📺 ICYMI: A recap of 2026 Upfronts.

⚖️ OpenAI is sued for sharing queries with Meta and Google.

🔎 Meta says social search and traditional search can coexist.

📊 Report: Only 36% of industry professionals use social media intelligence to inform decisions outside of marketing.

📌 Pinterest’s VP explains the “get off your phone” campaign strategy.

⚽ Miller Lite’s World Cup Matchball can hold a 12-pack of beer.

A “good” search query is clear, specific, and natural.

Instead of broad terms like “coffee,” users now search in conversational, high-intent phrases like “best light roast coffee for cold brew under $20.”

And search engines increasingly prioritize search intent over exact-match keywords. Whether someone wants to learn, compare, buy, or solve a problem determines what type of content should rank. A query like “business plan” is ambiguous, while “how to write a business plan for a startup” signals a much clearer need.

Adding phrases like “for beginners,” “best,” or “under $50” can narrow intent and increase the likelihood of appearing in featured snippets, AI overviews, and voice search results.

A strong search query usually has:

• Clear user intent
• Specific wording and context
• Natural, conversational phrasing
• Long-tail keyword structure
• Relevant modifiers (“best,” “how to,” “near me”)
• Alignment with user needs and SERP behavior

Check out Clearscope for more.

You know the drill.

Updated social media image and video size guides for Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Threads, Substack. And X, too, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Don’t miss the latest episode of The Daily Carnage Show, “Brand vs. Planet: The Marketer’s AI Footprint,” to learn more about the energy, water, land, and infrastructure costs behind the tech that powers your whole stack.

🎙️ Plus, catch up on Season 2:

• Our Picks for the 2026 Titanium Lions (13:06)
• Silent Spring: Is Rainbox Capitalism Dead? (11:41)
• The Future of Google Search (9:56)
• GLP-1s are Disrupting Every Sector (9:56)
• Spirit Airlines 2.0: Will it Fly? (11:08)
• Major Platform Updates (8:17)
• Nike Runs into Controversy (12:19)
• Transgressive OOH (18:45)
• Your Brain on AI (12:33)
• Meta, McDonald’s Mukbang, and The OpenAI Mess (14:41)
• Ethics in the AI Era (18:33)

🎙️ Now streaming on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music.

“The Daily Carnage was the newsletter that brought us the most meaningful demo clicks and new trials.” — Digital Summit

“Open rate was nearly 50% and CTR was relatively high, especially considering this newsletter’s audience was likely being exposed to our event for the first time.” — Adweek

Hop on our 2026 sponsorship calendar to get your content in front of 25,000 marketers.

Book a $99 Classified ad instantly, or ask us about our custom sponsorship packages tailored to your campaign objectives.

The spare, black-and-white YETI logo is nothing short of iconic.

In a new campaign by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, YETI reimagines its logo as a symbol of identity by transforming it into a bunch of other lifestyle-related four-letter words like “FISH,” “RIDE,” “COOK,” and “BALL.”

It comes with a fast-paced anthem film assembled entirely from found footage sourced from YETI’s ambassador community.

There are also OOH placements, retail activations, sporting events, and limited-edition stickers (if your cooler still has some room left).

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?”

Pokemon, 1999