Morning, afternoon, and evening (wherever you are 😇)

TikTok just dropped a cool holiday marketing guide packed with actionable tactics for Q4, brands are scrambling to prep their email marketing before Black Friday inbox chaos hits, and SEO is evolving fast as generative engines push marketers toward a new GEO playbook. Plus, we’ve got more stories worth your scroll inside…

But before we dive in, big thanks to today’s sponsor, Dr. Thomas Ramsøy.

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The same ad. On different platforms. Getting totally different results.

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The platform highlights that users increasingly turn to TikTok for product discovery, with 56% saying they follow links to brand websites. The guide outlines 3 core pillars: (1) A strong setup - syncing catalogs, cleaning product feeds; (2) Always-on performance - leveraging Smart+ automated campaigns and Smart+ Catalog Ads to reach high-intent shoppers; and (3) Creative that scales - using TikTok’s Creative Codes, Symphony Creative Studio, and TikTok One to quickly produce native, trend-aligned ads.  Why it matters (POV): Holiday advertising on TikTok is no longer about guessing trends; it’s about using the platform’s AI and creative tools to ship more, and faster. 

 Instead of ranking links, AI search consumes your content, synthesizes it, and delivers answers without sending users to your website, meaning the real “ranking” battle now happens inside AI responses. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) focuses on becoming an authoritative source that AI models repeatedly reference. The core pillars are: (1) Authority Architecture - extreme topical specialization to become the definitive source models rely on; (2) Structured Knowledge - schema, explicit clarity, and formats that AI can easily extract; (3) Temporal Optimization - foundational content for training data; and (4) Entity Optimization & Multimodal Content - consistent naming, clear relationships, and video/image metadata to help AI interpret your brand correctly. Metrics shift too: instead of clicks, you track citations, mentions inside AI responses. Why it matters (POV): GEO is no longer optional. The brands that build GEO muscles early can easily mindshare in the generative era.

3 major upgrades to Copilot in Microsoft Advertising: (1) Image Animation - helping brands instantly produce video assets, and early adopters like Priceline built the capability into their own ad platforms to auto-generate thousands of localized creatives, driving a 10% CTR lift; (2) The expanded APIs - now letting advertisers integrate Microsoft’s Background Gen, Display/Video Gen, and Brand Kits directly into internal tools; and (3) Performance Comparison - speeding up reporting by allowing YoY, QoQ, MoM, WoW, and A/B test visibility via natural language queries, cutting analysis time from 30 minutes to ~2 minutes. Why it matters (POV): These updates give advertisers a faster way to scale video production, plug AI directly into existing workflows, and diagnose performance without many spreadsheets. 

6 overlooked methods that can deliver far bigger results with almost no extra effort. (1) Enabling Pinterest Rich Pins and automating reposts through Tailwind can turn Pinterest into a surprisingly powerful long-tail organic traffic engine; (2) Rewriting one strong article for multiple niche audiences boosts CTR while unlocking new distribution angles; (3) Turning existing blogs, videos, or slide decks into short paid mini-courses helps you monetize content you already have; (4) Repurposing UGC for local ads can add trust and familiarity; (5) Publishing internal assets like templates, checklists, and SOPs as public swipe files creates highly shareable content that showcases expertise; and (6) Using ChatGPT to convert your existing pages into a central FAQ hub extends content lifespan and improves customer self-service. Why it matters (POV): Sometimes you don’t need more content, you need more leverage. These 6 tactics let you turn what you’ve already created into ongoing traffic and even new revenue, without adding more work to your calendar.

Most “contextual” advertising still relies on outdated keyword matching, which may be fine in English markets, but is useless across languages, cultures, and emotional nuance. AI finally fixes this by enabling systems that (1) understand full-page meaning and sentiment; (2) build dynamic, real-time audiences instead of static categories; (3) interpret nearly any world language; and (4) explain why each placement was chosen. Tools like Eskimi’s DeepContext use a brand-specific blueprint to analyze live content and match ads with real contextual relevance. Why it matters (POV): Keyword-based targeting can’t survive a privacy-first, multilingual internet. AI-driven contextual targeting makes ads smarter, safer, and far more human.

With inbox competition about to explode, you need to prepare it properly before Black Friday hits. (1) Warm up your domain if you haven’t been emailing consistently; going from silent to sudden mass sends screams “spam” to mailbox providers. (2) Clean and validate your list because nearly 30% decays yearly, and high bounce rates kill deliverability. (3) Prioritize your most engaged segments with early access and loyalty perks. (4) Re-engage inactive subscribers with a light “here’s what’s new” touch to rebuild warmth before promo week. (5) Use a human tone when every brand shouts urgency, sounding like a person is the key. Why it matters (POV): Email is still the highest-intent channel during the holidays, but only clean and human-feeling lists will survive the seasonal deliverability chaos.

Despite endless claims that “email is dead,” industry data shows the opposite: email is still one of the highest-ROI channels in marketing. (1) Email’s scale keeps growing - over 4 billion people use it today, projected to reach nearly 5 billion by 2027. (2) Its financial performance is unmatched, delivering an average 3500% ROI according to industry reports, driven by low costs and high conversion rates. (3) New trends like automation, SMS pairing, interactivity, and AI-assisted personalization are making email even more effective, helping brands nurture long-term relationships. Why it matters (POV): When social reach shrinks or is hit by an algorithm change and ad costs keep rising, email remains the most reliable, profitable, and future-proof channel.

Walmart is doubling down on pop-culture-driven holiday marketing with a Dr. Seuss-themed “WhoKnewVille” campaign, now entering phase two with Walton Goggins debuting as the Grinch. Building on the success of its wider “Who Knew?” platform, the retailer leans into nostalgia, celebrity casting, and long-form storytelling to shift brand perception and spotlight Walmart+ and app-powered convenience. Walmart claims long-form creative consistently performs best for them, and this year’s campaign aims to show the brand as not just a discount retailer, but a cultural player with convenience and personality. Why it matters (POV): In a hyper-competitive holiday ad season, Walmart isn’t relying on discounts alone; it’s using character-driven storytelling and pop-culture IP to shift consumer perception and drive emotional relevance at scale.

— Sam C.