Blueprint | The Gradient

Featured Stories

The GRADIENT

The GRADIENT: Why Taste Is the New Moat

The new marketing buzzword is GEO – but is it real?

SEO will soon be relegated to a thing of the past; marketers need to start preparing for a GEO future immediately. Source

Create an ‘AAA realistic’ mountain cabin for free with these Unreal Engine 5 assets

Epic Games’s Fab Store is one of our favourite places to get free video game assets, whether that’s for use in Epic’s own hugely popular game engine, Unreal Engine 5, or elsewhere. But few free asset packs are a big as this. Games environment artist Maarten Hof’s‘s Modular Rural Cabin asset pack is part of

Clearer Answers, Better Image Understanding

Google updates Gemini 2.5 Flash with clearer step-by-step help, more structured responses, and stronger image understanding, now live in the Gemini app. Gemini 2.5 Flash adds step-by-step guidance aimed at homework and complex topics. Responses are formatted with headers, lists, and tables for faster scanning. Image understanding can explain detailed diagrams and turn

Publishers turn to other platforms to offset Google search losses

Microsoft is building an AI marketplace for publishers, Meta talks AI content licensing deals, and more. Reddit and Pinterest and Facebook, oh my! It’s no secret that publishers are griping about the volatility of Google search referral traffic since the debut of AI Overviews last year. In a closed-door town hall session during the Digiday

Design at scale isn’t flashy – but it’s the most interesting work in the room

To stay inspired, Verna also steps away from the screen. “I work with my hands – printmaking, ceramics, paper-cutting. It reminds me to let go of perfection and be open to things evolving, or even falling apart.” That mindset, she says, keeps her creativity alive, especially when working within constraints. Still, for people outside the industry,

Marketing Is 4th Most Exposed To GenAI, Indeed Study Finds

Marketing professionals face one of the highest levels of potential AI disruption across all occupations, with 69% of marketing job skills positioned for transformation by generative AI, according to new data from Indeed. The analysis evaluated nearly 2,900 work skills against U.S. job postings and found that marketing is the fourth most exposed profession, trailing

Banana Republic Mines Its Archive to Inspire Modern Brand Love

Banana Republic Mines Its Archive to Inspire Modern Brand Love With Archive, Banana Republic wants to engage longtime fans and court new ones Banana Republic Banana Republic has opened its vault, and everyone is invited in. The Gap Inc. brand has launched Banana Republic Archive, a digital platform where fans can purchase limited-edition vintage pieces

Nvidia’s powerful AI facial animation tool is now available for all

The use of digital characters is growing fast not only in game development but also in animation for marketing and customer service. Nvidia‘s Audio2Face is one of the AI advances that has been speeding up the process of creating realistic facial animation synced to audio, and the GPU giant is now making it available to

Newfold Digital Sells MarkMonitor As Part Of Strategic Refocus

London-headquartered corporate domain management company Com Laude announced the acquisition of its competitor, MarkMonitor, previously one of the holdings of Newfold Digital. Newfold Digital Simplifies Portfolio Newfold Digital owns many top Internet brands like Yoast, Bluehost, Register.com, and Domain.com, all businesses that focus on small and medium-sized businesses. This divestiture may be a sign that

Reinventing B2B with Ryan Nelsen

What does it take to reinvent high-performance marketing? In this episode of Playbook Broken, we’re joined by Ryan Nelsen, CMO of StackAdapt, to get the playbook on AI-fueled advertising and strategic growth. With a proven track record at major tech companies like Qualtrics and MX, Ryan offers a masterclass on the future of enterprise marketing.

SISTRIX Reports Sharp Drop In ChatGPT Web Searches

SISTRIX reports that ChatGPT is triggering live web searches far less often for people who use the app without logging in. In daily spot-checks over the last two weeks, the share of answers that called the web fell from above 15% to below 2.5%. SISTRIX does not assign a cause and notes the observation applies

What not to miss at next week’s Festival of Marketing

From inspirational global brand leaders to deep dives on topics like effectiveness and growth, the event on 2 October has something to excite every marketer. Source

KOTA reimagines Universal Production Partners’ website as a cinematic experience

For anyone working in creative digital spaces, the site is a reminder of what’s possible when design, technology, and storytelling meet. Today’s digital sphere is all about atmosphere, motion, and a sense of space that allows visitors to linger, explore, and absorb. KOTA’s code understands this better than most, providing subtle interactions that respond to

How Web Performance Impacts Shareholder Value

Despite years of digital transformation talk, too many CEOs and CFOs still treat the corporate website as a necessary marketing expense, a sunk cost with limited upside. I have far too many CEO’s of billion-dollar companies who view it simply as an expensive interactive brochure, setting the tone for the company and dooming the web

How Volvo is marketing its EVs in a moment of uncertainty

President Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill” ends a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit at the end of this month, which could impact EV sales — not to mention economic headwinds and tariff effects on auto prices. Through it all, Volvo is trying to grow its market share in the U.S. from 1 to 2%

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for Nintendo Switch are already causing controversy

Alongside the reveal of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the big news from Nintendo to mark Super Mario Bros’s 40th anniversary this month is the release of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for Nintendo Switch. The official release date isn’t until 2 October, but the package is already causing controversy. First, there’s the price

How To Adapt To The New SEO Visibility Rules

This post was sponsored by Semji. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. For three decades, SEO has been the cornerstone of digital visibility. Keywords, backlinks, and technical optimization determined whether your brand appeared at the top of search results. However, the landscape is shifting, and it’s likely that if you’re reading

‘Never My Intention to Make Light of the Murder of a Young Man’

Jimmy Kimmel has some things he wants to say. After ABC abruptly pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live from its lineup last Wednesday, the late night show returned to the air on Tuesday, with the host making his first statements since his show’s brief suspension. “As I was saying before I was interrupted,” Kimmel joked. “If you’re

Most Americans Want AI Labels, Few Trust Detection

A new Pew Research Center survey reveals a gap between people’s desire to know when AI is used in content and their confidence in being able to identify it. Seventy-six percent say it’s extremely or very important to know whether pictures, videos, or text were made by AI or by people. Only 12% feel confident

The 16 best HubSpot updates from August 2025

The August update was a big one for HubSpot. Between Inbound announcements and a flood of releases, HubSpot pushed hard on AI, personalization and data reliability, plus some long-awaited UX upgrades. We combed through the noise and narrowed it down to the 16 updates that will actually move the needle for your team. From AI-powered

Join Our Newsletter

For more professional opportunities join our newsletter.