Edition #496
UGC/influencer spend surpasses traditional media, Cannes & loads of AI stories.
For readers heading to Cannes, you might enjoy this fun/informative guide I put together How to Sound Smart (and Stay Sane) at Cannes.
Grab the PDF to read on the go. Safe travels. There’s even a section for those whose partners are going but they aren’t!
AdAge has a piece on how e.l.f and Microsoft quickly turned around content collaborations with TikTok influencer Oliver Widger. Big brands, working direct, working fast – and being super responsive to the trend.
With algos moving on so quickly, this sort of speed is a necessity if you want to capture the moment. At traditional agency speed, the trend has moved on.
On the topic of UGC & influencer content. This has been a stalking horse trend, but one I haven’t really seen discussed.
“Content on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram will attract more advertising income this year than content from traditional media companies, according to research, marking a “huge cultural shift” for the media world.”
Woah.
If you’re at Canne and want to get together, send me a note. I’ve kept some time to catch up with regular readers, also will be doing a couple of the morning runs (don’t worry I’m slow) if you’re so inclined. Post Canne, in NY, doing some drinks too if you’d like to join.
Notable stories this week
- Tech Giants’ New AI Ad Tools Threaten Big Agencies.
- Google Discover builds on latest redesign with article previews over headlines.
- What’s wrong with the Conversion API.
- Why Rothy’s is sponsoring pizza-making parties and vintage sales hosted by Substack stars.
- X to use Grok to help highlight banger posts from smaller accounts.
- Snap dangling ad credits to woo TikTok budgets.
- Ad Forecaster Cuts Industry Outlook as Trade Upheaval Risks Five-Year ‘Chilling Effect’.
- Meet the ‘reclusive’ tech billionaire making an audacious bid to buy TikTok.
- Taboola launches gen AI search engine for publishers called DeeperDive.
- Pinterest ramps up programmatic efforts with latest Amazon hire.
- News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools.
- Google starts testing ‘Search Live’.
- Disney, NBCU sue Midjourney over copyright infringement.
- Lyft taps DoubleVerify to vet ad performance and safety.
- AI Overviews auto translating content.
- Social media creators to overtake traditional media in ad revenue the year.
- Google Ads AI Max coming to all in Q3 2025.
- How likely are different content types to be included in AI overviews.
- X piloting new program to elevate content users agree on.
- WPP launches rare public attack on Publicis over ad quality, escalating feud.
- Snap to launch AI -powered AR glasses in 2026.
Deals/M&A
- Inside Index Exchange’s multimillion-dollar start-up investment pact with FirstPartyCapital.
Campaign of the week
- Apple launching a haptic trailer for F1 The Movie. Even Tim Cook is out there promoting it. Requires watching in Apple TV app on iPhone to get the haptic experience.
- e.l.f. & Microsoft and speed to organize a campaign.
View all best campaigns on Marca.
Smartest commentary
- “Rather than doing a stale brand dinner…I want people using their hands and have something worth getting out of the house for” –Anna Doré, Senior Director of Communications, Rothy’s.
Datapoints of note
- At the New York Times, the share of traffic coming from organic search to the paper’s desktop and mobile websites slid to 36.5% in April 2025 from almost 44% three years earlier, according to Similarweb.
- WPP Media now predicts global ad revenue growth of 6% for this year, down from its prior forecast of 7.7%.
- In 2025, for the first time, more than half of content-driven advertising revenue will come from user-generated platforms and content rather than professionally produced content.
- Amazon has increased ad load in Prime Video to 4 to 6 minutes per hour.
- ChatGPT has more traffic than Wikipedia and is the 5th most popular site.
- Google Gemini is taking off.
- See all the Bluesky data.
- Top 10 mentions in AI Overviews.
Events
- Media drinks coming up later in June, let me know if you want to join.
View all 2024 datapoints of note.
That’s it for this week.
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