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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 design of Genie Wu proves craft and code can co-exist

Genie Wu’s design “begins with a double take”. When living between Taiwan and the United States, the designer learned that meaning is never fixed, it simply shifts and reshapes with every culture and point of view. “That habit of looking twice informs how I approach every project. I treat the world as layered, where everyday

New Meridian Tool, Performance Max Learning Path – PPC Pulse

Welcome to this week’s PPC Pulse, where this week’s focus is on scenario-based planning in both Google and Microsoft platforms. Google introduced a new Scenario Planner within Meridian, giving marketers the ability to model budget allocation shifts before committing spend. Microsoft launched a scenario-based Performance Max learning path designed to walk advertisers through practical campaign

What the rise of AI influencers means for marketers

Conversations about AI in influencer marketing centre heavily around managing workflows and increasing post frequency. But as the creator economy evolves interest is increasing in AI-generated influencers. AI influencers have technically been around for around a decade, with one of the most popular, Lil Miquela, making her Instagram debut in 2016. Another, Mia Zelu, went

This free fan remake is the perfect way to celebrate Zelda’s 40th anniversary

Today is Zelda’s 40th anniversary, marking four decades since the original game made its debut for Famicom in Japan in 1986 before launching on the NES in the US and Europe a year after. It seems the perfect occasion to revisit the first Zelda game – or at least a reimagining of the landmark release.

Google AI Mode Link Update, Click Share Data & ChatGPT Fan-Outs – SEO Pulse

Welcome to the week’s SEO Pulse: updates affect how links appear in AI search results, where organic clicks are going, and which languages ChatGPT uses to find sources. Here’s what matters for you and your work. Google Redesigns Links In AI Overviews And AI Mode Robby Stein, VP of Product for Google Search, announced on

The mental gymnastics of principal media

There’s a very specific facial expression CMOs make when “principal media” enters the conversation — composure holding, skepticism setting in. They understand the mechanics: an agency buys inventory, resells it and keeps the margin. What’s changed is the expectation that they take a side. For some, the model nudges decisions toward the agency’s balance sheet, not

Desert Coffee (USA) :: Behance

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Google Ads Surfaces PMax Search Partner Domains In Placement Report

Some advertisers are now seeing Performance Max placement data populate in Google Ads reporting, including Search Partner domains and impression counts that had previously been absent from the report. PPC marketer Thomas Eccel flagged the change on LinkedIn, noting the report had been empty for his PMax campaigns until now. “I finally see where and

Dept Powers Up Its Global Content Studio With Adobe AI

The demand for marketing content is higher than ever as consumer attention fragments and brands are able to reach people in multiple languages and contexts across the globe. Dept wants to change how that work gets done. The digital agency has partnered with Adobe to rebuild how its 500-person global content studio operates. The overhaul

Vlad Boyko on bringing back early 2000s clubbing visuals

The most successful work in this steady run of experimental flyers and prints always seemed to be the ones Vlad designed for friends or ‘small’ events: “the one flyer that I think, received the most attention last year was Doomscrolling Live for a small ambient listening night organized in Antwerp by my friends SYSTM. I

‘Summarize With AI’ Buttons Used To Poison AI Recommendations

Microsoft’s Defender Security Research Team published research describing what it calls “AI Recommendation Poisoning.” The technique involves businesses hiding prompt-injection instructions within website buttons labeled “Summarize with AI.” When you click one of these buttons, it opens an AI assistant with a pre-filled prompt delivered through a URL query parameter. The visible part tells the

Content marketing jobs are splitting in two

If you think content marketing is still about writing blog posts and filling an editorial calendar, the job market says otherwise. A Semrush analysis of 8,000 U.S. content marketing job listings shows a profession in the middle of a structural shift. Companies are no longer hiring content marketers just to produce assets. They want them

These detailed earphones just got discounted – they were only released two months ago!

I just finished writing my review on the Binary Acoustics EP321 MEMS in-ear monitor, when I noticed that there’s already $15 off the asking price, over at Amazon. The EP321 only got released in December 2025, and it was great value for its asking price, so this is definitely a deal worth highlighting. There are

Vectorization And Transformers (Not The Film)

Information retrieval systems are designed to satisfy a user. To make a user happy with the quality of their recall. It’s important we understand that. Every system and its inputs and outputs are designed to provide the best user experience. From the training data to similarity scoring and the machine’s ability to “understand” our tired, sad

Pet care firm Jollyes on its ‘unapologetic’ marketing mission

Jollyes Pets is on a mission to use marketing to set itself apart as a challenger in the competitive pet retail sector. Over the past three years, the business has almost doubled its number of stores, with February seeing launches in Hartlepool, Ponders End and Whitehaven. This follows a strong Christmas trading period, with total

Impossible Objects :: Behance

Impossible Objects A creative consultancy and showroom connecting brands across physical and digital platforms. The identity reduces the full name to the abstraction “I O,” where the space between the letters acts as a stage for the brands it represents. A modular grid system structures every application, creating a consistent, yet adaptable framework that can

Great SEO Is Good GEO — But Not Everyone’s Been Doing Great SEO

As SEOs, we are used to being adaptable to changing algorithms, so LLM optimization should be a simple extension of that process. To discuss the industry debates surrounding the differences between SEO and GEO and clarify whether they are the same or different, I spoke with SEO veteran Grant Simmons. Grant has over 30 years

Amazon surpasses Walmart in annual revenue for the first time

Amazon has eclipsed Walmart in annual revenue for the first time ever. Amazon said earlier this month that it brought in $716.9 billion in revenue for 2025. That beat Walmart’s sales last year, which came in at $713.2 billion, the company reported on Thursday. Walmart has topped the Fortune 500 list, which ranks the biggest U.S. companies

The third book from The Gourmand makes room for the mushroom

Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes. There’s those we cook with – the bulbous chestnut, long stemmed enoki and otherworldly globes of lion’s mane – and the brightly coloured and spotted growths often found in wooded areas, those you best avoid at all costs unless you’re a seasoned forager with extensive knowledge of their

Google Offers AI Certificate Free For Eligible U.S. Small Businesses

Google has launched the Google AI Professional Certificate, a self-paced program covering data analysis, content creation, research, and vibe coding. Every participant receives three months of free access to Google AI Pro. Eligible U.S. small businesses can access the entire program at no cost through a separate application (more on eligibility below). The certificate is

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