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.
You Didn’t Write It… But You Expect Me to Read It? And Worse… You Didn’t Analyze It, But You Expect...
Todd Kuhlmann warns that commercial‑real‑estate professionals are over‑relying on AI to generate lengthy emails and polished deal write‑ups that lack substantive analysis. While AI can streamline communication, it often expands content without adding insight, leading brokers to present unvalidated numbers to investors. Kuhlmann stresses that true deal evaluation must precede any AI‑enhanced narrative, or the risk of mis‑informed investments rises. TheAnalyst® PRO exemplifies a model that builds rigorous calculations first, then uses AI only as a drafting aid.
Knak Makes Enterprise Marketing Production Callable by AI Agents
Knak announced support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI agents and orchestration layers to call its production platform directly. The integration lets AI assistants generate on‑brand emails, landing pages and other assets using Knak’s template library without manual...
What Killed Nike?
Nike faced a swift backlash after displaying a "Runners welcome. Walkers tolerated" sign at its Boston Marathon‑adjacent Newbury store, prompting the company to pull the ad amid accusations of pace‑shaming. The controversy coincided with UBS’s neutral "hold" rating, which came...
How Prime And A Smarter Alexa Are Giving Amazon An AI Shopping Edge
Amazon launched Alexa+, an AI‑powered upgrade to its voice assistant, to all users in March 2025. The new assistant can handle complex conversations, place orders, manage smart‑home devices, and suggest recipes, all while leveraging Amazon’s 30‑year e‑commerce expertise. Early data show...
The One Email That Got 100 Replies
A creator sent a single email describing a proven framework and received over 100 direct replies, without using a landing page, survey, or quiz. The response rate far exceeded his typical engagement levels, proving that showing an idea sparks conversation....
Reimagining Annual Brand Planning with AI
EVERSANA’s fourth annual brand‑planning survey reveals that 60% of pharma marketers lack a trusted single source of truth for brand data, and only half maintain a consistent planning process across the enterprise. Nearly two‑thirds of leaders are already using or...
Podscribe Launches Radio Measurement Capabilities and Smart Columns to Bring Digital-Level Clarity to Audio Advertising
Podscribe unveiled Radio Measurement Capabilities, a platform that blends aircheck verification with performance attribution to give advertisers digital‑grade transparency for radio spots. The solution supports terrestrial, satellite and multi‑market campaigns, using machine‑learning and Bayesian models to quantify lift in site...
Adobe Summit 2026 - Adobe Gives CX an Agentic Makeover with the Launch of CX Enterprise
Adobe unveiled CX Enterprise at its 2026 Summit, an end‑to‑end agentic automation platform that layers a persistent AI co‑worker on top of the Adobe Experience Platform. The new co‑worker can orchestrate multiple purpose‑built agents, integrate third‑party systems, and extend AI capabilities...
3 Strategies to Help CPG Marketers Drive Breakthrough Results with Less Money
C‑price‑goods (CPG) marketers are confronting tighter budgets and fragmented media while consumer attention splinters across devices. A new InMarket "Breakthrough Outcomes" report, highlighted by VP Matt Knust, distills three strategic pillars—precise timing, creative clarity, and real‑time personalization—that drove incremental ROAS up...
Tonya McCoy’s People‑First Playbook Boosts Angry Chickz Sales by 63%
Tonya McCoy, Angry Chickz’s VP of marketing, credits a people‑first philosophy for a 63% jump in territory unit sales, underscoring a growing motivation model that places employee well‑being ahead of short‑term metrics. Her data‑driven campaigns and franchisee collaboration illustrate how...
Microsoft Says AI Is Delivering Measurable Workflow Gains in Media Buying and Planning
Microsoft’s industry director for media and entertainment, Simon Crownshaw, told Technology Record that AI is now producing measurable outcomes in specific media workflows, from faster highlight creation to real‑time ad personalization. He argues the shift is from vague automation promises...
KFC, Wingstop and Dozens of Chains Launch $4.20 4/20 Promos, Tapping Cannabis‑linked Consumer Surge
KFC, Wingstop and a slate of other restaurant brands announced a wave of $4.20‑themed promotions for April 20, the unofficial 4/20 holiday. The offers, ranging from pot‑pie combos to hot‑box wing meals, aim to capture a consumer base that increasingly...
Angelfish Marketing Expands AEO and AI Search Services for B2B Brands
Angelfish Marketing has broadened its Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and AI Search services to help B2B tech, SaaS and financial brands appear in AI‑driven results from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. The offering blends technical SEO, structured data,...
Rand Fishkin: Zero-Click Search Began Long Before AI
Rand Fishkin argues that the rise of zero‑click search started around 2011, well before the AI boom, with Google answering queries directly on the results page. He cites data showing more than two‑thirds of searches now end without a click,...
AI Lead Search Eliminates Hours of Email Hunting
🚨 Wild that in 2026 you can know someone's exact title, company, tenure, and ICP fit - and still spend 2 hours hunting for a verified email. A few weeks ago I needed to build a prospect list for my media...
Magnite, AMC Global Media Partner On Programmatic
Magnite announced a partnership with AMC Global Media to make the broadcaster’s linear‑television inventory available through programmatic buying. The deal coincides with the launch of the 2026‑27 TV upfront season, signaling a push to unify linear and streaming ad transactions....
WPP Media Wins KFC, Pizza Hut Singapore Assignments
WPP Media has been named the integrated media agency for both KFC Singapore and Pizza Hut Singapore after a competitive pitch, taking charge of strategy, planning and buying across the market. The agency already works with the two brands in...
‘We’re Not Nespresso’: Inside Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ New Campaign
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, part of Keurig Dr Pepper, launched the "That's Green Mountain Good" campaign on April 20, featuring a new mascot—a green mountain goat named Bruce—to highlight farm‑grown coffee origins. Developed by a Publicis Groupe‑led team, the 30‑second spot...
Amazon Turns ‘Jury Duty’ Hot Sauce Fiction Into Real‑World Sale
Amazon has listed the fictional “Rockin’ Grandmas” hot sauce from the second season of its reality series “Jury Duty” for sale on its marketplace. The product moves from a scripted plot point to a real‑world SKU, illustrating how streaming content...
Why Fashion Brands Are Betting Big On Q-Commerce Ads
India’s quick‑commerce (q‑commerce) market surged to roughly ₹64,000 crore ($6.9 bn) in FY25, growing at a 142% CAGR and now serving 33 million monthly users across 150+ cities. Leading platforms—Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart—are turning advertising into a major revenue stream, with Blinkit...
Kuli
Kuli, launched in 2024, is an AI‑driven influencer‑marketing platform that replaces manual creator vetting with multimodal video analysis across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. By indexing visual style, tone, brand mentions and narrative patterns, the system lets brands search for creators...
Amo Sokhi: Why Financial Advisers Should Take SEO Seriously
Financial advisers are witnessing a fundamental shift as prospective clients increasingly turn to search engines for guidance, with 45% choosing advisers based on digital marketing versus 29% relying on referrals. The rise of AI‑driven search and digitally native consumers makes...
How SMBs Can Gain An Edge With Agentic AI: Key Trends From Our Marketing Report
The Salesforce State of Marketing Report reveals that only 13% of marketers have adopted agentic AI, leaving a large opening for small and medium businesses (SMBs) to gain a competitive edge. AI agents are shown to free up 6‑7 hours...
MTA Incrementality Signals in Partner Postbacks
Singular has added two postback macros—single_attributed and assist—to every partner install callback, giving ad networks real‑time visibility into whether they were the sole touchpoint or an assist in a conversion. Early data shows 94% of Meta installs are single‑attributed and...
The Google Analytics 'Blind Spot'
In April, 88% of organic search traffic came from AI agents—a 150% jump from the previous month—revealing a rapid shift in how users access content. Google Analytics 4 cannot detect this traffic because many agents bypass JavaScript and are automatically...
Organic Search Winners Share 5 Traits
Cyrus Shepard’s new study of 400 websites examined performance before and after Google’s March 2026 core algorithm update. It found that 92.9% of consistently ranking sites own proprietary assets, while 83.7% help users complete a task directly on the page. The...
Winning Google Ads Campaign Structures For DTC Ecommerce via @Sejournal, @MenachemAni
The article stresses that Google Ads account structure is the linchpin for DTC ecommerce success because each search query is an explicit buying intent. It outlines three costly mistakes—launching every campaign type simultaneously, duplicating products across campaigns, and segmenting Performance...
IAS Expands Industry-Leading Media Quality Measurement to TikTok’s Brand & Performance Solutions, Including Search Ad Campaigns
Integral Ad Science (IAS) announced an expansion of its Total Media Quality (TMQ) suite to cover four additional TikTok ad formats, including Search Ad Campaigns, an upgraded campaign creation experience for Brand and Smart+ Traffic objectives, GMV Max (US), and...
Expanding Transparency: IAS Brings Total Media Quality Measurement to TikTok’s Performance Solutions
Integral Ad Science (IAS) is extending its Total Media Quality (TMQ) measurement to TikTok’s performance‑driven ad formats, including Search, the upgraded Smart+ campaign creation experience, GMV Max, and TikTok Lite. The AI‑powered TMQ analyzes image, audio and text at the...
Race Day Starts Before You Get to the Track: StubHub and New Era Team Up for F1’s North American Season...
StubHub and apparel brand New Era have announced a strategic partnership to sell bundled ticket and merchandise packages for Formula 1’s North American races. The collaboration will debut ahead of the 2024 season, covering the Miami Grand Prix, the United States...
Google Lists Best Practices For Read More Deep Links via @Sejournal, @MattGSouthern
Google has added a new “Read more” deep‑link section to its snippet documentation, outlining three best practices to improve a page’s chances of showing these links in search results. The guidance stresses that content must be visible on initial load,...
One Place, Four Audiences: The Case for a Single Place Narrative
C Studios introduced a four‑level maturity model for place‑branding, urging cities to move from fragmented, audience‑specific messages toward a single, integrated narrative that speaks to tourists, investors, and talent simultaneously. Level Four combines tourism appeal, business opportunity, innovation, and quality‑of‑life...
Removing AI-Generated News Slashes ChatGPT Citations
My latest case study is a great example of "Mt. AI" in action (and its impact on ChatGPT citations) -> When “Mt. AI” crumbles, ChatGPT can follow [Case Study] There was a big manual action applied recently after Futurism published an...
3 KPIs that Prove Marketing Ops Drives Revenue Impact
MarTech’s AI‑driven MarTechBot identified three core KPIs that prove Marketing Operations can function as a profit center. The metrics—pipeline contribution, customer acquisition cost (CAC) efficiency, and funnel conversion velocity—tie operational performance directly to revenue outcomes. By standardizing definitions and integrating...
The Cultural Flywheel
The article argues that traditional social‑media community building is costly and ineffective, proposing a "cultural flywheel" as a superior model. Brands should focus on cultural products—merchandise, collaborations, limited‑edition drops, capsules, events, and experiences—that create a self‑reinforcing loop of content and...
What Search Engines Trust Now: Authority, Freshness & First-Party Signals via @Sejournal, @Cshel
Search engines have shifted from periodic algorithm updates to continuous AI‑driven evaluation, turning trust into a dynamic probability. Authority now serves as a gatekeeper, determining whether content is even considered, while freshness reflects ongoing relevance and first‑party signals provide verifiable...
Paramount Meets Advertisers: What's Up With Upfront Pricing?
Paramount Skydance held its first pre‑upfront meeting with advertisers after acquiring Paramount Global, showcasing NFL rights and Taylor Sheridan series like “Landman” and “The Madison.” The discussion raised questions about CPM pricing as the company’s Q1 production spend fell 7%...
Why Personal Branding Is Not Required for Business Success
In this episode, Gary Vaynerchuk argues that a personal brand is not essential for business success, emphasizing that there are many other levers such as sales skill, creating content without featuring yourself, and being a charismatic leader. He fielded questions...
From Baggy to Boutique: The Decade That Transformed Cannabis Branding
Over the past decade, cannabis branding has evolved from a low‑key, baggy aesthetic to a polished, boutique‑style comparable to premium consumer packaged goods. Legalization milestones—medical approval in California (1996), recreational markets in Colorado and Washington (2012), and the 2018 Farm...
Name Pillars by Outcomes, Not Topics
Stop naming pillars after topics. Name them after transformations. For example, instead of: Topic-based title: ❌ 5 solid "SEO Tips" that actually get results Use the transformation-based formula: ✅ Get 10K monthly visitors without spending years on SEO.
Lush Head of Retail on Its Experiential Retail Plans for 2026
Lush’s UK&I head of retail, Kasey Swithenbank, outlined a slate of experiential initiatives slated for 2026, including fragrance readings, on‑site skincare services and a new events‑booking feature in the Lush app. The retailer is deepening its omnichannel capabilities with click‑and‑collect,...
Dove Selects Agency for New Influencer Marketing Blitz
Unilever’s Dove division has appointed PrettyGreen as its new agency to lead a revamped micro‑influencer, content, and e‑commerce strategy. The agency will manage an integrated brief that spans social storytelling, creator collaborations, and TikTok Shop commerce, starting with a debut...
Microsoft Bing Offers IndexNow Support To The Internet Archive
Microsoft Bing announced it will support the Internet Archive’s adoption of IndexNow, a protocol that lets sites instantly notify search engines of new or updated URLs. Fabrice Canel, Bing’s product lead, posted on X that the integration will help the...
World Cup 2026 Brand Activation Strategy
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will turn the Boston‑Foxborough corridor into a high‑compression market, with seven matches at Gillette Stadium and a fan festival in downtown Boston. Jayme Washington warns that brands treating the area as a traditional stadium market...
Start Low, Build Trust, Then Upsell with Tiered Courses
I spent part of a call this week helping a client structure their course pricing, and one question kept coming up: how do you charge a reasonable amount for something when you're still building trust with new students? Their default was...
IG Strategy that Drove Newsletter to 150k Subscribers
one of the best things i did on IG to grow my newsletter past 150k subs
Weekly Newsletters Are Essential for Digital Builders
Every digital builder needs a weekly newsletter to educate their email list and gently nudge their subscribers to buy:
SEO Gurus Ignore AI, Stuck in 2019 Mindset
Ever notice how the SEO experts preaching "AI will never replace human creativity" haven't updated their own content strategy since 2019?
AI Assistants Are Evolving Into Subtle Sales Channels
AI assistants are starting to become sales channels. Sponsored responses and integrated recommendations are turning conversations into opportunities for advertising and commerce. The shift is subtle. When advice and promotion blend together, the role of AI becomes harder to separate from influence....
Data Shows Social Selling Replaces SEO and GEO
Why the data shows that social selling is the new SEO / GEO by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/uVT5YMhhva @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeader #Salesforce #SalesEnablement #Marketing #Leadership #SEO #GEO #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews https://t.co/OvB5Ei4J2d