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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

The Web’s New Visitor Just Got An Identity

On March 20, 2026, Google quietly added a new entry to its official list of web fetchers. Not a crawler. Not a training bot. An agent. Google-Agent is the user agent string for AI systems running on Google infrastructure that browse websites on behalf of users. When someone asks an AI assistant to research a product, fill

Amazon believes video podcasts are no longer fringe

Amazon wants to turn creator-led video podcasts into the next generation of TV networks – multiplatform franchises that can soak up TV budgets and spin out into retail, live events and social clips. That pitch was front and center at Amazon’s May 11 Upfront in New York City, where performances from Diplo and Kacey Musgraves

Melt into Steph Hardy’s soft illustrations of sweet treats and “bad day” snacks

As food has taken over as her focus, Steph has a new take on colour: “It’s definitely leant more into the painterly side,” she says, and new palettes have emerged from the different textures and surfaces of food the illustrator has drawn – like her airy line up of deserts that look like they would

Current KPIs You Need To Know

If your organic traffic is down but your pipeline looks fine, you’re not imagining it. AI-generated answers are intercepting the journey earlier, meaning users are getting what they need from a citation or a recommendation before they ever hit your site. The click never happens. But the influence did. That’s the measurement problem most marketing

CBS News’ Charles Forelle Asserts Network’s Editorial Independence

Top of the Ticker: During the Society of Advancing Business Editing and Writing’s annual conference recently held in Philadelphia, CBS News’ managing editor Charles Forelle stressed to Semafor’s Ben Smith that his network’s editorial independence operates without any owner influence. “The convention in American journalism is that the owners are independent of the news operation, and

Save up to 50% on travel tech with these getaway gadget deals

Warmer weather is approaching, and if you’ve got a vacay booked for the near future, let me share my travel tech essentials with you. A lot of people don’t consider tech to be a top priority when packing for a holiday (since we’re all trying to get away from our phones and displays, right?), but

Meta Doesn’t Know What Business It’s In & The Traffic Data Shows It

On Friday, May 8, 2026, The New York Times published a guest essay by investigative journalist Julia Angwin with a headline that demands attention: “Meta Is Dying.” She highlights that Meta lost daily active users in Q1 2026, falling from 3.58 billion in Q4 2025 to 3.56 billion. Angwin sees this as the beginning of

5 reasons branding belongs in your GTM strategy

“Think different” was the theme of Apple’s 1997 campaign that began the company’s revival after many thought it was dying. It is both an example of great branding and a wake-up call. The point of branding is differentiation, but that’s been lost in the fog of AI sameness. Your brand is your promise of value,

Studio Cera

Identity for architecture studio Cera, reflecting its narrative, history-driven approach. Structured typography, curated references, and a refined logotype balance between clarity, atmosphere, and timelessness.

SERP FAQ Removal & New Data Challenge Schema’s AI Search Value

Schema markup had a rough week. Google ended FAQ rich results. Four days later, Ahrefs published a report, finding that adding JSON-LD didn’t produce a clear citation lift across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, or ChatGPT. These developments weaken two common pitches for schema markup: increased SERP visibility and potential AI citation gains. This article

Why brands need to fix their processes before they build their agents

The most important AI lesson senior marketers are learning: start with the process, not the agent. Buried beneath all the noise about agents and autonomous workflows is something that actually cuts to the heart of why there are so many conflicting views about where AI adoption really is right now — and more importantly, why

Lonely Planet on its pocket-sized zine, Artifact

The idea for this new print project was initiated by a small group across Lonely Planet’s editorial, design and photography teams that came together to “carve out space for more experimental, creative work”, shares Matthew, led by Nitya Chambers, the brand’s senior vice president. The team at Lonely Planet were keen to lean back into

GA4 Tracks AI Assistant Traffic, FAQ Results Gone

Welcome to this week’s Pulse. The updates affect how you measure AI assistant traffic, what structured data does for visibility, and how a major publisher is planning for life after search. Here’s what matters for you and your work. Google Analytics Adds Native AI Assistant Channel Google Analytics now assigns traffic from recognized AI chatbots

CNN Only Network With Growth

This is TVNewser’s basic cable network ranker and cable news report for the week of May 4, 2026. CNN stood out from its peers as it was the only cable news network to record week-to-week growth in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo during primetime. Meanwhile, Fox News remained the most-watched news network in

New Spider-Man logo frustrates fans thanks to one tiny detail

To celebrate the countdown to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, fans have been blessed with a flurry of posters, giving a sneak peek at what’s to come. The latest design finally gives us a look at unmasked leading man Tom Holland (or the bottom half of his face, at least), and while many were swept up

Google’s New AI Search Guide Calls AEO And GEO ‘Still SEO’

Google published a new documentation page to help websites optimize for generative AI features in Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode. The page, “Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search,” expands Google’s prior AI features documentation published in 2025. The earlier page explains how AI features work, how inclusion is controlled,

The AI search shift changing B2B marketing metrics

For years, B2B marketers focused on winning search rankings to drive traffic and generate leads. That playbook is changing fast. Fifty-two percent of B2B tech marketing leaders now see AI-generated search as their top channel for reaching buyers, according to 10Fold’s new report, “The Visibility Reset: How AI Search Is Changing B2B Content Strategy.” Instead

Urban Archive

I’ve always been obsessed with cities because of my architectural background ? how infrastructure, people, chaos, and memory shape each other. Instead of documenting places literally, I wanted to merge them into emotional environments where different cultures and visual rhythms coexist in one space. Some parts were originally made for editorial and commercial commissions, others

Why Your AI Ad Strategy Is Only As Good As Your Data

Stop trying to out-calculate the machine and start feeding the machine better signals was the theme from Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Product Liaison, during a recent episode of the Ads Decoded podcast she hosts. To many, it sounded like a victory lap for automation and seemed to set the industry on fire. To others, it felt

Ally Financial wants a bigger role in women’s sports media deals

Live sports could be described as one of the last bastions of live television. With so many eyeballs in one place at one time, marketers are desperate to embed their brands — especially in women’s sports. Ally Bank’s chief marketing and PR officer Andrea Brimmer is one of those marketers. Back in 2022, the bank

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