Marketing Strategy & Ops

CMO-level budget decisions, martech stack choices, and the ops work behind teams that actually hit their numbers.

Canva Bought Ortto and Simtheory to Become HubSpot's SMB Problem

Canva announced on April 8 that it acquired Simtheory, an agentic AI platform, and Ortto, a customer data platform with marketing automation baked in. Financial terms weren't disclosed, which usually means both deals were small enough that nobody needed to pretend otherwise. The interesting part isn't

The FTC Turned Brand Safety Into an Antitrust Problem

When the World Federation of Advertisers shut down GARM in August 2024, most of the industry treated it like a legal nuisance. Elon Musk sued, a nonprofit folded, and everyone moved on. Looking back, that was probably the clearest warning sign of what the FTC had planned next. The FTC

Isometric illustration of a corporate letter with AWS text repeated across pages and a small advertising section buried beneath stacks of revenue

Amazon Buried a $69 Billion Ad Business in a Single Sentence

Amazon's annual shareholder letter dropped yesterday. Ten pages. Andy Jassy covered AI infrastructure, custom chips, drone delivery, grocery, and why spending $200 billion in capex this year is "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." He mentioned AWS 46 times. Advertising got one sentence. The full quote: "Our Advertising

Isometric illustration of one global media console linking Amazon, Walmart Connect and Sephora retail-media platforms to a centralized data hub above absorbed agency offices.

Estée Lauder Moved 150 Markets to One Agency. The Real Reason Is Retail Media.

Estée Lauder just handed WPP a global media account worth roughly £500 million (about AUD $987 million), according to B&T, consolidating media planning and buying for MAC, Clinique, La Mer, Jo Malone London, Bobbi Brown, Aveda, Origins, and the flagship label across an estimated 150 markets. The pitch

Isometric illustration of a HubSpot-style CRM dashboard with a TikTok icon being locked into place, showing data streams flowing into contact records and attribution metric tiles.

HubSpot Put TikTok Inside the CRM and Nobody Is Talking About the Lock-In

On April 3, HubSpot and TikTok announced a native integration that lets marketers sync contact segments, manage paid campaigns, publish organic content, and tie TikTok interactions back to closed revenue without leaving HubSpot. On paper, that sounds like a welcome upgrade for anyone tired of stitching TikTok Ads Manager to

Isometric illustration of an FTC building seal beside a stack of strategic plan documents, a marketing funnel with warning labels, and a gavel over a keyboard.

The FTC's 5-Year Plan Reads Like a Marketing Audit. Most Teams Won't Notice.

The FTC spent two weeks telling everyone it was going to stop burdening legitimate business. Chairman Andrew Ferguson restored the phrase "without unduly burdening legitimate business activity" to the agency's mission statement and framed the whole rewrite as a course correction from overregulation. Then on April

OkCupid's 12-Year Cover-Up Ended With Zero Fines and a 20-Year Leash

The FTC settled with Match Group and OkCupid on March 30 over a 2014 photo transfer the dating app spent twelve years trying to keep quiet. Nearly three million user photos went to Clarifai, a facial recognition startup. No money changed hands. No user was told. And the order the