Parse notes
With the US mandating TikTok's divestment, Oracle has emerged as the top choice for a partnership, mostly due to its past work on TikTok's US data separation project. While Trump claims multiple bids are in play, Oracle's close ties to his administration give it a strategic advantage. The main sticking point is China's refusal to allow the transfer of TikTok's core algorithms as part of the deal.
Commercial audio in the UK is rapidly growing, reaching 76% of adults weekly and generating 627.5 million listening hours per week. Digital audio, particularly podcasts, is a major driver of growth, with podcast ad revenues increasing by 43% over two years, making up 47% of digital audio ad spend. Audio advertising is highly effective, boosting ad awareness by 49%, brand relevance by 24%, and brand trust by 32%, while also increasing purchase consideration by 18%. Digital audio enhances targeting, engagement, and real-time measurement, allowing advertisers to optimize campaigns efficiently. Multi-platform audio strategies, including broadcast and digital formats, maximize reach and ROI, with research suggesting allocating at least 20% of media budgets to audio for better campaign performance.
LinkedIn's Thought Leader Ads are native posts with ad spend behind them, making them blend seamlessly into users' feeds. The best-performing ads feel organic, use images, and subtly mention the product without making it the focus. To maximize success, advertisers should use hyper-targeting, exclude irrelevant audiences, and set a low cost cap (often $1). Videos tend to underperform, while posts with strong headlines like “How X Did Y” drive higher engagement.
Imprint overhauled its onboarding to reduce drop-offs after the paywall, replacing the default home screen with a personalized learning journey. Users get custom course recommendations, motivational nudges, and interactive tutorials to familiarize themselves with the app. Gamification elements like XP rewards, daily streaks, and an "Aha" moment strategy encourage users to complete two lessons on their first day, which boosts retention.
This worksheet helps you document your audience's questions, pain points, and content consumption habits. It provides frameworks for creating content around problems, how-to guides, and trends. The process is organized into 4 steps to guide you from research to content planning.
Google is expanding how it creates Responsive Search Ads, allowing AI to omit elements, mix formats, and reuse headlines as secondary sitelinks. This update increases visibility for ad assets but also shifts control, requiring advertisers to refine their RSA final URLs to avoid misdirected traffic. With Google removing restrictions on duplicate sitelink URLs, advertisers must closely monitor ad variations in the combinations report.
Unilever's new CEO, Fernando Fernandez, is shifting the company's marketing strategy to prioritize social-first advertising, increasing social media spend from 30% to 50% and expanding influencer partnerships by 20x. The company will focus marketing efforts on India and Latin America, aiming for hyper-local influencer reach. Industry analysts note that while this is a major shift, other large companies are unlikely to follow at the same scale immediately. Potential risks include influencer marketing's challenges with attribution, loss of brand control, and consumer fatigue. Despite these concerns, the move signals Unilever's belief that social commerce, particularly on platforms like TikTok, will be key to future growth.
Despite regulatory uncertainty, TikTok continues to grow faster than Meta and is becoming a major digital ads platform. However, its limited presence on TV reduces the appeal to some buyers who prioritize the channel. Meanwhile, TV networks are struggling to integrate real-time shopping in a way that engages viewers, something that TikTok Shop excels at. The conundrum lies in whether TikTok must adapt to TV's format to unlock ad dollars, or if TV networks should integrate TikTok-like commerce features to avoid losing younger audiences.
B2B GTM has shifted beyond marketing generating pipeline and sales closing it. Now, marketing, sales, product, and ops all contribute. The MQL model is outdated, leading to wasted spend and poor targeting. A better approach is account-based, focusing on high-fit ICP accounts and tracking their journey with unified metrics. Companies should map ICP accounts across key buying stages to measure progress. Marketing can lead all pipeline efforts, including SDRs and AI-driven outreach.
Tower 28 broke through the typical beauty content by launching an original sketch comedy series on social.
A study found that some AI search models like Grok 3 fail up to 94% of the time.
Product shot inspo with exaggerated sizing to create thumb-stopping visuals.