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Managing platforms, filming fandom, and approaching AI with care: Takeaways from our creator marketing event

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By Jasmine Sheena

Execs from ESPN, Cava, and more shared how they are navigating the creator economy.

The creator economy is still piping hot: 86% of US marketers worked with influencers last year, per eMarketer.

It’s also rapidly evolving, so Marketing Brew held an event, “The Next Phase of Social & Creator Marketing,” to discuss what creator marketers are thinking about in 2026.

At the event, marketers from ESPN, Cava, and Anthropologie, along with agency leaders, discussed the need for flexible platform strategies, the importance of courting brand superfans, and, of course, how to make sense of—and take advantage of—AI. Marketing Brew compiled some takeaways from the event below.

Crossing that bridge: After the near-shutdown of US TikTok last year, creator marketing stakeholders began realizing the need for having different strategies for different platforms, Maggie Reznikoff, chief client officer at the agency Open Influence, said onstage.

“You truly are renting the platform,” she said. “[The platforms] control the algorithm. They control the policies [and] the access to the audience, so we really counsel our clients to, of course, diversify their platform presence and recognize that just because there is success in their strategy, it doesn’t mean that they own the followers. What’s interesting is that influencers and creators are really good at migrating audiences.”

Open Influence is now including clauses in its contracts with creators stipulating that if a certain platform’s accessibility is impacted, creators have to pivot to another platform, she said.

ESPN is looking to mitigate its reliance on external platforms by enhancing its ESPN app in August, Celia Bouza, ESPN’s VP of multi-platform video, said onstage. It pulled in vertical video content that did well on other platforms into its ESPN app and also enlisted an in-house creator, Omar Raja, for making more content.

Fan behavior: It’s not just about managing brand platform strategy; brand socials are a crucial part of helping a brand succeed. To that end, brand marketers are focused on maintaining a consistent, authentic dialogue with creators and fans, which social listening can help with, Nitya Madhavan, SVP, brand strategy and marketing at Cava, told attendees.

When Cava dropped white sweet potatoes off its menu a few years ago, some online voiced their frustration, she shared; one superfan in particular commented incessantly on brand posts asking them to bring the menu item back. Cava responded by getting the superfan on a call with Cava co-founder Ted Xenohristos to find out firsthand that the brand was going to bring white sweet potatoes back. The menu item officially returned in January—and, of course, the brand created content from the interaction.

Tastemakers: Harnessing fan engagement for creator content is one priority for marketers. Another concern for many is thinking about how AI is impacting creator marketing. Becky Owen, CMO at the agency Billion Dollar Boy, advised onstage the importance for brands and creators to be tasteful about how they’re using AI. Marketers are increasingly reallocating spend to AI-focused creator content, but consumers aren’t as impressed with AI use in creative, she noted. However, if used carefully, AI can resonate with consumers: Billion Dollar Boy, for example, collaborated with fashion brand Versace and worked with 25 generative AI creators to showcase the brand’s Greca Goddess Handbag during New York Fashion Week.

“The reality is…that you still need to be creative to embrace AI,” Owen said.

Jasmine Sheena is a reporter for Marketing Brew writing about adtech, Big Tech, and streaming.

Feature image credit: Jonathan Heisler

By Jasmine Sheena

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I definitely didn’t expect a Nothing X Charli XCX brand collab – but it’s genius

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The singer-songwriter is the first-ever ambassador and shareholder for Nothing, and suits the creative vision of the company perfectly.

Nothing has established itself as a very dark, mysterious and playful tech brand since entering the scene in 2021, which is why the newly announced partnership with global superstar, Charli XCX, makes perfect sense.

The singer-songwriter stars in a new Nothing campaign promoting the Headphone (a), while showcasing the impressive 135-hour battery life of the wearable over 5 days of continuous use. We recently reviewed the Nothing Headphone (a), and described the battery life as ‘absurd’ (in a good way).

A short clip announcing the collab was shot by photographer Aidan Zamiri and shows Charli XCX in her element while a white room gets painted black around her. She holds what looks to be the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, with XCX displayed in LED strips on the Glyph interface, for that extra special detail. Nothing also just posted a behind-the-scenes video to YouTube of the filming process with Charli XCX that was shot using the Nothing phone (3).

Charli XCX joins a growing list of Nothing investors, including creators like The Weeknd, Casey Neistat, and Swedish House Mafia. However, Charli is the brand’s first-ever Global Brand Ambassador and shareholder, which is a pretty special title to hold.

The timing coincides nicely with the promotion of Charli’s new single ‘Rock Music’, which was released last Friday, setting up for her anticipated follow-up to her 2024 album Brat. All we need now is for Nothing to take its devotion to Brat energy a step further and release a green phone to match the album shade.

Nothing X Charli XCX brand collab

(Image credit: Nothing / Aidan Zamiri)

I’ll admit, this is definitely a brand collaboration I didn’t see coming at all. But the singer-songwriter shares a lot of core values with Nothing, including the desire to push boundaries and challenge industry norms, so it feels like a genius move on both parts (and fans of both brands seem to largely agree).

Nothing feels strongly about its major tech partnership with Charli XCX, stating, ‘Together, we’re changing how things are done – with music and tech for a new generation’. In a press release, Nothing’s Chief Brand Officer also shared that:

Feature image credit: Nothing / Aidan Zamiri

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Beth is Creative Bloq’s Ecommerce Writer and has the fun job of finding you the very best prices and deals on creative tech. Beth kicked off her journalistic career writing for Digital Camera World and has since earned bylines on TechRadar and PetsRadar too. With a Master’s degree in Photography, Beth loves getting to tinker with new cameras, especially camera phones, as the resident Samsung fan on the team.

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iOS 26.5’s Apple Maps app has two notable changes, here’s what’s new

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Apple Maps is one of several apps with new features in iOS 26.5, the latest iPhone update. Here’s what’s new for Maps users.

#1: ‘Suggested Places’ feature in search screen

One of my favorite new features in iOS 26.5 is the addition of ‘Suggested Places’ in Apple Maps.

‘Suggested Places’ adds two recommended places to Maps’ search screen every time you tap the search bar to perform a search.

These recommendations are based on two main factors:

  1. What’s trending nearby
  2. Your recent search history

Suggested Places tend to refresh often—in my experience nearly every time I open the search screen.

So if you’re looking for spots near you, the two recommendations will be based in your local area. But if you’re planning a vacation to New York City, and just searched for something there, Apple Maps will offer two NY-based recommendations instead.

#2: Ads support ahead of summer launch

If you’re running iOS 26.5 in the US and Canada, your iPhone will alert you about its support for another Apple Maps change: ads.

Ads haven’t officially launched yet in Apple Maps. Apple previously said they would launch this summer.

However, iOS 26.5 introduces compatibility for the forthcoming rollout. And it notifies users via a new ads popup when Apple Maps is opened.

Here’s what it says:

Maps may show local ads based on your approximate location, current search terms, or view of the map while you search.

For your privacy, advertising information is not linked to your Apple Account.

Apple’s two-stage rollout is understandably confusing some users.

For example, Polymarket told its 1.4 million followers on X: “Apple officially rolls out ads in Apple Maps.” Which isn’t technically true, but it’s hard to blame them since users who update to iOS 26.5 will be greeted by the ads popup in Maps.

To read more on how ads will be included in Apple Maps, see our previous coverage here.

How has iOS 26.5’s Suggested Places feature in Maps been working for you? Let us know in the comments.

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Your iPhone Has an Ad-Tracking Kill Switch. Here’s Where to Find It

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By Alison DeNisco Rayome

Every iPhone ships with a built-in cross-app tracking opt-out. Here’s why most people haven’t enabled it, and how to do it in seconds.

Most people know, in a vague sort of way, that their phone is being used to target them with ads. What fewer people know is exactly how that targeting works, and that Apple has given every iPhone user a direct way to disrupt it.

The mechanism is called App Tracking Transparency, and it was introduced specifically to give you control over whether apps can use your device’s advertising identifier to track behaviour across other apps and websites. Turning it on doesn’t make you invisible, but it does cut off one of the primary pipelines between your phone and the advertising ecosystem built around it.

Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature gives Apple users a simple choice: to allow apps to track their activity or not. If you choose to opt out, Apple will prevent the app from accessing identifiers that link your device with your activity on an app, usually shared with advertisers to create targeted ads. Unless you give an app explicit permission to track you (including apps made by Apple), it can’t use your data for targeted ads, including sharing your location data, advertising ID or any other identifiers with advertisers or third parties.

The feature was first unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2020 and was subsequently rolled out to users later that year in iOS 14.5. Since then, Apple has built on these efforts to increase transparency and privacy.

In  iOS 17, Apple made a change that lets users select their default search engine when in private browsing mode, giving them the option to choose a search engine other than Google while in a private Safari tab, and added a feature that makes it harder for thieves to access sensitive information on stolen devices. The phone-maker continued to add robust anti-tracking features with each new iteration of the OS, ensuring users. are always the ones in control of their data.

The impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature has been wide-reaching across the tech industry. The feature drew support from privacy advocates but criticism from companies such as Meta, which said the move would hurt its ad business. Meta’s concerns manifested across the board for social media platforms, with a 2021 investigation from the Financial Times estimating that the feature cost Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube a collective $9.85 billion in lost ad sales, as most Apple users opted out of tracking.

Even if you didn’t initially opt out, you can change whether or not to allow tracking at any time. Here’s how to use the App Tracking Transparency feature.

How to turn off app tracking on new apps

When you download and open a new app, you’ll get a pop-up notification that asks if you want to let the app track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. You’ll also see information about what the app would track. You can tap Ask App Not to Track to block that activity or Allow.

att
When you download an app, you’ll see a notification pop up giving you a choice of whether you want to give the app permission to track you.Apple

You can also opt out of app tracking across every app you download by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and toggling off Allow Apps to Request to Track. This means any app that tries to ask for your permission will be automatically blocked from asking and informed that you have requested not to be tracked. All apps (other than those you’ve given permission to track in the past) will be blocked from accessing your device’s information used for advertising, according to Apple.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean ads will disappear. It just means that you’ll be more likely to see generic ads, not one for that pair of shoes you clicked on one time.

How to turn off app tracking on already downloaded apps

You can also turn app tracking permissions on or off on a per-app basis.

To do that, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking. You should see a list of apps that have requested to track you. Tap the toggle next to the apps you want to stop tracking you.

All app developers are required to ask for permission for tracking. If Apple learns a developer is tracking users who asked not to be tracked, they will need to either update their tracking practices or else potentially face rejection from the app store.

Apple believes that privacy features like these are a differentiator for its products, compared to other tech giants like Google and Samsung. Cook has said that because the company’s business model isn’t built on selling ads, it can focus on privacy, which he has called a “fundamental human right.”

Even so, it’s important to bear in mind that when you ask apps not to track you, what you’re saying is that you don’t want app developers to have access to your unique identifier that Apple creates specifically for advertisers — your IDFA. Denying access to your iPhone’s IDFA doesn’t necessarily mean app developers won’t track you through other means, so it’s critical to be mindful of the apps you use and how you interact with them.

Feature image credit: Apple/CNET

By Alison DeNisco Rayome

Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic. 

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Muck Rack joins Sounds Profitable as podcast industry draws PR platforms in

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Muck Rack, the AI communications platform, today joined the Sounds Profitable Partner Network, the Boston-based trade association for the podcasting industry announced on May 13, 2026. The partnership brings together two organizations whose work has been converging as podcast appearances generate editorial pickups, YouTube clips, and citations in AI-powered search results – blurring the lines between earned media strategy and audio distribution.

The announcement signals something broader than a standard partnership deal. Sounds Profitable, which counts nearly 210 organizations globally in its network, has historically served podcast companies and audio platforms. Muck Rack is not a podcast company. It is a PR software platform used by communications professionals to track media coverage, monitor brand mentions, and measure how organizations appear in news and in AI-generated answers. Its entry into the Sounds Profitable ecosystem reflects a shift in where the podcast industry is drawing attention from outside the audio world.

Podcasting as earned media infrastructure

The rationale for the partnership is grounded in a structural change in how podcast content travels. A single brand appearance on a podcast no longer stays within that episode’s listenership. It lives on YouTube as a video clip, gets picked up by journalists writing about the same topics, and increasingly surfaces when users query AI-powered search systems. According to the press release from Sounds Profitable, 71% of podcast creators now produce video content, meaning the distribution surface of any given audio appearance has expanded considerably.

Muck Rack’s platform monitors exactly that kind of multi-channel propagation. The company combines global media monitoring, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) insights, social listening, media data, AI automation, and analyst advisory services. According to the announcement, the platform helps organizations manage reputation, act quickly, and demonstrate impact across the PR workflow. Thousands of journalists also use Muck Rack’s free tools to showcase their work and analyse news.

For PR professionals advising brands on podcast strategy, the question has shifted. It is no longer only about which shows to appear on. It is about how that appearance travels – whether it earns editorial coverage, whether it surfaces in AI-powered search results when someone asks a brand-related question, and whether the brand’s communications team can measure the full downstream reach of a single recorded conversation.

“PR professionals are finally recognizing what podcast listeners have always known: audio is where trust gets built. Muck Rack has been part of my toolkit throughout my career because it’s one of the few platforms that can actually measure that trust over time,” said Molly DeMellier, Head of Communications at Sounds Profitable. “Bringing Muck Rack into the Sounds Profitable Partner Network gives our team, clients, and the broader podcast industry, the strategic communications infrastructure they deserve.”

The Sounds Profitable network and what membership includes

Sounds Profitable describes itself as the trade association for the podcasting industry. Founded to address a gap between podcasting’s audience scale and the industry’s ability to communicate its value to brands and media buyers, the organization operates an influential newsletter with 10,000 subscribers globally. It runs a podcast covering audio industry developments, maintains what it describes as the only searchable repository of key data points in podcasting, and hosts events including Podcast Movement, Cannes Lions, SXSW, and The Podcast Show.

Partner Network membership, according to the announcement, includes direct access to that research database, membership in a Slack community of more than 2,100 industry leaders, monthly strategic advising sessions, and priority access to major industry events. The nearly 210 members span the breadth of the audio ecosystem – hosting platforms, ad tech providers, agencies, publishers, and now, for the first time in a clearly visible way, a PR software company.

That last detail is the one industry observers are likely to note. The Sounds Profitable Partner Network has functioned as a map of where the podcast industry’s infrastructure sits. Muck Rack’s entry suggests that infrastructure is expanding upstream – into the communications and reputation management layer that operates before a podcast is even distributed, and well after the episode file is downloaded.

The Podcast Show London: where the partnership begins

The partnership launches with a joint appearance at The Podcast Show London, scheduled for May 20 to 21, 2026. Molly DeMellier, Head of Communications at Sounds Profitable, and Natan Edelsburg, Chief Partnerships Officer at Muck Rack, will appear together on the Brand Stage for a fireside chat titled “The New Word of Mouth: Podcasts, Earned Media, and AI Search.”

The session is framed around original research from both organizations. According to the press release, DeMellier and Edelsburg will examine how awareness, earned media, and discoverability now compound across channels, and what that means for communications strategy. The 71% video creator figure from Sounds Profitable’s research shapes part of the session’s argument: that a brand appearance can no longer be treated as a single-channel event.

The Brand Stage placement is notable. The Podcast Show London’s Brand Stage is specifically oriented toward how companies and communications professionals engage with the medium – not the creator or technical side of podcasting. It is a signal about who the session is aimed at: marketing and communications decision-makers who are still forming their frameworks for podcast strategy, rather than podcast industry insiders already embedded in the space.

Edelsburg addressed that gap directly. “Podcasts have become one of the most powerful channels for building brand credibility, but most PR teams don’t yet have a framework for thinking about them strategically,” he said. “Sounds Profitable is the organization that understands this space better than anyone. We’re excited to bring our research and platform to their network and to start that conversation on stage in London.”

Market context: podcast advertising at record scale

The partnership arrives at a moment of documented commercial growth in podcasting. Podcast advertising spending climbed 32% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Magellan AI data. That followed 26% year-over-year growth in Q3 2025. The IAB and PwC’s 2025 Internet Advertising Revenue Report placed total podcast advertising at $2.9 billion in the United States for the full year.

Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2026, released in March 2026, found that 58% of Americans now listen to podcasts monthly – a new record, equivalent to 167 million people. Weekly listeners stood at 45%, approximately 130 million. The figures represent a medium that has moved well beyond niche status, yet a structural imbalance persists. Consumers dedicate 31% of their media time to audio content while advertisers allocate only 9% of budgets to audio platforms, a 22-percentage-point gap widely cited as the central problem in audio advertising economics.

Video has accelerated the audience reach numbers but complicated the measurement picture. Edison Research updated its podcast ranking methodology in 2025 to include individuals whose sole podcast consumption occurred through video platforms, reflecting the scale shift brought by YouTube. Audioboom reported that over 13% of its business came from video revenue by Q3 2025, and Apple introduced HLS video podcast infrastructure with dynamic ad insertion in February 2026.

That complexity – audio appearing on video platforms, podcast appearances generating editorial coverage, brand mentions surfacing in AI-generated answers – is precisely the environment Muck Rack was built to monitor. The partnership with Sounds Profitable places Muck Rack in direct proximity to the industry’s primary research and knowledge network at a moment when brands are actively working out what podcast measurement actually means.

GEO and AI search: the emerging measurement frontier

One of the more technically specific aspects of Muck Rack’s offering, as described in the announcement, is its Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) insights capability. GEO refers to the practice of understanding and improving how a brand or organization appears in answers generated by large language models and AI-powered search systems such as Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and similar tools.

The addition of GEO to the podcast context is not incidental. As podcast appearances generate transcripts, editorial pickups, and YouTube clips, those downstream artifacts become part of the content corpus that AI search systems index and synthesize when generating answers. A brand that appears consistently in high-quality podcast conversations, and whose appearances generate further editorial coverage, may surface more frequently in AI-generated brand-related answers.

Muck Rack’s platform tracks both traditional media monitoring and how brands appear in AI-generated answers. That dual capability places it at an intersection that few PR platforms have reached. For communications professionals working with brands that are expanding into podcasting, the ability to track the full chain from audio appearance to AI search citation represents a new measurement surface.

Industry convergence: PR technology meets the podcast ecosystem

The Sounds Profitable Partner Network has grown from its earlier configuration of around 150 partners – visible in materials from Podcast Movement 2024 – to nearly 210 as of this announcement, a figure also reflected in the organization’s most recent public-facing descriptions. That growth trajectory maps onto the period of strongest commercial development in podcasting, when advertising spending, audience measurement, and distribution infrastructure were all advancing simultaneously.

Muck Rack joining that network is, in one reading, a data point about normalization. Podcasting is now sufficiently embedded in mainstream media and brand communications that the PR platform sector has direct strategic interest in understanding it – not as a novelty or a supplemental channel but as a primary channel for earned media that requires monitoring, measurement, and reputation management at the same level as print, broadcast, or digital news.

The announcement noted that Sounds Profitable sits at the center of the industry for companies looking to enter the space. That positioning has historically attracted audio and advertising technology companies. Its attraction of a communications platform suggests the categories of companies that see strategic value in the podcast ecosystem are expanding.

For marketing and communications professionals, the partnership offers a practical signal: the infrastructure for treating podcast appearances with the same analytical rigor as traditional press placements is taking shape. Whether through Muck Rack’s monitoring and GEO tools, through Sounds Profitable’s research database, or through the two organizations’ joint work that will be visible at The Podcast Show London and in future programming, the gap between podcast strategy and mainstream PR measurement is narrowing.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Sounds Profitable, the trade association for the podcasting industry, and Muck Rack, an AI communications platform used by PR professionals to monitor media coverage and AI search appearances.

What: Muck Rack joined the Sounds Profitable Partner Network, a network of nearly 210 organizations globally. The partnership includes a joint appearance at The Podcast Show London on May 20-21, 2026, with a Brand Stage fireside chat on podcasts, earned media, and AI search. Muck Rack brings global media monitoring, Generative Engine Optimization insights, social listening, and AI automation to a network historically focused on audio and advertising technology companies.

When: The partnership was announced on May 13, 2026. The first joint public appearance is scheduled for The Podcast Show London on May 21, 2026.

Where: Sounds Profitable is based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Podcast Show London takes place in London. The Partner Network operates globally, spanning nearly 210 organizations across the audio and advertising industries.

Why: Podcast appearances now travel across YouTube, editorial coverage, and AI-powered search results – expanding the measurement surface beyond traditional listener data. Muck Rack’s platform tracks how brands appear across all of these channels, including in AI-generated answers. According to Sounds Profitable’s own research, 71% of podcast creators now produce video content, meaning a single brand appearance can reach multiple audiences and platforms simultaneously. As podcast advertising spending reached $2.9 billion in the United States in 2025 and monthly listenership hit a record 58% of Americans, PR professionals are under increasing pressure to account for podcasting within mainstream communications measurement frameworks.

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Luís Rijo is a seasoned marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in Digital Marketing, Search, Social, Display, Video, and DOOH. Based in Europe. Also writing in the spend. Reach out via [email protected]

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Social Media Is Not Enough. How Smart Founders Market Themselves in the Age of AI

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BY KIMANZI CONSTABLE

Going all-in on social media? That’s not a strategy. It’s a gamble.

In today’s digital society, social media keeps the world connected. It keeps you informed about what’s happening in the world and provides a channel for founders to market their companies.

According to the University of Maine, there are 4.8 billion social media users, representing 59.9% of the global population and 92.7% of all internet users. There’s no denying the opportunity to reach consumers through social media marketing, whether organic or paid.

It’s easy to create an offer, start marketing it on social media, and receive instant sales. However, you don’t own social media platforms, which leaves you dependent on others to get clients.

Depending on someone else to market your business is not a sound strategy, especially given how AI is changing things. Here’s how to create a diversified marketing plan that increases sales no matter what changes online.

Use each social media platform for a different type of marketing.

The beauty of social media for founders is that each platform has its own nuances with the types of consumers who frequent each platform. LinkedIn is considered a professional network. Instagram is a place for visuals. YouTube offers everything from education to entertainment. Facebook is where you can find the best advertising opportunities. TikTok has some of the best organic reach. Lastly, Threads offers thought-provoking conversations.

One way to diversify your social media use for lead generation, consumer education, and client acquisition is to leverage each network in different ways and market to different audiences. Posting the same content across platforms is ineffective because consumers expect optimized content for each platform.

Diversifying your content across platforms gives you the opportunity to split-test different messaging, offers, and client acquisition strategies. It also creates diversification. If one platform is not functioning, you have the other platforms to make up the difference.

Use social media for lead generation. Then, send consumers to the platforms you control.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or any social media platform can change their algorithms, your reach, what you have access to, or how you can market your business. Social media platforms can and do make changes without notice, and those changes can affect your business if they’re your only marketing channel.

Your goal should be to take advantage of the reach of social media, educate your consumers, and then direct them back to your email list, website, and other owned media. Generate leads that are sent to your owned platforms, so that no matter what happens with social media, you have marketing channels.

Focus on building your email lists.

Founders’ and their companies’ greatest asset is their email list. With an email list, you always have a way to market your offers, even if social media disappears. It’s also smart to create multiple email lists that are segmented based on how consumers found your company. You can split-test messaging, offer different options to different audiences, and build an asset that increases your company’s valuation. Email lists are sellable assets.

Leveraging PR, thought leadership content, podcast guests, public speaking, media features, and educational content creates a strong and visible personal brand. Building a personal brand means you’ll always be able to sell, no matter how your offers change.

Your personal brand is even more important in the age of AI, as chatbot search pulls your credibility from the internet. One way to diversify your marketing beyond social media is to continue building your personal brand and show up more visibly in traditional and AI search results.

Leverage offline marketing channels.

In the digital information age, it can be easy to focus on only online marketing strategies. There’s a whole world of opportunity offline, at conferences, events, meetups, local networking, and more. Consumers have online fatigue post-pandemic, and in the age of AI and the metaverse. You’ll find potential clients and your consumers participating in offline channels, and you can reach them when you show up.

One great way to diversify beyond social media marketing is to add offline networking to your marketing plan. Connect with your local consumer base and, if you’re a nomadic founder, as you travel.

Social media offers a great opportunity for marketing, but it shouldn’t be your only channel, as you don’t own or control it. Create a diversified marketing plan and watch your revenue increase. It’s wise to have options.

Feature image credit: Getty Images

BY KIMANZI CONSTABLE

Sourced from Inc.

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Snap’s Q1 Makes Its AR Glasses Bet Harder To Ignore

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By Maureen Kerr

Snap’s first-quarter results gave investors something they have not always had from the company: evidence of operating discipline.

Revenue rose 12% year-on-year to $1.53 billion. Daily active users returned to growth, reaching 483 million. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $233 million, while free cash flow climbed to $286 million. Net loss narrowed to $89 million.

On the surface, this was a cleaner Snap story: stronger engagement, better margins and a more credible path toward sustained cash generation.

But the more important strategic question sits outside the quarter. Snap is still asking investors to believe in Specs, its augmented reality glasses that are a bid to compete with Meta, Apple and Google for the next consumer computing surface.

Evan Spiegel used the results to reaffirm Snap’s commitment to “intelligent eyewear,” saying the company would keep investing in Specs and share more at AWE on June 16. Snap also pointed to an expanded Qualcomm collaboration, growth in Specs Lens creation, and use cases across learning, gaming and AI-powered experiences.

Why Snap Is Betting On Specs AR Glasses

Specs is Snap’s attempt to define the next computing interface before Apple, Meta or Google fully normalize it. Snap argues that it already owns several ingredients that should matter in AR: the camera habit, a large visual messaging network, a Lens creator ecosystem and a young audience comfortable using the camera as a communication layer.

If augmented reality moves from the phone screen to the face, Snap wants to be more than an app inside someone else’s operating system. That is also what makes Specs vulnerable.

Specs Inc. And Irenic Capital’s Activist Pressure

In January, Snap established Specs Inc. as a wholly-owned subsidiary, telling investors the structure “enables new partnerships and capital flexibility including the potential for minority investment” and “supports clearer valuation of the business.” The subsidiary was an acknowledgement that Specs needs to be financed and valued differently from the core advertising and subscription business.

Activist investor Irenic Capital took that signal further, urging Snap to spin off or shut down Specs.

Snap’s response, set out in an 8-K filing on 15 April, was a different kind of discipline: approximately 1,000 team members cut, 16% of full-time employees, more than 300 open roles closed and an annualized cost reduction of more than $500 million by the second half of 2026. The cuts created room for the conviction instead of retreating from it.

So the central tension in Snap’s Q1 is not whether the company is improving. It is whether that improvement earns management the right to keep funding one of the most speculative bets in consumer technology.

For shareholders aligned with Irenic, Specs can look like capital misallocation dressed up as vision. For Snap, abandoning it carries a different risk. The company remains subscale against Meta and Google in advertising and exposed to platform shifts it does not control. A successful AR glasses platform would give Snap something more defensible: a hardware-software interface built around the camera, not just another ad product inside a crowded social market.

The better question, then, is not whether Specs is expensive. By any reasonable measure, it is. The question is whether Snap can turn operating discipline into strategic permission.

Can AR Lenses scale into a real platform?

Q1 helps Spiegel’s case. Snap showed stronger cash generation, tighter cost control and continuing AR engagement, with Snapchatters using AR Lenses more than 9 billion times per day on average and more than 400,000 Lenses submitted in the quarter, up more than 150% year-on-year.

But activist pressure means the clock is now louder. Specs does not need to become a mass-market hit immediately. It does need to prove that Snap’s AR advantage can travel from playful lenses to a developer platform with use cases, distribution and eventual monetization.

That is the real bet inside Snap’s earnings: not just that the company can recover, but that recovery can buy it enough time to invent what comes next.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

Feature image credit: Getty

By Maureen Kerr

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The mobile web will stay with us for a while

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By Peter Evers

After Russell Beattie’s post about the end of Mowser, a mobile transcoder, last Monday, a lot of bloggers reacted fiercely on his controversial viewpoints about the end of the mobile web. As a mobile marketing professional I feel kind of obliged to write about my view on the future of the mobile web.

Let’s start with a short recap about what happened this week. On Monday Russell Beattie, founder of Mowser, an application that transcodes normal websites to mobile websites, announced that Mowser has stopped. In this very personal article Russell came up with different reasons for the end of Mowser, such as lack of funding and personal debts but mostly Russell’s lack of confidence in the future of the mobile web. Russell states:

…I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to. In other words, I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time…

With this kind of powerful expressions, the commotion he caused in the blogosphere doesn’t come as a surprise. Almost every mobile blog I’m subscribed to wrote about it. Especially the articles at MobHappy, MobileMarketingWatch and mocoNews.net were worth reading, But what is Russell actually saying? If you read his text carefully you might have understood that the thing he isn’t confident about is browsing mobile-only websites on two-inch screens.

I can say that I don’t believe in mobile-only websites with no or little PC presence too. If a website is only visible on a phone and not or hardly available on a PC, people probably will not know about its presence. The reasons are that I don’t think mobile search is widely used and I guess that mobile-only sites will not start their own mobile advertising campaigns to gain visitors. Besides, if the site is found, people will not bookmark it or subscribe to it, simply because people don’t bookmark or subscribe to sites on their phone. So how will a mobile-only website ever gain readers? The only way is that people simply remember their URL and spontaneously visit the site once in a while.

Though I have to make one exception. If a mobile-only website supports a mobile application that is installed on the phone, it might have its right to exist. But still, the application will be central and the mobile website will be play a secondary role.

The situation changes when the screen gets bigger and the technology gets more advanced. Smartphone and iPhone users will probably bookmark more and even subscribe to their favourite sites. These phones can even give you the ‘real thing’, but that’s where my doubts come in. Whenever I access the real internet on a smartphone or iPhone it simply takes too long. The connection speed is just not fast enough. And although I’m not a mobile technician, I think it will take a couple of years before cellular data connections are comparable to the PC internet connection we’re used to nowadays. A mobile website as an extension for a regular website is a proper solution for this problem. It gives you the same information without much hassle and a minimal waiting time. The only thing that’s different is the minimal experience, but your experience will be much worse when you’ll have to wait twenty seconds after every click on a regular website accessed from a phone. That’s why I decided to install Alex King’s WordPress Mobile Plug-in on my personal blog. It looks a lot less flashy on a phone, but is fully accessible, readable and loads faster than the full version.

In the aftermath of Russell’s article I also read an interesting article by Alexander van Elsas, titled “Forget about mobile web browsing, think interaction!” which kind of explains the whole point made by Alexander. Alexander writes:

…I have never really believed in a mobile web. But I also believe that current mobile thinking is often dominated by two things, technical capabilities and bringing web services to the mobile. But these things aren’t of any value to me. (…) When it comes to using a mobile phone I have different needs. Needs that aren’t exactly the same as I have on the web, sitting behind a computer. The mobile phone is by all means my remote control of life. It is primarily an interaction device. I call and SMS with it. I also take pictures, upload them, and sometimes I use it for e-mail. The only time I use it for web browsing is when I need to pass some time…

I agree that the mobile phone is primarily an interaction device and that the mobile web should allow even more interaction than the regular web already does. The mobile web should efficiently interact with the typical interaction functionalities that our phone offers us. But to become widely used by people such as our mothers (isn’t she always the one we keep in mind whenever we develop something?), I think it’s important that there’s a certain transition period. In this period it’s better to copy the old and well-known than start with a whole new thing.

It also happened when TV became popular. The earliest television content was made out of plays, straight from the theatre. The earliest websites were static like newspapers and the earliest mobile internet sites are like regular websites. In all these cases the specific features of the new medium came in after a transition period. I think people need this period to become familiar with a new medium. They need to understand the new logic first to integrate the new medium in their daily life. Advertisers mostly react on statistics, and great statistics will only come with wide usage. So this transition period is also necessary to convince advertisers of the power of the new medium. As we are innovators, new media professionals like to skip this period because we already know how the new medium can fulfil its potential. But I think we can’t.

By Peter Evers

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What is “TV”?

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By Mike Driehorst

This week’s TV upfronts are proof that media and the technology behind it are rapidly changing, removing siloed strategies from media choices – forcing marketers to get back to that core question.

It’s fascinating how technology has merged nearly all (or just all?) the media categories. While the marketing question has always centered on “What do you want to accomplish?” it’s also been closely aligned with “Where do you want to advertise?” The media choices were very distinct: TV, print, OOH, radio, mail and, very early in the digital era, web banners.

But technology’s evolution makes the platform less important since most platforms are not tied to just one strategy.

TV, with the growing capability of connected TV, is not just for awareness, it also can be for performance and commerce marketing, says analyst Andrew Lipsman in The Current.

Social media is no longer just top-of-funnel, as it also can be for short-term performance marketing, such as via affiliate marketing with creators and influencers.

And even media relations is no longer *just* about awareness and thought leadership. Targeted and smart earned media play into answer engine optimization.

But let’s get back to TV. This week’s TV upfronts are proof that technology is changing what “TV” is. While the WSJ has a story about streaming platforms overtaking traditional TV in ad spend, broadcasters have had streaming platforms for quite a while.

The broadcast TV giants of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox now have to share center stage with not only  Amazon and Netflix but also with the likes of Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast.

And, don’t even get me started talking about how TV has become a subset of video marketing (looking at you short-form video, microdramas, branded video content and even video games).

What this all boils down to is: As technology mashes up the capabilities and identities of online and offline media, marketers need to remain steadfast to that core question: What do you want to accomplish?

Feature image credit: 2026 NBCUniversal Upfront, with (L-R) Jennifer Garner, D’Arcy Carden, Gemma Chan, Chloe Sevigny, “The Five Star Weekend” on Peacock. (Credit: NBCUniversal/Getty Images)

By Mike Driehorst

Mike Driehorst is a SmartBrief senior editor, working on newsletters covering social media, advertising, agencies, interactive and multicultural marketing, as well as the mobility industry. After an early career in newspaper journalism, Mike worked in public relations, social media and digital marketing on both the agency and client side for 20 years before joining SmartBrief in early 2019.

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“It’s time all men paid attention”: raunchy ad exposes the literal meaning of ‘toxic masculinity’

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Plastic Change highlights the dangers of microplastics.

While plastic pollution is an ongoing environmental concern, it can be difficult to raise awareness in fresh ways that engage general audiences. To tackle this, Danish NGO Plastic Change has released a provocative new campaign drawing attention to the dangers of microplastics in a wholly unconventional way.

The best adverts are built to spark conversation and stop us in our tracks, and Plastic Change’s new ad is no different. Appropriating the saucy visuals of underwear branding, the playful yet powerful campaign is a perfect example of how subverting expectations can make a huge visual impact that resonates with audiences for good.

Created by marketing agency Worth Your While in collaboration with Glue Society, the campaign centres around how microplastics are infiltrating everywhere (and I mean everywhere), including men’s genitals, in some cases leading to fertility issues. Giving a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’, the ‘Are You Packing Microplastics?’ campaign is a strong call to action masked behind satirical subversion.

Shot by legendary photographer Derek Henderson, whose work has been featured in Vogue, Bottega Veneta and Louis Vuitton, the ads mimic the visuals of sleek black and white Calvin Klein campaigns. CK’s signature bulge has been replaced by PET plastic bottles, while the waistbands bear provocative messages like “4 out of 5 dicks are packing plastic” and “How toxic is your masculinity?”.

Plastic Change campaign

(Image credit: Plastic Change/Worth Your While/Glue Society)

The campaign was sparked by research from the International Journal of Impotence Research, which discovered microplastics in 80% of human penile tissue tested, while the Journal of Toxicological Sciences similarly found microplastics in every human testicle studied.

“Environmental campaigns often fail to reach men,” says Anne Aittomaki, strategic director at Plastic Change. “Studies show that many men associate environmentally conscious behaviour with femininity and are therefore less influenced by the messages of environmental campaigns. The campaign aims to flip that script by reaching out to men. If saving the planet doesn’t feel urgent, maybe saving your sex life and ability to reproduce will. This isn’t scare-mongering – it’s science. And it’s time all men paid attention,” she adds.

Plastic Change campaign

(Image credit: Plastic Change/Worth Your While/Glue Society)

For more inspiring campaigns check out Prost8’s cheeky optical illusion billboard or take a look at GirlvsCancer’s provocative billboard ad that was banned by the ASA.

Feature image credit: Plastic Change/Worth Your While/Glue Society

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Natalie Fear is Creative Bloq’s staff writer. With an eye for trending topics and a passion for internet culture, she brings you the latest in art and design news. Natalie also runs Creative Bloq’s 5 Questions series, spotlighting diverse talent across the creative industries. Outside of work, she loves all things literature and music (although she’s partial to a spot of TikTok brain rot).

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