🎯 Perplexity Puts Creators First

Hi, Marketers!

A creator can demonstrate the product, an ad can open a conversation, and a billboard can trigger the next step. Media is getting dangerously competent.

Perplexity Puts Creators First

TL;DR: Perplexity has filled a creator-marketing role as it expands partnerships spanning hundreds of influencers, from niche voices to Lewis Hamilton and Joe Rogan. The remit goes beyond awareness: campaigns involving more than 100 creators and a multimillion-dollar budget are expected to tie creator work to conversion, including product demonstrations built with Perplexity Computer that show the tool in use. Read more →

OpenAI Reroutes Ad Clicks

TL;DR: OpenAI is testing an ad format that sends ChatGPT users into a branded conversation instead of to a website. Wayfair confirmed it is participating in the limited Sponsored Agent pilot, where a Chat with us call to action opens the retailer's AI assistant, with guardrails for product accuracy, transparency and service handoffs during early testing. Read more →

Google Upgrades Meridian

TL;DR: Google has added agentic AI to Meridian, its open-source marketing mix model, so teams can audit data quality, resolve errors and guide model building in real time. The update also lets advertisers factor more brand-building signals into measurement and makes Meridian GeoX, Google's publisher-agnostic incrementality testing tool, available globally after its beta phase was completed earlier. Read more →

Google Measures Ad Clutter

TL;DR: Google has introduced experimental Chrome User Experience Report metrics that quantify how ads occupy a webpage: count, density, network weight and CPU weight. The signals are available to the broader ecosystem alongside Google's own ad businesses, though the company has not set quality thresholds or said whether they will influence Display and Video 360 bidding. Read more →

EA Bundles Gaming Ads

TL;DR: Electronic Arts is rolling out Moments of Play, a single-buy package that combines premium gaming placements with brand-integration opportunities across franchises including EA Sports FC 27, College Football 27 and skate. Rather than asking advertisers to choose one title, EA will use placements across console and mobile to reach an audience during high-engagement moments throughout. Read more →

AI Search Supports Brand Spend

TL;DR: State Farm, Mercedes-Benz and Hoka are using AI-driven shifts in product research to defend broader brand spending rather than relying on GEO alone. Digiday reports that State Farm's marketing chief now treats AI-search behavior as part of budget conversations, while the IAB raised its U.S. ad-spend growth forecast from 9.5% to 12.3% for 2026 overall. Read more →

Bannerflow Sees Video Gap

TL;DR: Bannerflow's analysis of more than 300 brands found that 78% produced video assets in 2026, but only 46% actually served video impressions. The dataset covered 2.33 million assets and 155.1 billion impressions from January through August, exposing a distribution gap between making video creative and putting it in front of intended audiences at scale today. Read more →

Lowe's CMO Takes Commerce

TL;DR: Lowe's promoted CMO Jen Wilson to executive vice president and added digital commerce, Lowes.com and Marketplace to her existing marketing, retail-media, loyalty and personalization portfolio. The move follows 15.7% online-sales growth in Q2 and gives one executive responsibility for joining customer data, marketing channels and the retailer's expanding commerce experience into one operating system internally. Read more →

Carter's Lets Kids Glow

TL;DR: Carter's has launched Watch Them Glow, a brand refresh aimed at Gen Z and younger millennial parents, with a new logo, 60-second CTV spot and revised social strategy. CMO Sarah Crockett says the multiyear effort also includes the Light Makers creator program and grants for people who support children and families across North America initially. Read more →

IHOP Listens To French Toast

TL;DR: IHOP has brought stuffed French toast back after six years off menus, turning its most-requested social-media item into a campaign about affordable indulgence. The rococo-styled spot uses Katseye's Pinky Up and runs across TV, social, digital, influencers and PR, while the chain revives old consumer requests to tease the product's return before it launches nationwide. Read more →

Target Gives CMO Experience

TL;DR: Target has named former Hilton global CMO Mark Weinstein its chief marketing and guest experience officer, reporting directly to CEO Michael Fiddelke. Beyond brand marketing, Weinstein will oversee Target's retail-media network Roundel and marketplace Target+, tying consumer connection across culture, community, stores and digital channels to the retailer's broader comeback effort now under one leader. Read more →

Columbia Sends Free Fleece

TL;DR: Columbia Sportswear is giving away 90s-inspired Helvetia fleeces to people who place an order by fax, extending its Engineered for Whatever platform with an intentionally outdated technology stunt. Head of Marketing Matt Sutton says the brand has shifted from long-tail programmatic buys toward higher-attention media, including direct mail, TikTok and hundreds of creator partners globally. Read more →

Jets Sell IRL Media

TL;DR: The New York Jets and Outfront are turning a season-long partnership into IRL media, combining billboards, transit screens, building wraps, pop-ups and interactive experiences for sponsors. The model lets a brand follow fans beyond MetLife Stadium with real-time sports signals and QR-based offers, while treating outdoor as one connected story rather than a one-off placement. Read more →

Pulsar Replays Its Launch

TL;DR: Bajaj Auto has released a new television commercial for the Pulsar 150, marking 25 years of the motorcycle brand by revisiting the advertising legacy of its 2001 launch. The sequel uses the familiar Definitely Male territory but updates the story for the new model, making anniversary nostalgia do product-introduction work on Indian television screens again. Read more →

Uber Eats Sells Relief

TL;DR: Uber Eats has launched Phew, a new Australian brand platform that moves beyond its Get Almost, Almost Anything message and focuses on the relief of solving everyday shortfalls. The hero film imagines life in 2013 before on-demand delivery, then extends the idea through TV, BVOD, online video, social, audio, outdoor, CRM and activations nationwide now. Read more →

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