Staying ahead in marketing isn’t about chasing every headline — it’s about knowing what’s worth your time. Here’s a quick rundown of the news that actually makes a difference. Let’s get into it.
Events to Keep an Eye On This Week
Timing is everything — and these upcoming events are your chance to show up, stand out, and stay ahead of the curve. Mark your calendar — these are the moments that matter.
| Date | Event Name | Description | Location |
| May 5–7 | Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit | A deep dive into programmatic trends and ad tech strategies. | Palm Springs, CA, USA |
| May 6–8 | Sellers Summit | Focused on ecommerce growth, Amazon selling, and affiliate tactics. | Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA |
| May 11 | Mother’s Day (US) | One of the biggest gifting days. Ideal for promos in beauty, wellness, and lifestyle. | USA |
| May 12–13 | DigiMarCon Midwest | Features Meta, HubSpot,and SAP on automation and growth marketing. | Chicago, IL, USA |
| May 12–13 | Gartner Marketing Symposium | For CMOs and marketing leaders exploring future-forward strategies. | London, UK |
Weekly News Highlights
Advertising & Tech
- Amazon made $13.9 billion from ads last quarter, up 18% from the year before
- Google is experimenting with placing ads directly into chatbot conversations through AI startups
- UK ad spending just topped £40 billion for the first time, with podcast ads up 8% and video ads up 20%
- Streaming services now have about as many ads as old-school TV used to
- Brazil is taking action against social media platforms to help keep kids safe online
- Samsung Ads has introduced a new interactive in-house ad format called Creative Canvas
Search Trends
- Google’s Performance Max just got better reporting with new Channel, Search, and Asset Insights
- Google might start labeling search results as “Sponsored” if they lead to commercial content
- Google is tightening its transparency rules to show who’s actually paying for ads
- Top ads on Google can now show up at the bottom of search results, not just the top
Social Media Buzz
- Pinterest is finally doing something about all the sloppy AI-generated content — they’re rolling out content labels
- After staying quiet on the mass account bans, Pinterest spoke up — and users are even more frustrated now
- TikTok’s Promote tool now lets advertisers target people on other messaging apps
- Turns out barely anyone hangs out in TikTok’s Friends tab — just around 1% of time spent on the app
- Instagram just dropped the first round of updates for its new Edits app
- Threads has officially hit 350 million active users
- Meta’s big changes to content moderation didn’t scare off advertisers
- Most users don’t even notice when Meta slips in more ads
- Meta just shared new ad tips based on what’s getting the most engagement lately
- X (formerly Twitter) has lost 11 million users in the EU in the past five months
- Twitch is falling behind TikTok and YouTube in the livestreaming game
- YouTube is testing out blurred thumbnails for videos with mature content
AI Insights
- Meta just launched its own standalone AI app, simply called Meta AI
- Google’s AI Mode is now open to all Labs users in the US
- Mark Zuckerberg says he wants AI to handle half of Meta’s coding by 2026
- NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews now support multiple languages
- X is swapping out its recommendation algorithm for a simpler version powered by Grok
- ChatGPT now gives product recommendations as part of its built-in search
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