All Marketing knowledge

Discord launches Play Quest+, a performance ad format rewarding in-game actions, with EA's Battlefield 6 as the first advertiser — a push toward outcome-based advertising.

CreatorIQ's State of Creators report finds brand suitability has overtaken performance as the top factor in influencer deals — yet 67% of creators earn under $10,000 a year.

Microdrama app downloads jumped 95.5% to 1.45 billion in H1 2026 and active advertisers rose 132% — making bingeable vertical soap operas a high-attention ad land grab.

Gap Inc.'s Athleta launches a purpose-led fall campaign under CMO Erika Everett, swapping transactional ads for cinematic storytelling to reverse an 11% sales slide.

Pizza Hut temporarily dropped 'pizza' to trade as 'Hut' through 31 August — a football pun anchored by a $10 large three-topping deal and Josh Allen ads.

Fresh trade analysis shows wellness brands — from powder pioneer AG1 to fast-growing Grüns — battling for retail shelf space as gummy supplements boom and get marketed 'like skincare'.

Independent agency Butler/Till and iHeartMedia have launched what they call advertising's first fully 'agentic' streaming-audio campaign, with AI agents planning and executing the buy.

Prenetics-owned wellness brand IM8 has signed actress Lily Collins as global ambassador and equity-holding partner — extending the shift from paid endorsements to shareholder deals.

JCPenney has launched a comedic campaign parodying wellness retreats to 'cure' shoppers of bad off-price habits, reframing value and taking a direct swing at treasure-hunt chains.

Eli Lilly has taken its obesity-drug marketing to national TV, spotlighting a Medicare program that offers GLP-1 medicines for $50/month to eligible seniors.

From 24 August 2026 YouTube counts 'public views' from the first frame with no minimum watch time, inflating headline numbers 20–30%, while earnings stay tied to stricter 'engaged views'.

Coca-Cola's Fanta has unveiled a proprietary Halloween 'Haunted Universe' of original characters across ~50 markets — a bet that owning seasonal IP can make Halloween its answer to Coke's Christmas.

Wendy's has named former McDonald's US marketing chief Tariq Hassan to a newly created chief marketing and customer growth officer role after six straight quarters of sales declines.

Liquid Death and Jason Kelce's Garage Beer launched a satirical 'We Want Your Pee' campaign urging Americans to save urine to 'cool' AI data centers — a culture-jack built for earned media.

Legacy US canned-tuna brand StarKist has consolidated its marketing at independent agency Tombras, which will lead a fall brand platform aimed at making 65-year-old mascot Charlie the Tuna culturally relevant again.

Newman's Own is repositioning its 'give-it-all-away' founding story for a generation that doesn't remember Paul Newman — a case study in how purpose brands stay relevant across generational gaps.

YouTube has rolled out a suite of Connected TV upgrades — most notably a Playlist-to-Shows feature that turns creator playlists into episodic TV-style Shows — as the platform tightens its grip on the living room.

Estée Lauder's Jo Malone London has debuted its first-ever Fortnite activation for Sea Salt & Bergamot, staking a claim in the same gaming territory that Chipotle, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton have used to reach younger consumers.

URBN-owned rental brand Nuuly has replaced the traditional fall commercial with a 12-episode branded microdrama — a bold bet that social-first storytelling can now carry the full weight of a seasonal campaign.

Ann Taylor's first major campaign in nearly a decade — 'This Is Ann' — leans hard on a Substack newsletter and a NYFW newsstand pop-up rather than the usual celebrity-led launch. A textbook heritage-brand playbook for 2026.