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.
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[PREMIUM AUDIO ESSAY] The Identity Platform: Engineering Status Infrastructure for Your Personal Brand
Carolynne Alexander released a premium audio essay titled “The Identity Platform,” which outlines a systematic approach to engineering status infrastructure for personal brands. The piece introduces a four‑step framework that shifts creators from merely describing their services to actively shaping the identity their clients envision. Alexander markets the essay through a subscription model, offering a 20 % discount for a year‑long commitment aimed at luxury‑focused personal brands. The content positions brand perception as a measurable asset rather than a vague narrative.
New Google Help Doc About Google's Web Crawling
Google has released a new help document titled “Things to know about Google’s web crawling,” outlining nine key points about how its crawlers operate. The guide explains the existence of multiple specialized crawlers, repeat and frequent crawling, automatic optimization, and...
Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Taps Love Story’s Sarah Pidgeon as Face of Spring Collection
Hailey Bieber’s e.l.f.-owned beauty brand Rhode has signed actress Sarah Pidgeon as the face of its spring collection. The line introduces two new Pocket Blush shades—Teacup pink and Candy Apple red—the first red hue for the product. Limited‑edition Peptide Lip...
Google Confirms Discover Feed Shows More Social Posts
Google has confirmed that its Discover feed is now showing a higher volume of social media posts, including content from Instagram, TikTok, X and other platforms. The change was announced by John Mueller at the Google Search Essentials for News...
Thailand Presents ‘The New Thailand’ Vision at ITB Berlin 2026
The Tourism Authority of Thailand unveiled its “The New Thailand” vision at ITB Berlin 2026, centering on the “Unforgettable Experience: Healing is the New Luxury” concept. The Thailand pavilion showcased 165 operators, including 89 with sustainability certifications, and promoted hidden‑gem destinations...
Ad Agencies Are Embracing ‘Vibe Coding’ to Build GEO Products for Clients
Ad agencies such as Havas, Broadhead and Supergood are rapidly creating generative engine optimization (GEO) tools by "vibe‑coding" on top of large language models, often within a single work session. Havas’ Brand Insights AI, built with Anthropic’s Claude Code and Replit,...
Submit Every Sitemap Individually for Complete Indexing Insight
SEO Tip: don't just submit the sitemap index file in Google Search Console, you'll need to submit all important sitemaps individually also. When I get access to a client's GSC, often for very large sites, I unfortunately don't always...
How to Focus on Topics (Not Keywords) in Your SEO Strategy
The article argues that SEO should prioritize topics over isolated keywords, leveraging semantic search and AI‑driven vector embeddings. It introduces a three‑tier framework—clearly defined, ambiguous, and expansive topics—to match the scale of a brand’s content universe. Practical steps include auditing...
WPP's Jon Cook on Designing the Company Around How a “Consumer Consumes a Brand”
WPP Creative chief executive Jon Cook announced that the agency will redesign its operating model around how consumers actually experience a brand. He emphasized that customers no longer view media and creative as separate entities, prompting a unified, consumer‑first approach....
Zoom Appoints Global Media Agency of Record
Zoom has appointed independent agency PMG as its global media agency of record. PMG will set up a cross‑functional team to handle Zoom’s media planning, buying, and analytics across markets. The partnership is intended to strengthen Zoom’s brand positioning as...
On the Move: MOIA America Makes Gamo PR Chief
MOIA America, Volkswagen Group’s autonomous‑vehicle subsidiary, appointed Marcus Gamo as head of U.S. communications, tasking him with building a new communications team as the firm prepares its Buzz ride‑pooling service and Mobileye‑powered self‑driving system for launch with Uber. Continental Strategy...
Yoast SEO’s New Schema Aggregator Improves Entity Disambiguation via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Yoast SEO 27.1 introduces a Schema Aggregation feature that creates a single "schemamap" endpoint delivering the entire site’s schema.org data in one response. The endpoint deduplicates entities, preserves relationships such as author‑to‑article, and respects existing privacy settings. Responses are cached...
Bupa UK Picks Start-Up for Customer Centricity Drive
Bupa UK awarded its marketing and advertising account to start‑up agency Ace of Hearts after a competitive pitch. The insurer reported a 16% revenue increase to £16.9 bn and a 59% jump in underlying profit to £914 m, driven by strong private‑health...
How Can Retailers Use Micro-Influencers?
Retailers such as Disney Store, ASOS, Zara and others are shifting to micro‑influencers for campaigns. These creators have modest followings but are deeply embedded in niche communities, delivering higher engagement and authentic storytelling. Agencies like Coolr and Iris note that...
ASA Pulls Plug on British Gas and Hive Green Energy Ads
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned British Gas and Centrica Hive ads that promoted green‑energy savings, finding the claims misleading and insufficiently substantiated. British Gas advertised up to £546 savings from a heat‑pump tariff, yet ASA’s model showed...
Real-Time Ad Bidding Systems (RTB): Designing for <100ms Responses
Real‑time bidding (RTB) powers billions of ad auctions daily, each demanding sub‑100 ms end‑to‑end responses. Major exchanges like Google AdX and Amazon AAP handle over 10 million bid requests per second, allocating roughly 50 ms for demand‑side platforms to compute bids. To meet...
Customer Joint Value Creation with Bimbo Bakeries USA's Jeff Hendrix
In this episode, Jeff Hendricks, Chief Customer Officer of Bimbo Bakeries USA, discusses how the company is leveraging real‑time customer and POS data to close the gap on missed sales and improve supply‑chain execution in an omni‑channel environment. He explains...
Your Author Toolbox: Part 2
The latest release of the Author Toolbox adds dozens of AI‑driven utilities for writers, ranging from PR automation to legal, tax, and editing assistants. All tools are hosted on PatronToolbox.com and organized into categories such as PR, "Not a Professional"...
Luxury Unfiltered: Why Most Luxury Brands Are Talking to the Wrong Part of the Brain
Daniel Langer argues that luxury buying decisions are driven first by emotion, with rational analysis serving only as post‑purchase justification. He notes that ultra‑high‑net‑worth individuals have risen 44 % since 2019, yet many clients now view luxury as overpriced because brands...
IAB Europe Publishes 2026 Readiness Report Highlighting AI, Regulation & Sustainability Challenges in Digital Advertising
IAB Europe released its 2026 State of Readiness – Sustainability in Digital Advertising report, the fourth edition covering both environmental and social dimensions. The study’s double‑materiality analysis finds social issues such as privacy and media plurality outweigh environmental impacts. AI...
Vodafone Egypt Brings Loved Ones Closer Despite Hectic Schedules During Ramadan
Vodafone Egypt launched a culturally focused Ramadan campaign to counteract the growing fragmentation of family time caused by hectic work schedules and digital overload. The 360‑degree rollout combined TV, digital, OOH, radio, influencer collaborations and a new Bluetooth‑based "Nearby" feature...
EXCLUSIVE: Vanessa Kirby Is Lancôme’s New Global Ambassador
British actress Vanessa Kirby has been appointed Lancôme’s new global ambassador. The partnership underscores the brand’s emphasis on “sophisticated vulnerability” and everyday natural beauty, resonating with Kirby’s personal history and recent transition to motherhood. She will headline upcoming campaigns for...
Beautiful Isn’t Enough: Why Luxury Brands Must Design for Performance
Luxury brands are shifting focus from pure aesthetics to performance‑wellness, driven by data‑rich consumers who demand tangible benefits like better energy, sleep and focus. Wearable technology has made fatigue measurable, turning performance into a competitive metric. The Middle East, with...
Who Is the Modern Male Shopper Now?
The modern male shopper has moved from muscle‑centric marketing to demanding ingredient transparency and functional benefits. Protein brands now highlight whey isolate purity, grass‑fed sourcing and the absence of additives, while men increasingly view protein as everyday nutrition. Skincare, haircare...
Amazon Gives Aussies Permission to ‘Spend Less on the Ones They Love’ in New Droga5 Campaign
Amazon has rolled out a new Australian advertising push featuring comedian Steph Tisdell, created by Droga5 ANZ. The campaign spotlights Amazon’s low‑price promise, encouraging shoppers to spend less on gifts for family, friends and pets while still showing love. It...
GIGIL Philippines’ New OOH Campaign for Grab Puts a Spotlight on the Drivers They Empower
GIGIL Philippines launched an innovative out‑of‑home (OOH) billboard for Grab that flips between day and night to illustrate how each ride funds a driver’s child’s education. The visual features a Grab motorcycle with school supplies by day and a shadowed...
ACAM Launches Australia’s Inaugural AI Readiness System for Marketers; THE ICONIC First to Use
The Australian Centre for AI in Marketing (ACAM) has unveiled AI‑Results Transformation (ART), the nation’s first end‑to‑end system for embedding AI into marketing performance. THE ICONIC became one of the inaugural adopters, using ART to create responsible, data‑driven customer experiences....
SEANs: Opinionated Software Unifying Marketing and Finance
Another way to think of SEANs is software with a point of view If you think about Ads Manager, as a traditional software, Ads Manager is agnostic to your strategy. You can go in there, click whatever buttons you want, and...
AI Companies Dominate Tech Sponsorship Landscape
As a technology content creator 99% of the companies that offer sponsorships are AI companies. It's shocking how if you want to talk about tech news on the internet, those are your advertisers barring a few sporadic exceptions.
Engineers Australia Rewrites F1 History with Launch of ‘In Her Corner’ Campaign via Bastion
Engineers Australia and Bastion are launching the “In Her Corner” campaign at the Australian Grand Prix, renaming Turn 6 to honor engineers Laura K. Müller and Hannah Schmitz. This marks the first time a Formula 1 corner is named after women, aligning...
Repeat Your Message: Fear of Redundancy Keeps You Poor
Being afraid of sounding like a broken record… keeps you broke By the time you're sick of repeating your message, your audience is juuuust starting to hear it Say it again
X to Take Action Against AI Deepfakes of the Iran War
X announced a revision to its creator revenue‑share program to curb AI‑generated deepfakes about the Iran war. Users posting AI‑created videos of the conflict without a disclosure will be suspended from revenue sharing for 90 days, with permanent bans for...
X Usage Declined in the EU in the Second Half of 2025
X reported a 15% decline in EU active users, dropping from 76 million in the first half of 2025 to 64.8 million in the second half. The dip appears despite Elon Musk’s public assertions of record‑high global engagement. Under the EU Digital...
Meet Yeti Boo, the AI Bigfoot Helping KANE Footwear Rethink Influencer Marketing
Yeti Boo, an AI‑generated Bigfoot persona, exploded on TikTok, reaching over 439,000 followers and catching the eye of brands. KANE Footwear signed the character as an “AI athlete” to promote its Revive AC recovery shoe, pairing the mascot’s off‑beat wilderness...
Meta Tests Shopping AI Chatbot in US
Meta is piloting a shopping research feature inside its Meta AI chatbot for U.S. users. The tool returns a carousel of product images with brand, price, and website details, plus brief recommendation bullet points. The move mirrors similar experiments by...
Chatime Names GYG’s Alison Walsh as CMO Amid Marketing Restructure
Bubble tea chain Chatime has appointed former Guzman y Gomez marketer Alison Walsh as its new Chief Marketing Officer for Australia. The hire follows the departure of global CMO Jeff Chang and national marketing manager Rachel Druce, marking a shift...
Agentic Flocks To Healthcare Industry
LiveRamp announced the integration of Newton Research and SemantIQ agents into its data‑collaboration platform, allowing autonomous AI to handle audience creation, cross‑media measurement and spend optimization for health and life‑science marketers. Simultaneously, Doceree launched RepTwin and the Site LLM, a...
Pinterest Creators Now Link Direct Amazon Storefronts
🚨 NEW 🚨 Pinterest and Amazon Influencers have teamed up on a new integration that allows select Pinterest creators to link their Amazon Storefronts to their profiles. By connecting their accounts, creators can: 🔗 Feature a Storefront link on their Pinterest profile 🏷️...
Audio and Podcasts Best Venues for Consumer Engagement in Sports (Audacy)
Audacy’s new "State of Audio: Sports Fandom" report reveals that the most avid sports fans are younger, more diverse, and increasingly reachable through audio channels. The study shows a 40% lift in purchase and usage among the fandom cohort when...
JCDecaux Launches Nurture for Country to Support First Nations Businesses
JCDecaux has introduced Nurture for Country, a new Reconciliation Action Plan initiative that gives First Nations‑owned businesses access to its national Out‑of‑Home network with matched media spend and strategic support. The program builds on a 2025 pilot with the KARI...
Influencer Marketing 2025: Balancing AI Efficiency, Budget Pressure, and Human-Centric Creativity
Influencer marketing in 2025 is being reshaped by AI-driven tools that automate influencer discovery, content creation, and performance analytics. Brands confront tighter budgets and heightened demand for measurable ROI, prompting a shift toward performance‑based contracts. Despite technological advances, human‑centric creativity...
Finnair Integrates Music by Finnish Composer Lauri Porra Into Passenger Experience
Finnair has introduced a new soundscape featuring Lauri Porra’s album Matkantekijä, which will play on aircraft, in lounges and across marketing touchpoints. The rollout begins on February 27 and the tracks will also be streamed on Spotify. This music initiative is a core...
GrowthRise Mastermind Recap Mar 3, 2026
The GrowthRise Mastermind call highlighted three core growth levers for B2B firms: optimizing outbound email cadence, leveraging Meta’s ad platform over LinkedIn, and tightening pixel event tracking. Email sequences spaced every three to four days lifted open rates to 21%...
Help Find Your Lost Luggage with Google’s Find Hub
Google’s Find Hub app now lets users share a secure, time‑limited link to a lost bag’s location directly with participating airlines. The feature generates an encrypted URL that updates in real time and can be revoked at any moment. Over ten...
Evidence of Effort
The author argues that the most compelling online content today highlights genuine effort, leveraging the effort heuristic that equates visible investment with quality. While AI‑generated imagery can spark mixed reactions, brands face higher scrutiny when using the same tech in...
Figma’s Silent Change Signals Fight for Design Infrastructure Control
In February 2026, Figma released version 126.1.2. One line in the changelog caught nobody's attention. It should have. The update stripped --remote-debugging-port on startup, with no announcement and no deprecation warning. Just gone. Overnight, developers who'd spent months building automation...
AI Hype Inflates Expectations, Not Reduces Workload
"AI gets celebrated like the messiah of productivity, but instead of actually offsetting the workload, it's just raised the bar on what people are supposed to accomplish" Thanks for including my thoughts Katelyn Chedraoui https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/social-media-professionals-burnout-ai-metricool-news/
The Brand Signals Behind SKIMS, Adidas, and Bottega
Recent brand moves by SKIMS, Adidas, and Bottega Veneta illustrate how leading CMOs are redefining visibility, cultural relevance, and long‑term equity. SKIMS has transitioned from a celebrity‑driven launch to a product‑focused, inclusive category leader, emphasizing operational scale and trust. Adidas...
B2C Brands Excelling on LinkedIn Over Other Channels
For an article: looking for an example of a B2C brand that is doing as good or better on LinkedIn performance-wise than any other owned social channel. Know of any??
Leverage Ads to Scale Your Meta Success
Every time I read something like this. I just think. That's great.... and massive congrats to you, but what could you have done if you ran ads. Take what's working and apply it to Meta.