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.
Searchlight's Thriller 'The Menu' Launches in Philippine Theaters
Searchlight Pictures' dark comedy horror 'The Menu' is now playing in cinemas across the Philippines. The film, directed by Mark Mylod and starring Anya Taylor‑Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes, arrives with a localized social‑media push and marks the latest step in the movie’s international distribution.
Print Book Sales Rise 0.5% in 2025, Boosting Brick‑and‑Mortar Stores
Publishers Weekly says print book unit sales grew 0.5% in 2025 to 762.4 million, ending two years of decline. The rebound is credited to BookTok’s influence and is reviving brick‑and‑mortar retailers, with Barnes & Noble planning 60 new stores in 2026.
AI Shopping Agents Redefine Retail Checkout Across Walmart, Amazon and Google
Walmart, Amazon and Google have rolled out AI shopping agents that can search catalogs, compare options and complete purchases within a chat interface. The move, backed by OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol and Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, forces marketers to prioritize...
IHeart Exec Launches a “Conversation Company” For Podcasts and Live
iHeartMedia CMO Gayle Troberman announced the launch of Bubbler Media, a "conversation company" that blends podcasts, live experiences, and audience research to help brands engage consumers. The venture is positioned as a move beyond traditional "sae" marketing, emphasizing real‑time dialogue....
A24 Is a Billion-Dollar Brand Parading as Cinema’s Indie Darling. Here’s How It Pulls It Off
A24 has transformed from a niche indie distributor into a multi‑billion‑dollar brand by marrying venture‑capital financing with a carefully cultivated "brand aura" that blends authenticity and provocation. The studio’s success rests on meme‑friendly marketing, limited‑edition merchandise, and a digital voice...
Ad Age Crowns Rocket’s Jonathan Mildenhall 2026 CMO of the Year
Ad Age has named Rocket Co.’s chief marketing officer Jonathan Mildenhall as its 2026 CMO of the Year. Mildenhall, the only CMO honoree from Detroit, joins a roster that includes The New York Times, IKEA and L’Oréal Paris. The award underscores his...
More Frequent, Smaller Posts Beat Occasional Viral Hits
I’d rather post 10 times each week on social with each post reaching 1,000 people, rather than posting once a week and that post reaching 10,000 people. Same amount of people. Technically the same amount of engagement. Just a different frequency. At least...
DAIVID and ADIN.AI Team Up to Embed AI Creative Insights in Marketing Platforms
DAIVID has partnered with ADIN.AI to embed its AI‑driven creative effectiveness models directly into ADIN.AI’s enterprise marketing operating system. The integration lets advertisers forecast emotional and business impact of ads in seconds, enabling real‑time budget shifts and higher ROI.
Virgin Voyages Gave 1,100 TikTokers a Free Cruise. Here Are the Results
Virgin Voyages invited more than 1,100 TikTok creators on a complimentary three‑night Bahamas cruise, prompting them to produce over 17,000 videos. The content generated 108 million views and 3.8 million engagements within days, while social‑driven web traffic more than doubled. The campaign...
Buchanan’s Celebrates Latino Community, Culture Ahead of World Cup
Buchanan’s, a Diageo Scotch brand, has launched a World Cup‑centric campaign with Latin music star Rauw Alejandro, featuring his new track “Dando Vueltas.” The initiative includes a music video, a limited‑edition bottle designed with Kids of Immigrants, and the “Buchanita” cocktail served...
Overwolf Ads Launches Gamer Grid
Overwolf Ads unveiled Gamer Grid, a deterministic audience data product that combines PC gameplay behavior, hardware signals, and content consumption to identify high‑value gamers. The platform reaches over 113 million monthly gamers and offers segments refreshed in real time, enabling advertisers...
An Interview with Jillian Wheeler
Jillian Wheeler, a former creative director at CASETiFY and Sweetgreen, discusses her shift to freelance work in the latest "Conversations Behind The Campaign" interview. She shares how her business‑school marketing background informs her creative direction and brand strategy. Wheeler emphasizes...
Old SEO Mistakes Resurface in AI-Driven Search
I gave this presentation about the Helpful Content Update 2.5 years ago, a couple of months after the September 2023 update rolled out. So why am I sharing it now? Because the patterns I'm seeing right now in SEO/GEO/AEO look and...
AI Cuts Client Mockup Time From Hours to Minutes
You can use AI to make landing clients way easier. If you sell or offer email marketing, when you send a cold email, end it with a specific question. Something like "Want to see how we'd redesign your welcome series?" works....
Pete Bowen Talks About Why Google Ads Is Not Just About Clicks
Google Ads specialist Pete Bowen warns that PPC success hinges on more than clicks. He recounts a costly currency‑setting error that blew a South African client’s budget tenfold, underscoring the need for basic checklist controls. Bowen also describes “system decay,”...
Realize Gains PayPal Data, Boosting Ad Targeting
Exciting.... @PayPal and @taboola ... Our performance advertising platform, Realize, is taking another large step forward, thanks to our partnership with PayPal. As we know, unless you have unique data Claude cannot get. And unless you have unique supply Claude...
Ten Quality Affiliates Outperform Thousands of Ads
You don’t need 1,000 affiliates. You need 10 good ones. Focus on: → people already ranking on Google → creators in your niche → founders with audience One good affiliate can outperform your entire ad spend.
Google’s AI Overviews Cut Clicks Without Satisfaction Gain: Report via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
A randomized field experiment by Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon found that Google’s AI Overviews reduce organic outbound clicks by 38% on queries where they appear, while user‑reported search satisfaction remains essentially unchanged. The study used a Chrome...
Uncovering the Hidden Selection Phase: The 14x AI Citation Gap Between Branded and Unbranded Prompts.
A joint AirOps‑Foundation Marketing study examined 5.1 million AI‑generated responses for 50 B2B brands across seven verticals. Overall, only 10.15 % of citations in those responses linked to brand‑owned domains, and the figure plummets to just 2.2 % for unbranded, early‑stage queries. Branded...
I Replaced My $5k SDR with a $22 N8n Script. (JSON Blueprint Inside)
Founder Patrick of ApexQuant swapped a $5,000 sales development rep for a $22 monthly n8n workflow that automates lead capture, qualification, and phone outreach. The no‑code pipeline uses Cohere for semantic embeddings, Pinecone to filter ideal customers, Hugging Face to...
🎙️ Podcast Description Generator (Write One That Actually Gets Clicks)
Liam Austin’s post spotlights a common podcast pitfall: descriptions that sell the host instead of the listener, often vague, overly long, or self‑focused. He demonstrates how those flaws cost clicks before a single play. By swapping bland copy for specific...
Auto‑Generate SEO Q&A Briefs Directly to Your Site
I’ve built a new section in Roborank called "GEO" Briefs. It pulls every question query from your Search Console (anything starting with how, what, why, best, vs) and groups them by the page that’s already ranking. Then...
Google Warns Back‑button Hijackers: Fix by June 15 2026
Here we go. Google has started sending out emails to sites that are actively hijacking the back button. It's a warning with sample urls, links to the blog post about the new spam policy, etc. Google explains it will recheck...
Retail Success Driven by by Storytelling, Experience and Community, Not Price - Report
Cushman & Wakefield’s ‘Voices of Retail’ report finds independent stores that invest in brand storytelling, in‑store experience and local sourcing are out‑performing price‑driven rivals. Seventy‑one percent of independents are stable or growing, and 96% of shoppers want more independents, willing to spend...
AI Empowerment in Practice: Spotlight on Retail
ALDO Group, a Canadian retailer with 1,500 stores, partnered with Five9 to replace its fragmented, on‑premises contact‑center stack with a unified AI‑powered CX platform. The migration streamlined workforce management, introduced an intelligent virtual assistant, and enabled AI‑driven insights across voice,...
AI Is Driving Customer Acquisition Costs Through the Roof. Here’s How to Get Around It.
AI-powered search overviews are intercepting traffic, causing customer acquisition costs (CAC) to climb sharply. Advertisers now see fewer direct clicks from PPC spend because users are routed through AI summaries that often feature competitors. Companies like Roof Maxx are countering...
Social Media Pros Turn $60K Into $1M
The people that can do this are rare because they have to be someone who's grown up with social media, understands whether it's horizontal or vertical on a phone, has done this before, and is willing to be compensated based...
AI Can Make Anyone An “Influencer”
Artificial intelligence tools are democratizing the influencer economy, allowing anyone to generate polished videos, photos, and captions with minimal effort. Platforms such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and synthetic‑voice services enable creators to produce content that mimics professional influencers, blurring the line...
AI Transforms One Product Into a Complete Campaign
Most people use AI to make one nice image. That’s cool. But the better use case is turning one product into a full campaign system. I gave ChatGPT a fictional coffee brand and had it build: Product shot Cafe placement Social ad Email hero Same product. Same brand. Same vibe. That’s...
Turgo Launches V2 Autonomous Marketing Platform, Slashing Campaign Setup to Minutes
Turgo unveiled its V2 Autonomous Marketing Platform, a self‑serve AI engine that runs multi‑channel campaigns from strategy to execution in four minutes. The launch, paired with an Outbound Accelerator program, follows a two‑month period in which the company doubled its...
Five9 Creates New Chief Marketing and Growth Officer Role, Hires Jay Lee
Five9 announced the creation of a Chief Marketing and Growth Officer position and appointed former Icertis and Avalara CMO Jay Lee to fill it. The new role will align the company's global marketing, revenue strategy and operations around its AI‑driven...
Mayra Contreras Returns as TEADS Mexico GM to Accelerate Omnichannel Growth
TEADS has reappointed Mayra Contreras as General Manager of its Mexico operation, tasking her with launching a new CTV offering and deepening the company's omnichannel footprint. Contreras, who previously grew the team by 110%, brings decades of tech‑media experience to...
Selfie Sticks Become Startup Must-Have as Gen Z Leverages Personal Branding
Young founders are treating selfie sticks and other personal‑branding tools as essential as seed funding, turning Instagram reels and TikTok videos into investor‑ready pitches. A wave of Gen Z entrepreneurs, spurred by a tight job market and AI‑driven hiring cuts,...
Carousel Dominance Fades; Talking‑to‑camera Content Rises
You remember when we all started HATING on 6-second b-roll videos with text on top, because they seemed to be everywhere? Yeah, I think that's why carousels have been outperforming them for around a year now. And lowkey, I think the same...
AI Scales Guerrilla Marketing for Precise Healthcare Campaigns
AI is making “guerrilla marketing” scalable in healthcare. Hyper-targeted. Measurable. Proven. Ty Allen shares what’s changed. 👇 https://t.co/KJad77QcRL @socialclimb_1 #PrecisionMarketing #hcmktg https://t.co/3bedgMnFwF
Taboola Unveils Realize+ with Claude AI Skills to Automate Open‑Web Advertising
Taboola introduced Realize+, an agentic AI system that integrates Claude Skills to automate campaign decisions and creative generation across its open‑web network. The platform’s Budget Allocator can reallocate spend in real time, aiming to boost conversion rates and reduce manual...
Q1 Brand Spend, iROAS, MER & Margin Bench
Where did brands spend their money in Q1? What was the iROAS of every channel and tactic? What about the median MER and contribution margin? Let me show you: https://t.co/U4MpMckToD
AI‑Powered Team Boosts Every Sales Opportunity
.@Salesgraph gives every rep a team of marketers, analysts, & strategists working 24/7 behind every opportunity. Automate context gathering, collateral, and strategy for sales teams. Every qualified opportunity becomes a high-touch strategic deal. Congrats on the launch, @ruhanponnada & @ricardonunez_io! https://t.co/WEFbuisjbZ
Beijing Is Using Influencers to Burnish Its Image
China is adopting a Dubai‑style influencer strategy, dubbed “Chinamaxxing,” to polish its global image. The trend gained traction after American streamer IshowSpeed’s viral 2025 China visit, prompting Western creators to showcase curated Chinese experiences. Influencers with under 10,000 followers can...
Half of Meta's $54B APAC Ad Revenue From China
Note that Meta generated $54BN from APAC *advertisers* in 2025, with estimates that Chinese advertisers accounted for roughly half of that. https://t.co/ey2WOGf5WR
Google design.md Speeds Creation, Boosts Conversions
Using Google's design.md standard will help you crank out ads, landing pages, carousels, lead magnets, etc. way faster. Build your artifacts out and then ship them yourself. Faster iterations = more conversions.
How Businesses Grow TikTok or Instagram for More Customers and Real Success
Businesses are shifting TikTok and Instagram from pure entertainment to structured lead‑generation funnels. The article outlines a four‑step funnel—attention‑grabbing video, trust‑building profile, clear call‑to‑action, and automated follow‑up—to convert viewers into paying customers. It emphasizes problem‑oriented, authority, and conversion content, data‑driven...
Postcards Earn $800K; Emails Earn Nothing
Hexclad made $800k from a single direct mail campaign by sending postcards to 21,000 email subscribers who never converted online. Meanwhile you're emailing the same unengaged list 5 times a week wondering why nobody buys. That's the gap.
Pick the Right AI: LLM, Agent, or Squad
When do you need an LLM vs an agent vs a multi-agent squad? Each is very different with diff risks, setup, and ROI. In my latest issue of Agent-Led Growth, I break down how to choose the right AI for...
The Executive Who Made Starbucks BFFs With MrBeast and Taylor Swift
Starbucks is pivoting from its traditional word‑of‑mouth model to high‑profile celebrity partnerships, enlisting Taylor Swift, Khloé Kardashian and YouTube star MrBeast. The initiative is driven by Global Chief Brand Officer Tressie Lieberman, who previously worked with CEO Brian Niccol at Chipotle, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut....
SEO Evolves: Focus on Lasting Search Traffic
SEO isn't dead. It's just different. 👀 Viral is exciting. Search is sustainable. Millions of people are searching for what you know every single day. Build content that shows up when they need it. 🎯 https://t.co/O3XyHOZ6Gz
Adobe Leverages AI Agents to Anchor Marketing Workflows
MyPOV: @Adobe bets on AI agents to stay at the center of marketing workflows https://t.co/uvSKGfvLvt @Computerworld @thematthewf “Adobe’s Summit conference this week is an evolution of vision that brings the right AI capability into the right application.” - @lizkmiller @constellationr
Diaceutics, Experian Partner to Push Diagnostic Data Into Pharma Ad Targeting
Diaceutics and Experian have teamed up to embed AI‑driven diagnostic audiences into Experian Marketing Services, letting pharma marketers tap real‑time clinical data within their existing media‑buying platforms. The integration delivers daily‑updated lab and biomarker signals, enabling clinicians to be reached...
How to Optimize Your Career Site for the AI Ecosystem
Candidates now rely on large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to locate jobs, forcing employers to rethink SEO for career sites. James Ellis advises companies to treat their career domain as a distinct entity, provide auditable claims, and...
Leapmotor Reportedly Plans Second Brand for Higher-End EV Market
Leapmotor, backed by Stellantis, announced plans to launch a new premium brand in 2027 aimed at vehicles priced above 300,000 yuan (about $44,000). The Chinese EV maker posted a net profit of 540 million yuan ($79 million) in 2025 and delivered 596,555...