🍕 Domino’s new rectangular pizza targets the solo-dining crowd.

🎙️ Spotify’s new skip button could change podcasting as we know it.

🛰️ Google is adding AI to satellite imagery, raising concerns about deepfakes from space.

💘 Hinge turns its latest dating campaign into an audiobook about modern love.

📊 Nielsen’s $2B DoubleVerify deal raises questions about independence in ad measurement.

🛡️ OpenAI launches a new cybersecurity model as AI-powered attacks multiply.

The first half of 2026 made one thing pretty clear: AI isn’t just changing how marketers create content. It’s changing how people search, discover brands, and make decisions.

WordStream’s mid-year trends point to a mix of AI-driven shifts and some very human ones, from GEO becoming more closely tied to traditional SEO to brands turning toward smaller creators and more contextual advertising.

Here are five trends worth keeping an eye on:

• GEO starts with good SEO. Strong technical foundations, useful content, real-world experience, and local relevance are still the foundation for AI visibility.
• AI is moving up the buyer journey. People are increasingly using AI to compare options before they ever visit a brand’s website.
• Context is making a comeback. As audience data becomes harder to rely on, marketers can use the content and context surrounding an ad to reach people in more relevant moments.
• Small creators are getting bigger opportunities. Brands are looking beyond traditional influencers and partnering with creators who may have smaller audiences but stronger relevance and authenticity.
• LinkedIn is becoming more creator-led. New tools are pushing attention toward individual voices, giving B2B brands more reason to invest in employee and creator-led content.

The takeaway? Marketing is getting more automated, but relevance is still doing the heavy lifting.

Get the full scoop at WordStream.

Portfolio Lab uses AI to build and validate systematic investment strategies based on different goals, from long-term growth to limiting drawdowns.

You can create a strategy from scratch or start with an expert-built one, then test it using live market data and paper trading before deploying it. The platform can generate multiple strategies from one build, each optimized for a different objective such as return, Sharpe ratio, or lower drawdown.

Once you’ve found one you like, an AI agent can mirror the strategy in your own brokerage account, while Portfolio Lab keeps track of what the strategy holds and why it changes.

Google is making the biggest change to Image Search since it was created 25 years ago:

• The homepage is being redesigned into a personalized, Pinterest-like feed.
• AI can now generate images directly inside Search.
• The interface itself is getting a major refresh.

And together, these updates signal a substantial shift from Google Image Search as simple visual retrieval tool into a place for discovery.

How will this affect image SEO for marketers, brands, and publishers?

🎙️ Don’t miss “Google Image Search is… Pinterest?” now streaming on:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Amazon Music
• 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.

Got a marketing problem you’re trying to solve? Need a second opinion? Wondering whether a new platform, AI tool, campaign idea, or strategy is worth pursuing?

Every Friday, we’re clocking in for Agency Office Hours sessions: 30-minute sessions for Daily Carnage readers to chat with the Carney team.

Bring your questions. We’ll bring our experience.

Whether you’re trying to improve performance, navigate industry changes, troubleshoot a campaign, or simply sanity-check an idea, we wanna hear what you’ve got going on.

No pitches. No obligations. No sales deck. Seriously.

Just a free 30-minute conversation with the team behind The Daily Carnage.

👉 Reserve your Office Hours session now.

Getting a red card usually means one thing: you’re going home.

For Russian real estate brand Etazhi, that made the perfect advertising opportunity.

The brand put its logo and “Go Home!” directly on the red cards used by WINLINE Media League referees. So instead of showing up during a commercial break, Etazhi appeared at the exact moment a player was sent off.

Every red card became an ad. Every sending-off became a little reminder of where Etazhi could help you go next.

The idea generated more than 6 million views, 5,000+ reactions and comments, and dozens of earned media mentions.

Scotch Tape, 1946