Today's Marketing Pulse
Google rolls out AI‑qualified call leads to boost ad measurement
Google Ads is introducing an AI‑qualified call leads feature that assesses the substance of inbound calls rather than just their duration. The machine‑learning system creates call summaries and tags, feeding higher‑quality signals into smart bidding and reporting. Call recording is enabled by default, with exceptions for healthcare and financial services, and the rollout is currently limited.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Publicis Groupe UK acquires Fabric Social
Podcast Avatar Essentials: Who Do You Think You’re Talking To!?
Podcast creators are urged to build a detailed “avatar”—a fictional ideal listener—to focus content and marketing. The article defines the avatar, illustrates its impact with a True Crime case study showing women dominate the audience and discover shows via social media, and outlines how that insight shapes promotion, guest selection, and calls to action. It also provides a step‑by‑step method for researching any niche audience, from gardening to gaming, and suggests tools for turning the avatar into actionable strategy.
The Deliverability Tax: Why Your Messages Are Disappearing
Marketers are seeing engagement drop not because of creative flaws but due to a growing "deliverability tax" that limits message visibility. MoEngage’s analysis of 40 billion messages shows behavior‑based pushes achieve 93% delivery versus 81% for generic broadcasts, with conversion rates...
10 Al Prompts For Building Viral Al Video Channel with with Gemini
The post outlines ten ready‑to‑use Gemini prompts that take a creator from concept to a viral AI‑driven short‑form video channel in 30 days. Each prompt tackles a specific stage—niche scouting, visual identity, hook creation, scripting, workflow, algorithm decoding, calendar planning,...
Arshdeep Singh Fronts Dual Brand Campaigns for Rotoris and Doctor’s Choice
India’s fast bowler Arshdeep Singh has been tapped as the face of two new IPL 2026 campaigns, representing luxury watch maker Rotoris and nutrition brand Doctor’s Choice. Rotoris positions Singh as “The Rotoris Man,” linking his precision and consistency to...
Your Biggest Growth Driver: Retain, Don't Ignore Existing Customers
Most businesses lose their best customers before they ever know they had them. Not to a competitor. Not to price. To indifference. Acquiring a new customer costs 5–7x more than retaining one. Your best growth lever isn't a new audience. It's the customers...
Gallo’s Britt West on Fixing Wine’s Relevance Problem and Recruiting the Next Generation
Chief commercial officer Britt West told the Brave Commerce podcast that wine’s recent sales decline stems more from a failure to recruit new consumers than from health‑related moderation trends. Decades of premiumization delivered short‑term growth but left the category with...
Project Agora Brings Realize to North Africa, Expands Access to AI-Driven Performance Advertising
Project Agora has launched the AI‑driven performance platform Realize across North Africa, covering Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The service taps a network of more than 11,000 premium publishers and offers format‑agnostic ad placements, AI‑optimized bidding and predictive audience models....
What Mandarin Oriental Is Seeing in Luxury Travel That Others Are Missing
Mandarin Oriental is shifting its luxury strategy from pure expansion to a brand‑led, guest‑centric model that emphasizes authentic, culturally resonant experiences. The hotel group plans to more than double its portfolio over the next decade, targeting locations such as Mallorca,...
Who Is Manufacturing the Faces We Trust?
Indian advertisers and brands are rapidly adopting AI‑generated digital spokespersons that can speak regional languages, adjust facial features, and deliver consistent messages without fatigue. Mankind Pharma announced a partnership to embed these generative systems across its marketing and multilingual communications,...
Glossy Research: 3 Out of 4 Brand Leaders Are Using AI for Data Analysis, but ROI on AI Spend Remains...
Glossy Research reports that three‑quarters of top fashion and beauty brands now rely on AI for data analysis, yet the financial returns on those investments remain modest. The study highlights an average ROI of under 10% per year, indicating early‑stage...
Beauty Briefing: How Mind Games Achieved Double-Digit Sales Growth with No Hero Fragrance
Mind Games, the chess‑themed fragrance label, posted double‑digit sales growth last quarter by eschewing a single "hero" scent and instead courting fragrance collectors. The brand rolled out a rapid cadence of limited‑edition releases, leveraging community‑driven storytelling and digital‑first marketing. This...
Popeyes Sets Sail with ONE PIECE with an Anime-Inspired Menu
Popeyes has partnered with Toei Animation to launch its first anime collaboration, Popeyes × ONE PIECE, across select Canadian locations. The limited‑time menu features items like Chopper’s Cupcake (≈ $3 USD) and the Luffy Bento Bundle (≈ $7.40 USD) that combine the chain’s signature chicken with themed...
How ThredUp Is Using AI to Improve Its Marketing Operations and Move Further up the Funnel
ThredUp, the online resale platform, is embedding artificial intelligence across its operations, from automated product tagging to personalized recommendation engines. In its marketing division, AI is now being used to sharpen demand forecasting, allowing the team to allocate spend more...
Revamped Tata Neu to Bet on Loyalty, Financial Services: Tata Digital CEO Sajith Sivanandan
Tata Digital is reshaping its super‑app Tata Neu into a loyalty‑centric financial‑services hub, moving away from a broad commerce aggregator. CEO Sajith Sivanandan, who took the helm seven months ago, is streamlining the portfolio, emphasizing payments, investments and insurance tied to...
Marketing’s Ability to Game the System Is Diminishing: Anoop Manohar, Axis Bank
Axis Bank’s chief marketing officer Anoop Manohar argues that the era of blanket impressions is over, urging marketers to prioritize real engagement. He describes how the bank leverages AI‑driven real‑time signals to deliver personalized offers at key life milestones, while...
Not Wieden+Kennedy Creates Identity for Premier Jumping League
Not Wieden+Kennedy has crafted the visual identity and launch film for the Premier Jumping League (PJL), a new global equestrian jumping circuit. The agency built the brand around the sport’s signature rail, creating a dynamic logo that captures the horse’s...
VML Singapore, Scoot and Singapore Tourism Board Turn Merlion Into Gen Z Travel Guide
VML Singapore, low‑cost carrier Scoot and the Singapore Tourism Board launched #MerlionMadeMeDoIt, a TikTok‑centric campaign that reimagines the Merlion as an 80s glam‑rock star to steer Gen Z travelers toward lesser‑known city spots. The initiative ran a five‑market contest—Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia,...
Why 94% of Marketing AI Fails?
The marketing technology landscape in 2026 shows a stark paradox: while 90.3% of companies claim to use AI, only 6.3% have fully integrated it into governed marketing stacks and just 23.3% have moved AI tools into production. Integration friction reaches...
StackAdapt Leaks ChatGPT Ad Playbook, Offers $15‑$60 CPM Pilot
StackAdapt disclosed a pilot program to run ads inside ChatGPT, pricing cost‑per‑thousand impressions (CPM) between $15 and $60 and requiring a $50,000 minimum spend. The leak, shared on March 27, shows the DSP courting advertisers with discounted fees and a...
Meta Launches Ad‑performance Tools to Ease Entry for Small‑business Advertisers
Meta announced new ad‑performance tools that simplify measurement and reduce entry hurdles for small‑business advertisers, according to eMarketer. While the company said the updates will make campaign reporting more transparent, specific feature details and pricing thresholds were not disclosed.
Hello Kitty Creator Sanrio to Make Nintendo Switch 2 Party Game
Sanrio is launching Sanrio Games, a new brand that will embed its iconic characters into party titles for Nintendo Switch and the upcoming Switch 2. The first game is slated for a fall 2026 console release, and the company aims to...
Super League Urges Shareholder Vote on Misfits Ads Division Deal to Expand Esports Ad Reach
Super League (Nasdaq: SLE) has sent a letter urging shareholders to approve its acquisition of the Misfits Ads Division. The deal promises immediate EBITDA accretion, programmatic ad capabilities and a preferred partnership that taps over 100 million monthly Roblox users, positioning...
Analysts Question CDP Dominance as AI and Zero‑Copy Integration Rise
Analysts and marketers are reevaluating the supremacy of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) amid AI‑driven orchestration, zero‑copy data activation and tighter privacy rules. Zeta Global’s CTO warns static CDP software may be replaced by generative, composable interfaces by 2026, signaling a...
Google Uses Gemini AI to Block 8.3 Billion Harmful Ads, 99% Stopped Before Running
Google announced that its Gemini‑powered AI system blocked more than 8.3 billion harmful ads in 2025, stopping 99% before they reached users. The sweep also suspended 24.9 million advertiser accounts and removed 191.9 million ads in Indonesia, setting a new benchmark for AI‑driven...
Start with a Deep Marketing Audit for Real Opportunities
Here's what a Fractional CMO Partnership with me actually looks like: 🧵 1. We start with a full marketing audit. I go deep on everything: your ecosystem, your messaging, your data, your team setup. I want to know what's working, what's...
More Brands Employing Affiliate and Partnership Marketing: IAB State of Nation Report
The IAB Australia released its 2026 Affiliate and Partnership Marketing State of the Nation Report, showing that affiliate programs are delivering strong commercial results for brands and agencies. Forty‑two percent of advertisers increased their affiliate spend over the past year,...
Your Personal Brand Is Today's Most Valuable Business
The best business you can build right now is your personal brand. Agree or disagree?
Google’s Jan 20 Update Cracked AI‑Heavy SaaS Blogs
The Jan 20 Google update was the most interesting update of the year for me so far (I’m still working on March Core analysis btw 🥵) Still finding new examples that all match the same patterns. A few things seemed to...
Podcast Distribution Strategy: How To Reach More Listeners
A podcast distribution strategy is a three‑layer system—technical hosting, platform reach, and active promotion—that turns a simple RSS upload into a scalable marketing channel. The guide stresses validating the RSS feed and metadata before submitting to major directories such as...
Complex SEO Lets Ineffective Tactics Still Succeed
Google's @johnmu says since SEO is so complex, you can still do a lot of SEO that does not work and still do okay https://t.co/GdDY0OVDPW https://t.co/yqJnuS4xN3
Top Shopify Stores Master Either Drops or Subscriptions
Looking at our 8-figure client stores on @Shopify, they're all very different product categories, but they've either mastered product drops OR subscription retention. One of the two, always.
Latina Poets Turn Instagram Into Publishing Powerhouse
Instagram poet Yesika Salgado, with 170,000 followers, leveraged social media to land a bestseller debut and spark a wave of Latino voices online. Scholars say the shift is redefining how poetry reaches young readers and diversifying the publishing pipeline.
Adobe Unveils CX Enterprise, an AI‑Driven Platform to Orchestrate Customer‑Experience Workflows
Adobe announced CX Enterprise at its Summit conference, a new end‑to‑end AI platform that coordinates agents across the entire customer lifecycle. The suite, built on Adobe Experience Platform’s trillion‑experience data layer, promises sales and marketing teams a single governance layer...
AI‑Driven SEO and Shopping Agents Promise Fully Automated Product Discovery and Content Creation
Two AI-powered solutions unveiled in the past 24 hours aim to overhaul demand generation. Md Ismail Sojal introduced an end‑to‑end SEO and content production system that claims to run with minimal human input, while Search Engine Journal highlighted AI shopping agents that...
Treasure AI Launches Agentic Marketing Platform to Cut Costs up to 50% for E‑Commerce Brands
Treasure AI announced an agentic experience platform that automates customer engagement for digital commerce brands. The solution claims to lower marketing costs by as much as 50% and deliver ten‑fold ROI in ten minutes, positioning AI as the primary interface...
ACKO Appoints Nitin Khanna as CMO to Steer Brand and Growth
ACKO has elevated Nitin Khanna to chief marketing officer, succeeding Ashish Mishra who is leaving after nearly six years. Khanna, a 15‑year marketing veteran, will now lead brand strategy, consumer outreach and growth marketing as the company expands its digital...
DoubleVerify Unveils DV AI SlopStopper™ for Social to Fight AI‑Generated Ad Fraud
DoubleVerify announced the launch of DV AI SlopStopper™ for Social, extending its DV AI Verification suite to detect AI‑generated low‑quality content on social and video platforms. The service aims to safeguard brand safety and improve ad‑spend efficiency amid a surge...
Anthropic Unveils Claude Design, AI Tool Targeting Designers and Marketers
Anthropic released Claude Design, an AI‑powered visual creation platform for prototypes, presentations and marketing assets. Available in research preview for paid Claude subscribers, the tool leverages the new Claude Opus 4.7 vision model and automatically applies a company’s design system....
OMO Australia Teams up with Arsenal’s Aussie Footballers to Champion Outdoor Play and Tackle the ‘Gender Activity Gap’ in New...
OMO Australia has joined forces with Arsenal Women’s Football Club to launch the "It Starts Outside" campaign, part of Unilever’s Dirt Is Good platform. The initiative spotlights Australian football stars Kyra Cooney‑Cross, Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord, urging parents to...
Royale Rolls Out Brand Platform ‘There for All’
Royale, Canada’s leading paper‑product brand, unveiled its new brand platform “There for All.” The campaign positions the brand as an irreplaceable part of everyday Canadian life, linking its products to intimate moments such as wiping tears or cleaning spills. A...
Stern+: How One of Germany’s Biggest Magazine Brands Rebuilt a Subscription Business From Scratch
German publisher RTL Deutschland rebuilt its digital subscription arm, stern+, from a seven‑person team to nearly 100 staff focused on product, data, engineering and marketing. The rollout introduced weekly pricing, personalized trial offers and a dynamic paywall that tailors free...
Scape Turns Student-Inspired Stories Into National Campaign via Jane Doe Creation
Jane Doe Creation launched “You Had To Be There,” an integrated campaign for Scape that turns student‑inspired moments into national brand storytelling across YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Meta, Reddit and out‑of‑home. The mixed‑media films showcase everyday campus connections, from hallway greetings to shared...
From Testing to Scaling: Building a Sustainable TikTok Ads Strategy for Ecommerce
The article outlines a repeatable framework for ecommerce brands to move from isolated TikTok test wins to sustainable, high‑volume scaling. It stresses that creative fatigue, account instability, and poor campaign architecture cause performance plateaus once spend reaches $5K‑$20K per month....
Semrush Launches a Framework for Measuring Brand Visibility in AI Search as the Old SEO Playbook Breaks Down
Semrush unveiled a Brand Visibility Framework at Adobe Summit, introducing “Agentic Search Optimisation” to measure brand presence across AI‑generated answers, traditional search, and autonomous agents. The model draws on more than 213 million LLM prompts and highlights that organic click‑through rates...
Youth Off The Streets Shows Cascading Effect of Tiny Gestures in Campaign via Innocean + PHD
Youth Off The Streets launched a new campaign with Innocean Australia, PHD Media and UnLtd to illustrate how tiny gestures can transform the lives of at‑risk youth. The ads feature real stories of Layla, who escaped domestic violence and now...
How Adidas Used ’90s Rock Legends Oasis to Engineer a $2.4 Billion Comeback
Adidas revived its fortunes by pairing heritage with culture, launching the Original Forever collection with 1990s rock icons Oasis. The limited‑edition 24‑piece line sold out at a rate of one transaction per second and sparked secondary‑market premiums. The collaboration helped...
TV Marketing Matters for Branding Boost at Batteries Plus
Batteries Plus is leaning heavily on television advertising to lift brand awareness, dedicating roughly a quarter of its paid media budget to TV. For its 2026 "Experts in Charge" campaign, the retailer shifted to lower‑cost cable inventory, allowing more frequent,...
Focus on 1‑3 Core Strategies, Not Every Channel
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but your marketing doesn't have to touch every channel to be effective. Pick the 1 to 3 strategies that drive most of your growth and come naturally to you. Make sure they...
AI Traffic: From Worst Customer to Top Performer
A Year Ago AI Traffic Was Your Worst Customer. Now It Is Your Best. https://t.co/xQGflQOMl2
Unified Hub Links Agents to SMB Ad & Analytics Tools
What is the best platform for connecting agents to the everyday systems needed by SMBs? Eg support for Google and Meta ads and analytics