AI avatars are becoming more realistic, combining facial expressions, lip sync, and body movement. Early models were limited, but newer ones like Hedra and OmniHuman can animate full characters from a single image and audio. These avatars are used by consumers for storytelling, by SMBs for ad creation, and by enterprises for training, localization, and scaling executive presence. Tools like Synthesia and ElevenLabs help make these avatars more expressive and useful across languages and use cases.
Reddit's user base is predominantly Gen Z and Millennials, with 73% of users under 44. While the platform is notoriously skeptical of marketing, 46.6% of surveyed users say they welcome brand engagement when done authentically, and another 31.1% are fine with it if it's non-intrusive. Brands that win on Reddit avoid “shilling”, share helpful expertise within relevant threads, and build their reputation on the platform over time. By doing so, they are able to effectively tap into the platform's high engagement and rich discussions for both visibility and voice-of-customer research.
Rather than sending PR packages to influencers, Tubi's marketing team focuses on superfans and niche online communities to build brand affinity. The team actively monitors social channels in real-time to identify organic brand advocates and rewards them with personalized gifts like custom Snuggies, projectors, and handwritten notes. This low-budget approach helps to promote Tubi as a fan-first brand and makes it stand out in a competitive landscape.
Oat Cult is reimagining the overnight oats category with bold creativity and gut-friendly ingredients. The brand is a mix of a maximalist, cult-inspired identity with Gen Z's appetite for wellness that has personality. It stands out through unexpected tactics like horror-movie aesthetics, loud packaging, irreverent humor, and a visual identity that rejects wellness clichés. Instead of chasing supermarket shelves, it built buzz through LinkedIn, Instagram, and coffee shops.
Saturated colors like vivid reds, blues, and greens increase perceived product effectiveness or potency, influencing both purchase intent and how much of a product consumers use. This visual shortcut can increase sales but may lead to underuse of critical items like disinfectants or medications, or overconfidence in performance.
Gen X and millennial buyers are crucial to the luxury sector now due to their wealth, but Gen Z is in the process of reshaping the market and how brands interact with buyers.
Duolingo's social team created an in-house writers' room to move beyond reactive trends and build original, culturally relevant campaigns.
Dopamine packaging features bold, eye-catching designs that make you feel like you need the product.
Nouveau Nihilism reflects a shift toward present enjoyment, with 70% of Gen Z saying life feels out of control and 51% prioritizing feeling good now over saving. While long-term stability still matters, people want brands to help them feel in control today. Campaigns like Prudential's financial planning, Heinz's joyful indulgences, and DoorDash's Self-Love Bouquet balance instant gratification with future aspirations.
Indie stationery brands are thriving by marketing analog products as tools for mindfulness, creativity, and self-expression. They are positioning themselves in contrast to screen fatigue and digital overload. Retailers like Penny Post and Shorthand use in-person experiences, tactile product curation, and storytelling to differentiate from mass-market online players. Their success reflects a shift toward lifestyle alignment over convenience or price.
Brand should come first, ideally from day one, because it shapes purpose, mission, and values. Most businesses skip this early step, but building brand foundations early improves message consistency and audience connection. Define brand foundations first, then build business and GTM strategies around them. Companies can revisit and rebuild brand foundations at any stage to align strategy and marketing.
When every brand in a category delivers the same message in the same tone, audiences stop noticing. Most pet brands rely on expected themes, such as cute animals, loving owners, and emotional stories. Animalife broke away from that formula with an ad featuring a man repeatedly flagged at airport security by a police dog, only to reveal the dog is his former pet who was abandoned years ago. The twist ending, paired with the line “They will never forget you” delivers the same core message in a way that grabs a lot more attention than traditional pet ads.
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Website Headlines is a database of H1s found throughout the internet. Each headline is categorized according to structure and meaning.
This guide shares 5 simple AI-generated apps that support content creation, SEO, and customer feedback analysis. Each app is powered by GPT and comes with a suggested prompt to get started.
Performance Max has come a long way since its clunky 2022 launch. It evolved from a black box into a more transparent and advertiser-friendly campaign type. This guide walks through its adoption, the current case for using it, how it compares to Standard Shopping, Demand Gen, and Search, and how to structure campaigns and choose the right bidding strategies. While still imperfect, PMax remains central to many ecommerce strategies.
The Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight drew 65M concurrent streams and over 1.4B social impressions, giving boxing a major cultural moment. The sport saw a 35% increase in brand partnerships from 2023 to 2024, with 85% of brands renewing. Sponsors like Twisted Tea and Miller Lite expanded involvement due to strong audience engagement and growth. Boxing promoters are shifting focus from pay-per-view to streaming and social metrics to attract more advertisers.
Inflation is driving up costs across media, tech, and operations while extending timelines due to added oversight and complex approval layers. Marketers are seeing delays in campaigns and longer sales cycles, with budgets stretched thin by rising ad prices, vendor costs, and event expenses. To adapt, teams must focus on lowering customer acquisition costs and working smarter with fewer resources.
Common pitfalls include misaligned attribution models, overreliance on algorithm suggestions, and lead magnets that attract non-buyers.
Show data in your ads by teasing a stat from a downloadable asset, presenting a shocking fact, or showing your rating against competitors.
Trump has granted a second 75-day extension to TikTok's US sell-off deadline despite the app technically being banned under existing law. The proposed deal would spin off TikTok's US operations while leasing its algorithm. The new ownership structure would leave ByteDance with a 19.9% stake. China has already rejected the terms.
Tariffs targeting Chinese imports won't hit digital goods directly, but they're already impacting digital advertising. Meta, Amazon, and Google are expected to lose ad revenue as Chinese advertisers retreat amid new 54% tariffs. Meta alone generates an estimated $10B from foreign advertisers targeting US users, much of it from China.
Wiz launched a fake toy store called "CISOtopia" for cybersecurity professionals on April Fools' Day 2023. It attracted 46K+ visitors in 24 hours and reached Reddit's homepage with 500K views. Over 3.5K people tried to buy the fictional toys, and more than 10 CISOs shared it organically. The campaign's success pointed to a clear marketing approach - use a familiar format tailored to a niche audience with insider humor.
Maturity models help companies shift from product feature selling to value-based conversations by outlining clear stages of customer growth and business outcomes. When used properly, they drive executive engagement, improve cross-team alignment, and become powerful demand generation tools. Case studies from BEA Systems, MeridianLink, and Marketo show that maturity frameworks can increase qualified leads, accelerate adoption, and deepen C-suite conversations. Companies using this approach report 35% higher average contract value, 30% shorter sales cycles, and double the likelihood of account expansion.
Spotify is expanding its ad tools with the full launch of its ad exchange, SAX, which supports programmatic buying of audio, video, and display ads. Podcast ads will follow later this quarter. A new generative AI tool lets advertisers create audio ads, already used by 4 in 10 audio ad creators. Spotify also introduced enhanced targeting, tracking, and lower-funnel options like App Installs and Website Traffic Objectives.
Performance alone isn't enough to get promoted in product marketing - you need strategy, visibility, and timing. Build influence by mapping key stakeholders, understanding their goals, and aligning your work to solve their problems. Actively share your impact throughout projects using a structured "socialization strategy." Don't wait for review time - promotion decisions are made months in advance, so align with your manager early and regularly. When you ask, back it with proof, timing it around major wins or new responsibilities to strengthen your case.
The challenge today is no longer what a software can do, but whether customers can implement it effectively. Bardeen, an AI automation tool, addressed this by narrowing its focus to GTM teams and embedding service hours into its pricing. Its “AIgency” model includes three to seven annual service hours per tier, helping users build custom workflows quickly. A guided 14-day trial with human support turned into an effective onboarding period, leading to a 100% conversion rate.
OpenAI launched its first major campaign by offering US and Canadian college students free access to ChatGPT Plus through May. The campaign targets students ahead of finals with ads across billboards, digital, and podcasts, highlighting use cases from studying to job hunting.
Lenny Rachitsky and Wes Kao discuss the MOO (Most Obvious Objection) framework, the art of executive presence, and more.
The two brands partnered to launch Peanut Buttery Bites with a dog-friendly museum pop-up featuring satirical exhibits.
New research from Criteo and Vitreous World finds that online shopping feels lonely to 79% of consumers and overwhelms 78% due to too many choices. Only 50% find it relaxing or enjoyable, and 29% consider it a chore. While 55% of brands believe influencers help, just 29% of shoppers feel positively about influencer content. 83% of brands plan to use AI to improve the experience, aiming to restore the lost sense of surprise and delight. These findings are based on a global survey of 6,000 consumers and 600 brand leaders across six markets: the UK, US, France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
Users returning from social media detoxes pay less attention to ads, prioritizing native content. Time-restricted users felt ads wasted their limited time, but eye-tracking showed only abstinence affected attention. Viewing times on Instagram dropped significantly post-detox. Researchers suggest avoiding ads for returning users or minimizing content complexity. Ads requiring engagement should target users with recent social media activity.
We are now in an era of bot-to-bot interactions. Consumers no longer browse because their AI agents do it for them. These agents make purchasing decisions based on structured data, trust signals, and real-time relevance. Ad targeting and SEO are losing ground as AI agents summarize and act instantly. Marketers must optimize for machine-readability, design immersive brand experiences, and automate workflows to stay competitive. This shift is not just a tech challenge, it is a leadership challenge that requires brands to adapt or risk being left behind.
The success behind Brex's SEO strategy comes from three main levers: operational discipline in content structuring, deep understanding of user intent, and integration of SEO within product marketing. Content was organized by solution area, such as expense management or credit, allowing for internal linking and seamless navigation. By aligning content topics with late-stage buying signals, Brex ensured traffic came from users close to conversion. This strategy proves that SEO can be a revenue generating channel and not only a top-of-funnel awareness driver.
Profile pic jacking, a low-cost marketing tactic, is when users voluntarily change their social media profile pictures to brand-related images, creating organic exposure. It works because profile pictures are highly visible and persistent across platforms, often staying up for weeks. The strategy leverages psychological drivers like FOMO and social validation, which help campaigns spread virally. Brands like Apple, Snapchat, and Notion have used it successfully to increase visibility and brand recall without paid ads.
AI works best when trained on your own content. Marketers are reverse-engineering their favorite posts into prompts and templates to expedite creation. By pairing informal voice recordings with structured AI prompts, they are able to accelerate content output without sacrificing originality and their personal touches. Setting clear guardrails like formatting rules, tone examples, and business context also help to prevent AI from becoming a generic content generator.
A consistent short-form video series can outperform one-off posts by building habits, viewer loyalty, and monetizable engagement. Success of the series depends on five key pillars: committing to a focused publishing window, developing a simple and repeatable format, creating viewing rituals through consistent release times, using efficient production workflows, and adapting based on audience feedback.
YouTube Shorts is adding new features like an improved video editor, AI-generated stickers, music sync tools, and enhanced templates. The editor will let users adjust clip timing, add music or text, and preview their video more easily. These updates come just before the April 5 TikTok ban deadline, suggesting YouTube aims to attract creators who may lose access to TikTok. The tools mirror popular TikTok and CapCut features, as YouTube moves to stay competitive.
The rise of AI in brand content is triggering a parallel trend: visual proof that the creative was made by real people. From Apple TV's behind-the-scenes shots to Topicals tagging every collaborator, brands are using these signals to preserve trust and highlight craft. As AI becomes a creative collaborator behind the scenes, consumers are more likely to reward the brands that show, and not just tell, how their content comes to life.
Trump's new tariffs on Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand are hitting apparel brands like Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon, forcing price hikes and stock declines. A 46% tariff on Vietnam is especially damaging, with few mitigation options. Analysts warn of inflation and recession risks. The tariffs also triggered a bond selloff. Vietnam seeks to ease tensions by boosting US purchases amid its large trade surplus.
Define the status quo by summarizing a common behavior or belief in one short sentence, then define your POV with a differentiated perspective.
Ditch the TOFU-MOFU-BOFU framework and create content that makes buying effortless when needed.
The US government is exploring a new corporate structure for TikTok to address national security concerns as the April 5 deadline approaches. Various companies are exploring bids with different strategic angles. Amazon wants to pair TikTok's engagement with its retail ecosystem. AppLovin sees a scalable channel for its adtech and AI targeting. Oracle could secure US data oversight, aligning with past cloud deals. Financial players like Blackstone offer regulatory-friendly structures without deep platform changes.
Trump's newly announced tariffs come at a critical time for Hollywood, as studios enter upfront negotiations amid high ad market uncertainty. Major advertiser categories, such as automotive, CPG, and travel are reassessing budgets due to trade-related cost pressures. While sports remains a bright spot with sustained demand, traditional entertainment is likely to face tighter, more selective spending in both linear and streaming channels.
Gaming accounts for 23% share of screen time among Gen Z, but still captures less than 3% of US digital ad spend. The disconnect is caused mostly by buying complexity and fragmented inventory which are being addressed by recent innovations. As platforms like Roblox and Samsung introduce scalable, programmatic-friendly formats such as rewarded video ads and gamified ad breaks, gaming ads have a better chance to become a more integrated part of mainstream media strategies.
Push marketing interrupts potential buyers, but overuse makes people immune to it. Pull marketing, meanwhile, makes buyers come to you by offering them content they might be interested in. To keep push tactics effective, make them distinct and personalized, like GumGum's comic book campaign that won T-Mobile as a client. For high-value B2B offers, pushing for immediate conversions is inefficient since only 5% of businesses are actively buying at any moment. Instead, push tactics should focus on building relationships, providing value, and keeping brands top of mind for when buyers are ready to purchase.
Live videos generate 7X more reactions and 24X more comments than regular videos on LinkedIn, making them a powerful tool for engagement. Focus on formats like product launches, panel discussions, and Q&As while keeping broadcasts under two hours. Make it easy for attendees to discover events, receive reminders, and access recordings afterward. Keep engagement high with interactive elements, teasers, and pre-recorded content. Structure event phases around a single objective at a time, whether it's awareness, engagement, or lead gen.
Adventurous CMO, a new live podcast hosted by Greg Gibson and Nate Spees of Grizzly, explores how adventure fuels bold brand leadership. The first episode will delve into belief, bravery, and belonging as drivers of creativity and innovation. It'll also feature stories of brand transformations from startups to Fortune 10 companies. Tune in on April 3 at 12 PM PST.
YouTube's “Inspiration” tab now includes AI-powered tools to help creators generate ideas. “Brainstorm from anywhere” uses past videos and comments for inspiration, “Hooks” suggests engaging openings, and “Quick saves” lets users store ideas. YouTube offers 3 free months of Repurpose.io to help creators repost TikToks and Instagram videos to Shorts.
Fashion brands are increasingly integrating AI into marketing and creative operations, from backend automation to AI-led product discovery, which is boosting efficiency and revenue. AI-generated content, such as digital twin models and automated copywriting, is controversial but has been widely adopted - 79% of marketing teams plan to expand AI use in 2025. While AI can streamline workflows and enhance insights, concerns over job automation and creative IP remain. Companies must balance AI's benefits with consumer trust, using it to support human creativity rather than replace it.