Michael Kuzminov is the CEO of HypeFactory, a global AI-powered influencer marketing agency. Marketing is undergoing a profound transformation, with artificial intelligence at the forefront of this process. Traditional search and advertising methods still matter, but brands can no longer depend solely on organic rankings or conventional campaigns to maintain their presence. AI-powered search engines and digital assistants have completely changed the way consumers interact with brands. To ensure they remain visible, marketing specialists must fully understand and embrace the rise of AI search.
Over the last three years, Amazon Ads has mapped an incredible trajectory - robust year-over-year growth, elevation to the brand's 2nd-most profitable vertical outside e-commerce, and the newfound strength to take on the long-established competitors in the category. But the biggest challenge still lay ahead, in the form of an audience our brand has never courted before: small business owners.
B2C, they have it so easy. While preferences and price points may vary, there's no shortage of stuff people want and need-shoes, snacks, gadgets, toys. Things people covet, save up for, or impulse buy. But B2B marketers...well, if only selling cloud computing or point-of-sale systems were as easy as a pair of shoes. An impulse buyer in B2B-land is rare. It's not like prospects walk around their daily lives thinking, "If only I had a best-in-class tool that would streamline my workflow
Viral campaigns do not just occur incidentally. The most memorable ones are the ones that tend to touch the feelings that people already have, such as community pride, excitement, curiosity, or the excitement of winning something that no one is expecting to win. The street culture and casinos are two worlds that are more aware of this than others.
TV is no longer passive. With connected TV (CTV), streaming platforms, and shoppable formats, the medium has become both more complex and more creatively fertile. What was once one-way communication is now a two-way relationship where audiences consume, interact, evaluate, and even purchase in real time. Understanding the audience behind the screen Linear TV campaigns were predictable and measured by reach.
You may not realize it, but AI is part of many of our routines. Do you ever wonder how a simple search on the internet or casual browsing somehow drops the exact product you've been searching for right in front of you? That's AI pulling the strings. AI is so deeply embedded in our online experiences that many of us don't even realize it's influencing them.
The Great Pyramids took decades to build. It was a monumental feat of human ingenuity and collaboration. Today, we software developers erect our own pyramids each day - not from stone, but from code. Yet despite far more advanced tools, these systems don't always make the experience better. So why, when KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is a well-known mantra, do we keep gravitating toward complexity?
At the end of this month, they'll want to see early evidence that projected holiday sales are materializing. Positive noises on the next quarterly call would buy Hill more space and time, while negative or neutral signals will reduce his room for movement. It'll be a crucial test for the apparel brand, one its leaders might wish they could postpone.
Jessica Wong is the Founder and CEO of nationally recognized marketing and PR firm Valux Digital. Work has changed dramatically over the past five years. While flexible working was already a growing trend before the pandemic, restrictions on office-based work accelerated the shift. Since then, flexible schedules have become the norm, freelancing has surged in popularity and both are reshaping how big businesses operate.
1. Reconnect With An Impactful Client I reconnect with a client whose music I truly believe in-music that I feel makes the world a better place. It reminds me that our work is bigger than us, with meaning that goes far beyond the workspace. - Waylon Barnes, C2 Management 2. Find Motivation In Mission-Based Work With my agency's focus on healthcare, health tech and life sciences, our team is lucky to work with companies that truly can change people's health and lives for the better-and in some cases, even save them. Keeping that mission-based work top of mind is an incredible motivator to keep going even when the going gets tough! - Jodi Amendola, Amendola Communications
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), one of the leading social media companies, went public in 2012. Since then, the stock has performed exceptionally well. Its returns over this period are well above those of broader equities. However, some might argue that it's too late to get in on the bandwagon. Meta Platforms is now worth almost $2 trillion. Can the stock still generate life-changing returns? Let's find out.
While unsuccessful entrepreneurs obsess over what makes their brand special, successful entrepreneurs instead ask a more powerful question to transform their business into an unstoppable brand: What am I fighting against? This is the concept of the " strategic enemy," which I wrote my new book about, and it is the most powerful yet underutilized tools in brand building. A strategic enemy is the oppositional force that your brand or category stands against. It could be a competitor, category, convention, or concept.
More than 200 million people today sit in the shadows of addressability, including 150 million iPhone users. But the results from a new campaign collaboration show that despite mounting challenges due to signal loss, privacy shifts and fragmented device ecosystems, there is a way to restore addressability at scale and drive meaningful business outcomes - and it comes from a combination of the right identity resolution and high-quality data.
Sephora isn't just shaping beauty-it's shaping culture. From its trendsetting beauty festival to partnering with Hulu for its Faces of Music docuseries to sponsoring women's sports, the brand has become a force at the intersection of beauty, entertainment, and lifestyle. Under the leadership of Artemis Patrick, CEO of Sephora North America, the company is amplifying this influence while also embarking on its largest capital project yet: a full redesign of all 600+ North American stores over the next five years.
I've witnessed this with Uber Eats, where, as it progresses through its development cycle, wide-eyed, rational product demos slowly turn into big emotional platforms. Suddenly, agency partner Mother London's nurturing is visible. The tiny baby we all knew is no longer in front of us. Instead, it's a fully ... Jude Law who tugs at our heartstrings. Let me catch you up.
When product placement is used heavy-handedly in media, it can come across as disingenuous, and rightfully so. Nobody likes being advertised to while taking in a work of fiction, but art imitates life, and people buy stuff. More importantly, our cities, cupboards, and highway billboards all deliver one important message: brand recognition runs deep in our waking lives. We live in a consumer-driven landscape, so it's only natural that our media reflects this through product placement.
To kick off our New TV for Drummies guide, we look at five burning questions every marketer is asking as the home's biggest screen transforms into a channel built for the digital age. Gone are the days of the 30-second TV spot. With the rise of Fast, AVOD, shoppable streams and retail media integrations [ more in our A-Z glossary], television has become a converged content marketplace where data, targeting and creativity collide.
Most entrepreneurs share just enough to seem helpful but not enough to make an impact. They hold back their best insights, paralyzed by the fear someone might steal their ideas. Stop hovering in the middle. You can share generously while still protecting what matters. And it will grow your business. Decide what you'll share and what you'll sell. If you're the expert, be the expert.
In July, Sundberg published a newsletter headlined "1 in 3 Feed Me readers surveyed use a GLP-1." Despite being sponsored by a company that sells weight-loss medication, the post doesn't shy away sharing its negative perceptions. In one anonymous quote submission, a reader said, "It's kind of cheating, shouldn't we all work to get healthy, not thin?" Another said: "I am still embarrassed for other people if they get on them."
To make it easier on marketers,Discord launched its first homegrown advertising product, Quests, in March 2024 worldwide. Since then, the ad offering - which rewards users with on-platform benefits like stickers and badges for watching videos or performing other promotional tasks - has been the exclusive territory of gaming and entertainment brands like "Call of Duty" and "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It has notably not won over more mainstream advertisers in categories like tech and consumer goods.
For years, brands and artists relied on traditional search engines and social platforms to build visibility. In 2025, that model is no longer enough. Algorithms no longer belong solely to Google or Instagram. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini now shape how people discover music, fashion, travel, cannabis, and culture. These AI-driven platforms don't just retrieve links - they filter, contextualize, and recommend content in real time.
You know how great it is that airlines have unbundled every little option so that you can pay for things separately? Want to check a bag? That'll be $50. An extra 6 inches of legroom? $96! Board first, even though everyone's going to the same place? You'd better be part of the loyalty program. It's so fun for flying to be split into haves and have-nots.
