Can We Finally Control Instagram? 🎛️ Shared Collections On TikTok 🤳 How Google And Microsoft Performance Max Align And Diverge 🔀

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Can We Finally Control Instagram? [2 min read]

Instagram is launching a "Your Algorithm" feature that gives its three billion users more control over their content by allowing them to select or unsubscribe from topics, addressing the issue of being overwhelmed with unwanted content after single searches. The AI-powered feature balances user control with discovery by suggesting topics based on interests while still showing diverse content, and it helps the algorithm learn and adapt to preferences more quickly than before. This enhanced personalization will likely improve both the user experience and ad targeting, as Instagram can serve more relevant content based on the interests users actively signal through the feature.

Shared Collections On TikTok [3 min read]

TikTok is introducing three new features to help friends and families connect during the holiday season. Shared Collection allows users to collaboratively save and organize videos together, while Shared Feed creates a personalized daily feed of 15 videos tailored to two people's interests for them to watch and discuss in their direct messages. Also, users can now send animated Holiday Greeting Cards with personalized messages to share festive cheer with their community.

How Google And Microsoft Performance Max Align And Diverge [6 min read]

Google and Microsoft Performance Max campaigns share core principles including asset groups, automation-based bidding strategies, and AI-driven placements that require proper conversion tracking to perform optimally. Google PMax excels with channel-level reporting transparency, video creative support for YouTube, and AI-generated assets, while allocating more budget toward visual inventory like Display. Microsoft PMax offers distinct advantages for B2B advertisers through LinkedIn targeting signals, impression-based remarketing capabilities, and higher campaign limits, with budget allocation emphasizing Search and LinkedIn audiences.

Disney Signs Deal With OpenAI To Allow Sora To Generate Its Characters [2 min read]

Disney has signed a three-year partnership with OpenAI and made a $1 billion equity investment, allowing Sora and ChatGPT Images to feature over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars franchises for user-generated content. While users can create videos with iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and Marvel superheroes, the agreement excludes talent likenesses or voices, and Disney will become a major OpenAI customer to develop new products. Despite this collaboration, Disney maintains a complex relationship with AI, having previously sued Midjourney and sent cease-and-desist letters to Character.AI for unauthorized use of its intellectual property.

OpenAI, Anthropic, And Block Join Effort To Standardize The AI Agent Era [3 min read]

The Linux Foundation has launched the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) to prevent AI agents from becoming fragmented into incompatible, proprietary systems by creating open standards and shared infrastructure. Major tech companies including Anthropic, Block, and OpenAI are donating key technologies like MCP, Goose, and AGENTS.md, with backing from AWS, Google, Bloomberg, and others. The foundation's goal is to establish shared standards that enable AI agents to work together across platforms, allowing developers to build integrations once and use them everywhere rather than being locked into vendor-controlled systems.

9 Essential Geotargeting Tactics For Google Ads [6 min read]

Geotargeting in Google Ads extends far beyond basic location settings, with advanced capabilities like location intent targeting, competitor-based targeting, and weather-based bidding offering significant improvements in campaign performance and ROAS. While traditional methods like country/regional targeting, city/postal code targeting, and radius targeting provide a foundation, they often lack precision and may waste ad spend or miss valuable customers if not properly refined with bid adjustments. Advanced tactics such as targeting users searching for your location before they arrive, geofencing around competitor locations, dynamic weather-based bidding, and local inventory ads enable advertisers to create more data-driven, precise campaigns that drive higher-quality leads and engagement.

MTA vs. MMM: Which Marketing Attribution Model Is Right For You? [8 min read]

Multi-touch attribution (MTA) tracks individual customer interactions across digital touchpoints to optimize campaigns in real-time, while marketing mix modeling (MMM) analyzes historical spending and external factors to guide long-term strategic planning. Each method has limitations: MTA struggles with privacy restrictions and can't measure offline marketing, while MMM's reliance on historical data makes it too slow for quick campaign adjustments. The best approach combines both methods, using MTA for day-to-day optimization and MMM for strategic budget decisions, giving businesses a complete picture of what's working in both the short and long term.

What’s In A Name? [20 min]

Effective company naming starts with clear positioning—understanding who your product is for, what it does, and what makes it different—before attempting to generate name ideas. Rather than relying on spontaneous brainstorming, founders should follow a structured process that includes completing a naming brief, conducting themed brainstorming sessions to generate hundreds of options, and systematically narrowing choices using practical criteria. Finally, it's important to address legal and practical considerations early by working with a trademark attorney and understanding domain options, as the entire naming process typically requires at least a month of dedicated effort.

A Look At Australia's Upcoming Social Media Ban For Children Under Age 16 [4 min read]

Australia is implementing the world's first social media ban for children under 16, prohibiting access to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X, with social media companies facing penalties up to $35 million USD for repeated violations, though enforcement details remain unclear. Research shows highly addictive algorithms keep children online longer, reducing time for physical activity and sleep, with correlational evidence linking heavy social media use to poorer mental health, though direct causation is harder to prove. The ban raises questions about effectiveness and whether parents or governments should control access, with experts arguing that the addictive nature of social media algorithms and features like "streaks" overwhelm young people's ability to make sensible decisions, making government intervention potentially necessary despite ongoing debates about implementation and long-term benefits.

Why The Future Of Marketing Belongs To Creatives Who Think Like Coders [3 min read]

Marketing has evolved from static campaigns into dynamic, AI-driven systems that require the agility and adaptability of a coder's mindset. Modern marketers must embrace iterative, systems-based thinking—testing rapidly, debugging without ego, and designing campaigns as interconnected ecosystems rather than isolated bursts of content. The future belongs to hybrid thinkers who can blend artistic creativity with analytical rigor, combining cultural intuition and storytelling with data-driven experimentation to build campaigns that evolve with their audiences.

ONE RULE Against State AI Laws? [4 min read]

The "ONE RULE" executive order would block states from enacting their own AI regulations, arguing that requiring companies to navigate 50 different state approval processes would destroy U.S. competitiveness in AI. The proposal faces strong bipartisan opposition from Republican politicians, who are joining Democrats in defending states' rights to regulate AI, with a similar proposal recently rejected 99-1 in the Senate. In the absence of comprehensive federal AI regulation, states like California and Tennessee have passed their own laws addressing AI safety and protecting citizens from harms like deepfakes, while over 35 state attorneys general and 200 state lawmakers have warned that overriding these protections could have "disastrous consequences.”

Customer Data Integration: The process of combining customer information from multiple sources into a unified view. It creates a complete picture of customer interactions across all touchpoints. Data integration enables more accurate customer insights and personalization.

Example: A retailer combines online browsing history, in-store purchase data, and loyalty program information to create comprehensive customer profiles.

Marketing Resource Management: The strategic planning and organization of marketing assets, budgets, and team capabilities. It helps optimize the use of marketing resources across projects and campaigns. Resource management ensures marketing teams operate efficiently and stay within budget.

Example: A marketing team uses specialized software to track campaign budgets, assign team members to projects, and manage digital asset libraries.

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