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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

Why The Right Leader Is Critical For Success

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have seen or experienced the evolution of marketing in recent years; often centered around the marketing leader and the chief marketing officer (CMO) role. The CMO role has come under fire for performance, for the lack of big bang delivery, for not moving away from

The Hill’s social traffic is downstream from boosted engagement

The Hill’s social traffic is growing — and the publication believes its increased social engagement is the source of the bump. After experiencing an increase in Facebook referral traffic earlier this year, The Hill’s social traffic is continuing to climb in the second half of 2025. Year-over-year between September 2024 and September 2025, The Hill’s overall

Yutong Hu opts for contradiction over consensus

Yutong hopes people say “Woo-Hu” when they see her work – and clearly people do. After graduating in Design at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, she was named one of the best New Visual Artists by Print. “If you don’t know where Zhenjiang is, it’s okay,” says Yutong Hu, the New York-based designer.

High Volumes Or High Authority Evergreen Content?

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from an anonymous user: “Should we still publish high volumes of content, or is it better to invest in fewer, higher-authority evergreen pieces?” Great question! The answer is always higher-authority content, but not always evergreen if your goal is growth and sustainability. If the goal is quick traffic

Introducing Ad Critic from ADWEEK

The advertising world can be inscrutable. Do you ever see a splashy new campaign and think: “How did anyone come up with that idea?” or, far more commonly, “Seriously, what is that even selling?” ADWEEK is proud to introduce Ad Critic, a new franchise beginning this month where some of the top expert practitioners in

I’m hypnotised by this beautiful optical illusion vinyl

Optical illusions come in many different forms, from the perplexing to the mind-melting, but op art doesn’t always have to be headache-inducing. Representing the serene side of op art, Larry June’s Life is Beautiful LP is a mesmerising visual treat with a delightfully smooth soundtrack to match. From the cognitive to the physiological, optical illusions

How To Win Brand Visibility in AI Search

AIOs, LLMs & the New Rules of SEO AI Overviews are changing everything. Your impressions might be up, but the traffic isn’t following. Competitors are showing up in AI search while your brand remains invisible. How do you measure success when ChatGPT or Gemini doesn’t show traditional rankings? How do you define “winning” in a

Marketers are expanding their use of genAI and seeing returns

MarTechCharts regularly highlights data of interest to marketers and marketing operations professionals. Source: “Marketers and AI: Navigating New Depths,” SAS and Coleman Parkes. Marketers dramatically advanced their use of genAI in one year, with 85% now actively deploying the technology — up from 75% in 2024 according to a new study from SAS and Coleman

AI Platform Founder Explains Why We Need To Focus On Human Behavior, Not LLMs

Google has been doing what it always does, and that is to constantly iterate to try and retain the best product it can. Large language models (LLMs) and generative AI chatbots are a new reality in SEO, and to keep up, Google is evolving its interface to try and cross the divide between AI and

British Heart Foundation credits marketing with driving ‘record breaking’ fundraising

The charity reported its highest ever income from legacy donations and fundraising this year. Source

Burton Booz’s CGI worlds are haunted manifestations of childhood

As a child, the Swedish-American artist Burton Booz was fascinated with the natural world. “The world is increasingly terrifying, complex and unknowable, I think about this daily, but the things that are beautiful take on a quality and resonance in contrast,” says Burton. “A lot of what I’m interested in, and try to capture, is

The Future Of Rank Tracking Can Go Two Ways

Digital marketers are providing more evidence that Google’s disabling of the num=100 search parameter correlates exactly with changes in Google Search Console impression rates. What looked like reliable data may, in fact, have been a distorted picture shaped by third-party SERP crawlers. It’s becoming clear that squeezing meaning from the top 100 search results is

Why marketers are embracing waste as a part of experimentation

In marketing — as in all aspects of growing a business overall — it’s imperative to know up front how much a team is willing to lose, how long they’re willing to try and when to walk away. Yet, too often, waste is treated like a bad word, instead of asking: Is this the cost

This MacBook Pro deal is making me re-think my MacBook Air purchase

There’s a couple reasons I went for the MacBook Air over the MacBook Pro – but that was before I knew that this new deal brings the 14-inch M4 chip Pro down from $2,000 to $1,700 over at Best Buy. Truth is, if you’re not a pro video editor, photo editor or work in 3D,

DOJ Seeks Google Ad Manager Break Up As Remedies Trial Begins

Google returns to court on Monday for the remedies phase of the Department of Justice’s ad-tech antitrust case, where the government is asking the judge to order a divestiture of Google Ad Manager. The remedies trial follows a ruling that found Google illegally monopolized the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets, while rejecting claims

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to Interview Kamala Harris

Top of the Ticker: Rachel Maddow will conduct a live interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, Sept. 22, at 9 p.m. ET. The MSNBC host will have a discussion with Harris about her new book, “107 Days,” which focuses on the shortest presidential campaign bid in modern history. This will be the

Barren Hill :: Behance

Barren Hill This mysterious land is located in Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County, Jiuquan City, hidden along the road from Dunhuang to Haixi, Qinghai. It is not immediately noticeable, and one could even say that it is concealed by the vastness of nature itself, only to be discovered by chance during a filming expedition one day.

Internal WordPress Conflict Spills Out Into The Open

An internal dispute within the WordPress core contributor team spilled into the open, causing major confusion among people outside the organization. The friction began with a post from more than a week ago and culminated in a remarkable outburst, exposing latent tensions within the core contributor community. Mary Hubbard Announcement Triggers Conflict The incident seemingly

Navigating the chaos of consent, compliance and customer trust in an AI world

Artificial intelligence promises tremendous value for marketers, but only if it’s fueled by quality data collected responsibly. That was the theme of a session at the September installment of The MarTech Conference. Moderated by MarTech contributor Melissa Reeve, the panel gathered enterprise AI consultant Anthony Coppedge, Alex Cash, director of strategy for consent-based solutions at

An Chen on how to stay true to your unconventional art style

An Chen – an illustrator who works in sculptures, textiles, and animations – delivered a talk beaming with optimism and sincerity at September’s Nicer Tuesdays in London, walking us through her angular illustrations and how she makes organic shapes interact with each other. An also shared how she moulded her creative voice, from growing up

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