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How the FIFA World Cup can help brands make meaningful connections

This article explores how the 2026 FIFA World Cup presents a unique opportunity for brands to build meaningful connections with consumers beyond traditional sponsorships. With Toronto hosting matches, brands can engage fans through transit advertising, out-of-home media, audio, and experiential activations that capture attention in real-world environments.
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Agentic AI is coming for search. Paid media is next.

This article explores how agentic AI is transforming search and paid media by shortening the path from intent to action. As AI assistants increasingly make recommendations and decisions on behalf of users, traditional click-based journeys are giving way to AI-mediated experiences. The article argues that marketers must shift their focus from driving clicks to influencing AI-driven decisions through stronger brand signals, trusted content, and outcome-based measurement.
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The YouTube Content Shift Brands Can’t Ignore

This article highlights a major shift in YouTube strategy: success is no longer driven solely by search-optimized “how-to” content. As competition grows and discovery increasingly happens through recommendations, Shorts, and suggested videos, brands must create educational content that is also engaging and watchable. The key is combining expertise with strong storytelling, retention-focused formats, and “edutainment” to earn attention, recommendations, and long-term audience growth.
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What Should CMOs Demand From a Media Partner Today?

This article explores how the role of media partners is evolving as AI, fragmented customer journeys, and increased pressure to prove ROI reshape the marketing landscape. It argues that CMOs should expect more than media buying expertise, they need strategic partners who can connect data, content, technology, and operations to measurable business outcomes. Key priorities include AI governance, full-funnel integration, and CFO-grade measurement that links media investment directly to growth.
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The Simply Download - the behavioural shifts happening on social RIGHT now.

The June download shares the biggest platform updates, emerging trends, content opportunities, key upcoming moments, and the formats cutting through across TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and beyond.
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AI should be the cherry on top, not the whole cake.

AI is getting smarter by the minute, but originality is becoming more valuable than ever. The latest social trend of turning exes' texts, awkward WhatsApp chats and old voice notes into AI-generated songs - is proof that the best content still starts with a human insight. The technology might create the output, but the idea comes from a real experience.

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The Future of Heritage Research Report

Heritage brands are poised for renewed relevance as consumers, fatigued by constant innovation and AI-driven content, seek authenticity, quality, and familiarity. This creates growth opportunities, but also challenges, including rising costs and pressure to evolve. To succeed, brands must balance modern relevance with their core identity—adapting to new audiences and cultural contexts without losing the timeless qualities that define them and drive long-term, sustainable growth.
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Temu and Shein in 2026: How their stop-start spend is reshaping ad auctions (and what media buyers should do)

Temu and Shein’s fluctuating ad spend is driving volatility in digital ad auctions in 2026, especially on Google and Meta. Their sudden shifts impact costs and performance, often misleading advertisers. The blog highlights the need for media buyers to recognise these external factors and adopt more data-led, strategic approaches to avoid misinterpreting results.
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Car advertising: asleep at the wheel?

Advertising should play a critical role in car sales. For most of us, a car is a big, considered purchase with heavy emotional investment – and we’ve an ever expanding array of alternatives to pick from. It’s the kind of category where you would expect advertising to be working hard to build brands and drive choice. But is it? Hear a perspective from John Crowther, Strategy Director at thirty6.
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The value of creativity isn’t romanticism. It’s economics.

Almost every time I read about the virtues of creativity and how it’s what every brand needs, which, what with all the holding group ‘reorganisation’, alongside all the new independent ‘creative studios’ popping up, is quite often, the authors invariably shoot themselves in their retro sneakers by saying that brands need to ‘be braver’. Seriously?
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"Creative" really needs to go back to being an adjective, not a noun.

"Creative" as a noun is slapped on to any and all marketing, regardless of merit. The industry has lost touch with its use as an adjective, one that distinguished between the run-of-the-mill and the creatively inspired. Making the term "creative" the filter again, the ambition, the adjective, not a meaningless noun, can only help make what we do (or what we can do) more sustainable.
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Winning the war on attention

We live in a world starving for attention. Legacy brands are fading, creators are rising, and the battle for fame has never been fiercer. Winning the War on Attention is the result of months of conversations with senior leaders at Liquid Death, LEGO, E.L.F. Beauty, Curry, and Mid Day Squares — the brands rewriting the rules of marketing. It reveals how the smartest challengers act less like advertisers and more like. Download the report here: https://hellodefiant.com/report
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AI is changing the search game, but paid still wins the last click

The way people search is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. Until recently, the typical user journey started with a search engine, followed a path of blue links, and eventually landed on a product page or brand website. But with the rise of generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and platforms like Perplexity, users are increasingly beginning their journeys in conversational, exploratory environments.
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ChatGPT ads are here: Opportunity, open questions, and what brands should do now

We’ve been watching the ChatGPT story unfold for weeks now, but it’s finally official: ChatGPT ads are here. While this is still an early rollout, the direction is becoming a little clearer. OpenAI has begun testing ads directly inside ChatGPT with first live examples appearing Tuesday February 10 2026, placing sponsored messages within the flow of conversation and aligning them to what users are actively asking about.
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What multi-location brands need to know about Local Service Ads

What are Local Service Ads and why do they appear first in search results? LSAs promise premium placement, high-intent leads. But while LSAs may look simple on the surface, scaling them effectively across dozens or hundreds of locations introduces real operational and strategic complexity. Understanding how they work—and how they fit into a broader local strategy—is essential before getting started.
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Bridging Brand and Performance Media: Shifting Up-Funnel for Measurable, Enduring Growth

Over the past decade, marketers have built sophisticated, high-precision performance engines. Search, direct response Social, retail media, and remarketing all promise what every CMO wants: immediate, measurable results. The allure is powerful—easy attribution, clean dashboards, and the comforting illusion that every dollar spent drives incremental sales. But increasingly, performance media behaves like a drug. It delivers quick hits, but the long-term effects can be damaging.