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.
Lynn Dauwe and Evelyne Bardyn on Flanders, Heritage and Impact-Driven Conferences
VISITFLANDERS officials Lynn Dauwe and Evelyne Bardyn outlined how Flanders is reshaping its place brand around the "Travel to Tomorrow" strategy, emphasizing inclusive, sustainable tourism and heritage‑driven experiences. The Flanders Convention Bureau is positioning conferences as catalysts that connect international associations with local universities, research centres, and industry clusters. Initiatives such as the Heritage Venues network, the "Selfie for All" accessibility project, and digital "Flemish Masters" programmes illustrate the blend of culture, innovation, and impact‑focused event design. The interview highlights a forward‑looking vision that seeks lasting economic and social value beyond visitor numbers.
How to Create Content AI Can’t Replicate
Kate Rourke warns that marketers risk disappearing into a sea of AI‑generated sameness unless they prioritize authentic, human‑centric briefs. She notes that most briefs now explicitly request real people and raw, unfiltered moments, because audiences crave unpredictable emotion. By anchoring...
Tesla Offers Free Supercharging for a Year on Its Electric Sedan
Tesla announced a new promotion that grants up to one year of free Supercharging to buyers of the Model 3 Premium or Performance in the United States. The offer follows recent incentives such as a $2,000 (≈$1,300 USD) trade‑in bonus and extended...
Street Releases “Game-Changer” AI Tool for Estate Agents
Proptech firm Street has launched Cortex, an AI‑driven customer interface that drafts personalized emails for every client in an agent’s database and replies automatically. The tool also extracts key information to update records and can schedule property viewings without human...
Vaseline Wants to Protect Your Nipples
Vaseline stepped into the 2026 TCS London Marathon as the "Official nipple protector," turning its long‑standing "safe from the chafe" claim into a high‑visibility activation. The brand set up "Nip stops" along the 26.2‑mile course and distributed petroleum jelly to...
BoF Professional Masterclass | How to Build a Forever Beauty Brand
The Business of Fashion’s Professional Masterclass on May 6 will dissect how to build a forever beauty brand, focusing on customer clarity and product differentiation. The session features Daniela Morosini and a panel of experts who share tactics for scaling beyond...
Case Study | How to Build a Forever Beauty Brand
The case study examines why many hot‑trend beauty labels fade quickly and outlines a framework for building a "forever" brand. It stresses that longevity requires differentiation, consistent visual storytelling, and superior product performance rather than chasing fleeting trends. Insights from...
Three Things QVC Needs to Do Post-Bankruptcy
QVC, the 40‑year TV home‑shopping pioneer, filed for bankruptcy after sales stalled at roughly $9 billion in 2025. The company’s late entry into mobile livestreaming and a culture still anchored to cable TV left it vulnerable to digital competitors. Analysts argue...
News UK Turns The Times’ First-Party Data Into Synthetic Audiences for Advertisers
News UK has launched "Times ExplorAItion," a synthetic‑audience tool that converts The Times' first‑party subscriber data into AI‑generated audience models for advertisers. Powered by Electric Twin, the platform creates privacy‑safe, persona‑level segments that can be surveyed and tested in seconds,...
Media Buying Briefing: Agencies Turn Creators Into Test Labs for Campaigns and Product Innovation
Agencies such as Horizon Media are turning creators into live test labs, using them to pressure‑test and even shape campaign concepts and product features. SharkNinja’s partnership with Blue Hour Studios exemplifies this approach, where creator feedback informs launch strategy and...
Marketers Join OpenAI’s Ad Pilot, Nudged by FOMO
OpenAI launched a paid‑ads pilot inside ChatGPT in early February, attracting brands such as Williams‑Sonoma, Target, The Knot Worldwide, DSW and BEHR. Within six weeks the program generated an estimated $100 million annualized revenue, while ad prices fell from $60 to...
How Intercity Bus Lines Are Rebranding To Attract New Riders
State‑run intercity bus services are shedding their “last‑resort” image by adopting catchy route names, color‑coded lines and fresh visual branding. Leveraging federal marketing dollars, agencies in North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest have launched apps, videos and...
Consumer Brands Take the Leap Into Influencer Marketing
Consumer brands are moving influencer marketing from a side project to a core media channel. Vaseline’s "Vaseline Verified" effort teamed with 450 creators, racking up hundreds of millions of views and a sales lift, while the Dettol #HandWashChallenge in India...
CMOs Tread Line Between Maths and Magic
The chief marketing officer role is undergoing a structural breaking point, shifting from a pure creative steward to a hybrid leader who must master both data‑driven AI systems and brand storytelling. Executives at agencies such as RAPP, WPP and Omnicom...
Brands Look Beyond Search Engines as Customer Habits Shift
Consumers are moving from traditional search engines to AI chatbots and large‑language‑model (LLM) tools that deliver direct answers, recommendations and even purchases. Brands now face a dual challenge: influencing the data that trains these models and optimizing content for generative‑engine...
Marketers Tackle Risks and Opportunities on Social Media
Social media remains essential for advertisers, but recent moderation rollbacks at Meta and X have heightened brand‑safety risks. Marketers are feeling pressure from geopolitical instability and inflation to prove return on ad spend, prompting a shift toward tighter campaign execution....
Creator‑run Ads Slash CPA and Boost CTR
Partnership Ads are quietly becoming one of the highest-leverage easy changes in our clients' accounts. Same creative. Same offer. Same landing page. The only difference: running from the creator's handle instead of the brand's. The results across our book: > 19-30% lower CPAs (on...
Your Favorite Brands Got Worse On Purpose
Authentic Brands Group (ABG) has built a $20 billion valuation by buying distressed iconic trademarks—such as Brooks Brothers, Champion, Eddie Bauer and Sports Illustrated—and licensing them to third‑party manufacturers. The company never designs or makes the products, instead collecting royalties while the...
How Do Digital Marketing Agencies Help Home Maintenance Businesses Generate Leads and Increase Bookings?
Home maintenance firms—plumbers, electricians, handymen—are missing leads because they lack a robust online presence. Digital marketing agencies fill that gap by deploying local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, paid search, and social media tactics that drive measurable enquiries and bookings....
Human Security Extends Agentic Visibility to Marketing, Integrates with Adobe Experience Platform
Human Security announced on April 21, 2026 that its Agentic Visibility capabilities are now available to marketing and commerce teams, delivering AI‑agent analytics natively within Adobe Experience Platform. The move addresses a widening gap as AI‑driven traffic grows eight‑fold faster...
Abbott Elevates Jenil Sheth to Head of Marketing, Boosting Healthcare Brand Strategy
Abbott has promoted Jenil Sheth to Head of Marketing, tasking him with steering brand and growth programs across its therapeutic and consumer health portfolios. Sheth brings more than eight years at Abbott and a deep pharmaceutical background, positioning the company...
Commerce Media Awards Spotlight Growth, Fragmentation and Trust Challenges
The Drum’s first live Commerce Media Awards in Miami brought industry leaders together to flag growth as the sector’s toughest test. Executives warned that rapid expansion is creating fragmentation, while a lack of uniform measurement erodes trust and hampers accountability.
Hershey Deploys Real-Time AI Marketing Mix Model to Optimize Media Spend
Hershey announced that its AI-enabled marketing mix model will go live in May, giving the company real‑time visibility into sales and media performance. The system replaces a three‑times‑yearly planning cycle with monthly updates, ingesting hundreds of thousands of data points...
Boost Sales Fast with Referral Discounts and Tiered Rewards
Instant way to increase your digital product sales via referral: 1. Find a way to encourage people to talk about your product in public 2. Send a 50% off code to everyone who buys and say forward it to a friend 3. Create...
Orchestrate Wins Instead of Simply Assigning Leads
Stop Assigning Leads and Start Orchestrating Wins by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/EPkP2rwW2G @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeader #Salesforce #SalesEnablement #RevOps #Marketing #Leadership #MarketingStrategy #MarketingSuccess https://t.co/eQPbIaFMAE
Marketing in the Age of AI with Adobe Enterprise CMO, Rachel Thornton
In this episode of Uncensored CMO, Adobe Enterprise CMO Rachel Thornton discusses how Adobe approaches B2B marketing, the importance of brand storytelling in long enterprise buying cycles, and the transformative role of AI. She emphasizes that successful B2B marketers must...
CFX Download Talks Rebrand
Cablefax officially rebranded as CFX this month, launching a new identity for its telecom news platform. In the latest CFX Download episode, the editorial team explained why the change was timely and how the new name aligns with an evolving...
Two Years without Cookies on the Site, Here's Where We Ended Up
Two years after stripping all advertising cookies, Sentry re‑engineered its growth engine around brand awareness, allocating roughly 70% of its budget to channels that build visibility rather than direct response. The company invested in high‑impact placements such as a multi‑year...
Adding Extra Attribution Cuts CPM 27% and CPA 13%
We ran a massive A/B test over the last 3-4 weeks to test the change in attribution and its impact across accounts. Roughly $500K in spend across 11 brands in different vertices / AOV. What we found: 7DC vs 7DC/1DE/1DV CPM: Showed an average...
What Is Marketing Data Integration? How To Use Marketing Data
Marketing data integration consolidates information from social, web, and ad platforms into a single source of truth, letting marketers see what happens after a click. By unifying first‑, second‑, third‑, and zero‑party data, businesses can compare channel performance, identify cross‑sell...
Track These KPIs to Optimize Advisor Marketing
KPIs To Track Your Advisor Marketing And Figure Out What’s Actually Working (Or Not) ➡️https://t.co/TeVwq694l5 Advicers can't improve their business development efforts if they don't first measure them: -5 Data Points To Measure Advisor Marketing Activity -7 Data Points To Track In...
Adobe (ADBE) Announces Upgrades to GenStudio
Adobe Inc. announced major upgrades to its AI-driven GenStudio platform, introducing an agentic content supply chain that automates planning, reviews, and delivery for over 20,000 brands. New features include brand intelligence, workflow‑optimization agents, and creative production automation designed to eliminate...
Media OutReach Newswire Appoints Pamela Phua as Managing Partner, Southeast Asia to Champion Singapore and Southeast Asian Brand Expansion Into...
Media OutReach Newswire has named Pamela Phua as Managing Partner for Southeast Asia, a role created to accelerate the company’s growth across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Phua brings more than 20 years of agency and in‑house...
Build Your Online Presence Before Google Finds You
When someone Googles your name, what comes up is your real application. Build that before someone starts looking. A quiet Google result is a missed opportunity every single time.
TikTok Lets Users Add Relevant Keywords to Metadata
TikTok introduced a metadata tool that lets creators edit the keywords attached to their videos. The interface displays automatically generated tags based on popular searches, and creators can block irrelevant terms or suggest more accurate ones. TikTok retains final oversight...
Instagram Brings Simplified AI Video to Edits
Instagram has added generative AI video creation to its Edits feature, allowing users to produce short clips from text prompts, photos or existing videos without recording. The tool is accessed via the plus icon and AI option within the editing...
Michelin Guide Expands to Six Midwestern Cities, Leaves Cincinnati Out
Michelin announced its American Great Lakes edition, covering six Midwestern cities and Pittsburgh, with Minneapolis paying $250,000 a year and Cleveland $150,000. Cincinnati was left off the list after a missed email, spurring a campaign by Visit Cincy to secure...
Adobe Unveils Autonomous AI Agents at Summit to Automate Marketing Campaigns
Adobe announced at its 2026 Summit a suite of autonomous AI agents—including Firefly AI Assistant and CX Enterprise Coworker—designed to orchestrate end‑to‑end marketing campaigns. The rollout comes as CEO Shantanu Narayen prepares to leave after 18 years, positioning Adobe as...
Matt Gibson Appointed Vice President of Marketing at Mohawk Industries
Matt Gibson has been named Vice President of Marketing at Mohawk Industries, the global flooring manufacturer. Gibson brings more than 17 years of senior marketing and sales leadership from Cornerstone Building Brands and CertainTeed. His appointment signals Mohawk’s push to...
Traction Stalls when Clarity, Not Creativity, Is Missing
A year of effort with no traction is almost never a creativity problem. It's a clarity problem. Who are you for? What do you stand for? Most people skip that work and go straight to content. You can't build on...
Meta Adds Paid Partnership Label and Richer Metrics to Instagram APIs, Boosting Brand Automation
Meta announced expanded Instagram Management APIs that let third‑party tools add paid‑partnership disclosure labels at publish time, pull richer engagement metrics and manage collaborative media. The changes aim to cut manual handoffs for brands, agencies and creators, giving marketers a...
Instagram Improves Insights UI, Adds New Metrics
Instagram rolled out a refreshed Insights interface that places key performance metrics directly on the home screen. New tabs let creators quickly view engagement activity, audience demographics, share and skip‑rate percentages, and a views‑over‑time chart for posts and Reels. The...
Ecommerce LLM Visibility: PR & Influencer Guide
E‑commerce brands are facing an "Empty Digital Shelf" as generative AI assistants replace traditional search results, leaving many products invisible to high‑intent shoppers. The article introduces Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), a strategy that prioritizes off‑site consensus—PR mentions, influencer content, and...
Optimove Insights: Nearly Half of Mother's Day Shoppers Use AI Tools, and 64% Are Open to Buying From a Brand...
Optimove’s 2026 Mother’s Day Shopping Report finds that 49% of U.S. shoppers use AI tools to discover gift ideas, while 64% are open to buying from a brand they have never tried. The study of 648 consumers with incomes above...
AI Replaces $8K Agency in One Weekend
i fired a $8K/month agency last tuesday and replaced everything they did with 3 AI systems i built myself in a weekend. the agency was doing: - content repurposing - email sequences - social scheduling now it's automated. better quality but zero back-and-forth. the agency...
Corporate Branding and PR Are Dying
The end of corporate branding and PR as we know it! by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/W6EXcyEdS5 @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeader #Salesforce #Leadership #PublicRelations #PR #Marketing #MarketingSuccess #MarketingStrategy #MarketingTips https://t.co/xEdypfBhY9
Adidas Beats Nike's Sub‑2‑Hour Marathon Hype
Smart take filed in, coincidentally, under two hours 👇 Nike Marketed a Sub-2-Hour Marathon. Adidas Just Did It https://t.co/ETYuyINVWf via @sportico @germanotes
Engage with Your Content or Lose Prospects
If you don't want to engage with your content, your prospects probably won't either @TBorreson11 https://t.co/goh06qr7OA #personalbranding #networking #community #digitaltransformation #digitalmarketing #digitalselling #socialselling #belonging #culture #customerexperience https://t.co/HcG8mAW2as
AI Boosts Sales Team ROI in One Quarter
How using our AI in your sales team will enable in quarter ROI by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/PpReNOP75Z @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeader #Salesforce #SalesEnablement #Marketing #Leadership #MarketingStrategy #ArtificialIntelligence https://t.co/Xe8JA0vesa
True Topical Maps Show Page Linking, Not Keyword Lists
Most "topical maps" are just keyword lists in a spreadsheet. A real one tells you which page links to which, in what order, with what anchor. If yours doesn't show the wiring, you aren't there yet.