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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

Dentsu and WPP Quietly Exited The Trade Desk’s OpenPath Over Hidden Fees and Transparency

The world’s largest holding companies are pulling back from one of The Trade Desk’s most closely-watched, and arguably important, initiative: OpenPath. OpenPath is meant to make ads perform better and help ad buyers directly purchase publishers’ inventory. If successful, it could offer a viable alternative to Google, and CEO Jeff Green bullishly anticipated 2025 as the

Pinterest x World of Warcraft is the strangest social media collab yet

Could your home’s interior design use an injection of ‘goblin glamour’ or ‘orcish minimalism’? While these weren’t up there with Wilderkind on Pinterest’s 2026 trend predictions, they’re now taking off on the platform thanks to a collaboration that wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card for 2026. As one of the best social media platforms for artists

RIP to Content that Died Because of Misaligned Strategy

Content without alignment is just expensive noise. Melissa Wickes breaks down how amplification and shared goals drive real ROI. The post RIP to Content that Died Because of Misaligned Strategy first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Why AI Misreads The Middle Of Your Best Pages

The middle is where your content dies, and not because your writing suddenly gets bad halfway down the page, and not because your reader gets bored. But because large language models have a repeatable weakness with long contexts, and modern AI systems increasingly squeeze long content before the model even reads it. That combo creates

Google launches no-code Scenario Planner built on Meridian MMM

Google is rolling out Scenario Planner, a no-code tool designed to make its Meridian marketing mix model accessible to marketers who do not have a data science team on speed dial. Marketing mix modeling has long promised rigorous, data-driven budget optimization. The problem has always been usability. Scenario Planner aims to change that by turning

Korttelit

Debuting in 2025, Korttelit was an art event involving some of the leading Finnish artists that took place in the heart of Helsinki. Curated by Miro-Benjamin Lindström, the event brought a selection of contemporary art into the Torikorttelit area, spreading across windows, outdoor spaces and other unique sites. To match the seasonal theme, and to

Why Google Runs AI Mode On Flash, Explained By Google’s Chief Scientist

Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean said Flash’s low latency and cost are why Google can run Search AI at scale. Retrieval is a design choice, not a limitation, he added. In an interview on the Latent Space podcast, Dean explained why Flash became the production tier for Search. He also laid out why the pipeline

Unilever CEO claims era of ‘corporate big brand’ ads is over

Since taking over as Unilever CEO in March 2025, Fernando Fernandez has been clear in his belief that creator marketing is what will drive impact for the consumer goods giant over traditional advertising channels. Speaking to an audience of investors at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference yesterday (17 February), Fernandez has

How Animate Jack is bringing back the golden age of anime art

Animate Jack is reliving the golden age of 2D animation and he definitely brought it to December’s Nicer Tuesdays in London. His talk detailed how he was discouraged from pursuing certain illustration styles, before taking matters into his own hands and owning his unique anime and cyberpunk-inspired style. With clients such as Troye Sivan, Coldplay,

Optimizing Content for Generative Search, AI, and SEO

All of the generative search changes have people on edge, but there isn’t much to worry about. Gini Dietrich has all of the things to consider in your owned and earned media efforts. The post Optimizing Content for Generative Search, AI, and SEO first appeared on Spin Sucks.

ChatGPT Search Often Switches To English In Fan-Out Queries: Report

When ChatGPT Search builds an answer, it can generate background web queries to find sources. A new report from AI search analytics firm Peec AI found that a large share of those background queries run in English, even when the original prompt was in another language. Peec AI analyzed over 10 million prompts and 20

Creators eye Snapchat as a reliable income alternative to TikTok and YouTube

Even before Snapchat fully scales its newly unveiled creator subscriptions program, high-earning creators on the platform say it provides a reliable revenue stream with minimal content lift — encouraging amid the instability of other social algorithms. “I never have a day where I’m making less than $200,” said Josh Horton, who has amassed 624,000 followers

Unity AI will let you build entire games with just words

Unity is taking a bold step in the push for AI-powered game creation. During a recent earnings call, CEO Matthew Bromberg announced that an upgraded Unity AI will enter beta at the Game Developers Conference in March, promising to let developers generate full casual games from a simple text prompt. Bromberg described it as a

The Enduring Value of Recognition In Creative Industries

Recognition is essential for motivating teams, enhancing job satisfaction, and driving business success. Mike Szczesny shares how to implement this practice. The post The Enduring Value of Recognition In Creative Industries first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Are Citations In AI Search Affected By Google Organic Visibility Changes?

I recently wrote about an unconfirmed Google algorithm update that rolled out in mid-January 2026, which negatively impacted the organic search visibility of dozens of major brands. For most of the impacted sites I analyzed, the impact was disproportionately targeted to the company’s blog, or another folder containing informational articles and resources. That same organic trajectory

Names Edgar Hernandez First Chief Commercial Officer

The social influence publisher ATTN: appointed former BuzzFeed and Complex Networks executive Edgar Hernandez as its first chief commercial officer. Hernandez, who started Feb. 17, will oversee the company’s sales organization and lead its go-to-market strategy across branded content, agency services, intellectual property, and social media partnerships. The hire comes as the media company and

The Netherlands Covered In Snow :: Behance

The Netherlands Covered In Snow I always like to look back on the photos I take. It takes me back to the moment and relive the memories. For me, that’s an important part of photography. Last January we had lots of snow in the Netherlands. In a month where I was supposed to be in

Every successful PESO Model© program begins with owned media. Without it, Gini Dietrich says you have nothing to share, nothing to help earn credibility, and nothing to amplify. The post Using the PESO Model© In a Communications Campaign first appeared on Spin Sucks.

5 Ways New Businesses Can Show Up In ChatGPT & Gemini

This post was sponsored by No Fluff. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. When ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity mention a company, these large language models (LLMs) are deciding whether that business is safe to reference, not how long it has existed. Most business leaders assume one thing when they don’t show

The path to purchase just got dramatically shorter

Every year, marketers analyze performance data from the holiday shopping period to understand how consumers are buying and where marketing strategies are working. While topline growth always draws attention, the most valuable insights often come from how purchases happen rather than how much was spent — defying last year’s pessimistic forecasts. Despite ongoing concerns around

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