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Augmented reality is taking centre stage in brand marketing

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By Tom Emrich,

Augmented reality (AR) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s coming for brand marketing next, according to Tom Emrich of Niantic.

In 2022, research from McKinsey showed that the metaverse has the potential to generate up to $5tn in value by 2030. This value creation has attracted brands from across the business landscape, with many dipping their toes into the metaverse for the first time last year.

2022 was defined by these metaverse explorations. Brands innovated, learned, and iterated, all with hopes of unlocking the tremendous business value the metaverse promises.

Gazing into the future, I expect that 2023 will be remembered as the year brands realized that the metaverse will enhance our real-world experience. The driving force behind that progress will be augmented reality (AR).

No app required: browser-based AR as the go-to for brand content

Web-based AR, or WebAR, will see a significant increase in adoption in 2023. The simple, compelling promise of WebAR is that it allows consumers to access AR content via their browser, from anywhere in the world, with no app required.

Whether you’re on Android, iOS, or a future headset, all you’ll need is web access to engage with the infinite possible experiences brands can bring to life through this technology.

Why does this matter for brands? For one thing, it affords marketers massive reach. When anyone with a smartphone can access an experience, brands unlock a massive pool of consumers. And consumers are hungry for AR experiences, with at least 54% of mobile AR users engaging weekly, and at least 75% monthly.

Second, WebAR allows for easier access to AR experiences. One of the main points of friction preventing consumers from enjoying AR – the need to download an app – is completely removed. Downloading a new app is a major drawback for consumers, but switching to browser-based technology streamlines the experience.

AR drives increased ROI across the purchasing funnel

As consumers demand more immersive experiences, brands will embrace the full potential of WebAR to extend the life of campaigns and create richer, more meaningful relationships with customers. This year, AR will become a bigger part of the e-commerce experience, driving dwell time, click-through rate, sales and more while matching heightened consumer expectations for shopping experiences.

With global retail e-commerce sales expected to pass $8tn by 2026, WebAR helps brands unlock the full potential of this boom. For online shoppers, it collapses the purchasing funnel without taking anything away from the customer journey. Consumers move from awareness to intent to purchase, all within one experience that can be accessed without an app and seamlessly integrated into existing e-commerce channels.

For example, Saatchi Art launched a WebAR feature on its website called ‘View My Room’ which allowed art buyers to view over one million pieces virtually. This feature lets buyers see how the artwork looked in advance – a key element in purchase consideration – and resulted in an average 17% increase in spending.

Retail brands will lead the charge on AR commerce

This year, expect retail brands to use WebAR to make the bricks-and-mortar experience more digital and the e-commerce experience more physical, all while driving ROI and continuing to delight consumers.

We’re already seeing adoption in e-commerce, with AR enabling customers to see how different clothes look on them, or see how different items would fit into their living rooms. Adding this more physical and personalized element to e-commerce gives customers more information, increases sales, and reduces return rates, leading to a more satisfying experience. In 2023, this will become more commonplace and part of every consumer’s expectations when they enter their customer journey.

Equally, AR can augment bricks-and-mortar locations to keep the shopping experience fresh. Brands can use AR to enhance their in-store experience, and to drive foot traffic with location-based WebAR experiences. These engaging, personalized experiences give consumers a new reason to shop in-store, leading to more business. Retail brands can even gamify the shopping experiences via activations like in-store scavenger hunts which encourage consumers to spend more time shopping and discovering new items.

By Tom Emrich,

Sourced from The Drum

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The Marketing Move My Clients Hate the Most

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BY JOY GENDUSA

It’s the one that consistently makes them more money.

People don’t ignore advice because it’s wrong—they ignore it because it’s uncomfortable.

Saving money means spending less today. Eating healthy means passing up what tastes best right now. And effective marketing? That usually means doing more than what feels safe—or sane.

After providing 128,706 business owners nationwide with results-based marketing campaigns, I can tell you this with certainty: The marketing strategies that create real, lasting growth are rarely the ones people want to hear.

I’ve spent over 25 years helping businesses generate leads and grow revenue. Along the way, I’ve noticed something fascinating. There’s one piece of advice I give that consistently makes business owners uneasy. It’s questioned and debated. In fact, they flat-out hate it.

Here it is: To effectively grow your business, you have to market more than your competitors—more than you think is actually sane.

That statement alone turns people off. It sounds excessive. Risky. Maybe even self-serving, coming from someone in marketing. But the truth is it doesn’t matter who you market with—or even whether you do it yourself or hire help. The principle stands on its own.

But you don’t have to take my word for it—I come with receipts.

To reach growth goals, spend more on marketing

Gartner research demonstrates that the average 2025 marketing budget stalled at 7.7 percent of company revenue—and that is the same level as 2024. The recommended average marketing spend is 10 percent, but my mantra is do as much as you possibly can and then some!

You have to be willing to market yourself in quantities that feel insane to others. That’s what it takes to create real growth and momentum.

Take a look at these companies who spent far more than 10 percent within the last year, and it made a huge impact on their revenue:

  • Monzo, a UK-based bank, increased its marketing spend 77 percent in 2025 and surpassed £1 billion in revenue, a first for them.
  • Indian retailer Nykaa decided to increase sales and marketing spend 29 percent and reported a 61 percent increase in quarterly profit growth and a 27 percent rise in revenue as a result.
  • Guardant Health, a cancer screening biotech firm, increased sales and marketing spend 30 percent and reported a 21 percent year-over-year revenue increase.

I also have firsthand experience, so you know I practice what I preach.

To stay on top, be consistent with your marketing

I started PostcardMania in 1998 with no investors and no cash—just a marketing plan I refused to abandon. That commitment took our revenue from zero to over $100 million a year.

Early on, I spent more on marketing than I paid myself—and I still do. I drove the same paid-off Nissan well past our first $1 million because I understood one simple truth: The size and consistency of my marketing directly controlled our growth. Growth was my top priority then, and still is.

Today, I mail about 232,000 postcards weekly and invest roughly $50,000 a week in online ads just advertising my business. Since 2020, we’re averaging nearly 15 percent annual revenue growth every year after a decade of averaging 5 percent annual growth. Just last year, we set a new all-time company record in leads generated. I can point to many factors behind that success—but it all starts with my dedication to marketing more than anyone thinks is sane.

So when I say this works, I’m not speaking in theory. I’ve lived it.

I know committing serious dollars to marketing can feel scary—but discipline beats comfort every time. Trust the process, track everything, double down on what performs, and refine what doesn’t.

Do that consistently, and the payoff isn’t just possible. It’s inevitable.

Never let the economy affect your marketing investment

Unstable economic conditions are not a reason to cut your marketing budget—in fact, they’re the exact reason not to.

When things get tight, most businesses pull back or shut off their marketing entirely. That instinct feels safe, but it’s also one of the fastest ways to hamstring your revenue or even put your business at real risk.

When the pandemic hit, Coca-Cola cut its advertising budget by roughly 35 percent, but Pepsi didn’t make any cuts.

Due to this decision, Coca Cola experienced big losses in 2020. Their quarterly revenue shrunk over $1 billion in a single quarter, dropping 16.9 percent from Q1 to Q2. They went from being up 6.96 percent in 2019 to down 28.48 percent in June of 2020 in year-over-year quarterly growth.

In fact, Coca-Cola revenue was down the entirety of 2020 and didn’t rebound until 2021. Meanwhile, PepsiCo returned to growth mode after being down a single quarter. That growth ended up lasting years as they gained more market share.

I made the same call PepsiCo did. When shutdowns began, I refused to stop marketing—and I refused to lay anyone off. That decision wasn’t easy—PostcardMania’s weekly revenue dropped about 40 percent, a swing of more than $500,000 a week—but it paid off.

I stuck to my guns and kept our marketing budget fully funded. And recovery came fast.

By April, revenue was back to pre-shutdown levels. By July, we set a new company record for monthly revenue—and broke it again in October. Despite the economic chaos, we finished 2020 up 10 percent over 2019. Then the momentum compounded. We entered 2020 as a $60 million business, and today we’re at nearly $120 million.

Marketing aggressively—when it feels uncomfortable or even “insane”—has been a massive growth lever for my company and countless others. And it can do the same for you.

So when you are at that fork in the road to take the shortcut or the uphill one, take the challenge. You’ll be far stronger and happier you did.

Feature image credit: Getty Images

BY JOY GENDUSA

Sourced from Inc.

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Making your B2B comms more human is the best way to connect with audiences

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By Harriet Mumford

People want to hear from people, not faceless corporations, explains Harriet Mumford of Nelson Bostock (part of Accenture Song). And B2B marketers would do well to remember it.

If the last decade has proved anything, it’s this: the B2B marketing space is becoming more about people, stories, and meaningful connections. No more is it simply about product manuals and sales sheets; the landscape of B2B communications is taking on creative traits typically reserved only for B2C brands. And this development is a constantly accelerating force, fuelled by the social media revolution that’s made brands and professionals more visible, accessible, and human than ever before.

Platforms such as LinkedIn have morphed from a digital CV storage space into buzzing hubs of authentic personal and professional interaction. LinkedIn is a place for funny people to be funny, creative people to be creative, and interesting people to be accessible. Suddenly, it’s not just about what you do, it’s about who you are, what you stand for, and how you make others feel.

The big question for today’s marketers: how do you inject the human element into every message, every campaign, and every conversation? The TL;DR version: it’s all about having the right messenger.

People want positive

Let’s be honest: facts and features are necessary, but they rarely move the heart. Data is the bedrock on which stories are often told, but it’s never the story by itself. The emotional punch, the optimism, the humour, the empathy are what keep brands top of mind. Think of those unforgettable Christmas ads: you don’t remember which products were on offer that year, but you remember the images and the messages. Well, it’s no different in B2B.

Take Currys’ recent ‘Mind the Grab’ campaign. Tackling the tough reality of phone stealing, electronics retailer Currys painted a bold purple line down London’s Oxford Street to highlight the hot spots for previous phone thefts, grabbing attention and sparking conversations. But the brand didn’t stop at awareness: by teaming up with Birkbeck University, it studied how to shift behaviour and piloted in-store support hubs for victims, turning the campaign into real-world impact. Instead of presenting negative facts about rising criminal behaviour, the message was flipped into one that looked to offer solutions.

Then there’s business insurance broker Simply Business’s ‘Young Entrepreneur Fund.’ Given that 75% of UK teens aged 16-19 dream of launching their own business, and 36% already have a side hustle, the initiative gave £50,000 in grants and six weeks of expert guidance to 10 budding entrepreneurs, with musician Professor Green lending a hand. The result: not just inspiration, but real momentum for the next generation of business leaders.

What’s the lesson here? The campaigns that stick aren’t just creative, they’re constructive. They bring optimism, offer practical help, and team up with those who know their stuff with those who want to learn the stuff. The best B2B content pushes positivity while signposting the next actions to take.

The person is the message

Advertising has always been an influencer industry. Athletes, musicians, actors have all been the faces and voices of endless products for years. Customers put stock in human endorsement and, even in the B2B realm, a single authentic voice is a sure fire way to spark engagement, drive decisions, and build trust.

The Influencer Marketing Hub Benchmark Report tells us the industry has grown by 29%, leaping from $16.4bn to $21.1bn. Why? Because people want to hear from people, not faceless corporations.

Influencers, brand ambassadors, subject matter experts, even micro-influencers connect with audiences on a human level that brands find difficult to achieve. Their recommendations feel genuine, not scripted. Think about how much more likely you are to trust a recommendation from a close friend who knows you than a review from the very brand trying to sell you that product.

Choosing the right influencer builds a bridge between brand and client that feels effortless and authentic. But tread carefully: the wrong messenger can send your campaign off the rails. Remember the infamous Kendall Jenner/Coca-Cola moment, or Sydney Sweeney’s recent American Eagle drama? The messages fall flat, fail to resonate, or cause a backdraft of bad blood that can backfire on the brand.

Authenticity is everything. Content that feels forced, or worse, fabricated, erodes trust faster than it can be recovered. Just look at recent incidents where Wired and Business Insider had to pull AI-generated articles featuring unverifiable case studies. When real stories are replaced by fictional voices, credibility suffers.

In B2B, trust is your currency, humanity your cache. By seeing the person as the message, brands can speak directly to an audience’s experience, without needing to force an issue.

Think small for big impact

B2B outreach often feels like shouting into the void or blasting emails to an anonymous list. We’ve all deleted enough ‘Hi (Insert First Name)’ emails without ever reading them. But the most effective communications target smaller, more tightly defined groups: a specific team, an industry niche, or even an individual decision-maker. Broad, one-size-fits-all messaging rarely hits home as fishing with dynamite is nowhere near as effective as using proper bait. Targeted, thoughtful outreach builds stronger relationships and better results than generic blasts ever could.

That’s where micro-influencers come in. Unlike the mega-influencers with millions of followers (and a fraction of meaningful engagement), micro-influencers have close-knit, highly interactive communities. The stats don’t lie: micro-influencers see a 6% engagement rate on Instagram, compared to just 1.97% for their larger counterparts.

This is something that brands can use to their own advantage. Consider BOX’s campaign with Rob Mayhew, known as ‘adland’s favourite social media star.’ With over 140,000 followers on TikTok and 90,000 on LinkedIn, Rob’s creative, satirical takes on the world of work resonate deeply with his audience, people who know the challenges of modern workplaces. BOX leveraged his voice to address tech issues in relatable, trustworthy ways, turning a sponsored post into a genuine conversation. Talking directly to people who connect with their influencer, rather than just consume their content while suffering from ‘scrolliosis’.

More than content

There is no secret to B2B success. Simply, make campaigns personal, optimistic, and above all, human. When you prioritize authentic connections, whether through campaigns that uplift, influencers that inspire, or messages that speak directly to the needs of your audience, you create more than content. You build trust, loyalty, and partnerships that stand the test of time.

So, next time you’re reviewing campaign results, remember: don’t shoot the B2B messenger. Instead, choose one who believes in your story, speaks your language, and engages your audience. That’s how business gets personal, and how brands win in today’s B2B world.

By Harriet Mumford

Sourced from The Drum

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Beehiiv Launches AI Media Library & Getty Images Integration

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The Gist

  • AI-driven media. Beehiiv launches a unified AI-powered media library for assets.
  • Getty integration. Users on higher plans access licensed Getty Images directly.
  • Publisher efficiency. Newsletter teams can streamline workflows and enhance content quality.

Beehiiv wants AI-powered asset management to become essential infrastructure for newsletter publishers competing on visual quality and speed.

The company on Feb. 12 launched an AI-powered Media Library for its newsletter platform, introducing built-in editing tools and direct integration with Getty Images for premium, fully licensed visuals, according to company officials. Getty Images access is limited to Max and Enterprise plan subscribers, who receive three and 10 image credits per month, respectively.

beehiiv medial library

Table of Contents

Recent Beehiiv Developments

Beehiiv executed a significant strategic expansion in November 2025, positioning itself beyond its newsletter roots to become what CEO Tyler Denk called “the operating system for the content economy.” The company’s November 13 Winter Release introduced an AI-native website builder, native podcast hosting, real-time website analytics and a digital products marketplace with a zero-commission model.

Founded in 2024, beehiiv targets independent creators, publishers and startups seeking to manage and monetize direct audience relationships. It now serves legacy publishers such as TIME, Newsweek and the Texas Tribune. In January 2026, beehiiv introduced Dynamic Content, enabling code-free email personalization.

On Dec. 17, 2025, beehiiv released Automations v3 alongside a redesigned Workflow Builder. The update delivered behaviour-based triggers, subscriber-level insights, a Journey Overview dashboard and a Performance Overview showing email-level contribution metrics.

Beehiiv’s ad network has become a significant revenue driver, paying publishers over $1 million monthly and attracting advertisers including Google, Netflix, Notion and Roku. With revenue projected to nearly double to $50 million in 2026, beehiiv now has more than 40,000 monthly active users and nearly 15,000 paying subscribers.

How AI-Enhanced DAM Platforms Are Becoming Strategic Content Command Centres

AI-enhanced digital asset management systems have evolved from basic storage into strategic content command centres that reshape how newsletter publishers manage creative workflows. Modern platforms integrate centralized media libraries with AI capabilities that automate labour-intensive tasks while maintaining brand governance.

AI-powered DAM systems reduce manual effort by automatically tagging images and videos with relevant keywords and descriptions. Enhanced search functionality leverages AI to understand intent and context beyond simple keywords, delivering relevant results even as asset libraries scale.

Beehiv Media Library Feature Breakdown

Capability Description
AI Image Generation Generate visuals on demand via text prompts
Built-in Image Editor Crop, rotate, resize, filter and annotate assets
Getty Images Integration Access licensed visuals directly (Max/Enterprise plans)
Global Asset Sharing Share assets across multiple publications
Enhanced Search & Filters Filter by date, file type, publication and dimensions

More About Beehiiv

Beehiiv targets independent creators, journalists and publisher-led businesses seeking to manage and monetize direct audience relationships. The platform provides newsletter creation, a no-code website builder, campaign analytics, A/B testing and AI-driven automation. These capabilities help publishers deliver a stronger customer experience by enabling personalization at scale.

By 

Sheryl Hodge is assistant managing editor at Simpler Media Group, where she plays a vital role in keeping the editorial operations running smoothly across the company’s three sites: CMSWire, Reworked and VKTR. Known for her organizational skills and attention to detail, Sheryl acts as the glue that binds the publications together, ensuring that workflows remain seamless and deadlines are met. Connect with Sheryl Hodge:

Sourced from CMSWIRE

 

 

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Why Cannes is all about User Experience

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By Kai Henniges

Cannes is all about the experience. If you invite your partners and clients to a yacht party, they’ll have a great time, they’ll feel looked after and leave tipsy and happy. Invite them to an intimate lunch in a nice restaurant, they’ll feel valued, special, and probably also leave tipsy and happy. Some prospects will only experience Cannes remotely, online from their desk in their office.

All of these experiences are valuable, but they work for prospects at different points in the funnel.

For me, Cannes Lions embodies the importance of experience. Experience matters, and it affects the way we feel, and our perception of brands. This year, experience was the common theme underpinning the conversations at Cannes. Beyond events, too often advertisers, publishers and platforms forget about experience and focus on just the numbers.

Another example: two of Cannes Lions’ big 2018 awards winners was Spotify – which won Media Brand of the Year, and ‘Today at Apple’, the tech brand’s programme of in-store events. What links these two winners? Experience.

Spotify has refined its experience so that as a user I no longer need to curate my music choices, the platform has already done it for me. Apple used its large retail presence to deliver customer experiences that surprised and delighted. These are worthy award winners, because they had a vision beyond the immediate conversion, to the value of enjoyment, and longevity. We can learn from this.

Digital advertising ignored user experience for too long. By optimising on abstract metrics, the impact on internet users became too much. People were annoyed at retargeting, they were outraged at their data being treated with neglect. People felt helpless to protect their identities online. The result: GDPR and ePrivacy, a backlash against social platforms, ad blindness, ad blocking, brand safety… all-in-all, a general distaste for online advertising. The fall-out of this dominated the conversations at Cannes this year.

If we had focussed more on delivering advertising as a natural part of the online experience, perhaps we wouldn’t be in this pickle. Video is something users want, that much is clear, but we must be considerate with how we deliver it. The rise of Outstream video advertising embodies this interruptive experience; if you’ve ever had an ad push text apart in front of your eyes you’ll know what I mean. Sound-on auto play video is another example.

This is where context comes in. Delivering video in relevant environments gives users moving image that complements their goals. It adds to their experience. We should create an advertising eco-system that learns from the UX world, where details matter.

In the context of Cannes, a yacht party or fancy lunch works. It fits in with the environment, and people enjoy it. Marketers understand that, but we need to translate that understanding to everything we do – including the way we design online experiences. This is a collective responsibility, advertisers should consider how they buy inventory, and publishers need to think how they integrate advertising into their pages.

The brand activation at Cannes, the award winners, and the conversations were all underpinned by the concept of experience. Whether you took part in Cannes from the bow of a boat or the monitor on your desk, the real takeaway is that experience matters online, just as much an offline. If we can get experience right, we’ll get advertising right.

By Kai Henniges

Kai Henniges, CEO and co-founder, Video Intelligence.

Sourced from The Drum

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How To Evolve Omnichannel Marketing Strategies: 19 Expert Tips

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Sourced from Forbes

Omnichannel marketing was once assessed by how many platforms a brand could show up on and maintain a presence over time. As consumer expectations have evolved, however, so too has the definition of “omnichannel.” Audiences no longer experience different channels as separate touchpoints, but as a single, continuous relationship that carries context, intent and trust from one interaction to the next.

This shift has made a cross-channel marketing strategy less about scale and more about cohesion, requiring brands to connect data, emotion and experience across the moments that increasingly shape loyalty and decision-making. Below, 19 members of Forbes Agency Council share how the meaning of omnichannel marketing has evolved over time along with strategies brands are using to market more effectively in response.

1. Recognize Customers Across Channels

Omnichannel doesn’t mean doing everything, everywhere. A consistent brand experience across all platforms strengthens brand identity and helps customers recognize and trust the brand everywhere they encounter it. People now expect a brand to recognize them across channels, not restart interactions from zero. Competitive differentiation is increasingly based on experience, not presence alone. – Tripp Donnelly, REQ

2. Offer Deep Engagement Throughout The Brand Ecosystem

“Omnichannel” marketing has evolved from a static checklist of disparate channels (traditional media, social platforms, basic advertising) into a dynamic, multi-touch ecosystem designed for seamless brand awareness and education across every customer interaction. There is a need for deeper engagement in a fragmented media landscape, where consumers encounter brands through countless touchpoints. – Jay Deutsch, BDA, Inc.

3. Carry Emotional Intent Across Platforms

Omnichannel has shifted from being everywhere to delivering the same emotional impact and experience everywhere. Brands invest millions to create a feeling in major ad moments, then abandon it in their loyalty efforts, promotions and everyday interactions. That gap breaks trust. The evolution is about carrying emotional intent from the media into experiences that actually sustain loyalty. – Andrew Mitchell, Brandmovers Inc

4. Use Data To Craft Seamless Cross-Channel Experiences

Omnichannel strategy has evolved from simply being present across various platforms to emphasizing the importance of delivering a unified, seamless audience experience across the channels where your audience is. This shift highlights the significance of data in achieving effective continuity in marketing across multiple channels, rather than just the quantity or variety of media channels used. – Jeff Kaplan, TARA Media

5. Show Up On The Right Channels, Earn Trust And Guide

Omnichannel has evolved from simply being on every channel to actually connecting those moments in a meaningful way. Today, it’s about showing up where your audience is, earning their trust over repeated interactions and quietly guiding them toward a decision throughout their entire buying journey. – Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team

6. Leverage Identity-Based Targeting And Attributions

The most significant evolution is the shift to identity-based targeting and attributions. It moves past simply being on multiple channels. Today’s strategy must link every touchpoint back to a single persistent customer identity using identity graphs. This is critical because it allows brands to reach the right person with personalized messages and accurately attribute revenue to the right channels. – Ajay Gupta, Stirista

7. Connect Channels Into A Single Unified Journey

The term omnichannel is becoming obsolete. While it emphasizes the need for multiple touchpoints, it also signals a siloed approach. In 2026, brands need a strategy that connects their channels into one, unified experience for their audiences. Today’s consumers want to move simply and seamlessly across touchpoints, and research shows Gen Z and Gen Alpha will demand it. – Dani Mariano, Razorfish

8. Plan More Integrated, Flexible Strategies

With omnichannel marketing now extending to different outlets that range from digital to terrestrial radio to sponsorships, the evolution is significant. This evolution is due to brands that must plan more integrated, flexible strategies that meet consumers at multiple touchpoints rather than relying on a single channel approach. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising

9. Unify Identities Across Touchpoints To Personalize Content

Omnichannel with personalization wins. This means connecting data, unifying identity, then using that to adapt content, offers and experiences across every touchpoint—store, site, app, email, social, marketplaces and even packaging. The hard part is knowing your customers inside and out. Then, mastering the channels becomes the easy part of omnichannel marketing. – Stephen Rosa, (add)ventures

10. Move From Siloed Presence To Data-Driven Integration

“Omnichannel” has shifted from multi-channel presence to identity-driven continuity—delivering a connected experience powered by unified customer data. It matters because brands can no longer think in silos; audiences expect relevance and consistency across every touchpoint, making data quality and integration the real foundation of success. – Paula Chiocchi, Outward Media, Inc.

11. Deliver A Consistent Narrative At Every Touchpoint

Omnichannel has evolved from being channel-centric to experience-centric. It’s no longer about being everywhere, but about delivering a consistent narrative across paid, earned, owned and AI-driven touchpoints. This matters because trust and recognition now depend on message continuity, not channel volume. – Boris Dzhingarov, ESBO Ltd

12. Recognize Omnichannel As The Baseline, Not Extra

I’ve not heard the term “omnichannel” for some time. Not because it’s not relevant, but simply because the best marketing campaigns are all omnichannel. Thinking with a siloed mentality is outdated and ineffective, and omnichannel shouldn’t be something extra; it should be everyday marketing thinking. – Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited

13. Prioritize Consistency Over Breadth Of Coverage

Omnichannel has shifted from being everywhere to creating a seamless brand experience. Today, consistency across platforms matters more than coverage. Brands win when their story feels connected, not scattered. – Manuel Machado, CCOMGROUP Inc.

14. Showcase Value By Teaching Instead Of Selling

Omnichannel used to be about being everywhere. Now, it’s about showing up with value. As consumers tune out marketing noise, they gravitate toward channels where they learn and feel more in control of decisions. That shift makes it essential for brands to turn to integrated, education-led strategies that immerse buyers by teaching, rather than selling. In turn, your brand builds trust and stands out. – Kim Lawton, Enthuse Marketing

15. Guide Decisions By Removing Friction In Buying

Omnichannel has evolved from coordinating channels to guiding decisions. It is no longer about being everywhere or even being consistent; it is about removing friction as customers move from awareness to confidence. Brands that win today design omnichannel strategies around decision moments, not media plans, so every touchpoint answers the next question a customer has. – Robert Burko, Elite Digital Inc.

16. Build Credibility In The Right Places With Strong Content

The big shift? AI is now infused into every app, search tool and platform your buyers use. That means brands no longer need to address every channel individually. Focus on building credibility and creating solid content in strategic places. AI handles the proliferation. You get true omnichannel reach without the omnichannel headache. – Christine Wetzler, Pietryla PR & Marketing

17. Reinforce The Same Story To Inspire The Same Action

Omnichannel has shifted from “be everywhere” to “be consistent and useful everywhere your audience actually is.” It is no longer about channel count. It is about connected signals, shared data and one clear experience across touchpoints. That matters because brands cannot afford scattershot efforts now. You win when every channel reinforces the same story and moves people toward the same action. – Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications

18. Bolster Internal Operational Capacity; Deliver Consistently

Omnichannel shifted from channel coverage to experience alignment. The real challenge isn’t reaching customers everywhere. It’s keeping your internal systems stable enough to deliver consistently across those channels. Brands fail when back-end workflows can’t support front-end promises. Strategy now starts with operational capacity, not channel expansion. – Meeky Hwang, Ndevr, Inc

19. Engage Sales Teams To Work In Concert With Marketing

Omnichannel is still as relevant as ever. Omnichannel is a content engagement strategy used to reinforce or support a customer journey; they are not one and the same. The biggest gap in successfully deploying omnichannel strategies is the lack of sales engagement. If the sales team is not engaged and working in concert for a holistic customer experience, then marketing is just yelling into the void. – Tyler Back, Mitosis

Feature image credit: Getty

Sourced from Forbes

 

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Marketing Teams Got Smaller In 2025 Even As Hiring Expanded, New Study Shows

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By Allwork.Space News Team

A new analysis of job postings shows marketing listings dropped 8.2% in 2025 — even as the number of hiring employers rose more than 5%.

After a strong start early in the year, the U.S. in-house marketing job market cooled over the course of 2025. Hiring did not disappear, but it became more selective: more employers posted roles, while overall job volume declined, signalling a move toward smaller, more senior-leaning marketing teams.

The findings are based on an analysis of more than 240,000 active in-house marketing job listings posted between January and December 2025, conducted by Taligence in collaboration with Aspen Technology Labs. The data covers full-time, in-house marketing roles only.

More Companies Hiring, Fewer Roles Per Team

Total active marketing job listings reached 241,749 in 2025, down 8.2% from the prior year. New postings fell even further, declining 10.2% year over year.

At the same time, the number of employers posting marketing jobs rose to nearly 39,000, an increase of more than 5%.

This divergence points to a clear pattern: companies continued to hire marketing talent, but did so with fewer openings per organization. Hiring momentum peaked in the first quarter, dropped sharply in Q2, stabilized in Q3, and softened again toward year-end, in part due to seasonal pauses around the holidays.

By late December, active marketing job listings stood just under 32,000, slightly higher than the same time in 2024 but down from the end of the third quarter.

Senior Roles Prove More Durable

While overall job volume declined, senior-level marketing roles showed greater resilience. Director-level and above postings increased modestly year over year, reaching nearly 30,000 roles in 2025. The number of employers seeking senior marketing talent also grew, even as the creation of entirely new senior roles remained relatively flat.

In the fourth quarter, senior postings rose compared with Q3, and year-end active senior roles were more than 12% higher than a year earlier.

Demand for experienced leaders fluctuated less than the broader market, reinforcing a transition toward “player-coach” profiles capable of leading leaner teams.

Entry-Level Hiring Remains Under Pressure

Job openings for entry-level through manager roles peaked early in the year and steadily declined thereafter. These roles struggled to recover following a sharp contraction in Q2 and ended 2025 well below their January baseline.

By contrast, higher-level titles such as Group Director, Senior Director, and Vice President recorded year-over-year growth and regained momentum in the second half of the year. The widening gap suggests employers prioritized decision-making and execution over junior headcount.

Hiring Timelines Lengthen, but Stabilize

By year-end, the average marketing job posting remained open for 39 days. That was longer than in 2024, indicating more deliberate hiring processes, but slightly shorter than at the end of the third quarter. The data suggests hiring slowed compared with last year, without further deterioration late in 2025.

Pay Transparency Improves as Salaries Rise

More than half of marketing job listings disclosed salary ranges in 2025, continuing a steady improvement in transparency. The median advertised salary reached $88,400 by late December, representing a 7.1% increase year over year.

Compensation gains were strongest in specialized and revenue-aligned disciplines. Product Marketing posted the highest median pay, while Field Marketing, Growth Marketing, and Brand Marketing saw the largest year-over-year salary increases.

Demand Shifts Toward Growth and Product Functions

Growth-oriented roles led hiring gains, with Growth Marketing, Partner and Channel Marketing, Field Marketing, and Product Marketing all posting double-digit growth. Brand and Content Marketing also expanded, though at a slower pace.

In contrast, Communications and PR, Analytical Marketing, and generalist marketing roles declined year over year, underscoring a move away from broad marketing functions toward roles tied more directly to revenue and customer acquisition.

Remote Hiring Holds Steady

Remote roles accounted for roughly 14.5% of all marketing job listings at year-end, a modest increase from the prior year. The data suggests remote work has stabilized as a structural feature of marketing hiring rather than an expanding trend.

Geography: New York Gains, Seattle Slips

California, New York, and Texas continued to lead the country in overall marketing job volume, followed by Florida, Illinois, and Georgia. New York posted the strongest year-over-year growth among large states and also saw notable salary increases.

At the city level, New York City and San Francisco recorded sharp job growth, alongside Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. Seattle dropped out of the top ten markets after a significant contraction, highlighting uneven recovery across major metros.

What the Data Signals Going Into 2026

By the end of 2025, the marketing job market was still active, but more restrained. Employers hired with intent rather than scale, favouring experienced talent and specialized skill sets while keeping teams lean.

Senior roles, growth-focused disciplines, and higher pay transparency defined the year, while entry-level hiring lagged behind. As 2026 begins, marketing hiring appears less about rebuilding headcount and more about maximizing impact within tighter organizational structures.

By Allwork.Space News Team

The Allwork.Space News Team is a collective of experienced journalists, editors, and industry analysts dedicated to covering the ever-evolving world of work. We’re committed to delivering trusted, independent reporting on the topics that matter most to professionals navigating today’s changing workplace — including remote work, flexible offices, coworking, workplace wellness, sustainability, commercial real estate, technology, and more.

Sourced from Future of Work

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The generation advertising can’t sweet-talk

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Sourced from CREATIVE BOOM

As the UK’s HFSS restrictions take hold, food brands are losing their oldest emotional shortcuts. In this opinion piece, Loren Aylott of Manchester creative agency Dinosaur explores how the end of sugar-coated storytelling could reshape creativity, culture, and trust.

New year, new laws. It’s the week the industry has been preparing for: the official ban on junk food advertising before 9pm takes effect. The new HFSS regulations aren’t just a line in government policy; they mark a cultural reset. For the first time in modern advertising, a generation will grow up without being targeted by the seductive storytelling of sugary, salty, fatty foods.

The UK’s new HFSS advertising restrictions fully take effect, with a 9pm watershed on TV ads and a total ban on paid-for online promotions for “less healthy” food and drink, the impact won’t be loud or immediate. Kids won’t notice fewer cartoon mascots or glossy food-porn spots, but eventually their emotional and behavioural patterns will quietly shift.

And that shift changes everything for marketers.

The end of indulgence as a shortcut

For decades, food marketing has traded in fantasy, nostalgia, indulgence, and the comfort of “you’ve earned it.” We’ve sold sweetness as self-care and sugar as celebration, wrapped in slow-motion drips, glossy burger close-ups, and impossible perfection. But the old emotional shortcuts are disappearing, and what replaces them will define how the next generation connects with food. This festive season did feel a little quieter, more ‘demure’.

For years, festive advertising has wrapped indulgence in emotion, golden turkeys and overflowing puddings, families framed in warm light, as the soundtrack swells. This year, we saw more emotional connections, more community, and less pudding.

But as HFSS regulations take hold, the traditional language used in all food advertising will face new creative constraints. Expect brands to lean into togetherness, generosity, and ritual rather than indulgence; to show that joy can feel rich even when the food doesn’t. The future of food communication will reinvent “treat culture” and rely more on curiosity. Brands that want to connect with tomorrow’s consumers will have to offer something more nourishing, both emotionally and nutritionally.

The most successful food brands won’t be those that shout the loudest, but those that teach, play, and inspire. Brands that turn food into experience, and as the visual vocabulary of indulgence fades, creativity must work harder to earn emotion.

At first, the change will feel invisible – research from Leeds University found that when supermarkets reduced HFSS placements, shoppers didn’t notice. Yet, HFSS sales still dropped by two million items a day. Behaviour changes quietly when the cues disappear.

Invisible change, lasting impact

Children, too, will be subtly influenced by fewer in-store prompts and a rebalanced media landscape. Fewer sugary signals in their world will mean fewer impulsive habits and more space for mindful ones to grow.

For marketers, that opens up a new creative frontier: connecting through experience, play, education, or storytelling that celebrates curiosity. This is where the creative industry comes in. HFSS isn’t the death of marketing, but an opportunity for brands to think smarter and work harder in this category.

It’s a call for brands to re-evaluate their tone, their role, and their cultural contribution. Hospitality brands like Nando’s are already shifting how they speak, reframing the removal of free refills as a positive, health-first change rather than a loss of fun. It’s a small but powerful signal that transparency and progress can live comfortably alongside joy and flavour.

For agencies, this is a creative and strategic responsibility. The job now is to help brands rethink how they show up through repositioned messaging, a reset of owned-channel strategies, and an exploration of new targeting tactics.

What replaces the sugar rush

This is a massive opportunity to help brands build consumer trust through healthy product messaging and to support some with a shift to bigger, brand-led strategies – whatever the next step, agencies need to encourage clients to use these new rules as an opportunity to behave differently and thrive creatively.

The next generation will remember fewer jingles about chocolate bars and more stories about curiosity, balance, and joy. The brands that grow with them will be those that feel emotionally honest, that teach, entertain, and empower rather than just sell.

When the sugar rush of advertising fades, what’s left has to mean something. The new regulations require brands to grow up alongside their audience, replacing manipulation with meaning and excess with intention.

The next era of food marketing will be defined not by what brands are no longer allowed to say, but by what they choose to say instead. Those who embrace this moment with creativity, responsibility, and emotional honesty won’t just survive the change; they’ll help shape a healthier, more thoughtful relationship with food and prove that constraint, when handled well, can be the most powerful creative catalyst of all.

Feature image credit: Adobe Stock

Sourced from CREATIVE BOOM

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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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For retail brands, TikTok Shop’s rise brings viral success — and disruption

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Executives at NRF highlighted major sales wins while noting the social commerce feature is turning some retail fundamentals on their head.

NEW YORK — TikTok has drawn droves of marketers for its ability to turn products of all stripes, from Stanley tumblers to cranberry juice, into viral sensations. Since the social platform launched its Shop e-commerce marketplace in the U.S. a little over two years ago, brands have gotten better at quantifying just how much video crazes are translating into sales. TikTok Shop’s stature is growing enough to influence how retailers think about product mix, demand forecasting and content strategy, according to speakers at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show.

“It’s a place for us to learn what’s working versus not,” said Richard Cox, chief merchandising officer of the Gen Z-focused retailer Pacsun, during a Monday panel at the trade conference.

At the same time, Shop has gotten more crowded and competitive. It acts as a “bonafide retailer,” one NRF speaker said, hosting its own Prime Day-like deals bonanzas called Super Brand Days. Shop is robust enough at this point that TikTok no longer offers brands some of the incentives it once did to use the feature. A fresh level of maturity comes as the retail industry is beset by challenges related to tariffs and pullbacks in discretionary spending.

“Our main operational challenge is around profitability,” said Jenna Manula Linares, vice president of digital marketing at Tarte Cosmetics, during the panel. “As their platform has scaled, they started pulling back in what they’d been funding for us.

“We also know that the TikTok customer is value-driven,” added Linares. “So now we are at this intersection where we’re trying to find the balance between how much value [we can] offer a customer while still being conscious of our bottom line.”

Sales follow virality

TikTok Shop increasingly seems like one of the first major success stories for social commerce in the U.S. The marketplace accounted for about one-fifth of the social commerce segment in 2025 and is forecast by eMarketer to exceed $20 billion in sales this year.

Pacsun’s first pop on TikTok Shop came as something of a surprise. Around Black Friday in 2023, a smaller influencer posted a video about the retailer’s Casey jeans, a low-rise, baggy cut of denim. The availability of the item on TikTok Shop dovetailing with a key holiday sales window resulted in 11,000 pairs sold on Black Friday alone, along with a long tail of popularity.

“We’ve sold over 100,000 pairs of that jean. In terms of halo effect, it’s helped our entire denim business,” said Cox.

Other brands on the panel shared similar case studies that speak to how Shop can link buzzy content to business results, sometimes in a chaotic fashion. Last year, Tarte — among the early adopters of Shop — noticed that creators were participating in a strange trend: They would draw under their eyes with a permanent black Sharpie and then cover up the markings with the brand’s CC under-eye color corrector, a testament to the concealer’s efficacy. Tarte has sold nearly 600,000 units of the product on TikTok Shop in the U.S., according to Linares, while noticing stronger demand in international markets through direct-to-consumer channels.

That said, Shop requires a different approach than a traditional DTC or e-commerce site. Tarte promotes a smaller assortment on Shop because the brand “can’t control the algorithm,” Linares explained. Speakers noted that TikTok’s unpredictable nature is disrupting some of the fundamentals of retail, increasing a reliance on social listening, media mix modeling and “analytics horsepower.”

“It kind of turns everything we all know about demand planning on its head,” said Feliz Papich, senior vice president of digital technology, experience and insights at Crocs.

Go with the flow

By that same token, marketers are adjusting some of their brand content to feed the Shop pipeline. Tarte, for instance, has introduced a mascot named Shapey, based on its shape-tape concealer, to attract viewers organically to its profile.

“If you come to our page, you’re actually not going to see a ton of tutorials or before and afters,” said Linares. “We’re doing a lot around humour.”

The discussion also touched on co-creation, the idea of enlisting everyday customers to create content on behalf of a brand. Some retailers may not like relinquishing that degree of control but ultra-polished ads don’t perform as well in TikTok environments, according to Cox. Additionally, high-performing organic content is becoming valuable fodder to convert into paid media or material for other social platforms.

A willingness to roll the dice on such marketing experiments is just one piece of the Wild West mindset needed to succeed on TikTok, an app that is still in the process of figuring out its future in the U.S. following a ban threat.

“TikTok wants to partner with brands that are willing to take smart risks and to move fast. They’re not going to read your legal red lines,” said Linares. “Just say yes and go with the flow.”

Feature image credit: Drew Angerer via Getty Images

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Sourced from RETAIL DIVE

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