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BeReal Launches Advertising Platform 🤳 Outsmart Google Ads 🤔 Emotions Rule Brand Loyalty 🎭

Also: The Marketer's No-Nonsense, A To Z Guide To All Things AI

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🗞 Marketing News

BeReal Launches US Advertising Platform [3 min read]

Social media platform BeReal has launched its native advertising platform in the United States, offering targeted in-feed ads and takeovers designed to mirror the platform's authentic user experience. To support this expansion, BeReal has appointed former TikTok executive Ben Moore as its U.S. managing director, who will oversee revenue growth and partnerships. The company has also revealed it has 40 million monthly active users globally (85% Gen Z) and is positioning itself as a "safer" advertising environment, potentially capitalizing on TikTok's uncertain future in the U.S. market.

Outsmart Google Ads [8 min read]

Google Ads changes can be categorized into three types requiring different responses: forced adoption changes you cannot control, persuasion tactics where opting out feels wrong, and deceptive patterns where real choices are hidden behind defaults. A strategic approach focused on your specific account goals is more effective than chasing tactics or following every new Google Ads feature without consideration. Tools like "Nora, the Paid Search Decoder" and decision-making frameworks can help navigate Google Ads complexity by cutting through vague announcements and keeping marketers focused on what actually drives results.

Emotions Rule Brand Loyalty [2 min read]

Emotional connections based on beliefs and values significantly outweigh transactional incentives like discounts in building brand loyalty, with 58.4% of marketers prioritizing emotional bonds over financial incentives. Personalization is a critical component of effective loyalty programs, with over three-quarters of brands implementing it and 85.7% finding it at least somewhat effective. The most important factors driving customer loyalty are customer experience, emotional connections, and trust and reliability, reinforcing the idea that lasting brand relationships stem from emotional engagement rather than competitive pricing or traditional rewards programs.

🤖 AI

Google Cloud Next 25: New AI Capabilities To Transform Business [4 min read]

Google is advancing AI capabilities across multiple fronts, introducing powerful new infrastructure like the Ironwood TPU chip and Cloud Wide Area Network to support enterprise needs. Alongside this hardware innovation, they're releasing advanced AI models including Gemini 2.5, their most intelligent model yet, and Gemini 2.5 Flash, designed for cost-efficiency while maintaining reasoning capabilities. These advancements are directly integrated into Google's ecosystem of products used by billions of people and made available to businesses through platforms like NotebookLM and Veo 2, enabling practical AI applications at scale.

Inside The Secretive AI Life Sciences Startup Spun Off Google DeepMind [10 min read]

Isomorphic Labs is on a mission to "solve all disease" through AI-powered drug discovery, leveraging the breakthrough protein-structure-predicting technology AlphaFold. The company recently secured $600 million in funding and has established partnerships with pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novartis that could potentially be worth nearly $3 billion, demonstrating significant industry confidence in their approach. With the release of AlphaFold3 to the scientific community and plans to expand into biologics beyond small-molecule drugs, Isomorphic is focusing its efforts primarily on cancer and immunology research while investing in the substantial computing power needed to run its advanced AI models.

The Marketer's No-Nonsense, A To Z Guide To All Things AI [14 min read]

AI is introducing innovative tools and methods that span the entire marketing lifecycle from creative development to strategic decision-making. This transformation has brought with it an essential new vocabulary that marketing professionals must master to remain effective and competitive in their field. Understanding these AI concepts and applications—from generative AI and personalization engines to autonomous agents and ethical frameworks—is now essential for marketers who want to harness AI's potential while navigating its complexities.

🧠 Hacks & Tactics

From Search To Social: Retargeting Organic Traffic With Video Strategies [6 min read]

Converting one-time organic website visitors into long-term social media followers through strategic use of video content represents an evolution beyond traditional SEO's focus on just driving traffic. The implementation involves three key approaches: creating video-first articles optimized for search, adding videos to existing high-traffic articles, and using video content on service pages to build trust and drive social engagement. Text content through SEO excels at attracting initial visitors, while video content builds trust and maintains engagement through social media algorithms, creating a more comprehensive approach to digital marketing.

Audience Research, A Complete Guide [15 min read]

Audience research and market research serve different but complementary purposes - with audience research focusing on individual behaviors and preferences while market research examines broader industry trends - yet they are often confused or conflated. Most marketers aren't doing enough audience research, with many falling prey to common myths like overrelying on survey data or assuming that knowing your customers means you truly understand your audience. Effective audience research requires combining multiple approaches rather than depending on a single technique, as each method has its own unique advantages and limitations in helping marketers understand their target audience.

The Key To Sustaining An Enduring Competitive Advantage [14 min read]

Complexity has emerged as the silent killer of profitable growth, with only 1 in 10 companies achieving sustained success over a decade despite most executives believing they have adequate opportunities. The solution lies in three key design principles: maintaining clear differentiation that everyone can understand, establishing non-negotiable strategic principles throughout the organization, and implementing effective learning systems and feedback loops. The power of this approach is illustrated by the contrasting fortunes of Nike and Reebok, where Nike's consistent, focused strategy led to sustained success while Reebok's wandering approach ultimately led to its acquisition by Adidas.

🏗️ The Founder

A Guide To Disrupting Incumbents [14 min read]

In the era of Vertical AI, startups can effectively disrupt incumbents through three strategic approaches to commoditizing complements: weakening pricing power, reducing switching costs, or vertically integrating the complement itself. For these strategies to succeed, companies must avoid commoditizing elements critical to their own product's lock-in and ensure they're positioned to capture the newly redirected value flow. As vertical software and LLM-powered products continue to reshape markets, these commoditization strategies offer powerful tools for new entrants to challenge entrenched incumbents by systematically dismantling their ecosystem advantages.

Most Founders Ask The Wrong Questions In VC Fundraising Meetings [4 min read]

When meeting with VCs, founders should focus on learning from their extensive market knowledge and experience rather than solely pursuing funding. Effective VC meetings should be structured as collaborative discussions, with most of the time dedicated to dialogue rather than pitching. By asking strategic questions about company perception, potential concerns, and market positioning, founders can gain valuable insights that help build their business regardless of whether they secure investment.

How To Live Through A Crisis [8 min read]

During a crisis, it's important to remember that all difficult periods are temporary. Focus on the horizon rather than wallowing in present troubles. Rather than passively waiting for storms to pass, one should choose "alive time" by experimenting, cultivating positive habits, and actively growing through intentional choices. Even small, consistent changes pursued during challenging times can lead to meaningful personal development.

🔮 The Future

Vimeo Wants To Let Every Creator Launch Their Own Netflix [2 min read]

Vimeo is launching "Vimeo Streaming," a new product that allows creators to easily build their own subscription streaming services and apps without any coding experience. The service offers features like tiered memberships, custom video bumpers, piracy protection, analytics, and AI-powered translations to help creators better monetize their content and reach global audiences. This solution addresses creators' concerns about platform reliability and revenue generation by giving them more control over their content and monetization compared to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

The Content Quality Question [4 min read]

Media consumption habits are evolving, with nearly half of millennial and Gen Z consumers preferring social media content over traditional TV and movies, indicating a fundamental shift in how quality is defined. Media analyst Doug Shapiro argues that quality is not a value judgment but rather the attributes people consider when making choices, suggesting that when users opt for social platforms over streaming services, they're implicitly ranking the former as "higher quality" in that context. However, this framework may overlook the important factor of mental effort, as choosing and committing to TV content requires more cognitive investment than scrolling through short-form videos, which helps explain why established media companies struggle to adapt to changing consumer preferences.

👩‍🏫 Vocab

Landing Page: A standalone webpage designed to convert visitors into leads or customers. It focuses on a single goal or offer with minimal distractions. Landing pages are optimized to encourage visitors to take a specific action.

Example: A fitness app creates a dedicated page for their "30-day challenge" promotion, with one clear sign-up form and success stories from previous participants.

A/B Testing: The process of comparing two versions of a marketing element to see which performs better. It involves showing different versions to different audiences and measuring the results. A/B testing helps make data-driven decisions about your marketing.

Example: An ecommerce site tests two different "Buy Now" button colors to see which one leads to more purchases.

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