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.
How Energy Medicine Yoga Reached 57% Open Rates and Simplified BIMI Implementation with EasyDMARC
Energy Medicine Yoga, a global wellness brand, partnered with EasyDMARC to overhaul its email authentication and adopt Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI). The managed BIMI service guided the non‑technical team through DMARC enforcement, VMC acquisition, logo preparation, and DNS configuration. After implementation, the company’s email open rates rose from around 40% to a peak of 57%, while the verified logo now appears in supported inboxes. The initiative secured deliverability and reinforced brand trust, directly supporting the business’s revenue‑driven email strategy.
Chanel Has a New Face and It’s Pedro Pascal
Chanel has appointed actor Pedro Pascal as its new house ambassador, cementing the brand’s ongoing partnership with high‑profile male celebrities. Pascal’s appointment follows the recent debut of designer Matthieu Blazy’s Spring 2026 collection, which featured Pascal and his sister Lux...
PayPal Goes After Streaming TV Advertisers With New Adtech Deals
PayPal is extending its advertising platform into streaming TV and the open web with a new offering called Curated Ads. The product leverages PayPal’s transaction graph to build purchase‑based audience segments that can be targeted through partnerships with Warner Bros. Discovery, Spectrum...
Radox Appoints Agency to Make Splash on Social Media
Unilever-owned personal care brand Radox has appointed global digital agency SAMY to overhaul its social media presence on Instagram and TikTok. The partnership moves the brand away from broad audience targeting toward a creator‑led, always‑on strategy that emphasizes organic content,...
Comcast’s Xfinity and Adobe Co-Innovate on Deep Brand Intelligence for Marketing Campaigns
Comcast’s Xfinity has teamed with Adobe to test Adobe Brand Intelligence, an AI‑driven solution that embeds brand governance directly into the creative production workflow. The technology aims to replace static brand guidelines with a continuously‑learning system that flags tone, visual,...
Target’s Creator Program Exit Is a Warning Shot for E-Commerce Affiliate Strategy
Target has quietly discontinued its Creator affiliate program, replacing it with a gamified nano‑influencer strategy that emphasizes smaller, community‑focused creators. The shift reflects the difficulty of scaling hybrid affiliate‑influencer models and the growing consumer preference for authentic, low‑reach recommendations. At...
Gippsland Dairy Leans Into ‘Yoghurt Trance’ via Special
Gippsland Dairy has unveiled a new brand platform called “Let The World Wait,” created with agency Special. The campaign centers on the so‑called “yoghurt trance,” a moment when consumers become fully absorbed in savoring the product. A hero film directed...
Why DMMG’s “Modern Time Out” Model Is Working in Local Media
Dont Miss Media Group (DMMG) is scaling its hyperlocal Substack newsletters across several South‑East UK towns, including Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs. The Margate edition is on track for about £85,000 ($106,000) in annual revenue, with ad inventory sold out ten...
Krispy Kreme ‘Boxes Clever’ in First Campaign by Ark
Krispy Kreme has launched its first-ever UK and Ireland brand campaign, developed by Ark, to navigate new less‑healthy food advertising restrictions. The "It could only be Krispy Kreme" campaign features two versions – one showing the doughnuts and another focusing...
Navigate Health Drives +48% Ad Revenue Growth with Opti Digital
Navigate Health partnered with ad‑tech specialist Opti Digital to overhaul its ad stack, deploying the Ad Manager Hub and Insights Hub. The integration accelerated ad call speeds, raising fast calls from 5% to 35% and cutting slow calls dramatically. Unified...
![AI Overviews & Local SEO: What Multi-Location Brands Must Do [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Lorenbaker](/cdn-cgi/image/width=1200,quality=75,format=auto,fit=cover/https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/2-3-60.png)
AI Overviews & Local SEO: What Multi-Location Brands Must Do [Webinar] via @Sejournal, @Lorenbaker
The webinar “AI Overviews & Local SEO” explains how generative AI is reshaping local search for brands with multiple locations. AI‑driven overviews now pull data from listings, schema, reviews, and location pages to decide which businesses to cite. Inconsistent or...
Omnicom Expands Adobe Partnership to Drive Industry-Specific AI-Powered Marketing Transformation
Omnicom announced an expanded partnership with Adobe to co‑develop an enterprise‑grade, industry‑specific AI Agentic Operating Model. The solution blends Omnicom’s Omni platform, its agentic framework, and Adobe’s marketing and creative stack to orchestrate strategy, creative, planning, activation and measurement for...
Seedtag Revolutionises Media Planning & Activation with the Launch of NeuroX
Seedtag unveiled NeuroX, a Neuro‑Contextual exchange that embeds its decade‑old AI engine, Liz, into every impression across more than 30,000 premium publishers and broadcasters. The platform translates emotional tone, intent and interest into addressable signals, allowing agencies, publishers and brands...
Private Label Is Surging. Here Are 3 Ways Food Brands Can Fight Back
Private label products now command a record 50% of unit sales across Europe’s six largest grocery markets, driven by low pricing and persistent food‑inflation pressure. Shoppers are gravitating toward supermarket own‑brands as they seek cost‑effective options, while retailers also expand...
Godiva’s CMO Reveals How to Pull Off a 100th Anniversary While Staying Fresh
Godiva’s chief marketing officer unveiled a centennial campaign that forgoes traditional vintage reels in favor of an animated short tracing the chocolatier’s evolution. The 100‑year celebration features hidden Easter‑egg details and a cameo by actress Leighton Meester, blending heritage with contemporary...
Todd Babiak on the Gold Coast’s Place Brand, Resident Listening and Stewardship Over Promotion
Todd Babiak, CEO of Brand Gold Coast, explains how the city‑owned agency chose to listen to residents before launching any marketing campaign. By assembling a cross‑sectional research panel, the team uncovered misconceptions and a strong "say‑yes" culture that fuels rapid...
MarTech Interview with Max Groth, CEO at Decentriq
Decentriq CEO Maximilian Groth warns that most marketers build martech stacks around internal preferences rather than the customer, leading to fragmented data and poor experiences. He stresses that reliance on third‑party data is eroding, making first‑party data the new foundation...
Columbia Finds Fun in Sportswear
Columbia partnered with adam&eve TBWA to launch a tongue‑in‑cheek campaign that subjects its apparel to absurd extremes—a deluge of rain and a sauna set in the desert. The ads highlight the brand’s summer‑focused technologies for staying dry and cool, positioning the...
Innovid Announces General Availability of Hypermode, Cutting Social Campaign Setup Time by Up to 80%
Innovid has launched the general availability of Hypermode, a high‑precision execution layer for social advertising that now supports Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat and TikTok. The platform claims to cut campaign‑setup time by up to 80%, delivering up to six‑fold faster...
The 2026 Facebook Reach Checklist for Affiliates
Facebook’s 2026 algorithm overhaul turns the platform into an AI‑driven discovery engine that heavily favors short‑form video, private shares and native affiliate tags while penalising link‑heavy posts. Meta Verified subscribers can retain link reach, but non‑paying creators see their distribution...
Skechers Adds Suryakumar Yadav as It Sharpens Focus on Cricket Market
Global sportswear brand Skechers has named Indian T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav as its newest brand ambassador, reinforcing its push into the cricket market. The deal will see Yadav front digital, retail and broadcast campaigns promoting Skechers’ expanding line of cricket...
Ocean Outdoor UK Redefines the DOOH Attention Model with Ocean® Portal
Ocean Outdoor UK has launched Ocean® Portal, a freestanding half‑cube digital out‑of‑home (DOOH) format at London’s Battersea Power Station. The 4.5 m × 3 m structure houses five high‑definition LED screens, LiDAR‑based motion tracking, mixed‑reality rendering and Unreal/Unity engines to create walk‑in, interactive experiences....
Discover Your Unique Growth Channel, Not One-Size-Fits-All
I wasted $20k and 2+ years chasing strategies that worked for everyone but me. Instagram reels. LinkedIn outreach. NOTHING BUT CRICKETS. Then I tried YouTube. Closed a client from my very first video. And YouTube has blown past referrals as my...
Tourism Western Australia Refreshes Global Marketing Approach Across Key Markets
Tourism Western Australia has launched the second iteration of its "Walking On A Dream" global campaign, adding a new brand film, a group of ambassadors called “The Dreamers,” and an expanded rollout across 13 key overseas markets. The refreshed creative...
Content360: How CHAGEE Replaces Traditional Media with Content Ecosystems
At Content360 Singapore 2026, CHAGEE’s APAC CMO Eugene Lee unveiled a brand strategy that treats tea as a cultural ecosystem rather than a simple beverage. The eight‑year‑old company now runs about 8,000 stores worldwide, relying exclusively on social‑first content and...
LTIMindtree Rebrands as LTM, Positions Itself as Business Creativity Partner
LTIMindtree announced it will rename itself LTM Limited, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, to signal a strategic shift toward becoming a “Business Creativity” partner in the emerging Agentic Enterprise era. The rebrand, unveiled on February 11, 2026, introduces the “Outcreate” positioning, emphasizing...
TAT and Dida Launch “Trusted Thailand” In China to Rebuild Travel Confidence
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has signed a Letter of Intent with Dida Holdings to make Dida the lead digital distributor for the “Trusted Thailand” campaign in China. The partnership leverages Dida’s demand‑intelligence tools across Xiaohongshu, WeChat, Tencent and...
Trusted Media Brands Gets An AI Assist To Sell Cross-Platform Audiences
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) is deploying generative AI from Jasper.ai to stitch together disparate audience data across print, web, social, streaming and newsletters. The AI parses massive performance datasets, turning them into concise narratives that help sales teams answer RFPs...
‘We’re Not Looking for Brand Exclusivity’: How Amazon Is Looking to Win over Beauty Consumers
Amazon announced its fourth‑annual Summer Beauty Event, running April 27 to May 10, with flash deals of up to 50% off across makeup, tools and grooming products. While the discount window competes with Sephora’s spring sale and Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty, Amazon...
How The Financial Times Is Betting on Personality-Led Vodcasts as Its Next Subscription Lever
The Financial Times has launched “The Story of Money,” a history‑of‑finance vodcast on YouTube that also streams as a podcast, marking its first stand‑alone, multi‑platform video brand. Sponsored by Nuveen, the series pairs star journalists with a narrow editorial franchise...
Marketing Strategists Search for a Solution to AI’s All-Too Predictable Outputs
Marketing strategists are confronting a "sameness trap" as generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude deliver increasingly predictable, average outputs. Agencies such as Zeal and Bodacious have built custom bots and "second brain" workflows to push AI beyond the mean,...
Vibes over Metrics: Why More Creators Are Holding IRL Events to Own Their Audience
Creators are increasingly hosting in‑person (IRL) events to cement audience loyalty and diversify beyond platform algorithms. Programs like Snap School and FiveTwoNine's Creator Fund are funding workshops and travel, helping creators build offline communities. High‑profile examples such as Dude Perfect’s...
Retailers Roll Out Fuel Perks as Consumers Look for Relief From $4 Gas Amid U.S.-Iran War
Retailers and restaurants are rolling out limited‑time fuel discounts as U.S. gasoline averages $4.02 per gallon amid the Iran‑related supply shock. Amazon Prime members can save up to 20¢ per gallon through May 29, while Kroger doubled fuel points on two...
How Thorne Drove 63% Growth in DTC Sales After a Brand Awareness Push
Thorne, a leading supplement brand, achieved a 63% increase in direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) sales after launching a focused brand‑awareness campaign. The initiative leveraged data‑driven media mix modeling, influencer collaborations, and personalized content to convert research‑heavy shoppers. Nearly 90% of supplement buyers...
Samsung Partners With AnyMind Group to Boost Live Commerce in Eight Markets
Samsung Electronics has partnered with AnyMind Group to power its live‑commerce efforts in eight Asia‑Pacific markets using AnyMind’s AI‑driven AnyLive platform. The rollout adds roughly 4,450 livestream hours each month and introduces ten AI‑generated avatars that can answer shopper questions...
The Human Touch Advantage: Why AI Alone Won’t Win Singapore’s Customer Economy in 2026
AI is now the default engine for customer acquisition and retention among Singapore startups, allowing rapid testing, personalization, and scaling that previously required larger teams. Yet a trust gap looms: 93% of marketers say AI improves insight, while only 53%...
What Agencies Notice After 50 Guest Posts (And Why They Don’t Go Back)
Agencies that run guest‑post campaigns notice a turning point around the 50th placement. Early posts are treated as experiments focused on cost, turnaround and raw metrics, but after enough volume the conversation shifts toward stability and editorial fit. Publishers that...
The New Tactics of TikTok Journalism
New research by Kaia Tran, a journalism graduate, outlines how newsrooms can succeed on TikTok, a platform now used by over half of its users for news. While 14% of those users follow journalists or news outlets, the white paper...
The Hidden ‘Bland Tax’ that Could Erase Your Brand From AI Search
At Adobe Summit, Semrush CMO Andrew Warden warned that AI‑driven search is filtering out bland brands, coining the “bland tax.” With 60 % of Google queries ending without a click, AI answers now dominate, making SEO fundamentals and brand authority essential...
Tips for Creating Effective Online Ad Campaigns
The article outlines a step‑by‑step framework for small businesses to launch effective online ad campaigns, emphasizing planning, goal setting, platform selection, creative design, budgeting, and ongoing monitoring. It stresses that every dollar should have a specific purpose and that measurable...
Adobe Debuts AI‑Powered Brand Visibility Suite at Summit, Tackles 269% AI Traffic Surge
Adobe announced a new AI‑powered Brand Visibility solution at Adobe Summit 2026, expanding Experience Manager with agentic tools to monitor and control brand presence across AI discovery channels. The launch responds to a 269% year‑over‑year jump in AI‑driven traffic to...
Why Integrated Communications Drive Stronger Business Outcomes
In ASEAN’s rapidly expanding digital economy, startups and B2B tech firms often run fragmented PR, content, social, and digital marketing streams, leading to duplicated effort and mixed brand messages. The article argues that integrating these functions into a single narrative...
LVMH Accelerates AI‑Driven Omnichannel Push for 2026
LVMH announced a comprehensive AI‑driven digital transformation for 2026, targeting omnichannel innovation and hyper‑personalized customer experiences across its luxury brands. The rollout seeks to blend physical boutiques with digital touchpoints, positioning the group at the forefront of tech adoption in...
Wagepoint Names Alexander Gonçalves CCO to Drive Canadian Payroll Growth
Wagepoint announced the appointment of Alexander Gonçalves as Chief Commercial Officer. The veteran SaaS executive will oversee sales, marketing, revenue operations and customer support, aiming to accelerate the payroll platform’s expansion among Canadian small businesses. The hire follows a rebrand,...
Prezzee Appoints Diana Ilinkovski as Global CMO to Drive AI‑enabled Brand Expansion
Prezzee announced the hiring of Diana Ilinkovski as its Global Chief Marketing Officer. The former Stan CMO will steer a unified brand strategy, AI‑enabled marketing and expansion into the United States and United Kingdom, signaling a push to scale the...
Limble Names Veteran Growth Executive Tim Lamb CMO to Drive Brand Expansion
Limble announced the appointment of Tim Lamb as chief marketing officer, tapping his two‑decade SaaS growth track record to boost brand leadership and market reach. The move underscores the company's push to convert its strong product base into measurable commercial...
Nike Turns to Australia for Its First Local Tiktok Play
Nike has launched @nikeaustralia, the brand’s first country‑specific TikTok account, debuting with a CommBank Socceroos‑themed bulldozer stunt and later featuring Paralympian Dylan Alcott’s Ability Fest promotion. The move marks a shift from Nike’s global‑first model to a local‑first strategy that...
Brands and Agencies Map 2026 CTV Investment Strategy
A fresh industry report reveals that brands and agencies are treating Connected TV as a core pillar of 2026 advertising, emphasizing measurable outcomes, first‑party data and AI‑driven personalization. The shift signals a broader integration of CTV into unified MarTech stacks...
Meta’s AI‑Powered Instagram Affiliate Feature Sparks Creator Outcry Over Content Theft
Meta expanded Instagram’s affiliate program with an AI‑powered Shop the Look feature that auto‑suggests products on creator posts. Influencer Julia Berolzheimer and others allege the beta tool inserts unauthorized product overlays, prompting concerns over content ownership and revenue loss.
Social Listening Explained: Benefits, Tools, and Strategy
Social listening captures brand‑related conversations across social platforms, forums and review sites, turning raw chatter into strategic insights. Unlike reactive social monitoring, listening aggregates mentions to reveal language patterns, sentiment shifts and emerging trends that inform marketing, product and leadership...