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

Us breaks down the design-heavy process behind its tear-jerker Black Mirror episode, Eulogy

Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor are the directing duo behind the studio Us. One of the pairs most recent directorial endeavours is Eulogy, a gripping TV episode on memory, desire, and acceptance, from the seventh instalment of Charlie Brooker’s hit TV show, Black Mirror. The episode’s main character, Phillip, portrayed by Academy award-nominee Paul Giamatti,

6 AI Marketing Myths That Are Costing You Money

Stop letting AI drain your budget. Learn how to make it work for you. Think AI can fully run your marketing strategy on autopilot? Or that AI-generated content should deliver instant results? It is time to bust the AI myths that are slowing you down and costing you money. Join Bailey Beckham, Senior Partner Marketing

With all this AI skill, at what point are clients looking for payback?

Generative AI continues to steadily infiltrate more corners of the media business, creating efficiencies and saving time across content, production, research, data crunching and even planning and buying. Holding companies and independents alike are collectively investing billions in architecture, tools and processes that leverage AI in ways that go far beyond simple machine learning. So

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 3 gets a price cut to just $169 for a limited time

Looking for an affordable laptop to get through your studies? You don’t necessarily need to splash out on one of the best MacBooks for students, as there are tons of alternative options over at Best Buy’s back-to-school sale. I’ve specifically picked out this deal on the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 below as a top choice

Google Is Testing An AI-Powered Finance Page

Google announced that they’re testing a new AI-powered Google Finance tool. The new tool enables users to ask natural language questions about finance and stocks, get real-time information about financial and cryptocurrency topics, and access new charting tools that visualize the data. Three Ways To Access Data Google’s AI finance page offers three ways to

Gray Media to Purchase 10 Local TV Stations From Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group

Local TV station powerhouse Gray Media announced that it will purchase 10 television stations from Allen Media Group for $171 million. AMG, which is selling its stations as it looks to reduce its debt load, is owned by media mogul Byron Allen. With the purchase of the stations, which range from No. 75 to 189

Tala Rae Schlossberg’s mixed media animations are sensitive analogue worlds

Tala continued to explore her love for the art of moving image taking on a role making videos at the The New York Times, before starting her own creative studio Two Toes. Co-founded alongside fellow designer and artist Kika Macfarane, the pair worked collaboratively on projects dedicated to visual storytelling for causes and brands such

Cohorts, Clusters, And The Coming AI Ad System

The funnel didn’t disappear. It went invisible. Marketers spent decades perfecting the funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion. We built personas. We mapped content to stages. We watched users click, scroll, bounce, convert. Everything was visible. But GenAI doesn’t show its hand. The funnel still exists, it’s just hidden inside the model. Every time someone prompts ChatGPT

Clari and Salesloft merger ushers in the era of ‘autonomous revenue systems’

The tech power couple, AI and data, made another splash this week when Salesloft and Clari agreed to merge. The companies, both players in revenue orchestration, say the deal marks the beginning of “autonomous revenue systems,” where humans and agents will work together to unlock new levels of productivity and growth. When the deal closes

Apple’s cinema lawsuit is raising eyebrows

Apple vs Apple was one of the most epic trademark battles in history. The Beatles’ record label Apple Corps sued Apple Computer (now Apple Inc) in a series of legal disputes over almost three decades until the latter finally paid $500 million to settle and acquire Apple Corps’ trademarks, allowing it to use the name

How To Discover Who You Are As A Brand

Brand identity is the foundation of your business, from the conceptualization of your services and products all the way to marketing. Before you can create an effective marketing, SEO, content strategy, or even a business strategy, you need to know who you are as a brand. It’s a step many marketers and business leaders overlook,

A guide to being gaslit by tech platforms (the AI edition)

When Google recently claimed that its AI Overviews are driving “more queries and higher quality clicks”, it struck a nerve. Too many, it wasn’t just out of touch; it was patronizing, another reminder of how far the platform’s incentives have drifted from theirs. The message came via a blog post from Liz Reid, Google’s head

Vojtěch Luksch blends violent retro video games with the “grandma-core” of embroidered canvases

The artist Vojtěch Luksch currently lives and works in a tiny village Czech Republic. A graduate of masters in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts Brno, Vojtěch is somewhat elusive on his Instagram account. The largely faceless artist posts incredible paintings of videogames translated onto embroidered canvases, creating a brilliant 3D texture that compliments

Google Expands Performance Max Controls and Reporting

Google Ads just dropped another wave of updates to Performance Max today. For those who’ve been asking for better audience targeting, clearer reporting on new customer acquisition, and more transparency around auto-generated assets, these updates will feel like long-overdue upgrades. Let’s break down what’s new, why it matters, and how advertisers should respond. What’s New

The Situation Room Celebrates 20 Years on CNN

Top of the Ticker: An important milestone was marked on Friday morning as The Situation Room celebrated its 20th anniversary. What began as a three-hour late-afternoon program anchored by Wolf Blitzer has, over the years, morphed into a two-hour late-morning show co-anchored by Blitzer and Pamela Brown. Despite the timeslot changes and anchor additions, the

Skechers just can’t quit making crappy AI ads

As AI becomes more accessible, it seems we’ve been plagued with an increasing number of AI ads. Lacking both quality and style, these sloppy marketing ploys are hard to ignore, but Skechers’ latest ad might just be the worst offender I’ve seen in some time. The best billboard ads are crafted to make us stop

How To Stay Visible in AI Search [Webinar]

AI search is here. Are you ready for the new rules? The SEO game has changed. Traditional strategies are no longer enough, and some brands are getting lost in the shift to AI-powered search results. Join Wayne Cichanski on August 20, 2025 for an exclusive webinar sponsored by iQuanti. Learn how to adapt your SEO

How top brands turn product discovery into conversions

Shoppers won’t wait around. If they can’t find the right product fast, they’ll bounce—taking potential revenue with them. For brands, poor product discovery isn’t just a UX hiccup—it’s a conversion killer. Join this MarTech webinar for an inside look at how brands like Free People, Centrum, and RMS Beauty have turned product discovery into a

Jonathan Tan’s cinemagraphs capture the quiet beauty in Singaporean lift lobbies

For residents in Singapore, the lift lobby is a familiar yet often overlooked space, says Jonathan Tan, a Singaporean artist who uses a cool blend of photography and video editing to create introspective, partially-frozen scenes of elevators – often our final stop before reaching home. Jonathan’s project Waiting For The Lift uses cinemagraphs (looping visuals

Unique Image Landing Pages Can Help Search Visibility

Google’s John Mueller says giving each image its own landing page can help it appear in image search, while gallery setups may limit visibility. Google recommends unique landing pages for important images instead of JavaScript-only galleries or URL fragments. Responsive images and modern formats improve user experience but aren’t direct ranking factors. Auditing

Join Our Newsletter

For more professional opportunities join our newsletter.