As someone who regularly writes about branding and advertising, I’ve noticed something odd over the last year or so. Barely a press release pops into my inbox these days that isn’t shouting excitedly about being a COLLAB!!!! between two well known brands. That used to grab my attention, because it was rare. In 2026, though, it’s more unusual if a campaign doesn’t have a big, showy plus sign or multiplication symbol in its headline.
Brands that once guarded their identity like a trade secret, it seems, are now lending it out with abandon. Wellness grocer Erewhon is selling Barbie-branded smoothies. Personal care brand Burt’s Bees has bottled a lip balm that smells like Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. Coca-Cola has put its name on a pair of Crocs. I could go on… all day, if you like.
Let me be clear: this isn’t a fad, confined to fashion or fast food. It’s a structural shift in how brands think about growth. And it’s creating fresh opportunities for creatives who understand both storytelling and the commercial logic behind it.
So what’s driving the collab trend, exactly? Quite simply: going it alone has got harder and more expensive. In contrast, borrowing someone else’s audience, credibility and creative equity has got easier and cheaper.
Digital ads keep cost money, and it’s harder than ever to get noticed organically. So in a world hit by economic instability, brands are looking for ways to grow that don’t just mean spending more cash.
(Image credit: Coca-Cola / Crocs)
Teaming up with another brand is one answer: some platforms selling collaboration tools claim it can cut the cost of winning a new customer by around a third. And there’s seems to be evidence for that.
Deloitte’s 2026 Consumer Products report found that 73% of retailers and consumer goods companies are now collaborating more than they used to, and 86% of those said it had boosted sales. When that many brands say the same thing is paying off, it’s worth paying attention to it.
How to do it right
So what separates a memorable collab from a forgettable one? In a word, fit. The strongest partnerships make sense to audiences before anyone has to explain them. If people need convincing, the pairing wasn’t right in the first place.
(Image credit: Heinz / Absolut)
Take Erewhon and Barbie. The cult LA wellness grocer and the toy giant built a limited-edition smoothie and in-store experience around Barbie’s pink universe and Erewhon’s health-food aesthetic. It worked because both brands are cultural symbols with devoted, aesthetics-obsessed followings already performing that lifestyle online.
Sometimes, fit shows up in the smallest details. The Taylor Swift and Toy Story 5 tie-in leaned on the shared “TS” initials; reinforcing cohesion without needing a headline concept. Lego has built similar credibility over 25 years by fitting itself naturally into Star Wars, Marvel and DC, so the crossover appeal reads as earned rather than bolted on. Now, in 2026, you can buy your outfits for Olivia Rodrigo Lego figures in Fortnite. (As a 56-year-old man, I probably won’t, but it’s nice to know I could).
That’s not the only way to go, of course. e.l.f. Cosmetics and Liquid Death is a pairing that shouldn’t work on paper: clean, accessible beauty meeting an aggressively unhinged canned water brand. But here, the mismatch is the point; the creative tension is the hook. Their Lip Embalm sequel sold out across all six flavours within a single day this January.
(Image credit: Lego / Fortnite / Olivia Rodrigo)
It’s important to recognise that not every collab is built to last. There’s a real difference between short-term buzz and lasting brand equity, and it’s worth knowing which one a client is actually asking for.
Heinz and Absolut’s cooking sauces began as a joke, spun out of a viral TikTok penne alla vodka recipe, yet became an ongoing product line rather than a one-off stunt. That’s the exception, though: most collaborations chase a moment, not a legacy, and depth of integration tends to decide which is which.
Key takeaway
The takeaway for creatives isn’t just that “collaborations are trendy”. Brands increasingly need strategists who can translate a partnership’s internal logic into a story an audience will believe, while understanding that consistency and governance matter as much as the initial idea. It demands finding the shared thread between two identities and making it feel obvious in hindsight.
And as more brands treat collaboration as an ongoing strategy, the demand for people who can pitch, write and shape that story, and keep it consistent once it scales, is only going to grow.
Feature image credit: E.L.F. Cosmetics / Liquid Death
Tom May is an award-winning journalist specialising in art, design, photography and technology. He is the author of the books The 50 Greatest Designers (Arcturus) and Great TED Talks: Creativity (Pavilion). Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.
Google today published a short explainer video walking through the mechanics of the Google Click Identifier, the string of characters that Google Ads attaches to a destination URL whenever someone clicks a paid ad. The video, titled “GCLID Explained: What is a GCLID?” and posted to the Google Ads YouTube channel, runs one minute and fifty-six seconds and pairs its walkthrough with a link to Google’s existing Help Centre article on setting up offline conversion imports using the identifier.
Neither the video nor the linked documentation announces a product change. Both describe a mechanism that has existed inside Google Ads for years and that continues to sit underneath a substantial share of the platform’s conversion measurement. What the video does is condense several technical steps – how the parameter is generated, what data it carries, how auto-tagging is switched on, and how the resulting identifier eventually connects a click to a sale that might happen days later – into a single short piece aimed at advertisers who have not previously had reason to look closely at the mechanism.
What a GCLID actually is
According to the video, a GCLID functions as a kind of digital handshake between an ad click and a website. When someone clicks a Google Ads campaign, Google automatically appends a unique string of numbers and letters to the landing page URL. That string carries no visible meaning to a human reader, but it encodes several pieces of information behind the scenes, including which campaign served the ad, which keyword or targeting criteria triggered it, and which device the person used to click.
That encoding is what makes the parameter useful beyond simple click counting. Advertisers frequently want to know not just that a click happened, but what happened afterward – whether the person who clicked went on to fill out a form, make a purchase, or call a business days or weeks later. Because the GCLID persists through that gap, it becomes the connective thread between an initial ad interaction and whatever conversion eventually follows, however long the delay.
The video frames this as solving a specific frustration. Presenting an early example, it notes that identifying which specific ads drive business results is essential, yet tracking a customer’s journey from a search click to an offline sale can be a complex and often frustrating process for advertisers who have not built out the right measurement infrastructure. The GCLID, in Google’s framing, exists to close that gap.
Auto-tagging as the prerequisite
Before any of this works, an advertiser has to turn on a setting called auto-tagging inside their Google Ads account. The video describes this as a short administrative step: opening the account settings through the admin icon, navigating to account settings, opening the auto-tagging section, and checking a box confirming that the URL a person clicks through from an ad should be tagged. Saving that change is what activates GCLID generation going forward.
This detail matters because it is easy to overlook. An account that has never enabled auto-tagging will not generate GCLIDs at all, and any conversion tracking or offline import workflow that depends on the parameter will simply have nothing to work with. The setting itself carries no cost and does not change how ads are served or billed – it only determines whether the tracking string gets attached to the URL.
How the identifier moves through a conversion cycle
Once auto-tagging is active and a click generates a GCLID, the parameter’s job is to travel with that visit through whatever happens next. The video describes two broad paths this can take.
The first is the more familiar one: a person clicks an ad, lands on a website, and converts on that same site, whether by completing a purchase or submitting a lead form. In that scenario, the GCLID typically gets captured automatically by Google’s own measurement tools and matched against the original click without much manual work from the advertiser.
The second path is the one the video spends more time on, since it addresses the harder measurement problem: conversions that do not happen on the website at all. A lead might click an ad, browse a site, and then convert days later through a phone call or an in-person visit to a physical location. Nothing about that later action would normally be visible to Google Ads, because it does not generate any digital event that the platform can observe directly. The GCLID is what allows an advertiser to close that loop manually, by capturing the identifier at the moment of the original click, storing it alongside whatever record the business keeps of that prospect, and later uploading that stored identifier back into Google Ads once the offline outcome is known.
The technical steps behind offline import
The Google Ads Help Centre documentation attached to the video lays out what this offline import process involves in practice, and the steps are more involved than the video’s brief summary suggests.
An advertiser first needs to modify every lead submission form on their website to include a hidden form field that will hold the GCLID value. The documentation provides a sample line of HTML for this: a hidden input field with the name “gclid_field,” inserted between the opening and closing tags of an existing form. Once that field exists, a script needs to run on every page of the site – not just landing pages – to read the GCLID out of the URL and store it, either through a cookie or through the browser’s local storage, so that it survives as the visitor continues to browse. According to the documentation, the suggested script stores the value with a 90-day expiry window, after which it is treated as invalid for import purposes.
When the visitor eventually reaches a form and submits it, the stored GCLID gets written into the hidden field and travels along with the rest of the submitted data into whatever system the business uses to manage leads, whether a customer relationship management platform or a simpler internal tracking spreadsheet. From there, the responsibility shifts to the business itself: someone needs to modify that backend system so that when a lead’s status eventually changes – closed, qualified, purchased – the stored GCLID can be matched against the corresponding record and uploaded back into Google Ads as a completed offline conversion.
The documentation also specifies a timing constraint that governs how far back an import can reach. For data sources including Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3, HTTP, SFTP, and Google Sheets, Google Ads Data Manager imports conversions from as far back as 90 days in every run. Salesforce and HubSpot integrations behave differently: the first successful run imports the last 14 days of data, and every subsequent run imports whatever changed between the previous run and the current one. BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, Snowflake, MySQL, and PostgreSQL connections import the last 14 days of data in every run, regardless of how many previous runs have already occurred.
Creating the conversion action
Before any of that data flows anywhere, the documentation specifies that an advertiser has to create what Google calls an offline conversion action inside the Ads account itself. This happens through the Goals menu, selecting the option to create a new conversion action, then choosing “Conversions offline” as the category, and then either connecting a new data source immediately or choosing to skip that step and connect one later. Available connection options include a direct connection, a third-party integration through Zapier, or a partner integration.
The documentation walks through selecting a conversion category – a label such as “lead” or “purchase” that groups similar conversions together for reporting purposes – and then defining exactly which data fields the import will carry. Some of those fields map automatically based on the data source chosen; others need to be added manually depending on what the business tracks. Once the conversion action is created, the documentation specifies a waiting period: advertisers are advised to wait four to six hours before uploading any conversions tied to that new action, and uploads submitted during that initial window might take up to two days before appearing in reports.
For businesses managing multiple Google Ads accounts under a shared manager account, the documentation describes an additional structural requirement. All uploads have to route through the manager account, and any attempt to upload a conversion for an account that is not linked to that manager will return an error stating the upload is not authorized. Businesses using cross-account conversion measurement need to create their offline conversion actions at the manager level, while those not using that feature need to create separate conversion actions inside each individual account – and if the same conversion type, such as “lead qualified,” is tracked across multiple accounts, the documentation stresses that the name needs to match exactly, including capitalization, in every account.
Third-party integration paths
The documentation also points toward integration options beyond a direct manual upload. Businesses using Salesforce can link their Salesforce and Google Ads accounts to track when a Google Ads campaign contributes to a milestone inside their sales funnel. Those using Zapier can configure an offline conversion import workflow through Zapier’s platform. Those using HubSpot can set up tracking through HubSpot’s own Google Ads optimization events tool.
For any business that has not yet adopted offline conversion import in any form, the documentation recommends a different starting point altogether: enhanced conversions for leads, described as an upgraded version of the older offline conversion import approach. Rather than relying solely on the GCLID, enhanced conversions for leads incorporates user-provided data such as email addresses, supplementing whatever GCLID data is already being imported to improve matching accuracy and the quality of signal available to Google’s bidding systems. The provided customer data is hashed and matched both against data collected on the business’s own website – a lead form submission, for instance – and against signed-in Google users who previously engaged with the ad. Businesses already using standard offline conversion imports can upgrade to this enhanced version to layer in that additional user-provided data on top of the GCLID they already import.
The technical script Google provides
For advertisers implementing the tracking manually rather than through Google Tag Manager, the documentation includes a JavaScript snippet intended to be placed on every page of a website, immediately before the closing body tag. The script checks the URL for a GCLID parameter, and if one is present, stores it using the browser’s local storage alongside a calculated expiry date set 90 days into the future. It also checks a second parameter called “gclsrc,” verifying that its value does not conflict with a valid GCLID before proceeding.
When a form field matching one of the specified hidden field identifiers exists on the page, and a valid, unexpired GCLID is found in storage, the script populates that field with the stored value automatically. The documentation notes that advertisers modifying this script only need to update one line – the list of form field identifiers the script should look for – to match whatever field names they used when adding the hidden inputs to their own forms.
For advertisers who already use Google Tag Manager, the documentation offers an alternative path that avoids editing site code directly. It involves creating a new Custom HTML tag inside the relevant Tag Manager container, pasting the same JavaScript into that tag, and setting the firing rule to trigger on all pages before publishing the container.
Throughout both the manual and Tag Manager approaches, the documentation includes a recurring caution: advertisers implementing any of this need to make sure they are observing local regulations regarding cookie consent, since the mechanism described relies on storing identifying information in the visitor’s browser.
The auto-tagging mechanism the video describes as a short manual toggle has also been shifting toward becoming a default rather than an opt-in choice on at least one Google product. PPC Land reported that YouTube auto-tagging became enabled by default for Display & Video 360 advertisers, with existing advertisers needing to actively opt out if they did not want the setting applied to their accounts. That direction of travel signals how central the GCLID has become to Google’s own measurement architecture, even for advertisers who never deliberately sought it out.
The offline conversion workflow the Help Centre documentation describes is also positioned at a point of technical transition. PPC Land reported that the Google Ads API will stop accepting new adopters of offline conversion imports, including enhanced conversions for leads, starting June 15, 2026, with Google directing new integrations toward its newer Data Manager API instead. Developers who had already adopted offline conversion imports before that date are not immediately cut off, but the restriction narrows the path for anyone building a new integration from scratch going forward. PPC Land’s technical analysis of the Data Manager API noted that the newer system enforces a single unified schema across Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Analytics, replacing the fragmented, product-specific field requirements that characterized the older approach the Help Centre article still documents in detail.
None of that broader infrastructure shift changes what the GCLID itself does or how the manual script-based workflow described in the documentation functions today. But it does mean that advertisers building a new offline conversion pipeline from the ground up now have a choice to make between the path the Help Center article lays out and the newer API-based route Google is steering new developers toward. For advertisers who already rely on the GCLID as their primary or sole attribution signal – a situation the documentation itself acknowledges is common – understanding exactly what data the identifier carries, how long it remains valid, and where the tracking can silently break down remains a foundational piece of campaign measurement literacy, regardless of which upload mechanism eventually delivers that data back into Google Ads.
Timeline
July 14, 2021: The GCLID parameter stops being appended for traffic originating from several Google apps on iOS, following Apple’s rollout of App Tracking Transparency
September 2024: Auto-tagging, the setting that generates GCLIDs, becomes enabled by default for new Display & Video 360 advertisers
March 2022: Enhanced conversions for leads launches as an upgraded alternative to standard offline conversion import
April 21, 2026: A LinkedIn post documents Safari stripping the GCLID parameter in an estimated 20 percent of sessions under the browser’s default privacy settings
May 15, 2026: Google publishes a developer blog post announcing that the Google Ads API will stop accepting new offline conversion import adopters from June 15, 2026
July 16, 2026: Google publishes “GCLID Explained: What is a GCLID?” on the Google Ads YouTube channel, alongside its existing Help Centre documentation on offline conversion setup
Who: Google Ads, through its official YouTube channel and existing Help Centre documentation, addressing advertisers who use or are considering offline conversion tracking based on the Google Click Identifier.
What: A short video explaining how the GCLID parameter functions, how auto-tagging activates it, and how it connects ad clicks to conversions that happen later or offline, paired with existing step-by-step Help Centre documentation covering the technical implementation of offline conversion imports.
When: The video was published on July 16, 2026. The underlying Help Centre documentation it links to describes a workflow that has existed in largely its current form for an extended period and was not newly changed alongside the video.
Where: The video appears on the Google Ads YouTube channel. The offline conversion import workflow it describes operates across an advertiser’s Google Ads account, their website’s code, and their internal lead tracking or customer relationship management system.
Why: The GCLID remains one of the primary mechanisms connecting Google Ads spending to real-world outcomes that do not happen on a website, a measurement gap that has grown more difficult to close as browser-level tracking restrictions have expanded and as Google shifts new API-based integrations toward newer infrastructure.
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]
TikTok Shop has a new flywheel, because it offers better fulfilment, more creators telling authentic stories, and a stronger product selection.
Creator-led shopping and younger buyers are making shopping via social media platforms like TikTok Shop a big deal.
Podean—a marketplace agency that works with merchants across platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and Target—has acquired Social Commerce Club, an agency that specializes in helping brands sell on TikTok Shop.
Social Commerce Club is a specialized agency and TikTok Shop Platinum Partner that helps brands build and scale their presence on the platform. The agency handles creator-led sales and runs a creator network that connects brands with the right influencers to drive sales.
“By combining this social expertise with our global marketplace pedigree, we are providing our clients with an unmatched ability to not just drive TikTok Shop sales but leverage that impact across other e-commerce channels including Amazon and their own website sales,” Travis Johnson, CEO of Podean, said in a statement.
In April, Podean acquired Amerge, an EU agency that offers advertising services to merchants selling on Amazon in Europe.
Spin the flywheel: Speaking about the rise of TikTok Shop, Ryan Craver, co-founder and chief strategy and AI officer at Podean, told Retail Brew that better fulfilment, more creators telling authentic stories about products, and a stronger product selection are all factors in the success of the platform.
“They now provide fulfilment via what’s called Fulfilment by TikTok, which is two to three days versus historically the fulfilment time periods were typically six-plus days,” Craver said. “The second thing is generally a customer is impacted more by a content creator than they are by general reviews and general searching.”
More than half of social buyers (51%) in the US will shop on TikTok this year, per eMarketer’s forecast for 2026. “Growth is concentrating on platforms and features that convert discovery into purchases,” eMarketer noted in its forecast.
TikTok Shop is reportedly recruiting bigger brands under a new initiative called Project Horizon.
YouTube is clarifying monetization rules for repetitive AI-generated videos, synthetic personas, and low-effort content in its Partner Program.
YouTube is tightening the rules around what creators can earn money from, making it harder for channels built on repetitive AI-generated videos, emotionally manipulative content, and AI avatars discussing sensitive topics to qualify for monetization.
The changes, which took effect July 16, do not ban AI-generated videos.
Instead, YouTube says they clarify existing YouTube Partner Program (YPP) policies on what it calls “inauthentic content,” giving creators a more detailed explanation of which videos are no longer eligible to earn advertising or subscription revenue.
Three types of content face monetization limits
According to YouTube, the updated guidance groups inauthentic content into three categories.
The first targets generic, repetitive, or template-based videos, including channels that rely heavily on AI, computer-generated imagery, or reusable templates to produce near-identical content with little originality. Tutorials that simply repackage material already widely available on the platform could also fall into this category.
The second covers “off-putting” or emotionally manipulative content designed primarily to attract clicks and views. YouTube cited videos built around animal distress and rescue scenarios as one example. Channels focused on this type of content can lose access to the YouTube Partner Program regardless of whether AI is involved.
The third category focuses on AI-generated personas used to discuss sensitive subjects such as health care, finance, legal issues, and medical advice. YouTube says it does not want to reward creators who rely on synthetic personalities to present information in these high-stakes areas.
YouTube says AI itself is not the problem
In a Creator Insider video, YouTube Vice President of Trust and Safety Matt Halprin emphasized that the company still sees AI as a valuable creative tool when it is used responsibly.
“AI can actually allow people to make a lot of videos,” Halprin said. “Sometimes those videos are great, and it really enhances creativity. And you can create a higher volume of high-quality content that we want to encourage and have in YPP.”
He said problems arise when creators use the technology to mass-produce nearly identical videos.
“But that exact same new tool can allow you to make lots of videos really quickly that are very similar. They’re very generic and don’t really have a narrative arc and don’t really show your creativity. So the same technology really enables great stuff, but it also enables stuff that’s kind of content farming, and that’s the stuff that we don’t want to have in YPP,” Halprin added.
Explaining the policy on emotionally manipulative videos, Halprin said, “We’ve heard from our viewers that that’s not something that they like. They find it off-putting. They don’t want to come back to that channel, or maybe even the platform.”
What the update means for creators
For creators, the biggest risk isn’t necessarily having videos removed, but losing access to monetization.
Channels that depend on large volumes of low-effort, repetitive uploads could find it harder to earn advertising revenue if YouTube determines that their content lacks originality or meaningful creative input.
Creators using AI for editing, production, scripting, or other creative assistance can still qualify for monetization if their videos provide unique value and meet the platform’s quality standards.
The update also reflects YouTube’s broader effort to protect advertiser confidence as AI-generated content becomes easier and cheaper to produce.
A balancing act for the AI era
The revised guidance highlights a challenge facing nearly every major online platform: encouraging creators to adopt AI without allowing automation to overwhelm users with repetitive or low-value content.
For YouTube, the policy signals that monetization — not just moderation — is becoming a key tool for shaping content quality. Rather than banning AI-generated videos outright, the company is using financial incentives to encourage creators to focus on originality, storytelling, and human contribution.
That approach could influence how other platforms respond as generative AI continues to reshape digital content creation.
Users navigate to any existing post, select edit, and choose a new track from Instagram’s music library.
Summary
Instagram introduced a Replace Audio tool that allows users to swap music on published feed posts and carousels while keeping all likes, comments and reach intact
The feature eliminates the need for creators to delete and re-upload posts to update soundtracks, a process that previously resulted in the loss of all engagement data
Users can access the tool via the edit option in a post menu to keep older content aligned with current trends or evolving tastes
Instagram officially launched “Replace Audio,” a utility designed to provide users with greater flexibility over their published content. Before this update, changing the background music on a post required a full re-upload. That limitation forced creators and brands to choose between a fresh soundtrack and their existing social proof. The new tool changes the equation entirely. Creators can now update the music on their posts at any time while keeping all likes, comments, shares and reach intact.
The functionality integrates directly into the platform’s standard editing interface. Users simply navigate to an existing post and select the edit option from the menu in the top-right corner. From there, individuals can swap the original audio track for a new selection from the vast Instagram music library. Hitting the done button pushes the updated version live immediately. Meta noted that this tool intends to give users more creative control. It enables accounts to refresh evergreen content without sacrificing hard-earned performance metrics.
Audio drives modern social media culture. A trending track can propel an old photo dump back into the algorithm, while outdated song choices can make vintage updates feel out of touch. The ability to retroactively alter the mood of a digital archive offers a massive advantage for those meticulously curating their aesthetic. Users might want to align older content with current viral sounds or simply banish an embarrassing music selection from a few years ago. The update directly supports creators who want their profiles to evolve alongside shifting musical tastes.
This rollout follows a highly scrutinized period of experimentation for the app. The social giant recently introduced and subsequently removed several controversial capabilities that users actively rejected. Meta recently killed a heavily criticized artificial intelligence tool that allowed individuals to modify photos from public accounts, admitting the feature missed the mark. The platform also faced backlash over a confusing format that led to accidental photo sharing. By focusing on a straightforward quality-of-life improvement for its feed posts and carousels, the application delivers a highly requested update that actually benefits its audience.
Feature image credit: Samuel Boivin/Nurphoto Via Getty Images
In an era dominated by digital advertising, social media and sophisticated online targeting, many businesses have overlooked one of the most effective and enduring tools for growth: signage.
While brands continue investing heavily in digital customer acquisition, physical visibility still plays a critical role in shaping perception, building trust and influencing purchasing decisions. Long before customers visit a website, read reviews or speak with a salesperson, they often form their first impression through a business’ signage.
That first impression carries more weight than many businesses realize.
Signage is no longer simply about displaying a company name. It has evolved into a strategic branding asset that communicates professionalism, quality, personality and market positioning within seconds. Businesses that recognize this are using innovative signage not just for identification, but to strengthen customer engagement and drive long-term growth.
Visibility still wins.
Despite the rapid growth of digital commerce, physical visibility remains one of the most valuable advantages a business can have.
Consumers encounter an overwhelming volume of marketing messages every day, as research over the last several years has observed. Brands are facing increasing challenges in capturing attention as consumers are exposed to high levels of daily advertising. Attention has become fragmented, and competition for visibility continues to intensify across nearly every industry. Yet even in this crowded environment, I’ve noticed that businesses with distinctive and professionally executed signage tend to stand apart.
A compelling storefront, illuminated channel lettering, architectural signage or thoughtfully designed brand display naturally attracts attention. More importantly, it creates familiarity.
According to a 2024 study, familiarity plays a key role in shaping brand perception. Repeated exposure to a business’ name, logo or visual identity strengthens brand recognition and encourages more positive consumer attitudes, building comfort and credibility even before a customer makes a purchase.
Leading brands invest in physical branding because visibility builds recall—and recall influences purchasing decisions.
Strong signage is backed by psychology.
The effectiveness of signage lies not only in its visibility, but also in the perceptions it creates.
Customers naturally associate presentation with quality. Businesses that invest in premium visual branding are often perceived as more established, reliable and professional, while outdated or poorly maintained signage can undermine confidence before any interaction begins.
In many industries—including retail, hospitality, real estate, healthcare and professional services—those first impressions can significantly influence customer decisions through physical design cues. Research on visual signs at place entrances found that design elements such as lighting, colour, scale and signage influence whether people are persuaded to enter a business.
Businesses often spend significant resources optimizing online user experiences while neglecting the physical experience customers encounter in the real world. Yet for many consumers, physical branding remains far more memorable than digital impressions.
For business leaders, this means regularly evaluating whether their signage reflects the quality and professionalism they want customers to associate with their brand. As businesses evolve, products, services and digital branding often change—but physical signage doesn’t always keep pace. Ensuring those touchpoints remain aligned helps reinforce a consistent brand experience and stronger first impression.
Creativity brings competitive advantage.
Modern branding is increasingly driven by differentiation. Consumers are no longer simply purchasing products or services—they’re engaging with experiences and brand identities. Businesses that create memorable experiences naturally stand apart from competitors focused primarily on price.
Creative signage plays a key role in that differentiation by helping businesses establish a distinctive presence in crowded markets. More importantly, it creates lasting brand recognition.
Many successful brands intentionally design signage that encourage customer interaction and social sharing, turning signage itself into part of the brand experience rather than just a means of identification.
Trust is built through consistency.
One of the greatest advantages of effective signage is its ability to reinforce brand consistency.
Strong brands create a cohesive experience across every customer touchpoint—from websites and packaging to physical spaces. Signage bridges a brand’s digital identity with its real-world presence, helping customers perceive the business as more trustworthy and established.
This becomes especially important for growing businesses. A thoughtfully designed sign and well-presented storefront signal professionalism, quality and long-term commitment. Together, these details build customer confidence and can become a meaningful competitive advantage.
For example, we’ve worked with professional service businesses—such as clinics and law offices—in replacing temporary or inconsistent signage with professionally branded displays. The change didn’t alter the services they offered, but it gave prospective clients greater confidence that they were dealing with an established business rather than a newly opened office.
Signage is a long-term investment.
One of the most common mistakes businesses make is viewing signage as an operational expense rather than a long-term investment in brand equity and customer acquisition.
Unlike paid advertising that stops when budgets run out, quality signage delivers continuous visibility. It strengthens brand recognition, reinforces credibility and supports long-term market positioning.
As businesses evolve, their signage should evolve with them. Business leaders should regularly ask: Is it clearly visible? Does it align with the brand across digital and physical touchpoints? Is it easy to read? Most importantly, does it reflect the professionalism and quality the business wants customers to associate with its brand?
While marketing trends continue to evolve, the importance of physical brand presence remains constant. Businesses still need visibility, customers still respond to presentation, and trust still influences purchasing decisions. Signage sits at the intersection of all three.
Final Thoughts
As markets become increasingly competitive and digitally saturated, I believe the brands that stand out will likely be those that combine strong online engagement with a compelling physical presence.
Innovative signage remains one of the most effective ways to achieve that balance. It captures attention, reinforces trust, strengthens brand identity and creates lasting first impressions.
In many ways, signage is a company’s first handshake with the customer—and in business, first impressions still matter.
Salman Altaf is the founder of Signage.com and has spent years helping businesses enhance brand visibility through innovative signage. Read Salman Altaf’s full executive profile here. Find Salman Altaf on LinkedIn. Visit Salman’swebsite.
The less data companies collect about you, the less they can share, sell, or lose in a breach. Start protecting your privacy with these simple steps.
Your data is worth a lot to advertisers, criminals, and companies of all kinds. That’s why you should care about where your information goes and what companies do with it. The best way to stop corporations from copying your phone’s contact list or checking out the contents of your camera roll is to limit access to your devices. This usually means downloading fewer invasive apps and blocking other data requests when companies and their apps ask for them. Here are some suggestions to help you lock down your devices, prevent data collection, and protect your privacy.
1. Check What Companies Collect About You
You can find out what kinds of data an app siphons from your phone or a website takes from your browser by browsing the company’s privacy policy. Earlier this year, I wrote about TikTok’s drastic changes to its US privacy policy and offered tips for quickly browsing policies. Here’s a short summary: Scroll down to the Data Collection section of the privacy policy and note what kinds of data the app or service collects and how the company stores and uses that information. You can also check any app’s privacy reports on the Android and iOS app stores. Keep an eye on your inbox, too. Companies email customers about policy changes and security incidents all the time, and they rely on you ignoring them.
2. Say No to Tracking Whenever You Can
Consider using your pull as a customer to push back on company data collection and usage policies that don’t align with your wants and needs. One way to do this is to always decline tracking cookies on websites. Think of a tracking cookie like an Airtag for your browser. The cookies follow you around the web for a certain period of time, sometimes indefinitely, and allow companies to keep an eye on your online activities even after you’ve exited the website. Most sites allow you to opt-out of tracking, but you may need to click through a few pop-up menus to do so. If you don’t want to go to the trouble, let an ad-blocking browser extension do it for you. Of the services I’ve tested, Adblock (premium version), Ghostery, and uBlock Origin offer settings that let you automatically decline consent pop-ups on websites.
You’ll want to opt out of AI training wherever you can, too. Many companies are incorporating generative AI tools into their services, and in some cases, such as LinkedIn, they are training their AI models on customer data. If you don’t want LinkedIn to scrape your future posts for AI training, visit the Settings menu and chooseData Privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
3. Don’t Hand Over Your Real Information
Lie online whenever you can. Don’t give out your real information when filling out web forms. I’m not recommending you do this when communicating with government agencies or your bank, but yes, go ahead and lie to the cooking website that wants your birthday, full name, phone number, and physical address in exchange for a chili recipe.
(Credit: Cricut/PCMag)
If you can’t figure out why an app or website needs the information they’re harvesting from you, giving them your real data is not a good idea. In many cases, most of the information requested on a company’s web form is not required, so you can get away with leaving out important details about yourself. You can also choose not to accept cookies on many websites and deny application data requests without harming your user experience.
4. Delete Your Personal Information From the Web
In addition to lying online whenever you can, I also recommend removing information about yourself from the public web. To demonstrate why, let’s do a quick exercise: Open your favourite search engine in a new browser window. Type in your full name, along with one other fact about you, like your job title or the city where you live. The search results will probably be shockingly accurate, even though you (presumably) aren’t a famous person. When you’re done, come back to the comment section under this article, and tell me how many data broker websites have some information about you.
To remove yourself from these websites (and subsequently cut back on spam calls and scammy text messages), use a personal data removal service. These services will appeal to the data brokers on your behalf and get your name, address, phone number, and related relatives and online accounts removed from search results and data broker sites. You can save money by asking the data brokers to remove your information directly, but it’s a time-consuming process, and when your data is lost in yet another corporate data breach, you’ll need to go through the process all over again. A perk of using a personal data removal service is that most services constantly monitor data broker sites for your information and request its deletion on your behalf, without any input from you.
5. Turn On Multi-Factor Authentication
(Credit: 2FAS/LastPass/Kim Key)
You can start protecting your data more effectively by enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all the apps and websites you visit regularly. There are plenty of authenticator apps you can use with your mobile devices, or you could carry a hardware security key on your keychain. Entering passcodes is an extra step in the login process, but think of it as another barrier around your valuable data, designed to keep malicious individuals out of your accounts.
6. Store Your Passwords Securely
Similarly, you should consider using the password manager on your device (either Apple Passwords or Google Password Manager) or a password management app to keep track of passkeys and passwords for your online accounts. A good password manager can streamline your login process by filling in your passwords. Some, such as Enpass, even let you choose where to store your data. Taking control of how and where your data is stored by keeping it in your own secure cloud storage or locally on your computer keeps you from becoming a victim of a company’s vulnerabilities.
Don’t Make It Easy to Track You
Security snafus and data breaches at companies get fewer headlines these days, but that doesn’t mean the fallout from your leaked data is nothing to worry about. Scammers spin up social engineering schemes using your private information, hackers can get into your unsecured accounts, and companies can train AI using the images, videos, and other data about you floating around online.
When Mark Zuckerberg spoke about Meta moving toward more end-to-end AI-driven advertising, much of the reaction focused on what end-to-end AI-driven media buying would replace, particularly the role of human media buyers and agencies in campaign execution. That framing misses what is actually changing. As more of the execution layer becomes automated, the role of the media professional is shifting toward strategy, context and judgment, particularly in how brands are represented as systems take on more of the day-to-day decisions.
As execution improves across the board, it becomes less of a differentiator. Campaigns get more efficient, but they also start to look more alike. As AI systems optimize toward the same engagement and conversion signals, many brands risk converging toward similar creative patterns, messaging structures and audience strategies. That shift changes where value is created. The advantage is moving away from execution and toward discernment: how decisions are made, what gets scaled and what gets stopped.
Deciding how a brand should show up is not a performance problem. It requires understanding nuance, timing and trade-offs that do not appear in a dashboard. It requires knowing when visibility strengthens a brand and when it creates risk. These are not decisions that can be outsourced to a system, even one that is highly optimized.
This becomes clear in how performance signals are interpreted. A luxury brand may see strong short-term gains by leaning into more aggressive promotional messaging because optimization systems reward clicks and conversions. The data will support that decision. But repeated exposure to discount-driven creative can erode the sense of exclusivity that defines the brand. The system is working as designed. The question is whether the outcome aligns with what the brand is trying to build.
The same dynamic applies to trends. Recognizing when not to follow momentum is one of the most important decisions a media team can make. Not every spike in engagement deserves more scale. A campaign may benefit from aligning with a trending moment, but it may also come across as opportunistic or misaligned, depending on the context. Knowing the difference requires acumen.
Media teams are also increasingly responsible for separating performance from meaning. Two campaigns can deliver similar results while sending very different signals about a brand. One may reinforce positioning and consistency. The other may dilute it. Performance metrics alone will not make that distinction. Someone has to interpret what the data represents, not just what it reports.
This is where the role of the media expert is changing. The work is becoming less operational and more interpretive. It involves deciding which signals matter, which ones to ignore and how those decisions connect to long-term brand positioning. It requires taste, restraint and the ability to evaluate trade-offs that are not immediately visible.
Five years ago, strong media buyers were defined by their ability to operate platforms efficiently. Today, that is the baseline. The real value comes from how decisions are made once the system presents its recommendations.
In many organizations, media teams are becoming stewards of how a brand shows up across channels, not just how campaigns perform. That shift is a positive one.
Automation is removing repetitive work and creating space for higher-level thinking, creativity and decision making. This means teams can spend less time managing mechanics and more time shaping messaging, understanding audiences and maintaining a clear point of view.
AI is not going away, nor should it. It is becoming foundational to modern marketing operations. The organizations that adapt successfully will not be the ones handing over every strategic decision to machines. Not every optimization path is worth taking. Someone still has to decide what fits the brand and what doesn’t. Because while AI can improve how media runs, it does not take responsibility for how a brand shows up in the world. That still belongs to people.
Sergio Alvarez is a performance marketing expert, digital attribution leader and CEO and founder of Ai Media Group. Read Sergio Alvarez’s full executive profile here.
Paid social is a leading digital marketing option for brand awareness and product discovery. Here’s how AI is taking it to the next level.
Digital marketing used to be innovative, but now it’s the norm. Statista estimates that 82.4 percent of total ad spending will be digital by 2030. Success is no longer about simply showing up online; it’s about the specific strategy you’re using.
Tossing artificial intelligence into the mix makes the answer even more relevant. I looked at two major segments of digital advertising: paid social and paid search. I wanted to see how AI was reshaping the digital advertising conversation around these two critical points.
The results were notable. Let’s dig in.
The shift toward paid social in an AI-driven landscape
Google used to dominate search. Sure, some people shopped on Facebook, but in reality, most people turned to Google or even Amazon when they needed to buy something.
That balance appears to be shifting. One recent report found more than 50 percent of social media users are on the lookout for new things to buy. Specifically:
26.7 percent of social media users are looking for either new activities or items to purchase.
26.1 percent of those on social media are actively looking for products to buy.
Add those two numbers together, and more than one in two people are using social media to discover things they may want to buy. Other marketers, like Sixty Gelu, already put the number at 60 percent, which is especially notable now that Google search traffic is facing growing pressure. Yes, AI tools are coming in their wake, but these haven’t been as widely adopted for e-commerce yet.
AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Claude are changing how consumers research products and gather information. But in the end, social platforms remain one of, if not the, primary drivers of product discovery and brand engagement.
That is the first trend marketers should pay attention to: the landscape has changed. Paid search may not be your only priority anymore. You need to make sure you have a foot in the paid social world, too. Start by auditing your budget and moving a small percentage of your search spend into targeted social testing to meet these buyers where they are.
Navigating customer journeys on social media
Paid social ads are the first step, but they aren’t the whole story. An initial branded encounter on a social media platform is just the beginning of the customer journey. In fact, the best uses of AI go far beyond the top of the funnel.
This shift is forcing an evolution in performance metrics.
To counter this, many performance marketing teams are using AI-assisted workflows to maximize lead quality in real time. For example, agencies like Unicorn Marketers use AI to evaluate incoming leads and filter out low-intent prospects before they drain sales teams’ time and resources.
By using advanced algorithms to continuously audit live campaigns, you can help ensure your creative assets and targeting parameters consistently perform well for high-intent buyers. It can review real-time, granular data at a scale that would be difficult for a human to match. AI is also helping marketers understand why certain ads outperform others. Platforms like Motion analyse creative performance across thousands of ads, helping marketing teams identify the images, messaging and formats that consistently drive stronger engagement and conversions.
Building an AI-backed social strategy in 2026 requires moving past the trap of chasing the latest shiny tool. To avoid the common mistake of over-automation, you should focus on strategy, clean data and intentional integrations by implementing a few tactical steps:
Defining the use of an AI tool in your paid social strategy before investing in it.
Avoiding the “magic bullet” approach to AI by looking for quality data to drive decisions.
Piloting one new AI tool at a time, letting it settle and then adjusting based on the results you get.
Maintain the “human” element behind your AI tools that help preserve nuance and brand voice. (i.e., don’t over-automate!)
Effectively (and profitably) reshaping paid social with AI
Social media is a well-established option that millions use when they want to find something to buy. This has helped position paid social as a major force in digital ad spend and the future of digital marketing.
As AI handles the operational and executional work around paid social, it’s critical to step back from the dashboard and evaluate your broader positioning. Make sure you’re integrating AI with intention while keeping the role of human creativity, strategic thinking and brand positioning in focus. This ensures your automated tools are serving a distinct business objective rather than just generating noise.
Google had to cut Meta off from Gemini because Meta was using too much of it
WTF?! Few companies seem less likely to run out of AI capacity than Google and Meta, but even the industry’s biggest names can hit a token wall. The search giant has reportedly limited the Facebook owner’s use of Gemini after demand for AI capacity grew beyond what it could supply.
According to the Financial Times, Google warned Meta around March that it could not provide all the capacity the company wanted, disrupting and delaying internal AI projects.
The restrictions are still said to be in place. Meta has reportedly told employees to be more careful with AI tokens, the units used to measure model input, output, and usage. That’s quite the change of tone for a company that has spent the past year pushing – and in some cases forcing – staff to use AI as much as possible.
Meta has spent billions building its own Llama family of open models, while Mark Zuckerberg has been pitching AI as the company’s next defining platform, one Meta will hope does not go the same way as its metaverse bet.
But people familiar with the arrangement told the FT that Meta had been using Google’s Gemini models for customer service, advertiser chatbots, coding, harmful content takedowns, and scam detection. Gemini was reportedly chosen because it performed better than Meta’s own models. Anthropic’s Claude is also said to be in the mix.
The shortage didn’t hit only Meta; other Google customers were also affected, though less severely. Meta appears to have been the outlier because of the amount of Gemini capacity it wanted to buy.
The reliance is not entirely surprising. Meta doesn’t operate a cloud business of its own, unlike Google, Microsoft, or Amazon, leaving it to balance its internal AI systems with outside capacity from the same companies it competes against.
Google has been spending heavily on data centers and AI hardware, but demand is still arriving faster than capacity can be built. Google Cloud revenue passed $20 billion in Alphabet’s most recent quarter, while backlog nearly doubled to more than $460 billion. The company also said its first-party models were processing more than 16 billion tokens per minute through direct API use, up 60% from the previous quarter.
Meta is trying to solve the same problem, but from the other direction. It’s been expanding data centers and working with Broadcom on custom MTIA accelerators as it looks to rely less on rivals.
