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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

Your Measurement Problem isn’t Really a Measurement Problem

Gini Dietrich explains why enterprise readiness is a system question, not a measurement question—and how to win the budget conversation The post Your Measurement Problem isn’t Really a Measurement Problem first appeared on Spin Sucks.

The Complete Guide To Local SEO For Multiple Locations

Local SEO has evolved a lot over the years, from the early days of just having to have a consistent name, address, and phone (NAP) profile coherence across the internet, through to the Possum update in 2016 (which introduced address-based filtering that made virtual offices and shared-address listings significantly riskier for local pack visibility) and

How automation and AI is reshaping the upfront marketplace

Over the years, the automated, data-driven ad buying process that is programmatic has crept into the human-led negotiations that make up upfront negotiations. That’s come to a head this year. That shift is seen at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, for example. In covering this year’s upfronts, Digiday reported that Disney sees 70% of its

Tickets now available for Cannes Nicer Tuesdays!

For our Nicer Tuesdays event at Cannes this year, we are teaming up with leading AI-powered visual communication platform Canva to bring visitors a series of inspiring talks by creatives, taking place at Canva’s own Creative Cabana. A Happy Hour celebrating the global creative community, this year’s gathering is set to spotlight a diverse range

Google Says Hyphenated Domain Names Are Okay For SEO

Google’s John Mueller recently confirmed that using hyphenated domain names are okay for SEO. Hyphenated domain names, long shunned in the SEO community as spammy, are apparently confirmed to not have any kind of negative signal attached to it. Hyphenated Domain Names And SEO Hyphenated-domain-names were a big deal in the early days of SEO

OpenAI Confidentially Files for IPO, Joining Anthropic in Race to Wall Street

OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, the company announced Monday, joining its rival Anthropic in a race to Wall Street as AI moves from private markets to public scrutiny. In a post on X, OpenAI said it had submitted a confidential S-1 filing with the SEC. “We have not decided on timing

Apple has FINALLY caught up on AI with new Siri for IPhone, iPad and Mac – but there’s one problem

Refresh 2026-06-08T18:22:28.049Z (Image credit: Future) And that’s it, after just an hour an 20 minutes, the Apple WWDC 2026 keynote is concluding with a musical tribute to iPhone apps from Erick the Architect. 2026-06-08T18:15:54.878Z In his sign off, Tim Cooks confirms that the Siri AI public beta will launch in July ahead of the full

How To Tie AI Search To Performance

How do you prove AI search is driving revenue when your current measurement stack wasn’t built to track it? Which metrics prove AI search value without click data? What KPIs should you track to actually see SEO impact? As zero-click journeys grow and AI influence moves off-site, traditional channel-level reporting leaves senior marketers without visibility

Stop treating search and video as separate teams

The best TV ads don’t just generate awareness. They generate searches. When a high-impact campaign airs, viewers immediately turn to Google, YouTube, and other platforms to learn more, find products, or continue engaging with a brand. The challenge isn’t generating that interest. It’s being ready to capture it. A recent World Cup campaign from Fox

Google Ask Maps Updates – How They Impact Your Business Profile

Many businesses see their Google Business Profile as a listing to verify and then leave untouched. Google’s new Ask Maps feature treats it as a conversational dataset for generating helpful answers about a business. The questions Ask Maps answers are what make change meaningful. When someone asks for a 24-hour locksmith who can get into

Upfront sports leads the 2026 marketplace again

The 2026 upfront marketplace has begun to move, with both holding company media agencies as well as some independents cutting deals, principally with media sellers that control both linear TV and streaming options. As expected, sports inventory is the principal bait that sellers have put on their hooks to land client dollars — but haggling

James Stuart is railing against boring design with techniques inspired by the spirit of Arabic hardcore music

When graphic designer James Stuart isn’t kicking out the jams in Arabic-language punk band Haram, he’s managing a “somewhat incongruous balance between designing artwork for musicians” and making documentary films. When a life in making non-fiction films called to him ten years ago, he still kept one foot in his design career. “Now I just

Google’s Sergey Brin Sees A Path To AGI But Not Beyond It

In a recent AGI House interview, Sergey Brin described Gemini as a system whose capabilities are not just evolving but integrating world knowledge across languages and modalities. He said the software that AI runs on has also evolved beyond what it was originally designed for, and while Brin can envision Gemini achieving AGI, he also

Here are the Cable News Ratings for May 2026

No major news stories surfaced during the month of May to keep audiences engaged across the major cable news networks. This resulted in a downward trend in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo for all three outlets during primetime and total day. Despite posting lower month-to-month numbers, Fox News remained the most-watched cable network

“It feels like a world in my head”: designing the decayed cosmos of Necrophosis

If I could award a game 10/10 for sheer art and confidence in a style, Necrophosis: Full Consciousness would be that game. Made by artist and founder of Dragonis Games, Ares Dragonis, this eerie, atmospheric horror game is heavily influenced by Zdzisław Beksiński and H.R. Giger, as well as the Cthulhu mythos, but has all

Google’s New Guidance Claims Authority Over SEO, Tools, And AEO/GEO

Google has published new guidance that canonicalizes itself as the single source of objective truth for SEO practices, including for AI SEO. The new guidance, published on Google Search Central, is Google’s strongest assertion of itself as the official source of information SEO best practices and SEO tools. The effect of the new guidance is

Marketing measurement is breaking under its own complexity

Marketers have more data than ever, but a new report from Bitly suggests they still struggle to answer a basic question: What’s actually working? According to Bitly’s “The Marketing Visibility Report,” the average marketing team now uses six different tools to measure performance. Yet only 18% of marketers say they have a clear view of

Silly pastels

A series of sketches from my notebooks, all done with oil pastels. This practice allows for exploring traditional techniques and new artistic languages beyond the usual ones used in the field.

What SEOs Should Read Before Labor Day, 5 Books For A Transformative Summer

Most summers, a reading list for SEO professionals is about thinking more broadly, stepping back from the day-to-day, and coming back in September with fresh perspective. This summer, it’s about keeping up. Because the gap between what you knew going into June and what you need to know by Labor Day is wider than it’s

By the numbers: Liftoff’s IPO tests ad tech’s mettle on the public markets

Liftoff Mobile’s initial public offering this week, which raised $437 million, representing a stock flotation price of $23 per share, was the latest test of the public market’s appetite for ad tech. The debut of the Blackstone-backed mobile app outfit — it was the result of the private equity firm’s 2019 purchase of Vungle, and

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