What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
Criteo’s $1 Billion Quarter Masks Real Trouble Behind YoY Growth
Criteo’s $1 billion Q1 haul looks good until you realize it’s propped up by short-term deals and overshadowed by major client losses. The retargeting giant is struggling to keep pace in a privacy-first world.
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Disney+ AI Hype Meets Reality: Why Josh D’Amaro’s Digital Centerpiece Promises More Than It Delivers
Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro calls Disney+ the company’s digital centerpiece, promising AI-driven upgrades. But beneath the hype lies familiar tech grift and underwhelming execution.
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Ted Turner’s Death Marks the End of an Era in 24-Hour News Hype
Ted Turner, the man who created CNN and pioneered 24-hour news, has died at 87. His legacy is a relentless news cycle that reshaped media — for better and worse.
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AB InBev Clinches Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year—Third Time’s Not a Charm, It’s a Monopoly
AB InBev’s third Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year win isn’t just a trophy—it’s a clear sign that marketing creativity is now a game dominated by cash and scale, not innovation.
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Google’s AI Max One Year Later: Search Costs Skyrocket While Advertisers Get Milked
A year after Google launched AI Max bidding, advertisers face soaring CPCs and shrinking returns as zero-click traffic worsens the squeeze.
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OpenAI Rejects Search Budgets—Because ChatGPT Isn’t a Google Clone, Deal with It
OpenAI’s refusal to adopt traditional search budgets reveals that ChatGPT operates fundamentally differently from Google—exposing the SEO industry’s outdated assumptions.
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The Upfront Market Glossary 2026: More Buzzwords, Less Substance
The 2026 upfront market glossary is a parade of buzzwords masking the TV ad industry's refusal to innovate. Real change demands transparency, not jargon.
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Possible’s Marketers Grapple with AI Hype While Clinging to ‘Human’ Facades
Marketers at Possible reveal the messy truth behind AI in marketing: it’s less magic and more a struggle to keep content human amid growing automation pressures.
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Ace Hardware’s AI Assistant: A Rare Win in the Corporate Chatbot Circus
Ace Hardware’s new AI assistant isn’t another half-baked chatbot. It’s a carefully designed tool that actually helps employees, proving that AI can work when done right.
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Marketing’s Toxic Blindspot: Why Ignoring the CTO Is a Recipe for Disaster
Only 4.6% of marketers prioritize strong ties with CTOs—a reckless oversight in a world where tech leadership defines marketing success.
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Forrester’s New Report Exposes B2B Marketing’s Deadly Blind Spot: Buyers Have Already Picked Their Vendors
Forrester reveals that 66% of B2B buyers pick their vendors before any direct contact, rendering traditional marketing tactics obsolete. The buying process is now confirmation, not selection.
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Cartier’s Panther Campaign Proves Luxury Branding Isn’t Dead, Just Lazy Everywhere Else
Cartier’s recent OOH campaign featuring its iconic panther reminded the luxury world that true brand distinctiveness comes from owning your heritage—not chasing trends. The campaign’s success earned it top honors in Kantar’s ‘The Works’ study.
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Airwallex Ditches Quick Fixes, Banks on ‘Compound Effect’ to Shake Up B2B Fintech Branding
Airwallex rejects fintech marketing hype, betting on slow, steady brand trust and deep partnerships to disrupt B2B finance. No quick wins here.
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The End of the Click: Why Marketers Clinging to Paid Search Are Screwing Themselves
Paid search is dying, and marketers still clinging to it are setting themselves up for failure. The future demands strong brands, not cheap clicks.
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How AI Content Detectors From Turnitin to GPTZero Destroy Creativity and Trigger False Alarms
Since 2023, AI content detectors have flagged up to 30% of human-written essays as AI-generated, fueling needless censorship and chaos in education and publishing.
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Applebot Crawling: Why Apple’s Search Is Still a Ghost to Publishers
Despite Applebot’s expanded crawl announced in 2023, publishers see zero transparency or actionable data from Apple’s search indexing.
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Rank Math’s AI Slogan Is SEO Grift—Here’s What Actually Moves the Needle in 2026
Rank Math's flashy AI marketing launched in 2023 misleads users; real SEO gains today come from technical rigor, not AI autopilot.
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The GSC Discover Traffic Attribution Scam: How Google Tricks Publishers with Fake Metrics
Google Search Console’s Discover traffic metric inflates impressions and clicks for over 70% of publishers, creating a phantom traffic bonanza.
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