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Cannes Briefing: Creativity is moving beyond the agency model

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Cannes Briefing: Creativity is moving beyond the agency model

XTREME PETS THERAPIST

Welcome, design enthusiasts! My team and I designed all these characters for a gaming app called “Xtreme Pets Therapist” where pets piloting mechs battle with their steel fists in the championship arena… As an Xtreme Pet Therapist, your role is to help them process their emotions and perform at their best in battle. Help your

The Real Reason Organizations Struggle to Build Brand Trust

Brand trust isn’t built through endless content. Travis Claytor explains how emotionally connected, integrated marketing will set you apart. The post The Real Reason Organizations Struggle to Build Brand Trust first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Why Users Are Fleeing To AI-Free Search & What It Means For SEO

At Google I/O last month, the SEO industry waited for Google to launch AI Mode to the masses, and the fatalist viewpoint that it will end SEO. For the past couple of years, AI has been moving search through a structural shift. Every software tool is embedding generative AI as a new product feature for

Publishers remain skeptical of Perplexity’s “trust” pitch

This week’s Media Briefing dives into Perplexity’s uphill battle to rebuild publisher trust while fending off a growing list of copyright lawsuits. The words “trust” and “trustworthiness” came up at least a dozen times during a presentation by Perplexity’s head of publisher partnerships, Jessica Chan, at an IAB Tech Lab event last Thursday. And yet,

Murugiah on why you should make art about things you love

What has Murugiah, the multi-disciplinary British and Sri-Lankan artist, not done? He’s an artist, illustrator and designer in London, and his recent talk on May’s Nicer Tuesdays stage took us through just about everything he’s done with his boundless imagination, from exhibitions to film posters to even watches. Driven by an admiration for his older

Google’s May Core Update Complete After Volatile Rollout

Google’s May core update is now complete. The company confirmed the completion on June 2 on the Search Status Dashboard. The update started May 21 at 8:40 AM PDT and ended June 2 at 5:40 AM PDT, for a rollout of 11 days and 21 hours. That’s close to the March core update, which finished

Apple Turns Rival Browsers’ Trackers Into Creepy Chrome Stalkers

Apple is continuing its long-running privacy crusade by taking aim at the data trackers common on many web browsers. The tech giant launched a global campaign on Tuesday, “Clingers,” that uses absurdist humor to contrast the vast system of online tracking with its browser Safari’s privacy features. The ad dramatizes online trackers as an unsettling

Those Toy Story 5 plagiarism accusations explained

The hype around Toy Story 5 is huge. Just when we thought Pixar’s longest-running franchise might be growing tired, we get the announcement of a Taylor Swift Toy Story song and the unveiling of a new character to be voiced by none other than Bad Bunny, fresh from his Super Bowl performance. Alas, the reggaeton

What Is The Agentic Web?

The agentic web is the layer of the internet where AI agents, acting on behalf of humans, discover, read, and transact with websites. It exists alongside the human web and is measured separately. For most of the internet’s history, three classes of visitor showed up at a website: humans, search engine crawlers, and robots running

Why ‘it’s just SEO’ could cost the industry billions

Search has managed to do something impressive. At the precise moment it should be becoming more important and valuable to clients, large parts of the industry have chosen to argue themselves into irrelevance. The real argument is about ownership. Who gets to define what search becomes next? Who gets the budget? Who gets to explain

What Not To Automate With AI: The SEO Deskilling Trap

When AI arrived in the marketing mainstream, it was accompanied by a persistent and scary narrative: The machines are coming for our jobs. On the surface, those fears might appear well-founded. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 43% of surveyed marketers said their organization had laid off marketing employees within the last year – a

Why DSW and other brands are pivoting to traditional marketing

The phrase “what’s old is new again” doesn’t just apply to cyclical trends like low-rise jeans and flip phones, but marketing budgets as well. Marketers are increasingly reconsidering more traditional and offline ad channels. Call it a pendulum swing in response to the rise of AI and digital saturation. As ad platforms roll out more

How does contemporary type design translate into the wider world? Type01’s Amber Weaver shares her wisdom

Amber Weaver, the founder of Type01 (a type-led creative media platform as well as font market Type Department and type magazine Typeone) joined us on stage at London’s Nicer Tuesdays to take us the through the Type01 universe, from its feminist origins and creation of the magazine, to the platform’s original typefaces. She also touched

Google Tests Dedicated AI Search Reports In Search Console

Google is beginning to test two new Search Console features. One is a toggle that lets you control whether your site appears in generative AI Search features. The other is dedicated performance reports showing when URLs from a site appear in generative AI features across Search and Discover. Both features are rolling out to a

OpenAI Needs Two CMOs Because It Has a Problem Marketing Can’t Solve

Here is a marketing riddle: Take one of the best B2B brand builders alive, give him a big title, a near-trillion-dollar company to market, and the most famous product on earth to sell. Why would that be a disaster waiting to happen? Welcome to Colin Fleming’s new job at OpenAI. Fleming is the real deal.

Will Nvidia RTX Spark laptops end the Mac vs Windows debate for creatives?

Mac vs Windows is a debate that continues to polarise creatives. This was apparent in the comments section here on Creative Bloq when we asked over a year ago why graphic designers use Macs. Apple‘s switch from Intel to its own silicon with the M1 chip in late 2020 has helped maintain a view that

Microsoft Web IQ Gives AI Agents Bing Grounding APIs

Microsoft announced Web IQ, a set of grounding APIs that let AI agents pull information from Bing’s search index. The company calls Web IQ “a search engine for AI systems.” Where Bing helps people find web pages, Web IQ helps AI agents find information they can use while reasoning through a task. What Web IQ

Why your best campaign may not deserve more budget

It’s one of the best “problems” you can have in paid media. You’re running a campaign that delivers on every front. Cost per acquisition is strong. Return on ad spend is exceptional. Lead quality meets expectations. Average order value is exactly where it should be. Then the ask comes in: Double the budget and keep the

Two Halves, One Operating System Problem

Google just announced what we’ve been calling visibility engineering at Spin Sucks for almost a year. That validates the work. It does not close the gap. There are actually two visibility gaps — the external one (do AI systems see your brand?) and the internal one (do the people who sign your budget connect the

How To Fix Google Ads Smart Bidding With A Primary vs. Secondary Conversion Framework

Many Google Ads accounts have a conversion tracking problem that is disguised as a strategy problem. The ad account in this case has every action labeled as a “conversion.” The conversions are form fills, key button clicks, page views, cart adds, and checkouts started, which are all flowing into the same column, and all weighted

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