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Who really wants a fully joined-up customer experience?

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By Sam Anderson,

The agency world is filled with visions of perfectly joined-up customer journeys. With the help of strategists, creatives and experience specialists, we look at the origins and plausibility of that vision.

’360° views of consumers…’ ’Perfection at every touchpoint…’ ’Fully joined-up customer journeys…’ Listen to the goals of marketers and their clients right now and it’s easy to get the picture of a single big dream: a technology-enabled, universal stitching-together of just about everything to provide faultless flows through streamlined brand worlds.

But whose dream is this? Where does it come from? And is anyone getting anywhere close to realizing it?

Better is better

As M&C Saatchi London’s chief data strategy officer James Calvert says, a version of the joined-up dream is quite natural, thanks to a “general, though not always stated, belief that when you have things working together, performance will be better,” and that, ”if we make everything look like it’s all part of the same thing, it’ll work better”.

Seems true enough. But as Avery Hennings, lead experience specialist at The Marketing Practice, puts it: “We can all sit here and say that a joined-up experience is better than a fragmented one… what we’re missing is the ’why’.”

It’s not customers who are leading the charge; certainly, words like ‘joined-up experience’ aren’t on many of their lips. And a quick poll of our assembled experts suggests that it’s not always clients who are demanding fully joined-up customer experiences either. “Sometimes we hear about a ‘2025 vision for a connected journey’ coming from the very top,” says Ogilvy Experience’s strategy director Michael Crewe. “But then the people you’re working with on a day-to-day level all have different metrics and different targets that they’re working towards. It can be difficult to look at it end-to-end because their goals don’t make sense together, so when we’re trying to join it up, we’re not building something that’s truly connected, but using rubber bands and sticky tape to try and stitch things together”.

Often, it is agencies that become evangelists for what some would call ‘joined-up thinking,’ thanks to what Journey Further’s conversion director Jonny Longden calls, simply, a “disconnect between strategy and execution”. Customers might not be in the streets demanding joined-up thinking from the brands they buy, but as DPDK’s chief creative officer Michael Vromans has it, “they’ll let you know when it’s not good“. He says: “Great design is the absence of ripples; it’s hard to discern when it’s seamless, but it’s easy to point out when it’s not”.

According to our panel, the roadblocks in the way of seamlessness won’t surprise many: siloed organizations, failure to understand what customers really want, creaky old decision-making processes, failures to understand timescales of change. As Jacob Harris, partner at Known, says: “The long-term effects of the joined-up customer journey are well-studied, but you show this to a client at the start of a project and no one wants to wait for that. There’s this interesting balance between what they want to drive now versus what you can show them that exists in their categories before you can even get into understanding the customer”.

Joining up what?

‘Joined-up’ is all well and good, but it will of course mean something different for every brand – not least because joined-up consistency will be straightforward for smaller brands that show up in one place, but rather more complicated for global brands that show up everywhere.

Hallane Hill, content lead at Optimizon, argues that the key is convenience: “Consumers want convenience as they move between digital and physical interactions with brands. Their shopping experience needs to be the same at every single touchpoint.” Kristie Naha-Biswas, Assembly’s head of strategy, agrees, adding: “It’s about finding those opportunities to connect online and offline, and adding that extra connected experience so that consumers have what they need when they’re researching or shopping.”

For Calvert, the joining up isn’t worth much unless it’s joined by another value: simplicity. “Sure, people will let us know when there’s a problem or if something feels confusing, but what they’ll never say is, ‘why don’t you consolidate your apps and make that better?’” Joining up, in other words, goes beyond simply fixing the problems that customers tell you about; it can also mean trimming back elements of the overall experience that aren’t pulling in the right direction.

Crewe calls this challenge the “effort to understand the entire world of the customer,” but also understanding that “your brand plays only a tiny role in that”.

By Sam Anderson

Sourced from The Drum

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Grocery shopping money saving starts here: the basics most shoppers overlook

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January has long been regarded as a reset month. Credit card statements arrive with the weight of December spending. Grocery bills reflect holiday meals and impulse purchases that felt justified at the time. For many, January is the first clear view of how small decisions add up, and it is a practical moment to reassess everyday habits rather than pursue dramatic resolutions.

Food spending is often where that reassessment begins. Groceries are a recurring expense, but can be flexible. While people may feel locked into rising prices, the way food is purchased and used still leaves room for big savings. The most effective changes tend to come from basics that are easy to overlook, and not extreme budgeting tactics or restrictive plans.

Why January creates momentum

The calendar shift matters. January grocery trips are usually calmer than those in late fall, with fewer holiday displays and less pressure to stock up for events. Seasonal routines change as well. School schedules settle, travel slows, and meals become more predictable. This creates space to notice patterns that were hidden during busier months.

Financial awareness is also sharper. Bills from November and December have already arrived, offering a full picture of spending rather than a running estimate. When grocery costs are reviewed alongside utilities, subscriptions, and other fixed expenses, food spending often stands out as one of the few categories that can be adjusted without long-term consequences.

This combination of clarity and calm makes January a practical starting point. The goal is not to overhaul everything, but to tighten habits that will carry through the rest of the year.

1. Planning without rigidity

Planning often gets framed as restrictive, but effective grocery planning is more about direction than control. January is an ideal time to return to simple planning that accounts for real schedules rather than aspirational ones.

This starts with looking at the week ahead. Nights with late work hours or activities may call for leftovers or simple meals. Quieter evenings allow for cooking that stretches ingredients across multiple meals. Planning around time reduces takeout spending, which often spikes when days feel unmanageable.

It also helps to plan around ingredients rather than recipes. Choosing meals that share produce, proteins, or pantry items limits waste and avoids buying one-off ingredients that sit unused. This approach creates a rotation of familiar, easier-to-shop-for meals.

2. Unit price over sticker price

One of the most overlooked tools in grocery stores is printed directly on the shelf. Unit pricing is designed to make comparisons easier. Yet many people still default to the largest package or the lowest visible price tag.

Unit prices reveal patterns that are not always intuitive. Larger packages are not always cheaper per unit. Items on sale can cost more than regular-priced alternatives. Brand loyalty sometimes comes at a premium that is only visible when the math is done.

Learning to pause for a few seconds and compare unit prices changes purchasing behavior without sacrifice. Over time, it builds familiarity with what a fair price looks like for staples. That awareness makes sales easier to judge and prevents overpaying for convenience packaging that offers little real value.

3. The quiet cost of food waste

Food waste is one of the least visible drains on grocery budgets. Items thrown away rarely feel expensive in isolation, but together they represent a steady loss. January cleanouts often reveal expired condiments, forgotten freezer items, and produce that never made it into meals.

Reducing waste starts with awareness, not perfection. Keeping a rough mental inventory of what is already at home prevents duplicate purchases. Using the freezer strategically extends the shelf life of leftovers, bread, and meat that may not be used immediately.

Another overlooked habit is planning meals that intentionally use leftovers rather than treating them as backups. When leftovers are expected and repurposed, they are more likely to be eaten. This alone can reduce weekly spending by meaningful dollars without changing what people eat.

4. Sales cycles and timing

Many grocery stores follow predictable sales cycles, though timing varies slightly by region. Learning those rhythms takes observation more than research. Certain items rotate through discounts every few weeks, while others rarely go on sale.

January sales often reflect post-holiday inventory shifts. Baking supplies and seasonal items may be discounted as stores reset shelves. Recognizing these patterns allows people to stock up strategically rather than reactively.

Timing also applies to shopping frequency. More trips tend to lead to more impulse purchases. Fewer trips help control spending, even if the cart looks fuller. January is a good month to experiment with reducing shopping frequency and seeing how planning fills the gap.

5. Store layouts and impulse pressure

Grocery stores are designed to encourage spending beyond the list. End caps, checkout lanes, and seasonal displays are not accidental.

Sticking to the perimeter is not a rule, but understanding why certain items are placed where they are can help. High-margin products are often positioned at eye level or near traffic bottlenecks. Staples may be placed farther apart to increase exposure to other items along the way.

Being aware of these strategies does not require avoiding entire sections. It simply reframes impulse purchases as deliberate choices rather than defaults. That shift reduces the surprise when totals increase at checkout.

6. Private labels and flexibility

Store brands have expanded significantly in both quality and variety. January is a useful time to reassess assumptions about private labels, especially for pantry staples and basic ingredients.

Trying one or two store-brand items per trip spreads the risk while building familiarity. This creates a personalized list of items where brand loyalty matters and others where it does not. The savings accumulate, especially when applied consistently.

Being open to substitutes when prices spike prevents frustration and keeps budgets steady. This does not mean abandoning preferences; it means recognizing that many products serve the same purpose, with minor differences.

Takeaway

The most effective money-saving habits are often unremarkable. They do not require apps, strict rules, or public accountability. They rely on attention and repetition.

January offers a clean entry point, but the value comes from carrying these habits forward. The savings may not feel dramatic week to week, but they become noticeable over months.

Food budgets rarely improve with a single major change. They improve when overlooked basics are practiced consistently. January is simply the moment when many people are finally positioned to notice them.

Feature image credit: Canva Pro

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Sourced from Spatula Desserts

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Apple’s sweetheart deal with its main chipmaker comes to abrupt end

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The long, happy relationship between Apple and chipmaker TSMC is going through a rough patch. It seems Nvidia has come between them.

As a result, Apple reportedly must pay significantly more for the processors it acquires from the South Korean foundry — and Cupertino might even need to fight to gain access to the latest chips

It’s yet another example of how AI causes problems for Apple.

Apple and TSMC’s long and fruitful relationship

The partnership between Apple and TSMC has been crucial for both companies, and it drove them to the top of their respective markets. The Korean chipmaker became the exclusive manufacturer of Apple’s CPUs in the mid-2010s, and together the two companies have steadily pushed technology forward, from early A-series iPhone processors to today’s super-powerful Apple silicon for Macs, iPads and data centres.

Apple’s enormous scale and willingness to commit billions of dollars in long-term chip orders helped justify TSMC’s massive investments in cutting-edge fabrication plants. Meanwhile, TSMC’s manufacturing expertise gave Apple early access to the most advanced processors, delivering performance and efficiency advantages over rivals.

Apple loses its seat at the front of TSMC’s production line

But now the AI boom is shaking up that partnership, according to a report from analyst Tim Culpan on his blog, Culpium. Most notably, Nvidia is replacing Apple as TSMC’s largest customer.

“Nvidia likely took the top spot in at least one or two quarters of last year,” said Culpan.

Despite occasionally being described as a chipmaker, Nvidia does not manufacture its own GPUs and AI accelerators. Nvidia is a fabless semiconductor company — it designs products but relies on other companies to manufacture them. In fact, TSMC serve as Nvidia’s primary foundry for its most advanced chips.

With the huge growth in AI data centres, Nvidia is selling chips as fast as TSMC can make them. And that gives Nvidia plenty of pull with the Korean company. Maybe more than Apple has.

“Apple, which once held a dominant position on TSMC’s customer list, now needs to fight for production capacity,” said Culpan. “With the continuing AI boom, and each GPU from clients like Nvidia and AMD taking up a larger footprint per wafer, the iPhone maker’s chip designs are no longer guaranteed a place among TSMC’s almost two dozen fabs.”

A-series and M-series chips cost Apple more

Along with more competition comes higher prices. Culpan claims that TSMC hit Apple with “the largest price rise in years” last fall. The analyst did not reveal how much the cost of iPhone, Mac, etc., chips will go up, though.

In the past, being the foundry’s largest customer really helped Apple in negotiations over the cost of processors. But now that Nvidia has taken on that role, Apple is in a weaker bargaining position.

It never rains but it pours

Paying significantly more for processors is only one of the challenges facing Apple thanks to AI. The massive expansion in servers going into data centres being built by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and others is straining supplies of RAM and other memory, also driving up the cost of these vital components.

With the cost of processors, RAM and SSDs all on the rise, Apple will find itself under pressure to raise prices on its products.

Feature image credit: AI image: Gemini/Cult of Mac

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Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.

Sourced from Cult of Mac

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The key for growing businesses is creative technologies

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By Olivia Atkins

While there’s no doubt that technology has always been present in the creative industries, its accelerated use has disrupted almost every aspect of our lives.

Marketers regularly use tools to enable more efficient work and speed up workflows, while data is useful for informing a campaign’s direction. However, questions over the purpose of technology remain. Creatives recognise that while technology can act as an enabler of creativity, they can’t become too reliant on or distracted by technological developments as it could trivialise their campaign’s message. There’s a necessary fine line between experimenting with new tech and focusing on the campaign’s core message to ensure that their idea is creative and, most importantly, remains relevant.

The Drum, in partnership with Mailchimp, has launched A Guide for Growing Businesses to discuss some of the issues small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs) face today when it comes to business growth.

The guide further explores how SMEs are achieving growth by finding a balance between creativity and tech.

Know your tech

“It’s difficult to define ‘technology’ today,” says Unit9’s creative director, Kate Lynham. “From improvements and everything ‘in-camera’, CGI techniques to artificial intelligence software, it all falls under the same umbrella and you can’t really work without it in some way.”

Tech falls under so many categories and is used in such varied ways that separating the tech from the creative can be difficult to do. Lynham urges marketers to become really familiar with the tech they’re working with so they can continue to find room for experimentation. “If you don’t have enough of an understanding of the tech itself, then you can’t think of ways to manipulate it,” she adds. “Reimagining what a piece of technology can do is part of the process. At Unit9, we’ve used a GPS system across three different jobs, with each providing totally different creative outcomes even though the base technology is the same.”

To download the digital version of The Drum’s Guide for Growing Businesses complete the form below.

Resisting tech trends

It can be tempting to plunge head first into the tech and try out new innovations as they arise. But Nexus Interactive Arts’ executive producer, Colin Davis, urges marketers to proceed with caution and not get swept up by tech trends. “The real source of a lot of what people perceive as technology getting in the way of creativity stems from how technology gets covered in the press,” he says. “Novelty and ‘world’s first’ get attention and thus there is a PR premium placed on that, which causes the technology to drive the creative, which rarely results in amazing work that stands the test of time.”

Wieden+Kennedy’s head of technology, Michael Naman, agrees – the industry needs to restrain using tech for tech’s sake or else we risk undermining creativity. “We as an industry are fantastic at navel gazing; we continually fetishize over what we can do with technology and forget about what technology is doing to our clients’ businesses,” he says.

“These businesses will be unrecognisable in the next five to 10 years as they continue to digitise what they do.”

Collaborative creative processes

Streamlining the creative process and getting creatives to work more closely with tech developers is one way to make sure that the process is a bit more joined-up. “Bringing creatives and coders together at the beginning of a brief can yield fantastic results, but you have to be willing to learn,” he says. “You can’t just rock up with a tech idea and expect it to work out of the box. It can be unnerving to hand over your idea to a team of coders who are going to tell you that certain bits aren’t going to work, so focus on building trust between teams and production companies.”

Relatability

Ultimately, tech can push ideas into unimaginable territory, but brands need to remember the importance of connecting with their consumers.

“Creativity can suffer when marketers are too quick to jump to a solution that is solely data-driven and ignores the human factors at play,” cautions Media Chain’s COO, Dominic McGregor.

Going post the digital hype of course is key, but it is also critical to remember how technology can create opportunities.

Technology is an incredible tool for understanding audiences and informing creative decision making, an assistant in the creative process. However, it’s important for marketers to get the balance right between tech and creativity because, ultimately, it is creativity that creates value, concludes Lynham.

By Olivia Atkins

Sourced from The Drum

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How to repurpose one great idea into a week’s worth of social posts

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By Jeremy Knauff

Jeremy Knauff helps you develop a leveraged approach that efficiently turns a single topic into a mountain of content that you can publish to all social media platforms

I bet that there’s a particular agent who constantly shows up in your social media feed and gets tons of engagement. It probably drives you crazy because they’re not smarter or more charismatic than you, but they still get the lion’s share of the attention in your market.

You know you need to publish more content to stay in front of your audience and build brand recognition and trust. This may seem impossible because you’re already so busy providing top-notch service to your clients, but the truth is that you can keep serving your clients just as well, while building a mountain of content that keeps you in front of your audience and builds brand recognition and trust.

Write a comprehensive article

You might be wondering, “Why write an article if I just want some social media content?”

The answer is simple — it becomes the foundation to build a mountain of content that you can then publish on social media, plus you can also publish the article on your website.

But I want to be clear — you absolutely should NOT use AI to write this article.

Your unique insight and voice is what will make people interested, so this is a critical element.

You should aim for about 750-1,500 words, focus on one key topic and hit on three to five key points to support that topic. You also need an engaging opening that explains why it matters and a closing that brings it all together.

Craft long-form posts

Once your article is written, you can easily craft half a dozen or more long form posts that are perfect for Facebook and LinkedIn.

The first is to address the topic itself and why it matters to your audience, which you can draw from the opening of your article. This should be an informative post about the topic and how it impacts your audience without digging into the supporting points yet.

Next, you’ll write a post for each of the key supporting points from your article, briefly reiterating the topic and why it matters, followed by the supporting point, which should make up the bulk of the post. This should give you another three to five posts.

It’s important to note that you’re not going to just copy and paste from your article for these posts. Instead, you should write something new based on the info from your article.

Extract short-form tweets

When it comes to X, short-form content really shines — especially when you can leverage questions or controversy.

The first thing you’ll do is pull all of the powerful one-line statements from your article to use as individual tweets. And you can take things a step further by creating a quote graphic that you can share with tweets. These can also be shared on other platforms as well.

Next, you’ll pull a few longer sections, making sure to keep them under 280 total characters each. This ensures that your audience can see the entire tweet without clicking the “see more” link.

It’s relatively easy to generate a dozen or more pieces of short-form content using this tactic.

Record a long-form video

Your article gives you a framework to record an informative long-form video on the topic, which you can upload to YouTube and other social media platforms.

The key here is to use an outline rather than trying to read the article as a script. This ensures that your video sounds natural and engaging instead of robotic and boring. And remember to make eye contact with the camera — if you stare down at your notes while talking, your audience will tune out.

I try to keep my videos under 30 minutes because most people have a short attention span today. It’s usually pretty easy to make one video on the topic, but you may be able to record a few videos from one article.

It’s also important to complete all of the available fields when you upload your videos to YouTube, including a short, engaging title, a well-designed thumbnail, a robust description and a list of tags. This helps ensure that your video shows up in feeds and search results.

Extract short clips

Once you’ve recorded your long-form video, you can extract short-form clips from it to publish on every platform. These are especially effective on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram when limited to three minutes. And this is a powerful way to rack up a ton of views and quickly earn more new subscribers.

You can do this manually with video editing software, like Adobe Premier or Camtasia, or you can use AI tools like Descript or OpusClip to automatically extract multiple short clips on autopilot. And these AI tools also automatically generate captions that match your branding, which is critical for maximizing watch time since many people scroll social with the audio turned off.

You’ll find that in most cases, you should be able to generate anywhere from half a dozen to several dozen short-form videos from your long-form video.

The algorithms that power social media platforms prioritize video content, so this is an essential element of your marketing efforts today.

You need to publish more content

Consistently creating lots of content is a must in today’s noisy marketplace, but it doesn’t have to mean slaving away in front of a camera or at your computer all day.

It just requires a leveraged approach that efficiently turns a single topic into a mountain of content that you can publish to all social media platforms.

When you do this properly, it enables you to demonstrate your expertise, build authority status and cut through the noise to stay in front of your audience so that you’re the one they think of when it’s time to make a buying decision.

This is your blueprint to do exactly that, and if you follow it consistently, you’ll build a more resilient business that generates predictable and scalable revenue.

By Jeremy Knauff

Jeremy Knauff is the founder of Spartan Media, a speaker, author and Marine Corps veteran.

Sourced from inman

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11 Things Brands Still Get Wrong About Authenticity (and How to Get It Right)

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By Rolling Stone Culture Council

Authenticity isn’t a trend or tagline. It’s a long-term commitment to consistency, accountability and real human connection.

In an era where consumers can spot performative messaging from a mile away, “authenticity” has become one of the most overused and misunderstood ideas in branding. Too often, companies mistake relatability for honesty or aesthetics for values, only to lose trust when their actions don’t align with their words.

Here, 11 Rolling Stone Culture Council members explain what today’s brands commonly get wrong about authenticity and what it really takes to build real, lasting connections with audiences. By showing up consistently and letting your values guide you, your brand will be well on its way to being truly genuine.

Forcing Your Brand Into a Crowded Space

Too many brands force themselves into a crowded space instead of creating their own space. Make decisions rooted in values versus trends. Do what’s right for your brand and community — not because everyone else is doing it or because it’s never been done. Meet your audience where they are and your audience will meet you where the truth is. – Zech Francis, BeatBox Beverages

Treating Authenticity as Messaging Instead of a Responsibility

Brands miss authenticity when they treat it as messaging, not responsibility. Real leadership isn’t polished statements; it’s consistent action. Social impact isn’t a campaign; it’s accountability. If your values vanish when it’s inconvenient, that’s not authenticity — it’s performance. Purpose must be practiced, not posted. – Kimberly S. Reed, Reed Development Group

Mistaking Authenticity for Performance

Brands mistake authenticity for performance by sharing “raw,” unpolished moments. This is just self-proclaimed noise. The better way? Verifiable consistency. True authenticity isn’t what you claim; it’s what your entire digital ecosystem proves. It’s a clear, consistent and corroborated narrative that algorithms can understand and audiences can trust. – Jason Barnard, Kalicube

Oversharing Raw Emotion

Most brands mistake authenticity for oversharing. Authenticity isn’t dumping raw emotion online — it’s consistency between what you say, what you do and how you show up. The better path is disciplined honesty. Communicate with clarity, keep your promises and let integrity — not algorithms — shape your voice. – Kristin Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

Viewing Authenticity as a Tactic

Too many brands treat “authenticity” as a tactic rather than a mindset. Connections built on quality, consistency and a story that feels genuine are real connections. The most enduring brands pair a solid product with a spark of personality, successfully pivoting with the times while maintaining a core ethos. One can’t fake trust; however, one can build it one honest interaction at a time. – Thomas Andersen, BTA Cannabis CPA Tax

Just Talking About What You Do Without the ‘Why’ Behind It

The best way forward for brands that truly want to connect is to get real. That means being honest about the good and the bad, pulling back the curtain and letting people see what really happens behind the scenes. Don’t just talk about what you do — share why you do it. That’s how you build real trust: through consistency, honesty and actions that actually mean something over time. – Jeff Hopmayer, Brindiamo Group LLC

Being Unwilling to Pay the ‘Cost’ of Authenticity

Brands believe that authenticity and values go together (and rightly so). But values, by definition, cost something. And audiences are wary of convenient values that change the moment they become inconvenient. So, what is your brand prepared to give up for the sake of your values? Revenue? Convenience? Popularity? Either consistently pay the cost or don’t claim to hold the value. – Jed Brewer, Good Loud Media

Treating Authenticity as an Aesthetic or Filter

Most brands treat authenticity like an aesthetic — a tone, a filter, a “real” post. But true authenticity isn’t what you show; it’s what you sustain. It’s built through consistency, not confession. The future belongs to brands that design systems of sincerity, where integrity is visible, not staged. – Sudhir Gupta, The Facticerie

Failing to Have a Mission, Ethos and Strategic Plan in Place for Communications

Brands across existing and new brand categories are best served by having a mission, ethos and strategic plan when it comes to communicating with their audiences, customers and investors. Authenticity is a byproduct of your messaging when you are doing it right. It will shine through in well-thought-out and articulated content that is aligned with your roadmap and goals. – Julie Zinamon, Vataseason

Chasing Trends Instead of Originality

Everyone’s doing the same exact thing that’s trending at any given moment. Audiences don’t care to see the same content over and over. With all due respect to the social media teams, originality still triumphs over short-term vitality. – Kathy Schenfelt, SCH Entertainment

Performing Vulnerability While Hiding What’s Behind the Scenes

Most brands treat authenticity like confessions. They perform as vulnerable on socials while hiding their operating systems and what truly holds their missions. Real authenticity is governance: clear standards, fair policies and receipts. Show how you decide and what you fix when you fail, and invite an audit. Consistency beats confessions every time. – Sonia Singh, Center of Inner Transformations

Feature image credit: Tamani C/peopleimages.com — stock.adobe.com

By Rolling Stone Culture Council

Sourced from RollingStone

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Influencer Script Global Market Report 2025 with Long-term Prospects to 2029 and 2034

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Sourced from yahoo! finance

The market for AI-generated influencer scripts is rapidly expanding due to rising demand for personalized content, increased digital marketing adoption, and innovation in AI technologies. Opportunities lie in enhancing brand engagement through scalable, interactive content, advancing AI-driven storytelling, and leveraging real-time analytics.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Influencer Script Market

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Influencer Script Market
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Influencer Script Market · GlobeNewswire Inc.

Dublin, Jan. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Influencer Script Global Market Report 2025” has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The artificial intelligence (AI)-generated influencer script market is experiencing robust growth, projected to expand from $1.18 billion in 2024 to $1.48 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.7%. This surge is driven by the demand for personalized digital content, increased investment in influencer-marketing campaigns, and the widespread adoption of virtual influencers. The market reflects a growing consumption of social media content, rising global marketing budgets, and a shift towards cost-efficient content creation models.

Looking ahead, the AI-generated influencer script market is anticipated to reach $3.66 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 25.3%. This growth is underpinned by a focus on audience engagement, authenticity, and the trend of brand-creator collaborations. The demand for scalable marketing solutions and real-time analytics is rising, fuelled by consumer preference for interactive experiences and behavioural insights. Key technological trends include advancements in generative language models, emotion-driven storytelling algorithms, and automated synthesis for influencer content.

The ongoing rise of digital marketing is a key driver for the AI-generated influencer script market. With digital marketing involving the promotion of goods via channels like social media and search engines, the industry’s expansion is supported by increased online commerce and branding efforts. AI-enabled influencer scripts enhance digital marketing by offering personalized content, optimizing audience targeting, and ensuring campaign efficiency. For example, Eurostat reported that in 2023, 60.9% of EU enterprises utilized social media, highlighting the trend toward digital engagement.

Prominent industry players, such as Pictory and HeyGen, are advancing technological capabilities within the AI script market. In February 2024, Pictory introduced its Custom Pictory GPT tool for transforming user inputs into full scripts, enhancing content creation through automated video production. In April 2025, HeyGen partnered with HubSpot to create personalized videos directly within HubSpot’s workflows, utilizing customer data from its CRM platform to enhance engagement and streamline content production.

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Rory Sutherland: Our favourite marketing tools can be dangerous in the wrong hands

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By Rory Sutherland

Comparison charts help us make choices – but it isn’t always the correct choice, warns Rory Sutherland.

For the most part, marketers are not qualified to comment on possible miscarriages of justice in the trial of Lucy Letby. Few of us have any qualifications in neonatology, and I doubt many of us have read the transcript of the trial.

However, there is one area where many of us might be called on to act as expert witnesses in any future retrial: to testify on the uses and abuses of the comparison chart.

Below was the chart used in the trial to suggest that there was an unusually high correlation between the nurse’s presence on the ward and the incidence of suspicious deaths. It is now the subject of intense debate among statisticians, many of whom suggest that the frame of comparison is misleading. For instance, occasions where suspicious deaths occurred when she was not present were omitted from the table.

For those who need reminding, this is a comparison chart often used in marketing.

Both these charts absolutely fascinate me because they are, at varying times, both incredibly useful and totally misleading.

They are useful to consumers (and consequently to sellers) because, in many situations, it is impossible to make a confident purchase decision when presented with two or more options without being able to perform a side-by-side comparison.

Brands that offer consumers a portfolio of variations on the same theme – think Dyson or BMW – are always at risk of losing a customer who would have been happy with several of the options had they been presented singly, only to end up not buying any because they cannot decisively pick which of the acceptable options is best for them.

One reason I often buy second-hand cars is that the decision is usually easier: do I want this car or not? When configuring a new car, I am sometimes literally and metaphorically blinded by the headlights. Do I want to spend an extra £500 on active-matrix LED technology, or would I prefer the ventilated seats?

You can present consumers with too many acceptable choices, creating paralysis in place of decisiveness.

I’m told that the paradox-of-choice issue is also one of the surprising downsides of engaging in a threesome or orgy. There are plenty of attractive options, but it is difficult to know what position to adopt at any given moment.

Whenever people need to choose between options, they need to see the information all in one place, so side-by-side comparison is often essential. People cannot contentedly book a premium economy air ticket unless they know what the economy ticket would have cost – an insight that made one of our clients many millions of pounds.

But the very act of comparison also introduces a mental bias, in that it focuses your mind disproportionately on points of difference rather than areas of similarity.

In presenting side-by-side comparisons clearly, the comparison chart is an invaluable tool. But it is also a marvellous – and highly lucrative – device for misleading people.

Consider a typical comparison chart for three classes of car.

Let’s call them the L, the GL and the GLX GT, priced respectively at £30,000, £45,000 and £60,000.

Typically, the chart will show two meager features possessed by the L (heated seats, automatic wash-wipe), then add another four features for the GL (leather seats, premium infotainment system, etc) and put a full column of 16 green ticks for the GLX.

None of this is entirely inaccurate or dishonest, but it is highly misleading – which is why marketers rather like it, especially as there is much more margin to be had on a premium product. You have focused the buyer’s attention disproportionately on the points of difference, not on the points of similarity.

“Oh look,” you think, “I get eight times as much stuff for only twice the money” (the GLX). Or, if you are torn between the L and the GL, you think, “Well, it’s only 50% more for three times more stuff. Ker-ching.”

But this is not so. A truly accurate comparison chart would list all the items you get with all three cars – wheels, tyres, folding rear seats, windscreen wipers, doors, windows, the lot. Then you would see that the base model L is perhaps better value after all, because it gives you 97% of the stuff for half the price of the GLX.

As with the information presented to the Lucy Letby jury, you can often cherry-pick data to make a very convincing case by leaving out contradictory information, or by focusing people’s attention on a narrow discrepancy shorn of its wider context. Lucy Letby had just bought a house (to me, one of the most surprising findings from the trial – that there are still parts of the UK where a nurse can afford to buy a house) and was working long hours to pay for the mortgage. There were also unexpected deaths where she was not present, but these were excluded from the comparison chart to produce a clean line of green ticks.

Forgive me another aside. I often think about this when I book air travel. I sometimes pay twice the price to enjoy a slightly bigger seat, lounge access and an extra piece of hand baggage. When I make that decision, I am thinking about the seat, the lounge and the baggage. But as Daniel Kahneman observed: “Nothing in life matters quite as much as you think it does while you are thinking about it.”

Looked at dispassionately, the really amazing part of air travel is the fact that you can travel at 600mph in a pressurized metal tube, with expert pilots and sensational technology. The seat and the lounge are perhaps only 10% of the value. But for whatever reason, I don’t think of it like this at all.

There is a wider philosophical question here. How often are decisions swayed not by an ultimate assessment of value but by ease of comparative judgment? As a marketer, I hope the answer is “rather a lot”. But in wider life, this is surely a problem.

Unrepresentative data is incredibly valuable for winning arguments. For really solving problems, just remember, it is often the data you don’t see that can crack the case.

By Rory Sutherland

Get in touch with Rory on LinkedIn

Sourced from The Drum

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ChatGPT’s free ride is ending: Here’s what OpenAI plans for advertising on the chatbot

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By  MATT O’BRIEN

OpenAI says it will soon start showing advertisements to ChatGPT users who aren’t paying for a premium version of the chatbot.

The artificial intelligence company said Friday it hasn’t yet rolled out ads but will start testing them in the coming weeks.

It’s the latest effort by the San Francisco-based company to make money from ChatGPT’s more than 800 million users, most of whom get it for free.

Though valued at $500 billion, the start up loses more money than it makes and has been looking for ways to turn a profit.

“Most importantly: ads will not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” said Fidji Simo, the company’s CEO of applications, in a social media post Friday.

OpenAI said the digital ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT’s answers “when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.”

The ads “will be clearly labelled and separated from the organic answer,” the company said.

But introducing personalized ads starts OpenAI “down a risky path” previously taken by social media companies, said Miranda Bogen of the Centre for Democracy and Technology.

“People are using chatbots for all sorts of reasons, including as companions and advisors,” said Bogen, director of CDT’s AI Governance Lab. “There’s a lot at stake when that tool tries to exploit users’ trust to hawk advertisers’ goods.”

OpenAI makes some money from paid subscriptions but needs more revenue to pay for its more than $1 trillion in financial obligations for the computer chips and data centers that power its AI services. The risk that OpenAI won’t make enough money to fulfil the expectations of backers like Oracle and Nvidia has amplified investor concerns about an AI bubble.

“It is clear to us that a lot of people want to use a lot of AI and don’t want to pay, so we are hopeful a business model like this can work,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a post Friday on social platform X. He added that he likes the ads on Meta’s Instagram because they show him things he wouldn’t have found otherwise.

OpenAI claims it won’t use a user’s personal information or prompts to collect data for ads, but the question is “for how long,” said Paddy Harrington, an analyst at research group Forrester.

“Free services are never actually free and these public AI platforms need to generate revenue,” Harrington said. “Which leads to the adage: If the service is free, you’re the product.”

Feature image credit:  AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File

By  MATT O’BRIEN

O’Brien covers the business of technology and artificial intelligence for The Associated Press.
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Shopify president: Agentic commerce could usher in ‘merit-based shopping’

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By Erin Cabrey

AI agent-based shopping could increase e-commerce penetration and ultimately “level the playing field” for brands, Harley Finkelstein told Retail Brew.

Retail is entering its agentic era.

At least that’s what Shopify President Harley Finkelstein told Retail Brew at NRF. He’s certainly not alone in that thinking: Agentic commerce was by far the show’s buzziest term, especially if you attended sessions featuring Google, Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Wayfair, The Home Depot, Urban Outfitters…the list goes on.

At the show on Sunday, Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard to scale agentic commerce, co-developed with companies like Shopify, Walmart, and Target, and supported by 20+ others across retail. UCP connects AI agents to merchants, and enables these agents to work across shoppers’ purchasing journeys—giving shoppers options like using discount codes, inputting loyalty account information, or buying subscriptions within AI platforms. Shopify merchants will also be able to sell through Google’s AI Mode within search and its Gemini app.

The UCP addresses pain points and apprehension many brands have surrounding agentic commerce, Finkelstein said. He shared how the news is setting the stage for a major industry shift.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What makes Shopify so bullish in thinking that consumers want to shop using AI?

I’ve been at this for 17 years. Shopify’s been at this for 20 years. We’ve seen these trends that happen. I think social commerce was important. It was never something that most people will do most of the time. We built, initially, e-comm, and we moved to point of sale, and then obviously social commerce came. And we started seeing more of these channels…It has always been our philosophy that wherever there’s a new place where a consumer can buy, Shopify has to enable that.

The Roblox channel—Fenty is doing great with it, but a lot of other merchants don’t even use it because it’s just not relevant…All those things are different than agentic. Why? Because when we look at buyer behaviour outside of commerce, if you look at the DAU [daily active user] chart for these agentic applications for just humans right now, it is exponential. That is very different than social media. That is very different from all these other products. So we are so bullish on this because there is a high likelihood that this will become one of the main paradigms of retail, like e-commerce, and so we have to be front and centre for that sort of stuff as well.

We also have data to back it up. [In] 12 months, we’ve seen a 14x increase in orders to Shopify stores that have been sourced from some sort of agents…The base is small, but it’s growing fast. When you combine all those things, it’s easy to have a hypothesis that this thing may be dramatic for the industry.

I’ve heard a lot of people saying online and today at NRF that agentic commerce could be leading to e-commerce sites almost being obsolete and challenging the storytelling element of brands.

Their online store is their hub. It’s where they have their videos and their content. It’s where you sign up for their newsletters. It is where they display their newest products. It’s where they do product drops. It’s still going to be the hub. But I think there’s going to be this new potential spoke called agentic that could be very, very meaningful.

If you’re planning a trip, for example, and you need to buy from across five different stores. The agentic side of things will give you a much bigger benefit, rather than opening up five different tabs in your browser. But I don’t think e-commerce is going anywhere. In fact, there are a lot of people much smarter than me who believe that what agentic is going to do is actually increase the penetration of e-commerce, because someone right now that’s not buying online may be using ChatGPT to look up recipes, or to plan a trip, or to edit a document, and they may decide, “I’m gonna actually use this now to do some research on a product,” and they may actually complete the purchase on the product. E-commerce as a percentage of total retail is still sub-20% in the US, it’s ~12% in Canada, it’s [more than] 25% in the UK. There is a chance that actually—like Covid-19 bent the curve on e-commerce penetration—there could be a bending of the curve also with agentic.

What’s left for brands to do to compete in the agentic commerce space?

Make sure you have someone looking at catch off the catalogue, the way your products get indexed, the way your products get syndicated. Make sure someone is looking at UCP to make sure all the stuff that matters on a per-product basis is in that protocol. Make sure you are ready for this.

The other thing that’s really cool is that the results in an agent, unlike the results in some sort of ad-based flow, is merit-based. It’s not actually based on who’s paid more money.

Last night, we did an event at the Shopify office with Tom Sachs…He’s the coolest sneaker designer in the world.

Tom Sachs is going to be discovered by more people because of the agentic stuff, because he doesn’t have any money—he runs what’s called NikeCraft, which is a division of Nike, which makes sneakers for what I call entrepreneurs. It’s not for basketball or sports. It’s just for, like, hanging out. And if the agent knows that I like these nichey things—that I like Kith, that I like Supreme, that I like limited-edition stuff, that I really love design and architecture—Tom Sachs is going to actually show up there, whereas now he’s never going to show up in some sponsored search, or even inside of Google because he doesn’t do SEO optimization. The products that will be found will be merit-based as opposed to ad-based. I think that’s democracy. That’ll level the playing field.

Feature image credit: Shopify

By Erin Cabrey

Sourced from Retail Brew

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