After Netflix announced its plans to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Friday, advertisers were left questioning the future of streaming advertising across two of the industry’s strongest ad-supported platforms. Even amid uncertainty on the deal’s future, the current strategy for advertisers is to prepare for a consolidated streaming market where a select few players command audience attention.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how AI has already changed search, whether Google is in a better or worse position today because of AI’s rapid rise, and how AI will transform search in the next 6–12 months. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Principal Analyst Nate Elliot and Analyst Jacob Bourne. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

31% of US SMB marketers and business owners use AI-driven design or layout recommendations to optimize landing pages, according to a June 2025 survey from Ascend2 and Unbounce.

A spike in consumer interest, changing social expectations, and perception has brands and retailers leaning into men's fragrances. "The days of guys only wanting a classic, masculine scent are gone," said Sarah Armstrong, associate content manager at Axe US."Guys are looking for excitement in the fragrance category, wanting to explore new scent cues," she said. "For example, we've seen more gourmand, sweet fragrances come to market over the last few years."

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the public launch of Kraken VIP, a service akin to a private crypto bank for investors with a $10 million average balance or $80 million in annual trading volume. Crypto is tapping the ultra-luxury market with benefits and exclusivity that have been the domain of private banks and high-end credit cards. This new frontier for crypto should incite traditional financial providers to evolve their UHNW offerings to meet rising experiential expectations.

The share of rental applicants who are more than 90 days delinquent on student loans increased from 15% in January 2025 to 32% in May, according to a just-released TransUnion report. Credit score data reflects these delinquencies, with lower-scoring consumers faring the worst. Consumers’ struggles with student loan repayments highlight a problem for financial institutions (FIs) on the hook for private-loan defaults. And as consumers delay expensive financial decisions like buying a house in favor of reducing student loan debt, demand for credit like mortgages and auto loans will suffer.

Netflix will officially acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) streaming and studio assets in an $82.7 billion deal, the company announced Friday morning. Netflix stated it has secured $59 billion in financing from a collection of banks to finalize the deal. This is a coup for Netflix. Acquiring Warner Bros. will provide exclusive control over intellectual property such as DC, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and HBO Originals. Ted Sarandos agreed, framing the acquisition as a rare but necessary shift for Netflix to maintain its leadership.

Canada’s digital economy is entering a faster, more competitive phase in 2026 as ad spending accelerates, short video surges, ecommerce climbs, and AI-driven search reshapes how audiences discover content.

The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel voted to change its recommendation on when babies should receive their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Vaccine makers that develop products administered to children need to develop messaging that addresses the reasons parents give for bypassing routine childhood vaccines—namely, concerns over side effects, safety, and having to get too many shots, per KFF’s survey. Companies should work with state public health agencies—some of which are now issuing their own vaccine guidance to counter changing federal recommendations—to co-develop campaigns that clearly communicate both the benefits of vaccination and the risks of foregoing it.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud partnered to create a multicloud networking service that lets enterprises spin up private, high-speed links between their platforms in minutes, not weeks, per Android Central. The service will make cross-cloud traffic less vulnerable to outages, which break attribution chains, stall ad delivery, disrupt retail checkouts, and skew measurement windows, affecting brand profits. As cloud giants reinforce the internet’s plumbing, brands should match that urgency by auditing single-cloud dependencies, stress-testing campaign flows, and building failover paths for commerce and attribution.

Softening consumer confidence hasn’t dented beauty demand, according to executives from Ulta Beauty and Estée Lauder. Engagement with the category “remained healthy in Q3,” Ulta CEO Kecia Steelman said, noting that sales rose across both mass and prestige products. The US consumer is “resilient,” Estée Lauder CEO Stephane de la Faverie said, though he acknowledged signs of price sensitivity. The strength isn’t isolated to Estée Lauder and Ulta: Beauty sales accelerated in Q3, according to Circana, showing that shoppers are prioritizing self-care amid uncertainty. However, while shoppers are keen to buy, they are managing their budgets and focusing on value.

Nearly one-third (64%) of SMBs cite social as their No. 1 traffic source, topping organic search at 52% and reflecting a broader move in how buyers discover brands, per WordStream by LocaliQ. SMBs are embracing social platforms as a remedy for increasing volatility from genAI search updates. Brands looking to reach SMBs should prioritize Instagram and TikTok, where engagement and creator ROI lead. Short-form, tutorial-style content that tackles real SMB pain points performs best on these platforms. SMBs should double down on social strategies while strengthening content so AI summaries surface their brands before competitors’.

Gap’s new AI chatbot was quickly coaxed into discussing intimacy products and other off-limits topics after launch, revealing a misconfiguration in the guardrails set by its AI partner Sierra, according to The Information. Sierra said a bad actor attempted to jailbreak more than a dozen client agents, and Gap’s was the only one that slipped past detection due to the setup error, which has since been fixed. The incident underscores how easily brand safety can be compromised when safeguards aren’t airtight, highlighting the need for companies to rigorously vet vendors and ensure robust protections before deploying AI tools.

A growing number of high-end and mass-market brands are thriving even as they reduce promotions to protect margins and strengthen brand equity. Victoria’s Secret delivered its strongest sales growth in four years through more targeted discounting, while On Holding and Ralph Lauren posted standout revenue and EPS gains by preserving premium pricing and elevating brand perception. The trend extends beyond retail: although Cava recently cut its sales outlook, it is still avoiding discounts to protect a value proposition rooted in quality and experience. Together, these strategies reflect a shift away from competing primarily on price.

Medicare plans to pay health tech companies for wearables, apps, and telehealth technology that improves patient outcomes via a new pilot program aimed to begin in July 2026. The government’s willingness to pay for digital health solutions signals a meaningful shift toward making these tools part of standard clinical care. But health tech makers need to prove their tools improve patient outcomes to make it into the pilot program.

The New York Times filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity on Friday, adding to the more than 40 current court cases between AI companies and copyright holders. Lawsuits like The Times’ underscore how AI is impacting the overall health and future of the digital advertising ecosystem—requiring advertisers to rethink traditional strategies.

Cash App and Binance are targeting teen and pre-teen engagement with payments and crypto, per press releases. Emphasizing safety and financial education will be critical for any youth financial product to get off the ground. Streamlining parental controls through easy-to-monitor features like push notifications can win over parents of Gen Alpha, who are more likely to be millennials who favor mobile- and app-first financial experiences.

Bank of America debuted an exclusive FIFA World Cup 2026 custom card design and ticket opportunity for applicants, per a press release. Cardholders can choose between two FIFA-themed card designs. New applicants for BofA’s Customized Cash Rewards or Unlimited Cash Rewards Visa credit cards can also buy two tickets to select FIFA World Cup matches starting February 10, 2026. Leaning into sporting events for marketing and rewards can connect issuers with young consumers who are passionate about exclusive, memory-building experiences. Hosting on-site events and spaces during the matches could draw in even more potential cardholders.

Amazon, Target, and Walmart are stepping up their holiday fulfillment efforts to reassure late shoppers that gifts will arrive before Christmas. Amazon is adding clear “Arrives before Christmas” messaging and enabling delivery or pickup on many items through Christmas Eve, while Target is extending store hours and leaning on rapid curbside, in-store pickup, and same-day delivery. Walmart is expected to match or exceed last year’s Christmas Eve express cutoffs. These moves highlight how crucial last-minute reliability has become, as faster delivery speeds increasingly shape where shoppers spend and give retailers with strong fulfillment networks a powerful competitive edge.

Revolut launched “street mode,” a security feature designed to thwart transfer mugging, per a press release. Revolut users can set up “trusted locations” within their banking apps where they can transfer funds without additional security measures. Protecting users’ money should be top-of-mind for payment providers and banks. But there are key security features that banks still fail to offer—despite strong consumer demand. Twenty-eight percent of consumers in our benchmark said that blocking contactless payments was “extremely valuable,” but just one bank—Truist—delivered. Similarly, alerts for SSN breaches were the most-demanded feature (53%), but only Chase and Capital One offer it.

Marc Cuban Cost Plus Drug online pharmacy founder Mark Cuban wants the Trump administration to waive generic drug regulatory approval fees, the entrepreneur told Reuters. Cuban’s push into US manufacturing could help lower prices for some high-cost generic drugs by adding competition where little currently exists.

Online healthcare companies are increasingly marketing GLP-1 prescriptions to people who aren't overweight or obese, according to a recent Bloomberg story. Federal regulators are starting to crack down on telehealth platforms for their compounded GLP-1 ads. So far, the FDA and FTC have targeted companies claiming their copycat weight loss drugs are the same as brand-name versions and that allegedly mislead consumers with misrepresented products and reviews. These actions could signal that the feds will next go after entities that advertise GLP-1s for unapproved uses, such as for cosmetic purposes for people whose BMI isn’t at least 27.

Canada’s big banks exceeded expectations for the 2025 fiscal year as capital markets and wealth management carried results. But economic uncertainty loomed over results. Adverse trade policy and a cooling labor market were hot topics, and there are risks of consumer credit stress. Threats to Canada’s economic wellbeing abound, which will trickle down to banks’ businesses. In the meantime, restructuring will likely distract management teams, slowing response to changing business conditions.

In 2026, dominant platforms like Google and Amazon will flex their muscle against ChatGPT; smaller players like Perplexity and Claude will need to make either product moves or M&A moves; and AI-focused marketers will spend more on YouTube than ads on AI platforms.

In 2026, a new financial ecosystem will form around five trends—stablecoins, agentic AI, consolidation, financial media networks, and AI search—blurring boundaries between banking, technology, and commerce.