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.
Google Tests "Skip Digging, Start Guided Research" Driving Users to Web Guide-Like Results
Google is testing a new call‑to‑action banner that says “Skip the digging, start guided research,” which redirects users to a Web Guide‑style, AI‑organized results page. The Web Guide feature, first launched in July 2025 as a labs experiment, was expanded to the All tab in December 2025 but many users still revert to classic search. The banner appears only in a limited rollout, suggesting Google is evaluating broader adoption of guided research SERPs. Industry observers are watching to see if this signals a permanent shift toward AI‑curated search experiences.
Google Business Profile Performance Metrics Offer Data Added To Help Doc
Google has updated its Business Profile help documentation with a new section that explains offer performance metrics. The addition details how many times customers view and click on offers displayed on a Business Profile. The change was first noted by...
YouTube Shows Are Closing in on Traditional TV — Fast
Spotter, an Amazon‑backed startup, reports that roughly 6,600 U.S. creator‑driven “TV” channels—defined by 22‑minute‑plus episodes, regular schedules and sizable audiences—produced an estimated 26 billion viewing hours in 2025, with over half watched on connected TVs. These creator shows match traditional TV...
xpln.ai Supports WPP Media & AXA in Driving More Sustainable Advertising Attention
xpln.ai teamed with WPP Media to help AXA launch a multi‑market campaign in the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Thailand that puts sustainability at its core. Using proprietary eye‑tracking technology, the firm measured advertising attention for each impression and paired...
Take Control of Your Personal Brand by Showing Up
At the 2025 Future of Communications Conference, PR strategist Lorraine K. Lee emphasized that personal branding is a lived reputation, not a self‑crafted narrative. She outlined three actionable steps—auditing one’s reputation, showing up strategically on social platforms, and building influence...
How Zero-Party & First-Party Data Can Fuel Your Intent-Based SEO Strategy via @Sejournal, @Rio_seo
Marketers are shifting from passive data collection to actively gathering zero‑party data—information customers willingly share—to power intent‑based SEO strategies. By combining zero‑party insights with first‑party behavior data, brands can translate declared motivations into content that satisfies both users and search...
The First-Party Data Illusion by AtData
Marketers have embraced first‑party data as a privacy‑safe alternative to third‑party sources, but the article warns that stored records quickly become outdated. As identities drift—emails change, devices rotate, and behaviors evolve—static profiles lose alignment with real‑world activity. AtData argues that...
Lastminute.com Picks BBH to Create New Brand Platform
Lastminute.com has selected advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) to develop a new brand platform, with the rollout planned for the summer. BBH began collaborating with the travel booking site at the start of the year, conducting research and crafting...
Segmenting by Purchased Category in Omnisend: How We Made It Work (and Keep Working)
Omnisend helped Italian ecommerce retailer Alberoshop, which sells over 15,000 crystal and home‑goods items, implement purchase‑category segmentation to boost email relevance. By using existing product Collections as dynamic segment criteria, customers are automatically placed in groups that reflect their most...
PossibleNOW and Convoso Announce Strategic Partnership to Align Compliance and AI-Powered Outbound Performance
PossibleNOW, a compliance‑focused SaaS provider, has entered a strategic partnership with Convoso, an AI‑driven outbound contact‑center platform. The alliance merges PossibleNOW’s Do‑Not‑Contact (DNC) governance tools with Convoso’s predictive dialing and workflow automation, allowing customers to scale outreach while mitigating TCPA...
Dig-In Target a New Generation of Fitness Focused Students
Dig‑In partnered with Warrior Protein to distribute Warrior Creatine Plus samples to 200,000 university students in 1,003 halls across 130 UK cities. The on‑campus tote‑bag activation targeted students at the start of their academic year, a key habit‑forming period. Post‑campaign research...
Costco Uses Low‑Cost Gas to Drive Membership Growth and Sales as Prices Near $4 per Gallon
Costco is capitalizing on its $0.20‑$0.30‑per‑gallon gas discount to attract new members and lift overall sales, reporting a 4.8% rise in paid memberships and a 6.7% jump in comparable sales for Q2 FY2026. The strategy turns volatile fuel costs into...
5 Benefits of Combining Social Data with Search Data
Combining social listening with search analytics lets brands spot intent formation before demand peaks, turning casual conversation into actionable insight. The fusion reveals the full competitive landscape, showing who shapes narratives and who captures demand. It also validates target audiences...
Walmart, Vizio Unveil Integrated TV Platform Merging Streaming and Shopping
Walmart and its newly acquired Vizio have rolled out a joint platform that lets users log into Vizio smart TVs with a single Walmart account, delivering premium streaming content alongside shoppable product placements. The move positions Vizio TVs as a...
Jeep Rolls Out Raunchy Iliza Shlesinger Ad to Reboot Grand Wagoneer Sales
Jeep unveiled a new, sexually‑tinged commercial featuring comedian Iliza Shlesinger, set to air during the NCAA March Madness tournament. The campaign is intended to clarify the Grand Wagoneer’s identity and spark conversation, a strategy its marketers say could translate into...
Xbox Gets New CEO Asha Sharma, Eyes Cheaper Game Pass and Netflix Bundle
Microsoft has installed Asha Sharma as the new head of Xbox, replacing longtime leader Phil Spencer. Sharma’s first moves include scrubbing the controversial "This Is An Xbox" campaign and exploring lower‑priced Game Pass tiers and a potential Netflix bundle, signaling...
Stop Sending More PR Pitches. Use GEO to Predict Which Ones Will Land.
PR director Katherine Caraway urges agencies to stop volume‑driven outreach and adopt a predictive pitch probability model. The model assigns a 1‑5 score to three variables—Inbox competition, relationship strength, and newsroom resource pressure—producing a 15‑point likelihood metric for each pitch....
Social Listening Is Now a Leadership Imperative
Social listening has moved from a marketing tool to a leadership imperative, with executives now monitoring brand reputation and crisis signals in real time. Nicole van Zanten, co‑president of ICUC Social, notes that leaders are using community‑derived insights to guide...
Poshmark Unveils Its First Major App Redesign in 15 Years Amid Online Thrifting Boom
Poshmark has launched its first major app redesign in 15 years, revamping the experience for its 165 million buyers and sellers. The update introduces an AI‑driven “For You” home feed, larger portrait‑style product images, and a consolidated seller hub with analytics...
Unilever Adjusts Marketing to Respond Faster to Consumer Trends
Unilever's chief growth and marketing officer Esi Eggleston Bracey unveiled the “Desire at Scale” strategy, aiming to fuse cultural insights, community signals, and commerce through AI‑enabled processes. The approach shifts marketing from pure ad optimization to a growth engine that...
Microsoft Spends $8M to Spotlight AI‑powered Excel
Microsoft paid $8 Million for a Super Bowl commercial to show off that Excel now has AI powered by Copilot #microsoft #excel #superbowl #AI #copilot #artificialintelligence #LLM #GenAI @PawlowskiMario @chidambara09 @Ym78200 @CurieuxExplorer @efipm @bigfundu @sayedflah @Ronald_vanLoon @cyngn @belindabeibi @odisseiaalfa @DigitalColmer @MyCompanionsAI...
8 Ways Brands Are Using Extended Reality (XR) in Marketing
Brands are leveraging extended reality—AR, VR, and MR—to solve concrete marketing challenges, from cutting product returns to accelerating sales cycles. The article outlines eight real‑world examples, including BMW’s mixed‑reality showroom, IKEA’s AR placement tool, and Walmart’s enterprise‑scale VR training. Global...
Italy: Digital Ad Spend Surges
Italy’s advertising market in 2025 is now led by digital, with the “extended” digital segment projected at €9.6 billion (about $10.6 billion), representing 45% of total spend. OTT platforms dominate that slice, contributing €4.3 billion (~$4.7 billion). Traditional media investment slips to €5.8 billion (~$6.4 billion),...
China’s Retail Landscape Change: Douyin, Sam’s Club Driving Sales for Swisse
H&H Group reported that Douyin, China’s TikTok‑like platform, drove a 71.4% surge in Swisse sales last year, while new‑retail partners such as Sam’s Club added 29.7% growth. The company’s overall revenue rose 10% to RMB 14.3 bn ($2.08 bn) and net profit exploded...
Profound Review: Features, Pricing and Alternative
A recent hands‑on review pits Surfer’s AI Tracker against Profound’s answer‑engine optimization platform, highlighting each tool’s feature set, workflow, and pricing. Surfer blends AI visibility with a full SEO suite, offering prompt monitoring, source analysis, and CMS integrations for $182 per...
Lynqor Launches in the UAE with AI-Powered Orchestration Model to Tackle Fragmentation
Lynqor, a marketing orchestration platform founded by Kerem Emre Akarlar, has launched in the UAE to address growing marketing fragmentation in the MENA region. The company offers an AI‑powered model that unifies strategy, data, creative, media and partner execution into...
Turning E-Commerce ROI in Egypt’s Digital-First Scene
Egypt’s e‑commerce market is rapidly maturing, shifting from a growth trend to a primary revenue driver. Consumers, predominantly young and mobile‑first, now demand speed, simplicity, and transparency comparable to global standards. Brands that embed user‑centric design, trust‑building features, and data‑driven...
X Enables Global Coaching Reach Beyond Anglo Limits
I’m based in UK but most of my audience is in the US, then UK, Japan (growth market) respectively. S&C & performance coaching industry is heavily US facing because of market opportunities I need to have reach beyond just the...
Celsius Extends Global Brand Platform to Europe
Celsius has launched its Live.Fit.Go brand platform across Europe, extending the functional energy drink’s zero‑sugar, vitamin‑enriched positioning to new markets. The initiative follows a 2025 rollout in the United States, Canada and Australia and represents the company’s largest marketing push...
Advertising to Doctors - Okay or Not? | Out-Of-Pocket
OpenEvidence and DoxGPT are offering free, AI‑driven literature‑review tools for physicians, funded by advertising. The model shifts costs from doctors to pharma, potentially lowering barriers compared with subscription services like UpToDate, which charge $550 per physician annually. Clear separation and...
Adobe (ADBE)-NVIDIA Alliance Targets Next Wave of AI Content Creation
Adobe announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA on March 16 at the GPU Technology Conference, aiming to supercharge AI‑driven content creation and marketing automation. The deal centers on next‑generation Adobe Firefly models that will run on NVIDIA’s CUDA‑X, NeMo, Cosmos...
Bendigo Bank Backs Grassroots with ‘Footy Grows Here’ AFL Sponsorship Platform via Dig
Bendigo Bank has teamed with independent agency Dig to launch the "Footy grows here" sponsorship platform, linking its elite AFL partnerships with grassroots football communities. The rollout begins with Adelaide and Geelong football clubs, showcasing the bank’s long‑standing support for...
Philadelphia Cream Cheese Pulls Dollars From Search – People Aren’t Googling ‘Cream Cheese’
Philadelphia Cream Cheese, owned by Kraft Heinz, has halted paid search on Google, shifting roughly $495,000 of its digital spend to retail‑media networks and focusing on e‑commerce search placements. In 2025 the brand spent $31.8 million on U.S. digital ads, with...
Marketers Shift Growing Shares of Search Spending to GEO
Marketers are reallocating a growing share of search spend toward generative engine optimization (GEO) as AI reshapes how users discover brands. A Scribewise survey shows 55% of U.S. marketers now budget for GEO, with 70% assigning 11%‑20% of their search...
Reddit’s New Shopping Ads Are a Play for Beauty Brands’ Business
Reddit unveiled new Dynamic Product Ads at Shoptalk 2026, featuring Collection Ads and Reddit‑specific overlays that embed shoppable tiles within community threads. The platform reports a 40% YoY rise in high‑intent shopping conversations and a 60% surge in beauty‑related purchase discussions....
ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026: JioStar Flags Low TV-Digital Ad Overlap, Strong Incremental Reach in BARC-Nielsen Data
JioStar released a BARC‑Nielsen study of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 showing that television and digital advertising audiences overlapped by less than ten percent. The low duplication indicates that integrated TV‑digital campaigns deliver substantial incremental reach, reaching distinct...
Strategic Upsells Win When They Fit the Buyer
This is why I'm so adamant about people learning to sell in a way that makes sense for them. I didn't sell out that upsell and add $9K in revenue *just because I added an upsell*. The upsell offer was...
Saatchi & Saatchi India Launches New Spot for Captain Steel to Spotlight TMT Rebars
Saatchi & Saatchi India has produced a new television spot for Captain Steel featuring cricket legend Sourav Ganguly. The ad educates Indian homebuilders on the tensile strength role of TMT rebars compared with cement’s compressive function. By framing the technical product as...
YouTube Launches Gemini-Powered Creator Partnerships Toolkit
YouTube introduced a Gemini‑powered Creator Partnerships suite that automates discovery, matching and campaign management for brands and creators. The launch at IAB NewFronts signals a push to remove infrastructure bottlenecks that have limited the scale of creator marketing.
Netflix Walks Away From Multi‑Billion‑Dollar Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
Netflix has terminated negotiations to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets, ending a multi‑billion‑dollar transaction that had engaged top investment banks. The collapse leaves both companies to reassess strategy as Netflix focuses on ad‑supported growth and WBD pivots...
How Zwift Created a Global Fitness Unicorn - Steve Beckett
In this episode of Uncensored CMO, Steve Beckett—former Head of Cycling at Team Sky and the fifth employee of Zwift— walks through the creation of Zwift from a niche indoor cycling concept into a global fitness unicorn. He shares how...
OldTown White Coffee Launches Hot & Cold Range Across Asia via ‘Your Favourites Made Cold’
OldTown White Coffee has introduced a Hot & Cold product range in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China under the “Your Favourites Made Cold” campaign, developed with digital agency Kingdom Digital. The new line dissolves seamlessly in both hot and...
Beyond the Brief: How TBWA NZ Reframed Health Through Optimism for Southern Cross
TBWA NZ partnered with Southern Cross to launch the “Feel Good Project,” a health‑insurance campaign built around optimism and real member stories. The brief focused on shifting the tone of health conversations from heavy to hopeful, using authentic joy rather...
Stripe's In‑Ads Checkout Makes Shopify Optional
Uhhh is this the beginning of the inevitable breakup between Stripe and Shopify? This is a big deal. It’s also a bunch of my predictions coming to life at once. Here's what's happening: Stripe is powering a native checkout inside Facebook ads....
Google Trials Guided Research Feature for Search
Google Search tests "Skip Digging, Start Guided Research" for Web Guide via @lenraleigh by @glenngabe https://t.co/WwENDJaga7 https://t.co/DrRVxAqs4h
AbbVie Named Official Pharma Partner of MLB, Expands ‘Striking Out Cancer’ on Opening Day
AbbVie has secured a multi‑year deal to become Major League Baseball’s Official Pharmaceutical Partner beginning with the 2026 season, extending its Striking Out Cancer initiative league‑wide. The program will donate $20 for every strikeout, up to $1 million per season, with...
Jack Daniel’s Turns up the Volume at Melbourne Race Week with “Loudest” Off-Track Fan Experience Campaign via Today the Brave
Jack Daniel’s, celebrating its fourth year with the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 team, launched a “loudest” off‑track fan experience during Melbourne Race Week. The week‑long activation turned venues such as The Espy, The Middle Park Hotel and Crown into music‑filled hubs, featuring...
Shubman Gill Asks More From His Smartphone in Google Pixel's New Ad
Google launched a new ad for the Pixel 10 in India starring cricketer Shubman Gill and voice actor Boman Irani. The spot walks viewers through everyday uses of the phone, emphasizing AI‑driven features such as Google Gemini, the “Nano Banana”...
How Behavior-Based Email Campaigns Are Driving Second-Chance Conversions in Recruitment
Behavior-based email campaigns are being complemented by targeted direct mail to re‑engage prospects who abandon sites. Using real‑time behavioral signals, platforms like Postalytics send personalized physical mail when visitors view pricing or repeat visits without converting. This multi‑channel approach leverages...
Simplicity Beats Overcomplicated Content Strategies Every Time
Sometimes I think my content strategy is too simple...then I remember that's the whole point. 😂 Most everyone is overcomplicating the hECKKK out of content