Executive Briefing: Thursday 15 October

Executive summary Today's briefing highlights major shifts in marketing strategy and technology. Publicis is successfully pivoting to AI-centric pitches directly to CEOs, while Google Ads introduces new controls for channel prioritisation and budget allocation. Simultaneously, Contentsquare launched an AI-first platform to analyse combined human and agent customer journeys. Publishers are also uniting to protect content from AI exploitation, as brands like Nestlé and SheaMoisture reorganise their creator marketing for direct commercial outcomes. Publicis shifts to AI-focused CEO pitches Publicis Groupe is increasingly winning new business by pitching directly to CEOs, moving away from traditional reviews. This strategy is driven by C-suite concerns over AI investment and shifting consumer habits, with 80% of CEOs reportedly believing their jobs are at risk if AI initiatives fail. Publicis secured major accounts like PepsiCo without a formal pitch, embracing "AI-led transformation assignments." The group led a JPMorgan net new business league table with $US2.2 billion in net billings for the quarter, highlighting its success in this consolidated market by investing in talent and tools while competitors scaled back. Google Ads introduces new channel prioritisation Google Ads is rolling out new global controls for channel prioritisation and budget allocation across Google Search, Shopping, Performance Max, and Demand Gen. Advertisers can now categorise inventory into "High priority" and "Low priority" tiers, with Google's AI prioritising high-priority channels first. For low-priority channels, optional percentage-based daily budget limits can be set, providing spending guardrails for testing and reach. These account and campaign-level controls offer marketers more precise budget steering, impacting how AI helps them reach audiences and manage spend effectively, with changes to Google Display Network spend allocation planned for February 2027. Contentsquare unveils AI-first experience platform Contentsquare has launched a reimagined Experience Platform designed for the AI era, to optimise both human and AI agent customer journeys. The platform captures real-time signals from web, mobile, voice, chat, and LLM agent interactions, providing a unified 360-degree view. New capabilities include dedicated analytics for LLM and agent traffic, conversation intelligence, multi-session journey analysis, and multi-touch attribution that encompasses AI-referred traffic. This enables brands to quickly convert signals into intelligence for improving customer journeys and integrates with major AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT via its Model Context Protocol. Publishers unite to combat AI content exploitation A coalition of over 80 publishers, including The New York Times, AFP, and The Economist, has joined SPUR to prevent AI models from using or profiting from copyrighted content without permission. This initiative aims to establish a fair market for content use in AI systems, promoting transparent rules for content owners and tech platforms, and making licensing the only legitimate route for AI models. SPUR is developing industry-wide standards, such as the Content Telemetry Standard, to empower publishers to control and track how AI models utilise their media, balancing intellectual property protection with technological advancement. Brands reorganise for integrated creator marketing The strategic importance of creator marketing is growing, leading brands like Nestlé to centralise their creator strategies and budgets. This shift consolidates creator activations from disparate departmental silos into a unified "creative marketing" discipline with dedicated measurement and funding. Kantar’s Media Reactions study highlights a planned increase in investment for 2027 towards micro- (66%) and nano-creators (61%), prioritising genuine relevance over celebrity reach. Additionally, SheaMoisture is adapting by treating every piece of content as an e-commerce opportunity, experimenting with creative structures, product placement, and loosening creator briefs to drive instant purchases, reflecting evolving shopping habits.