Generative AI tools increasingly rely on community-driven platforms—Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more—as primary sources that feed directly into consumer-facing answers. Because AI does not distinguish between search content, social chatter, reviews, creator posts, or earned media, brand visibility now depends on cross-team coordination rather than siloed optimization. Upstream conversations matter: if forums, reviews, or public commentary lack clarity or depth, AI responses will mirror those gaps. And because users often begin with general queries—not shopping-specific ones—early influence happens long before product discovery. To stay visible, brands must unify search, social, PR, and content workflows.
Alphabet shares hit an all-time high last week—up about 70% this year and nearing a $4 trillion valuation—after investor enthusiasm surged around its new Gemini 3 model, per CNBC. Google’s parallel push on AI models and custom hardware may pay off faster than expected. Its scale and consumer reach give Google a rare advantage anchored on rapid deployment, lower inference costs, and a massive user base already positioned to adopt whatever Google ships next through services they use every day.
The fastest-growing B2B organizations share one defining trait—their marketing, sales, and customer success teams operate as one coordinated system, not three departments, per a new study from Trilliad. The payoff is hard to ignore. Companies with high coordination are twice as likely to anticipate revenue growth above 10%. Integrated teams outperform. Integrated tech multiplies team impact. Integrated data turns AI from a pilot project into a growth engine. The path forward is clear—connection is the strongest competitive advantage a B2B organization can build.
In a special Thanksgiving-themed episode of “Behind the Numbers,” we ranked the retail and brand initiatives we’re thankful for this season, from viral merchandise to purpose-driven campaigns. "We're looking at those strategies, launches, and collabs that we're genuinely grateful for, the moves that made us smile, surprised us, or gave us hope for where retail is headed," said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian.
From Q1 to Q2 2025, search share of voice (SOV) declined steeply for some banking sites. For example, Wells Fargo fell from 3.83% to 1.21% and NerdWallet from 3.66% to 1.68%. At the same time, StudentAid.gov entered the top five and ConsumerFinance.gov entered the top 10. Since FIs can’t control events that drive people’s need for information, they should be prepared to offer education and advice tailored to their customers’ needs and anticipate other resources to which they should direct customers. If an FI is only a place to buy and administer financial products and services, it can’t be positioned as a trusted advisor.
Omnicom officially owns IPG after completing its long-discussed acquisition last week—and the new company is already implementing a massive wave of changes. Advertisers should prepare for an agency landscape where AI-driven capabilities become the norm and where consolidated services become a competitive differentiator.
An OpenAI leak indicates that ads are coming to ChatGPT in the near future, according to computer engineer Tibor Blaho. Advertisers should anticipate a future where ads become a core part of the ChatGPT experience and act quickly to test and learn before competitors, but should remain agile in their strategies and remain informed about developments in consumer behavior.
US startups are rapidly adopting Chinese open-weight AI models to cut costs, ship features faster, and keep data on-device—putting pressure on closed, pay-per-user systems from OpenAI and Google, per NBC News. Free, customizable models lower the barrier for early-stage builders, letting brands and teams experiment with AI tools at a fraction of traditional subscription costs. The next wave of AI-development will come from teams mixing closed systems with fast, inexpensive open models—many of them from China. This hybrid approach lets marketers test ideas quickly, tailor models to their data, and drive down cost per interaction.
Accenture announced it will roll out ChatGPT Enterprise to tens of thousands of employees for internal workflows and client-facing products, per Reuters. The move follows Deloitte adopting a similar expansion—deploying Anthropic’s Claude to more than 470,000 employees across 150 countries. With big consultancies adopting the same AI agent playbook, the risk of AI-driven sameness grows. Companies seeking stricter compliance and tighter risk management might benefit from Accenture’s and Deloitte’s agentic offerings, even as a starting point toward longer-term, more independent agentic adoption.
The share of time spent with streaming continues to eat away at time spent with linear, per Samba’s Q4 2025 State of Streaming report. 60.7% of time spent with TV in August was with streaming platforms. Omnichannel strategies that incorporate both traditional and digital media will offer the best results in a highly fragmented market.
Global sports rights costs across streaming and TV will increase 20% by 2030, per an Ampere Analysis estimate. That growth will send the total cost of sports media rights to over $78 billion. Marketing around live sports is paramount because sporting events deliver reliable audiences and high ad effectiveness, especially on streaming platforms. Advertisers with tighter budgets might struggle as costs increase—but there are still opportunities to advertise around live sports without breaking budgets.
Generative AI is rapidly transforming how travelers plan and book trips, with usage climbing from 8% in 2023 to 24% this year and projected to reach 65% by next year. As tools like Google’s AI Mode and OpenAI’s Instant Checkout streamline itinerary building and booking, they introduce new price pressures for major travel platforms while consumers increasingly book directly with airlines, hotels, and rental companies. With many travelers still forming habits around AI, we believe travel brands have a prime opportunity to strengthen loyalty by integrating with leading platforms and offering seamless rewards across both direct and AI-assisted bookings.
Retailers aren’t waiting for Black Friday to kick off their holiday campaigns. Since October 1, linear TV holiday ad spend reached $475.1 million, up 13.2% YoY, according to iSpot. Weekly spending has also climbed steadily, indicating brands are frontloading their budgets to capture demand across all of Q4.
33% of US restaurant diners discover promotions via email/newsletters and 32% via social media, according to a September 2025 survey from YouGov.
Brands and retailers are struggling to keep up with changes to the shopper experience as consumers adopt genAI-powered “click-less journeys.”
Consumers increasingly have a negative perception of generative AI (genAI) in the creator economy while fewer see it positively, per a Billion Dollar Boy Study. AI is becoming a necessity across marketing strategies. Negative consumer attitudes toward AI in the creator economy suggest that it’s not whether advertisers and creators use AI, but how they use it that will determine if they see success or face backlash.
Baidu posted its sharpest revenue decline on record, with ad revenues falling 18% as AI-generated answers replace traditional search clicks. Ernie Bot now powers responses on most Baidu queries, improving user experience but suppressing monetizable activity—a trend management says will weigh on results into Q4. Competitors like Tencent, ByteDance, and PDD are still growing 20% to 30% YoY, suggesting Baidu’s weakness is structural. While the US market is more diversified, Baidu offers a stress test: AI can reshape search faster than monetization evolves. For advertisers, it’s a reminder that even Google and Microsoft must balance innovation with economic stability.
Pinterest is pushing further into search to maintain growth, especially among Gen Z. Two-thirds of Pinterest’s interactions involve search, CEO Bill Ready told Business Insider. The platform has 80 billion monthly search queries, according to Pinterest. That’s comparable to ChatGPT’s 75 billion queries per month. Pinterest’s high-intent audience, paired with shoppable pins, presents an ideal platform for brand messaging. As more users weed out genAI images, legitimate ads will stand out and minimize fears of scams.
A new report from ANA and Harris Poll indicates that future marketing success will require delivering offline experiences. Brands will need to recalibrate budgets to accommodate this hybrid landscape of high-touch engagement blended with AI-driven discovery. Brands should use AI to handle low-touch decisions, then reinvest the time and trust gained into high-touch offline experiences and brand activations like pop-up shops or store takeovers. Those events create meaning that will help brands stay visible and valued.