On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Amazon in Q3 and beyond: What Amazon's corporate layoffs tell us about how AI is actually affecting the broader job market. Is Amazon’s new “Help Me Decide” feature a significant stepping stone toward agentic AI? And could Amazon’s AI smart glasses for delivery workers be a Trojan horse for broader smart-glasses adoption? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Rachel Wolff. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
OpenAI is rolling out a group chat option for ChatGPT to all logged-in Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users globally. The company said in a blog post that the feature is intended to help users collaborate with one another in the same conversation—such as working with friends, family, or coworkers on plans, decisions, and brainstorming. To capitalize on this new engagement tool, marketing leaders should start experimenting with group-based AI workflows and prepare for new discovery channels.
Reddit and mobile apps were the fastest-growing US ad channels in Q3, showing their emerging importance to advertisers. Ad spend on Reddit increased 46% YoY, per Sensor Tower’s Q3 Digital Market Index report, and mobile app ad spend grew 42%. Reddit is becoming a high ROI opportunity for early movers. Its growth suggests that highly engaged micro-communities (subreddits) are offering more precise targeting and less competition. That makes Reddit a strong testing ground for community-based and brand awareness campaigns for consumers who are actively looking to discover new content and products.
TikTok and Instagram are shifting where marketers can reliably reach and influence their audiences, though YouTube and Facebook remain Americans’ most widely used social platforms. Usage of TikTok and Instagram continues to rise—37% of US adults say they have used TikTok as of this year, up from 21% in 2021, and 50% have used Instagram, up from 40% in the same time span, per Pew Research. Brands should rebalance media mix regularly to capitalize on platform maturity and develop platform-specific content, especially for short-form services such as TikTok and Instagram Reels and long-form friendly sites like YouTube.
The European Commission (EC) plans to propose scaled-back digital regulations to make it easier for companies to access users’ personal data and allow AI companies to legally use personal information for model training. The changes include simplifying cookie consent and letting users accept with a single click and save preferences centrally. Access to richer data sets could improve consumer segmentation, predictive modeling, and personalization offerings. Brands that clearly communicate how they use data, what protections exist, and the benefits of personalization will be more likely to maintain loyalty.
Speaking with EMARKETER at Web Summit, Vast chief astronaut and former NASA commander Drew Feustel described how the company’s Haven 1 station is designed to shift low Earth orbit from a research environment to a commercial manufacturing platform. Building on decades of ISS science, Vast aims to serve industries like biotech, pharmaceuticals, and advanced materials that benefit from microgravity’s unique conditions. With the space economy expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035, Feustel says the next leap is scaling production—from artificial retinas to specialty crystals—into repeatable, revenue-generating processes. For brands and investors, orbit is becoming a legitimate industrial supply chain.
Adobe is acquiring software platform Semrush for $1.9 billion. The deal, which is expected to close in the first half of next year, will help Adobe expand beyond creative tools into a full-service marketing and analytics suite that can compete with Google and Meta. Whether or not marketers use Adobe today, the deal presents an opportunity to check tech stacks and evaluate search, design, and analytics tools. The acquisition could also help marketers trim martech spending by streamlining the tools they need to create content and stay on top of brand visibility and performance.
TikTok is letting users control how much AI content appears in their feeds with a slider to dial genAI content up or down depending on preference. The feed-filtering option is only as good as TikTok’s ability to detect genAI content, so the platform is also testing invisible watermarking that adds labeling only TikTok can see. Marketers should monitor how users adjust their AI content preferences and tailor creative accordingly to prioritize transparency and authenticity where AI skepticism is high. Pressure-test TikTok media plans to ensure campaigns consistently appear alongside content that reinforces trust.
Consumers are increasingly turning to ChatGPT instead of Google for product discovery, shifting search from links to answers, and Peec AI is working to give marketers visibility into how their brands appear in AI-generated answers. It focuses on generative engine optimization (GEO) and search that is shaped by prompts, sentiment, and context instead of SEO-reliant keywords and links. Brands should treat AI chatbots with the same reverence as they do Google Search by identifying high-value prompts and analyzing the sources that inform AI. Improved GEO targeting gives brands better oversight over generative search discovery.
Engagement and reach are now top priorities for social marketers as brand awareness sinks to the bottom of the list. Last year, 76% of marketers named brand awareness their No. 1 priority; this year, that number plummeted to 22%, per PhotoShelter. The sharp pivot from brand-building to performance indicators suggests marketers are under growing pressure to prove ROI in fast-moving social environments, even at the expense of longer-term brand health. To balance reach and awareness, brands should build dual-track strategies, measure brand lift, and optimize for both attention and actions.
Meta added content theft protections to Facebook Reels, giving creators more control over their work. The offering is automatically available to qualifying creators in Facebook’s Content Monetization program. Users that enroll with the content protection program will get notifications when content that’s similar to or identical to theirs is posted on Facebook or Instagram. Brands should encourage partnering creators to enroll in the program to safeguard content. The offering could lower the risk of inadvertently using stolen content, making compliance easier and ensuring creators have full rights to the assets that brands invest in and amplify.
The internet went dark Tuesday for users across services like X, ChatGPT, Spotify, Uber, Shopify, DoorDash, Dropbox, and Canva—disabling social media, customer engagement, and creative production. Content delivery network (CDN) Cloudflare restored service after the hourslong global outage that began at 6:20am EST. Cloudflare attributed the outage to an internal error. Marketers should push for business continuity expansion plans. Redundant CDNs, multi-cloud strategies, and cross-cloud failovers protect them from being at the mercy of a single CDN provider. Building for resilience keeps customers confident during outages and keeps online sales moving.
Travelers are becoming more comfortable with AI and incorporating it into their trip discovery and planning processes, presenting an opportunity for travel companies to apply the technology for decision-making and customer experiences. However, the travel industry is still in an experimental phase and could be missing user and revenue gains. To capitalize on travelers’ use of and confidence in AI, travel companies need to move from testing the technology to fully integrating it. That includes building traveler trust through transparency, investing in data infrastructure, and exploring consumer-facing AI agents.
Agency and digital marketers are adopting AI en masse, but notable confidence and training gaps could hinder execution and ROI. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of agency and brand marketers worldwide plan to use AI next year, per MIQ. However, less than half (45%) are confident in their ability to use it to drive operational efficiencies. CMOs need to treat upskilling as a core investment so employees can help support pilots and work independently on AI-driven projects. Leaders should develop role-specific training paths, establish AI leads to answer project questions, and offer prompt libraries to safely practice engaging with AI.
OpenAI's GPT-5.1, a notable model upgrade with improved prompt comprehension over the poorly received GPT-5, is now equipped with seven personality options. Marketers should test how GPT 5.1 and the chatbot’s personalities align with specific tasks and brand tone and voice. Agencies working with numerous brands can use the chatbot’s personalities to meet the various requirements of clients, such as Professional for more serious product campaigns—for example, a pharma or financial company—and Friendly or Quirky for Christmas campaigns from fashion brands.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Google in Q3 and beyond: How much of a competitor to Google Chrome is OpenAI’s new browser, Atlas? What’s the main takeaway from the remedies hearings about Google’s ad tech business? And what’s the significance of Google’s first $100 billion quarter? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Senior Director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman, and Principal Analyst Yory Wurmser. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
Facebook is creating a more social Marketplace experience with collaborative features aimed at making buying and selling feel more interactive. The platform is rolling out “collections” that let users create groups of Marketplace listings and invite friends to browse together. It’s also adding reactions and comments directly on listings. Brands should explore ad placements within the shopping platform to meet high-intent, young customers who are already in a product discovery mindset.
Brand bias leads most shoppers to buy from companies they’re already familiar with, making it difficult to attract and convert new customers. Eighty-four percent of purchases by consumers worldwide are driven by preexisting brand bias, per WPP Media’s How Humans Decide report. Marketers should focus on building long-term, positive brand familiarity before a buying moment occurs. Because ESO placements carry more influence than paid channels in shaping bias, brands should prioritize credibility-building strategies like reviews and social content.