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The GRADIENT: Why Taste Is the New Moat

WPP Open Pro AI already has competition from Google and Canva

Based on its recent earnings, WPP’s financial outlook (and perhaps the traditional agency model overall) looks glib. But the holding company is banking on its AI arsenal, including its newly launched self-service platform aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses, Open Pro, to turn things around. The trouble is that tech companies like Google and Canva seem

Care Bears Digital Pets might be peak nostalgia, but I’m here for it

Remember the Care Bears? Those slightly nauseating different coloured bears that had a TV show in the ’80s. And do you remember tamagotchis? Those kind of annoying digital pets that were everywhere in the ’90s. What do you get when you combine the two? A Care Bears Digital Pet, of course. Did anybody ask for

Why The Build Process Of Custom GPTs Matters More Than The Technology Itself

When Google introduced the transformer architecture in its 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” few realized how much it would help transform digital work. Transformer architecture laid the foundations for today’s GPTs, which are now part of our daily work in SEO and digital marketing. Search engines have used machine learning for decades, but

On Brand Winner Breaks Silence on Their Pitch Perfect Season

Bianca Fernandez never thought she’d be on reality TV—then came an Instagram DM from someone working on a new advertising competition show, NBC’s On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. “I remember calling my mom and being like, ‘Do you think this is legit?’” Fernandez told ADWEEK. “‘But also, if this is legit, how perfect is this

Childhood collections come alive in From Form’s Amsterdam Museum Night campaign

In true From Form fashion, many of the campaigns visual elements were made from the duo’s finds at flea markets or on Marktplaats (the Dutch Ebay), where Ashley and Jurjen looked out for – not just original collectables – “but also for the ways they were once stored and organised”, Jurjen says, “you know those

AI Mode, AI Overviews Lift Total Search Usage

Google used its Q3 earnings call to argue that AI features are expanding search usage rather than cannibalizing it. CEO Sundar Pichai described an “expansionary moment for Search,” adding that Google’s AI experiences “highlight the web” and send “billions of clicks to sites every day.” Pichai said overall queries and commercial queries both grew year

AI gains influence with shoppers, but search still rules

MarTechCharts regularly highlights data of interest to marketers and marketing operations professionals. Source: “When AI Guides the Shopping Journey: Opportunities for Marketers in the Age of AI-Driven Commerce,” IAB & Talk Shoppe. AI is now the second most influential shopping source behind only search engines, according to a new report from IAB and Talk Shoppe.

Beneath review: a broken ’90s horror throwback I can’t stop playing

Why you can trust Creative Bloq Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. Beneath (Image credit: Camel 101 / Wired Productions) Publisher: Wired Productions Developer: Camel 101 Release date: 27 October Format: PS5 (reviewed), PC (Steam),

Anthropic Research Shows How LLMs Perceive Text

Researchers from Anthropic investigated Claude 3.5 Haiku’s ability to decide when to break a line of text within a fixed width, a task that requires the model to track its position as it writes. The study yielded the surprising result that language models form internal patterns resembling the spatial awareness that humans use to track

The Marketing Week Christmas Blog 2025

1 November: Argos aims to be seen as more than just toys Many people will have fond childhood memories of leafing through the Argos catalogue and looking at toys to put on their Christmas list. However, the retailer is keen to emphasise it’s a gifting destination for more than just toys in its 2025 festive

Air’s masterclass returns to show how systems shape great ideas

Behind every great campaign is structure: the habits, tools and workflows that quietly keep creative chaos at bay. That’s the focus of Air’s Creative Ops Masterclass, the original video series exploring how real teams build systems that make creative work more powerful and less chaotic. “Creative Ops Masterclass is part documentary, part playbook,” says Clayton

8 LinkedIn Alternatives For Professional Networking

When it comes to thought leadership and great opportunities, professionals are missing out if they’re not on LinkedIn. It’s the world’s largest professional network with over 1.2 billion members in 200 countries and regions worldwide. LinkedIn’s popularity rose following a significant turn away from X (formerly Twitter), and users looked for continuation with their established

Future of Marketing Briefing: AI didn’t break agencies – the talent drain did

A senior marketer at a major WPP Media client told me recently they’re thinking about shopping around for a new agency. That, in itself, isn’t surprising, especially after WPP’s new CEO Cindy Rose, publicly admitted the company had “lost its way”. What stood out was why they’re considering the move. It’s not about chasing AI

Spitting Image vs Paddington Bear: the legal spat raises interesting questions

Britain’s most polite bear has found himself in the middle of an uncharacteristically grubby legal brawl. Spitting Image writer/comedians Al Murray and Matt Forde are being sued by StudioCanal – the company behind the recent Paddington films – over their portrayal of the beloved character as a foul-mouthed, drug-snorting co-host of a satirical podcast on

Discounted ChatGPT Go Is Now Available In 98 Countries

ChatGPT Go, OpenAI’s heavily discounted version of ChatGPT, is now available in 98 countries, including eight European countries and five Latin American countries. ChatGPT Go offers everything that’s included in the Free plan but more. So there’s more access to GPT-5, image generation, extended file upload capabilities, a larger context window, and collaboration features. ChatGPT Go

Amazon Ads Business Jumps 24% From Prior Year to $17.7 Billion

The numbers $33 billion: How much Amazon made in the third quarter from its cloud-computing business, Amazon Web Services—up 20% year-over-year and beating analyst projections. AWS now has an annualized revenue run rate of $132 billion. $17.7 billion: How much Amazon made from advertising in the second quarter, an increase of 24% year-over-year. 13%: The

the Affinity rebrand blends personality and precision, relaunching with a bang

Its typeface, Affinity serif, was made in collaboration with Ohno, a bespoke adaptation of its typeface Swear, and comes in six weights. “When used light and small, it’s super precise and premium; in its big, fat, expressive italic form, it looks more bold and a bit weird,” Tom explains. Overall the tone of voice is

How To Manage Stakeholders When An Algorithm Update Hits

In this edition of Ask An SEO, we address a familiar challenge for marketers: How do you keep stakeholders from abandoning SEO when algorithm updates cause traffic drops? This is an all-too-common issue that SEOs will encounter. They have strong plans in place, the buy-in from their leadership, and are making great strides in their

Meta announces lead gen product upgrades for ‘Q5’ (yes, you read that right)

Meta introduced improvements to its suite of lead generation tools with a focus on the often-overlooked post-holiday period. Meta refers to the period from just after Christmas into January as “Q5.” While many advertisers pull back their spend during this time, Meta says advertisers who ran campaigns on its platform and used its instant form

Affinity just combined three apps into one free program for all creatives

Call me cynical, but when Canva said it had some news about Affinity, my heart dropped. For a decade, the three Affinity apps have been the best non-subscription alternatives to Adobe software that we’ve seen. There was Photoshop alternative Affinity Photo, Illustrator alt Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher for desktop publishing. The creative software company

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