Blueprint | The Gradient

Cannes Briefing: Creativity is moving beyond the agency model

Featured Stories

Advertising, Marketing & Media Industry News

Cannes Briefing: Creativity is moving beyond the agency model

Looking for a unique stocking filler? How about a robot desk pet or keychain

Like robots? ME TOO. Not everyone is a fan, and that’s totally okay. But if you’re looking for a unique deal this Black Friday, then let me introduce you to the Eilik robot – which is currently $10 off over at Amazon in the US right now or just £139 in the UK. I know

Nano Banana Pro, Image Animation & The Top PPC Influencers

PPC news this week focused on creative tool updates and the people shaping how we use them. Google Ads brought Nano Banana Pro into its creative workflow, giving advertisers sharper, more flexible options for generating images. Microsoft Ads introduced Image Animation and new Performance Comparison features in Copilot, so turning static assets and raw numbers

DOJ Seeks Breakup of Google’s Ads Business in Closing Arguments of Historic Antitrust Case

The U.S. Department of Justice made its final push for a divestiture of key parts of Google’s advertising business Friday before a federal judge, the last step before the court decides how the tech giant must remedy its adtech monopoly. In closing arguments, the DOJ urged Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for

Tracing the “quieter dread that sits beneath creative work” with Plates of Meat magazine

The magazine is shrouded in biblical symbolism. Silva posits the King James Bible as the visual backbone of the issue. “The typography, the pacing of the text, even the use of white space,” says Silva. “I wanted it to feel like a school Bible left in a drawer, the kind that’s been scribbled on by

Gemini 3 Arrives & Adobe Buys Semrush

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how AI surfaces content, how you track brand demand, and where core SEO tools sit in the wider marketing stack. Google launched Gemini 3 directly into AI Mode in Search, Adobe announced a $1.9 billion acquisition of Semrush, and Google shipped two reporting updates in Search Console: custom

The real story behind Cracker Barrel’s rebrand — and why it matters for B2B brands

Now that the dust has settled, the branding agency fired and the old brand restored, it’s a good time to look at what really happened with the rebranding of Cracker Barrel — something the mainstream media largely overlooked. Let’s start with the firing of the agency behind the rebrand. Prophet — founded by Scott Galloway

I’m hooked on the new Bon Iver x Pantone colour collab

In an unexpected but surprisingly fitting collab, indie folk band Bon Iver has joined forces with Pantone to release a custom colour. Celebrating their highly praised 2025 album, SABLE, fABLE, the partnership is one of many quirky collaborations to mark the band’s latest release. While most musicians will typically focus on typical promo, from merch

84% Of Adults Use YouTube As Platform Growth Continues

YouTube and Facebook continue to lead U.S. social media usage, but TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reddit are showing consistent growth, according to new data from Pew Research Center. The report surveyed 5,022 U.S and found 84% use YouTube and 71% use Facebook. Instagram reached 50% adoption, making it the only other platform used by at

Sainsbury’s BFG Christmas ad most recognised by consumers, study finds

John Lewis retains its position as the UK’s favourite Christmas ad, while Waitrose secures joint second place with M&S, according to Ipsos data. Source

Ryan Evans makes “rainbows out of trash” with his vibrant drawings of consumer culture

“I want to make a rainbow out of trash,” says Ryan Evans, an artist based in the suburbs of South Jersey who is creating just that. Except this isn’t the work of a collage artist literally taking trash and refashioning it across a canvas like a school project, but a collage-style illustrator who takes the

Why Web Hosting Is A Critical Factor To Maximize SEO Results

Most SEO professionals obsess over content, links, and technical implementations. We track algorithm updates and audit on-page elements with precision. But there’s one factor that determines whether all that work can deliver results. Your web hosting controls every user’s first interaction with your site. It determines load speeds, uptime consistency, and Core Web Vitals scores

Why Bashel Lewis ditched a corporate career for the creator grind

It started with a standing desk and a Beyoncé lip sync. That was the viral video Bashel Lewis posted to his TikTok account in April that got him thinking about leaving his full time marketing gig at Nielsen to become a content creator. “Everyone from Universal to Hulu to every brand you could think —

Xencelabs new Pen Display 16 Lite drops by $50, now $749

Xencelabs is back with its Black Friday deals, and for illustrators and digital artists, they’re worth a serious look. For me, the standout deal is the new Pen Display 16 Lite with $50 off its price, now $799 $749; this OLED tablet was only released this month. The standard Pen Display 16 Bundle is also

Branded Clicks Fan Out, Longer Queries Hold

Advanced Web Ranking released its Q3 Google organic clickthrough report, tracking CTR changes by ranking position across query types and industries. The company compared July through September against April through June. The dataset is international, so the patterns reflect broad search behavior rather than a single region. Here’s what stands out in this quarter’s report.

Breaking the AI Hype Cycle, Coca-Cola Generates a Flop, and Spotify’s AI Slop Battle

AI is booming, VR is evolving, and AR is exploding into the real world — but most of it still feels underwhelming. On this week’s episode of TechMagic, host Lee Kebler welcomes Andrew Schwartz while host Cathy Hackl is away. Andrew is the director of metaverse engineering at Nike, and together, they unpack the realities

Pitch’s new AI tools remove the busywork from everyday deck design

Above: Room created in Pitch (Copyright © Pentagram 2025) There’s also a sense of democratisation at the centre of Pitch’s AI tools, somewhat levelling the playing field between self-employed individuals and bigger agencies. As Adam suggests, “Pitch helps solo creatives and small groups bat above their weight,” increasing their capacity, especially due to its rapid

Repositioning What SEO Success Looks Like

In SEO, we are at a turning point, and after more than a decade of chasing rankings and traffic volume, many of us are beginning to recognize the need to have a broader and more meaningful conversation about what “success” really means in SEO. This article reflects on how these conversations are evolving, why the

Salesforce adds observability to Agentforce, aiming to boost AI performance and trust

Salesforce is expanding the capabilities of its Agentforce 360 Platform with new observability tools designed to give organizations real-time visibility into AI agent performance. The update, announced today, aims to help companies scale their use of AI agents with greater confidence, transparency, and control. As AI-powered agents assume more customer-facing and operational roles, the need

Alan Lee’s illustrated Tolkien box set hits lowest-ever Black Friday price

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to upgrade your Tolkien collection, this might be it. Amazon has quietly slashed the price of the Alan Lee Illustrated Box Set of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by 39%, bringing the four-book hardback collection down to a far more tempting $91.10. As someone

LLMs.txt Does Not Boost AI Citations, New Analysis Finds

A new analysis from SE Ranking suggests the llms.txt file isn’t delivering measurable benefits yet. After examining roughly 300,000 domains, the company found no relationship between having llms.txt and how often a domain is cited in major LLM answers. What The Data Says Adoption Is Thin SE Ranking’s crawl found llms.txt on 10.13% of domains.

Join Our Newsletter

For more professional opportunities join our newsletter.