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.
PayPal Ads ID Launches To Match Online Users With Likely Sales
PayPal announced PayPal Ads ID, a new advertising service that matches online users with likely purchasers using verified commerce relationships from PayPal and Venmo. The platform leverages data from more than 25 billion transactions across 400 million users to create a commerce‑grade identity layer for marketers. Early adopters such as Magnite, PubMatic, Rokt and Taboola are testing the service. PayPal says the data is encrypted, aggregated and de‑identified, giving users control over participation.
Turn PDFs Into AI‑ready DESIGN.md for Consistent Branding
Your brand guidelines live in a PDF nobody opens. Your AI agents can't read it either. So every ad, every deck, every landing page. Your tools are guessing. Freelancers reinterpreting your voice. Junior designers eyeballing hex codes. Slack threads about whether...
Day One Agency Debuts Side Projects To Aid Brands' Cultural Impact
Day One Agency has launched Side Projects, a new studio that treats critical thinking, writing and editorial point‑of‑view as competitive advantages for brands in an AI‑driven market. Led by strategy director Eli Williams and editorial director Clara Malley, the unit offers newsletters,...
Johannes Leonardo Serves Up On The Rocks
On The Rocks has expanded its “Make it a Cocktail” campaign with two new ready‑to‑drink margaritas—Passion Fruit Margarita and Sparkling Watermelon Margarita—both made with Hornitos tequila. The creative, developed by Johannes Leonardo, will run on OLV and paid‑social channels, emphasizing...
GenAI Citations, Explained
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and others now attach source links—called citations—to their answers. The article reveals that Google powers citations for ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode and Grok, while Brave supplies citations for Claude and Perplexity, making high...
Food Lion Pulls Back the Curtain on Its Loyalty Program
Food Lion’s MVP loyalty program has become a cornerstone of the chain’s recent growth, helping it achieve 53 consecutive quarters of comparable‑store sales expansion. The program now serves over 1 million monthly active customers, delivering personalized discounts automatically at checkout and...
Make Your Site Visible to AI with Structured Data
AI agents don't "read" your homepage. They scan your code. If they can't pull clean, structured info in seconds, you're invisible. 5 things you need to help AI find you: 1. Schema markup 2. Clear copy, no fluff, just say what you mean 3....
Mom Guilt, Husband Playbooks -- And A $38B Holiday
Mother’s Day spending is set to hit a record $38 billion, up from $34.1 billion last year, with the average consumer planning to spend $284.25. Jewelry tops the gift categories, projected at $7.5 billion, while flowers are expected to generate $3.2 billion. Kay Jewelers...
Great CEOs Prioritize Brand and Long-Term Growth
From $6M to $20M at Coach. The lesson wasn’t “grow at all costs.” It was: build the right channels, protect the brand, and resist short-term pressure. Great CEOs don’t just accelerate growth. They defend the long game when owners want the short one. #Kaihan #Outthinker...
AI's Trust Crisis: Leaders Must Rebrand Now
Fear is rising. Trust is falling. And the AI industry has no one to blame but itself. AI leaders like Dario, Sam, Zuck, and Mustafa can do something about it. https://briansolis.substack.com/p/ai-has-a-branding-problem-ai-native
POWR Punches Well Above Its Weight and Goes Hard on Dirt
POWR, the new home‑care brand created from the merger of BRAUZZ and Klaar, debuted with a bold visual identity crafted by design agency WeWantMore. The branding leans into bright colors, expressive typography, and playful photography to signal that its sustainable...
Suicide Prevention Charity Rebrands
Papyrus, the UK suicide‑prevention charity behind the 24‑hour HopeLine helpline, has unveiled a new visual identity aimed at children and young people. The refreshed logo keeps the speech‑bubble motif but adds a brighter purple‑green palette and a modern font. Alongside...
How F2F Delivered 1000 + Recurring Customers in 100 Days
Credico partnered with a UK firm to build a face‑to‑face acquisition programme from scratch, delivering over 1,000 recurring customers in just 90 days. The initiative embedded consent, data‑handling, compliance and governance processes from day one, allowing rapid growth without operational...
Audion Raises $15m for US Expansion & Global Scaling of AI-Based ‘Performance Audio’ Tool
Audion announced a $15 million Series B round led by Elevation Capital, Founders Future and Bpifrance to fund its U.S. launch and accelerate its Audion AI platform. The AI‑driven tool automates audience targeting, creative generation and continuous optimisation for audio ads, positioning audio...
ICYMI: Library Social — the Full Transcript
The Library Social Strategy newsletter released a full, unedited transcript featuring four library social‑media leaders—Keith Kesler (LA Public Library), Jasmine Argent (City of Marion Libraries), Fawn Siemsen‑Fuchs (Milwaukee Public Library) and Grayson Kelly (Columbus Metropolitan Library). Their responses reveal practical...
Bold Pricing and Mystery Beat Taste in Branding
When Dietrich Mateschitz launched Red Bull, early taste tests were a disaster. People hated the flavor. His response: "Taste is of no importance whatsoever." He priced it at $2/can when everything else was $0.50-$0.75. Wanted to CREATE a new category above the...
Choosing Principles Over Platform: Skipping X for App Promotion
So Claude is saying if I really want to promote my app, I need to be over on X… I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’d rather get fewer downloads than support that platform or that dude. (Totally acknowledge...
Remember New Coke?
In 1985 Coca‑Cola introduced New Coke to counter Pepsi’s surge, but the formula change was driven by internal business pressure rather than consumer demand, sparking a public backlash. The author draws a parallel to today’s rapid AI adoption, where many...
Shin Ramyun Boosts Sales with Localized Flavors for Japan, Driving 26% Export Surge
South Korea's flagship instant‑noodle brand Shin Ramyun has rolled out Japan‑specific flavors and larger topping packs, helping instant‑noodle exports climb 26% YoY to $435 million in Q1. The move pushed overseas revenue past $670 million, underscoring the power of product localization in...
Mobile Measurement Providers Explained: An Attribution Guide for Mobile Marketers
Mobile measurement partners (MMPs) provide a unified, privacy‑first attribution layer that links every marketing touchpoint to app installs and in‑app events. They blend deterministic device‑ID matching with probabilistic modeling to maintain accuracy despite Apple’s SKAdNetwork and GDPR constraints. Integrated fraud...
Truecaller’s Growth Slows as CNAP and Platform Spam Blockers Bite
Truecaller, the caller‑ID app with over 500 million users, reported a 16% year‑over‑year decline in Indian downloads and a 5% global dip in 2025, while its stock has fallen 78% since its 2021 IPO. The slowdown coincides with telecom‑led CNAP rollout...
Publicis Groupe APAC Launches AI Development Hub in Singapore to Upskill Marketers
Publicis Groupe APAC has opened an AI Development Hub in Singapore, backed by the Singapore Economic Development Board, to train talent and build AI‑driven marketing tools. The centre targets a 20‑30% cut in manual campaign time and will support capabilities...
Amazon Launches Creator‑centric Podcast Strategy to Monetize All Audio Content
Amazon has overhauled its podcast operation, cutting more than 100 Wondery jobs and forming a Creator Services unit that pairs on‑camera talent with commerce. The move aims to monetize podcasts beyond ads, using merchandise, video, and product recommendations, signaling a...
Programmatic Ads for Retail: Best Practices for Scalable Growth
Programmatic advertising is emerging as a scalable, data‑driven channel for retail brands seeking new‑to‑brand customers and omnichannel growth. The guide explains how demand‑side platforms automate real‑time bidding across the open web, apps, and connected TV, and contrasts off‑site programmatic with...
Traffic’s High, Sales Low? Fix the Conversion Leak
You’re getting traffic But not getting sales That’s not a reach problem That’s a conversion leak
Angry Chickz VP Tonya McCoy Fuels 63% Sales Surge with Data‑first Marketing
Tonya McCoy, Vice President of Marketing for the Angry Chickz franchise, has leveraged data‑driven tactics to lift territory unit sales by 63% and oversee multi‑million‑dollar marketing budgets. Her 28‑year food‑service marketing career underscores Angry Chickz’s people‑first, performance‑focused culture.
Full-Funnel B2B Lead Generation in IoT: Combining SEO and Cold Outreach
B2B marketers are urged to run SEO and cold‑email outreach together rather than choosing one. The guide highlights that SEO‑generated leads close at 14.6%—nearly nine times outbound rates—and cost far less, while well‑targeted cold email can fill the pipeline within...
Camera Talk Offers Unique Impact Beyond Trends
I've been telling people to get on camera for years. Before AI was here to help... Before the "carousels are popping off" era... Before "yap content" became a trend... Not because some algorithm demanded it, because I could see that talking to the camera...
Advertisers Are Flying Blind on ChatGPT Ads — Adthena Wants to Change That
Adthena unveiled ChatGPT AdBridge, a tool that transforms existing Google Ads accounts into ready‑to‑run ChatGPT advertising campaigns. The platform automatically generates keyword and negative lists and surfaces competitive brand data, while its AI assistant Arlo enables side‑by‑side performance comparisons. Early...
Pinterest Is Ready For Its CTV Debut
Pinterest closed its acquisition of tvScientific in February and has begun feeding its CTV platform with Pinterest’s audience data, enabling advertisers to target Pinterest users on connected‑TV devices. This integration marks the first time the visual‑search platform’s high‑intent audience can...
Predictive Analysis And Performance Go Hand In Hand
At the POSSIBLE conference, Nielsen introduced Predictive Sales Lift, an outcomes‑based tool that forecasts sales lift and incremental revenue for video ad campaigns on its Nielsen One Ads platform. The solution, initially available in the U.S. next month for connected...
Pub.Call: Need Revenue Now? Make Q2 Your New Q4
Publishers facing immediate revenue pressure are being urged to execute fast‑track monetization ideas that can launch in days, not months. The Pub.Call highlighted shifting from page‑level RPM to revenue‑per‑session metrics, using AI, web‑push, and refresh‑economics to extract more value from...
Ryoken Instinct Gets a Monochromatic, Personality-Driven Identity
Ryoken Instinct, a premium dog‑food brand, has unveiled a new monochromatic, personality‑driven packaging system designed by Planet People Studio. The redesign features geometric animal icons for each protein source and a streetwear‑inspired wolf badge within a shield. This visual overhaul...
Metricool’s Free Social Media School Bets That Strategy Beats Trial and Error
Metricool has relaunched its free Social Media School, a six‑module, self‑paced curriculum that has already attracted more than 10,000 learners. The redesign embeds all instructions within the course, eliminating disruptive external links, and culminates in a downloadable strategy template. Modules...
Netflix to Roll Out Vertical Video Feed, AI Recommendations in Mobile Redesign
Netflix announced a mobile redesign that will introduce a vertical video discovery feed by the end of April, expanding its catalog to include video podcasts. The overhaul also incorporates new generative AI models to sharpen content recommendations and enable advanced...
TikTok Tests Hotel Metasearch Cards That Redirect Users to Expedia, Booking.com
TikTok is beta‑testing hotel metasearch cards that appear in users' For You feeds and link directly to major online travel agencies such as Expedia, Booking.com and Trip.com. The cards display a property photo, name and real‑time rate options, with a...
Spend $1,500, Earn $20M: Email Playbook Free
In 2021, I was terrified of spending $1,500 on a single email marketing course. Thought it'd be a complete money bonfire. But that 1 investment helped me: • Sell to 10,000+ customers • Generate over $20,000,000 in revenue • Build a digital business so...
IAS LAUNCHES IAS TOTAL TV SOLUTIONS GIVING MARKETERS ‘LINEAR-LIKE’ TRANSPARENCY FOR CONNECTED TV
Integral Ad Science (IAS) unveiled IAS Total TV, a suite that brings linear‑TV‑style transparency to the fragmented Connected TV (CTV) ecosystem. The platform delivers real‑time, show‑level insights across major streaming services such as Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Prime Video, while...
AI Writes Personalized B2B Cold Emails That Get Replies
I built a skill that writes B2B cold emails that actually get replies — personalized openers, value-driven body copy, and multi-touch follow-up sequences. You give it who you're writing to, what you want, and your proof point. It writes emails that...
43 Backlinks Every Founder Should Chase Before AI Overviews Eat Their Traffic
In May 2024 Google launched AI Overviews, a feature that now dominates organic search results and has precipitated a structural collapse of traffic for content publishers and SaaS firms. NP Digital’s 2026 study of 200 companies attributes 92% of the...
Microsoft Adds Contextual Offer Highlights to Copilot Ads
Offer Highlights in Copilot -> Microsoft Merchant Center Now Supports 'Highlights for Copilot' From Microsoft Ads: "We’re introducing Offer Highlights, new ad experiences that enable brands to promote key product differentiators within the context of Copilot conversations. More than showing traditional...
Employee Ownership, Transparency, and AI Reshape Media Strategy
Scott Ensign, Chief Strategy Officer at @ButlerTill, joins AdTechGod to share how employee ownership, transparency, and AI-driven innovation are reshaping media strategy and building real trust with clients. https://t.co/ybCRoI1mJY
Whitworths Launches the UK’s Biggest Nutrition Campaign
Whitworths is rolling out the United Kingdom’s biggest nutrition campaign in May, backed by a multi‑million‑pound (≈ $2.5 million) investment. The initiative combines a nationwide video‑on‑demand push, PR, outdoor, social media and in‑store sampling from May through September to promote nuts,...
SEO Now Rewards Quotable Answers, Not Just Rankings
SEO has evolved. Before: page 1 rankings Now: being quoted in the answer What works now: • quotable content • question-based pages • clear structure • real insights only you have Buyers read summaries first. Be the answer, not just another link. https://t.co/e4BBWK0fKQ
FanDuel Vows Marketing Boost as It Lags Prediction Markets
"FanDuel executives promise more is on the way, including a big marketing push tied to World Cup soccer in June and the coming NFL season." FanDuel Is Playing Catch-Up on Prediction Markets https://t.co/UywIDexI7O
Kriti Sanon Turns ‘SPF Police’ in Hyphen’s New Ad
Hyphen launched a new campaign featuring actress‑entrepreneur Kriti Sanon as the whimsical “SPF Police,” reinforcing sunscreen as a daily habit. The short film shows Sanon stopping a gym‑goer from leaving without sunscreen, while Blinkit appears to deliver the product instantly...
Google AI Clicks Surge Amid Spam Report Changes
It's New 4/27 - Google AI Overview clicks increasing reports @gregfinn, Spam Reports changes again (are you confused) @TheMarketingAnu on the Google Ads Demand Gen delays @mordyoberstein loves fewer clicks from Bing and and do you like the Google Ads...
Buyers Research Anonymously; Your Pipeline Depends on Visibility
Reddit’s search visibility increased 1,328% in a single year. 72% of tech decision-makers use it for peer reviews. 70% of the B2B buying journey happens anonymously. Translation: Your buyers are researching without you. The dark funnel is not a theory. It’s your pipeline. https://t.co/ZgadEGZsvg
TikTok Campaign Shows How Brands Turn Reach Into Real Traffic
A TikTok campaign for pet‑care franchise Camp Bow Wow, run with Scorpion, proved that native, lo‑fi creative paired with interest‑based targeting can drive measurable traffic at scale. The effort generated 23,000 landing‑page views at $2.01 each, over 50,000 clicks at...
Let Meta’s Algorithm Choose, Stop Manual Ad Forcing
“Still forcing Meta to spend on your ‘favorite’ ads? Yeah… that’s probably the problem.” This episode breaks down why the best media buyers in 2026 are doing the opposite and letting the algorithm lead. Take a listen: https://t.co/EujE658OFq