Welcome to Week In Review…
From new tools transforming creative work, to campaigns reshaped by automation, we track the biggest shifts at the intersection of AI, media, and marketing. This week, WPP Q3 revenue results deemed “unacceptable” by its new CEO, Reddit’s AI ad tools boost its share price, and Universal Music Group and Stability AI build AI music tools.
Top Stories of the Week
WPP Shares Plunge as Q3 Revenue Falls
WPP revealed a third-quarter revenue decline of 8.4 percent to £3.26 billion, prompting a cut in its full-year like-for-like revenue outlook to a 5.5 percent–6 percent decline. Shares plunged over 12 percent and, in an earnings call, the holding company’s CEO Cindy Rose said the results were “unacceptable” and initiated a strategic turnaround emphasising data, AI implementation, and operational simplification.
Why it matters: WPP’s earnings results reflect tightening global ad spend and sustained pressures for the agency holding companies to prove ROI to customers. For WPP’s new CEO, Cindy Rose (ex-Microsoft), an appropriate response to the declining revenue includes going even harder on data and AI investment.
Reddit Shares Jump as AI Ad Tools Drive Strong Q4
Reddit’s shares surged 9 percent after hours as the company projected fourth-quarter revenue of $655–$665 million, surpassing Wall Street expectations. The growth is driven by its AI-powered ad platform, which automatically places targeted ads within relevant subreddit discussions, boosting engagement and advertiser efficiency.
Why it matters: Reddit’s Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong said Reddit’s active advertiser base grew 75 percent year-over-year, with the platform now testing an end-to-end AI campaign automation tool. Reddit’s strong results is reflective of wider shifts towards AI-powered ad campaign orchestration and the power of placing ads in communities, like Reddit, as opposed to social feeds.
Universal Music Group and Stability AI to Build AI Music Tools
Universal Music Group (UMG) has entered a strategic alliance with Stability AI to co-develop AI-powered tools for music creation, marking another major step in its evolving AI strategy. Under the deal, Stability AI’s research and product teams will work directly with UMG artists to test, refine, and co-develop recording and composition tools built on licensed data.
Why it matters: The announcement follows UMG’s recent copyright settlement and new platform partnership with AI music startup Udio, which will let users mash up songs using AI. There has been a lot of tension between artists and AI companies around their works being used within AI models. For the venture with Stability AI, both companies say they aim to create “fully licensed, commercially safe AI music tools”.
Quote of the Week
Brands & Agencies
Agentic Marketing Initiatives Not Working, Says Gartner Report
A recent Gartner report found 45 percent of martech leaders currently piloting AI agents have not seen the performance results they had hoped to achieve. The survey showed that 81 percent of martech leaders are currently piloting AI agents, and that 89 percent of those piloting agents expect them to eventually drive significant business growth.
Starling Bank Launches AI Tool to Help Shoppers Detect Online Scams
UK digital bank Starling has launched Scam Intelligence, an AI-powered tool that helps customers spot fraudulent ads on platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Vinted. Built with Google’s Gemini in collaboration with Google Cloud, the tool analyses images, listings, and messages to flag potential scam indicators and deliver personalised risk assessments within seconds.
Brewlander Lets Fans Direct Their Own Beer Ads with AI Prompts
Independent brewer Brewlander, in partnership with agency BLKJ Havas, is inviting fans to create their own cinematic beer commercials via text-to-video AI tools like Sora and Qwen 2.5. Instead of a regular commercial, the beer company rolled out posters, billboards and magazines with AI prompts for consumers to use.
Paypal and OpenAI Partner to Power Agentic Commerce
PayPal teamed up with OpenAI to enable instant checkout and AI agent-powered shopping within ChatGPT. The partnership integrates PayPal as a default payment option when users make purchases in ChatGPT, which can be done directly through conversational prompts.
Data Accessibility Referenced As Biggest AI Barrier
Disconnected data is a major barrier to marketers’ AI success 75 percent of the time, research from marketing data platform Hightouch revealed. The report ‘Has Martech Failed Marketers?’ found that, while AI implementation is surging through the marketing industry, only 10 percent of marketers feel they are using AI effectively and 95 percent feel they still struggle to effectively target audiences.
Mondelez Cuts Marketing Costs by 50 percent with GenAI Platform
Mondelez International has reduced its marketing production costs by up to 50 percent through a $40 million generative AI tool developed in partnership with Publicis Groupe and Accenture, according to Reuters. The FMCG giant – owner of Cadbury, Kraft, and Milka – said the platform is already creating social content for Chips Ahoy and Milka, and could soon produce TV ads by 2026, including for major events like the Super Bowl.
Media
Elon Musk Launches AI Encyclopedia ‘Grokipedia’
Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, an AI-generated online encyclopedia positioned as a politically conservative alternative to Wikipedia. Powered by his AI chatbot Grok, the site uses AI to “fact-check” and generate articles rather than relying on human editors. Unlike Wikipedia’s open editing model, Grokipedia doesn’t allow direct edits – users can only submit correction requests.
Instagram Surpasses 3 Billion Users as AI and Video Fuel Meta’s Growth
Instagram has hit 3 billion monthly users, driven by AI-powered recommendations and video engagement. Meta reported a 30 percent rise in video time and a 2 percent lift in ad conversions from new AI models. Reels now generates a $50 billion annual run rate, solidifying Instagram as Meta’s core growth engine.
Pinterest Adds Personalised AI Boards
Pinterest introduced AI-powered boards, a new feature that curates and arranges pins based on users’ interests. The feature uses AI models to surface relevant product recommendations and inspiration.
News UK Launches AI Audio Ad Platform Octave AI
News UK has unveiled Octave AI, a new automated audio-visual advertising platform built with AudioStack, enabling brands to generate and optimise AI-powered audio ads complete with synthetic voices, music, and sound effects. With Marks & Spencer and WPP Media’s Mindshare as launch partners, the tool leverages first-party data to deliver tailored, radio-ready campaigns across News Broadcasting’s 8.5 million monthly listeners.
Tech
Meta Expands AI-Powered Lead Generation Tools Ahead of Q5 Marketing Push
Meta has rolled out global AI-driven lead generation updates, including Advantage+ leads campaigns, automated lead verification, and AI-powered nurturing agents. The tools aim to help brands capture higher-quality leads during the post-holiday “Q5” window.
Alphabet Beats $100B Quarter as AI Boosts Search and YouTube Ad Growth
Alphabet posted record Q3 2025 revenue of $102.3 billiom, up 16 percent year-over-year, driven by AI-fueled growth in search and YouTube ads. CEO Sundar Pichai said the results mark Google’s entry into the generative AI era, with tools like AI Mode, PMax, AI Max, and Search boosting ad performance and conversions for brands.
Adobe Expands Firefly Suite With Advanced AI Models
Adobe introduced new Firefly upgrades, including a range of new AI-powered content creation tools. The upgrades include an AI music generator for videos, a multitrack video editor, and a prompt-to-edit interface within Firefly Image Model 5.
Google Introduces Pomelli, An Experimental Social Campaign Tool
Google released Pomelli, an experimental AI tool which helps small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) generate social media marketing content. The tool analyses businesses’ digital content to create campaign assets that match the company’s brand identity.
Adobe Announces Strategic Partnership With Google Cloud
Adobe and Google Cloud announced an expansion on their partnership, with a focus on AI creative work. Adobe users will now have access to Google’s AI models – including Gemini and Veo – through Adobe’s creative apps such as Firefly and Photoshop.
Reddit Partners With G2
Reddit announced a partnership with software marketplace G2 to enhance Reddit Pro, its marketing analytics platform. The integration allows marketers to gather data from Reddit conversations and use user reviews as marketing assets in Reddit’s Ad Manager tool. The move will enable software developers on G2 to extend their brand presence to Reddit.
Canva Launches Design Model and AI Upgrades
Canva introduced its own AI design model, enabling creators to create design layouts from text prompts. The company also added upgrades to its AI assistant, boosting the platform’s creative capabilities as it invests in more marketing capabilities going forward.
Pinterest Assistant Transforms AI Shopping
Pinterest introduced Pinterest Assistant, an AI shopping assistant that helps users find, compare, and purchase products directly within the platform. The assistant was built upon Pinterest’s visual search models and offers personalised recommendations and price comparisons.
Start-Up of the Week
UK-based Wonder Studios has raised $12 million in funding to expand its AI-driven film and video production operations. Founded in April 2025 by Xavier Collins and Justin Hackney (ex-ElevenLabs), Wonder specialises in GenAI filmmaking and has already delivered projects like Lewis Capaldi’s “Something in the Heavens” with Google DeepMind and Universal Music Group. The round was led by Atomico with backing from Adobe Ventures, LocalGlobe, Blackbird.
Number of the Week
That’s the percentage Amazon’s ad business has jumped from last year to $17.7 billion. Amazon posted Q3 2025 revenue and profit above expectations, driven by 20 percent growth in AWS, its fastest pace since 2022, and strong consumer spending amid inflation. In the tech giant’s earnings call this week, CEO Andy Jassy said that agentic commerce is going to “expand the amount of shopping that happens online”.
