🤝 Collaborative posts are coming to LinkedIn.

👻 Snapchat introduces AI ad creation tools.

🤖 Google adds AI bot to Ad Manager.

📊 85% of agency leaders believe that outcomes-based compensation is the future.

📉 Black publishers navigate DEI spending decline.

Reddit’s latest research suggests that consumers increasingly turn to human conversations to sense-check purchases before they commit.

77% of Redditors say they visit two or more communities to validate a purchase decision, while 63% say they’re more confident in decisions informed by Reddit discussions than those influenced by other social platforms.

Even more telling: 58% say seeing a brand answer customer questions directly in a thread increases their trust in that brand.

Reddit calls this shift the “mission mindset,” or the moment when consumers actively investigate options rather than passively consume marketing messages.

That’s why brands need to participate in conversations, answer questions, and help buyers evaluate their options.

Consider this:

• Buyers increasingly trust peer conversations over polished brand messaging.
• Validation is becoming a distinct stage in the customer journey.
• Community discussions can accelerate purchase confidence and decision-making.
• Brand participation in relevant conversations can increase trust.
• Consumers are more receptive when brands engage where research is already happening.

Check out Reddit’s full report for more.

Adobe and LinkedIn have launched a free global training initiative to help marketers build practical AI skills across digital marketing, content creation, social media, communications, and analytics.

It’s not a slog through theory. It’s built around real-world workflows, including content planning, audience targeting, campaign development, and using data within agentic AI systems.

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.

Let’s take this party outside of the inbox, Carnies!

Connect and network with over 20,000 marketers to get (and give) advice, feedback, support, and LOLs.

• 💬 Join r/TheDailyCarnage on Reddit
• 👍 Join The Daily Carnage Facebook Group

😎 See ya there.

🎙️ 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.

When was the last time you tried the old glass-of-warm-milk-before-bed trick?

Dairy Farmers of Ontario is bringing it back.

Created by Broken Heart Love Affair, the campaign revives the classic bedtime ritual. No supplements, no sleep tech, no hacks.

It’s a smart play: milk as nostalgic ceremony, not as product.

Microsoft, 1983