From surprise corporate card cancellations to phantom return-to-office mandates, one former indie...

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Friday, August 28, 2026

Digiday

‘Inside, most of them are dumpster fires’: Confessions of a frustrated indie agency ad exec

From surprise corporate card cancellations to phantom return-to-office mandates, one former indie agency exec talks about the chaos behind the scenes.

Marketing Dive

How Dr Pepper’s ‘Fansville’ campaign stays relevant and drives outcomes

Keurig Dr Pepper marketer Derek Dabrowski digs into how the college football campaign, now in its ninth season, is lifting sales through personalization.

Adweek

Anthropic Has Never Signed a Licensing Deal, Yet Never Been Sued. Why?

The artificial intelligence firm is less collaborative than its peers but has avoided litigation. Publishers are baffled.

Marketing Dive

Sociable: Meta removes option to exclude ad placements

The company will use an automated system to target display options, and brands will no longer be able to decide which apps receive promotions.

Search Engine Roundtable

Daily Search Forum Recap: August 27, 2026

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

SEMrush Blog

Google releases August 2026 spam update: What marketers need to know

Google‘s August 2026 spam update finished rolling out on August 21. Learn what changed, what didn‘t, and how to read your data.

Search Engine Roundtable

Confirmed: Google Search Rolling Out google.com/goto Tracking Parameters

Google Search seems like it is rolling out the google.com/goto URL as a passthrough URL within the search results that it began testing in July 2026.

Social Media Today

TikTok expands public placement opportunities for advertisers

The company continues to introduce Out of Phone promotion expansions as it brings in-app content to billboards, in-store displays, cinema promos and more.

Digiday

Three years after Kokai, The Trade Desk is betting on refinement with Zuma

The Trade Desk wants Zuma — the next version of its programmatic platform, Kokai — to be easier to use, and even harder to leave.

Distilled

The Consideration Gap: The Missing Link Between Brand and Performance

Most marketing organizations have clear owners at either end of the funnel. Brand teams build awareness and performance teams convert demand into revenue. The middle tends to be less clear.

Adweek

Week of Aug. 17 Evening News Ratings: WNT Wins a Close Week in Demo

Less than 35,000 viewers separated the demo.

Social Media Examiner

Reduce Token Usage, The Voice-Activated Content System, and Industry News

Last chance: 50% off all Social Media Marketing World and AI Business World tickets ends tomorrow. Save 50% on tickets Friday is almost here! Before you unplug, here are the latest AI insights and updates for marketers.

EVENTS & LIVE TRAINING

Selected by American Marketing Association

Transform Your Marketing with AI: Hands-On Workshop Series

There is a meaningful difference between understanding AI tools and having a workflow built around them. Transform your marketing approach with practical AI skills in this hands-on workshop series.

This four-week series is designed to get you to the second. Across four live sessions, you will use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others to build an actual marketing strategy, produce on-brand content, and set up performance reporting designed for your real work.

American Marketing Association

Meta Ads in 2026: AI, Advantage+ and What’s Actually Working

Running Meta ads used to feel more straightforward. Now there are AI-driven tools to learn, privacy changes to work around, and a platform that looks different than it did 18 months ago. If you’ve been patching together what you know or avoiding Ads Manager altogether, two hours can close