Colling Media Marketing Minute: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Reddit Black Friday’s new shape Experian’s new retail analysis shows that Black Friday’s one-day shopping dominance is fading fast. Consumers are spreading their spending across a longer season, prioritizing value, resale, and social shopping over single-day deals. Older shoppers are also becoming a more influential digital audience, favoring convenience and sustainability. For marketers, the move away from a single “event” mindset means building flexible, full-funnel campaigns

Pinterest’s safer social push for Gen Z Pinterest is positioning itself as the “safer” social media alternative for Gen Z. The platform has doubled down on AI-driven visual search, private-by-default teen accounts, and shoppable boards. More than half its users now come from Gen Z, who see Pinterest as a positive space to explore and buy intentionally. For marketers, that shift reinforces Pinterest’s appeal as a high-intent environment where emotional safety and brand safety converge.

Colling Media Marketing Minute: Google Sponsored Results, Netflix and Spotify, & Adobe LLM Optimizer Google lets users hide sponsored results Google is giving users the ability to hide sponsored results in Search, a quiet but major change in how ad visibility will work. For performance marketers, this could alter click-through behavior and impression volume overnight. The move underscores a long-term push toward more organic, trust-based search experiences. Smart marketers will start modeling how opt-outs could

Data-Driven Enrollment Marketing: Education CMO Playbook The New Reality for Enrollment Marketing Leaders Education marketing has entered a defining moment. Student behavior has fragmented, the cost of media has climbed, and the traditional “more leads = more enrollments” equation has collapsed. Marketing leaders must now deliver growth under pressure and be accountable not for clicks or leads, but for starts and outcomes. Prospective students research across multiple platforms, weigh ROI on education, and expect personalized

New analysis on AI content sources A new analysis of AI citations reveals that most AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity rely heavily on brand-controlled content. Companies, not publishers, are shaping what users see in AI summaries. For marketers, owning and optimizing branded content for AI visibility could soon be as essential as SEO—now’s the time to adapt your content strategy. Google Ads cracks down on poor visuals Google Ads has begun flagging low-quality