Research reveals 60% of marketers said ads in news environments outperform their campaign baselines, showing the media has become a high-performing, underused opportunity for brands that may have been hesitant in the past.

Data shows that consumers are open to holiday advertising. A study by GumGum found 75% are receptive to receiving ads and 31% enjoy holiday ads but despise constant retargeting.

Innovation from Google this year positioned brands to tackle what comes next with greater transparency and capabilities, including global ad expansion in AI Overviews, AI Max for Search, controls for Performance Max, Gemini-powered creative tools, the launch of Meridian and new agentic tools with partnerships with PayPal and others.

A study conducted by a neuro-contextual ad company in partnership with a neuroscientist at Columbia University found neuro-contextual ads deliver 3.5x higher neural engagement than non-contextual ads.

Unlike older, reactive chatbots, new technologies are proactive, using multimodal options and emotional awareness to detect user cues such as frustration or excitement.

YouTube confirmed Wednesday that it will adhere to Australia's upcoming social-media ban and remove accounts of Australian children under the age of 16 - even social media influencers.

Access to Copilot via WhatsApp will end on January 15, 2026. WhatsApp parent company Meta will prohibit use of general-purpose AI chatbots including ChatGPT and Perplexity AI through its app.

As AI opens more sophisticated methods to reach intended audiences, the goal for advertisers is to run strategies and campaigns with assistance from AI systems that can understand a brand, its products, and what matters most to its target audiences.

The big challenge in negotiations between CMOs and CFOs is how marketers integrate digital platforms or frameworks that consolidate data, processes and tools from various sources into a single view to manage and improve performance across different domains to prove value.

Building on what consumers share to personalize a buyer's guide, the feature provides details on products, key differences between them and up-to-date information from retailers. Marketers need to optimize the content to bring descriptions to users rather than taking users to the content.