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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

Media Buying Briefing: How Publicis is winning and keeping clients, even as competitors cry foul

No one can deny that Publicis has ruled the holding company roost since at least the start of the pandemic. The French holding company invested in data, ad-tech, mar-tech and other acquisitions that have rounded out its offerings (Mars United Commerce and Profitero for commerce media, Lotame and Epsilon for data, Influential and Captiv8 for

Inside the hidden art of Guild Wars 2: how Chelsea Mills uses the best 3D and digital art software to create legendary props

ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2 is a strange beast. On the one hand, it’s a painterly MMO that feels like concept art come to life. On the other hand, it’s a fashion sandbox where players obsess over gliders, capes, and shinier-than-thou legendary weapons. Holding those two worlds together? Artists like Chelsea Mills, Advanced Prop Artist, although,

Amazon VP of Global Video Advertising Krishan Bhatia Exits

Amazon’s vp of global video advertising, Krishan Bhatia, is leaving the company, according to Amazon. The company said in a statement, “Krishan Bhatia has made the decision to leave Amazon. We’re grateful for his contributions to the Amazon Ads organization, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.” An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment

Little White Lies’ new issue encapsulates the genre-defying eras of Tilda Swinton

Chameleonic, androgynous and versatile, Tilda Swinton is well known for her gargantuan body of work with auteurs such as Derek Jarman, Jim Jarmusch, Lynne Ramsay, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Wes Anderson. Encompassing art films and blockbusters, she’s as hilarious as she is heartbreaking – simply put, she’s an icon of cinema. However, when you have an

Make AI Writing Work for Your Content & SERP Visibility Strategy

Are your AI writing tools helping or hurting your SEO performance? Join Nadege Chaffaut and Crystie Bowe from Conductor on September 17, 2025, for a practical webinar on creating AI-informed content that ranks and builds trust. You’ll Learn How To: Engineer prompts that produce high-quality content Keep your SEO visibility and credibility intact at scale

What should sit at the center of your martech stack in the age of AI?

As data and AI become the dominant forces in marketing, the real question is no longer if your martech stack matters, but what belongs at its center. The tools and platforms marketers choose today will determine whether their organizations are ready to compete in an AI-driven future. The martech ecosystem has never been larger —

How comics illustrator Greg Staples created his dream art studio

I’ve been working in this studio for around three years now, and I feel pretty lucky to own it. My previous studio was a loft I converted, but it was a relatively compact space. My wife and I walked past this house often and then saw it up for sale. We’d always admired it, partly

9 Content Management Systems Ranked

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a meaningful Core Web Vitals metric because it represents how quickly a web page responds to user input. It is so important that the HTTPArchive has a comparison of INP across content management systems. The following are the top content management systems ranked by Interaction to Next Paint. What

Digiday’s definitive list for what’s in and out after Google’s antitrust search remedies ruling

Earlier this week, Judge Amit Mehta issued his long-awaited remedies ruling in the Department of Justice’s search antitrust case against Google, stopping short of a forced sale of key assets, such as Android and Chrome. While the ruling does impose new guardrails on how Google can wield its dominance, it’s fair to say it was

Adverts are about to get longer

Brands like Rapha and Patagonia often utilise long-form formats to tell stories. The Patagonia website features a range of long-form documentaries. One of the top results, Seeking South, clocks in at just shy of 55 minutes long. Meanwhile through Rapha’s YouTube channel, you can find short films such as Migration, a 20-minute documentary about the

The Behavioral Data You Need To Improve Your Users’ Search Journey

We’re more than halfway through 2025, and SEO has already changed names many times to take into account the new mission of optimizing for the rise of large language models (LLMs): We’ve seen GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) floating around, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and even LEO (LLM Engine Optimization) has made an apparition in industry

Execs Allege Racial and Gender Discrimination Against Agency Horizon in Federal Lawsuit

A lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday accuses Horizon Media, the largest privately owned media agency in the world, of racial and gender discrimination, perpetuating a hostile work environment, and retaliation. Charisma Deberry, who currently serves as vice president of strategic communications and engagement at Horizon, and Latraviette Smith-Wilson, who was previously chief marketing and

Making art with charcoal lit my imagination on fire – here’s how

Dust off your charcoal and grab your sense of fun, because we’re about to go on an adventure to reclaim your artistic spontaneity and intuitive creativity! I’ve been a passionate creator of monsters and otherworldly beings since I was old enough to pick up a crayon. While I’m a mild-mannered graphic designer by day, I

What To Expect AT NESS 2025: Surviving The AI-First Era

This post was sponsored by NESS. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. For anyone who isn’t paying attention to news SEO because they feel it isn’t their relevant niche – think again. The foundations of SEO are underpinned by publishing content. Therefore, news SEO is relevant to all SEO. We are

Think like a product manager, grow like a CMO

As B2B marketers, we’ve spent the last decades optimizing channels, refining nurture streams and automating campaigns. But something’s shifted in this new AI-powered GTM world. Growth is no longer just a distribution game. It’s a product game. The most effective marketing teams today don’t just run campaigns. They operate more like product managers than traditional

Jacob Hutchinson merges structured layouts with the soft imperfections of old stamps and vinyl stickers

Stamp silhouettes, sketchbook grids and vinyl stickers are often the frame for Jacob Hutchinson’s intricate design work. The Sheffield-born creative has always been drawn to the tactility of this kind of vintage print ephemera, and the soft imperfections that come with it – he’s perpetually scanning in old printed matter “to preserve those imperfections,” he

AI Overviews Use FastSearch, Not Links

A sharp-eyed search marketer discovered the reason why Google’s AI Overviews showed spammy web pages. The recent Memorandum Opinion in the Google antitrust case featured a passage that offers a clue as to why that happened and speculates how it reflects Google’s move away from links as a prominent ranking factor. Ryan Jones, founder of

Creators credit increased pay transparency for higher rates in 2025

Sponsorship rates are on the rise in 2025, and creators say a newfound culture of pay transparency is helping fuel the jump. Creators’ sponsorship rates have climbed — sometimes doubling in the past year — with marketers calling it a natural market correction amid advertisers’ rising demand for creator inventory. But four creators told Digiday that

I’m stunned to see the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon Combo down to just $999

If you’re into 3D printing, then I’m willing to bet you’re already familiar with Bambu Lab and its incredibly premium products. This morning, I was stunned to discover that the company’s X1 Carbon printer has hit its lowest price ever for the combo model (which includes an AMS), down to just $999.99 over at Best

How Do I Nail A PPC Job Interview For Google & Meta Ads?

It is a wild job market right now, and if you’re applying for a PPC role, you’re probably feeling the pressure to stand out in interviews that are increasingly demanding and often unclear in their expectations. Whether you’re interviewing for a specialist, manager, or hybrid media role, one thing is certain: You need to be

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