
Canadian roaster Kicking Horse Coffee marks its 30‑year anniversary with a new brand platform titled “Here’s to the Hellbent.” The campaign, developed with agencies OneMethod and Super Proper, rolls out a 60‑second television spot supported by social, out‑of‑home, connected TV,...
Cadbury Commits $200,000 to Food Banks Canada
Cadbury has launched the “Make Every Bite Count” campaign in partnership with the NHLPA, pledging a total of $200,000 to Food Banks Canada. Up to $100,000 will come from a portion of Cadbury product sales through May 18, while the company...
Kikkoman Embraces Gen Z’s Love of Japanese Culture in New Campaign
Kikkoman has unveiled a multiyear, anime‑inspired campaign called “Unleash Legendary” aimed at Gen Z home cooks. Developed with agency BSSP, the effort features a 30‑second spot voiced by Christopher Sabat and two 15‑second videos, running across YouTube, paid social, connected TV, programmatic...
Fast Simon Instantly Tells Merchandisers What Products Are Successful, Overexposed—Or Hidden Gems
Fast Simon’s new AI platform gives e‑commerce merchandisers instant, data‑driven insight into product performance. It identifies winners, overexposed items, and hidden‑gem products within minutes, while also projecting the long‑term impact of current merchandising choices. The tool promises faster optimization of listings,...
Adjoe Names Matthew Freter U.S. Marketing Director as Global Growth Accelerates
adjoe named Matthew Freter as U.S. Marketing Director to drive its U.S. growth. The company, the largest rewarded‑ad network on iOS and Android, posted a 24% year‑over‑year revenue increase, far above the industry’s 6.7% growth. With 770 million users and over...
Five Guys Serves up Largest Integrated Brand Campaign to Date
Five Guys unveiled its "Your Burger Guy" campaign, the chain’s largest integrated brand effort to date, featuring three 30‑second spots and a multi‑channel rollout across film, social, digital, audio and in‑store media. Developed by independent agency Chemistry, the campaign leans...
Retail Media Is a $69B Opportunity. So Why Is It Still So Hard to Get Right?
Retail media is projected to reach $69.3 billion in 2026, cementing its place as one of the fastest‑growing ad channels. The surge is driven by retailers leveraging first‑party shopper data to sell ads on‑site and off‑site. However, most retailers juggle 15‑20...
Cultural Stunts Drive Media Buzz Over Direct Sales
📣 This Week's PR Campaigns & Opportunities [April 7, 2026] from #TrendingCampaigns 👇 🔥 Top PR Campaigns of the Week 1. @KITKAT Heist Tracker This is a smart, culturally reactive stunt: it turns a viral news moment into an accessible consumer interaction, inviting...
Google's AI Will Reshape
What I learned about the future of Search and AI from Sundar Pichai's latest interview - Marie Haynes https://buff.ly/685HUTo
Retail Media Has Reached Its Accountability Moment
Retail media, once celebrated for its closed‑loop attribution near the point of sale, is now confronting an accountability crisis. Advertisers are demanding proof that spend drives incremental lift beyond a single retailer’s ledger. In response, major networks are expanding into...
Treat AI as OS, Launch in 30 Minutes
I’ve seen solopreneurs go from “no plan” to a 7‑day launch + content calendar in under 30 minutes when they stop treating AI like a chatbot. The shift: use it like an operating system. One place that knows: - your offers - your revenue...
As CFOs Scrutinize CTV Spend, Incrementality Emerges as a Differentiator
CFOs are tightening scrutiny on connected‑TV (CTV) spend because traditional metrics like impressions and modeled ROAS fail to prove incremental revenue. The article argues that the trust problem stems from over‑attributed conversions and fragmented measurement infrastructure. Incrementality testing, which isolates...
Bobbie's Chief Brand Officer on the Cardi B Partnership that Sparked a Cultural Conversation
Bobbie teamed with Cardi B as its "Chief Confidence Officer," launching a bold campaign that lifted brand awareness 16% in the first week and drove a 195% surge in Net Promoter Score among Gen Z parents. The partnership sparked a cultural conversation...
Influencer Collabs Account for 50% of an Indian Soundtrack’s Promotional Budget, Says Report
Indian film soundtrack promoters are allocating roughly half of their promotional budgets to influencer collaborations, according to a recent Economic Times report. Paid YouTube advertising has slipped to about 30% of spend, while the remaining budget supports audio‑streaming discoverability. Promotion...
This One-Hour Audit That Could Save Your Product From AI Exclusion
The article warns that in 2026 consumers rely on AI assistants that deliver a single synthesized answer, making product data the new digital shelf. Brands with vague or inconsistent product pages are being filtered out, while those that publish a...
What Ryan Holiday Taught Me About Sending More Emails
The author once limited email sends to once a week, fearing annoyance and a shortage of content. Inspiration from prolific writers like Ryan Holiday, Seth Godin, and Mel Robbins showed that daily storytelling can thrive. By swapping dense lessons for brief, curiosity‑driven...
Northbeam Adds The Third Leg Of The Attribution Stool With Incrementality Testing
Northbeam has launched an incrementality testing feature, completing its promised "triad" of attribution tools alongside multitouch attribution (MTA) and marketing mix modeling (MMM). The new product adds a calibration layer that estimates cross‑platform conversion influence without tracking individual users, addressing...
Lexus, Artist Alex Alpert to Present Custom IS 350 at EXPO Chicago
Lexus has teamed up with New York‑based illustrator Alex Alpert to create a one‑off, line‑art‑styled IS 350 sedan. The custom vehicle will be unveiled at EXPO Chicago, the city’s premier design and innovation showcase. Alpert’s distinctive sketch aesthetic is applied...
After Managing Millions in Ad Spend, Here’s the Truth About What Actually Works
The author, a former near‑homeless media buyer who now runs a seven‑figure business, argues that the single most critical factor in successful paid‑media campaigns is rigorous testing, not trendy hacks or early certainty. After managing millions in ad spend, he...
Commenting Generates Referrals Better Than Cold Outreach
Nobody talks about this enough: Commenting on other people's posts is a referral machine. I've gotten more introductions from simply engaging with other entrepreneurs online than from any outbound campaign. Build your network before you need it. The referrals that come from genuine relationships...
Short‑Form Content Drives 15× Weekly View Surge
I simply decided to make short form content again and we are 15x the views week over week. Literally 10s of millions more Return of the King
The Insightful Leader Live: AI and Advertising … This Time It’s Personal
Kellogg professors Jacob Teeny and Brett Gordon hosted a free webinar on April 7, 2026 discussing how AI will reshape advertising through hyper‑personalized content. The session covered AI‑driven customer profiling, the latest research on personalized persuasion, emerging industry trends, and the ethical...
SEO‑dead Hype Turns Into 410 Page Deletions
Also the same companies who pushed the narrative (and $$$) that SEO is dead/dying last year are now using 410 response codes on the pages they helped scale/rank&tank for their clients last year. I wish I was kidding.
Tech Support Is Your Brand’s Frontline Sales Engine
Tech support isn't just about troubleshooting - it's the face of your company. It's your brand, your positioning, and when done right, it's sales. Elevate its status accordingly. https://t.co/vambLKsBB6
Google Starts Showing Sponsored Ads in the Images Tab on Mobile Search
Google has begun serving sponsored ads inside the mobile Images tab, inserting full‑image creatives labeled “Sponsored” directly into the grid. The placement leverages existing image assets from Search or Performance Max campaigns, requiring no changes to keyword targeting or campaign structure....
Content Is Easy; Distribution Is the New Competitive Moat
AI gave every marketer access to a content production engine. BUT.... It did not give them a distribution strategy. Output is not the advantage anymore. Distribution is. Most people are sprinting to create. The winners are sprinting to build a distribution moat...
SEO Firms Race to Game AI Search Citations
The AI search boom created a new arms race as SEO firms and brands tried to manipulate search to get cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI tools https://t.co/hxKdN24GNX #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology #Tech #TechNews https://t.co/2QgbSDAR9y
Most Content Doesn’t Build Credibility: Let’s Fix That
Marketing teams are flooding the market with content, yet most of it fails to earn buyer trust. As AI‑driven research tools synthesize information from multiple sources, they quickly expose generic, self‑referential messaging. Surveys reveal 68% of buyers are more skeptical...
Authentic Brand Identity Builds Trust and Loyalty
RT @VisionEdgeMktg 🏢 Corporate identity matters. A clear, authentic brand identity builds trust and drives customer loyalty. Learn the essentials. https://t.co/uQDD0AUVwv #BrandIdentity #CorporateBranding #Leadership
Track Patient Reach and Revenue with Precision Marketing
What if you knew exactly which patients your marketing reached—and what revenue it generated? Ty Allen explains how that’s becoming possible in this interview 👉 https://t.co/R55iwoMmnJ @socialclimb_1 #PrecisionMarketing #hcmktg
Microsoft, Yobi Launch 700B AI Predicting Consumer Intent
Microsoft and Yobi partner to deploy a 700 billion parameter AI model that predicts consumer intent using consented behavioral data across platforms. https://t.co/pG61yfeivk
Love Daily Content Creation? Essential for DTC Success
If you don't enjoy making, buying, and iterating on content like this every day Don't launch or buy a DTC / consumer brand It's table stakes if you want to win
Good SEO Drives Success in AI Search Studies
Every time I read a correlation study about what works well in AI search it always just ends up being “good SEO.” 🤔
Global QSRs Should Cross‑sell Hit Items Abroad
Hot take: big, global #QSR chains should do more cross-selling of their popular menu items in other countries. A couple of chains are starting to catch on, and I bet this limited time Butter Chicken Taco is going to be...
Hungry Howie's Pet‑themed Secret Menu Leverages National Pet Day
Appealing to the US consumers' love of their pets is always a smart promotion, as pizza chain Hungry Howie's partners with Happy Howie's for a "secret menu" to coincide with National Pet Day starting 4/11. https://t.co/WXrllxhuAi
Metrics Matter Less Than User Intent for Rankings
Ahrefs shows 47 KD but your competitor with a 3 DR is ranking #1. Stop buying into metrics that ignore user intent. A plumber in Toledo doesn't need the same backlink profile as Home Depot to rank for "emergency plumbing."
Boost Your Site’s AI Visibility in Free Moz Webinar
Learn How To Optimize Your Website for AI Visibility and Agentic Features with me in the free @Moz webinar I’ll do on April 22nd 🤖 register now: https://t.co/WN8gYkfzgl https://t.co/D65saPSyzG