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Exhaustion, chaos, and missed lives are the result of design choices—not destiny. The Disruptors With Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

2025 is limping to a merciful end, so I'm taking a look back at the year in slang. Below are ten examples of youth patois, chosen for both their popularity and for what they reveal about generations A and Z. Like most slang, these words and phrases evolved over time, so while many didn't first appear in 2025, but this is the year they gained popularity. (If you want a more complete list of youth slang, check out my guide to Gen Z and Alpha slang.) 6-7By far the most popular slang word of 2025 was "6-7." These two previously unremarkable numerals rose to unprecedented popularity with young people this year, to the consternation of legions of educators and parents. It's perfect Gen A slang because it doesn't have a literal meaning, like a lot of younger people culture, but it's a sort of self-contained joke. Often, the idea is to use the phrase in conversation: if someone asks how tall you are, what you scored on a test, or what time it is, you might respond “six-seeeeeven.” Hilarious. 6-7 took off when Philadelphia artist Skrilla released "Doot Doot (6 7)" in February. From there, it was repeated in schoolyards and TikTok posts for no reason except maybe that it's fun to say. In a month or two, 6-7 reached full slang saturation, and everyone learned what it means (or doesn't mean). Dictionary.com named 6-7 its word of the year. It spawned spin-off numbers like 41 and 93. Older people waited for it to end, but 6-7 didn't end. We're almost a year in, and kids are still saying it constantly. So it means something to them. But what? 6-7's lack of literal meaning highlights the difficulty of defining a generation that seems uninterested in (or unable to) define itself. BrainrotBrainrot describes online content, usually videos and meme images, that are stupid and meaninglessness. They're generally loud and assaultive, too: Brainrot is not subtle. It also described the supposed effect that consuming this kind of material has on kids. One of the earliest and most well known pieces of brainrot is "Skibiddi Toilet," a series of YouTube videos that has billions of views. The genre has evolved from there, and now often consists of reframing and remixing obscure memes to create content that is almost entirely absent of meaning, like this Italian brainrot. Younger kids particularly spend a ton of time watching brainrot content, so it is likely shaping the collective worldview of Generation Alpha, but it's hard to say what the result will be. Slop"Slop" describes the hundreds of millions of cheesy-looking, unsettling, AI-generated images, videos, and songs that have hit the internet since artificial intelligence gained popularity over the last couple years. Ease of production means that slop is rapidly taking over human-produced content, and younger people will live in a slop-dominated future. As a generation, they may have more intellectual and artistic connection to machines than they will with other humans. MasonA Mason (or Mason 67 Kid) is a white, suburban Gen Alpha boy who plays baseball, rocks a fluffy “ice cream” haircut, and says "6-7" a lot. His sunglasses are Pit Vipers. He wears Yeezy slides. His polyester-as-hell ice cream shorts can be purchased at Dick's Sporting Goods. There's no way to know whether the word "Mason" will resonate enough to be remembered later, but it is, as far as I know, the first popular slang term to describe a dominant subculture in Generation Alpha. If it sticks around, it could be the equivalent of describing Boomers as "hippies" or Gen X as "slackers." "Reheating your own nachos"This slang phrase describes artists whose new works are seen as trying to recapture what was good about their previous artistic output. It's not a widely used phrase outside of online fandom communities, but I'm including it to represent the kind of hyper-specific slang that comes from the relative rarity of shared cultural experiences among young people. They're balkanized, and every fandom, hobby, and interest group has its own language that is often not understood outside of the specific group. SendyAn adjective that describes a person who does bold and/or exciting things, "sendy" is often used in the phrase "let’s get sendy," which means something like “let’s do something big/crazy.” It also often means "Iet's get drunk." It's an example of a slang word coming from a niche community and spreading into the larger culture. It started in rock-climbing communities in the '80s or '90s, where “ascend it" was shortened to "send it" and used to encourage people to "go for it. "Send it" was then adopted by skaters, snowboarders, and other action-sports fans, and eventually slid into the mainstream culture when it was used in this video from influencers The Nelk Boys. Being able to so often pinpoint the exact source of a slang word is another unique feature of Gens Z and A. 80/20 rule80/20 can refer to various scientific and organization principles, but that's not how kids usually use it. An axiom popular in online incel spaces, the 80/20 rule is the idea that 80% of women only date the "top" 20% of men. The "male loneliness epidemic" and increased social isolation resulted in many younger men accepting controversial, unproven ideas like this as empirical truth, and they have spread from online communities of misfits to the general population of Generations A and Z. Performative maleThis insult is aimed at young men whose tastes, hobbies, and lifestyle are seen as a performance aimed at obtaining societal approval, especially the approval of young women. Like the 80/20 rule, "performative male" came from online spaces dominated by incels, and has since spread to the larger culture and expanded in meaning to the point that even reading in public is seen as performative. The problem with "performative male" is that it only refers to one kind of performance. The opposite performance of masculinity—the "Alpha male" envisioned by Andrew Tate and various lesser Tate-lets—is thus seen as genuine. It's an illustration of younger people's growing toxic masculinity as well as the strict policing of self-expression that comes from every public moment ending in potentially viral online ridicule. Aura farmingThe flip side of the "performative male," aura farming is intentionally cultivating and projecting a cool, charismatic, or impressive image and getting away with it. It's generally seen as a good thing: Someone who is succeeding at their public "performance" of the self and actually coming across as cool to others is aura farming. Although one of pitfalls of aura farming is trying too hard, an experience that isn't native to younger generations—in the past, you might have called it "being a poser." "Beez in the trap""Beez" means something like "I am always" and "trap" comes from "trap house," but has a more broader meaning like "place of business." So "beez in the trap" means something like "I am at the place of business, hustling," but I'm not including it here for the words, but for how they took off online in 2025 and what it says about young people. The rest of the slang in this column paints a fairly bleak picture of youth, but we shouldn't forget the creativity, passion, and heart that also defines Generations Z and A. "Beez in the trap" is an example of how younger people are re-mixing and re-shaping the culture we've left them into something of their own that is often amazing. The meme works like this: Two people stand back to back. Person one passionately lip-syncs the chorus of 4 Non Blonde's song, "What's Going On." The camera rotates to person two, who chimes in with Nicki Minaj's less existentially angsty track. It's one of those things that just sparks joy in a way that defies explanation and is quintessentially "young person in 2025." Enjoy: View the full article

Most business owners assume that if an ad is approved by Google or Meta, it is safe. The thinking is simple: trillion-dollar platforms with sophisticated compliance systems would not allow ads that expose advertisers to legal risk. That assumption is wrong, and it is one of the most dangerous mistakes an advertiser can make. The digital advertising market operates on a legal double standard. A federal law known as Section 230 shields platforms from liability for third-party content, while strict liability places responsibility squarely on the advertiser. Even agencies have a built-in defense. They can argue that they relied on your data or instructions. You can’t. In this system, you are operating in a hostile environment. The landlord (the platform) is immune. Bad tenants (scammers) inflate the cost of participation. And when something goes wrong, regulators come after you, the responsible advertiser, not the platform, and often not even the agency that built the ad. Here is what you need to know to protect your business. Note: This article was sparked by a recent LinkedIn post from Vanessa Otero regarding Meta’s revenue from “high-risk” ads. Her insights and comments in the post about the misalignment between platform profit and user safety prompted this in-depth examination of the legal and economic mechanisms that enable such a system. The core danger: Strict liability explained While the strict liability standard is specific to U.S. law (FTC), the economic fallout of this system affects anyone buying ads on U.S.-based platforms. Before we discuss the platforms, it is essential to understand your own legal standing. In the eyes of the FTC and state regulators, advertisers are generally held to a standard of strict liability. What this means: If your ad makes a deceptive claim, you are liable. That’s it. Intent doesn’t matter: You can’t say, “I didn’t mean to mislead anyone.” Ignorance doesn’t matter: You can’t say, “I didn’t know the claim was false.” Delegation doesn’t matter: You can’t say, “My agency wrote it,” or “ChatGPT wrote it.” The law views the business owner as the “principal” beneficiary of the ad. You have a non-delegable duty to ensure your advertising is truthful. Even if an agency writes unauthorized copy that violates the law, regulators often fine the business owner first because you are the one profiting from the sale. You can try to sue your agency later to get your money back, but that is a separate battle you have to fund yourself. The unfair shield: Why the platform doesn’t care If you are strictly liable, why doesn’t the platform help you stay compliant? Because they don’t have to. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act declares that “interactive computer services” (platforms) are not treated as the publisher of third-party content. The original intent: This law was passed in 1996 to allow the internet to scale, ensuring that a website wouldn’t be sued every time a user posted a comment. It was designed to protect free speech and innovation. The modern reality: Today, that shield protects a business model. Courts have ruled that even if platforms profit from illegal content, they are generally not liable unless they actively contribute to creating the illegality. The consequence: This creates a “moral hazard.” Because the platform faces no legal risk for the content of your ads, it has no financial incentive to build perfect compliance tools. Their moderation AI is built to protect the platform’s brand safety, not your legal safety. The liability ladder: Where you stand To understand how exposed you are, look at the legal hierarchy of the three main players in any ad campaign: The platform (Google/Meta) Legal status: Immune. They accept your money to run the ad. Courts have ruled that providing “neutral tools” like keyword suggestions does not make the platform liable for the fraud that ensues. If the FTC sues, they point to Section 230 and walk away. The agency (The creator) Legal status: Negligence standard. If your agency writes a false ad, they are typically only liable if regulators prove they “knew or should have known” it was false. They can argue they relied on your product data in good faith. You (The business owner) Legal status: Strict liability. You are the end of the line. You can’t pass the buck to the platform (immune) or easily to the agency (negligence defense). If the ad is false, you pay the fine. The hostile environment: Paying to bid against ‘ghosts’ The situation gets worse. Because platforms are immune, they allow “high-risk” actors into the auction that legitimate businesses, like yours, have to compete against. A recent Reuters investigation revealed that Meta internally projected roughly 10% of its ad revenue (approximately $16 billion) would come from “integrity risks”: Scams. Frauds. Banned goods. Worse, internal documents reveal that when the platform’s AI suspects an ad is a scam (but isn’t “95% certain”), it often fails to ban the advertiser. Instead, it charges them a “penalty bid,” a premium price to enter the auction. You are bidding against scammers who have deep illicit profit margins because they don’t ship real products (zero cost of goods sold). This allows them to bid higher, artificially inflating the cost per click (CPC) for every legitimate business owner. You are paying a fraud tax just to get your ad seen. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. The new threat: The AI trap The most urgent risk for 2026 is the rise of generative AI tools (like “Automatically Created Assets” or “Advantage+ Creative”). Platforms are pushing you to let their AI rewrite your headlines and generate your images. Do not do this blindly. If Google’s AI hallucinates a claim, you are strictly liable for it. However, the legal shield for platforms is cracking here. In cases like Forrest v. Meta, courts are seeing that platforms may lose immunity if their tools actively help “develop” the illegality. We have seen this before. In cases like CYBERsitter v. Google, courts refused to dismiss lawsuits when the platform was accused of “developing” the illegal content rather than just hosting it. If the AI writes the lie, the platform is arguably the “developer,” which pierces their initial immunity shield. This liability extends to your entire website. By default, Google’s Performance Max campaigns have “Final URL Expansion” turned on. This gives their bot permission to crawl any page on your domain, including test pages or joke pages, and turn them into live ads. Google’s Terms of Service state that the “Customer is solely responsible” for all assets generated, meaning the bot’s mistake is legally your fault. Be cautious of programs that blur the line. Features like the “Google Guaranteed” badge can create exposure for deceptive marketing. Because the platform is no longer a neutral host but is vouching for the business (“Guaranteed”), regulators can argue they have stepped out from behind the Section 230 shield. By clicking “Auto-apply,” you are effectively signing a blank check for a robot to write legal promises on your behalf. Risk reality check: Who actually gets investigated? While strict liability is the law, enforcement is not random. The FTC and State Attorneys General have limited resources, so they prioritize based on harm and scale. If you operate in dietary supplements (i.e., “nutra”), fintech (crypto and loans), or business opportunity offers, your risk is extreme. These industries trigger the most consumer complaints and the swiftest investigations. If you are an HVAC tech or a local florist, you are unlikely to face an FTC probe unless you are engaging in massive fraud (e.g., fake reviews at scale). However, you are still vulnerable to competitor lawsuits and local consumer protection acts. Investigations rarely start from a random audit. They start from consumer complaints (to the BBB or attorney generals) or viral attention. If your aggressive ad goes viral for the wrong reasons, the regulators will see it. International intricacies It is vital to remember that Section 230 is a U.S. anomaly. If you advertise globally, you’re playing by a different set of rules. The European Union (DSA): The Digital Services Act forces platforms to mitigate “systemic risks.” If they fail to police scams, they face fines of up to 6% of global turnover. The United Kingdom (Online Safety Act): The UK creates a “duty of care.” Senior managers at tech companies can face criminal liability for failing to prevent fraud. Canada (Competition Bureau): Canadian regulators are increasingly aggressive on “drip pricing” and misleading digital claims, without a Section 230 equivalent to shield the platforms. The “Brussels Effect”: Because platforms want to avoid EU fines, they often apply their strictest global policies to your U.S. account. You may be getting flagged in Texas because of a law written in Belgium. The advertiser’s survival guide Knowing the deck is stacked, how do you protect your business? Adopt a ‘zero trust’ policy Never hit “publish” on an auto-generated asset without human eyes on it first. If you use an agency, require them to send you a “substantiation PDF” once a quarter that links every claim in your top ads to a specific piece of proof (e.g., a lab report, a customer review, or a supply chain document). The substantiation file For every claim you make (“Fastest shipping,” “Best rated,” “Loses 10lbs”), keep a PDF folder with the proof dated before the ad went live. This is your only shield against strict liability. Audit your ‘auto-apply’ settings Go into your ad accounts today. Turn off any setting that allows the platform to automatically rewrite your text or generate new assets without your manual review. Efficiency is not worth the liability. Watch the legislation Lawmakers are actively debating the SAFE TECH Act, which would carve out paid advertising from Section 230. While Congress continues to debate reform, you must protect your own business today. The responsibility you can’t outsource The digital ad market is a powerful engine for growth, but it is legally treacherous. Section 230 protects the platform. Your contract protects your agency. Nothing protects you except your own diligence. That is why advertisers must stop conflating platform policy with the law. Platform policies are house rules designed to protect revenue. Truth in advertising is a federal mandate designed to protect consumers. Passing the first does not mean you are safe from the second. View the full article

Across the country, a growing sentiment suggests the university degree is an artifact of a bygone era, a depreciating asset in an economy obsessed with speed. A recent Gallup poll confirms this shift, revealing that Americans’ confidence in the value of a college education has plummeted to a 15-year low. Nowhere is this skepticism louder than in my own backyard. In Silicon Valley, the “skip college” mantra has evolved from a “hot take” to accepted wisdom. Fueled by the rise of generative AI, the logic is seductive: If artificial intelligence can code, write copy, and analyze data faster than a junior employee, why spend four years and a small fortune on skills a bot will master before you graduate? It is a compelling argument. It is also fundamentally wrong. As the CEO of an AI company, I witness the trajectory of automation daily. I see exactly what our models can do, and I recognize the massive disruption coming for knowledge work. Yet, my conclusion is the exact opposite of the current narrative. As AI automates technical execution, the core purpose of the university sharpens. Far from making college obsolete, the AI revolution is making the benefits of higher education like wisdom, maturity, and the forging of mental models, the most critical economic differentiator a human can possess. THE COMMODITY OF “HOW,” THE VALUE OF “WHY” For the last two decades, higher education has been sold largely as vocational training. You go to school to learn a hard skill like computer science, accounting, or law, that you then trade for a salary. Under this transactional model, the skeptics are right. If college is just a place to download technical syntax into your brain, it is inefficient. AI is rapidly demonetizing the ability to simply do things. However, the university’s true value was never entirely the how but it was always the why. In an AI-native world, the technical barrier to entry is collapsing. Soon, natural language will be the only programming language required. When anyone can build an app, draft a legal brief, or design a product with a few prompts, execution becomes a commodity. The premium shifts to the ability to discern what to build, why it matters, and how it impacts the human ecosystem. This requires a type of thinking that is rarely self-taught. It requires the kind of broad, interdisciplinary exposure that a university curriculum provides. We don’t need more people who can optimize a sorting algorithm; we need people who can debate the ethics of that algorithm, understand the sociological impact of its deployment, and navigate the geopolitical landscape it operates within. COLLEGE AS SCAFFOLDING FOR THE MIND Beyond the curriculum, the “skip college” contingent ignores the university’s profound developmental role. They view the four-year degree as a delay of adulthood. I view it as the necessary scaffolding for it. The years between 18 and 22 are a neurological and psychological crucible. The brain is finalizing its development; identities are solidifying. The university environment provides a unique sandbox where young adults can collide with diverse philosophies, navigate complex social hierarchies, and fail in a relatively low-stakes environment. When I hire for leadership roles, I rarely seek the fastest coder in the room. I seek resilience. I seek the ability to collaborate with dissenting voices and the maturity to navigate ambiguity. These are traits honed in lecture halls, seminar debates, and student organizations just as much as they are in internships. THE SHELF-LIFE OF SKILLS VERSUS MINDSET Critics often weigh the cost of tuition against the starting salary of a graduate’s first job. But in a world of accelerating technological velocity, the specific skills learned at 20 are often obsolete by 25. To skip college for a specific trade or tech stack is to bet one’s career on a snapshot in time. A university education, particularly one grounded in the liberal arts and fundamental sciences, plays a longer game. It teaches you how to learn. It builds a mental operating system capable of updating itself. Consider the “hallucination” problem in large language models. To effectively use these tools, a human must possess critical thinking skills robust enough to audit the machine. They need a foundational knowledge of history, logic, and science to discern when the AI is fabricating reality. The worker who skips college risks becoming a passive consumer of AI output while the college graduate becomes its orchestrator. That is a difference in career trajectory that may not appear in year-one earnings, but compounds exponentially over a lifetime. A CALL FOR A HUMAN RENAISSANCE Silicon Valley loves efficiency. We love to optimize. And yes, the modern university is often inefficient, expensive, and bureaucratic. It is ripe for disruption and reform. But let’s not confuse the need for reform with the need for abolition. The “skip college” narrative is an oversimplification. It assumes that because machines are becoming more intelligent, humans can afford to be less educated. The opposite is true. As we hand over more cognitive labor to AI, we free humans to operate at the peak of their intelligence. We are entering an era where philosophy, ethics, creative synthesis, and interpersonal leadership will be the most high-value skills in the global economy. We should not encourage the next generation to skip the one institution dedicated to developing those traits. We should encourage them to go, but with a new purpose. Do not go to college just to get a job. Go to college to build the kind of complex, adaptable, and nuanced mind that no AI can replicate. The future isn’t about competing with machines. It is about becoming more human. That is an education worth the investment. Bhavin Shah is CEO and cofounder of Moveworks. View the full article

We used to argue whether design was about aesthetics or about functionality. But in 2025, those conversations seemed downright quaint. Simpler debates for a simpler time. Now we’re wondering if craft can survive the age of AI, and if we’ll ever escape the politicization of every brand and object again. For the December episode of our podcast By Design, I discussed these trends and more with Fast Company senior editor Liz Stinson. We were joined by some of our brightest friends in the industry who shared their biggest own moments in design for the year, including Paola Antonelli (senior curator at MoMA), Cliff Kuang (FC Design’s first editor and senior staff designer at Google), Forest Young (Global Design & AI Resident at Wolff Olins), and Elizabeth Goodspeed (editor-at-large at Its Nice That). Just try to guess who called out vibe coding, and who highlighted Sabrina Carpenter’s latest tour. Tune in through Apple or Spotify, and please give us a few stars if you like it. See you in 2026! View the full article

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

Google expanded Demand Gen channel controls to include Google Maps, giving advertisers a new way to reach users with intent-driven placements and far more control over where Demand Gen ads appear. What’s new. Advertisers can now select Google Maps as a channel within Demand Gen campaigns. The option can be used alongside other channels in a mixed setup or on its own to create Maps-only campaigns. Why we care. This update unlocks a powerful, location-focused surface inside Demand Gen, allowing advertisers to tailor campaigns to high-intent moments such as local discovery and navigation. It also marks a meaningful step toward finer channel control in what has traditionally been a more automated campaign type. Response. Advertisers are very excited by this update. CEO of AdSquire Anthony Higman has been waiting for this for decades: Google Ads Specialist Thomas Eccel, who shared the update on LinkedIn said: “This is very big news and shake up things quite a lot!” Between the lines. Google continues to respond to advertiser pressure for greater transparency and control, gradually breaking Demand Gen into more modular, selectable distribution channels. What to watch. How Maps placements perform compared to YouTube, Discover, and Gmail—and whether Google expands reporting or optimization tools specifically for Maps inventory. First seen. This update was first spotted by Search Marketing Specialist Francesca Poles, when she shared the update on LinkedIn Bottom line. Adding Google Maps to Demand Gen channel controls is a significant shift that gives advertisers new strategic flexibility and the option to build fully location-centric campaigns. View the full article

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss pill on Monday, giving the Danish drugmaker a leg up in the race to market a potent oral medication for shedding pounds as it looks to regain lost ground from rival Eli Lilly. The pill is 25 milligrams of semaglutide, the same active ingredient in injectable Wegovy and Ozempic, and will be sold under the brand name Wegovy. Novo already sells an oral semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus. The approval could help spur a turnaround for Novo after a rocky year of sliding shares, profit warnings and slowing sales of its injectable Wegovy amid intense competition from Lilly and pressure from compounded versions. U.S.-listed shares of Novo jumped 8% and Lilly fell 1% in extended trading after the approval announcement. A 64-week, late-stage study showed participants who took 25 mg of oral semaglutide once daily lost an average of 16.6% of their body weight, compared with 2.7% for those on a placebo. The pill was approved for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight and at least one related health condition, broadening the potential patient pool at a time when insurers, employers and governments are wrestling with spiraling healthcare costs related to obesity. It could help open the door to tens of millions of untapped patients in a global market, forecast to be worth some $150 billion a year by next decade. “You’re going to see a huge uptake in the patient base as new indications open up and as oral versions hit the market,” said Anand Iyer, chief AI officer at telehealth firm Welldoc. Novo is banking on the pill’s first-to-market advantage to revitalize sales in the U.S., where it has lost ground to Lilly. Lilly’s next-generation weight-loss pill orforglipron could be approved as soon as late March. David Moore, Novo’s executive vice president of U.S. operations, said a daily pill could boost interest and uptake of the drug. Novo is manufacturing the pill in the United States in North Carolina and has been building up supplies of the pill “for some time” to ensure that it has “ample supply”, he said. Some 40% of American adults are obese, U.S. government data shows, and around 12% say they currently take GLP-1 drugs, according to a poll published last month by health policy research organization KFF. Novo had a first-to-market advantage with injectables, but initially struggled to meet explosive demand. Eventually, Lilly got ahead with its rival Zepbound, which now leads for weekly U.S. prescriptions. Novo and analysts say a weight-loss pill would address injection hesitancy and expand access. Analysts say pills could capture around a one-fifth share of the market by 2030, particularly among patients who prefer simpler and less invasive treatment options. “The pills will not displace or replace the injections,” said Christopher Chrisman, a managing director and partner at consultancy BCG, adding some patients may prefer to continue with weekly injections. “But pills offer clear advantages to some people. There’s travel convenience and no need for a fridge,” he added. PRICING AGREEMENTS Novo said the 1.5-milligram starting dose of the Wegovy pill will be available in early January. Novo and Lilly had agreed to offer starter doses of their weight‑loss pills at $149 per month for the U.S. government Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs and to cash-paying customers via the White House’s direct-to-consumer The PresidentRx site. Novo recently cut the cash price for Wegovy to $349 a month, from $499. U.S. list prices are about $1,000 per month or more. Novo CEO Mike Doustdar said in November that people using weight-loss drugs show more “consumer-like” behavior than its traditional diabetes patients, acknowledging that the company needs to adapt to this and bring in new expertise. Whether another semaglutide product can solve Novo’s current ills remains to be seen. Novo’s oral semaglutide needs to be taken in the morning on an empty stomach, 30 minutes before eating, drinking or using any other oral medication. Lilly’s pill does not have those restrictions. (Reporting by Maggie Fick, Patrick Wingrove, Mariam Sunny, Christy Santhosh and Mrinalika Roy; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Bill Berkrot, Rosalba O’Brien and Jamie Freed) —Maggie Fick and Mariam Sunny, Reuters View the full article

My Neato D5 Connected was once a willing workhorse, but, today, things aren't looking so good. I recently caught an email from the company alerting me that it shut down my vacuum's cloud servers. Now, my once capable Neato is just a LiDAR-equipped vacuum with a soul that's been deprecated. Without cloud servers, the "smart" is gone. This could be the lobotomized future awaiting Roomba users. Earlier this month, the company behind the pioneering smart vacuum, iRobot, filed for bankruptcy. The remainder of the business will go to its primary manufacturing partner—the one it owes all that money to—Shenzhen Picea Robotics. It's a stark reminder that the longevity of a connected smart device depends entirely on the financial health of the company that made it. I'm not giving up, however. I'm now attempting to get the Neato D5 back into business. Whether you have a Neato, a Roomba, or another robot vacuum approaching the end of its connected, you can mirror my steps to keep your device cleaning. Switch your robot vacuum to manual The email that Neato sent out during Thanksgiving week letting me know my robot vacuum was done for. Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker Following the above email, I tried earnestly to get the Neato back online and back into a routine. I ended up reviving my original account by some miracle, though I have absolutely no access to the vacuum via the app as it currently is. Luckily, there is already a community of folks working to restore the cloud service that once enabled Neato's robot vacuums to schedule themselves. Neato-connected lets you use Home Assistant to manage the brand's devices without the cloud. This is the best choice for experts if the goal is to revive the robot vacuum to its full capacities. Neato has already said that the robots will continue to work manually. The D5 has LiDAR, so it can still physically "see" its way around a floor plan. And although you can't schedule the device or remotely control it, you can still get up and push a button to start a cleaning session. If you want to be super extra, Switchbot makes an affordable button-pushing gadget you can install near the vacuum dock to trigger it from your phone, essentially "hacking" a remote start. The other headache of trying to keep old hardware from going extinct is figuring out if its parts and mechanics still work. My Neato D5, for example, still hasn't successfully managed a manual cleaning session. After some troubleshooting, which involved several factory resets, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, and cleaning debris from all the sensors, it turns out that one of the LiDAR turrets—the hat on top—needs a fix. The vacuum won't start until that's addressed, since it literally can't navigate without that system spinning at a precise speed. The Neato D5 is going to require some surgery. I am either going to fix it by stabilizing a band, or buy a replacement part from eBay and have someone more tech-savvy help with the install. There's always the option to donate it to a better cause, too. Rather than hold on to an eight pound paperweight rotting away in the utility closet, it can get a second life with a local robotics group, since Neato vacuums have a reputation for being highly scrappable due to their laser sensors. Until I get the Neato D5 serviced, it will not manually clean. Credit: Florence Ion/Lifehacker Even cheaper robot vacuums, like an Ecovacs, can find a second life this way. While they aren't as easily "hackable" as Neato (or a Roomba), there are plenty of high school robotics teams that can disassemble the devices to retrieve motors and wheels. Never throw a robot vacuum into the trash. If the device is truly dead and unusable for parts, look into responsibly recycling the Lithium-ion battery as well as the plastic and metal shell with an e-waste recycler. Preparing for the end of RoombaIf you own a Roomba, you aren't offline yet. iRobot is currently undergoing a restructuring, and the company has stated that app functionality and firmware updates will continue as usual. But inevitable change is coming if Neato's trajectory is any indication. We don't know exactly how Roomba's business will go now that it has changed ownership. Existing Roombas rely on the cloud for much of their flagship functionality, like Smart Maps, which help with specific room targeting. Losing the ability would be a major blow to the hardware's legacy. You should prepare for what's to come, even if it involves a little over-preparing. Stockpile replacement parts now, while they're still available. Although Roomba's manufacturer has taken over the business, older models will fall by the wayside as a new generation of robot vacuums is introduced. If you want to get a few more lives out of your Roomba, buy at least a two-year supply of authentic, first-party brushes, rollers, and HEPA filters. Skip the third-party stuff. You'll also want to invest in Roomba's dual-mode virtual wall barriers. Buy them used on eBay. These will come in handy if Roomba's servers ever go offline, since they act as infrared lighthouses to help direct the Roomba's path. You'll be able to use these with Roomba's "Clean" button, its manual mode that doesn't require the internet to start. You'll also want to look into downloading your Smart Maps, in case you can integrate them later. If that isn't enough for you, there is a vibrant community of tinkerers who have long been dedicated to liberating Roombas from the clutches of the cloud. Projects like rest980 and dorita980 let tech-savvy users host their own local control servers, though this often involves a third-party device such as a Home Assistant hub. Ending the e-waste cycleHistory tends to repeat itself in the gadget world. You can at least future-proof your buying decision by recognizing that obsolescence is a possibility down the line. This applies to any connected gadget, from big-name brands to small ones. Matter, the smart home specification that's been quietly rolling out over the past few years, will be more helpful for aging smart gadgets like this, especially since its latest release. It now enables local smart-home control for robot vacuums, so you don't need a cloud service to connect. The vacuum talks directly to your phone or smart hub instead. There are also brands like Roborock that advertise that their robot vacuums have local-only modes. You can even install another community-managed project, Valetudo, on those brands and go completely corporate-free. Or, you could go offline. Most connected home gadgets have variants that use a physical remote control instead. Eufy still makes versions of its robot vacuums without wifi, with no cloud features to worry about going extinct. I'm waiting before I buy eBay parts for the Neato D5 Connected. I need to see if I can fix what's broken with some finagling. It's a bummer I didn't think of preparing for the end of the device's life earlier—like when Neato's parent company announced its eventual shutdown two years ago—to give it a second life and save it from abject hardware failure. If all else fails, I can find it a good home with a robotics team or educational program that can put its parts to good use. I will have considered that a well-lived life for a connected gadget. View the full article

Figure surpassing expectations was boosted by spending related to healthcare and artificial intelligenceView the full article

Markets are flat early Tuesday in holiday-thinned trading before head of the release of new data on how the U.S. economy fared in the third quarter. Futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq are all essentially unchanged before the opening bell. Shares of the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk jumped more than 7% overnight after U.S. regulators approved a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the first daily oral medication to treat obesity. Novo’s Wegovy is a GLP-1 drug that works like widely used injectables to mimic a natural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness. Again touching new records, the price of gold rose 1.2% early Tuesday to $4,523.30 an ounce, adding to its consistent gains throughout the year. Silver rose 1.7%, to $69.71 an ounce. Oil prices edged higher early Tuesday after jumping more than 2% on Monday when the U.S. Coast Guard said it was pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean. U.S. benchmark crude added 4 cents to $58.05 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, gained 7 cents to $62.14 per barrel. Even after five straight days of gains, oil prices are down about 19% since the beginning of 2025 with demand lagging. U.S. factory conditions are weakening with activity readings hitting five-month lows, according to S&P Global. Markets in the U.S. will close early on Wednesday and remain closed on Thursday for the Christmas holiday. Yet several economic reports during the shortened week could shed more light on the condition and direction of the U.S. economy. The government on Tuesday releases the first of three estimates on gross domestic product, a reflection of how the broader U.S. economy fared in the third quarter. Also, the Conference Board will offer results from its December consumer confidence survey. Wednesday will bring a weekly update from the Labor Department on applications for jobless benefits, a proxy for U.S. layoffs. In Europe at midday Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher, while the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.2%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged. In Asian, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was flat at 50,412,87 and the dollar fell against the Japanese yen after officials in Tokyo warned they would intervene if the yen weakened further. The dollar traded at 155.95 yen, down from 157.04 yen late Monday. Instead of gaining after the Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate on Friday, the yen had weakened, drawing the usual objections from the Finance Ministry to larger than usual currency fluctuations. “The hint of currency intervention proved to be such a serious threat that the yen, which had been significantly oversold after the Bank of Japan meeting, rose from the ashes,” Alex Kruptsikevich of FXPro said in a commentary. The euro climbed to $1.1797 from $1.1762. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up early gains to fall 0.1% to 25,774.14. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher, to 3,919.98. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3% to 4,117.32. Shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean’s shares jumped 12.5% after President Donald The President said it would help build a new class of U.S. battleship at the Hanwha Philly shipyard. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia jumped 1.1% to 8,795.70. In Taiwan, the Taiex advanced 0.6%, while India’s Sensex was nearly unchanged. —Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott, AP Business Writers View the full article

Google's Year in Search reveals trending actors, movies, athletes, games, recipes, and travel destinations that captured attention throughout 2025. The post Google Reveals The Top Searches Of 2025 appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Sony ULT Field 5 is currently $191.95 on Amazon, down from $349.99, and that price drop is what finally makes this speaker feel properly positioned. Sony ULT Field 5 Wireless Portable Bluetooth Speaker $191.95 at Amazon $349.99 Save $158.04 Get Deal Get Deal $191.95 at Amazon $349.99 Save $158.04 At full price, it was competing with larger, louder options that offered more raw power for the money. With this discount, it makes more sense as a mid-size outdoor speaker that prioritizes bass, durability, and flexibility. PCMag gave it an “excellent” rating, largely because it delivers deeper low-end sound than most speakers in its size class without becoming unwieldy. This is neither a pocket speaker nor a party cannon. It is designed to strike a balance between portability and sound impact, where both are important. Physically, the Field 5 feels built for abuse. The rectangular body is wrapped in a tough fabric mesh, with passive radiators on each end and subtle LED lighting around them. Those lights can be customized or turned off entirely. The speaker is rated IP67, so dust is a non-issue, and brief drops into water should not cause panic. On top, the controls are simple and tactile, including a large ULT button that changes how the bass behaves. ULT 1 leans into deeper rumble, while ULT 2 pulls things tighter for a more punchy sound. Bass is the clear strength here. It hits harder than you would expect from a speaker this size. The trade-off is in the highs, which can sound a little thin unless you tweak the EQ. Connectivity is where the Field 5 shows its versatility. Bluetooth 5.3 supports multipoint connections, and Sony’s Party Connect lets you link multiple compatible speakers, though they all need to be from Sony, since this speaker does not support Auracast. There is also a 3.5mm AUX input, which is becoming rare on portable speakers and is useful for wired sources. Codec support includes SBC, AAC, and LDAC, which is a plus for Android users who care about audio quality. Battery life is rated at up to 25 hours, and fast charging delivers about two hours of playback from a 10-minute charge. The USB-C port can also charge your phone in a pinch. This speaker is still pricey compared to simpler Bluetooth options, and it favors bass over balanced clarity. Still, if you want a rugged speaker with strong low-end and flexible inputs, this deal makes it far easier to justify. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $248.00 (List Price $399.99) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Graphite) — $139.99 (List Price $219.99) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Blink Outdoor 4 1080p 3-Camera Kit With Sync Module Core — $74.99 (List Price $189.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $29.99 (List Price $49.99) Meta Quest 3 512GB Mixed Reality VR Headset with Controllers — $499.00 (List Price $499.00) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8AfAJUDFWY Search marketers are starting to build, not just optimize. Across SEO and PPC teams, vibe coding and AI-powered development tools are shrinking the gap between idea and execution – from weeks of developer queues to hours of hands-on experimentation. These tools don’t replace developers, but they do let search teams create and test interactive content on their own timelines. That matters because Google’s AI Overviews are pulling more answers directly into the SERP, leaving fewer clicks for brand websites. In a zero-click environment, the ability to build unique, useful, conversion-focused tools is becoming one of the most practical ways search marketers can respond. What is vibe coding? Vibe coding is a way of building software by directing AI systems through natural language rather than writing most of the code by hand. Instead of working line by line, the builder focuses on intent – what the tool should do, how it should look, and how it should respond – while the AI handles implementation. The term was popularized in early 2025 by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, who described a loose, exploratory style of building where ideas are tested quickly, and code becomes secondary to outcomes. His framing captured both the appeal and the risk: AI makes it possible to build functional tools at speed, but it also encourages shortcuts that can lead to fragile or poorly understood systems. Since then, a growing ecosystem of AI-powered development platforms has made this approach accessible well beyond engineering teams. Tools like Replit, Lovable, and Cursor allow non-developers to design, deploy, and iterate on web-based tools with minimal setup. The result is a shift in who gets to build – and how quickly ideas can move from concept to production. That speed, however, doesn’t remove the need for judgment. Vibe coding works best when it’s treated as a craft, not a shortcut. Blindly accepting AI-generated changes, skipping review, or treating tools as disposable experiments creates technical debt just as quickly as it creates momentum. Mastering vibe coding means learning how to guide, question, and refine what the AI produces – not just “see stuff, say stuff, run stuff.” This balance between speed and discipline is what makes vibe coding relevant for search marketers, and why it demands more than curiosity to use well. Vibe coding vs. vibe marketing Vibe coding should not be confused with vibe marketing. AI no-code tools used for vibe coding are designed to build things – applications, tools, and interactive experiences. AI automation platforms used for vibe marketing, such as N8N, Gumloop, and Make, are built to connect tools and systems together. For example, N8N can be used to automate workflows between products, content, or agents created with Replit. These automation platforms extend the value of vibe-coded tools by connecting them to systems like WordPress, Slack, HubSpot, and Meta. Used together, vibe coding and AI automation allow search teams to both build and operationalize what they create. Why vibe coding matters for search marketing In the future, AI-powered coding platforms will likely become a default part of the marketing skill set, much like knowing how to use Microsoft Excel is today. AI won’t take your job – but someone who knows how to use AI might. We recently interviewed candidates for a director of SEO and AI optimization role. None of the people we spoke with were actively vibe coding or had used AI-powered development software for SEO or marketing. That gap was notable. As more companies add these tools to their technology stacks and ways of working, hands-on experience with them is likely to become increasingly relevant. Vibe coding lets search marketers quickly build interactive tools that are useful, conversion-focused, and difficult for Google to replicate through AI Overviews or other SERP features. For paid search, this means teams can rapidly test interactive content ideas and drive traffic to them to evaluate whether they increase leads or sales. These platforms can also be used to build or enhance scripts, improve workflows, and support other operational needs. For SEO, vibe coding makes it possible to add meaningful utility to pages and websites, which can increase engagement and encourage users to return. Returning visitors matter because, according to Google’s AI Mode patent, user state – which includes engagement – plays a significant role in how results are generated in AI Overviews and AI Mode. For agency founders, CEOs, CFOs, and other group leaders, these tools also make it possible to build custom internal systems to support how their businesses actually operate. For example, I used Replit to build an internal growth forecasting and management tool. It allows me to create annual forecasts with assumptions, margins, and P&L modeling to manage the SEO and AI optimization group. There isn’t off-the-shelf software that fully supports those needs. Vibe coding tools can also be cost-effective. In one case, I was quoted $55,000 and a three-month timeline to build an interactive calculator for a client. Using Replit, I built a more robust version in under a week on a $20-per-month plan. Beyond efficiency, the most important reason to develop these skills is the ability to teach them. Helping clients learn how to build and adapt alongside you is increasingly part of the value agencies provide. In a widely shared LinkedIn post about how agencies should approach AI, Chime CMO Vinneet Mehra argued that agencies and holding companies need to move from “we’ll do it for you” to “we’ll build it with you.” In-house teams aren’t going away, he wrote, so agencies need to partner with them by offering copilots, playbooks, and embedded pods that help brands become AI-native marketers. Being early to adopt and understand vibe coding can become a competitive advantage. Used well, it allows teams to navigate a zero-click search environment while empowering clients and strengthening long-term working relationships – the kind that make agencies harder to replace. Top vibe coding platforms for search marketers There are many vibe coding platforms on the market, with new ones continuing to launch as interest grows. Below are several leading options worth exploring. AI development tool and experience levelProsConsGoogle AI Studio (Intermediate)• Direct access to Google’s latest Gemini models. • Seamless integration with Google ecosystem (Maps, Sheets, etc.). • Free tier available for experimentation.• Locked into Google’s ecosystem and Gemini models. • Limited flexibility compared to open platforms. • Smaller community/resources compared to established tools.Lovable (Beginner)• Rapid full-stack app generation from natural language. • Handles database setup automatically. • Minimal coding knowledge required.• Relatively new platform with less maturity. • Limited customization for complex applications. • Generated code may need refinement for production.Figma Make (Intermediate)• Seamless design to code workflow within. • Ideal for teams already using Figma. • Bridges gap between designers and developers.• Requires Figma subscription and ecosystem. • Newer tool, still evolving features. • Code output may need developer review for production.Replit (Intermediate)• All-in-one platform (code, deploy, host). • Strong integration capabilities with third-party tools. • No local setup required.• Performance can lag compared to local development. • Free tier has significant limitations. • Fees can add up based on usage.Cursor (Advanced)• Powerful AI assistance for experienced developers. • Works locally with your existing workflow. • Advanced code understanding and generation.• Steeper learning curve, requires coding knowledge. • Need to download the software GitHub dependency for some features. For beginners: Lovable is the most user-friendly option for those with little coding experience. Figma Make is also intuitive and works well for teams already using Figma. Replit is also relatively easy to use and does not require prior coding experience. For developers, Replit and Cursor offer deeper tooling and are better suited for integrations with other systems, such as CRMs and CMS platforms. Google AI Studio is broader in scope and offers direct connections to Google products, including Google Maps and Gemini, making it useful for teams working within Google’s ecosystem. You should test several of these tools to find the one that best fits your needs. I prefer Replit, but I will be using Figma Make because our creative teams already work in Figma. Bubble is also worth exploring if you are new to coding, while Windsurf may be a better fit for more advanced users. Practical SEO and PPC applications: What you can build today There is no shortage of things you can build with vibe coding platforms. The more important question is what interactive content you should build – tools that do not already exist, solve a real problem, and give users a reason to return. Conversion focus matters, but usefulness comes first. Common use cases include: Lead generation tools Interactive calculators, such as ROI estimators and cost analyzers. Quiz funnels with email capture. Free tools, including word counters and SEO analyzers Content optimization tools Keyword density checkers. Readability analyzers. Meta title and description generators Conversion rate optimization Product recommenders. Personalization engines. Data analysis and reporting Custom analytics dashboards. Rank tracking visualizations. Competitor analysis scrapers, with appropriate ethical considerations. Articles can only take you so far in a zero-click environment, where AI Overviews increasingly provide direct answers and absorb traffic. Interactive content should be an integral part of a modern search and content strategy, particularly for brands seeking to enhance visibility in both traditional and generative search engines, including ChatGPT. Well-designed tools can earn backlinks, increase time on site, drive repeat visits, and improve engagement signals that are associated with stronger search performance. For example, we use AI development software as part of the SEO and content strategy for a client serving accounting firms and bookkeeping professionals. Our research led to the development of an AI-powered accounting ROI calculator designed to help accountants and bookkeeping firms understand the potential return on investment from using AI across different parts of their businesses. The calculator addresses several core questions: Why AI adoption matters for their firm. Where AI can deliver the most impact. What the expected ROI could be. It fills a gap where clear answers did not previously exist and represents the kind of experience Google AI Overviews cannot easily replace. The tool is educational by design. It explains which tasks can be automated with AI, displays results directly on screen, forecasts a break-even point, and allows users to download a PDF summary of their results. AI development software has also enabled us to design additional calculators that deliver practical value to the client’s target audience by addressing problems they cannot easily solve elsewhere. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. A 7-step vibe coding process for search marketers Vibe coding works best when it follows a structured workflow. The steps below outline a practical process search marketers can use to plan, build, test, and launch interactive tools using AI-powered development platforms. Step 1: Research and ideation Run SERP analysis, competitor research, and customer surveys, and use audience research tools such as SparkToro to identify gaps where AI Overviews leave room for interactive tools. Include sales, PR, legal, compliance, and cybersecurity teams early in the process. That collaboration is especially important when building tools for clients. When possible, involve customers or target audiences during research, ideation, and testing. Step 2: Create your content specification document Create a content specification document to define what you want to build before you start. This document should outline functionality, inputs, outputs, and constraints to help guide the vibe coding software and reduce errors. Include as much training context as possible, such as brand colors, tone of voice, links, PDFs, and reference materials. The more detail provided upfront, the better the results. Use this Interactive Content Specification Brief template, and review the instructions before getting started. Step 3: Design before functionality Begin with wireframes and front-end design before building functionality. Replit prompts for this approach during setup, and it helps reduce rework later. Getting the design close to final before moving into logic makes it easier to evaluate usability. Design changes can always be made later. Step 4: Prompt like a product manager After submitting the specification document, continue prompting to refine the build. Ask the AI why it made specific decisions and how changes affect the system. In practice, targeted questions lead to fewer errors and more predictable outcomes. Step 5: Deploy and test Deploy the tool to a test URL to confirm it behaves as expected. If the tool will be embedded on other sites, test it in those environments as well. Security configurations can block API calls or integrations depending on the host site. I encountered this when integrating a Replit build with Klaviyo. After reviewing the deployment context, the issue was resolved. Step 6: Update the content specification document Have the AI update the content specification document to reflect the final version of what was built. This creates a record of decisions, changes, and requirements and makes future updates or rebuilds easier. Save this document for reference. Step 7: Launch Push the interactive content live using a custom domain or by embedding it on your site. Plan distribution and promotion alongside the launch. This is why involving PR, sales, and marketing teams from the beginning of the project matters. They play a role in ensuring the content reaches the right audience. The dark side of vibe coding and important watchouts Vibe coding tools are powerful, but understanding their limitations is just as important as understanding their strengths. The main risks fall into three areas: Security and compliance. Price creep. Technical debt. Security and compliance While impressive, vibe coding tools can introduce security gaps. AI-generated code does not always follow best practices for API usage, data encryption, authentication, or regulatory requirements such as GDPR or ADA compliance. Any vibe-coded tool should be reviewed by security, legal, and compliance professionals before launch, especially if it collects user data. Privacy-by-design principles should also be documented upfront in the content specification document. These platforms are improving. For example, some tools now offer automated security scans that flag issues before deployment and suggest fixes. Even so, human review remains essential. Price creep Another common risk is what could be described as the “vibe coding hangover.” A tool that starts as a quick experiment can quietly become business-critical, while costs scale alongside usage. Monthly subscriptions that appear inexpensive at first can grow rapidly as traffic increases, databases expand, or additional API calls are required. In some cases, self-hosting a vibe-coded project makes more sense than relying on platform-hosted infrastructure. Hosting independently can help control costs by avoiding per-use or per-visit charges. Technical debt Vibe coding can also create technical debt. Tools can break unexpectedly, leaving teams staring at code they no longer fully understand – a risk Karpathy highlighted in his original description of the approach. This is why “Accept all” should never be the default. Reviewing AI explanations, asking why changes were made, and understanding tradeoffs are critical habits. Most platforms provide detailed change logs, version history, and rollback options, which makes it possible to recover when something breaks. Updating the content specification document at major milestones also helps maintain clarity as projects evolve. Vibe coding is your competitive edge AI Overviews and zero-click search are changing how value is created in search. Traffic is not returning to past norms, and competing on content alone is becoming less reliable. The advantage increasingly goes to teams that build interactive experiences Google cannot easily replicate – tools that require user input and deliver specific, useful outcomes. Vibe coding makes that possible. The approach matters: start with research and a clear specification, design before functionality, prompt with intent, and iterate with discipline. Speed without structure creates risk, which is why understanding what the AI builds is as important as shipping quickly. The tools are accessible. Lovable lowers the barrier to entry, Cursor supports advanced workflows, and Replit offers flexibility across use cases. Many platforms are free to start. The real cost is not testing what’s possible. More importantly, vibe coding shifts how teams work together. Agencies and in-house teams are moving from “we’ll do it for you” to “we’ll build it with you.” Teams that develop this capability can adapt to a zero-click search environment while building stronger, more durable partnerships. Build something. Learn from it. The competitive advantage is often one prompt away. View the full article

In the fall of 2024, six college students joined forces to start an AI company together. Five of them had met while studying computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The sixth, its CEO, was pursuing a degree in childhood and adolescent development at Sacramento State, with an eye on becoming a grade-school teacher. That wasn’t the only thing that made him an outlier. He also happened to have been in the tech industry for well over thirty years—longer than his fellow founders had been alive. The Georgia Tech students are Ian Boraks, Jacob Justice, Drake Kelly, Ella McCheney, and Abhinav Vemulapalli, all of whom happen to be 21. The Sac State student/tech veteran is Bill Nguyen, whose past startups amount to a guided tour of Silicon Valley trends over the years, from “push” technology to unified messaging to digital music to social networking to telehealth. Their new company, Olive.is—Olive for short—is developing technology to make AI better at grasping the full meaning of spoken communications, as conveyed by elements, such as inflection and dialect, that current models may gloss over. It plans to offer its tech as a service for enriching AI-powered applications in education and other areas. Olive’s name references the company’s ambitious hope of fostering better understanding—an olive branch, if you will—between humans and machines. It’s still in the process of researching and developing its AI model, and has raised $5 million in seed funding from education-focused venture capital firm Owl Ventures and Georgia Tech. The unusual founding team was a selling point to Owl, which also backed one of Nguyen’s previous ventures, Hazel Health. As students themselves, the Georgia Tech founders “are deeply connected and have a lot of recency with the ideal cohort of potential users that are going to benefit from all this technology,” says Owl’s Lyman Missimer. “But Bill is giving this team the full kind of Silicon Valley hustle out in the middle of Atlanta.” More than words can say When I first met Nguyen in 2006, he was already a Silicon Valley vet and burbling with enthusiasm for a company he’d founded called Lala, which helped people trade CDs through the mail. (It later moved into music streaming and was acquired by Apple in 2009.) His knack for high-energy pitchmanship helped his next company, the location-based, photo-centric social network Color, raise $41 million from firms such as Sequoia. It was ultimately best known for crashing and burning, as detailed in a 2011 Fast Company feature by Danielle Sacks. Today, Nguyen is as exuberant as ever when discussing Olive’s goals and origin story, and doesn’t seem to have aged nearly 20 years since our earliest encounter. As he explains it, AI models for turning speech into text, such as OpenAI’s Whisper, have gotten uncannily good at correctly transcribing the literal meaning of what they hear. Yet the words we choose hardly convey our intent all by themselves. Elements such as inflection matter, too—and are sometimes absolutely crucial to understanding what someone is trying to say. “There’s definitely a lot in human conversation that gets chopped off by LLMs,” says Nguyen. “For example, if you ask me a question and I go, “Yeeeeeees?”—he infuses the word with uncertainty—“it’s not really a ‘Yes.’ But an automated speech recognition system will basically truncate all that nuance, get rid of it, and just put it as a ’Yes.‘” If existing LLMs struggle with some of the subtleties of how we talk to each other, it’s at least in part because they’ve been trained on material that’s publicly available in vast quantities, such as podcasts. Such recordings “probably sound really, really clean and they’re great audio,” says Nguyen. “But that’s not how we actually converse.” Nguyen’s interest in this current limitation of AI is intertwined with his long-standing passion for education. Years before he went back to school to become a teacher himself—he’s halfway to earning his degree—he cofounded a public charter school near Lake Tahoe. As a result, he learned that few doctors in the area accepted Medicaid, greatly limiting student access to healthcare. That helped catalyze Hazel Health, which provides telehealth services through K-12 schools. It now serves 5,000 of them in 19 states. Bill NguyenElla McChesney The Hazel experience left Nguyen attuned to the real-world challenges schools face as they adopt technology. He provides an example relating to speech recognition. “In a school district, one of the things that they have to focus on is the ability to understand when to do an intervention for a student around reading,” he says. In theory, AI might help by analyzing audio of them speaking. But only if it understands what they’re saying, regardless of whether ”a student has a Mexican-American vernacular, African-American English vernacular, or Hawaiian vernacular.“ To complicate matters, “Children are especially hard [for AI to understand], because they have very limited vocabulary,” says cofounder McChesney. “So in order to express themselves, they find more creative ways to use words. And so what we’ve seen is that that can mean that models misinterpret them more, which can have negative consequences, especially when teachers are trying to leverage these tools to help them bring better experiences to the classroom.” The glimmer of opportunity in the idea of training AI models using audio that reflects how real people talk—especially students—led to Olive’s founding. How Nguyen, based in Tahoe, ended up collaborating with a bunch of young techies in Atlanta is a story in itself. At first, he noodled on the idea with Justice, who is his son as well as a fellow Olive founder. As they forged ahead, the project expanded to include more people from Justice’s social circle. McChesney, whose credentials include high-school work at the Department of Defense and four years interning at Lockheed Martin, had recently returned from a study trip to Korea when she joined the effort, right as Nguyen was prepping to pitch the company to investors. “I got a text while I was in Costco from Drake, and he’s like, ‘Bill wants your résumé, send it in the next 10 minutes,” she remembers. “Which would’ve been great if I wasn’t in a Costco with my phone at 5% and no cell service, because Costco is a giant steel box.” She Airdropped her CV to a friend, who sent it to Nguyen just in time. The Atlanta-based cofounders do much of their partnering with Nguyen over Discord, though they quickly ran into the limitations of typed messages as a form of collaboration. In their minds, that only underlined the richness of verbal communications and the importance of teaching AI to comprehend it. “We’d always end up doing late-night calls, because that was the easiest way to communicate amongst ourselves, and the easiest way to really get our ideas across and understand what people are saying,” says McChesney. “There’s no ambiguity, the way there is in a lot of these text messages, and we can iterate faster. That really inspired what we’re trying to do here.” It’s all in the data To overcome current AI models’ limitations when it comes to capturing how humans express themselves verbally, Olive had to start with better data. More specifically, it had to start with raw audio of people talking to each other in unscripted situations. “Our whole idea was if we can get really clean data sets, if we don’t remove any of the information, if we train a model that actually retains all of this context, then we can solve these mission-critical cases,” says Nguyen. More specifically, it decided to start with audio recordings of students engaged in conversations with professionals such as teachers and therapists—recorded, it stresses, with the participants’ permission and awareness that they could be used for training. As the company was finding sources of such material, Nguyen’s background at Hazel Health came in handy. “We worked with school districts, we worked with universities,” he says. “The data set is pretty extensive now. It’s north of 40,000 hours.” The company also built an iPhone app of its own, which I tried in pre-release form. Taking advantage of the beefy AI capabilities of Apple’s newest smartphone chips, it builds an understanding of the user’s needs by applying Olive’s models to verbal input. All processing is done on the phone, and input isn’t used for training purposes. Olive doesn’t see this app replacing other AI tools so much as enhancing them. For instance, you could talk into the Olive app at length about an app you’d like to create, then have it turn your verbal meanderings into a product requirements document to feed into a vibe-coding platform. “You‘re using your voice to have a more engaging conversation and actually hash it out,” says McChesney. “That’s what makes this so cool.” However, Olive isn’t building its business around this iPhone app. Nor does it intend to provide fully-baked applications based on its technology. Instead, it plans to offer its AI model as a cloud-based service. Other companies will be able to use it as a technological layer in their own creations, providing them with a deeper understanding of speech than they’d get by relying entirely on existing voice models. Along with possible uses in education—ranging from tutoring to helping scale up college counseling—Olive is targeting hiring, healthcare, and finance as areas where it hopes to find customers. “These are all high stakes, and they’re all regulated in terms of what you can do,” says Nguyen. They’re also all places where the limitations of existing AI may introduce harm that Olive hopes to overcome through better, fairer comprehension of a wider range of communications styles. “You want AI access to be more equitable,” says McChesney. “You want everyone to be able to leverage these tools, because these tools are inherently part of our workforce.” The company’s home page is currently devoted to a sobering blog post, “Covert Racism: The Voice Inside the Machine.” Heavily footnoted, it cites research that shows how prejudices are baked into AI in ways that can be difficult to detect even if its creators are actively trying to combat bias. “The part of it that’s mind-blowing to me is people are not getting jobs,” Nguyen says. “People are getting declined on loans. People are having adverse health effects. And no one knows why.” Olive’s potential to steer AI in a better direction might be particularly relevant in education, where the technology is still in the process of finding applications and the company has a shot at being foundational. ”Every major new technological shift is developed, built, and scaled, and then 10 years later it finally finds its way into education,” says Owl Ventures’ Missimer. “When we saw what Bill and team were building, we knew that the edtech market couldn’t wait 10 years for this type of technology, especially in a time where voice is becoming such a larger part of the technological stack.” With that in mind, Owl is helping to introduce Olive to other companies in its portfolio of education startups. They include Amira Learning, a 2025 Fast Company Next Big Things in Tech honoree that offers a suite of AI and neuroscience-based reading aids. Given that Olive’s strategy is to provide its AI model as an ingredient for other companies’ products, those kinds of relationships have everything to do with its long-term fate. For now, it remains tiny, though it’s already grown to nine people. Nguyen says he’s reveling in the hands-on experience of running something so tiny. At his previous, larger startups, “I, as the founder, was pretty separated from the actual engineering process,” says Nguyen, who is not an engineer by background. “But now I’m not. I’m in the code base. I check it every day. I know what’s happening with it.” Once again, he exudes enthusiasm. Once again, he’s working on something that taps into the tech industry’s current obsession. Nguyen, who dubbed himself “the Don Quixote of startups” in Sacks’ 2011 article, may not be destined to run Olive forever. (Did I mention his intention to become a grade-school teacher?) But if this startup takes flight, having helping his youthful cofounders get it off the ground will be a legacy in itself. View the full article

In December 2024, our survey with Harris Poll asked B2B marketers to share their top areas for investment in 2025. Artificial intelligence tools were at the top of the list. It also wasn’t surprising to see the AI architects named Time magazine’s Person of the Year as the ripple effects of the technology continue across every sector. And in 2026, we will see B2B decision makers do something new: return to basics andembrace AI to reimagine what’s possible. This approach reveals a compelling duality in how marketers are planning for 2026. There’s a return to what we’ve always known while also betting big on AI as a force not only reshaping work, but rewriting today’s B2B marketer and modern buyer playbook. According to our most recent Harris Poll survey, next year will bring a clear acknowledgement that while the fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed, the way we execute these absolutely will. THE PENDULUM SWINGS BACK For years, marketers have chased the next shiny object: new formats, new platforms, new channels. But the pendulum is swinging back. According to the survey, leaders say their biggest 2026 investments will focus on customer experience and brand building—not the newest social platform or the latest ad tech novelty. There’s a collective realization happening. In an environment of AI-enabled disruption, the brands with the strongest emotional equity and deepest buyer trust will win. By doubling down on loyalty, automation, and reputation, organizations can differentiate and ensure that every marketing dollar contributes to sustainable, long-term growth. Loyalty isn’t a metric anymore; it’s a moat. But this return to what works doesn’t necessarily mean a return to traditional tactics. AI ISN’T REPLACING STRATEGY More than half of marketing decision-makers (55%) expect AI to reshape both the development and execution of marketing strategies. That’s not a subtle shift. It means strategy will move from something built in quarterly cycles to something that updates dynamically based on behaviors, signals, and real-time learning. This shift requires marketers to embrace AI, not fear it. When positioned as a strategic input, AI enables strategy to evolve with the market and puts leaders in the strongest position to reach today’s modern buyer at the right time and place. AI becomes the connective tissue unifying audience data, creative insights, content intelligence, and activation. Audience understanding becomes dynamic as AI continuously interprets signals and behaviors to identify who’s truly in-market. Content and messaging adapt in real time as AI learns what resonates across channels. Orchestration becomes predictive, determining where buyers are most likely to engage next and routing the right message to the right surface. Measurement shifts from backward-looking to forward-driving, surfacing early signals that guide creative, budget, and activation decisions. The strategy itself becomes fluid, evolving, and continuously optimizing. Instead of asking, “Is my strategy right?” marketers will ask, “Is my strategy learning fast enough?” ZERO-CLICK IS RESHAPING BRAND COMPETITION Nearly half of marketing leaders (45%) believe AI-powered search and assistants will dramatically change how customers discover brands. That means marketers are beginning to understand a new reality: In 2026, competition happens before the click. In a zero-click environment, the buyer journey is no longer linear. People are forming opinions inside AI Overviews, chat assistants, recommendation engines, and result pages that summarize expertise without ever sending traffic your way. The “search → click → read → evaluate” journey marketers built their strategies around has been replaced by one where discovery and evaluation happen simultaneously—often without a website visit. Buyers may never land on your page, yet they’ve already developed a perception of your credibility, authority, and relevance. This shift demands a fundamentally different approach to visibility. It’s no longer enough to create great content; brands must create signals. Reputation, authority, and consistency become the new KPIs, because AI systems rely on patterns across the broader ecosystem, not just what lives on your domain. Zero-click environments reward brands that show up with clarity and coherence across every channel, not just the ones they own. The brands that win are the ones influencing the answer long before a user ever reaches a brand webpage. This isn’t a retreat from brand building; it’s an evolution of it. AI DOESN’T REPLACE THE BASICS, IT AMPLIFIES THEM The survey findings tell a clear story: AI doesn’t exempt marketers from doing the hard work of brand building; it makes that work even more essential. Rather than overshadowing fundamentals like loyalty, reputation, and customer experience, AI deepens their impact. It enables personalization at a level previously impossible and transforms audience understanding by replacing static personas with living intelligence. With AI orchestrating channels dynamically instead of treating them as disconnected tactics, the longstanding divide between brand and performance marketing collapses. The two disciplines become interdependent, each strengthened by AI’s ability to learn, predict, and adapt across the entire customer journey. But recognizing AI’s potential and operationalizing it are two very different things. The real competitive advantage in 2026 won’t come from experimenting with a handful of tools; it will come from embedding AI across the full lifecycle, including strategy, creation, activation, measurement, and optimization. Marketers already feel this shift coming. AI is becoming the operating system of modern marketing, not an accessory. The question for the year ahead isn’t whether marketers will use AI; it’s whether they will scale it in a way that elevates the core principles that have always distinguished the strongest brands. BACK TO BASICS, BUT SMARTER The headline for 2026: AI is making the basics matter more. Marketers are rediscovering that trust, loyalty, and brand still determine winners, while embracing AI to execute those fundamentals with far greater intelligence, speed, and impact. And next year, the brands that thrive will be the ones that combine timeless principles with transformative technology—going back to basics, but this time with an engine powerful enough to take them further than ever before. Great marketing and advertising have always been an art. AI doesn’t diminish that; it simply elevates it. Keith Turco is CEO of Madison Logic. View the full article

In today’s competitive environment, effective business strategies can set successful companies apart. Consider how Best Buy transformed its stores into mini warehouses to improve customer experience, or how Nike‘s pricing strategy capitalizes on brand loyalty. Each of these seven examples illustrates unique approaches that nurture growth and adaptability. Comprehending these strategies is essential for anyone looking to improve their own business practices. What can you learn from these industry leaders? Key Takeaways Best Buy transformed stores into mini warehouses, enhancing product availability and customer shopping experiences through efficient operational strategies. Nike’s premium pricing strategy leverages strong brand loyalty and exclusive products, aligning with consumer trends to bolster customer loyalty. Starbucks uses technology for seamless engagement via a loyalty app, creating a welcoming atmosphere that encourages repeat visits and enhances customer satisfaction. Tesla drives innovation in electric vehicles with high-performance models and advanced manufacturing, establishing leadership through sustainability and cutting-edge technology. Amazon’s continuous adaptation, from bookselling to e-commerce and cloud computing, illustrates the importance of aligning business strategies with market trends and consumer needs. What Is a Business Strategy? A business strategy is fundamentally a blueprint that defines how a company plans to achieve its goals. It acts as a roadmap, aligning employees in the direction of common objectives during guiding decision-making processes. To determine the best business to purchase or the best small business to buy, you need a clear strategy. Effective strategies help identify strengths and weaknesses, utilizing research methods like SWOT analysis to assess internal and external factors. By focusing on service business ideas, you can tailor your strategy for competitive advantage. A well-executed business strategy increases profitability and market share, as demonstrated by companies like Amazon, which diversified its offerings since its launch. In the end, a solid strategy enables businesses to navigate challenges and seize opportunities effectively. Best Buy’s Strategic Shift to Enhance Customer Experience Best Buy has made a significant strategic shift by transforming its stores into mini warehouses, which improves product availability and shipping efficiency for you as a customer. This approach not just enhances your shopping experience but furthermore encourages convenient pick-up options, making it easier for you to get what you need. Moreover, by integrating vendor showrooms into their retail spaces, Best Buy provides cost-effective marketing solutions that benefit suppliers while boosting overall customer satisfaction. Mini Warehouses Strategy Transforming storefronts into mini warehouses, Best Buy has adopted a strategic approach aimed at enhancing customer experience through improved product availability and expedited shipping times. This shift allows you to pick up products in-store, increasing your willingness to pay because of immediate access. Business examples, like Best Buy’s strategy, demonstrate how optimizing operational efficiency can create a competitive edge against online retailers and big-box competitors. By lowering the willingness to sell for vendors through in-store showrooms, Best Buy has additionally provided cost-effective solutions during securing product discounts. This not only contributes to overall revenue growth but also guarantees that you receive a more convenient shopping experience. In this way, Best Buy is redefining retail amidst strong competition. Vendor Showroom Integration By integrating vendor showrooms into its retail spaces, Best Buy has greatly improved the customer experience in addition to increasing product visibility. This strategic shift offers several advantages: Enhanced Product Availability: Customers can see a wider range of products directly from suppliers, improving their shopping convenience. Stronger Vendor Relationships: By allowing vendors to create dedicated spaces, Best Buy encourages collaboration, leading to better pricing and cost-effective solutions. Improved Shipping and Pickup: Utilizing storefronts as mini warehouses accelerates shipping times and simplifies customer pickups, raising overall satisfaction. This approach not only counters revenue losses from online competition but likewise drives Best Buy’s growth, benefiting both customers and vendors through a more engaging in-store experience. Nike’s Brand Power and Value-Based Pricing Approach Nike’s success in the athletic apparel market stems largely from its strategic use of value-based pricing, which justifies premium prices through strong brand loyalty and perceived quality. By comprehending market influence, Nike improves customer willingness to pay for products like Air Jordans, creating a perception of exclusivity and status. This approach not just boosts revenue but additionally nurtures deep connections with consumers, ensuring long-term loyalty and competitive advantage. Premium Pricing Justification When consumers perceive a brand as synonymous with quality and prestige, they’re often willing to pay more for its products. Nike exemplifies this with its premium pricing strategy, which hinges on several key factors: Brand Image: Nike’s strong brand identity and influence help justify higher prices, as consumers associate it with top-tier quality. Exclusive Offerings: Limited-edition products, like Air Jordans, greatly increase consumers’ willingness to pay, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity. Strategic Marketing: Sponsorship of elite athletes improves perceived value, allowing Nike to command premium prices as it maintains higher profit margins than competitors. Brand Loyalty Enhancement Building on the premium pricing strategy, brand loyalty plays a significant role in Nike’s ongoing success and market dominance. In 2021, Nike’s global revenue surpassed $44 billion, largely owing to its effective value-based pricing strategy, which capitalizes on consumer perceptions of quality and brand image. The company’s products, known for innovative design and performance, justify their premium pricing by nurturing a high perceived value. Exclusive items, such as Air Jordans, augment brand loyalty, increasing consumers’ willingness to pay. By emphasizing brand prestige and social influence, Nike maintains its competitive edge in the athletic apparel market. Furthermore, aligning marketing strategies with consumer trends and lifestyle aspirations effectively bolsters customer loyalty as it maximizes pricing influence. Market Influence Understanding Grasping market influence is crucial for any brand aiming to establish a strong presence, and Nike exemplifies this through its strength and value-based pricing approach. The company’s success hinges on several key factors: Consumer Perception: Nike leverages its brand prestige and quality, leading to higher willingness to pay (WTP) for products. Athlete Associations: Collaborations with high-profile athletes improve brand image and raise status for consumers. Innovation and Trends: By focusing on product quality and social influence, Nike justifies its premium pricing, positioning its items as symbols of performance. This strategic comprehension of market influence allows Nike to nurture strong brand loyalty, contributing to long-term growth and profitability. Starbucks: Transforming Customer Engagement and Loyalty Starbucks has markedly transformed customer engagement and loyalty by leveraging technology and innovative product offerings, ensuring that you have a seamless experience from the moment you enter the store or use their app. Their loyalty app stands out as the most used among major restaurant chains, driving customer retention and satisfaction. By introducing products like the Frappuccino and seasonal beverages, Starbucks improves your experience as well as boosting sales growth. Their commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing resonates with socially conscious consumers, further strengthening brand loyalty. With thousands of locations worldwide, Starbucks offers convenience for coffee lovers. Moreover, consistent investments in store atmosphere and customer service create a welcoming environment, encouraging repeat visits and nurturing long-term loyalty. Tesla’s Innovative Approach to Electric Vehicle Manufacturing As Tesla continues to redefine the electric vehicle environment, its innovative approach to manufacturing sets it apart from traditional automakers. The company emphasizes performance and sustainability, integrating state-of-the-art technology into its processes. Here are three key strategies that illustrate Tesla’s manufacturing innovation: High-Performance Models: The Model S achieves over 370 miles on a single charge, setting industry standards. Advanced Manufacturing Techniques: Utilizing robotics and data analytics improves efficiency and reduces costs within production. Gigafactories: Tesla’s Nevada facility is expected to produce enough batteries for 500,000 vehicles annually by 2030, showcasing its commitment to scaling production. With these strategies, Tesla has become the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, delivering over 1.3 million vehicles in 2023. Amazon’s Evolution From Bookseller to Retail Giant Since its inception in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving into one of the world’s largest retail giants. Initially promoting itself as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore,” Amazon focused on offering a vast selection of books. In 2000, the launch of Amazon Marketplace allowed third-party sellers to list products, greatly increasing variety and revenue. The introduction of Amazon Prime in 2005 offered fast, free shipping and exclusive content, enhancing customer loyalty. Furthermore, Amazon expanded into cloud computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS), generating over $62 billion in revenue by 2021. The Importance of Adapting Business Strategies in a Changing Market In a swiftly changing market, companies must recognize that adapting their business strategies is vital for long-term success. Businesses that fail to evolve risk falling behind their competitors. Here are three key reasons why adaptation is imperative: Consumer Expectations: As seen with Amazon Prime, adapting service offerings can improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. Market Trends: Companies like Netflix shifted from DVD rentals to streaming to align with digital consumption trends, ensuring relevance. Innovation Necessity: Ford’s pivot toward electric vehicles illustrates the need for legacy companies to innovate and embrace sustainability in response to environmental concerns. Frequently Asked Questions What Is Apple’s Business Strategy? Apple‘s business strategy focuses on creating a cohesive ecosystem of products and services that improves customer loyalty. You’ll notice they prioritize premium pricing, backed by a strong brand image and high product quality. By diversifying into services like Apple Music and Apple TV+, they greatly boost revenue. Additionally, Apple emphasizes design and user experience, ensuring products, like the iPhone, remain competitive during maintaining a strategic approach to product launches for quality and innovation. What Are the 5 P’s of Business Strategy? The 5 P’s of business strategy are Plan, Ploy, Pattern, Position, and Perspective. A Plan outlines the actions needed to meet objectives, whereas a Ploy refers to tactics that outmaneuver competitors. Pattern highlights consistent behaviors over time, showcasing how strategies evolve. Position defines your competitive stance in the market, and Perspective reflects the mindset that guides your strategic choices. Together, these elements help shape a thorough approach to achieving business success. What Is a Real Life Example of Strategy Implementation? A real-life example of strategy implementation is Best Buy’s use of its storefronts as mini warehouses. This approach improved customer convenience by ensuring faster shipping and better product availability. By allowing customers to pick up items directly from stores, Best Buy increased its willingness to pay, enhancing overall customer satisfaction. This strategic move demonstrates how adapting physical resources can effectively meet consumer needs and drive business growth in a competitive market. What Is a Good Example of a Strategy Statement? A good example of a strategy statement is Amazon’s, which emphasizes its commitment to customer obsession and operational excellence. This statement clearly defines Amazon’s purpose, focusing on delivering an exceptional customer experience during efficient operations. By articulating these core values, Amazon aligns its organizational efforts and guides decision-making. This strategic clarity allows the company to adapt to market changes as it continuously aims for growth and long-term success in the competitive retail environment. Conclusion In summary, these seven businesses highlight the critical importance of effective strategy in achieving success. By enhancing customer experiences, leveraging brand loyalty, and adapting to market changes, companies like Best Buy, Nike, and Tesla demonstrate that a well-defined strategy can drive growth and maintain competitiveness. As markets evolve, businesses must remain responsive and innovative, ensuring their strategies align with consumer needs and industry trends. In the end, strategic thinking is crucial for sustained success in any business environment. Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Inspiring Business Examples That Boost Strategy" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In today’s competitive environment, effective business strategies can set successful companies apart. Consider how Best Buy transformed its stores into mini warehouses to improve customer experience, or how Nike‘s pricing strategy capitalizes on brand loyalty. Each of these seven examples illustrates unique approaches that nurture growth and adaptability. Comprehending these strategies is essential for anyone looking to improve their own business practices. What can you learn from these industry leaders? Key Takeaways Best Buy transformed stores into mini warehouses, enhancing product availability and customer shopping experiences through efficient operational strategies. Nike’s premium pricing strategy leverages strong brand loyalty and exclusive products, aligning with consumer trends to bolster customer loyalty. Starbucks uses technology for seamless engagement via a loyalty app, creating a welcoming atmosphere that encourages repeat visits and enhances customer satisfaction. Tesla drives innovation in electric vehicles with high-performance models and advanced manufacturing, establishing leadership through sustainability and cutting-edge technology. Amazon’s continuous adaptation, from bookselling to e-commerce and cloud computing, illustrates the importance of aligning business strategies with market trends and consumer needs. What Is a Business Strategy? A business strategy is fundamentally a blueprint that defines how a company plans to achieve its goals. It acts as a roadmap, aligning employees in the direction of common objectives during guiding decision-making processes. To determine the best business to purchase or the best small business to buy, you need a clear strategy. Effective strategies help identify strengths and weaknesses, utilizing research methods like SWOT analysis to assess internal and external factors. By focusing on service business ideas, you can tailor your strategy for competitive advantage. A well-executed business strategy increases profitability and market share, as demonstrated by companies like Amazon, which diversified its offerings since its launch. In the end, a solid strategy enables businesses to navigate challenges and seize opportunities effectively. Best Buy’s Strategic Shift to Enhance Customer Experience Best Buy has made a significant strategic shift by transforming its stores into mini warehouses, which improves product availability and shipping efficiency for you as a customer. This approach not just enhances your shopping experience but furthermore encourages convenient pick-up options, making it easier for you to get what you need. Moreover, by integrating vendor showrooms into their retail spaces, Best Buy provides cost-effective marketing solutions that benefit suppliers while boosting overall customer satisfaction. Mini Warehouses Strategy Transforming storefronts into mini warehouses, Best Buy has adopted a strategic approach aimed at enhancing customer experience through improved product availability and expedited shipping times. This shift allows you to pick up products in-store, increasing your willingness to pay because of immediate access. Business examples, like Best Buy’s strategy, demonstrate how optimizing operational efficiency can create a competitive edge against online retailers and big-box competitors. By lowering the willingness to sell for vendors through in-store showrooms, Best Buy has additionally provided cost-effective solutions during securing product discounts. This not only contributes to overall revenue growth but also guarantees that you receive a more convenient shopping experience. In this way, Best Buy is redefining retail amidst strong competition. Vendor Showroom Integration By integrating vendor showrooms into its retail spaces, Best Buy has greatly improved the customer experience in addition to increasing product visibility. This strategic shift offers several advantages: Enhanced Product Availability: Customers can see a wider range of products directly from suppliers, improving their shopping convenience. Stronger Vendor Relationships: By allowing vendors to create dedicated spaces, Best Buy encourages collaboration, leading to better pricing and cost-effective solutions. Improved Shipping and Pickup: Utilizing storefronts as mini warehouses accelerates shipping times and simplifies customer pickups, raising overall satisfaction. This approach not only counters revenue losses from online competition but likewise drives Best Buy’s growth, benefiting both customers and vendors through a more engaging in-store experience. Nike’s Brand Power and Value-Based Pricing Approach Nike’s success in the athletic apparel market stems largely from its strategic use of value-based pricing, which justifies premium prices through strong brand loyalty and perceived quality. By comprehending market influence, Nike improves customer willingness to pay for products like Air Jordans, creating a perception of exclusivity and status. This approach not just boosts revenue but additionally nurtures deep connections with consumers, ensuring long-term loyalty and competitive advantage. Premium Pricing Justification When consumers perceive a brand as synonymous with quality and prestige, they’re often willing to pay more for its products. Nike exemplifies this with its premium pricing strategy, which hinges on several key factors: Brand Image: Nike’s strong brand identity and influence help justify higher prices, as consumers associate it with top-tier quality. Exclusive Offerings: Limited-edition products, like Air Jordans, greatly increase consumers’ willingness to pay, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity. Strategic Marketing: Sponsorship of elite athletes improves perceived value, allowing Nike to command premium prices as it maintains higher profit margins than competitors. Brand Loyalty Enhancement Building on the premium pricing strategy, brand loyalty plays a significant role in Nike’s ongoing success and market dominance. In 2021, Nike’s global revenue surpassed $44 billion, largely owing to its effective value-based pricing strategy, which capitalizes on consumer perceptions of quality and brand image. The company’s products, known for innovative design and performance, justify their premium pricing by nurturing a high perceived value. Exclusive items, such as Air Jordans, augment brand loyalty, increasing consumers’ willingness to pay. By emphasizing brand prestige and social influence, Nike maintains its competitive edge in the athletic apparel market. Furthermore, aligning marketing strategies with consumer trends and lifestyle aspirations effectively bolsters customer loyalty as it maximizes pricing influence. Market Influence Understanding Grasping market influence is crucial for any brand aiming to establish a strong presence, and Nike exemplifies this through its strength and value-based pricing approach. The company’s success hinges on several key factors: Consumer Perception: Nike leverages its brand prestige and quality, leading to higher willingness to pay (WTP) for products. Athlete Associations: Collaborations with high-profile athletes improve brand image and raise status for consumers. Innovation and Trends: By focusing on product quality and social influence, Nike justifies its premium pricing, positioning its items as symbols of performance. This strategic comprehension of market influence allows Nike to nurture strong brand loyalty, contributing to long-term growth and profitability. Starbucks: Transforming Customer Engagement and Loyalty Starbucks has markedly transformed customer engagement and loyalty by leveraging technology and innovative product offerings, ensuring that you have a seamless experience from the moment you enter the store or use their app. Their loyalty app stands out as the most used among major restaurant chains, driving customer retention and satisfaction. By introducing products like the Frappuccino and seasonal beverages, Starbucks improves your experience as well as boosting sales growth. Their commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing resonates with socially conscious consumers, further strengthening brand loyalty. With thousands of locations worldwide, Starbucks offers convenience for coffee lovers. Moreover, consistent investments in store atmosphere and customer service create a welcoming environment, encouraging repeat visits and nurturing long-term loyalty. Tesla’s Innovative Approach to Electric Vehicle Manufacturing As Tesla continues to redefine the electric vehicle environment, its innovative approach to manufacturing sets it apart from traditional automakers. The company emphasizes performance and sustainability, integrating state-of-the-art technology into its processes. Here are three key strategies that illustrate Tesla’s manufacturing innovation: High-Performance Models: The Model S achieves over 370 miles on a single charge, setting industry standards. Advanced Manufacturing Techniques: Utilizing robotics and data analytics improves efficiency and reduces costs within production. Gigafactories: Tesla’s Nevada facility is expected to produce enough batteries for 500,000 vehicles annually by 2030, showcasing its commitment to scaling production. With these strategies, Tesla has become the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, delivering over 1.3 million vehicles in 2023. Amazon’s Evolution From Bookseller to Retail Giant Since its inception in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving into one of the world’s largest retail giants. Initially promoting itself as “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore,” Amazon focused on offering a vast selection of books. In 2000, the launch of Amazon Marketplace allowed third-party sellers to list products, greatly increasing variety and revenue. The introduction of Amazon Prime in 2005 offered fast, free shipping and exclusive content, enhancing customer loyalty. Furthermore, Amazon expanded into cloud computing with Amazon Web Services (AWS), generating over $62 billion in revenue by 2021. The Importance of Adapting Business Strategies in a Changing Market In a swiftly changing market, companies must recognize that adapting their business strategies is vital for long-term success. Businesses that fail to evolve risk falling behind their competitors. Here are three key reasons why adaptation is imperative: Consumer Expectations: As seen with Amazon Prime, adapting service offerings can improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. Market Trends: Companies like Netflix shifted from DVD rentals to streaming to align with digital consumption trends, ensuring relevance. Innovation Necessity: Ford’s pivot toward electric vehicles illustrates the need for legacy companies to innovate and embrace sustainability in response to environmental concerns. Frequently Asked Questions What Is Apple’s Business Strategy? Apple‘s business strategy focuses on creating a cohesive ecosystem of products and services that improves customer loyalty. You’ll notice they prioritize premium pricing, backed by a strong brand image and high product quality. By diversifying into services like Apple Music and Apple TV+, they greatly boost revenue. Additionally, Apple emphasizes design and user experience, ensuring products, like the iPhone, remain competitive during maintaining a strategic approach to product launches for quality and innovation. What Are the 5 P’s of Business Strategy? The 5 P’s of business strategy are Plan, Ploy, Pattern, Position, and Perspective. A Plan outlines the actions needed to meet objectives, whereas a Ploy refers to tactics that outmaneuver competitors. Pattern highlights consistent behaviors over time, showcasing how strategies evolve. Position defines your competitive stance in the market, and Perspective reflects the mindset that guides your strategic choices. Together, these elements help shape a thorough approach to achieving business success. What Is a Real Life Example of Strategy Implementation? A real-life example of strategy implementation is Best Buy’s use of its storefronts as mini warehouses. This approach improved customer convenience by ensuring faster shipping and better product availability. By allowing customers to pick up items directly from stores, Best Buy increased its willingness to pay, enhancing overall customer satisfaction. This strategic move demonstrates how adapting physical resources can effectively meet consumer needs and drive business growth in a competitive market. What Is a Good Example of a Strategy Statement? A good example of a strategy statement is Amazon’s, which emphasizes its commitment to customer obsession and operational excellence. This statement clearly defines Amazon’s purpose, focusing on delivering an exceptional customer experience during efficient operations. By articulating these core values, Amazon aligns its organizational efforts and guides decision-making. This strategic clarity allows the company to adapt to market changes as it continuously aims for growth and long-term success in the competitive retail environment. Conclusion In summary, these seven businesses highlight the critical importance of effective strategy in achieving success. By enhancing customer experiences, leveraging brand loyalty, and adapting to market changes, companies like Best Buy, Nike, and Tesla demonstrate that a well-defined strategy can drive growth and maintain competitiveness. As markets evolve, businesses must remain responsive and innovative, ensuring their strategies align with consumer needs and industry trends. In the end, strategic thinking is crucial for sustained success in any business environment. Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Inspiring Business Examples That Boost Strategy" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

PPC accounts without scripts rely on luck, manual checks, and late alerts. Here’s why that’s a risk serious advertisers shouldn’t accept. The post Why Every Google Ads Account Needs To Run Scripts appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

There are a lot of methods to try in the never-ending quest for a way to sort through and slim down our bulging inboxes. They're different enough that there's certainly one out there that matches or comes close to matching your exact needs, but they do all have one thing in common: They rely on the chronology of when each email came in. Let’s try turning that approach on its head, and instead, sort by sender to weed through the mess. Why you should sort your inbox by senderWhen purging your messages, you probably have an organizational system you follow, like the 4Ds. You go through and decide what gets deleted, done, delegated, or deferred—but there’s not much pattern recognition if you’re just starting at the top and working your way down. Every day's demands or outreach might look different depending on what you have going on at that time. Sorting your inbox by sender instead of most recent helps you see whose (or what) messages you receive most. If it’s a newsletter or mailing list, you can delete them all in one go, but if it’s a specific person at work, you might get a signal that they tend to need a response from you. From there, you can prioritize their emails, maybe adding them as a favorite contact or paying special attention for new correspondence from them, since you know their messages are more consequential than others. Even if you're using the one- or two-touch methods, which call on you to open every single email the moment you get it, this can be helpful because you'll feel a sense of urgency around specific senders once you identify the patterns. So instead of deleting or delegating emails one by one, you can try nuking or dealing with entire batches from certain senders to make the sorting process faster. How to sort by sender in GmailIn Gmail, if you’ve already found a message from the person or entity whose emails you want to bundle up, you can right-click it from your inbox and hit “find emails from.” This brings you to an inbox only of messages from that sender. You can also access this inbox by typing “from:[their email address]” in the search bar, or clicking the advanced search button and entering their name into the “from” field. Unfortunately, you can’t sort your entire Gmail inbox by sender, and instead can only make bundles sender by sender, but it still helps with batching them up. How to sort by sender in OutlookOutlook is better than Gmail for this method. In fact, it allows you to sort your entire inbox not only by sender, but by other recipients, size, and more. At the top of the inbox, hit “Filter,” then “Sort by.” Depending on what version you’re running, you may have to go into the “View” tab and hit “From” in the Arrangement group. The emails will line up in your inbox by sender, making them easy to bundle and delete. View the full article

Our data scientist has uncovered loads of fascinating numbers about social media performance this year. The best times to post based on engagement, how often you should be posting on various platforms to maximize your reach, what the impact of replying to your comments actually is, and a whole lot more — Julian Winternheimer has been busy! But this might be his most important analysis yet. We give you: ✨ The Most Used Emojis in Social Media Posts in 2025. ✨ According to his analysis of millions of posts, these are the most-used emojis in social media posts this year. OK, OK, it’s probably not the most important, actionable study we’ve ever done… and it probably won’t help shape your social media strategy in the way that all our other studies have done. But it’s fun. And it’s a fascinating snapshot of this social media moment in time, too. Is your most-used emoji on the list? Mine is right at the top! Before you ask, I know my overuse didn’t sway the data. Julian based this analysis on the number of Buffer users who used the emoji this year, rather than total emoji use — so folks who are particularly attached to certain emojis, like me, didn’t influence the numbers too much. Jump to a section: The top emoji in social media posts in 2025 The full lineup: Top emojis used in social media posts in 2025 Top emojis of 2025 by platform Instagram LinkedIn TikTok X/Twitter Facebook Threads YouTube Pinterest Bluesky Mastodon What changed throughout 2025 From feels to function More social media data The top emoji in social media posts in 2025It wasn’t even a close race: ✨ sparkles dominated social media content in 2025. Over 207,768 Buffer users used sparkles in their posts this year, making it the most popular emoji by a significant margin. The 👉 pointing finger came in second place, with use by 131,783 users. So the ✨ was 57.7% more popular than 👉. In third place was another of my favorites, the 🔥 fire emoji, used by 125,665 users in 2025. It’s not hard to understand why ✨ was so much higher than the other top contenders. Sparkles convey excitement, newness, or emphasis without feeling overly casual or emotional — which is probably why it works across everything from LinkedIn posts to Instagram captions. The full lineup: Top emojis used in social media posts in 2025Based on our analysis of Buffer's posting data, here are the emojis that organizations used most frequently this year: ✨ Sparkles👉 Backhand index pointing right🔥 Fire✅ Check mark button💡 Light bulb🚀 Rocket🌟 Glowing star👇 Backhand index pointing down🎉 Party popper❤️ Red heart📍 Round pushpin💪 Flexed biceps💬 Speech balloon👀 Eyes🔗 Link🚨 Police car light🌿 Herb🌍 Globe showing Europe-Africa💥 Collision✔ Check mark📅 Calendar🎯 Direct hit⚡ High voltage🤔 Thinking face➡ Right arrow🙌 Raising hands🧠 Brain💫 Dizzy💙 Blue heart🌱 SeedlingIsn’t it interesting that the top emojis aren't the laughing faces or hearts you see dominating consumer usage? The creators and brands that use Buffer’s social media content tend to be much more tactical. Functional emojis dominate this list, pointing emojis direct attention, and checkmarks indicate completion or approval. Fire signals something trending or important, while light bulbs introduce ideas. These emojis are less like emotional expressions and more like visual punctuation — a way to guide the eye, emphasize key points, and structure information in crowded feeds. As a writer, I found this really fascinating! It’s worth noting that several of these emojis are also favored by LLMs, which suggests the use of AI tools to help write captions and posts. I couldn’t find a scientific analysis of the most used emojis by tools like ChatGPT for a direct comparison. But, an interesting article on ChatGPT’s ‘style’ by The Washington Post, which analyzed over 300,000 publicly shared messages by the chatbot, found that the most used emojis were ✅ the check mark button (#4 on our list) and the 🧠 brain emoji (#27). Top emojis of 2025 by platformIt gets even more interesting when you break things down by platform. While ✨ sparkles won overall, each platform has its own distinct emoji culture when it comes to professional content. Instagram✨ Sparkles👉 Pointing right🔥 FireInstagram remains the most emoji-friendly platform — more users had emojis in their posts than any other platform — with sparkles leading by a huge margin. The Instagram algorithm rewards visually engaging content, and emojis are part of that visual language. LinkedIn✨ Sparkles👉 Pointing right✅ CheckmarkWhat's fascinating about LinkedIn is how tight the race is between the top three. Users are clearly experimenting with emoji use on the platform, finding ways to make professional content feel more approachable without sacrificing credibility. TikTok✨ Sparkles🔥 Fire👀 EyesThe eyes emoji jumping to #3 on TikTok makes perfect sense. It's all about watch time on this platform, and 👀 literally says "look at this." Users posting on TikTok understand they're competing for attention in a different way than on other platforms. X/Twitter✨ Sparkles🔥 Fire👉 Pointing rightThe fast-moving nature of X means emojis need to communicate instantly. Fire and pointing emojis do exactly that — they signal urgency, importance, or direction without requiring additional context. Facebook✨ Sparkles👉 Pointing right✅ CheckmarkFacebook's emoji usage mirrors its role as the platform with the broadest reach. Users stick with universally understood emojis that work across diverse age groups and contexts. Threads✨ Sparkles🔥 Fire👇 Pointing downAs the newer platform in the mix, Threads shows similar patterns to X but with slightly more use of directional emojis. YouTube✨ Sparkles🔥 Fire👉 Pointing rightYouTube's emoji usage reflects its role as a community-building platform. YouTubers use sparkles to highlight new uploads, fire to signal trending content, and pointing emojis to direct viewers to links in descriptions or pinned comments. Pinterest✨ Sparkles👉 Pointing right🔥 FirePinterest perfectly embodies the "sparkles aesthetic" — the platform is all about inspiration and aspiration, and ✨ captures that energy. Pinners use it to emphasize beautiful imagery, DIY ideas, and save-worthy content. Bluesky✨ Sparkles👉 Pointing right🎉 Party popperWhat's interesting about Bluesky is that the party popper 🎉 makes the top three. Bluesky is still pretty new (even though it recently hit the 40-million user mark), so I get the celebratory vibe. Mastodon✨ Sparkles👉 Pointing right🎉 Party popperLike Bluesky, Mastodon shows 🎉 in the top three, which makes sense for a platform built on community values and celebrating decentralized social media. What changed throughout 2025The graph above shows the rank of the top 10 emojis month-to-month (we ran the data up to the end of November). Looking at emoji rankings over time throughout 2025, a few trends stood out: Sparkles ✨ maintained its #1 position consistently throughout the entire year. This emoji has essentially become the default way to add emphasis or visual interest to professional content across platforms. The fire emoji 🔥 saw some interesting fluctuations, dropping in ranking during early 2025 before climbing back up. The rocket 🚀 was another that rose and fell throughout the year — it dropped from #2 in January to #9 in November (apparently folks weren't quite as ready to launch as the year rolled on.) Several emojis showed remarkable consistency, suggesting they've become established parts of professional social media language rather than trendy choices. From feels to functionMy key takeaway from all these numbers is pretty clear: emojis are functional, not just decorative or expressive. As a writer, I find it fascinating how we’re adopting emojis for formatting, structure, and punctuation, as well as to convey tone. A secondary takeaway: in 2025, our posts all needed a little extra ✨ More social media dataHow to Grow on Social Media in 2026: A Data-Backed StrategyConsistent Posting Means 5x More Likes, Comments, and Shares: StudyReplying to Comments Boosts Engagement by 5-42% on These Major PlatformsDoes X Premium Really Boost Your Reach? An Analysis of 18M+ PostsView the full article

Threshold to increase to £2.5mn from April after backlash, following original proposal of £1mnView the full article

This week's Ask an SEO addresses where keyword optimization ends and keyword stuffing begins in modern search and AI-driven systems. The post Ask An SEO: What Is The Threshold Between Keyword Stuffing & Being Optimized? appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

You know the scenario: You have a bunch of unread emails . The more that come in, the more anxious you get—and the more you procrastinate on sorting through them. How do you decide which ones to reply to and in what order? Even when the amount of unreads isn't overwhelming, your choice can determine how your workday will go. In general, you should choose a side between a last in, first out (LIFO) or first in, first out (FIFO) approach—and, in my opinion, the best choice is LIFO. What are LIFO and FIFO?LIFO and FIFO are terms that come from the financial world—respectively, they stand for “last in, first out” and “first in, first out.” They’re often used by accountants to describe inventory but can refer to anything where items are coming “in,” like, well, emails. In this context, it refers to the practice of responding to either your oldest or your newest unreads first, then working your way in the opposite direction from there. Why is LIFO better than FIFO for email management?LIFO, or the practice of answering the most recent emails before older ones, is more common than FIFO for good reason: Your most recent emails are the ones most likely to be time-sensitive, relevant, or actively blocking someone else’s work as they go unanswered. Meanwhile, the older a message gets, the higher the odds are that the window for a perfect response has already closed. At that point, stressing over it doesn’t magically make you more punctual, it just slows you down. Focusing on what’s right in front of you helps you stay responsive and on top of your current workload, which is usually what your job (or life) actually rewards. "But what if I left the older ones too long?" you worry. Don't—if something from the past is truly urgent or important, you’ll get a follow-up and, even though that might be embarrassing for you, it’ll bump the older content at hand into LIFO territory anyway. LIFO essentially relies on the idea that the older problems will sort themselves out or be brought back to your attention if they have to be. It’s like giving yourself grace on what you missed and focusing instead on what you can take care of right now. It works best if you rely on it when you have to, but commit to dealing with incoming mail in a more timely way going forward. If you miss too many emails and have to get too many follow-ups, your reputation will take a hit. That's why LIFO works best in general: Once you create the habit of responding to the last-in, you'll eventually stop having first-in messages at all. Of course, there might be times when you don’t get a follow-up or really do miss something important from the past. One day a week or so, use the time that you’ve blocked out for your email management to work in FIFO mode, going through your emails reverse-chronologically to make sure you didn’t miss anything big. Using FIFO too consistently can have negative consequences, though. If you’re always working on tasks from the past, you risk missing newer, more urgent ones that need immediate attention. Save it for one day every once in a while and use your time to handle pressing matters on a day-to-day basis. An important element of either strategy is timing. Make sure to block out time for email management every day, ideally using a scheduling tactic like timeboxing. Dedicating specific, uninterrupted time to your inbox management makes it more doable and ensures you’ll actually handle the emails in the first place, whereas answering them sporadically through the day opens you up to the possibility of being distracted or procrastinating more frequently. If you're struggling to adopt a LIFO mindset, consider the "one-touch" method. With this more intense approach, you commit to opening every email as soon as you get it. It will force you to build a habit that results in you never letting any email get away from you. Open the email, respond to it, and either delete or archive it, depending on if you’ll need it later. If it requires no response, even better. Schedule any required tasks into your to-do list, then keep on moving. You're more likely to get the task done when you need to simply by virtue of being readily aware of it because you opened the message as soon as it came in. View the full article

Brand-agency partnerships look very different today than they did even a few years ago, and by 2026 that gap will only widen. Internal marketing teams are more sophisticated, digital channels are more specialized, and the role agencies play is no longer one-size-fits-all. As a result, the companies that get the most value from agency relationships aren’t always the biggest spenders. They’re the ones that are clear about what they need and what they don’t. That clarity starts with understanding the true role an agency should play inside your organization. Too many partnerships struggle because expectations and responsibilities were never properly aligned from the start. When that foundation is off, even strong execution can fall flat. After working with thousands of businesses across various industries and growth stages, we consistently observe that agency success falls into two distinct partnership models, primarily shaped by company size and internal marketing maturity. Model 1: Execution-first partnerships (large companies) If your company generates more than $50 million in annual online revenue, you likely already have a strong internal marketing team. Strategy, goal-setting, and planning live in-house. What you need from an agency is deep platform expertise and consistent, high-level execution. At this stage, agencies function as specialist operators that: Activate the roadmap your team has already defined. Optimize performance inside specific channels. Bring advanced technical knowledge that would be inefficient to replicate internally. When something underperforms, a strong agency partner doesn’t rush to tactics. They help determine whether the issue lies in execution, shifting market conditions, or a broader strategic blind spot – and they bring the data needed to support course correction. Model 2: Integrated growth partners (small to mid-size companies) For companies under $50 million in annual online revenue, the agency relationship is different. Internal teams are often lean, stretched, or still developing core digital expertise. In these cases, agencies don’t just execute – they help shape the entire growth strategy. Here, the right agency partner becomes an extension of the marketing department that can: Guide platform selection. Develop cross-channel strategies. Execute campaigns. Provide direction on tools, tracking, and infrastructure. The relationship is more integrated because it has to be. For many growing businesses, agencies offer access to senior-level expertise at a fraction of the cost of building a full in-house team. That tradeoff often creates the best possible balance between speed, strategy, and financial reality. Dig deeper: How to hire an SEO agency: The definitive guide Finding the right agency partner Most companies approach agency selection the wrong way. Here’s how to improve your odds of finding a partner that actually fits your needs. Ditch the RFPs Many large companies use the request for proposal (RFP) process to solicit potential partners. However, RFPs often favor vendors that excel at paperwork over those that prioritize performance. From an agency perspective, if you don’t already know you’ve won an RFP, you’re not going to win it. They act more as rubber stamps for a decision that has already been made. Large companies should instead leverage their connections. If you’re running a large internal marketing department, you probably already know dozens of professionals who could provide referrals. Use that network to find firms doing great work, then reach out to them directly. Smaller businesses should talk to their peers about trusted marketing vendors and then check reviews to validate those recommendations. No agency is perfect, and every agency will have some dissatisfied clients. But if you see patterns of negative reviews emerge, you should stay away. Request an audit Once you’ve identified a few potential partners, ask them to audit your current marketing setup. In most cases, digital marketing agencies conduct these audits for free. Keep in mind that during an audit, many agencies will point out what you’re doing wrong. But the goal is to receive honest, constructive feedback that offers insight into what’s working and what’s possible. The audit process will look different depending on the company’s size. For larger companies, agencies should only audit the platforms they’ll be working on. Smaller companies need a broader audit across the entire marketing funnel. These agencies won’t be working in a vacuum. Every element of marketing is interrelated, so they’ll need to know who manages each stage of the funnel and whether they’re doing a good job. Companies of all sizes should collect audits from multiple sources. This enables you to compare recommendations and understand if the partnership will be a good fit. Large companies need partners that can integrate with their internal processes. Smaller companies need to pick vendors with people they actually want to work with. Both considerations are critical in ensuring long-term success. Setting achievable goals Once you’ve selected the right agency partner, it’s time to define your goals. It’s an unfortunate reality that most business leaders set marketing goals that don’t align with their business goals, which puts agency partners in an untenable position before the relationship even gets off the ground. Good agencies should challenge your goals before you even sign a contract. They should push you to dream bigger or rein you in if your expectations are unrealistic. If a potential client in the beauty space says they want a tenfold return on ad spend (ROAS) while jumping their non-brand spend from $20,000 to $100,000, a good agency should know enough to push back. Your potential partner should understand the economics of your business and help ensure your marketing goals align with your business goals. Often they don’t, which is where good agencies add immediate value. Dig deeper: How to find your next PPC agency: 12 top tips Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Maintaining a productive partnership Once the work begins, you need to keep your agency accountable. Here’s how. Contract length Larger companies typically sign 12-month contracts with their agency vendors. They value stability and performance, and longer contract terms provide agencies with the time needed to establish themselves within the marketing operation. Smaller companies can’t afford to bind themselves to an underperforming agency for an entire calendar year. If you’re hiring an agency partner at a smaller company, opt instead for a three-month agreement that automatically renews to month-to-month. Challenge and conflict are healthy The most productive business-agency partnership often involves some conflict from time to time. Great partners will challenge your thinking regularly, which can sometimes create discomfort. But if everything is always smooth sailing, you probably aren’t growing or improving. The goal instead is to have productive conversations that involve healthy disagreement and constant refinement. Ongoing accountability If you’re overseeing a brand-agency partnership, you should establish regular reviews that compare progress to the opportunities identified in the agency’s initial audit. For smaller companies, quarterly reviews make sense. They align with the contract structure and allow you to recalibrate budget allocation. Larger companies might review monthly or quarterly, depending on spend and complexity. However, context here matters. You need to understand if your industry is growing or shrinking to judge your agency’s work. For example, if your industry is down 10% year-over-year and your sales are flat, you’re outperforming your competitors. Often, the agency or brand can obtain this information from their representatives on platforms such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, or Meta. Innovation and testing Great agency partners will proactively bring new growth ideas to the table, which is particularly valuable for smaller businesses. Large companies also benefit from outside ideas and should establish dedicated budgets for testing. After all, if your agency isn’t investing at least a small portion of the budget into new, untested ideas, brands will find themselves falling behind competitors that are. Innovation isn’t just about testing what works today. It’s about understanding what’s coming next. Great agency partners should help you see what’s coming 6-12 months out, and prepare your marketing to meet those new conditions. Businesses need an agency’s expertise, which becomes insight over the longer term. Without it, they’ll be flying blind. Dig deeper: How to onboard an SEO agency the right way When to make an agency change Not every brand-agency partnership succeeds, even with the best intentions. If your gut is telling you something isn’t working or that something could be working better, here are a few red flags that might indicate it’s time to make a change. Your business isn’t growing Your marketing efforts should revolve around finding new-to-brand customers. Full stop. If your business isn’t growing and your industry is stable or growing, that’s a big red flag that marketing isn’t working. Once an agency stops being a partner in growth, it’s time to make a change. Your agency isn’t pushing innovation The marketing ecosystem is constantly changing: Customer needs evolve. Platforms update features. New tools emerge that upend old processes. If your agency isn’t bringing new ideas or exploring new ways to reach customers, your marketing is stagnating. In these instances, an outside audit can reveal deficiencies and potential opportunities. Your agency can’t explain performance If your agency can’t contextualize your performance – good or bad – within the broader marketing ecosystem, it’s a strong indication they don’t understand your sales funnel. Channel experts should know how their performance is affected by upper-funnel activities and how those activities affect bottom-funnel activities. Marketing agencies for smaller businesses should know enough about the entire marketing operation and understand how performance in one area impacts another. Dig deeper: Avoiding cookie-cutter SEO: 8 red flags to watch out for The marketing reality check The best marketing in the world won’t help a bad business grow. A good company, combined with good leadership and a good agency, is the secret sauce of successful growth. If one of those elements is missing, marketing will never accomplish what you hope it will. Getting great results within a brand-agency partnership isn’t about huge marketing budgets or fancy advertising awards. Instead, it’s about understanding what role your agency should play, and choosing a partner equipped to fill it. When your needs align with an agency’s specific capabilities, that’s where the real growth happens. Choosing an agency partner isn’t a one-time decision. It’s an ongoing process that includes accountability, perpetual refinement, and, sometimes, healthy disagreement. While this process certainly isn’t easy, it’s worth getting right. View the full article