This Week in Marketing - Big Tech trades ads for AI, TikTok’s denial and Grok’s Nazi turn
This week: Meta, Google & Microsoft are trading Adtech for AI, TikTok denies rumours with no explanations, Grok goes rogue and apologies and the mega acquisitions + trends.
WPP hires Microsoft exec Cindy Rose to replace Mark Read as CEO.
Martin Sorrell: WPP may be 'too far gone' for new CEO Cindy Rose to turn around.
TikTok owner ByteDance has denied a recent report that it agreed to sell its US operations to a consortium led by Oracle.
X ordered its Grok chatbot to ‘tell like it is.’ Then the Nazi tirade began.
Elon Musk’s AI firm apologizes after chatbot Grok praises Hitler.
Meta invests $3.5 Billion in EssilorLuxottica in AI glasses push.
Children limiting own smartphone use to manage mental health, survey finds.
The number of 12- to 15-year-olds who take breaks from smartphones, computers and iPads rose by 18% to 40% since 2022, according to the audience research company GWI.
Pinterest’s first-ever Men’s Trends Report gives marketers a deeper look into Gen-Z and Millennial Men search trends.
Ferrero Rocher owner to buy cereal giant WK Kellogg in $3.1bn deal.
Linda Yaccarino steps down as CEO of X lets Musk shun ads, put focus on AI.
Microsoft's existing OpenAI deal may be undercutting ad agency partnerships.
Disney and ITV strike ‘first-of-its-kind’ deal to share select content across streaming platforms.
Tracksuit: The Brands Winning and Losing Gen Z in 2025.*
Shein files for Hong Kong IPO to pressure UK to save London listing.
With $217 million in ticket sales, ‘Superman’ helps save Warner Bros., too
AD **INSPIRATION** BREAK
Brand: Children of the Street / Agency: WILL
Online spending soared $24.1 billion across U.S. retailers during the stretch from July 8 to 11 – dubbed "Black Friday in Summer", outpacing Adobe Analytics' prior forecast.
What do you mean Jeff Bezos wants to buy Condé Nast?
TikTok’s new guide: Live 101: Everything You Need to Know for a Flawless Stream.
TikTok Canada halts sponsorships at TIFF, Junos and other arts groups.
Far-right extremists are exploiting TikTok’s “use-this-sound” feature as a Trojan horse for hate speech, with most of the offending videos staying online for months, according to new research.
Instagram content to start appearing in Google search from this week.
Instagram user says he was banned with no right of appeal.
Edits App adds new insights features and ways to control and enhance your audio.
Instagram and influencers accused of ruining luxury travel.
Instagram adds new features to the Ideas Tab on Edits.
🪑 Report Break: Today, nearly all U.S. teens (96%) say they use the internet every day. And the share of teens who report being online “almost constantly” has roughly doubled since 2014-15 (24% then vs. 46% today).
Nearly all teens (95%) report having access to a smartphone, up from 73% in 2014-15. Tablet accessibility has also experienced a 12 percentage point uptick during the same time frame.
French competition authority to investigate Meta's online advertising practices.
Meta publishes reels ads guide, Campaigns using Reels ads resulted in a 14% higher average brand lift and 24% higher median brand lift than BAU campaigns.
Meta unveils a new audio lab in the UK’s Ox-Cam Corridor.
WhatsApp is working on a feature to organize message replies into structured threads.
Meta is giving $1m (£740k) to the UK government for 10 AI fellowships as the UK's adoption of the technology expands.
EU's top court adviser sides with Italy in Meta Platforms dispute.
Elon Musk's X says Indian government ordered more than 2,000 accounts blocked, including Reuters.
Reuters X account restored in India after suspension over legal demand.
🔌 Report Break: As American Gen Z has grown, the youngest voting cohort has become 12 percentage points less likely to identify as liberal than in 2016, compared with a 5-point drop among the general population.
Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles ‘next week,’ says Elon Musk.
AI coding may not be helping as much as you think. (read)
Perplexity begins Comet rollout for Max users with invite-only access to follow.
StackAdapt introduces AI assistant to accelerate media buying.
🥦 Report Break: Across Europe, women creators consistently earn less than men — especially in Southern countries like France, Spain, and Italy. In contrast, the gender income gap appears to narrow in Germany and the Nordics.
Another step in LinkedIn's creator platform evolution, Creator data is becoming more accessible to third-party vendors via a new API.
Microsoft Investors prod company over work with Israeli Military.
Microsoft and OpenAI's AGI fight is bigger than a contract.
Microsoft develops Copilot 3D experiment targeting 3D creators.
Microsoft racks up over $500 million in AI savings while slashing jobs, Bloomberg News reports.
Accenture and Microsoft expand collaboration on Gen-AI powered cyber solutions.
Xbox is being set up to fail by Microsoft bosses, claims insider.
It's sad how this "Marketing" newsletter has become a "Political" newsletter. This used to be a good source of information but now it's just a person pushing more left wing ideologies. Example, this week's letter has great things to say about Google (who is abusing everyone's ad dollars) and even Pinterest (which really gets no usage) but not 1 good thing about X or Grok (not even a platform update which there was a major update). This trend has been continuous since the start of the year. If you want to have a Political newsletter, then you should, but don't call it a Marketing newsletter.
It's sad how this "Marketing" newsletter has become a "Political" newsletter. This used to be a good source of information but now it's just a person pushing more left wing ideologies. Example, this week's letter has great things to say about Google (who is abusing everyone's ad dollars) and even Pinterest (which really gets no usage) but not 1 good thing about X or Grok (not even a platform update which there was a major update). This trend has been continuous since the start of the year. If you want to have a Political newsletter, then you should, but don't call it a Marketing newsletter.