Modern marketers know that any new work they put out into the world in service of their brand might be encountered by many different audiences.

There’s the target consumer audience, with whom marketers hope their latest campaign or activation will land. There’s competitors, keeping an eye on their rival brands’ every move. There’s online culture warriors waiting to turn an advertiser’s misstep into a cause célèbre. And now there’s another constituency marketers must keep in mind — large language models, the foundational tech upon which generative AI chatbots and applications are based.

With AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity gaining traction, tech firms are creating new ways to understand how large language models perceive their brands — and what AI answers say about them. One of the newest developments comes from Profound, an SEO startup focused on AI search platforms, which today is debuting a way to estimate conversation volume rather than just analyzing AI outputs.

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Few creators have been able to export their star power beyond the walled gardens of the social internet.

And although the influencer sector hasn’t wanted for commercial growth in recent times, the marketing benefits of a creator partnership or influencer campaign have been largely restricted to channels like Instagram and TikTok.

But this year, brands including personal care and household product maker Arm & Hammer, toy brand Miko and tech firm Snapdragon began experimenting with the use of influencer-made marketing content, in place of traditional creative assets, in programmatic ad inventory accessed via Amazon, The Trade Desk and Google’s DSPs.

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Reddit’s sports fan communities grew rapidly in the last year.

Perhaps no great surprise, given 2024’s bumper sporting schedule, which saw the Olympic Games, Copa America and Euro 2024 tournaments catch the attention of audiences. The platform recorded a 35% year-on-year increase in engagement in over 1,000 sports-themed Subreddits, according to internal data that didn’t outline specific figures, shared with Digiday.

But that growth isn’t accidental. For the last year, Reddit has been working behind the scenes with the biggest organizations in American sports, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) and NASCAR.

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Premium chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely harbors grand hopes.

For the last 19 years, the Dutch chocolate-maker has grown gradually, utilizing bright packaging and an anti-exploitation narrative to establish itself as the thoughtful shopper’s chocolate of choice. It’s been active in the U.S. since 2015, and in sweet-toothed European markets such as the U.K. and Germany since 2019. 

Its CMO, former PepsiCo marketer Sadira Furlow has the task of building on recent commercial momentum while shepherding a smaller media budget than competitors such as Hershey or Cadbury’s. Her plan – which focuses on paid social activity and retail media – offers a contemporary playbook for smaller brands looking to grow rapidly in tough markets.

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