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🫢 What not to do: Google threatened tech influencers unless they “preferred” the Pixel.

🖐️ No, X is not seeing massive usage declines.

🤑 Report: The digital economy is poised to grow.

🤖 Google announced updates and experiments for its new AI Overviews.

🗺️ Instagram rolls out live friend map feature to select users.

🌶️ Sriracha maker Lee Kum Kee reaches out to Gen Z with musical campaign.

🥇 How NBC and Peacock won Olympic gold with streaming and advertiser innovations.

📍 Infographic: Countries that use ChatGPT the most.

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Ads that appear as regular content get more clicks initially, but have much higher bounce rates.

Native ads—from social posts to search ads to news articles—can combat banner blindness by camouflaging as non-sponsored content.

But research shows that, while users were more likely to click on a native ad across a variety of categories, they were less likely to stay on the page once they realized they’d clicked on an ad.

For this reason, native ads are more expensive—by 16% according to one study—than traditional banner ads when counting the number of actual website visits.

What gives? Well, users reported feeling 19.6% more annoyed by native ads. Feeling bamboozled doesn’t always inspire purchases—more often, it makes people bounce.

Still, native ads can be effective when they incorporate a soft sell into meaningful content that offers real value. If your bounce rate remains high, test campaigns on a cost-per-aquisition model rather than a than cost-per-click model.

Check out the research at Ariyh.

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Vitaminwater’s “Paint Your Rent” campaign is one for the times.

The brand is inviting fans to submit a photo of their fave flavor—in a room of their own that needs a makeover—for a chance to win custom interior design services inspired by Vitaminwater’s vibrant color palette, a retro mini fridge stocked with product, and, oh yeah, free rent for an entire year.

See how they’ve stacked two cultural trends here? On one hand, we have sky-high costs of living; on the other, we have the growing need to modify one’s interior environment to feel safe, calm, and inspired (#dopaminedecor). Very demure, very cutesy.