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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

WordPress Contact Form 7 Redirection Plugin Vulnerability Hits 300k Sites

A vulnerability advisory was issued for a WordPress Contact Form 7 add-on plugin that enables unauthenticated attackers to “easily” launch a remote code execution. The vulnerability is rated high (8.8/10) on the CVSS threat severity scale. Screenshot from Wordfence advisory showing 8.8 CVSS severity rating Redirection for Contact Form 7 plugin The vulnerability affects the

Why generative AI doesn’t fit into the in-house playbook—yet

The industry has moved functions in-house, establishing playbooks from everything from social to programmatic media buying. But brands are not using the same in-housing play for AI. Some brands, like U.S. Bank, are taking a hybrid approach, while others, like Adobe, are more fluid, using AI tools both internally and in partnership with external partners.

staying relevant in a novelty-obsessed world

Legacy, But Make It Last Despite their historical differences, these brands are known for building distinct brand worlds, established through years of consistent messaging and emotive creative. John Lewis has a history that stretches back over 150 years, long positioning itself as a brand with a premium reputation. “Our brand is synonymous with quality, service

Ahrefs Launches Tracker Comparing ChatGPT & Google Referral Traffic

Ahrefs released a public dashboard that tracks how much referral traffic websites receive from Google Search versus ChatGPT, with monthly updates. The first dataset covers three complete months across 44,421 sites connected to Ahrefs’ free Web Analytics tool. The Early Numbers For July, the dashboard reports Google at 41.9% of total web traffic across the

Inside Jordan Brand’s Jump Shot to Court a New Generation

Jordan Brand is one of the most recognizable brands in the world, thanks to Nike and basketball G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan, with fans ranging from NBA pros to high school athletes to casual sneaker heads. But the brand is reaching middle age, recently celebrating its 40th anniversary with a year-long marketing campaign full of activations, product

Adobe somehow just made PDFs exciting

The humble PDF might not feel like cutting edge tech in 2025, but Adobe‘s out to change that. The software giant that created the Portable Document Format way back in 1993 and released it to the world as an open standard in 2008 is now using AI to expand its versatility – and to help

Standby As Google Cannibalizes Itself (While Also Devouring All Of Us)

In 2023, I wrote about a provocative “what if”: What if Google added an AI chatbot to Search, effectively cannibalizing itself? Fast-forward to 2025, and it’s no longer hypothetical. With AI Overviews (AIOs) and AI Mode, Google has not only eaten into its own search product, but it has also taken a big bite out

AI helps marketing and sales pros work smarter, but does it drive revenue?

AI usage is widespread in revenue organizations, with 68 percent of sales and marketing professionals using AI at work and 51 percent using AI agents, according to a new survey. The survey, published by talent and upskilling community General Assembly, found mixed opinions on whether AI helps grow revenue at their organization. Sixty-one percent of

“It’s imperative we have age diversity in creative teams”

The customer base for ‘grey coin’ is enormous. Gen X (currently aged 45-60) is projected to be the highest spending generation globally in 2025. They have significantly more disposable income than younger generations, so the obsession with targeting Gen Z is a bit of a red herring. Because of this, I think it’s imperative we

OpenAI Announces Low-Cost Subscription Plan: ChatGPT Go

OpenAI is rolling out a new subscription tier called ChatGPT Go, a competitively priced version that will initially be available only to users in India. It features ten times higher message limits, ten times more image generations, and file uploads than the free tier. ChatGPT Go OpenAI is introducing a new low-cost subscription plan that

How Uber’s global head of advertising got her job

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Kristi Argyilan has spent the last decade building out retail media businesses at the likes of Target, Albertsons and now Uber. She’s seen the RMN boom from the early aughts of in-store shopper marketing tactics to what it is today, a fast-moving landscape built on programmatic media buys and off-site

PSA – The Samsung Galaxy Ring is only $299 right now

As a dedicated Samsung fan, I’m delighted that the Galaxy Ring has finally hit its lowest price ever at just $299.99 over at Amazon. I’ve been on the fence about whether or not to buy this ring for a while now, and never been able to justify the price tag despite all of its great

Mueller Confirms Small Pilot Group

Google says the new Trends API is opening to a “quite small” set of testers at first, with access expanding over time. The company formally announced the alpha at Search Central Live APAC. On Bluesky, Google Search Advocate John Mueller tried to set expectations for SEO professionals, writing: “The initial pilot is going to be

Duolingo Social Media Guru Zaria Parvez Exits

Duolingo’s senior global social media manager, Zaria Parvez, has left the company, the company confirmed to ADWEEK. Her last day was Friday (August 15). She announced her departure on her LinkedIn page on Monday. “After five unforgettable years, 8 billion impressions and even more jaw-drops—it’s time to take off the suit,” she wrote. “It’s been

New report asks brands to think about experiential marketing a little differently

As such, the practicality of experiential marketing is a big part of the pitch. The ROX framework helps brands map the value of their experiences across five dimensions – brand strength, audience engagement, sales impact, PR and storytelling, and organisational insight – while also looking at the entire event lifecycle. Case studies demonstrate how the

Why CMOs Should Rethink ROAS As A North Star Metric

If you lead a marketing team, chances are you’ve had this conversation: “How are the campaigns doing?” “Well, our ROAS is 4:1.” The room breathes a collective sigh of relief. The good news: the marketing budget is justified (for the time being). But here’s the problem: that number might not actually tell you anything useful.

Operationalizing generative AI for marketing impact

Marketing is undergoing a structural shift — not only in how content is created, but in how campaigns are orchestrated, insights generated, operations managed and outputs governed. At the center of this change is generative AI. For senior marketing leaders, the question has moved beyond “Should we use AI?” to “How do we scale it

The hardest Who’s that Pokémon? Quiz you’ll attempt today

So you want to be a master of Pokémon? We all know the theme tune –but now it’s time to put your knowledge to the test in my latest quiz. When watching the Pokémon Indigo League series as a child, it always used to bug me how easy it was to guess which of the

How To Create Your Instagram Content Plan (With Free Template)

Are your Instagram posts struggling to gain traction? With over 2 billion monthly active users, standing out on the platform requires strategy and content planning. A content plan is an essential blueprint to help you keep your posts aligned with your strategy and your overall marketing goals. Posting without a plan can just be a

Havas joins race to answer clients’ zero-click search concerns

As users adopt AI search tools like Google’s AI Overviews or ChatGPT in lieu of traditional search engines, clients are worried about what exactly generative AI search tools are saying about their brands and whether that can be measured and ultimately, influenced. French holding company Havas is the latest to start offering some answers to

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