🛍️ Nordstrom is building hype ahead of its biggest sale of the season.

🎥 X is rolling out new video editing tools for creators.

🤖 Marketing teams are starting to treat AI like a new coworker.

⚽ How brands are using David Beckham during the Club World Cup.

🎬 Five creative campaigns worth adding to your inspiration folder.

More leads doesn’t always mean better results.

One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make in Google Ads is optimizing campaigns for form fills instead of qualified customers. If your tracking only tells Google who submitted a form, the algorithm will keep finding people who submit forms, even if they never become paying customers.

The fix? Feed Google better data.

By connecting your CRM to Google Ads and assigning different values to different stages of your funnel, you can train the algorithm to prioritize the leads that actually generate revenue. Instead of treating every conversion the same, teach Google which actions matter most to your business.

• A few ways to improve lead quality in Google Ads:
• Connect CRM and offline conversion data back into Google Ads.
• Assign higher values to SQLs, opportunities, and closed deals.
• Use Maximize Conversion Value or Target ROAS when lead values vary.
• Review search terms regularly and add negative keywords.
• Keep budgets stable so Smart Bidding has consistent data to learn from.

Head to WordStream for more.

Octolens helps brands spot high-intent conversations before they become sales opportunities.

Instead of tracking simple brand mentions, it monitors discussions across platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn, X, GitHub, and more to identify people actively looking for solutions like yours.

The platform filters out noise using AI, surfaces relevant conversations, and sends real-time alerts so you can engage while interest is still high.

It’s a smarter way to turn online conversations into qualified leads—without spending hours searching for them.

This year’s Cannes Lions Titanium shortlist is stacked,  but we’re breaking down our five favorites that change the game and raise the bar:

• A radical decentralized communications campaign that preserved the democratic presidential vote in Venezuela.
• A new media framework that positions branded litter as negative media impressions, empowering brands to “buy back” bad ad placements.
• A campaign to repatriate and reintegrate deported Mexican citizens with scalable infrastructure.
• A multi-platform celebration of Philipstown’s wire car racing tradition with built-in channels to fund its growth.
• A coordinated effort to transform the symbolic Popemobile into a traveling pediatric clinic for the children of Gaza.

Winners are announced on Friday. Who are you rooting for?

🎙️ Don’t miss “Marketing as Infrastructure: Our Cannes Lions Titanium Picks” now streaming on:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Amazon Music
• Apple Music

Weigh in on The Daily Carnage Subreddit:

• The Daily Carnage Show Ep 2.9 Discussion: “If AI agents become the primary interface to knowledge, what happens to the humans and businesses that knowledge originally came from? What does it mean for the internet to quietly transition from an open ecosystem of destinations into a closed ecosystem of gate-kept answers? Are we speeding toward a future where people stop visiting the web directly? If that behavior ends, we ever be able to rebuild it?”

🎙️ The Daily Carnage Show is growing!

So, we’re excited to share a new sponsorship opportunity.

Book a Pre-Roll Ad at the top the episode with your preferred script, on-screen text, and link in description.

🎧 Podcast advertising is one of the highest-performing brand channels:

• 60%+ of listeners say they’ve searched for a product after hearing it on a podcast.
• Podcast ads consistently outperform display ads on engagement and recall.
• Pre-roll ads are among the most-heard placements, with the strongest completion rates.

🗣️ This is your opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience of marketers, creatives, and strategists when they’ve got their listening ears on.

Interested in sponsoring an upcoming episode? Reach out and let’s build something together.

Apple’s new China campaign imagines a newly downloaded app as an overly curious houseguest.

As it repeatedly asks for access to contacts, photos, and location, comedian Yue Yun Peng reminds viewers that iPhone users stay in control with App Permissions.

The campaign spans social films, short animations, OOH, WeChat, and Douyin—making a technical feature surprisingly entertaining.

Marlboro, 1924