On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the unofficial list of the most interesting retailers for the month of August. Each month, Arielle Feger, Becky Schilling, and Emmy Liederman (aka The Committee) put together a very unofficial list of the top eight retailers they're watching based on which are making the most interesting moves: Who's launching new initiatives? Which partnerships are moving the needle? Which standout marketing campaigns are being created? In this month's episode, Committee members Arielle Feger and Emmy Liederman will defend their list against Principal Analyst, Sky Canaves and Senior Analyst, Blake Droesch, who will dispute the power rankings by attempting to move retailers up, down, on, or off the list.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what AI Overviews are doing to search behavior, some potential new business models for the internet, and how much “AI slop” might encourage folks to decrease their time on the web. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Analyst, Grace Harmon, and the CEO and Founder of CMO Huddles, and host of the Renegade Marketers Unite podcast, Drew Neisser. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
53% of marketers in North America cite data analysis and insights as the top bottleneck slowing down marketing cycles, according to an April GrowthLoop and Ascend2 survey.
Kroger has consolidated its retail media, consumer insights, and loyalty marketing capabilities under the Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) brand.
The news: Figma’s high-profile IPO—valued at $19.3 billion—lands it squarely in the league of top-tier software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms and indicates renewed competition in cloud-based tools that agencies rely on for their campaigns. Our take: Instead of being subsumed by Adobe, Figma is now free to chart its own course. Going public gives it the independence to scale, expand its ecosystem, and challenge incumbents directly. For advertisers, Figma remaining independent gives agencies added choice. As creative tools compete for market share, expect faster innovation, more flexible pricing, and features tuned for digital-first campaigns.
OpenAI is preparing to launch GPT-5 in early August. The newest and most powerful model combines traditional GPT capabilities with o3-series reasoning—marking a major leap in performance and model simplification. The consolidation play with GPT-5 could further cement OpenAI’s dominance if competitors are slow to respond.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what “authentic storytelling” looks like in practice, surprising findings about the authenticity levels between print and digital, and what’s most important when it comes to a “brand’s handshake.” Join our conversation with Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Senior Director of Briefings, Jeremy Goldman, and Vice President of Brand Marketing at Quad, Heidi Waldusky. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how retail media is impacting traditional search marketing, and how marketers can best leverage themselves on the wave of new retail media network platforms. Then, we break down how AI tools will affect the future of paid search advertising. Join our conversation with guest host and Director of Reports Editing, Rahul Chadha, Principal Analyst, Sarah Marzano, and Senior Analyst, Max Willens. Listen everywhere you find podcasts and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
The news: The Trump administration unveiled a sweeping AI action plan that trades oversight for acceleration—seeking to supercharge US dominance in artificial intelligence by dismantling regulatory guardrails, undercutting state authority, and fast-tracking infrastructure and development, per Wired. Our take: For marketers, this could mean an influx of new tools, looser content moderation, and shorter time to market for AI-driven campaigns. Marketers should audit their AI tools, implement AI best practices and safety training, and prepare for faster deployment cycles in a looser regulatory environment.
Criteo is modernizing retail media by launching a global auction-based ad platform and integrating with Mirakl to enable self-serve advertising for over 100,000 third-party sellers. This dual move addresses two persistent challenges: outdated fixed-price ad systems used by most retailers, and untapped ad spend from marketplace sellers. The auction system gives advertisers more control and performance insights, while Mirakl opens up a scalable, automated path for small sellers. Criteo also brings standardized attribution and reporting across retail partners—fixing transparency gaps. These changes position Criteo as a full-spectrum solution for brands, retailers, and sellers looking to compete in a fast-evolving market.
Privacy regulations are mounting. Signal loss is accelerating. Omnichannel advertising has become impossibly complex. These forces are driving marketers back to MMM for holistic, privacy-safe measurement.
The news: The window to monitor AI’s reasoning in chatbots and agents is quickly closing, according to 40 researchers from Google DeepMind, Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, and more. In a rare show of unity, the researchers stated that chatbots and agents are shifting from human-readable chain-of-thought reasoning to opaque, non-verbal methods, per VentureBeat. Our take: The collective call for transparency and standards marks an inflection point. Without urgent action, AI systems may soon outpace our ability to audit them—leaving marketers, creators, and regulators flying blind. Unseen logic means unchecked bias that could result in reputational damage.
The news: Jasper’s suite of AI-powered marketing agents are purpose-built to automate core marketing functions. These agents, which start at $49 per user per month, work inside Jasper Canvas, a new intelligent workspace designed to streamline planning, collaboration, content creation, and execution. Our take: Marketers must assess their current pain points. If content quality is inconsistent, execution is slow, or tools don’t talk to each other, an agentic platform like Jasper could drive sharper outcomes. As with most new tools, running pilot programs and benchmarks for speed and brand consistency against your current stack will help determine value and ROI.
In today’s episode, we talk about how AI has changed finserv’s approach to advertising and which areas of bank marketing will be affected the most. Join the discussion with host and Head of Business Development Rob Rubin, Analysts Lauren Ashcraft and Jacob Bourne.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss what area of people's lives artificial general intelligence (AGI) will change the most, the argument for AI developers asking permission from society to build these models, and when AGI might actually get here. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, and Analysts Jacob Bourne and Grace Harmon. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
41% of CMOs in North America and Europe say they leveraged data, analytics, and measurement to optimize marketing performance—the most common tactic followed by AI, according to March 2025 data from Gartner.
The news: Under pressure to deliver on AI investments, Big Tech companies like Meta and Apple are seeking to acquire AI startups. Failing that, they’re looking to hire away founders and key personnel to boost their own capabilities. Our take: The recent complications between OpenAI and Microsoft reveal that partnerships and investments aren’t always compatible with a startup’s growth. Expect Meta and Apple to pit money over mission as they hire away founders and key engineers, leaving AI startups high and dry, similar to how Google hired ex-Googlers from AI chatbot startup Character AI. The AI startup talent pool could be shrinking as startups and founders get acqui-hired by Big Tech.
The news: Google blamed a faulty, untested policy update—not overloaded infrastructure—for triggering a Google Cloud outage that took down Gmail, Cloudflare, Shopify, and many others. It admitted to skipping standard risk safeguards, per CNBC. Our take: The next outage is a matter of when, not if—and the time to prepare is now. CMOs should pressure vendors for transparency, diversify martech stacks to reduce dependency, and ensure business continuity plans cover cloud failures and system disruptions.
he news: At WWDC 2025, Apple announced its upcoming macOS 26 Tahoe, marking the final operating system supporting Intel-based Macs and the end of a computing era. Apple’s transition will accelerate replacement cycles for millions of business users and marketing technology stacks. ur take: The shift will require a massive reset for Apple-reliant companies. They will need comprehensive technology audits across devices and software to weed out unsupported tools. Organizations delaying transitions, particularly for models that have already lost support, risk security vulnerabilities and performance limitations, affecting campaign execution and creative production timelines.