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Who Won, Who Cut and What Comes Next in Advertising

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The GRADIENT

Who Won, Who Cut and What Comes Next in Advertising

Marketing recruitment woes persist as brands eye cuts

More than a fifth (22.8%) of marketing leaders expect to make cuts in the next three months, according to exclusive IPA Bellwether data for Marketing Week. Recruitment woes for marketers are likely to continue as hiring intention remains low. After reaching a four-year low in April, employment prospects for marketers continue to stagnate as

Apple is still the best brand in the world, according to Interbrand’s report

Interbrand has released its annual Best Global Brands ranking and there’s very little movement at the top. The top five are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Samsung in that order, showing that Apple is still… well…. the Apple of many eyes. Other notable brands that rose up through the ranks include Nvidia, Instagram, YouTube, Uber

Google Says What Content Gets Clicked On AI Overviews

Google’s Liz Reid, Vice President of Search, recently said that AI Overviews shows what kind of content makes people click through to visit a site. She also said that Google expanded the concept of spam to include content that does not bring the creator’s perspective and depth. People’s Preferences Drives What Search Shows Liz Reid

Factiva Dow Jones collective AI licensing

AI royalties are finally on the table for small and midsize publishers. Don’t credit OpenAI’s ChatGPT, credit corporate LLMs — enterprise RAG is what’s creating royalty revenue for publishers. RAG — retrieval augmented generation — kicks in when a user (or system) prompts the LLM, which then pulls the relevant content from various sources to deliver

Could Claude or ChatGPT be the next Apple?

Then there’s the harder challenge: love is hard to engineer. Yes, AI companies need to be intentional and keep pace technologically to be adopted, but to become absorbed and integrated deeply into our lives, they need to make a stamp culturally. Right now, “people readily switch between different [AI] models as new capabilities emerge,” Andrew

Top 10 Content Management Systems (Oct 2025)

Actor Martin Sheen Highlights MSNBC Live Event

Top of the Ticker: Legendary actor Martin Sheen was the highlight of this year’s MSNBC Live ‘25: This is Who We Are, a live community event. Sheen sat down with anchor Nicolle Wallace for a live taping of The Best People with Nicolle Wallace podcast. He spoke about his lifelong dedication to political activism and

Creality’s newest 3D scanner is already $540 off

If you’re into 3D scanning, then you might already be familiar with Creality’s most recent product, the Sermoon S1. This 3D scanner is so new to the market that we haven’t even had the chance to review it yet or conclude if it could be one of the best 3D scanners out there for creatives

Study Shows 2-5 Weekly TikToks Deliver Biggest View Increase

Buffer’s analysis of 11.4 million TikTok posts from over 150,000 accounts reveals that posting 2-5 times per week delivers the steepest per-post view increase. The study challenges the usual recommendation to post multiple times daily by demonstrating that the benefits decrease after the initial increase in posting frequency. Data scientist Julian Winternheimer employed fixed-effects regression

Agentic commerce is here, and consumers want it to help find deals

MarTechCharts regularly highlights data of interest to marketers and marketing operations professionals. Source: Klaviyo’s Global AI Shopping Index. Click to enlarge. AI is already disrupting online shopping and it will continue to do so, according to a report by Klaviyo. Klaviyo’s Global AI Shopping Index (registration required), declares AI to be at the center of

Video artist Ramin Rahni uses an analogue synthesiser to create glitchy “paintings”

Ramin Rahni is a biologist by training – this makes sense looking at his animated digital landscapes, the geometric formula of which are clearly informed by a STEM mind. His tools are also far from typical – he uses an LZX anaolog modular synthesiser to generate shapes and mix colour with pre-programmed electronic modules. The

AI Is Changing Local Search Faster Than You Think

1. How AI Overviews and AI Mode Are Disrupting Local Search Visibility “Our data showed a noticeable drop in organic traffic where AI overviews are displacing maps. For local businesses, this means you could still be the best option nearby but never appear unless the query is explicitly local. ‘Best near me’ triggers maps, but

Nestlé’s marketing focus and marketing-led transformation: Your Marketing Week

Be the best It’s always unsettling when a new CEO takes over, as it can mean changes to strategic direction, company culture, leadership style and more. It’s all the more anxiety-inducing when the business is experiencing a period of low growth, and the previous CEO was forced to leave abruptly under less than favourable circumstances.

Indie game Denshattack turns Japan’s iconic train culture into pure pop-art motion

Trains are pretty great. They reliably get you from A to B and often with great scenic views, and are iconic in pop cultural moments from thrilling getaways and heists in Westerns to the Hogwarts Express that takes its passengers to their wizarding school. But you probably never imagined they could be used as the

Google Business Profile Tests Cross-Location Posts

Google Business Profile appears to be testing a feature that lets managers share the same update across multiple locations from a single dialog. Tim Capper reported seeing the option. After publishing an update, a “Copy post” dialog appears with the prompt: “Copy the update to other profiles you manage.” You can now post an update

5 questions marketers have about Sora and the synthetic social era

AI video tools like OpenAI’s Sora are edging into mainstream culture while marketers watch — some intrigued, others concerned. The promise of near-instant, realistic video may sound like a dream for cash-strapped, content hungry brands. However, marketers are increasingly nervous about risks such as copyright liability, brand safety and ethics, wanting answers before committing to

Get tickets for November’s Nicer Tuesdays in LA!

After the success of our two Nicer Tuesdays events in London and New York, we’re extremely glad to bring the first iteration of our creative discussions series to Los Angeles! Join us at the Nimoy Theatre, 1262 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024, on Tuesday 4 November! At this month’s event, you can expect talks

Google Reminds SEOs How The URL Removals Tool Works

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about removing hacked URLs that are showing in the index. He explained how to remove the sites from appearing in the search results and then discussed the nuances involved in dealing with this specific situation. Removing Hacked Pages From Google’s SERPs The person asking the question was the victim

Week of Oct. 6 Cable News Ratings: Declines Across the Board

This is TVNewser’s basic cable network ranker and cable news report for the week of October 6, 2025. Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN experienced erosion in viewership during primetime and total day, both in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo, for the just-concluded week. The primetime demo losses for all three networks were not

Honor shares first look at its AI Robot Phone – and all I can say is wow

Honor has designed an exciting new type of smartphone, and all I can say is wow. I’ve been so impressed by Honor’s deeply creative approach to tech this year, especially with some of the best camera phones, and I think it may have just invented the smartphone of my dreams (although it’s also reminiscent of

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