Blueprint | The Gradient

Who Won, Who Cut and What Comes Next in Advertising

Featured Stories

The GRADIENT

Who Won, Who Cut and What Comes Next in Advertising

ABC News Receives the Most Edward R. Murrow Awards

Top of the Ticker: ABC News led all national news outlets, receiving six awards at the 2025 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, including Overall Excellence in the Network TV and Network Radio categories. NBC News received five awards, followed by CBS News and Al Jazeera with three apiece. MSNBC, NewsNation, Scripps News, Univision, and AJ+

Taylor Swift’s new album sparks the hottest branding trend of 2025

When Taylor Swift announced her upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl, she probably wasn’t expecting to drop the hottest new branding trend of 2025. Inspired by Taylor’s cryptic marketing campaign, iconic brands have hopped on the bandwagon, playfully paying homage to the star’s highly anticipated release. It’s not surprising since Miss Swift is known

AI-Powered Search: Adapting Your SEO Strategy

Using outdated and traditional SEO tactics centered around keywords and backlinks is not moving the needle anymore, as Google shifts toward AI-driven answers. Organic clicks are going down as a result of Google AI Overviews and the rise of zero-click searches, where users get answers directly on Google’s search results page without clicking through to

How is AI reshaping martech replacements? Share your insights

TL;DR: Take the 2025 MarTech Replacement Survey. The 2024 MarTech Replacement Survey gave us insights into how marketers evaluate and replace their technology tools. A clear majority of the 2024 respondents reported replacing a martech solution in the past year — most often with a commercial application. Cost emerged as the top consideration in 2024

Art director, design and painter Na Kim on how she juggles three artist outputs

Na Kim, acclaimed designer and art director at The Paris Review, took to the stage at June’s Nicer Tuesday in New York City to tell us about her humble beginnings smoking cigarettes and shoplifting to juggling several jobs and learning design. She talked about taking professional leaps and balancing artistic outputs as well as the

Google Brings AI Trip-Finding To Google Flights

Google adds an AI “Flight Deals” tool to Google Flights, part of a broader push into vertical, conversational search experiences. Google launched Flight Deals in Google Flights. It’s rolling out in the U.S., Canada, and India next week. Google Flights adds a basic-economy exclusion in the U.S. and Canada.

Inside a global agency’s AI decision making process

While most AI companies have headquarters in Silicon Valley, U.S. federal lawmakers have not yet broached regulating the sector. President Donald Trump has even gone so far as to encourage the tech’s development and removal of federal regulations that could hinder AI development and deployment in The White House’s AI framework. However, it’s a nuanced

Discover the work of a digital artist who blends personal influences with striking utopian fantasy

Based in France, Jessica Liu is a self-taught freelance artist who specialises in illustrations and character art. She tends to work in Procreate and Clip Studio Paint (both of which feature in our guide to the best digital art software), and her work is often fantasy themed. With a particular focus on shape and colour,

ChatGPT-5 Now Connects To Gmail, Calendar, And Contacts

OpenAI announced that it has added connectors to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts for ChatGPT Plus users, enabling ChatGPT to use data from those apps within ChatGPT chats. ChatGPT Connectors A connector is a bridge between ChatGPT and an external app like Canva, Dropbox, and Gmail, enabling users to connect those apps to ChatGPT

Who’s In and Who’s Out at MSNBC as Versant Spin-Off Looms (Updated)

MSNBC’s final separation from the NBCUniversal News Group is fast approaching. The network will join Versant once Comcast’s spin-off company officially launches later this year. MSNBC is in the process of hiring more than 100 journalists, and is also on the hunt for new office and studio space. The move away from NBC News’ home

why music now comes with its own visual universe

Founders and creative directors of the Los Angeles-based studio See You Later, Darrius Medina and TJ Hoover, see this need to chase uniqueness to be viral as a result of post-pandemic music culture and the explosion of TikTok, which has contributed a flood of new artists all trying to differentiate themselves. Darrius and TJ, who

Multimodal Search Is Reshaping The Funnel For SEOs And Marketers

For years, marketers built their strategies around a clear and visible funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion. It worked well in a web where behaviors were traceable, people clicked links, visited pages, signed up, bought a product, or bounced. We were able to track almost all of it, and we had attribution models that helped show return

A 3-step copywriting formula that makes buyers take action

Marketing departments are missing goals left and right. Your marketing isn’t converting because the way you’re talking about your offer sucks. Maybe you’ve tweaked form fields, added a video of your SDR in an email or even tossed in a digital Starbucks gift card. Still not working? Thought so. It’s not working because no one

I’ve just found the perfect MacBook deal for students

As a former student, I know how stressful it can be trying to find reliable tech for your studies while working with a tighter budget. It’s especially hard if you’re enrolling on a creative course, as you’ll likely need a device that can run performance-heavy software. Thankfully, I’ve found a deal on the older MacBook

Google Gemini Adds Personalization From Past Chats

Google is rolling out updates to the Gemini app that personalize responses using past conversations and add new privacy controls, including a Temporary Chat mode. The changes start today and will expand over the coming weeks. What’s New Personalization From Past Chats Gemini now references earlier chats to recall details and preferences, making responses feel

The Rundown: Ad tech’s Q2 report card

The shifting tectonic plates of the internet have focused attention on the leading publicly listed ad tech companies, with the fortunes of such entities considered a bellwether of the wider sector. Upon initial viewing, everything was positive for the companies in this cohort over the 90 days to June 30 — after all, this was the

Julian Adon Alexander talks about flexing creative muscles and transforming reality

Julian Adon Alexander told the audience at June’s Nicer Tuesdays in New York about his instantly enchanting charcoal illustrations, walking them through collaborations with clients such as The New Yorker, NBA G League and Nike. Presenting his creative and professional journey so far, Julian explained how to transform reality into art and why sheer quantity

YouTube Lets Creators Pick Exact CTAs In Promote Website Ads

YouTube has updated its Promote feature, giving you more control over campaigns designed to drive website traffic. When you set a campaign goal of “more website visits,” you can now choose a specific call to action, such as “Book now,” “Get quote,” or “Contact us.” The change was announced during YouTube’s weekly news update for

Exverus Snags Habit Burger Media AOR From Publicis

West Coast burger chain The Habit Burger Grill has appointed Exverus Media as its U.S. media agency of record following a competitive review, the companies told ADWEEK. The California-born fast casual chain worked with Connect, a Publicis Groupe media agency affiliated with Spark Foundry, for about a year before launching the review. Run in-house, the

No, I will not shut up about my Loop Earplugs

At the start of 2025, I made a vow to say yes to every single gig I was invited to – while it was great for expanding my tastes, about four gigs in, I discovered it was dreadful for my hearing. I knew earplugs were the solution, but those foamy orange ones filled me with

Join Our Newsletter

For more professional opportunities join our newsletter.