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.
Google Discover Publisher Pages To Get Links & Featured Posts
Google is testing a redesign of its Discover publisher pages that adds custom link blocks, featured posts, larger header images, and sharper logos. Publishers will manage these changes by claiming their page, gaining the ability to reorder social media and website links. The update follows the initial launch of Discover pages in August 2025 and is already visible on sites like NewsWeek and Delish. Early screenshots suggest a more flexible layout that could improve click‑through rates.
Creative License: How Adobe Helps Brands Stay Creative in the Age of AI
Adobe’s enterprise CMO Rachel Thornton explained how the company is turning fragmented customer data into real‑time, personalized experiences using AI. She highlighted Adobe’s strategy of building tools—Creative Cloud, Express, Firefly, and agentic AI—that let any employee create brand‑compliant content at...
3 Actionable Ways Affiliate Managers & SEOs Can Keep Relevant – Ask An SEO via @Sejournal, @Rollerblader
The article advises affiliate managers and SEOs on staying relevant as AI reshapes search and content discovery. It stresses aligning brand messaging with AI‑driven personalization, modernizing affiliate payment structures, and converting existing backlink sources into paid affiliate relationships. It also...
PSA: Bing Webmaster Tools Does Not Distinguish Between Http and Https
Bing Webmaster Tools now treats HTTP and HTTPS URLs as a single property, unlike Google Search Console which separates them. The change was confirmed by Bing’s Krishna Madhavan on LinkedIn, noting that the platform expects HTTPS but will fall back...
Compass Box Names New CMO
Scotch whisky maker Compass Box has appointed Ivo van den Brand as chief marketing officer to drive its next phase of global growth. Van den Brand brings experience from Too Good To Go, DiDi, Huawei and Philips, and will focus...
DIB Resonates Strongly with Series of Solidarity Campaigns Instead of Silence
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) broke industry silence amid regional tensions by launching a multi‑channel solidarity campaign. The effort spans OOH bridge banners, elevator videos, 500+ LED screens in branches, ATM banners, digital banners, and targeted WhatsApp and email messages. Creative...
TEDCO Names Direna Cousins VP of Marketing to Drive Enterprise Campaigns
TEDCO announced Direna Cousins as its new vice president of marketing, tasking her with expanding enterprise‑level campaigns across Maryland’s tech ecosystem. The hire follows a year in which the Development & Marketing team logged 28 articles, over 100 press releases,...
Target Expands Low‑Potency THC Drinks to 300+ Stores in Florida, Texas and Illinois
Target announced the rollout of its low‑potency, hemp‑derived THC drinks to more than 300 locations across Florida, Texas and Illinois. The expansion follows a successful pilot in Minnesota and comes as the retailer seeks to recover from a 1.7% decline...
From Cannes to Commerce: How Authentic Studios Is Turning Fashion Brands Into Content
Authentic Studios, the content arm of Authentic Brands Group, was created in 2023 to shift the company from passive licensing to producing its own film, series and digital content. By leveraging heritage fashion and celebrity‑backed IP such as Elvis, Reebok,...
Validate Customers Before Branding; Avoid Attachment Bias
Entrepreneurs obsess over logos before they have a single paying customer. Here's why that backfires: you build an attachment to the brand. And when customers tell you something fundamental needs to change, you resist it — because the brand you love...
Panera Bread CEO Launches $4.99 Value Menu and New Guest Experience Role to Revive Brand
Panera Bread chief executive Nico Carbone announced a multi‑pronged brand overhaul that adds a $4.99 half‑portion value menu, a part‑time “guest experience champion” in every store, and new sandwich and salad formats. The changes aim to re‑engage lapsed customers and...
Dug Group Relaunches Venezuelan Rum Tepuy
Family‑owned Dug Group has relaunched its Venezuelan rum, Ron Tepuy, as a super‑premium label for 2026, introducing two 40% ABV expressions. Monumento is a pot‑still blend aged up to 12 years in American oak and finished in three sherry casks,...
Saudi Report 2026: Perspective Is the Strategy
Saudi marketers are embracing a new rule: local authenticity is mandatory, yet the most effective strategy departments blend both Saudi and international perspectives. The article argues that while local talent guarantees cultural relevance, outsider curiosity can surface hidden assumptions and...
Blend Human Appeal and Bot Authority for SEO Success
You don't want "SEO" or "GEO", you want CLIENTS that come through Google and ChatGPT. So you have to think like them. In that sense, SEO is just like Social Media, Ads, etc. You won't get the traffic you need if you...
Discord Nitro Adds Free Xbox Game Pass Starter Tier for $9.99 Subscribers
Discord announced that its Nitro Rewards program will bundle a free Xbox Game Pass Starter edition for all Nitro subscribers. The starter tier offers a rotating catalog of 50+ PC and console games plus 10 hours of cloud gaming each...
Marketing Beyond Generational Labels
Marketers in the Middle East are questioning the reliance on generational labels, arguing that age alone obscures deeper behavioural drivers such as context, trust and cultural tension. Senior agency leaders say dropping terms like “Gen Z” or “millennial” forces teams to...
How TaylorMade Told the Human Story Behind Its Drivers
TaylorMade partnered with Zambezi to launch its new Qi4D driver through a long‑form documentary titled “Finding Fast.” The film pulls back the curtain on the engineering process, showcasing failures, testing sessions, and candid conversations with engineers, fitters, and tour players....
Does the Spirits Industry Have a Short-Term Problem?
CEO Zak Oganian of Origen X warned that the spirits sector is trapped in a short‑term brand‑building mindset, urging a shift to 15‑ or even 30‑year visions. He traced the problem to post‑World War II mass‑market expansion and the later influx...
Screencore Expands Its Global Programmatic Infrastructure with the Launch of SuiteDSP
Screencore has launched SuiteDSP, an omnichannel demand‑side platform that adds CTV, video, native, display and mobile buying to its existing programmatic suite. The company now serves more than 150 markets, 30,000 publishers and delivers over 2 billion ad impressions each month...
Kenco Targets Gen Z with New Matcha Latte Options
Kenco is expanding its instant beverage line with vanilla and strawberry matcha latte sachets, targeting Gen Z consumers who favor at‑home, Instagram‑ready drinks. The matcha lattes retail for £2.99 (about $3.80) and are stocked at Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The brand...
Liquid I.V. and FLO Want to Make Nostalgia and Hydration a Summer Vibe
Liquid I.V., the Unilever‑owned electrolyte drink, has rolled out its summer "Say Yes" campaign in partnership with British R&B collective FLO. The effort introduces a nostalgia‑driven Sugar‑Free Ring Pop Cherry flavor and a fleet of hydro‑trucks that will sample the product at...
Banuba Advances AI Try-On Platform as Retail Goes Digital
Banuba has upgraded its AI‑powered virtual try‑on platform, adding contact‑lens try‑on, hair‑dye and makeup options to its Shopify plugin and introducing a one‑photo eyewear digitisation tool. The enhancements also include faster processing, bulk inventory handling and a simplified onboarding flow...
How to Make It Big on Substack in 2026: The Creator’s Guide to Growth
Substack has transformed from a newsletter service into a multi‑format creator ecosystem, now boasting five million paid subscriptions and ranking among the top five news apps. New features include video monetization, livestreaming, and a micro‑blogging feed called Notes, intensifying competition...
Google Tests AI Search Tool Built Around YouTube. What Affiliate Marketers Need to Know
Google is piloting an AI‑driven feature called Ask YouTube that answers natural‑language queries using video content directly within the YouTube interface. The tool adds a video‑first layer to Google Search, potentially diverting traffic that traditionally landed on text‑based affiliate pages....
Digest: Alibaba Pushes ‘Chat-to-Buy’ With Qwen AI; Amazon Data Coming to Netflix Inventory Next Week; Instagram Eyes Long-Form CTV Push
Alibaba is embedding its Qwen AI assistant into Taobao and Tmall, enabling chat‑to‑buy experiences where users can search, compare, and purchase via text or voice. Amazon’s shopping data will be integrated into Netflix’s ad inventory in the UK and EMEA...
Saudi Report 2026: Pathway to Perfect
Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s flagship carrier, unveiled its "Pathway to Perfect" initiative, a rigorous stress‑testing program for every aspect of the airline before full market launch. The strategy emphasizes operational resilience, transparent stakeholder communication, and a people‑first culture aimed at...
The 90-Day AI Search Sprint: How To Rebuild Your Marketing For 2026 Visibility via @Sejournal, @Hethr_campbell
Search Engine Journal’s 90‑Day AI Search Sprint offers a step‑by‑step playbook for brands to capture visibility in emerging AI‑driven search platforms such as Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. The program outlines current AI search signals, a phased framework for auditing, experimenting,...
When Data Tells an Impactful Story: Standard Bank's Money Reels Earns Top Industry Honour
Standard Bank introduced Money Reels, a personalized year‑end video recap that turns each customer’s financial activity into a short, mobile‑first story. The feature sparked a social‑media buzz and saw 450,000 customers engage, with an 80% completion rate. It also drove...
Bustle’s Charlotte Owen on Ditching the ‘Everything for Everyone’ Era
Charlotte Owen, editor‑in‑chief of Bustle and EVP of Editorial at BDG, says the era of trying to be everything for everyone is over. BDG now operates ten distinct lifestyle and parenting brands, each with a clear point of view, allowing...
The Marketers Rewriting the Brand Playbook Are Coming to Atlanta
Brandweek 2026, Adweek's annual summit, will convene top marketers in Atlanta Sept 15‑17. The three‑day event will feature Coca‑Cola Global CMO Manuel Arroyo, FIGS CMO Bené Eaton, Starbucks Global Chief Brand Officer Tressie Lieberman, Rev. Dr. Bernice King and local sports figures. Attendees will...
Fast-Food Chain’s Charity Modernises Logo as Part of a Global Rebrand
Ronald McDonald House UK has launched a global‑aligned rebrand, introducing a new logo that replaces the iconic Ronald hand with a heart. The visual refresh is part of a coordinated effort across more than 60 independent Ronald McDonald House charities to create a unified...
Semify Launches Industry’s First Scalable AI Optimization Service Built for Agency Success
Semify announced the launch of its AI Optimization (AIO) service, the first scalable, white‑label solution built to help marketing agencies secure visibility on emerging AI‑driven search platforms such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. The offering...
The Tech SEO Audit for the AI Search Era: How to Maximize Your AI Visibility via @Sejournal, @JetOctopus
In 2026 a growing share of search traffic originates from AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, which evaluate pages without generating clicks. These "phantom impressions" reveal that traditional keyword rankings are losing relevance as machines prioritize fast, structured content...
Alo Rides the Cannes Wave With Wellness-Fueled Luxury Push
Alo, the Los Angeles‑based activewear label, has turned Cannes’ Croisette into a luxury wellness destination by opening permanent "sanctuary" spaces in Cannes and Saint‑Tropez and staging a pier pop‑up with custom beds and a juice bar. The brand is also...
AskNicely Launches Reputation Manager to Turn Feedback Into Visibility, Lower Costs and Growth
AskNicely unveiled Reputation Manager, an AI‑driven add‑on that unifies surveys, Google reviews and dozens of listing sites for multi‑location service firms. The tool prompts customers for reviews at optimal moments, aggregates feedback, and links sentiment to online visibility and revenue....
AI in CX: How to Build Empathy with Your Agentic Workforce
AI agents can boost customer‑experience empathy by automating high‑volume, low‑complexity tasks, allowing human representatives to focus on nuanced interactions. A 2025 Zurich‑YouGov‑Stanford study found 60% of shoppers prefer caring brands and 61% will pay more for empathetic service. Gartner predicts...
Beauty Briefing: What to Know About Sephora’s and Ulta’s AI Partnerships
Sephora has integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT into its online and in‑store platforms, offering shoppers instant, conversational product recommendations. Ulta Beauty struck a partnership with Google to embed the Gemini generative AI model in its digital assistant, aiming to personalize the browsing...
Kurt Geiger Turns Summer Season Into Growth Engine for Accessories Business
British footwear and accessories label Kurt Geiger is leveraging its summer “Cabana” collection as a growth engine, focusing on resort‑driven, mood‑centric accessories. Chief Creative Officer Rebecca Farrar‑Hockley says summer is the brand’s most important trading period, and the line blends English...
Why Duluth Trusts AI Agents with Bidding, but Not Brand Storytelling
Duluth Trading Company is using AI agents to handle ad‑bidding and creative‑iteration tasks while keeping brand storytelling under human control. Marketing director Ellie Uberto told the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit that the AI‑driven workflow frees the team to focus on...
Speak Their Reality, Not a Generic Avatar
If your messaging isn’t landing with your people (aka they’re not buying)... You need to GROUND it in their current lived experience. Not speak to a generic client avatar profile, but a true, lived reality that they’re experiencing every day. I create...
Amazon Now Rolls Out 30‑minute Delivery Across U.S. Cities
Are we approaching a "6-minute abs" situation? I'm sure the 15-minute service is coming :) -> Amazon launches Amazon Now, its 30-minute delivery service, in dozens of US cities including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, after pilots https://t.co/vn3ndFyrCX https://t.co/1Tt94hiHxO
Why Gen Z Is Forcing India to Rethink Loyalty
India’s 377 million Gen Z consumers are abandoning traditional point‑based loyalty programs in favor of portable, experience‑driven rewards. They expect brands to deliver relevance in every interaction, turning loyalty into an active, personal choice rather than a passive accumulation of points. Companies...
Google Experiments with Dual‑tone URL Fonts in Snippets
Google testing URL in the search result snippet with dark and lighter font for the same URL https://t.co/EwR5efFhxi via @SERPalerts https://t.co/mXo1p42J2D
Bing Webmaster
PSA, Bing Webmaster Tools does not distinguish between http and https https://t.co/7j8hixydGJ via @kmadhavan77 https://t.co/MCLDRvs3Rf
Screendragon Launches AI Hub to Embed Custom AI Agents in Live Workflows
Screendragon announced the AI Hub, a new capability that lets enterprise marketing and agency teams create and run custom AI agents directly inside live workflows. The launch aims to shift AI use from ad‑hoc experiments to controlled, revenue‑impacting execution across...
Fundamental SEO Basics: One Topic, Clear Structure, Original Data
How to make any page work for humans and machines: → One topic per page → Clean H1/H2 hierarchy → Descriptive internal links → Original data points Boring fundamentals that both audiences and Google reward.
Discussing SEO, GEO, and Discovery Future at London Summit
On my way to London to speak at Pulse eCommerce Summit tomorrow in a panel with the awesome Max Woelfle & Lewis Sellers about SEO, GEO and the future of discovery 🙌 if you don’t have a ticket yet, register...
Google’s AI Overviews Cut CTR by 58%, Prompting Immediate Updates
Google announced five changes to its AI Mode and AI Overviews after Ahrefs reported a 58% CTR decline on top‑ranking pages. The updates—inline links, article suggestions, hover previews, and more—are positioned as a fix for the “click crisis” that has...
Trust Is a Two-Way Street in Personal Branding
What if "Know, Like, Trust" is actually reciprocal? A Blog by @TBorreson11 https://t.co/dXmJKVWsSx #personalbranding #networking #community #digitaltransformation #digitalmarketing #digitalselling #socialselling #belonging #culture #customerexperience #businessintelligence https://t.co/fHnSYouiVm
Sharing Japan Footage as X Boosts Video Visibility
I heard X was upranking video posts, so here's a video I took in Japan recently https://t.co/riXP8gk2hM