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Amazon Unveils AI Powered Pause Ads ⏸️ Bringing EQ And IQ To Marketing 🧠 YouTube Introduces Interactive Product Feed For Shoppable TV 📺

Also: The Effect Of ChatGPT On Students' Learning Performance

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🗞 Marketing News

Amazon Unveils AI Powered Pause Ads [3 min read]

"Pause" ads analyze streaming content to dynamically generate contextually relevant advertisements when viewers pause videos, such as showing Hershey's Kisses during a paused kissing scene. These innovative ads feature interactive elements like "Send to phone" buttons that create direct connections between streaming content and advertisers by allowing viewers to receive more information on their mobile devices. Also, Amazon is leveraging its marketplace infrastructure to incorporate real-time retail information into the ads while accommodating non-Amazon sellers through expanded call-to-action options like "get a quote" or "book an appointment."

Bringing EQ And IQ To Marketing [3 min read]

Effective marketing requires balancing emotional intelligence (EQ) with data-driven insights (IQ) to create authentic connections with increasingly discerning consumers. Leading brands like Airbnb and Café Bustelo demonstrate this approach by understanding emotional drivers while using data to validate and refine their messaging strategies. The recommended four-step process—starting with human-centered insights, validating with data, creating unified cross-channel strategies, and focusing on long-term relationships—transforms casual customers into loyal brand advocates who provide sustained engagement and lifetime value.

YouTube Introduces Interactive Product Feed For Shoppable TV Ads [2 min read]

YouTube unveiled an innovative feed that displays products on screen and allows viewers to purchase items via QR codes. This strategic move builds on YouTube's dominance in streaming, having been the top platform for U.S. streaming watch time for over two years according to Nielsen, with televisions now serving as Americans' primary YouTube viewing device. The trend toward interactive shopping experiences continues to gain momentum across streaming platforms, with YouTube reporting over 50 million monthly conversions from CTV campaigns last quarter and Amazon similarly launching new shoppable ad formats on Prime Video.

🤖 AI

AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-Powered Coding Agent For Designing Advanced Algorithms [5 min read]

Google's new AI system AlphaEvolve combines Gemini language models with automated evaluators in an evolutionary framework to discover and optimize algorithms for complex problems in mathematics and computing. This technology has already delivered practical benefits across Google's ecosystem, improving data center efficiency, assisting in hardware design for TPUs, and enhancing AI training performance with up to 32.5% speedups for certain operations. Beyond its current applications, AlphaEvolve has advanced mathematical frontiers by improving upon existing algorithms like Strassen's matrix multiplication and making progress on challenging problems such as the kissing number problem, with plans to extend its capabilities to fields including material science, drug discovery, and sustainability.

The Effect Of ChatGPT On Students' Learning Performance [45 min read]

A meta-analysis of 51 studies reveals that ChatGPT significantly enhances student learning, with a large positive effect on learning performance (g = 0.867) and moderate positive effects on learning perception (g = 0.456) and higher-order thinking (g = 0.457). The effectiveness of ChatGPT varies based on factors such as course type, learning model, duration, and the role it plays, with skills development courses, problem-based learning, 4-8 week implementations, and intelligent tutor roles showing particularly strong outcomes. To maximize benefits, educators should provide appropriate learning scaffolds when developing higher-order thinking, implement ChatGPT across diverse grade levels and course types, integrate it into problem-based learning, maintain usage for 4-8 weeks, and flexibly employ it as an intelligent tutor, learning partner, and educational tool.

Introducing Continuous Thought Machines [8 min read]

Sakana AI's Continuous Thought Machine (CTM) represents a breakthrough in neural network architecture by incorporating time as a key dimension and using the synchronization between neuron dynamics to solve tasks, more closely mimicking biological neural networks. The CTM demonstrates remarkably interpretable reasoning patterns, allowing observers to actually see how it "thinks" through problems like tracing paths in mazes or shifting attention across features in images, rather than just receiving a final answer. This innovation attempts to bridge the gap between artificial intelligence and neuroscience by moving beyond the simplified neural models from the 1980s, suggesting that by incorporating more brain-like features—particularly rich neural dynamics and synchronization patterns—AI can potentially achieve new capabilities while maintaining practical functionality.

🧠 Hacks & Tactics

URL Slugs And Why They Matter For SEO [10 min read]

URL slugs make web addresses more readable and descriptive, which helps both search engines and users understand the content of a page, thereby improving click-through rates and user engagement. Adhering to best practices for creating URL slugs—such as being concise yet descriptive, using hyphens to separate words, maintaining lowercase characters, avoiding special characters, keeping slugs evergreen, and including primary keywords—ensures that URLs are optimized for both search engines and user experience. Also, properly managing changes to URL slugs with 301 redirects is important to preserve SEO value and prevent broken links, ensuring that any updates do not negatively impact search rankings or user access. 

How To Do Multi-Channel Marketing [4 min read]

To effectively engage diverse audiences, adopt a true multi-channel marketing strategy, leveraging a variety of platforms to maximize ROI and cut through digital noise. Each social media platform offers unique strengths—such as YouTube for long-form content, Reddit for community building, Snapchat for real-time interactions, and Pinterest for inspiration-driven engagement. Implementing these strategies requires continuous testing and adaptation, using real-world examples like Formula 1 and Victoria’s Secret to illustrate the importance of integrated content approaches and the need to stay bold and intentional in a constantly evolving social landscape.

Customer Loyalty Strategies: Why Positive Memories Matter [6 min read]

Customer experience (CX) teams frequently focus too much on the actual experience instead of shaping the memories of those experiences, which is crucial for effective loyalty strategies. To reinforce positive memories, companies should use customer feedback surveys for active recall and clearly define desired customer actions, such as repeat purchases or recommendations, tailoring follow-up actions to encourage these behaviors.

🏗️ For Founders

How To Think About Runway [10 min read]

According to Sequoia Capital, founders must think beyond the basic runway calculation (cash ÷ burn) and instead view runway in relation to achieving their next valuation milestone—like ensuring you have enough gas to reach the next station, not just counting gallons. Most startups are unknowingly in the "danger zone" with 12+ months of runway but insufficient time to reach the metrics needed for their next funding round, requiring immediate action rather than complacency. Extending runway demands difficult decisions now—from detailed P&L analysis to potential layoffs and strategy shifts—with the goal of securing 4 years of runway if you need 3 years to hit your milestone, because as the article emphasizes: "You likely need more runway than you think."

The True Cost Of Churn [4 min read]

The true cost of customer churn extends far beyond immediate lost revenue - when a $150K ARR customer churns after just one year, the company loses nearly $1M in lifetime profits, not just the annual contract value. Second-order effects multiply this damage dramatically, as unhappy customers spread negative word-of-mouth that can cost additional deals when champions change jobs, drive referrals to competitors, and even convince existing customers to switch, potentially tripling the total impact to $3.3M. Even a tiny 0.15% increase in churn rate can cost millions in lost profits, making retention efforts critical not just for saving individual customers but for preventing the cascading negative effects throughout the market.

🔮 The Future

The World's Fastest Transistor, And It's Not Made Of Silicon [6 min read]

Chinese scientists at Peking University have developed the world's fastest transistor using bismuth-based materials instead of silicon, achieving 40% greater speed while consuming 10% less energy than current 3-nanometer chips. The breakthrough transistor employs a revolutionary gate-all-around (GAAFET) architecture with bismuth oxyselenide as the channel material, allowing electrons to flow with minimal resistance and providing superior current control. This innovation appears strategically motivated by U.S. export restrictions on advanced chip-making equipment, potentially offering China an alternative path to semiconductor advancement by circumventing the need for silicon-based technology that relies on Western manufacturing tools.

36% Of Consumers Start Searching On Pinterest, Not Google [2 min read]

Pinterest is rapidly emerging as a significant search alternative to Google, with 36% of consumers—and 39% of Gen Z users—now starting their searches on the visual platform instead. This shift is driven by users who find Pinterest's visual search results superior (73%) and more personalized (61%) than traditional search engines. Businesses are following their customers to Pinterest, with 80% reporting better engagement than any other search platform, though many still struggle with creating sufficient content and understanding Pinterest SEO.

Netflix Ad Suite Reaches Critical Mass, 170M Viewers [2 min read]

Netflix has achieved significant scale with its advertising platform, now reaching approximately 170 million monthly active viewers globally and set to be available across all markets with ad plans by June. Users on the ad-supported tier demonstrate strong engagement, watching nearly as much content as those on ad-free plans, with attention metrics that actually increase toward the end of shows. To capitalize on this growth, Netflix has developed its in-house advertising technology platform offering enhanced targeting options and creative formats, positioning the company to potentially generate $3.6 billion in global ad revenue by 2025.

👩‍🏫 Vocab

Brand Voice: The distinctive personality and tone your brand uses in all its communications. It reflects your brand's values and resonates with your target audience. A consistent brand voice helps customers recognize and relate to your brand across all channels.

Example: Dove uses an empowering, authentic voice that promotes self-acceptance and real beauty in all their marketing communications.

Storytelling: The use of narrative techniques to connect with your audience and convey your brand's message. It goes beyond facts to create emotional connections and memorable experiences. Good storytelling makes your marketing more engaging and persuasive.

Example: Nike's "Just Do It" campaigns tell inspiring stories of athletes overcoming challenges, rather than just listing product features.

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