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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

What to expect from social commerce during the upcoming holiday shopping season

In MarTech’s “MarTechBot explains it all” feature, we pose a question about marketing to our very own MarTechBot, which is trained on the MarTech website archives and has access to the broader internet. Q: What should we expect from social commerce during the 2025 holiday shopping season? In 2024, social commerce moved decisively into the mainstream.

Media Buying Briefing: When EQ is just as important as IQ in helping clients grow

John Connors, CEO and founder of Boathouse, has spent the last 25 years zagging while most independents zig. And for the most part, the strategy has worked well enough that the Boston-based full service agency has grown steadily — in 2025, Connors expects to grow between 5-10%, as it handles about $100 million in billings.

Why CrUX & Search Console Don’t Match On Core Web Vitals

Google’s Barry Pollard recently explained why website owners see different Core Web Vitals scores in Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) versus Google Search Console. The short answer: both tools can be correct because they measure different things. Pollard addressed the issue on Bluesky after questions about sites showing 90% “good” page loads in CrUX but

Weird Al Is the Unlikely Spokesperson for Prudential’s Marketing Shift

Don’t be fooled by his offbeat humor and style. Comedy musician “Weird Al” Yankovic has had an enduring career spanning over 40 years, topping the charts, winning Grammy Awards, and earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Like many others, Weird Al has a name and legacy to protect, which makes him the

Are these artworks a delicious bite out of capitalism? Or are they cake?

Investigating what he calls “capitalist fear mitigation”, Alexander repurposes extra-human sensory experiences of technologies like night vision and thermal imaging, aesthetics that instantly recall the internet’s “military death-cam footage”. Then, he encases them inside the otherwise harmless shop-bought sheet cake, creating an unsettling contradiction – it normalises the quiet but terrific violence of our media’s

How AI Search Can Drive Sales & Boost Conversions

AI search has completely changed the way customers make decisions. If you’re still just tracking data instead of driving sales from AI search, you are missing out. Join Bart Góralewicz, Co-Founder of ZipTie.dev, on September 3, 2025, for an insightful webinar on how to map customer journeys in AI search and turn those insights into

Vic Moy takes her camera down the streets of Nottinghill Carnival

Photographer Vic Moy was raised in a belief system where children were seen but not heard: “So, part of my personal and creative journey has been about giving myself ongoing permission: to speak, feel, reflect, heal, and to grow,” she says. She looks forward to a future where “it’s safe to feel, somewhere frostbite doesn’t

Inspiro WordPress Theme Vulnerability Affects Over 70,000 Sites

A vulnerability advisory was published for the Inspiro WordPress theme by WPZoom. The vulnerability arises due to a missing or incorrect security validation that enables an unauthenticated attacker to launch a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) A CSRF vulnerability in the context of a WordPress site is an attack that relies

CNN NewsNight Was the Network’s Top Show

CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip earned a rare win on CNN as it was the network’s top show in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo. Fox News’ The Five was the top show of the evening in total viewers, with Gutfeld! leading the way in the demo. Over at MSNBC, The Last Word with

The best Unreal Engine 5 games out now and coming soon

The best Unreal Engine 5 games demonstrate why Epic Games’ real-time digital creation platform has become so popular among devs big and small. Many of the best UE5 games showcase the engine’s ability to achieve impressively detailed 3D realism through its powerful physically-based rendering and features like Nanite virtualized geometry and Lumen dynamic global illumination.

Common Hosting Defenses Ineffective Against WordPress Threats

Patchstack published a case study that examined how well Cloudflare and other general firewall and malware solutions protected WordPress websites from common vulnerability threats and attack vectors. The research showed that while general solutions stopped threats like SQL injection or cross-site scripting, a dedicated WordPress security solution consistently stopped WordPress-specific exploits at a significantly higher

Marketing leadership asks for radical candor but wants compliance

Marketers love bold words. Radical candor. Radical transparency. Radical acceptance. They sound daring, but in practice, they’re often hollow — more performance than principle. In organizations where truth is bent to fit the storyline, “radical” language becomes branding, not behavior. This behavior is everywhere in marketing. We talk about candor but punish dissent. We talk

Smoking Diaries reimagines the humble ashtray in 17 different ways

With the aim to explore the social rituals that smoking creates through this humble and universal 3D form, the designers reached out to a range of creatives with a simple but open brief: “design an ashtray however you wish.” The pieces would then be put on show at a ‘smoking event’ at the classic old-school

Should Small Brands Go All In On TikTok For Audience Growth?

This week’s Ask An SEO question is about whether small brands should prioritize TikTok over Google to grow their audience: “I keep hearing that TikTok is a better platform for small brands with an easier route to an audience. Do you think that Google is still relevant, or should I go all in on TikTok?”

TikTok works to shore up organic social capabilities

Although the chance of a TikTok shutdown has a minority of marketers worried about their time and cash investments there, it’s still a key vehicle for organic social, particularly for brands pursuing trend-setting Gen Z audiences. That status is an important asset to the platform, given brands which devote more time to their organic activities

Please, Watch The Artwork transforms the paintings of Edward Hopper into a casual psychological horror

Despite having made a series of games based on famous paintings, Thomas Waterzooi wouldn’t call himself a connoisseur of art. “I know art like the average person,” he admits. “I had a mother who was really into art and took me to art galleries when I was younger, but it wasn’t my passion either. Especially

Google AI Mode Adds Agentic Booking, Expands To More Countries

Google is adding agentic booking features to AI Mode in Search, beginning with restaurant reservations for U.S. Google AI Ultra subscribers enrolled in Labs. What’s New Booking Reservations AI Mode can interpret a detailed request, check real-time availability across reservation sites, and link you to the booking page to complete the task. For businesses, that

CNN Headlines Debuts New Programming Schedule

Top of the Ticker: On Monday, CNN’s domestic FAST channel CNN Headlines debuted a new weekday schedule running from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET. Featuring a mix of live news and roundups of can’t-miss moments, CNN Headlines’ lineup includes news shows like CNN Headline Express, a live news program hosted by anchor Brad Smith;

Us By Night 2025 is coming – get ready to be inspired (and party)

Across the stages over the three days, you’ll also find the likes of Studio Yukiko, Mindy Seu, Karlotta Freier, Dinamo, Stephanie Specht, Pablo Delcan, Nicole McLaughlin, and creative director Mandy Smith alongside lead designer Estefan Richter from the animation studio Buck, who will delve into the studio’s recent branding and design systems – and the

Tips For Running Competitor Campaigns In Paid Search

Paid search professionals constantly debate the merits of running paid search campaigns bidding on competitor brand names. Questions such as the following may arise: Is bidding on your competitors ethical? Are the high costs-per-click (CPCs) worth spending the budget on? Are you actually reaching people with buying intent? In this article, I’ll talk through answers

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