TLDR MARKETING 2025-12-09

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GEN Z DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOUR BRAND HERITAGE

Gen Z largely ignores traditional marketing. Brand prestige, polished ads, and big launch events have little impact. They prefer serialized content like “day 47 with this phone” over one-off campaigns. More than 80% of their purchase discussions happen in private DMs and group chats, so brands cannot track them. They trust creators more than brands or legacy media, and that trust now carries into offline meet-ups and hands-on events.

DIGITAL WALLET USE OUTPACES REGULATORS

Digital wallets have become a primary payment tool as usage surges and regulation lags. About 77% of Americans used a top wallet in the past year, and global adoption is projected to hit 6B users by 2029. Monthly mobile payments in the US jumped from 4 in 2018 to 11 last year, showing a clear shift toward phone-based transactions. Regulators are scrambling to adapt, creating tension between rapid innovation, dense but uneven oversight, and growing consumer reliance on wallet ecosystems.

LET'S TALK REENGAGEMENT

Re-engagement campaigns are a targeted fix for deliverability issues, not an ongoing list-shrinking tactic. They help identify abandoned inboxes, spam folder recipients, and true spam traps, which all show little or no measurable activity. Engagement signals vary across mailbox providers, and many users read email in untrackable ways, so senders need to be clear about their goals and selective about who enters a re-engagement flow. The priority is removing risky addresses rather than penalizing real subscribers who appear inactive due to image blocking or limited tracking. Re-engagement should only run when there is a concrete deliverability problem, since it always removes some legitimate users.

WHY BLOGGING WILL BE HUGE IN 2026

Blogging remains a powerful tool because AI relies on human expertise and credible content. Generic SEO content has lost trust, creating opportunities for practitioner-led blogs that drive direct search traffic and support broader business ecosystems. Strong blogs share real experiences and lessons, build an audience before publishing, and repurpose content across multiple platforms. Monetization comes through consulting, courses, software, and communities rather than display ads. The goal is to become a trusted destination that audiences actively seek out by name.

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NOTES ON GOOGLE ADS NEW STRATEGY TOOL

Investment Strategy in Google Ads gives advertisers a fast way to see the 7-day performance impact of budget changes across all campaigns in one view. It centralizes projections at the account level and shows how removing budget limits could affect conversions, conversion value, or clicks. It is useful for short term periods such as Cyber Week, while Performance Planner remains better for longer planning horizons of up to one year. It still lacks fields for tCPA and tROAS, so advertisers should review its recommendations carefully and monitor outcomes.

INTRODUCING SOCIAL CHANNELS IN SEARCH CONSOLE

Google is testing a new Search Console feature that gives site owners a unified view of Search performance for both their websites and connected social channels. The update expands Search Console Insights to show clicks, impressions, top pages, top queries, and audience locations for supported social channels. It also surfaces additional traffic sources such as Image Search, Video Search, News Search, and Discover. The feature is available only to a limited group of sites that Search Console identifies automatically.

INSTAGRAM IS TESTING A NEW FEATURE THAT LETS CREATORS SHARE EARLY ACCESS TO THEIR REELS WITH FOLLOWERS

A new feature in testing, Early Access Reels, lets creators restrict content to followers for 24 hours. Non-followers see a teaser with a countdown and a prompt to follow. This model incentivizes immediate engagement and builds loyalty by giving followers first-look privileges. Unlike Trial Reels, which exposed content to wider audiences first, Early Access rewards community-building and exclusivity.

HOW DO PEOPLE USE AI ASSISTANTS?

Most AI sessions are short and transactional. The median conversation has 2 turns, and over 80% of sessions stay under 1,000 words. Assistants generate about 60% of all content and produce roughly 1.5x more words than users. Only 35% of sessions show any commercial intent, and the largest share of those are early awareness (10%), while 65% of all sessions fall outside the commercial funnel and focus on tasks like brainstorming (7.7%) and planning (6.5%). A small group of long and complex sessions over 2,500 words accounts for only 4.2% of the total but represents the highest value use cases.

WHY THE FUTURE OF MARKETING BELONGS TO CREATIVES WHO THINK LIKE CODERS

Campaigns today operate as adaptive systems rather than single static ideas. AI has turned every consumer interaction into a dynamic input. The most effective creative professionals now approach campaign building with a developer mindset. They test, release, and improve quickly. This means replacing the traditional push for perfection with fast iteration and structured learning. Coders break and rebuild continuously, a behavior now essential for campaign success.

7 MARKETING PREDICTIONS FOR 2026

AI will push ads to get more creative, marketers to get more technical, and headcount to shrink.

5 TACTICS TO INCREASE LIVE EVENT REGISTRATIONS

Tips include giving out door prizes and asking people to comment with speaker questions on LI posts.