Follow TiDM: Bluesky, LinkedIn, YouTube, others
Follow Tod: Bluesky, LinkedIn, Twitch, and others

The Top Three 🏆

The industry’s most important stories today.

🥇 YOUR BRAND, AT THE TOP OF YOUTUBE

YouTube is testing a new ad placement that lets brands own its most prominent ad space ✨ the Masthead ✨ by the hour. more

• Advertisers can purchase specific hours before, during, or after key events to ensure complete ownership of Masthead impressions across desktop, mobile, connected TV, and tablets.

• 💸 How much we talking?: YouTube hasn’t shared exact pricing, but the flat cost-per-hour model provides more predictable budgeting compared to traditional impression-based pricing.

🥈 BORING ADS COST MORE

Your creative could be draining your budget: A new study shows that boring ads need 2X to 2.5X more spend to have the same impact as interesting ones. Brands must invest significantly more in dull ads to compete with the effectiveness of interesting, engaging content. more

• Interesting ads generate 6.1X more share growth than boring ads.

• Advertisers need to spend 2.6X more on dull ads to get the same market share growth as engaging ads.

• To make significant profits, advertisers must spend 2X more on boring ads than on interesting ones.

🥉 TIKTOK REASSURES ADVERTISERS

Ad dollars still welcome here: TikTok is doing damage control, assuring advertisers they’re not breaking the law by running ads. In a recent email to a major brand’s media exec, TikTok said that the divest-or-ban law doesn’t apply to them. more

• As the platform faces legal challenges, global brands are navigating a new wave of uncertainty, especially around whether U.S.-based companies can legally manage international accounts.

• TikTok clarified that the law only targets those who distribute, maintain, or update the app, like app stores or service providers, not advertisers.

Engagement that Sells: Short-Form Influencer Marketing

Influencers on TikTok aren’t just entertainers anymore; they’re also sellers, blending engagement with product promotion.

Yet, marketers face a big question: Does high engagement on these influencer ads actually lead to increased sales?

This is where a new study published in the Journal of Marketing Science steps in. The authors developed a novel metric called the Product Engagement Score (PE score), which measures how well a product is integrated into a video and predicts its sales impact. They’ve tested this with thousands of short-form videos linked to real sales data.

I spoke to one of the co-authors, Jeremy Yang who teaches business administration at Harvard University.

Today’s Other News ☑︎

Everything else that matters.

Advertising 📣

• Amazon has launched Brand+, a new ad targeting tool that analyzes shopping, browsing, and streaming data to adjust ad buys across streaming TV and online video, targeting an audience most likely to purchase an advertiser’s product. The tool lets advertisers buy ads across Amazon-owned properties, including Prime Video and Twitch, as well as some video publishers like Buzzfeed. more

• Google Ads is testing a new "Used Since" column in PMax reports, that is visible at the asset level and displays the date an asset was added to the campaign. more

• Experts predict retail media networks will expand beyond retailers' websites and apps, pushing into connected TV and in-store displays in 2025. eMarketer forecasts that 20% of U.S. media spend will go to off-site formats like CTV, OOH, and social media this year. While 15% of U.S. CTV ad spend will come from retail media. more

Search and GBP 🔍

• Google Business Profiles now allows bulk management of special hours, letting you set hours for one location and easily copy them to others. This feature is available for accounts managing up to 100 locations. more

Social Media 📱

• Perplexity AI has updated its offer to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations, now proposing a joint entity that could let the U.S. government own up to 50% of the new company after a future IPO. more

  • Which sounds like a nightmare, but could appeal to the Trump administration, as it aligns with his apparent goal of having the government profit from TikTok.

• TikTok has released its 2025 SMB marketing calendars, giving brands a planner with key cultural moments, tips, and dates to align with. These region-specific calendars cover North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

• 💅 You better WERK for that badge: LinkedIn is updating its "Top Voice" badge program. Now, members will only keep the blue badge for six months, with LinkedIn reviewing allocations regularly. Previously, Top Voices kept their badge indefinitely. more

Commerce 🛒 

• 👀 Scoop: The Federal Trade Commission has questioned Temu about Amazon’s pricing policies, following reports that Amazon penalized merchants offering lower prices on Temu. This comes amid the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, claiming the policies drive up prices for consumers. more

• A recent study found that consumers are more forgiving of mistakes from "Black-owned" and "woman-owned" businesses. Consumers view these businesses as underdogs, facing unique challenges, which fosters empathy and understanding when issues like delayed deliveries or product defects happen. more

• ✈️ It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it’s Amazon’s first UK drone deliveries!: The e-commerce giant announced it’s taking the first steps to launch Prime Air in Darlington, England, working with the Civil Aviation Authority to get approval for flying drones in the area’s airspace. more

LOL 🤣

• 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 GTFO Taylor and Travis: Ellie the Elephant and Grimace are the new 'it' couple. Their relationship, however, is strictly business, as the New York Liberty and McDonald's mascots are teaming up for a partnership promoting McDonald’s All American Games. While the relationship may be platonic, it’s meant to be long-term, with more campaigns to come. more

Marketing Tool of the Day 🔨

Cool stuff we found on the web (not a paid placement)

You know how sometimes we have these great ideas, but when we try to write them down, they just don't come out right? It's like the thoughts are there, but translating them into polished content is a whole different game.

I found Bulletpen on Product Hunt this morning and tried it out. You basically just ramble out loud your thoughts (product descriptions, something about your company, whatever) and it will rewrite it on the fly into something more professional.

You can choose the tone you want (journalistic, promotional, funny, casual, etc.) and it’ll adjust.

The free demo gives you 500 AI-generated words (enough for a couple of minutes of talking). The paid plan is $12/month for unlimited use, which is pretty generous.

Today’s Trivia Question 🧠

Tap your guess and you could win!

Spotted on Social 🔍

The social web’s best posts in the last 24 hours.

In partnership with