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

WHSmith Taps ISM to Sell In-Store Ads Across Its Airport RMN

WHSmith has selected retail adtech firm In-Store Marketplace to power digital and audio ads throughout its network of more than 350 U.S. airport stores. The tie-up allows advertisers to buy ad placements programmatically across roughly 700 digital screens and audio channels through WHSmith Media, which the U.K.-based retailer launched in North America last year in

Learn new ways to sculpt and paint art with issue 262 of ImagineFX

In this month’s ImagineFX we xxxxxx Read on below to see all the major articles waiting for you this month. Get yours now! To bag your copy head over to Magazines Direct, where you can pick up a single issue, save some money on a subscription, and fill in the blanks in your collection with

How to Use Data to Tell Your Brand Story

Every comms pro wants a compelling brand story but few know how to pull one from scattered data. Indiana Lee offers a framework for meaningful data storytelling. The post How to Use Data to Tell Your Brand Story first appeared on Spin Sucks.

WooCommerce WordPress Plugin Exploit Enables Fraudulent Charges

The popular WooCommerce Square plugin for WordPress vulnerability enables unauthenticated attackers to uncover credit cards on file and make fraudulent charges. The vulnerability affects up to 80,000 installations. WooCommerce Square WordPress Plugin The WooCommerce Square plugin enables WordPress sites to accept payments through the Square POS, as well as synchronize product inventory data between Square

The myth of brand community in the age of data agency

Dirty data damaged marketing — not because it was messy or incomplete, but because it trained systems to misunderstand people with confidence. Partial signals were treated as truth. Inference replaced intent. Surveillance masqueraded as insight. And an entire economy was built on the comforting lie that activity equals meaning. Clean data makes something different possible.

Buy prints from artists in the second It’s Nice That x DROOL collection

The time has come for our hotly awaited team-up with the contemporary art prints and poster store DROOL. For the second time, we put out an open call for creatives to submit their artworks to be shortlisted for sale in print form on DROOL’s carefully curated online store. After another huge response, the standard of

Why Comms Pros Are the New Visibility Engineers

Gini Dietrich says comms pros are the new visibility engineers; they don’t wait for coverage to appear. They architect PESO Model©-powered ecosystems AI can’t overlook. The post Why Comms Pros Are the New Visibility Engineers first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Apple Selects Google’s Gemini For New AI-Powered Siri

Apple is partnering with Google to power its AI features, including a major Siri upgrade expected later this year. The companies announced the multi-year collaboration on Monday. Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology will serve as the foundation for the next generation of Apple Foundation Models. “After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s AI technology

Marketoonist on platform metrics

Tom Fishburne is founder of Marketoon Studios. Follow his work at marketoonist.com or on X @tomfishburne See more of the Marketoonist here Source

Listen up! These are the best budget friendly in-ear monitors

Any creative who works on the move needs a reliable pair of in-ear monitors (IEMs). Unlike consumer earbuds, which boost bass and treble to make music sound more exciting, audiophile IEMs are designed for accuracy and detail. Whether you’re mixing music on a train, editing podcasts in a café or reviewing sound design on location,

Retrofitting the PESO Model© Without Starting Over

Already launched your campaign and forgot to integrate the PESO Model©? Travis Claytor shows how to retrofit it without starting over. The post Retrofitting the PESO Model© Without Starting Over first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Insights From Last Year’s Best Debates For 2026

Hosting my podcast, gives me a front-row seat to the unfiltered reality of our industry, the gritty, “in-the-trenches” reality shared by experts who manage millions in spend. Last year, my guests, including Greg Finn, Christine “Shep” Zirnheld, Julie Friedman Bacchini, Andrew Lolk and Shawn Walker didn’t hold back. They dismantled “best practices,” called out platform

‘The net is tightening’ on AI scraping: Annotated Q&A with Financial Times’ head of global public policy and platform strategy

For much of the past year, publishers have been playing defense against AI scraping and copyright uncertainty. But heading into 2026, some see reasons to believe the ground is finally starting to move a little more in their favor. The Financial Times was the first U.K.-based publisher to strike a licensing deal with OpenAI in

The magic behind Louis Garella’s design process is “a constant back-and-forth between digital and print”

Louis Garella’s portfolio is a reminder that whilst many works in graphic design are destined to be flat or experienced on screens, the interactions we have with colour, form, type and composition don’t have to be so immaterial. What defines the designers work is his “hybrid practice”, one that sits at the intersection of visual

Citations are the new backlinks. Summaries are the new search results. Communicators are the new visibility engineers. Gini Dietrich explains how to combine all of that for AI search success. The post Generative Engine Optimization, Trust, and the PESO Model© first appeared on Spin Sucks.

The Technical Guide To Adobe Commerce (Magento) SEO Issues

Magento, now officially Adobe Commerce (but still known as Magento with SEOs), remains a powerful but demanding ecommerce platform, especially in the Magento 2 era. Adobe Commerce can deliver strong organic performance when built and optimized correctly, but it requires careful attention to technical SEO, site speed, and structured data. This guide outlines key Magento/Adobe

Google and Walmart Join Forces to Shape the Future of Retail

Google’s and Walmart’s leaders are both betting the future of retail on AI and technologies like drone delivery. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and incoming Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner — who will become the company’s next CEO in February — revealed how AI is reshaping search and shopping during a Sunday keynote at the National

Why the time was right to return to R-Type Delta, according to Nobu Yoshikawa

R-Type Delta HD Boosted revamps a game that bridged the eras of pixel art and 3D polygons, giving it unique appeal for fans of retro shooters. But can it also appeal to new players? The collaboration between City Connection, ZeroDiv, and Irem was a task of gaming archaeology, made more difficult by incomplete source code

How Generative AI Ruined My Fantasy Baseball Season

Christopher Barger explains why generative AI isn’t a magic solution and how to integrate it into your work without losing focus. The post How Generative AI Ruined My Fantasy Baseball Season first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Google Announces AI Mode Checkout Protocol, Business Agent

Google announced tools that let shoppers complete purchases directly within AI Mode and chat with branded AI agents in Search results. Users can purchase from eligible product listings on Google. Retailers are still the seller of record, while the checkout happens on Google surfaces instead of the retailer’s website. Universal Commerce Protocol Powers AI Mode

Join Our Newsletter

For more professional opportunities join our newsletter.