TLDR MarketingMay 13, 2025

TLDR MARKETING 2025-05-13

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01NEWS & TRENDS

GOING ‘AI FIRST' APPEARS TO BE BACKFIRING ON KLARNA AND DUOLINGO

Klarna and Duolingo's AI-first strategies are drawing criticism, with Klarna backpedaling to rehire support staff after admitting quality suffered from excessive automation. Duolingo has faced public outrage on TikTok, where users are accusing it of prioritizing efficiency over human-led education. While both companies defend their use of AI as a tool, user sentiment reveals discomfort with automation replacing people.

links.tldrnewsletter.com3 min read

MARKETING BUDGETS REMAIN CONSTRAINED AMID ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY

Marketing budgets are expected to stay flat at 7.7% of company revenue in 2025. This is well below the 11.3% average from 2015 to 2019. Only 30% of chief marketing officers believe they have enough funding to carry out their strategies, and 79% report pressure to achieve more with fewer resources. Paid media now takes up 31% of marketing budgets, but rising ad costs mean returns often fall short, with 55% of leaders saying their campaigns fail to drive enough sales. To cope, 39% plan to cut spending on staff and agencies.

adweek.com2 min read

02STRATEGIES & TACTICS

STRUCTURED OR UNSTRUCTURED?

Structured designs with clean lines led to 39% more clicks for “effective” product messaging. Playful, unstructured visuals performed better for “fun” positioning. The findings suggest consumers subconsciously look for design cues that validate brand claims. Visual-message alignment matters most before brand familiarity sets in, shaping how new customers interpret value.

linkedin.com2 min read

BRINGING EQ AND IQ TO MARKETING

To build deeper brand connections, companies should blend EQ with data-driven insights. Start by uncovering emotional needs through qualitative methods, then validate those insights with data. Craft campaigns that reflect empathy and authenticity, while using data to fine-tune messaging and delivery across channels. Backed by research on experiential trends, Airbnb spotlighted belonging and inclusivity using guest data on travel preferences, while Café Bustelo engaged culturally Hispanic millennials through pop-ups rooted in community and heritage.

bizjournals.com2 min read

03RESOURCES & TOOLS

GOOGLE I/O: MAY 20 - 21 (EVENT)

This year's Google I/O will focus heavily on AI, with major updates expected across Google's products. The Gemini model family and DeepMind's Project Astra will likely take center stage. Keynotes will highlight how AI is reshaping Search, Android, Cloud, and even Waymo's self-driving tech. CEO Sundar Pichai, DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and other execs will lead sessions, including a talk on AI's role in revolutionizing Search. Android updates will debut separately during "The Android Show" a week earlier.

io.google

THE 40K LINKEDIN FOLLOWERS TECH STACK

This LinkedIn tech stack includes 10 tools used across the entire content workflow. For ideation, Taplio surfaces viral posts, Kleo analyzes top-performing content from specific creators, and Claude helps break down why certain posts take off while generating new angles. For writing and editing, Grammarly polishes content and Notion serves as a content hub. Canva, Figma, and Ezgif handle visuals, from beginner-friendly carousels to high-reach GIFs. OpusClip and Screen Studio are used for creating polished video content, while Taplio and Notion also help with scheduling and keeping publishing consistent. This system helped generate over 1.2K inbound meetings and scaled a business to more than $4.5M in annual revenue.

linkedin.com2 min read

04MISCELLANEOUS

TARIFF UNCERTAINTY CLOUDS OUTLOOK FOR US TELEVISION'S ANNUAL AD-SELLING BONANZA

The US television industry's annual upfront ad-selling season is underway amid economic uncertainty tied to potential tariffs. Analysts warn it could trigger a recession and depress ad spending. While NBCUniversal and Fox report stable demand, firms like eMarketer forecast a $4B drop in traditional TV ad revenue. Brands are cautious but wary of cutting budgets too sharply, recalling losses from past downturns. Digital ad spend may stay flat unless tariffs ease, in which case it could grow.

links.tldrnewsletter.com3 min read

THE GROWTH HACK ERA IS ENDING, ACCORDING TO DIGIDAY'S FORMER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Digital marketing is shifting away from low-quality, high-volume tactics driven by performance marketing and AI-generated content, which is like “peeing in the pool.” The focus must return to having a great product and earning distribution through word-of-mouth. While marketers shouldn't abandon effective channels, there is a need to prepare for declining SEO and build strategies for the next 5 years. Individuals' power is growing over institutions. Brands should highlight authentic human voices rather than relying on impersonal messaging.

blog.hubspot.com3 min read

THE RISE, FALL, AND RECOVERY OF FORBES ADVISOR

Google penalized Forbes Advisor for site reputation abuse in September 2024. This caused traffic to collapse from 24M to near 0 and triggered layoffs of digital PR, editorial, and SEO staff. By May 2025, traffic had recovered to around 4M monthly visits, with recovery tied more to category-level link authority than individual pages. The site's digital PR strategy, which included statistics pages, surveys, and city indexes, built over 70K referring domains and significantly contributed to its topical authority. Recovery also involved shifting toward more user-focused, “Helpful” content and reinforcing the Forbes brand identity.

buzzstream.com8 min read