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AGGERO

Users can upload any video from social, ads, or influencer campaigns and receive instant insights on which visual and audio elements drive conversions. The platform predicts performance, optimizes creative, and scales analysis across thousands of videos. Brands use Aggero to reduce ad waste and improve engagement.

MVPS IN 2026: WHAT ACTUALLY NEEDS TO EXIST BEFORE YOU PITCH, SHIP, OR SCALE (WEBINAR)

This free webinar, on January 22 at 10 AM PT, will teach attendees how to design MVPs that validate core business assumptions. It will cover how to prove a real person has a pressing problem and will change behavior, and how companies can create value faster than their competitors.

THE GREAT DECOUPLING

SEO traffic no longer predicts pipeline because AI answers remove clicks while buyer intent remains. Short-head keyword volume grew only 1.2% in the last 12 months and is forecast to fall 0.74% in the next 12 months as demand shifts to long tail queries and AI interfaces. Pipeline can grow far faster than traffic, such as 32% traffic growth paired with 75% signup growth or pipeline growing 2.3x faster while traffic stays flat. SEO now drives brand influence by helping AI systems understand trust and cite a brand, which lifts demos even when site visits fall.

HOW TO MEASURE BRAND'S IMPACT ON B2B PIPELINE

Most B2B leaders believe brand drives demand, yet few can prove its impact because traditional attribution models undervalue how brands actually work. Brands rarely create immediate clicks or conversions. It builds mental availability that later shows up through search, trust, and preference. Measuring incrementality by asking what would have happened without the investment puts brand and demand on equal footing and reveals its true impact on pipeline and efficiency.

CHATGPT GETS GOOGLED MORE THAN YOUTUBE, INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, AND TIKTOK

In under two and a half years, ChatGPT matched or exceeded the search interest of platforms that took years to build their brand demand.

YOUTUBE TURNS 20 AND UNVEILS A NEW IDENTITY BUILT FOR AN 'ALIVE' ENTERTAINMENT ERA

The refreshed identity connects all products through a responsive design system that reacts to real content and culture.

WHY TASTE OFFERS THE REAL CREATIVE ADVANTAGE RIGHT NOW

As tools grow more accessible, taste becomes the true differentiator over talent or technology.

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THREADS EDGES OUT X IN DAILY MOBILE USERS

Meta's Threads now has more daily mobile users than X. Growth is steady and not linked to recent X controversies. Threads benefits from cross-promotion in Meta apps, a focus on creators, and new features like communities, disappearing posts, and games. X still leads on the web and in the US, but Threads is building a regular mobile audience.

GOAT'S 2026 PREDICTIONS FOR ONLINE CULTURE, CONTENT, AND CREATORS

Creator marketing is now mainstream media. Attention is harder to win as feeds become endless video streams and audiences fragment. Creator revenue is expected to grow 20% and reach $376B globally by 2030. 2026 will see more intentional consumption and a split between AI-safe and AI-friendly spaces. Demand will increase for credible creators, episodic storytelling, and community-led strategies that connect online culture with real-world experiences.

DIARY OF A BRAND: GENTLE MONSTER

Gentle Monster shows that strong brand memory can drive growth without heavy ad spend. Last year, it grew 30% and nearly doubled Luxottica's operating margin using a high-margin direct-to-consumer model focused on memorable experiences. Oversized products, museum-like stores, and unexpected collaborations keep it top of mind. Owned factories and long-term leadership enable $200-$400 price points and expansion into new categories.

GROWTH OVER GOING VIRAL

BÉIS focuses on growth over chasing virality. Partnerships and collaborations with Gap, Chipotle, and Rare Beauty drive engagement, while behind-the-scenes content, especially shot organically, often outperforms polished final posts. Short-form videos can reach millions, but long-form, informative content builds deeper engagement and conversion. The team experiments constantly and often shares stories of the people behind the brand.

AEO FOR CMOS: WHERE SEARCH MIGHT BE GOING IN 2026 (WEBINAR)

Learn how AEO is changing brand discovery. This webinar covers where traditional SEO works, where it falls short, and how CMOs can guide teams without chasing hype. Learn how to prioritize AEO over the next 90 days and understand the risks of ignoring AI-driven discovery. The free event will take place on January 21 at 10 AM PT.

SPEEDY RECRUITING FOR CUSTOMER RESEARCH (WEBINAR)

In this webinar, Elizabeth Creighton, founder of Brazen UX, will discuss ways to find your ideal research participants. She'll also cover the best ways to get participants to commit and show up, as well as simple steps to create an automated participant workflow. The free event will take place on January 22 at 9:30 AM PT.

OPENAI: OUR APPROACH TO ADVERTISING AND EXPANDING ACCESS TO CHATGPT

ChatGPT is expanding access with low-cost subscriptions and limited ads while keeping answers independent and user data private. ChatGPT Go launched in 171 countries and will cost $8/month in the US, offering higher limits, image creation, and memory. Ads will appear for logged-in adults on free and Go tiers. Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans remain ad-free.

GROWTH IS NOW A TRUST PROBLEM

Growth today depends on credibility and customer confidence. Traditional marketing channels are failing as paid search costs rise and AI intercepts organic traffic. Efficiency-based value props are easily outpaced by $20/month AI tools. Employee-led sharing, influencer partnerships, and community-driven growth drive word-of-mouth, which can boost referral revenue.

A NEW STUDY RAISES RISKS OF USING AGREEABLE CHATBOTS

Agreeable chatbots can reinforce beliefs and increase polarization. A study of over 3,000 US participants across four political topics found sycophantic AI heightened extremity and overconfidence compared to neutral or disagreeable AI. Participants saw agreeable chatbots as warmer, more competent, and often unbiased, even when they were not. The research warns that commercial incentives could push AI toward agreeableness, limiting exposure to opposing views as these tools become more common.

YOUTUBE RELAXES MONETIZATION POLICY ON VIDEOS WITH CONTROVERSIAL CONTENT

YouTube will now let more creators earn full ad revenue on videos that discuss sensitive topics as long as the content stays nongraphic.

DO YOU REALLY NEED ALL THAT DATA?

A new Kellogg-MIT algorithm shows that decisions often need only the most relevant data, not more.

2026 LINKEDIN OUTREACH HOLY GRAIL

The founder of Valley breaks down what works and what doesn't for LinkedIn outreach.

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IS THE 'PRIVACY-FIRST' ERA OVER BEFORE IT STARTED?

Years of predictions about privacy regulation reshaping digital advertising have not played out in practice, despite dozens of state laws now being active. Enforcement actions have resulted in relatively small fines that have not disrupted business models or significantly altered data-driven targeting strategies. For most advertisers, privacy compliance has become a manageable cost rather than a fundamental constraint on growth.

FROM COOL BLUE TO PERSIMMON: MEET THE 2026 PINTEREST PALETTE

Pinterest's 2026 Palette features 5 bold colors shaped by global search and save behavior: Cool Blue, Jade, Plum Noir, Wasabi, and Persimmon. Each hue offers a distinct emotional effect, from grounded optimism to expressive escape. The forecast draws on billions of user signals, visual search analysis, and expert curation to identify shades gaining momentum and how they combine across aesthetics.

WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW AI PARTNERSHIPS

The agreements with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral AI, and Perplexity formalize how large AI platforms reuse Wikipedia and other Wikimedia content at scale while providing structured, high-volume access designed for enterprise data needs. Wikimedia positioned the partnerships as both a revenue mechanism and a governance layer for AI reuse, emphasizing that Enterprise customers gain faster, more reliable access than scraping public endpoints.

B2B DISTRIBUTION PLAYBOOK

This playbook begins by creating topics from customer research and sales calls. Each SME records a 1-hour interview. Interviews are turned into a long-form article, 5 video clips, and 8 LinkedIn posts. Content is posted on personal LinkedIn profiles 3-5 times per week for maximum reach. It is repurposed across the website, YouTube, and a weekly newsletter. After 3 months, top posts are amplified with Thought Leader Ads. After 6 months, an employee advocacy program uses existing content to expand organic reach.

BRAND IS ONE OF THE BEST PLACES FOR SEO INVESTMENT

This article reframes SEO success around revenue instead of rankings, positioning branded keywords as the foundation that most companies overlook. It shows how brand searches often suffer from low impressions, weak click-through rates, or incorrect page routing, all of which quietly leak conversions. By building content that explicitly answers brand-related queries and expanding coverage around how users actually search for the brand, companies can unlock compounding gains without chasing low-intent keywords.

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2026 MARKETING PREDICTIONS: THE RISE OF THE CONTEXT MARKETER IN THE AGENT-DRIVEN ERA (WEBINAR)

Snowflake industry experts will break down how AI agents are changing the rules of marketing, what shifts are already underway, and what marketing leaders should be preparing for now. They'll discuss how to adapt in 2026 as customer behavior evolves. The free event will take place on January 21 at 10:00 AM PT.

GEMINI INTRODUCES PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

Google is rolling out a US beta of Personal Intelligence for Gemini that links apps like Gmail, Photos, YouTube, and Search to deliver tailored answers. It retrieves details from your data to handle tasks such as car info or trip planning while keeping control and privacy settings in your hands. Gemini cites sources for transparency, avoids assumptions on sensitive topics, and lets you disable or limit personalization.

THE YEAR OF INVISIBLE AI

AI success in 2026 will depend more on product design and workflow fit than on model performance, as users don't care which model runs behind the scenes. The strongest AI products meet workers where they already operate and minimize behavior change, especially in complex enterprise environments like in-house legal. Sandstone shows this approach by integrating into 30 existing tools and acting as a central system of context, which helped cut legal cycle time by 35% in its example workflow. “Invisible AI” that learns organizational context over time can shift workers away from repetitive tasks and toward higher value decisions while compounding its usefulness through captured precedent.

HOW UX DIRECTLY IMPACTS P&L

UX drives revenue by removing friction that blocks users from accessing value. At ARxVision, poor onboarding caused returns and support costs, so an AI-guided setup cut returns and helped users get started quickly. At AdInMo, SDK complexity led to broken or abandoned integrations that distorted data and lost revenue, so a redesigned onboarding flow let developers integrate in minutes and even self-serve. Both cases show UX as a value multiplier and prove that targeted fixes based on real user friction can unlock growth.

10 B2B MESSAGING MOVES THAT DON'T LOOK IMPRESS, BUT DECIDE DEALS

Tactics include casual copy, sharp comparisons, and mixing confidence with vulnerability.

BUILDING A LANDING PAGE 8 YEARS AGO VS. TODAY

AI turned an 8-week, $20k landing page project into a 2-hour build with better results.

BEWARE AI'S VERY HUMAN BIASES

AI models often amplify existing social, psychological, and linguistic biases, especially when optimized for engagement, which rewards emotional and in-group content and can distort information ecosystems.

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GLOBAL PUBLISHER GOOGLE TRAFFIC DROPPED BY A THIRD IN 2025

Google traffic to publishers fell sharply in 2025 and is expected to keep dropping through 2026. Search fell 33%, and Discover fell 21%, with deeper losses since May 2023 and even steeper declines in the US. Lifestyle and utility sites were hit hardest as AI summaries reduced clicks. Publishers expect a 43% drop over three years and plan to scale back on Google, Facebook, and X while shifting more effort to AI platforms and YouTube. Most expect some AI licensing revenue, but not much. Confidence in journalism is falling, and leaders are leaning into creator partnerships and subscriptions to counter shrinking platform visibility.

CHINA'S LONELINESS APP MAKES WAVES

A simple daily check-in app has gained rapid traction by addressing fears tied to solo living rather than offering companionship. The app requires one tap per day and alerts an emergency contact after two missed days, and it has already charted in markets such as the USA and Australia after rebranding as Demumu. Its rise aligns with structural shifts, as China had more than 125 million one-person households in 2020, and the solo living rate exceeds 30%, with projections reaching 200 million households by 2030. The popularity highlights how basic visibility and being noticed matter to people who feel isolated and lack strong offline support, creating opportunities for brands to design products and experiences for solo dwellers.

HOW TO PRODUCE HIGHLY ATTENDED WEBINARS

Well-attended webinars start with a tactical theme and the right guest, chosen around either a topic or their expertise. A 1:1 brainstorm with the SME generates content, then AI organizes transcripts, social posts, and context into a deck outline to reduce the guest's workload. A detailed run-of-show is created with timing, sections, roles, and talking points, followed by a first draft of the deck. A 30-60 minute session with the guest reviews the run-of-show and deck, gathers feedback, and finalizes the deck as a playbook. During the event, engagement is actively facilitated. Then immediate follow-up provides a post-event deal room with recordings, slides, resources, and speaker info.

HOW BRANDS CAN RESPOND TO MISLEADING GOOGLE AI OVERVIEWS

Google AI Overviews frequently summarize Reddit and Quora discussions as authoritative answers, which allows outdated complaints or fringe opinions to appear factual. Brands should continuously monitor high-engagement forum threads and publish authoritative, AI-readable content that clearly states verified information and corrections. The goal is to replace forum consensus with primary sources that AI systems can confidently cite.

COWORK: CLAUDE CODE FOR THE REST OF YOUR WORK

Claude Cowork is a research preview for Claude Max subscribers on macOS that lets anyone (not just developers) work with files in a chosen folder. Claude can read, edit, and create documents, spreadsheets, or reports, plan tasks, and work in parallel while keeping users informed. It can connect to external tools and handle tasks online with browser access. Users control which folders and connectors Claude can access, and it asks before major actions to prevent mistakes.

GOOGLE'S UPDATED VEO MODEL CAN MAKE VERTICAL VIDEOS WITH 4K UPSCALING

Google updated Veo 3.1 to generate short-form video using up to 3 reference images so visual elements remain stable across outputs instead of drifting between generations. The update enables native 9:16 vertical video, making clips immediately usable for social-first distribution.

TALK WITH YOUR HANDS TO BE MORE PERSUASIVE

Using hand gestures while presenting increases perceived competence. It also increases persuasiveness and positive audience reactions by up to 9%. In an analysis of 2,184 TED talks and 200,000 clips, each doubling of hand movements led to 5.18% more YouTube likes. In experiments, a circular gesture during a face cream pitch drove 9% more positive responses than no motion and 7.7% more than pointing.

GEN AI IS THREATENING THE PLATFORMS THAT DOMINATE ONLINE TRAVEL

Generative AI is weakening the discovery advantage that online travel platforms like Expedia and Booking.com built through search-driven aggregation. As consumers plan trips inside conversational AI tools, intent is forming outside aggregator websites, reducing their ability to influence decisions and monetize early-stage demand. To defend their position, incumbents are integrating with AI platforms like Google and ChatGPT while experimenting with generative features inside their own apps.

CANVA'S PATH TO PRODUCT-MARKET FIT

Canva reached product-market fit by moving prototyping relentlessly with non-designers and letting real user friction drive product decisions rather than investor pressure or launch theatrics. Early research revealed that users froze when faced with a blank design surface, which led to a short onboarding video and guided interaction that improved activation and retention. From there, growth compounded through early evangelists like social media managers, programmatic SEO that dropped users directly into creation, aggressive global localization, and disciplined technical and financial decisions that enabled long-term scale.

EMAIL TIP: MAINTAIN EMAIL DELIVERABILITY WITH THE COHORT OR BRANCHING FUNCTIONALITY

Use randomized cohorts and staggered delays to send large email volumes safely without hurting deliverability.