Blueprint — page 40 | The Gradient

Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

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Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

Beehiiv adds new features to compete with Substack, Patreon

Beehiiv today is adding more tools to its arsenal (including webinars, AI analytics for podcasts, and metered paywalls) in its pursuit to become the consolidated creator space of choice. Just a few weeks ago, the newsletter platform turned full-stack creator platform, added a podcast offering, privately reaching out to podcasters on Substack and elsewhere asking

Blaze Type’s 10th birthday celebration kicks off with new website design

2026 marks ten years of Blaze Type, the renowned, celebrated foundry founded by Matthieu Salvaggio in 2016. From fairly humble beginnings, having launched with three typefaces, the journey of Blaze Type isn’t typical of the typographic industry, with Matthieu himself having no formal type design education and, by his own admission, no master plan of

AI Search Is Eating Itself & The SEO Industry Is The Source

Last September, Lily Ray asked Perplexity for the latest news on SEO and AI search. It told her, confidently, about the “September 2025 ‘Perspective’ Core Algorithm Update”; a Google update that, as she then wrote at length in “The AI Slop Loop,” didn’t exist. Google hasn’t named core updates in years. “Perspectives” was already a

Hulu’s Get Real House Turns Brands Into Reality Stars in Its 2nd Year

Your favorite reality stars are converging at Hulu’s Get Real House for a second year, and this time, brands will be closer than ever to the action. Taking place on Wednesday, April 22, at Casa Lago in Beverly Hills, the unscripted TV crossover event, hosted by Access Hollywood and House Guest host Scott Evans, features

Gamers unlock access to thousands of free GameCube and Wii titles for Nintendo Switch

It seems Nintendo fans have grown tired of waiting for the company to add original GameCube titles to the Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) catalogue, and have taken it upon themselves to emulate fan-favourite titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee natively on the console instead. In what is being described as a new emulation breakthrough, thousands

Google Ads Posts GEO Partner Manager Role

Google’s Large Customer Sales team has posted a role titled “GEO Partner Manager, Performance Solutions” on Google Careers. The listing is a single job posting inside Google’s ads sales organization. The term “GEO” appears seven times across the listing, including the title. “Generative Engine Optimization” is spelled out twice. Other references include “GEO players,” “GEO

A whole new way to think about TV advertising

Television has dominated the advertising market for the better part of 75 years, despite an explosion in channels and an entire makeover of the media landscape. Despite advances in targeting through CTV, we know consumers will skip ads when it’s possible. As a result, TV advertisers are seeing ROAS go down and fewer opportunities to

Budapest Festival Orchestra – Brand Identity Concept :: Behance

In 2024, we were invited to develop a brand identity concept for the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFZ) as part of a design competition. Our concept builds on the orchestra’s existing logo, transforming it into a cohesive visual identity system. The original mark is expanded with a motif representing the audience, forming a dynamic, generative system.

What Multi-Location Brands Must Do

Thanks to AI, local SEO has a new standard. AI-powered search doesn’t just rank pages. It synthesizes answers from your site content, schema markup, listings data, and reviews, and then it decides whether your locations are worth citing. For brands managing 10, 50, or 100+ locations, that’s a significant exposure point. What’s Actually Changing in

Future of TV Briefing: The ambitious and alarming proposal fix to TV and streaming’s identity crisis

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement’s Identity Infrastructure 2.0 proposal that aims to address TV and streaming’s fractured identity picture — but at what cost to people’s privacy? The Coalition of Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) is aiming to tackle TV and streaming’s identity crisis. Its proposal —

Introducing It’s Nice That In Depth: The Everyday Edition

Welcome to It’s Nice That’s first In Depth edition – a new editorial series, going beneath the surface of the topics at the top of the creative agenda. Through these themed editions, we will explore subjects affecting creatives’ work and lives, helping you to understand the current landscape, get inspired, face challenges, and ultimately create

Visibility Engineering is the New Playbook for Earned Media

Visibility engineering turns earned and owned media into compounding credibility so your expertise is clear, trusted, and surfaced again and again. The post Visibility Engineering is the New Playbook for Earned Media first appeared on Spin Sucks.

ChatGPT Ads Now Offer CPC Bidding Between $3 And $5: Report

Digiday reports that an early version of ChatGPT’s ads manager, available to a subset of pilot advertisers, now shows cost-per-click bids ranging from $3 to $5, based on screenshots reviewed and verified by the publication. Until now, advertisers in the pilot have paid on a CPM basis, meaning a flat rate per 1,000 impressions served. CPC pricing lets

Tim Cook Grew Apple by Reducing Its Ambition

Tim Cook was never going to be Steve Jobs. No one, possibly not even Jobs himself, could ever live up to the last great legend of 20th century business. But, as his exit date is announced, how should marketers assess the man who stepped into those enormous, distressed sneakers in 2011 and took the helm

Rogue Trooper teaser raises hopes for the first Unreal Engine 5 movie

Almost eight years since Duncan Jones first announced plans for a Rogue Trooper movie adaptation, we finally have a teaser. Liberty Films doesn’t give much away in the 20-second sequence, but we do see a glimpse of the genetic infantryman from the classic 2000AD comic strip in action, along with Bagman. As to be expected

Google Ads Makes Call Recording Default For AI Lead Calls

Google Ads has enabled call recording by default for eligible call flows associated with AI-qualified call leads, with exceptions for prior opt-outs and certain sensitive verticals. A new Google support page describes the feature, which uses AI to evaluate phone conversations instead of relying on call duration alone to count conversions. What Changed Google Ads

Microsoft updates ads platform for AI-driven discovery

Microsoft is introducing AI Max for Search campaigns, which expands query matching and personalizes ad delivery across Copilot and Bing. It is also rolling out updates designed to help advertisers stay visible as AI agents take on a larger role in discovery and transactions. The changes span measurement, commerce, and media, and they point in

ONSENE :: Behance

Onsene is a boutique architectural visualization studio built on authorship, curation, and atmosphere. The work puts life at the center of the frame, translating space into scenes that feel inhabited, credible, and unforgettable. “Life on scene” is the brand’s point of view: every image is directed with intention, shaping light, shadow, texture, and composition to

Google Adds New Tasked-Based Search Features

Google introduced new features for Search that continues its evolution into a more task-oriented tool, enabling users to launch AI agents directly from AI Mode and complete more tasks. This is a trend that all SEOs and online businesses need to be aware of. Rose Yao, Product leader in Search, posted about the new features

Why OpenAI is ‘running at lightning speed’ to build an ad business

That’s a lot for a company that only launched an ads business two months ago. The breakneck clip at which OpenAI is moving begs the question: Is OpenAI moving too fast with their ads? “It seems like at this point, they’re running at lightning speed,” Krystal Scanlon, senior platforms reporter at Digiday said. Scanlon joined

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