After months of public and regulatory pressure, Instagram announced a sweeping overhaul of how teens experience the platform by applying the same “PG-13” principles used by the film industry. Its goal is to limit exposure to adult or explicit content and curb the backlash over teen well-being. Instagram’s PG-13 turn marks a new phase in platform governance where safety, not scale, defines success, and where brands must earn trust in a shrinking, more sheltered teen arena. Brands now need to create more nuanced campaigns to reach younger users without running afoul of guardrails or further alienating minors.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how Gen Zers are trying to limit their social media use, which platforms they are moving to (and away from), and where they are engaging with social creators offline. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Analyst, Paola Florez-Marquez, and Senior Analyst, Minda Smiley. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
OpenAI’s Sora iOS app sparked a wave of creative excitement—and an equally fast wave of scams. Exclusive to iOS and the web, Sora quickly climbed to the top of Apple’s download charts last week. But within days, the App Store was swarming with fake “Sora” and “Sora 2” apps, many hastily rebranded to ride the surge in interest. Opportunists exploit the gap between trademark enforcement, app verification, and public awareness—turning brand equity into bait. Brands must act fast to secure trademarks, domains, and search terms tied to new launches or risk losing trust and revenues to copycats.
The biggest banks will spend $6 billion or more on marketing in 2025, or 0.10% of their total asset value, per an analysis of the American Bankers Association Bank Marketers Survey in the ABA Banking Journal. On average, 32% of banks’ marketing budgets were allocated to new customer acquisition—more than any other allocation. Bank marketers are clearly focused on digital advertising, and with greater resources and scale, the largest institutions won’t find it hard to drive awareness, attract new customers digitally, and dominate the conversation. Community banks will need to be scrappy.
YouTube creators are becoming media companies in their own right, argues Nic Paul, co-founder and president of Spotter. In an interview, Paul said top creators now operate like TV networks—producing serialized, appointment-style content that builds audience loyalty and predictable viewership. Spotter’s own data shows 78% of creator watch time now happens on connected TVs, blurring the line between streaming and social. For advertisers, that means treating creator content as premium media, not influencer collateral. “The click is gone,” Paul said. “It’s about engagement, completion, and fandom.” Brands that adapt fastest will win the next era of audience attention.
As AI slop, influencer content, and an abundance of ads push Gen Zers into private messaging spaces, brands have a new channel for contact. The majority (86%) of US social media users are comfortable receiving messages from brands within apps like Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, per a Snap and MAGNA survey. As users retreat into these private digital spaces, the marketing playbook must prepare to meet them there. That may require new efforts, such as rebalancing budgets, building new capabilities, and finding what engagement metrics are key. Start small with a few chat-based campaigns to track what resonates.
New York City filed a sweeping federal lawsuit against Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok-owner ByteDance, accusing them of addicting children and worsening a youth mental health crisis, per Reuters. The complaint states that the social platforms “exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of youth” to drive engagement and profit. Youth protection and digital well-being are now business imperatives. Marketers should expect tighter guardrails on engagement, targeting, and design and consider it an opportunity to build trust by carefully segmenting teen and adult experiences.
A Yext analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity found that 86% of AI-generated answers rely on brand-managed content—from official websites and listings to reviews. First-party sites led with 44% of citations, followed by listings (42%) and reviews (8%). The findings suggest AI models increasingly trust structured, authoritative data over publisher or community sources. But fewer users click through—only 8% from AI summaries versus 15% from standard search—indicating that generative platforms are capturing more engagement directly. To stay discoverable, marketers must pair clean, structured first-party data with strong social visibility as AI search reshapes traffic flows.
Linear TV and streaming have mastered how to present ad products alongside their top talent to win marketing dollars, and more audio players are following suit. On Monday, SiriusXM hosted “Built with Audio,” an upfront-style showcase scheduled around Advertising Week New York that packaged talent interviews and performances with executive presentations tailored to an audience of marketers.
Entertainment brands are partnering with influencers to drive engagement with Hollywood properties, according to an Advertising Week New York panel of film and TV industry leaders and creators. While partnering with creators for Hollywood productions is especially important amid volatile box office revenues struggling to reach pre-pandemic levels, the panel’s insights stretch to all marketers working with influencers.
The search journey is becoming increasingly fragmented as consumers no longer trust the first answer they see and turn to various other resources for product recommendations and reviews. Nearly 90% of consumers in the US, the UK, France, and Germany now cross-check results across multiple platforms, per Yext’s The Rise of AI Search Archetypes report. Brands need to optimize for how AI tools act on their behalf, per Yext. CMOs should focus on ensuring AI tools interpret their data accurately and present it in the right contexts, which could come from succinct FAQ pages or concrete product listings that avoid vague descriptions.
A new Billion Dollar Boy study shows marketers are spending more on AI-generated creator content—even as audiences grow wary. Seventy-nine percent of marketers increased AI investment this year, and 77% plan to shift more budget to AI-driven creator campaigns. Yet audience enthusiasm for AI content has plunged from 60% in 2023 to 26% in 2025, reflecting frustration with formulaic, unlabeled “AI slop.” As the creator economy enters its “post-AI” phase, the challenge isn’t whether to use AI—it’s how to use it without losing authenticity.
Gap, Inc. launched a creator platform, the latest move among retailers tapping influencers to extend their cultural reach and attract new customers. Retailers like Gap need creators to stay relevant with consumers—especially younger audiences that get much of their shopping inspiration on social media. But to attract those influencers, companies need to make sure that their incentives measure up. Free products are a good start, but offering sales commissions—as Gap and Lowe’s do—will bring creators on board and keep them in the fold.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping marketing, from how content is created to how advertisers evaluate transparency and trust on digital platforms. Marketers can harness AI to streamline operations, enabling more campaigns more quickly by analyzing large data sets—but do so thoughtfully—avoid using AI for entire ad creation, as consumers still respond negatively to this. Brands must operate with an eye toward maintaining trust and authenticity.
This sponsored video by Awin will explore how affiliate and referral marketing are driving digital buyer growth among Gen Z.
Most (53.7%) visits to US fashion and apparel websites came from direct traffic between July 2024 and June 2025, per an August SimilarWeb report.
Over half (52%) of consumers in Australia, the UK, and the US are most concerned about brands posting AI-generated content without disclosure, tied with mishandling personal data as their top social media worry, according to Q3 data from Sprout Social.
In five years, Instacart’s retail media network (RMN) has transformed from a simple performance engine into a full-funnel, end-to-end marketing ecosystem.
TikTok is increasing subscription revenue shares for US and Canadian creators, now offering these creators as much as 90% of subscription earnings, per a company announcement. Advertisers should maintain strong partnerships with TikTok creators for their ability to connect with large, engaged audiences, but continue exploring other short-form opportunities in the event that the US-exclusive TikTok app causes an audience exodus or has other unforeseen problems.