Digiday

Anyone in marketing gawking at the near-billion price tag attached to TikTok creator Khaby Lame and his deal with Rich Sparkle Holdings isn’t really looking at innovation. They’re witnessing faith. Faith in what this industry has collectively agreed to let numbers represent. Because that $975 million valuation doesn’t seem to be rooted in the nuts and bolts of Lame’s company Step Distinctive Limited’s financials so much as the gravitational pull of his audience. https://lnkd.in/e4TJiWPi In this piece by Seb Joseph, we speak to Abeed Janmohamed of Volando.

Advertisers: As agentic advertising becomes a reality, where do you see this technology offering the most potential value? What concerns are limiting your teams’ willingness to scale agent-driven buying? Tell us in this survey. Partner insights from Optable. https://lnkd.in/eYpecutY

Social media has now been around long enough to know it can be an extremely powerful marketing channel, notably for lower-funnel advertisers. Even in the face of eroded signals on what gets them to click. So the timing is right to understand social platforms from a 2.0 point of view — at least that’s the thinking behind GALE agency’s research work into what it considers “emerging media.” And what it found is that the more a platform can deliver the feeling and growth of community, the more success brands can have marketing on that platform. https://lnkd.in/exZD-xej In this piece by Michael Burgi, we speak to Benjamin James, Erin Silvoy of Starbucks, and Miranda Abney of MilkPEP.

Amazon is laying the plumbing for agentic advertising with the launch of its MCP server in open beta, opening up its ad stack to AI agents. The development was the subject of its flagship announcement at this year’s IAB leadership meeting, which provides a standards-based translation layer that converts natural-language prompts into structured API calls. https://lnkd.in/eB5G89_S Story by Ronan Shields.

NBCUniversal’s Ryan McConville joined the Digiday Podcast to break down the mechanics of the company’s first-of-its-kind agentic AI ad sales test. Listen to the full episode here (or wherever you get your podcasts): https://lnkd.in/eH8KBQWk

As the industry gears up for agentic shopping, platforms like OpenAI and Google have been laying the groundwork to begin to make it possible. Most recently, Google launched its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) — a foundational layer which looks to enable agentic shopping in the tech giant’s ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/dSjYRAXC In this piece by Krystal Scanlon, we speak to Jonathan Arena of New Generation, Michael Blanche of Surfside, Jeremy Goldman of EMARKETER, and Aaron Dicks of Impression.

Every industry struggles to scale, and the creator economy is no different. The market has exploded in the last decade, but without the traditional guardrails, metrics and accountability you’d come to expect from a multi-billion-dollar industry. With the creator economy set to grow by 18% in 2026 per IAB’s November 2025 report, brands like The RealReal and SharkNinja are turning to predictive models and datasets to guide their strategies. https://lnkd.in/gA_-QPtk In this piece by Alyssa Mercante, we speak to Caroline Mayhew Gardner, James Nord of Fohr, Dev Karaca of Kyra, Brendan Gahan of Creator Authority, and Danielle Wiley of Sway Group.

As AI takes center stage in marketing strategy, context is emerging as the differentiator that turns reactive automation into predictive intelligence. Partner insights from Experian. https://lnkd.in/eMcyAvmF

As U.S. growth slows and macroeconomic headwinds get harder to weather, brands like Procter & Gamble and Diageo are placing larger bets on retail media. And where the big spenders go, other advertisers are likely to follow, even as it’s unclear whether retail media actually leads to incremental growth. https://lnkd.in/e2EUXe3B In this piece by Kimeko McCoy, we speak to Shailesh Jejurikar, Freddy Dabaghi of Crispin, Shattuck Groome of Mile Marker, Jacob Davis of CROSSMEDIA.

Sports marketers plan for every eventuality. Now, they’re considering how to respond should the World Cup be derailed by the U.S. government. https://lnkd.in/e2WAJpew In this piece by Sam Bradley, we speak to Adam Schwartz of Horizon Media, Nick Anderson of Fuse, Andrea Nirsimloo of MSQ Sport + Entertainment, Robin Clarke of M+C Saatchi Group, and Luke Fowler of Kelly Scott Madison.