Shoppers seek payback on IEEPA price hikes, testing marketplace transparency.
Incumbents face pricing pressure just as renters are staying renters longer.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss three big questions surrounding Spotify right now: Why has the audio giant’s ad revenue stalled? What would a Spotify lifestyle app look like? Has Spotify solved the AI problem by adding “Verified” badges to distinguish human artists from AI-generated ones? And more. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Editor of our Marketing and Advertising Briefing, Daniel Konstantinovic. Listen everywhere, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.
Gen Z cools on AI’s promise: Usage ticks up slowly as anxiety and anger cloud faith in AI’s promise for creative help and work gains.
OpenAI reorganizes to power agentic development: The company merges product efforts, unifying offerings for siloed marketing teams.
Apple frames Siri as the privacy-first assistant: Custom chat deletion may win trust, but holding back on data collection could curb its AI development.
TikTok upgrades its ad stack: New search hubs, AI capabilities, and creator tools aim to turn discovery into direct purchases.
57% of US B2B decision-makers use search engines during early research, more than any other channel, according to a January 2026 survey from Reddit and SurveyMonkey.
Flat customer satisfaction scores and rising prices force brands to deliver simpler, instant rewards.
Recent survey findings should prompt revised marketing strategies.
Major brands are racing to optimize their presence in large language models (LLMs), but they're confronting an uncomfortable reality: Traditional measurement frameworks don't work, and executives demanding ROI metrics may be asking the wrong questions.
Apple-Spotify alliance redraws video podcast playbook: Shared tech and revenues lower barriers for video podcasts, leaving YouTube as the only major the lone silo.
Automation spending meets authenticity wall: Brands chase creative speed while consumers crave realness and vibes rather than sameness.
YouTube courts brands with TV-style creators: Upfront pitch pairs stars and CTV scale as linear TV time slips.
Policy whiplash and a 27% sales drop force a pivot back to hybrids.
Strong merchandising drove sales gains across each of its categories.
Reddit proves its CPG pull: Reddit shoppers drive 1.5 times ROAS and up to 17% higher LTV as trust-rich threads steer buying decisions.
Social media is the internet’s front door: Social drives non-search OTT streaming and gaming traffic, moving discovery into feeds.
Coca-Cola tests universal metric: Universal Media Measurement (UMM) aims to measure paid, owned, earned, and shared media on one scale to tame fragmented data.