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.
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 stream, instantly trending worldwide. The unplanned sight generated millions of social‑media impressions and a brand‑owned post that called it the "greatest free advert in history," highlighting a new frontier for experiential digital marketing.
Turning Engagement Data Into Content that Gets Results
St. Stephen’s Episcopal School’s communications team uses weekly engagement data to shape its editorial calendar, focusing on student‑centered stories that resonate with families. By tracking open rates, click‑throughs and social interactions, the team pivots content themes toward high‑performing topics such...
How Meta’s AI Push Is Changing Ad Creation
Meta is pushing to automate ad creation, targeting a fully AI‑driven process by the end of 2026. The rollout includes the Andromeda ad retrieval system and expanded Advantage+ tools that handle creative, targeting, and budget decisions. Marketers report mixed results:...
WNBA Reveals Playbook Behind ‘GOAT’ Marketing Campaign for Season 30
The WNBA unveiled the marketing playbook for its 30th season, launching a "GOAT" campaign that spotlights legends like Sheryl Swoopes. The rollout follows a unanimous Board of Governors vote approving a new seven‑year collective bargaining agreement that raises player salaries,...
Pepsi, Paypal, Diageo, AB InBev Pull Out of Wireless Festival After Ye Booking
Pepsi, Diageo, PayPal and AB InBev have withdrawn their sponsorship of the Wireless festival after Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was confirmed as headliner despite his recent antisemitic remarks. The pull‑back followed intense public backlash, pressure from Jewish organisations...
Beauty Briefing: The Billion-Dollar Business of Bath & Body Works’ Japanese Cherry Blossom
Bath & Body Works is banking on its flagship Japanese Cherry Blossom fragrance to fuel a turnaround, marking the scent's 20th anniversary with new limited‑edition products and heightened marketing. The fragrance now drives more than $1 billion in annual sales, making...
AI Video Editing: Save Time and Create Better Videos
In this episode, host Michael Stelzner talks with AI educator Greg Priest about using artificial intelligence to streamline video editing rather than generate videos from scratch. Greg shares his journey from a marketing role to solo content creator, highlighting how...
IKEA Alsulaiman and FP7 McCann Rewards Customers for Getting Lost with Step Buy Step
IKEA Alsulaiman launched Step Buy Step on World Health Day 2026, a wellness‑led in‑store program created with FP7 McCANN. Customers receive a BRÄSLET bracelet; walking 4,000 steps unlocks a 10 % discount for IKEA Family members. The activation aligns with Saudi Vision 2030’s Quality of...
Meta Refresh Experiments Fail, Documentation Needed
Results are dropping. The experiment: refreshing meta titles and meta descriptions to increase CTR of current rankings. Additions: factual information, queries not in the text (automated via GSC), missed words, etc. I really need to take these experiments more seriously and document...
The NFL Names U.S. Bank As Its First Bank and Wealth Management Sponsor
The NFL announced a multi‑year partnership with U.S. Bank, making it the league’s first standalone banking and wealth‑management sponsor in three decades. The deal breaks the former all‑encompassing Visa agreement into three separate categories, with American Express taking payments and a peer‑to‑peer...
Most Self-Published Books Fail. These Marketing Strategies Help Entrepreneurs Win
Self‑published books face a high failure rate, but entrepreneurs can turn them into profitable assets by adopting an "authorpreneur" mindset. Treating the manuscript as a business requires a clear purpose, niche focus, and a structured marketing plan. Effective promotion meets...
Google’s Mueller On SEO Gurus Who Are “Clueless Imposters” Via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Preeti Gupta argues that the term “guru” is being diluted in the SEO industry, turning a culturally sacred title into a marketing buzzword. John Mueller reinforced this view, labeling self‑declared SEO gurus as “clueless imposters” and emphasizing SEO’s ever‑changing nature....
New Findings Show Abta Boosts Members' Businesses More than Ever
New ABTA research shows 89% of consumers are more likely to book with an ABTA‑member travel provider, and 54% are willing to pay a premium for that assurance. Brand perception scores for safety, reliability and expertise all rose above 83%,...
Lacoste Taps Formula 1 Star Pierre Gasly as Ambassador
Lacoste has appointed Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly as its new brand ambassador, linking the French Maison with the world of motorsport. Gasly, the 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner and a noted tennis and golf enthusiast, will front the iconic Lacoste...
Smriti Mandhana Joins Pee Safe to Lead Comfort-First Feminine Hygiene Push
Pee Safe, a leading Indian feminine‑hygiene brand, has appointed cricketer Smriti Mandhana as its brand ambassador for the Comfort Range. The partnership coincides with Pee Safe’s ninth anniversary and aims to boost awareness of comfort‑first menstrual products such as period...
Vinted: Turning Second Hand Clothes Into Gold
Vinted has turned the second‑hand clothing market into a growth engine, reporting $12.5 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) for 2024 and expanding into three new European markets last year. The platform’s unique model makes selling free for users and shifts...
Human‑written Content Still Dominates Top Search Rankings
Does AI content rank well in search? [Survey + Data study] by Margarita Loktionova / @semrush showing that: * Humans still lead most content workflows : 87% of SEO teams report that their content is either fully created...
Hotel CRM Lead Nurturing Campaign Tactics and Prospects for 2026
Hotels are adopting integrated CRM and CDP platforms to nurture leads before booking, enabling real‑time, personalized communication. Modern systems automate triggers for abandoned searches, quote requests, and other intent signals while giving staff full guest histories. Reported results include conversion...
Ulta's CEO Said the GLP-1 Craze Has Created New Demand for Certain Hair and Skincare Products
Ulta Beauty’s CEO Kecia Steelman said the surge in GLP‑1 weight‑loss drug usage is creating new demand for hair‑loss and skin‑elasticity products. About 10% of Americans are now on GLP‑1s, prompting customers to seek treatments that counteract hair thinning and...
Turn Your Website Into Instant Customers with Automation
🚨 There is an awesome new tool called Money Printer. You paste your website link into it, and it automatically brings in customers 🔥 No building lists. No writing copy. No manual campaign setup. It handles the entire sales cycle: → Finds in-market companies...
Uber Amps up ‘Sunbed Wars’ in Push for Book-Ahead Holiday Rides
Uber UK has rolled out a new "sunbed wars" activation, covering cars with giant beach towels to promote its Reserve service for airport trips. The campaign, created by creative agency Mother, taps into the British habit of early‑morning sun‑bathing to...
Astronauts on Artemis II Rely on SEOFOMO Newsletter
🚨 No, the mobile showing the #SEOFOMO news floating in Artemis II is not product placement. Being so far from home, it’s natural that the astronauts want to stay updated with the latest SEO & AI search news in the...
Geofencing Turns Real-World Visits Into Targeted Digital Ads with Chris Seminatore
In this episode, Chris Seminatore, founder of Get Geofencing, explains how location‑based advertising—geofencing—captures a phone’s GPS signal to serve programmatic ads to users who physically visit specific places, turning real‑world foot traffic into highly targeted digital campaigns. He shares how...
Why Are In-House Teams Taking Top Talent From Agencies?
In‑house creative teams are expanding as brands pull work from external agencies, a shift highlighted by ITV Creative director Niki Garner on The Campaign Podcast. Recent moves, such as ITV moving its retained account from Uncommon to ITV Creative and...
Chomps’ Chicken Sticks Hit Retail Shelves This Week After 10-Year Development
Chomps is debuting its first chicken‑based snack line after a decade of development, offering Original Chicken, Nashville Hot and Savory Breakfast flavors. The products launch this week exclusively at Target stores and on Chomps’ website, with a broader rollout to...
Why Scaling Ads Often Breaks Marketing
Scaling ad spend often backfires because it magnifies hidden flaws in a brand’s marketing engine. As budgets rise from roughly $122 per day to $1,220 per day, cost‑per‑acquisition spikes, conversion rates tumble, and creative fatigue accelerates. Audience saturation pushes marketers...
Scott Dettrick: Everyone’s a Creator Now. So, Let’s Make It Mean Something
Scott Dettrick argues that the creator economy is reshaping how ideas are produced and consumed, with anyone able to launch a brand or cultural moment from a phone. He highlights examples like Australia’s Aunty Donna and Korean influencer YUQI, showing...
Amid Crisis, Banana Ball Benefits From Uncharacteristic Serenity
Banana Ball’s nonprofit, Bananas Foster, was accused in September 2025 of spending 80% of its program budget on tickets and merchandise, prompting a potential credibility crisis. The league’s leaders responded with calm, providing detailed financial data, acknowledging filing errors, and...
National Precast Concrete Association's “Precast Life” Celebrates One-Year Anniversary
Precast Life, the National Precast Concrete Association’s advocacy campaign, celebrated its one‑year anniversary on April 6, 2026. In its first year the initiative reached more than five million people and generated 17 million digital impressions, engaging students, specifiers and policymakers. The campaign’s digital...
Align Ad Copy with Landing Page, Triple Conversions
Almost every week, I see this same issue across Meta accounts spending ₹50K–₹80K/month. Leads are coming in, CPL looks “fine” at ₹180… but conversions stay stuck at 1.2%. There’s always this hesitation — “Maybe the audience is wrong?” But the real gap sits...
Fix Tracking, Double ROAS Without Raising Budget
Today, I was reviewing an account spending ₹1.2L/month with a steady 1.8X ROAS. The founder sounded calm… but underneath, there was quiet frustration — “It’s not scaling anymore.” They believed increasing budget would fix it. It didn’t. The issue wasn’t spend — it...
Picsart Now Lets Creators Make Money From Their Designs
Picsart, the AI‑powered design platform with 130 million users, has unveiled a creator monetization program that lets any user earn money by posting campaign‑specific content on social channels. Payouts are calculated from views, comments, shares and reach, and creators can monitor...
Turn 25k Posts Into Auto‑Generated Podcast Instantly
You can't read 25,000 posts a day, synthesize them into a web site. Then make a podcast automatically. Mine can: https://t.co/8L5xphk0qQ There is a Notebook LM button at the bottom. It will put a script into your memory. Go over to...
Audience Size Matters Less than Conversion Efficiency
Honest question - how many of your followers actually became customers? I've seen people with 100k followers struggle to find clients. And I've seen people with 2k followers absolutely printing money. The difference was never audience size.
Ozone’s Platform Tries to Simulate How Publisher Content Appears in AI Answers
Ozone has launched a free experimentation platform that lets publishers simulate how their articles appear in AI answer engines such as ChatGPT. The tool, part of Ozone’s new R&D Labs sandbox, shows content structuring, retrieval and citation to help publishers...
How ‘Euphoria’ Makeup Artist Donni Davy Built a Beauty Brand Based on Play
After the debut of HBO Max’s “Euphoria,” makeup artist Donni Davy was approached by A24 to launch a beauty line, resulting in the 2022 debut of Half Magic. The brand translates the show’s glitter‑heavy aesthetic into consumer‑ready products such as...
Mondelez Overhauls Its $3.5 Billion Digital Commerce Strategy in Era of AI Search
Mondelez International is revamping its $3.5 billion digital commerce operation to meet the rise of AI‑driven, agentic search. After initially blocking AI crawlers, the company unblocked them and rebuilt its brand sites with clean sitemaps, fast load times and machine‑readable content....
Eighth Day’s Dr. Antony Nakhla on Why ‘Science Is the New Luxury’
Eighth Day founder Dr. Antony Nakhla is positioning his skin‑care line as “science‑backed luxury,” leveraging a patented peptide‑rich plasma complex that mimics natural skin molecules. The brand targets the growing demand for preventative, results‑driven treatments as minimally invasive procedures and...
What Beauty Brands Need to Know About Gen Alpha
Beauty brands are scrambling to understand Generation Alpha, a cohort still defining its preferences. Companies like Rini and JB Skrub are involving children directly in product design and packaging, while targeting parents with transparency and clinical data. Marketers must maintain...
Pattern Beauty Moves Into Its Next Chapter
Pattern Beauty, the Tracee Ellis Ross‑founded hair‑care brand, announced a strategic shift toward brand awareness after six years of rapid growth. Co‑CEO Christiane Pendarvis said the company is moving beyond its start‑up phase, expanding its product line into body care...
Christian Social Care Charity Rebrands and Changes Name
The Brothers of Charity Services has rebranded as Best Lives, positioning itself as an independent charity with a modern identity. The organization, which has operated for over 90 years, provides specialist supported living, nursing, and domiciliary care to more than...
Google Says Its AI-Powered Ads Helped Aritzia Lift Online Sales by 80%
Google announced that its AI‑powered ad suite, particularly AI Max, helped fashion retailer Aritzia boost online revenue by 80%. The company is expanding AI‑driven ad formats in its new AI Mode and testing “direct offers” that deliver real‑time promotions. Google’s fourth‑quarter ad...
Mondelez Overhauls Its $3.5 Billion Digital Commerce Strategy in Era of AI Search
Mondelez is revamping its $3.5 billion digital commerce platform to meet the rise of AI‑driven, agentic search, after learning retailers expect 30% of traffic to be agentic by 2028. The company unblocked bot crawlers, rebuilt sitemaps, and optimized site speed to...
#184 - Disruptive Technology, Adaptation and Hyper‑Growth with Caitlin Allen, SVP of Market and Chair at Simbe Robotics
In this episode, Caitlin Allen, SVP of Market and Chair at Simbe Robotics, discusses how disruptive technologies—especially robotics-as-a-service—are reshaping traditional industries and consumer expectations. She highlights the convergence of digital and physical experiences, the labor shift toward higher‑skill roles, and...
DBS Marketing Team Seeks Creative Agency to Cement Brand as 'Beacon of Trust'
DBS Bank has issued a Request for Information to find a regional creative agency that will lead its next‑phase brand and marketing transformation. The agency will shape overall brand expression, launch marquee campaigns, and ensure strategic coherence across key markets...
Six Degrees Executive Repositions With ‘Expertly Human’ Brand Refresh
Six Degrees Executive, an Australian specialist recruitment firm, has launched a brand refresh centered on the tagline “Expertly human.” The update introduces a new visual identity, colour palette and an upgraded website, reflecting 22 years of growth. It underscores the...
Gambling Ad Crackdown Opens The Door For Brands To Own The Sporting Arena
Australia's Albanese government will ban gambling ads during live sports, on team uniforms and in stadiums from Jan 1, and restrict TV gambling spots to three per hour. The crackdown also limits radio ads and requires adult verification for digital gambling...
Ashley Madison Sheds ‘Affair’ Label as It Courts a New Era of Ethical Discretion
Ashley Madison is shedding its "affair" image, relaunching as a privacy‑first platform for discreet dating with the new tagline "Where desire meets discretion." The brand’s "Blessed are the discreet" campaign rolls out across CTV, OTT, podcasts and out‑of‑home, emphasizing ethical...
Uppsala Unveils 'IQ Tourism' To Deter Influencer Selfies and Boost Intellectual Travel
Uppsala, Sweden, has launched an 'IQ tourism' initiative featuring about 60 curated experiences designed to move travelers away from influencer‑driven selfie culture toward curiosity‑driven, intellectual exploration. The program, promoted by Destination Uppsala, seeks to reposition the historic city as a...
Chip & Joanna Gaines Boost Wood Paneling Sales with Dark Green Farmhouse Reveal
Chip and Joanna Gaines highlighted dark green wood paneling in their Crawford, Texas farmhouse, prompting a notable uptick in consumer interest and sales of paneling products. Their Instagram video demonstrates how the duo integrates color, texture, and continuity to transform...