The insight: Gen Z consumers are starting their purchase journeys more often on Google properties, including YouTube and Gemini, according to a Business Insider report citing Morgan Stanley data. Our take: Google is doing a good job of leveraging the popularity of YouTube and increasing interest in genAI-powered shopping tools to win over younger shoppers and establish itself as the first port of call in their customer journeys.
The news: Meta’s AI app is drawing backlash as users unknowingly publish private chats—some serious—under real names due to a confusing share feature, per TechCrunch. Many people thought they were using the chatbot or saving notes in private, only to find that their prompts—which included topics like gender identity, medical concerns, tax evasion, and job interviews—were visible to strangers. Our take: This episode poses significant issues for Meta regarding the metaverse, AI, and advertising.
The news: Novo Nordisk is partnering with AI drug discovery company Deep Apple Therapeutics to discover and develop new cardiometabolic drugs, including for obesity. The takeaway: Novo is not the biggest loser in the GLP-1 weight loss category, but it’s trailing Lilly in drug effectiveness, market value, and more importantly public perception. It’s critical for Novo to come up with new and better weight loss drugs—hence the deal with Deep Apple—but also polish its brand with consumers. A new CEO and new marketing direction could garner Novo some much-needed cachet.
The news: Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Angus King (I-ME) have introduced a bill, The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, that would prohibit D2C prescription drug advertising on television, radio, print, digital platforms, and social media. Our take: Despite disdain for drug commercials among consumers and lawmakers, pharma marketers shouldn’t sound the alarm just yet.
Almost a third (32%) of US and UK game players actively ignore in-game ads, while the same number finds them helpful, according to May data from Attest.
The news: A sweeping internet outage traced to Google Cloud paralyzed various content streaming, cloud productivity, gaming, and AI services Thursday. The outage exposed the dangerous reality of an increasingly hyper-connected digital infrastructure—when one provider fails, the entire ecosystem collapses like dominoes. Our take: AI adoption is straining overloaded cloud systems, making widespread outages inevitable as demand grows. While Cloudflare and Google Cloud may have fixed their issues within hours, its customers may have been deeply affected. The full financial impact may take weeks to emerge.
The news: Disney and Universal are suing AI startup Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement. The lawsuit states that Midjourney pirated their content libraries and continues to produce “innumerable” copies of their characters, including Shrek, Homer Simpson, and Darth Vader. Our take: A victory for the studios could cut off AI companies’ access to media libraries, accelerate a shift toward paid content licensing deals, and set legal precedents to help web publishers and IP owners protect their content from data scraping.
The news: Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that social media platforms must be held accountable for illegal user-generated content (UGC), marking a major shift in digital regulation, per Reuters. Six of 11 justices backed fines for non-removal, putting the pressure on platforms to police their content. The decision to place accountability on platform owners could undermine the business and advertising strategies of Meta, YouTube, X, and TikTok. Key takeaway: When governments crack down on platforms, ad environments change fast. If Brazil’s ruling becomes the norm, social platforms may shift from open forums to tightly controlled spaces—risking user engagement, discoverability, algorithmic reach, and ad effectiveness.
The news: Cannes Lions 2025 is highlighting how retail media is moving beyond performance marketing into broader applications across brand storytelling, in-store influence, and customer experience. Executives like Victoria Usher and Jim Kane are calling attention to how brands now activate retail data for segmentation, planning, and innovation across media touchpoints including CTV and search. Our take: This shift reflects growing demand for privacy-safe, first-party data solutions amid signal loss and rising complexity. Cannes will underscore retail media’s potential to support creativity and full-funnel integration. The future isn’t just attribution—it’s about making retail platforms vital to brand equity and long-term engagement.
The news: Reddit published a report Thursday highlighting its increasing relevance for advertisers as social media users gain trust in the platform for purchase decisions. Reddit routinely delivers promising ad results. Adding Reddit to ad campaigns leads to $6.94 higher incremental ROAS across channels. Our take: Despite lingering brand hesitancy to adopt Reddit as a core advertising channel, the platform is increasingly becoming a reliable source that promises high returns—making it a key part of an effective campaign for advertisers who know how to navigate it.
Truist is making significant strides in optimizing its digital onboarding process, prioritizing increased personalization and a smoother customer journey to attract new clients. This multi-pronged strategy includes enabling mobile ID verification to boost conversion rates among younger generations, seamlessly integrating new clients with services like direct deposit and Zelle to establish Truist as their primary bank, and allowing personalized mobile app dashboards. These digital improvements, supported by AI for feedback aggregation, aim to offset the impact of branch closures and meet the demand for digital convenience, particularly from Gen Z. Truist should amplify marketing efforts to highlight the ease and speed of their fully digital onboarding, emphasizing that no in-person ID verification is required.
National Bank is distinguishing itself as the first major Canadian bank to implement a secure data feed (API) for its retail customers to share financial information with approved fintech applications, putting it ahead of Canada's potential 2026 open banking rollout. This innovative approach significantly reduces security risks by redirecting customers to National Bank's own website for identity verification, eliminating the need for customers to share online banking passwords with third-party aggregators (known as "screen scraping"). By taking an 80% stake in Flinks, a financial data aggregator that now accredits fintechs, National Bank transforms a potential threat to customer loyalty into an opportunity to deepen relationships, ensuring it remains the central hub for customers' financial lives even as they use other apps.
The news:** Amazon has quietly doubled the ad load on Prime Video, now serving 4 to 6 minutes of ads per hour—up from 2 to 3.5—placing it alongside Hulu and Paramount+ in volume. This aligns with Amazon’s effort to scale its connected TV inventory and offers buyers greater reach. Our take: The added ad time could shift Prime Video’s role in media planning, attracting performance-focused advertisers if CPMs soften, or reinforcing a premium stance if PMP rates hold. Weekly user engagement remains high, making the platform a reliable environment for consistent exposure. Amazon is quietly positioning Prime Video as a leading CTV ad player.
The news: Gaming is becoming a powerful vehicle for delivering ads to engaged audiences, with gamers spending significant time gaming across platforms, per a study from Activision Blizzard Media. Seventy percent of gamers play or watch video games daily, while 95% play or watch weekly. Seventy-seven percent of weekly gamers play on mobile devices, while 52% play on console and 34% play on PC. Our take: In-game advertising provides reach that few other channels can match, connecting with an engaged, highly attentive, and diverse audience, making it a critical touchpoint—but advertisers must understand what strategies work best.
The news: Tech giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon are building tools that let brands bypass ad agencies entirely—automating the creation, placement, and optimization of ads, per The Wall Street Journal. Yes, but: Strategy, storytelling, and brand stewardship can’t come from algorithms. Even with automation, brands need creative direction, long-term planning, and cross-channel cohesion—roles agencies are uniquely positioned to play. Our take: To stay relevant, agencies must move up the funnel. AI can optimize and target, but it can’t craft brand strategy or narrative. The edge belongs to firms that lead with insight, creativity, and cohesion.
20% of users who downloaded mobile apps with onboarding campaigns in Q2 2024 returned to the app the next day, compared to just 16% across all apps, according to data from Airship.
Screen-fatigued shoppers are rediscovering the thrill of real-world discovery by flipping through catalogs, queuing for pop-ups, and going on retail tourism. Josh Golden, CMO at Quad, shares how Gen Z and millennials are craving these encounters, “return on touch” as a measurable metric, and how blending physical and digital elements can lift loyalty and sales.
Over 80% of Gen Z want to unplug, according to new research from Quad and The Harris Poll, sparking demand for tactile brand moments like print catalogs, unboxing rituals, and pop-ups that feel more authentic than scrolling. Marketers who fuse these “return of touch” experiences with digital convenience can build deeper loyalty and lift sales.
The news: President Donald Trump is expected to sign another executive order extending TikTok’s sale deadline as the current June 19 deadline approaches, marking the third extension since Trump took office. Our take: Trump is likely to continue extending TikTok’s sale deadline—but with each extension, brand confidence plummets further as the platform’s long term sustainability remains shrouded in uncertainty. The brands that will be most successful aren’t those that are crossing their fingers for TikTok’s survival, but those that are investing in contingency plans and platform-agnostic strategies that can pivot quickly.
The news: WPP has lost the $1.7 billion Mars global media account to Publicis, just months after parting with Coca-Cola’s North America business. The deal encompasses media, social, production, and commerce, and further weakens WPP’s hold on major global clients. Our take: WPP’s loss is both financial and reputational—and their aggressive counterattack via a client-facing report signals a deeper crisis. As rivals like Publicis gain ground and agency power consolidates, WPP’s public posture and CEO transition raise questions about future strategy. Winning back trust will require more than critiques of the competition—it will demand structural clarity and client-first execution.