A modern marketing publication helmed focused on brand, owned media, and GTM: helmed by Melissa Rosenthal, Co-Founder of Outleverhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/en-usTue, 13 Oct 2026 15:39:42 GMT https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/employers-ghosting-candidateshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/employers-ghosting-candidatesA new survey of 1,027 hiring professionals shows employers treating ghosting as a candidate problem, while ranking their own reputation dead last.Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:39:42 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-single-mother-story-dead-internethttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-single-mother-story-dead-internetAt least eight LinkedIn accounts have posted the same first-person story about interviewing a widowed job seeker since July. Most of them sell resume services.Mon, 12 Oct 2026 21:10:56 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/how-b2b-brands-get-cited-in-ai-searchhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/how-b2b-brands-get-cited-in-ai-searchOutlever co-founder Melissa Rosenthal explains how B2B brands earn citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and why original reporting beats SEO tricks.Mon, 12 Oct 2026 20:44:16 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/microsoft-employee-advocacy-brad-smithhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/microsoft-employee-advocacy-brad-smithMicrosoft moved communications out of marketing and under Brad Smith, whose organization handles antitrust and litigation, in the same memos that asked engineers and sellers to speak for the company more often.Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:48:27 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/loud-working-layoffshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/loud-working-layoffsProfessionals are broadcasting their wins to stay off layoff lists. Marketers have seen the logic before, in attribution models that give the credit to whatever touched the customer last.Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:17:18 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-network-tab-company-pages-followershttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-network-tab-company-pages-followersLinkedIn’s new Network tab shows only posts from connections and follows, a test that would limit Company Pages to the followers they’ve actually earned.Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:35:12 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/roas-harvested-demand-incrementality-siraj-dawar-bee-enterpriseshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/roas-harvested-demand-incrementality-siraj-dawar-bee-enterprisesSiraj Dawar, Head of Marketing at Bee Enterprises, found a 30x ROAS campaign creating no new demand. As ad platforms automate, the dashboard needs a second opinion.Fri, 09 Oct 2026 04:59:19 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/nikolay-tsonev-businessmap-brand-visibility-ai-impacthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/nikolay-tsonev-businessmap-brand-visibility-ai-impactNikolay Tsonev, Head of Marketing at Businessmap, shares why he now tracks branded search instead of website traffic, and why marketers and salespeople at Businessmap report the same metric.Fri, 09 Oct 2026 04:56:31 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-muse-ai-shopping-agent-ranking-ruleshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-muse-ai-shopping-agent-ranking-rulesMeta's Muse is told to rank well-known merchants first, check just three stores and save checkout for its own catalog. Challenger brands start behind.Fri, 09 Oct 2026 02:12:43 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-strategyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-strategyHow to build an owned media strategy in eight steps: define your reader, launch an industry publication, feature real executives and earn an audience.Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:36:25 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/earned-media-vs-owned-mediahttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/earned-media-vs-owned-mediaPR still lands mentions, but the brands keeping their audiences in 2026 are the ones publishing their own.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 23:35:58 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-engineer-vs-gtm-engineerhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-engineer-vs-gtm-engineerProfound has built a manifesto, a course, a job board and a podcast around the marketing engineer. The title will become a real job only when people with nothing to sell start paying for it.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:23:14 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-cant-copy-your-data-or-opinionhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-cant-copy-your-data-or-opinionAI made average content free, so a sourced opinion is the last scarce asset in marketing.Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:53:53 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/layoffs-personal-brand-writing-in-publichttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/layoffs-personal-brand-writing-in-publicTech layoffs in 2026 have already passed last year's total. More professionals are responding by writing in public, building owned audiences that don't disappear with their work login.Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:43:10 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/a16z-new-media-production-companyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/a16z-new-media-production-companyTwo months after Andreessen Horowitz doubled down on its New Media team, the firm is recruiting producers, creative directors, editors and scriptwriters in Los Angeles, and pitching them with a film screening.Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:53:41 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-generated-ads-trust-quality-waymark-cinematichttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-generated-ads-trust-quality-waymark-cinematicAdvertisers remain wary of AI-made ads, even as the output improves. A look at the trust gap, and at Waymark's new premium tier built from brands' own photos and footage.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 23:37:33 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-campaign-agents-sign-offhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-campaign-agents-sign-offDemandbase, Adobe and Multiply are handing B2B campaigns to AI agents. Few teams have decided who approves the work, or how their brand stays distinct.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:24:24 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/gartner-ai-entry-level-marketing-jobshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/gartner-ai-entry-level-marketing-jobsEighteen percent of marketing leaders have already cut roles because of automation, even as CMOs put more of their budgets into people. B2B teams could feel the resulting leadership gap within a few years.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:07:31 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/robin-chiang-opentable-amplifies-restaurant-storytellinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/robin-chiang-opentable-amplifies-restaurant-storytellingOpenTable CGO Robin Chiang on how the platform stays authentic by amplifying the restaurants and creators diners trust.Wed, 30 Sep 2026 02:31:30 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/vanta-ai-writing-policyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/vanta-ai-writing-policyVanta's AI writing policy came from its general counsel, not marketing, and it signals where every company's rules for AI writing are headed next.Mon, 28 Sep 2026 21:11:15 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-muse-ai-agent-facebook-marketplacehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-muse-ai-agent-facebook-marketplaceMeta's Muse haggled away a used keyboard, sent a stranger to a seller's building and told the buyer "Yep I'm here!" while the seller was out. On Monday morning, Meta started selling the same technology to companies.Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:20:20 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cmo-hired-after-brand-disasterhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cmo-hired-after-brand-disasterCompanies are pushing CMOs toward efficiency and commercial strategy. The first public mistake nobody had the authority to stop will push them back toward owning the brand.Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:36:57 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-betting-on-in-personhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-betting-on-in-personThe company that taught machines to write your emails is hiring a Global Head of Events to bring people together in person. It says a lot about what gets more valuable as everything else gets automated.Sun, 27 Sep 2026 18:53:27 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-ads-organic-traffichttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-ads-organic-trafficMarketers say ChatGPT ads lift their organic traffic, and OpenAI says ads can't touch its answers. Nobody outside OpenAI can check which is right, and that may shape AI search more than the ads.Sat, 26 Sep 2026 20:14:40 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/banks-never-needed-great-marketing-geoffrey-director-manifesthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/banks-never-needed-great-marketing-geoffrey-director-manifestManifest EVP of Strategy Geoffrey Director on why AI and younger customers are forcing banks to earn the trust their institutional authority once delivered on its own.Fri, 25 Sep 2026 20:47:53 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/what-is-owned-media-b2bhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/what-is-owned-media-b2bGoogle and LinkedIn send B2B companies less traffic every year. Owned media is how more brands are building audiences they don't have to rent. This guide covers what it is, how it works, and how to get started.Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:19:06 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-owned-media-guidehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-owned-media-guideSearch and social reach are shrinking fast. Outlever, which builds and runs industry publications for brands, argues that B2B marketers should stop renting attention and start publishing.Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:52:51 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-muse-jolly-mascot-rollouthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-muse-jolly-mascot-rolloutMeta launched Muse with one character across every partner and platform, then let that character get suggestive in the one place Meta doesn't sell ads.Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:28:42 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-content-strategy-aihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-content-strategy-aiHalf of new online articles are now written by AI, and LinkedIn and AI search reward brands less every quarter. Outlever's Melissa Rosenthal explains why B2B companies are building newsrooms.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 21:21:35 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/data-driven-newsjackinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/data-driven-newsjackingRedfin, ADP and Ramp have each turned internal data into news coverage within days, and sometimes hours, of a major story. Smaller B2B companies can do the same with narrower data.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 18:14:23 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-organic-reach-pay-to-playhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-organic-reach-pay-to-playThe reach collapse has a technical explanation, and the platform's new price list has a commercial one.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:15:58 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/yc-brand-crisis-delve-corgihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/yc-brand-crisis-delve-corgiDelve got kicked out over alleged fake SOC 2 reports and Corgi keeps picking fights online, and both are testing what the YC name still guarantees.Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:54:42 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-search-third-party-citations-strategyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-search-third-party-citations-strategyWhen buyers ask an AI engine about your company, it leans almost entirely on what other people have published about you. Your own site is a small fraction of the input, and that changes where Q4 budget should go.Tue, 22 Sep 2026 02:10:13 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/companies-ai-writing-policies-slophttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/companies-ai-writing-policies-slopClay's version went viral in August. Heidi Health published its own this week. Polarsteps and Leapsome sit in between. The companies drawing these lines are, almost without exception, the ones building AI.Mon, 21 Sep 2026 21:54:48 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/shopify-ceo-ai-slop-grenadeshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/shopify-ceo-ai-slop-grenadesShopify CEO Tobias Lütke says employees are lobbing "AI slop grenades," and the real casualty is your brand.Mon, 21 Sep 2026 17:31:44 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-brand-employee-advocates-ai-searchhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-brand-employee-advocates-ai-searchAI search stopped citing brand copy and started citing trusted people. So B2B brands are handing their credibility to employees and experts who can walk.Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:36:05 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/thought-leadership-hire-measured-on-pipelinehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/thought-leadership-hire-measured-on-pipelineA handful of new job postings tie thought leadership to revenue instead of article counts. It is a small trend with a clear signal: owned media is turning into an operating function.Tue, 15 Sep 2026 01:45:36 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/miro-bending-spoons-what-a-category-is-worthhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/miro-bending-spoons-what-a-category-is-worthBending Spoons is paying about 2.3 times revenue for the company that defined online collaboration, a lower multiple than it paid for Airtable and roughly ninety percent below Miro's peak.Fri, 11 Sep 2026 04:04:13 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-bill-pay-the-musical-broadwayhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-bill-pay-the-musical-broadwayRamp is reviving the secret corporate musicals of the 1950s for one night on Broadway, with Billy Porter, Billy Zane and a show written for CFOs.Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:39:02 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/dave-steer-webflow-aeo-audit-marketing-siloshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/dave-steer-webflow-aeo-audit-marketing-silosThe median website scores 2 out of 5 on AI discoverability. Webflow's CMO says that's what a conflict-averse marketing team looks like from the outside.Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:23:03 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-ads-competitor-banhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-ads-competitor-banOpenAI has quietly barred ads for image and audio tools that compete with its own. Video is still allowed, which tells you how the rule works.Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:16:15 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-profound-gtm-engineer-naming-warhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-profound-gtm-engineer-naming-warClay coined the GTM engineer. Profound calls the same person a marketing engineer. The naming fight decides whose product the role gets built around.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 15:26:31 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ctv-consolidation-wave-creative-gaphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ctv-consolidation-wave-creative-gapThe CTV land grab added platforms, data, and attribution. It didn't solve the reason most mid-market brands still can't afford to make a TV ad.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:45:38 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-ads-paid-ai-answershttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-ads-paid-ai-answersOpenAI's ad business passed a $1 billion run rate in under 200 days. On a free ChatGPT account, a sponsored card can now sit directly beneath an answer that recommends someone else.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 20:56:52 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/kalshi-40-billion-flat-sports-betting-markethttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/kalshi-40-billion-flat-sports-betting-marketSports betting stopped growing this year and the incumbents are cutting staff, which leaves Kalshi's $40 billion resting on Americans finding new things to gamble on.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:53:18 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-cfo-buying-power-software-purchase-veto-g2-2026https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-cfo-buying-power-software-purchase-veto-g2-2026Nearly half of B2B software buyers have watched a CFO reverse a purchase their company already approved. Your funnel logs it as a budget freeze.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:08:44 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/personal-brand-around-person-not-niche-emma-lovewell-arhaushttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/personal-brand-around-person-not-niche-emma-lovewell-arhausPeloton's Emma Lovewell has a Drake-shaped career: ubiquity, a catalog, range, and an audience that follows the person. Her Arhaus partnership shows why that matters to brands.Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:00:00 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sean-mccarney-newsletter-ads-beyond-subscriber-countshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sean-mccarney-newsletter-ads-beyond-subscriber-countsAppeared.in Co-Founder Sean McCarney on why a newsletter with 5,000 cybersecurity professionals can win brands that a 100,000-subscriber publication can't reach.Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:55:38 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-google-listicle-citations-collapsehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-google-listicle-citations-collapseChatGPT halved its listicle citations on August 6 and Google demoted the same kind of page twelve days later. Roundups and comparison articles have been the core deliverable in AI visibility retainers since 2024.Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:22:16 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-contradiction-ai-writing-detectionhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-contradiction-ai-writing-detectionThe great contradiction, in one stack: Grammarly, Adobe, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and LinkedIn all sell the drafting tool and the detector that flags what it produced.Sun, 30 Aug 2026 23:01:08 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/air-fake-cmo-linkedin-stunthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/air-fake-cmo-linkedin-stuntAir announced a new CMO on Monday and accepted his resignation six hours later. The whole thing was staged, a trade publication reported it as real, and it beat every B2B launch of the quarter.Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:51:41 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-ai-slop-button-40-percent-claimhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-ai-slop-button-40-percent-claimHari Srinivasan posted the figure on Thursday, August 20. By the following Monday the main finding had reversed direction, and the timeframe and the unit of measure had come apart too.Wed, 26 Aug 2026 22:59:41 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cmo-responsibility-without-authorityhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cmo-responsibility-without-authorityLippincott surveyed 541 marketing leaders. Fifteen percent said someone above them owns the marketing call. The rest have never had to test the assumption.Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:17:57 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-convergencehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-convergenceEveryone bought the same capabilities from the same vendors on the advice of the same firms. Now the only thing left to compete on is scale.Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:03:57 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cloudflare-ai-crawler-defaults-september-15https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cloudflare-ai-crawler-defaults-september-15From September 15, Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers on ad-supported pages by default, thinning the independent coverage AI systems can read about your category.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:58:44 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ftc-ai-claims-b2b-liabilityhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ftc-ai-claims-b2b-liabilityIn every FTC AI enforcement action this year the deceived buyer was a business, and the firms that supplied the marketing materials were charged too.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:45:35 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-reporting-linehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-reporting-lineCMO, CEO, or Comms. Three reporting lines, three structurally different publications, and one question no B2B job posting in this category has answered yet.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:01:53 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/advertorial-takedown-restore-feeshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/advertorial-takedown-restore-feesSearch traffic collapsed and took the display business down with it. For a growing number of publishers the archive is the last inventory left, and they have worked out that it can be sold twice.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 02:53:13 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-content-repo-editorial-agents-cannot-say-nohttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-content-repo-editorial-agents-cannot-say-noThe team's judgment was already sitting in Slack threads and Google Docs comments, and mining it is the most copyable idea in B2B marketing right now. It also solves the easier half of the problem.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 18:57:09 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/reddit-chatgpt-citations-platform-riskhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/reddit-chatgpt-citations-platform-riskReddit had a signed licensing deal with OpenAI and still lost most of its visibility overnight, with no warning and no explanation. That should worry anyone currently budgeting against AI search.Thu, 20 Aug 2026 03:19:54 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/gartner-g2-review-sites-ai-citationshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/gartner-g2-review-sites-ai-citationsGartner sold three review sites to G2 for $110 million. Citation data since suggests one company now supplies most of the evidence behind AI software recommendations.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:49:28 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/reddit-ai-citations-brand-riskhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/reddit-ai-citations-brand-riskReddit is now among the most-cited sources in AI answers. A market has formed to sell brands mentions there, and the communities involved are pushing back.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 16:31:22 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-catch-all-authority-gaphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-catch-all-authority-gapSales, product, retention, recruiting, the investor story. Duke's survey of 308 marketing leaders finally gave the pattern a name, and the name is not flattering to anyone above the CMO.Wed, 19 Aug 2026 16:17:29 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-newsroom-failure-modeshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-newsroom-failure-modesFive ways owned media operations fail. The one that kills the most of them has nothing to do with content quality, and it is fully visible on the day you launch.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 21:56:59 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-carta-data-index-playbookhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-carta-data-index-playbookRamp hired an economist and built an index off 70,000 companies' transactions. Carta hired a Forbes reporter to write quarterly. Both now get cited by outlets that would never have run their pitches.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:58:06 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/canva-loved-brand-valuation-markdownhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/canva-loved-brand-valuation-markdownCanva's brand did nothing wrong and still watched more than eleven billion dollars come off the mark in a week. The lesson is about what kind of love it was holding.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:37:30 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-cmo-marketing-who-says-nohttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-cmo-marketing-who-says-noFleming argues that AI has knocked out marketing's oldest constraint. He may have named the wrong one.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:23:22 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/a16z-hiring-owned-media-proofhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/a16z-hiring-owned-media-proofA firm whose entire business is judging where capital compounds ran an in-house media operation for twelve months, looked at the result with better information than any outside analyst will ever have, and put more in.Tue, 18 Aug 2026 01:18:27 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/phoebe-bridgers-lost-weekend-playbookhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/phoebe-bridgers-lost-weekend-playbookSix years of silence, a dozen unannounced shows, forty planetariums, and more than 300 record stores. Underneath the aesthetic is the most copyable partner playbook in recent memory.Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:14:34 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/editor-in-chief-b2b-org-charthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/editor-in-chief-b2b-org-chartCompanies are hiring the role faster than they can agree on what to call it, who it reports to, or what it gets to decide.Sun, 16 Aug 2026 21:42:41 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/forbes-editor-fired-6-million-paymenthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/forbes-editor-fired-6-million-paymentThousands of advisory firms pay Forbes to display its rankings badge in their marketing. Nobody outside a private equity diligence process was checking the rankings.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:47:08 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/software-companies-buying-trade-publicationshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/software-companies-buying-trade-publicationsRobinhood, Zapier, DigitalOcean, Pendo, Semrush, Plaid. Six software companies bought the publications their buyers read, and not one of them has answered the question a reader should be asking.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 01:05:50 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/claude-watermarks-brand-disclosurehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/claude-watermarks-brand-disclosureAnthropic's new watermarks flag anything Claude touched, not just what Claude wrote, and that distinction is the one brand teams should worry about.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 14:53:24 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-discovery-funnel-third-party-trust-kimberly-storin-zoomhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-discovery-funnel-third-party-trust-kimberly-storin-zoomZoom CMO Kimberly Storin is replacing the awareness-to-preference funnel with a model built for AI discovery, where brands earn trust in rooms they no longer control.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:56:08 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-killed-product-differentiationhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-killed-product-differentiationBuyers now meet your category as a summarized comparison table. The only thing that survives the flattening is what specific people actually think.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:43:25 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-ai-writing-policyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-ai-writing-policyThe document says nothing about legal exposure or data leakage. It sets out four principles, and all of them are about how much of a reader's time a piece of writing is allowed to cost.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 19:24:05 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-strategy-not-newsletterhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-strategy-not-newsletterA newsletter is not an owned media strategy. Here's what winning companies actually build: an editorial engine that treats audience as an asset.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:22:46 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/quiet-churn-b2bhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/quiet-churn-b2bSaaStr cancelled Notion after seven years without a single complaint. Quiet churn is what happens when an AI agent absorbs your product's last job.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 23:16:16 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/performative-productivity-aihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/performative-productivity-aiUsing AI to generate visible evidence of effort rather than to finish work. Why the metric caused it, why it fails, and what to measure instead.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 22:26:45 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/hubspot-media-cac-model-brokenhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/hubspot-media-cac-model-brokenHubSpot valued its media acquisitions on CAC math, and now a story it can't control has cut its market cap.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 19:49:22 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/employee-happiness-2026-tech-declinehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/employee-happiness-2026-tech-declineTech now trails construction on employee happiness by fourteen points. The number underneath the recovery is worse for employer brand than the headline is good.Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:05:48 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/airtable-bending-spoons-what-a-brand-is-worthhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/airtable-bending-spoons-what-a-brand-is-worthBending Spoons paid 2.7 times revenue for a company that raised $1.4 billion. The number went viral because it was the first honest brand valuation the software industry has run in a decade.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:52:53 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cfo-brand-budget-investor-pitchhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cfo-brand-budget-investor-pitchA CFO told Bain researchers he'd throw money at marketing if he believed the data. The 65% valuation premium says the case exists. The pitch is what's broken.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:15:10 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/earned-media-ai-citations-reddit-owned-mediahttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/earned-media-ai-citations-reddit-owned-media85.5% of AI citations come from earned media. Or 40%, depending who counts. What eight studies actually show about Reddit, owned media and where PR fits.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 22:04:29 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-hiring-thesis-systemhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-hiring-thesis-systemClay co-founder Varun Anand read every hiring thesis and every scrap of interviewer feedback past 300 employees. Inside the Slack-based system that makes it possible.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:05:47 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sam-altman-talking-to-your-childrenhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sam-altman-talking-to-your-childrenAltman pitched an AI podcast for the drive to school. An eight-word reply beat him 13 to 1, and it exposed a positioning problem the whole industry shares.Sun, 02 Aug 2026 23:53:38 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/evals-are-the-new-okrs-marketinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/evals-are-the-new-okrs-marketingA Hebbia founder's viral essay pins AI's failure on the workforce. He's right about the mechanism, and wrong about who it indicts.Sun, 02 Aug 2026 22:17:03 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/customer-voice-ai-sameness-differentiator-lynn-lucas-everpurehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/customer-voice-ai-sameness-differentiator-lynn-lucas-everpureLynn Lucas, CMO at Everpure, on why customer authenticity outlasts AI-generated sameness, and the data governance question most marketing leaders are not asking their vendors.Sun, 02 Aug 2026 21:36:15 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clickup-100x-coohttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clickup-100x-cooSame $500K to $1M range, same two criteria, same two videos instead of a resume. What one person would own runs from pricing to procurement to pre-IPO readiness.Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:01:56 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-ai-slop-crackdownhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-ai-slop-crackdownA new flagging feature, a pulled writing tool, and a clear message: generated posts will cost you reach. Here is what that means for anyone building a brand there.Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:42:43 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/lattice-ceo-three-reasons-junior-hiringhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/lattice-ceo-three-reasons-junior-hiringLattice sits across thousands of client companies, and its CEO says juniors are back. The last of her three reasons is the one that pays for it.Tue, 28 Jul 2026 21:36:23 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clickup-100x-cmo-one-person-marketinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clickup-100x-cmo-one-person-marketingThe Fortune 500 spent the year deleting the CMO title. ClickUp just reinstated it as a job for exactly one human, reporting to the CEO, with 3,000 agents underneath and no team at all.Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:34:13 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-pricing-changes-2026https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-pricing-changes-2026Not in those words. Salesforce is on its fifth AI pricing model in under two years, and buyers can do the arithmetic.Mon, 27 Jul 2026 22:00:07 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-engineering-org-charthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-engineering-org-chartHiring data shows marketing's fastest growing role is an engineering job, and the org chart behind it is already taking shape inside real companies.Sun, 26 Jul 2026 21:59:50 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/what-is-owned-media-949f4https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/what-is-owned-media-949f4Owned media is content and audience infrastructure a brand fully controls: publications, newsletters, and communities. Here's why it's replacing the B2B blog in 2026, and the data behind the shift.Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:55:44 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/fortune-500-cmo-title-deletedhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/fortune-500-cmo-title-deletedOnly 36% of the Fortune 500 still use the CMO title, down from 49% in a single year. The role isn't churning. It's being erased from the org chart.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:29:11 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/content-boom-distribution-crisishttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/content-boom-distribution-crisisA $20 billion content creation boom is running headlong into a distribution crisis, and the industry keeps solving the wrong problemWed, 22 Jul 2026 19:19:44 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/token-commoditization-ai-search-race-to-the-bottomhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/token-commoditization-ai-search-race-to-the-bottomToken prices collapsed 280x in 18 months, and AI search is on the same curve. The only asset that survives commoditization is the one no platform can auction off: your brand.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:31:07 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/backrooms-nobody-owns-hollywood-iphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/backrooms-nobody-owns-hollywood-ipKane Parsons sided with the fans over his own studio, and A24's reversal exposed how unprepared Hollywood is for IP its audience created first.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:11:21 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-blog-dead-owned-media-shifthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-blog-dead-owned-media-shiftA real shift is underway in go-to-market strategy. Companies are moving from renting attention to owning it, and the early numbers suggest this isn't a fringe experiment. It may be the next default.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 02:11:34 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cmos-ai-bluff-contentful-atlantic-researchhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/cmos-ai-bluff-contentful-atlantic-researchContentful CMO Elizabeth Maxson partnered with The Atlantic to survey hundreds of marketing leaders on how AI is actually being used inside their teams.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 02:00:23 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-visibility-measurement-margin-of-errorhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-visibility-measurement-margin-of-errorA competitor says the category's best-funded name is selling noise. The most interesting people in the argument think both sides are measuring the wrong thing.Mon, 20 Jul 2026 16:10:14 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/typos-brand-humanityhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/typos-brand-humanityAudiences aren't reading your copy for the message anymore. They're reading it for proof a person wrote it.Sun, 19 Jul 2026 23:57:21 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/comms-pros-linkedin-presence-hiringhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/comms-pros-linkedin-presence-hiringComms professionals are being judged on their own LinkedIn presence before anyone reads their resume. The logic is seductive, and half wrong.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 23:11:41 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-standards-editor-300k-price-of-tastehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-standards-editor-300k-price-of-tasteThe dunks write themselves, but the third $300K editorial hire of the year isn't a punchline. It's the market repricing human judgment as AI writing gets free.Thu, 16 Jul 2026 01:09:35 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/remote-work-not-ai-productivity-boom-nythttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/remote-work-not-ai-productivity-boom-nytThe productivity surge started three years before enterprise AI adoption. The New York Times points to remote work and digitization, and the timeline is a problem for every CEO crediting AI.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 23:44:55 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/twilio-cmo-marketing-to-ai-agentshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/twilio-cmo-marketing-to-ai-agentsChris Koehler came into January with a full-year strategy. It lasted about a month. What broke it, and what he's doing instead, should be on every brand leader's radar.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:59:35 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/economists-ai-job-displacement-letterhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/economists-ai-job-displacement-letterMore than 200 economists and 16 Nobel laureates just warned that AI could reshape the economy faster than institutions can respond. The reputational bill lands on brands first.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 05:24:47 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-native-graduates-guilt-workforcehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-native-graduates-guilt-workforceA generation that outsourced its college writing to AI is entering the workforce ashamed, in secret, and at scale.Mon, 13 Jul 2026 05:17:17 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/martech-stack-cdp-collapse-last-milehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/martech-stack-cdp-collapse-last-mileData platforms are swallowing the CDP. The tools that actually reach customers just became the most important part of the stack.Mon, 13 Jul 2026 01:04:14 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/paying-human-salaries-budgeting-ai-hourshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/paying-human-salaries-budgeting-ai-hoursCompanies are paying record salaries for human judgment while setting deadlines that assume AI did the thinking. The research shows exactly who's absorbing the difference.Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:20:30 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-flattening-ai-search-invisible-brandshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-flattening-ai-search-invisible-brandsAhrefs analyzed 75,000 brands and found that AI engines ignore the old content playbook entirely.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 23:56:10 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-ai-spending-hiring-studyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-ai-spending-hiring-studyRamp's transaction data reveals the line between AI companies that grow and those that stall sits at about $33 per employee per month.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 23:20:20 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-voice-ai-software-adjective-list-great-flatteninghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-voice-ai-software-adjective-list-great-flatteningThere's a feature that has quietly become table stakes across every AI marketing platform, and the product documentation is worth reading closely.Sun, 12 Jul 2026 22:48:18 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-sympathy-reaction-death-spiralhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-sympathy-reaction-death-spiralThere's currently an unwritten rule circulating among LinkedIn users, passed along like a survival tip: whatever you do, don't touch the sympathy reaction.Fri, 10 Jul 2026 05:51:16 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/local-news-content-syndicationhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/local-news-content-syndicationFree syndicated content became local journalism's Taboola with a byline. Now the model that props up hundreds of newsrooms is on borrowed time.Wed, 08 Jul 2026 20:54:21 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-fluency-gap-cannes-cmo-panelhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-fluency-gap-cannes-cmo-panelAt Cannes Lions, the marketing chiefs of Google, OpenAI, and Chase joined AI Trailblazers founder Shiv Singh for one of the most candid conversations of the week.Wed, 08 Jul 2026 01:40:07 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/big-tech-walks-back-ai-job-apocalypsehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/big-tech-walks-back-ai-job-apocalypseA year ago, tech CEOs competed to deliver the darkest possible forecast about AI and your job. Now they're competing to sound reassuring. The labor data barely moved in between. The polling did.Tue, 07 Jul 2026 03:23:02 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/the-information-rebuilts-its-apphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/the-information-rebuilts-its-appThe Information rolled out a rebuilt version of its mobile app this week, and founder Jessica Lessin used a note to subscribers to explain the thinking behind it.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 17:45:53 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/reddit-using-llms-to-fight-llm-spamhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/reddit-using-llms-to-fight-llm-spamThere is an easy way to read Reddit's latest announcement and a useful way to read it.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 17:23:12 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/hubspot-terms-of-service-data-changeshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/hubspot-terms-of-service-data-changesToday HubSpot published a post to its community titled "We Got This Wrong. And We Are Fixing It." The company says it will not move forward with the terms of service changes it communicated on July 1.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:56:33 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/elena-verna-ai-confidence-theater-eroding-trusthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/elena-verna-ai-confidence-theater-eroding-trustElena Verna, the growth leader at Lovable and one of the most credible growth voices in tech, published a plea last week that a lot of people have been muttering privately for a year.Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:35:39 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/palantir-ceo-attacks-openai-anthropichttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/palantir-ceo-attacks-openai-anthropicPalantir CEO Alex Karp appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box on July 1 to discuss the company's new sovereign AI partnership with Nvidia.Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:58:12 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/walmart-vibe-ctv-walled-garden-smbhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/walmart-vibe-ctv-walled-garden-smbThe deal strengthens Walmart's retail media business. It also continues a pattern that should worry every brand that doesn't live inside a retail ecosystem.Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:40:19 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/everything-in-marketing-still-works-with-no-differentiationhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/everything-in-marketing-still-works-with-no-differentiationThe advice was right for twenty years. It stopped being useful the moment everyone got the same tools on the same Tuesday.Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:16:54 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-delaying-ipo-losing-consumer-market-to-anthropichttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-delaying-ipo-losing-consumer-market-to-anthropicWhen a company valued in the hundreds of billions decides to wait a year before going public, it writes itself a clean reason. OpenAI's reason this week is the weather.Mon, 29 Jun 2026 03:53:51 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ford-rehires-350-veteran-engineers-ai-didnt-fix-qa-issueshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ford-rehires-350-veteran-engineers-ai-didnt-fix-qa-issuesThe automaker spent three years bringing back the experts it once let go. It just topped J.D. Power's quality ranking for the first time in 16 years.Sun, 28 Jun 2026 03:57:44 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-agents-culture-alignmenthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-agents-culture-alignmentEvery vendor wants to sell you an agent that acts like a coworker. What they leave out is that an agent with no culture is just your brand, freelancing, in front of customers, at a scale you can't watch.Sat, 27 Jun 2026 19:23:03 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-prompts-destroying-ceo-judgementhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-prompts-destroying-ceo-judgementThe most dangerous question in business right now is four words long: "What's wrong with this?"Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:06:04 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-unify-gtm-pricing-bottoms-outhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-unify-gtm-pricing-bottoms-outClay just cut the price of data by up to 90 percent. Unify just opened its platform to anyone. The cheering misses what's actually happening underneath.Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:05:40 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-cmo-jessica-jensen-winning-gen-zhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-cmo-jessica-jensen-winning-gen-zJessica Jensen sat down with Maryam Banikarim and The Wall Street Journal to explain why LinkedIn is betting on video and creators.Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:11:38 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/google-invests-75-million-in-a24-ai-filmmaking-toolshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/google-invests-75-million-in-a24-ai-filmmaking-toolsA $75 million investment that pointedly leaves A24's film catalog out of the deal shows what an AI company actually wants from Hollywood right now. Not the content. The credibility.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 22:42:22 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/getty-images-open-ai-chatgpt-dealhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/getty-images-open-ai-chatgpt-dealWhat a stock-photo company's reversal on AI tells brand and marketing leaders about trust, provenance, and how images will appear in AI search.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:57:48 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/workato-thought-leadership-content-pipelinehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/workato-thought-leadership-content-pipelineAlex Lamascus joined Workato as its first dedicated thought leadership hire and promptly moved the function closer to the sales floor than the comms team.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:48:52 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/amazon-pulls-plug-on-sam-altman-biopichttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/amazon-pulls-plug-on-sam-altman-biopicAmazon MGM Studios has walked away from Artificial, the nearly finished Luca Guadagnino film about OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, with Andrew Garfield in the lead.Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:56:53 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-companies-hiring-media-jobshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-companies-hiring-media-jobsMercury, Vanta, Cohere, and LangChain are all hiring senior "brand creation" and "narrative" leaders. They're describing newsroom jobs, and the titles tell you where B2B competition is about to move.Sun, 21 Jun 2026 20:07:54 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sophia-deluz-bhan-search-atlashttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sophia-deluz-bhan-search-atlasSearch Atlas COO Sophia Deluz-Bhan explains why the AI tools companies keep will act on problems, not just answer questions, and how to know which content can scale.Fri, 19 Jun 2026 16:00:59 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-launches-connected-apps-featurehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-launches-connected-apps-featureLinkedIn now lets the apps you use write a verified line about how you use them, right on your profile. Members get credibility, and the brands get something more valuable.Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:55:53 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/circle-launches-eclipse-bets-on-owned-audienceshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/circle-launches-eclipse-bets-on-owned-audiencesEclipse bets everything on one idea: own your audience, own your demand. The idea is correct. The question the launch buries is who actually owns the demand once Circle runs the matching.Wed, 17 Jun 2026 05:47:39 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-spend-getting-harder-to-justifyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-spend-getting-harder-to-justifyAccording to Jasper's 2026 State of AI in Marketing report, 91% of marketing teams now use AI in their work. That's near-total adoption. But only 41% of those teams can actually demonstrate a return on that investment.Tue, 16 Jun 2026 23:56:47 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/human-voices-b2b-content-heike-younghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/human-voices-b2b-content-heike-youngHeike Young, former Head of Content at Salesforce and Microsoft, built a career getting companies to sound like people. Most of them still don't.Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:49:18 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/spacex-agrees-to-buy-cursor-for-60-billionhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/spacex-agrees-to-buy-cursor-for-60-billionLast week SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq in the largest initial public offering ever recorded, raising north of $80 billion and crossing a $2 trillion valuation.Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:26:49 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meghan-gendelman-canva-brand-is-infrastructurehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meghan-gendelman-canva-brand-is-infrastructureHer essay is the clearest case yet for treating brand governance as operational infrastructure, and the results are on her side.Tue, 16 Jun 2026 03:06:30 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-native-hiring-aimee-stewart-invisiblehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-native-hiring-aimee-stewart-invisibleAimee Stewart, VP Brand & Communications at Invisible Technologies, runs AI-native creative with a four-person team. Her hiring filter is the one most CMOs are getting wrong.Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:10:27 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-new-chatgpt-ooh-campaignhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-new-chatgpt-ooh-campaign"Billboards can be beautiful." That's how Cary Hudson, design director at OpenAI, announced the company's newest out-of-home campaign on LinkedIn.Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:00:58 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-coworker-great-flatteninghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-coworker-great-flatteningThere is a moment in every technology cycle when the industry settles on a word and then wears it down to nothing.Fri, 12 Jun 2026 20:10:14 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/viral-fake-tech-company-ads-goofstumphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/viral-fake-tech-company-ads-goofstumpSomewhere on your commute this week or scrolling across your feeds, you may have passed an ad for a company called Goofstump.Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:41:39 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-launches-b2b-creator-marketplacehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-launches-b2b-creator-marketplaceLinkedIn announced its Creator Marketplace on June 10, and the timing says as much as the product does.Wed, 10 Jun 2026 20:37:33 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/saas-companies-ai-nativehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/saas-companies-ai-nativeThe question floating around every SaaS boardroom right now: if we bolt AI onto our existing product, will the market ever view us the way it views companies that were built on AI from the ground up?Wed, 10 Jun 2026 17:43:21 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/when-ai-builds-itself-anthropic-ipohttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/when-ai-builds-itself-anthropic-ipoAnthropic says Claude is now accelerating the creation of Claude. The data is interesting. The timing is more interesting.Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:17:35 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/canva-paid-people-to-spend-a-week-learning-aihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/canva-paid-people-to-spend-a-week-learning-aiChief Customer Officer Rob Giglio describes how the company cleared the calendar for more than 5,000 employees and handed everyone a full week to do nothing but explore AI.Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:41:04 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linked-entering-post-cringe-erahttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linked-entering-post-cringe-eraThe Times asked whether LinkedIn is entering its "post-cringe era." We think the sharper question is a brand one. What happens when the most boring platform on the internet decides it wants to be fun?Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:55:55 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/adobe-creator-act-makes-style-ownablehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/adobe-creator-act-makes-style-ownableThe software giant is backing a bill to protect a visual artist's signature look from AI imitation, and the implications run straight through the brand economy.Wed, 03 Jun 2026 19:44:19 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anti-ai-brand-market-positioninghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anti-ai-brand-market-positioningOnly 19% of users in 2026 say they feel excited about AI. Two years ago that number was 50%. 54% of Americans report AI fatigue.Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:50:52 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/granola-ai-product-strategyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/granola-ai-product-strategyA single product conviction became a category-defining brand position.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 05:35:30 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/follower-count-stopped-driving-linkedin-reachhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/follower-count-stopped-driving-linkedin-reachDespite a decade of growth advice built entirely on audience size, the latest algorithm data shows follower count barely predicts how any single LinkedIn post performs.Sun, 31 May 2026 20:33:14 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-website-competes-with-ai-summaryhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-website-competes-with-ai-summarySomething is happening to your brand right now that nobody on your marketing team is tracking.Sun, 31 May 2026 17:43:54 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/starbucks-reverses-ai-coursehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/starbucks-reverses-ai-courseThe press release said the inventory was automated, intelligent, and fun. The internal memo, nine months later, said the baristas could go back to counting it themselves.Fri, 29 May 2026 20:46:38 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/earned-media-drives-84-percent-ai-citationshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/earned-media-drives-84-percent-ai-citationsA Muck Rack study has been getting passed around PR teams for weeks, and most people are taking the wrong lesson from it.Fri, 29 May 2026 18:50:59 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-65-billion-valuationhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-65-billion-valuationAnthropic had a busy Thursday. It closed a $65 billion Series H at a valuation just under $965 billion, which is probably its last private round before going public, and it shipped Claude Opus 4.8.Thu, 28 May 2026 21:19:14 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-employees-caste-systemhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-employees-caste-systemSomewhere in your organization right now, a quiet sorting is underway. Not a restructuring. Not a reorg. Something more permanent.Thu, 28 May 2026 19:41:56 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/individual-contributors-are-the-new-vphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/individual-contributors-are-the-new-vpThe corporate ladder didn't break. It got replaced by a different game, and the winners are the people who ship, not the people who supervise.Thu, 28 May 2026 18:30:37 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-openai-hiring-creative-roleshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-openai-hiring-creative-rolesSame week. Two hires. One story nobody in the AI hype machine wants to talk about.Wed, 27 May 2026 20:12:58 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/open-ai-hires-colin-fleming-as-cmohttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/open-ai-hires-colin-fleming-as-cmoThe hire of Colin Fleming as CMO, Business is not a marketing move. It is a declaration of war on the enterprise software establishment.Tue, 26 May 2026 22:23:04 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-content-system-brand-voice-joni-helminen-baronahttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-content-system-brand-voice-joni-helminen-baronaBarona CMO Joni Helminen built his AI content system himself. His framework for encoding brand voice and knowing what to stop delegating is the playbook most teams are missing.Tue, 26 May 2026 20:07:35 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/jensen-huang-ai-layoffshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/jensen-huang-ai-layoffsNVIDIA's CEO went on international television and called the AI layoff excuse "lazy" and "irresponsible." One week after DeepMind's CEO said the same thing in different words.Tue, 26 May 2026 15:43:38 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/the-great-ai-brand-flatteninghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/the-great-ai-brand-flatteningEarlier this year, we published The Great Flattening. Our argument was straightforward: AI is making every company sound the same.Tue, 26 May 2026 03:39:49 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/companies-reimagining-org-structure-with-aihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/companies-reimagining-org-structure-with-aiIn the span of a few weeks this spring, some of the largest and most watched companies in tech announced they were restructuring around the same idea: fewer people, completely different roles, and organizational models.Mon, 25 May 2026 17:08:39 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-anthropic-ipo-arms-racehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-anthropic-ipo-arms-raceIn the last seven days alone, the two biggest AI companies on the planet shipped, announced, acquired, partnered, and leaked more than most tech companies manage in a full quarter.Mon, 25 May 2026 05:06:14 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-opened-chatgpt-ads-to-everyonehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-opened-chatgpt-ads-to-everyoneOn May 5, OpenAI removed the $50,000 minimum spend and launched a self-serve Ads Manager at ads.openai.com. Any U.S. business can now buy ads inside AI conversations.Mon, 25 May 2026 01:28:08 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/trump-just-killed-the-first-real-ai-regulationhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/trump-just-killed-the-first-real-ai-regulationThe most consequential AI policy document the White House has produced since taking office was scheduled to be signed Thursday afternoon. CEOs from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple were invited.Fri, 22 May 2026 21:16:33 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/jeff-bezos-income-taxhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/jeff-bezos-income-taxOn Wednesday, Jeff Bezos sat across from Andrew Ross Sorkin on Squawk Box, spoke from the factory floor of his rocket company, and said something about taxes that almost no one could disagree with.Thu, 21 May 2026 22:49:40 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/eric-schmidt-bood-for-ai-speechhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/eric-schmidt-bood-for-ai-speechFormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivered the commencement address at the University of Arizona on Friday and told several thousand graduates that AI "will touch every relationship you have."Thu, 21 May 2026 02:06:29 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/nvidia-beats-earningshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/nvidia-beats-earningsNVIDIA reported earnings today. Revenue came in at $81.6 billion for the quarter, up 85% from a year ago, beating analyst expectations for the fifteenth consecutive time.Wed, 20 May 2026 22:39:59 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-tokenmaxxinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-tokenmaxxingMeta built a leaderboard. It ranked every one of its 85,000 employees by how many AI tokens they consumed. The top slot earned the title "Token Legend."Wed, 20 May 2026 15:50:38 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/google-blackstone-ai-chipshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/google-blackstone-ai-chipsGoogle and Blackstone are launching a U.S.-based joint venture to sell cloud computing powered by Google's custom TPU chips.Tue, 19 May 2026 22:51:11 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/google-just-killed-search-as-we-know-ithttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/google-just-killed-search-as-we-know-itFor 25 years, Google Search has worked the same way. You type something. You get a list of links. You click one. That's over.Tue, 19 May 2026 18:33:12 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/employees-sabotaging-company-ai-strategieshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/employees-sabotaging-company-ai-strategiesA 2,400-person survey by WRITER and Workplace Intelligence found that 29% of employees admit to actively sabotaging their company's AI strategy.Tue, 19 May 2026 02:45:03 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/optimizely-content-strategy-machine-marketers-builthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/optimizely-content-strategy-machine-marketers-builtJulianne DeVincenzo believes most marketing organizations are vastly underusing the people they hired. As Head of Global Content Strategy at Optimizely, she is rebuilding the operating model from the inside.Mon, 18 May 2026 20:50:20 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/spotify-logo-change-backlashhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/spotify-logo-change-backlashSpotify replaced its flat green icon with a glittering disco ball for five days. The backlash was instant. The virality was bigger. And the brand strategy underneath it is the one your team should be studying right now.Mon, 18 May 2026 16:44:15 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-best-b2b-campaignhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-best-b2b-campaignAd Age just named "Keep Thinking", Anthropic's first brand campaign from Mother, the Best B2B Campaign at the 2026 Creativity Awards. The most awarded B2B campaign of the year came from a company that barely advertises.Mon, 18 May 2026 16:04:45 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/outlever-owned-media-newsroomhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/outlever-owned-media-newsroomState of Brand runs on the same infrastructure we deploy for our customers. This was never a marketing decision.Wed, 13 May 2026 16:00:01 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/commencement-ai-speaker-booedhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/commencement-ai-speaker-booedA commencement speaker got booed for celebrating AI last weekend. But the real failure happened long before she walked onstage.Tue, 12 May 2026 17:56:52 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/air-ai-maury-povichhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/air-ai-maury-povichAir put Maury Povich in a SoHo studio to determine the paternity of an AI girlfriend. Underneath the absurdity is a brand insurance policy built for the moment AI subsidies end.Tue, 12 May 2026 16:00:06 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linked-posts-last-longer-in-feedhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linked-posts-last-longer-in-feedFor years, the conventional wisdom around LinkedIn was pretty simple: you post, you get your little burst of engagement, and within a day your content is buried. That's not how LinkedIn works anymore.Tue, 12 May 2026 06:20:04 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-ads-chatgpthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-ads-chatgptOn February 9, 2026, OpenAI started testing ads in ChatGPT. Sponsored recommendations now show up at the bottom of AI-generated responses for users on the Free and Go tiers.Tue, 12 May 2026 05:58:11 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-deployment-companyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-deployment-companyLast week, we wrote that Anthropic and OpenAI were both building billion-dollar ventures designed to embed AI engineers directly inside enterprises. Today, OpenAI made it official.Mon, 11 May 2026 22:57:28 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-now-costs-more-than-employeeshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-now-costs-more-than-employeesHere's the state of play. Companies are spending more on AI than on the people who use it. They're simultaneously cutting headcount in the name of AI efficiency.Mon, 11 May 2026 04:12:04 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/strong-brand-commands-valuation-premiumhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/strong-brand-commands-valuation-premiumBrand Finance just proved what we've been arguing since we started this publication. Brand is the most valuable and most neglected asset in B2B.Sat, 09 May 2026 21:18:49 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-job-cuts-not-improving-returnshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-job-cuts-not-improving-returnsGartner just dropped the most important data point in the AI-and-jobs debate. The finding: cutting people doesn't correlate with better financial performance.Fri, 08 May 2026 03:30:52 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-employee-liabilityhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-employee-liabilityCompanies are putting AI agents on org charts, giving them names, and calling them teammates. A large-scale experiment shows this is backfiring on accountability, quality, trust, and professional identity.Thu, 07 May 2026 18:52:11 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/klarna-reverses-ai-job-cutshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/klarna-reverses-ai-job-cutsKlarna's very public reversal on AI-driven workforce replacement is not a customer service story. It's a brand story. And it's the one your company is quietly living through right now.Thu, 07 May 2026 16:29:04 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/minjae-ormes-brand-strategy-youtube-visible-linkedinhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/minjae-ormes-brand-strategy-youtube-visible-linkedinMinjae Ormes has built challenger brands inside giants, turned a two-day old company's worst crisis into its strongest brand moment, and reshaped how a billion people think about professional identity.Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:02 GMTLeadership https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-companies-hiring-economistshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-companies-hiring-economistsExperian, Ramp, LinkedIn, Redfin, Carta, and Realtor have all hired in-house economists or data storytellers.Wed, 06 May 2026 17:26:53 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-killing-video-reachhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-killing-video-reachDespite LinkedIn's aggressive push into short-form video after a 36% viewership surge in 2024, the data tells a completely different story.Tue, 05 May 2026 20:19:03 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/what-is-owned-mediahttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/what-is-owned-mediaChannels that B2B brands built their growth on are collapsing, and the companies responding by becoming publishers are the ones pulling ahead.Tue, 05 May 2026 17:09:52 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-openai-enterprise-ai-ventureshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-openai-enterprise-ai-venturesAnthropic's announcement on Monday isn't just a joint venture. It's a blueprint for a new operating model, one where every product and tech company builds, owns, and deploys AI trained on its own data.Mon, 04 May 2026 20:06:45 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-search-brand-manifestohttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-search-brand-manifestoThe brands that publish will be found. The brands that do not will be described by someone else, or not described at all. This is the complete case, backed by every data point we could find.Mon, 04 May 2026 04:23:47 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/microsoft-harvey-legal-ai-battlehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/microsoft-harvey-legal-ai-battleHarvey raised at $11 billion on the promise that legal AI is its own platform, and then Microsoft bundled the same capability into a $30 Word subscription.Mon, 04 May 2026 04:06:56 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/zoom-chatgpt-visibility-swat-teamhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/zoom-chatgpt-visibility-swat-teamZoom's CMO assembled a cross-functional war room to control how AI describes the company. The data behind that decision applies to every brand reading this.Sun, 03 May 2026 20:26:51 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-content-distribution-arbitragehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-content-distribution-arbitrageB2B content distribution has become an arbitrage industry where someone takes a margin at every layer, and most marketers cannot audit where their dollars actually land.Sun, 03 May 2026 19:58:02 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketers-guide-to-open-clawhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketers-guide-to-open-clawYour engineering team is talking about OpenClaw, NanoClaw, and Tank OS. Here's what all of it actually means, and why you should care.Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:41:05 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-content-marketing-budgets-roihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-content-marketing-budgets-roiFor a decade, traffic volume gave content marketers cover. Budgets grew, headcount grew, and nobody had to answer the ROI question with any real precision.Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:56:02 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-publishers-win-ai-searchhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/brand-publishers-win-ai-searchWe have been saying it for months: the way people find information is changing, and the companies best built to win are the ones that publish like media companies.Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:20:27 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/fred-again-dropboxhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/fred-again-dropboxFred again.. asked fans to cover their phone cameras at every USB002 show. Then he shared photos and videos with them through Dropbox.Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:56:13 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/profound-96m-bet-on-marketing-engineershttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/profound-96m-bet-on-marketing-engineersEvery platform shift produces a wave of new job titles. The Marketing Engineer is one worth taking seriously, which is exactly why the org change has to come before the hire.Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:32:02 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sabastian-sawe-adidashttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/sabastian-sawe-adidasThe first official sub-two-hour marathon was not a marketing stunt. It was not a paid endorsement. And it might be the most valuable brand moment in sports this year.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:58:17 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/adobe-ai-commoditizationhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/adobe-ai-commoditizationAnyone can generate an image in ChatGPT, but Adobe is betting the enterprise will pay for the layer that ensures every image belongs to the same brand.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:08:04 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-b2b-saashttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/owned-media-b2b-saasTrade media is collapsing. Google referral traffic is in freefall. And a new class of companies is responding by doing something that would have seemed absurd five years ago: becoming publishers themselves.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 15:43:08 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-building-media-companyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-building-media-companyThe $32 billion fintech company does not want a content marketer. It wants a media builder.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 03:22:57 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/thought-leadership-cheapest-cac-b2b-saas-ai-discoveryhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/thought-leadership-cheapest-cac-b2b-saas-ai-discoveryThought leadership delivers the lowest CAC in B2B SaaS and compounds across AI discovery, yet most companies still treat it as overflow instead of infrastructure.Sun, 26 Apr 2026 17:28:04 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-images-2-0-evolutionhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/chatgpt-images-2-0-evolutionThe model thinks before it generates. It reads the web before it renders. It spells words correctly. And it just took the number one spot on every image generation leaderboard within hours of launch.Sat, 25 Apr 2026 04:19:44 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-gpt5-5-brand-leadershttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-gpt5-5-brand-leadersOpenAI released GPT-5.5 this morning. Greg Brockman called it a step toward "more agentic and intuitive computing". And for brand leaders, the question isn't "should we adopt AI" anymore.Fri, 24 Apr 2026 06:50:31 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/lovable-anthropic-designhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/lovable-anthropic-designWhen your model provider becomes your competitor, the moat you thought you had turns out to be a feature they hadn't gotten around to building yet.Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:56:27 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/red-lobster-endless-shrimphttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/red-lobster-endless-shrimpWhat Red Lobster and Cracker Barrel got right and wrong this year comes down to a single principle most brand leaders never price in. Understanding it before a crisis is considerably cheaper than learning it after one.Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:56:45 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-top-ai-citation-for-b2bhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-top-ai-citation-for-b2bRecently, I wrote about LinkedIn's algorithmic shift away from company pages and why employee voices had become the primary distribution layer for B2B brands.Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:19:53 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-b2b-saas-brand-strategyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ramp-b2b-saas-brand-strategyAn expense management company that makes you laugh, makes you smarter, and makes your finance team faster shouldn't work in B2B, but Ramp proves it does.Thu, 23 Apr 2026 16:41:47 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-brands-looksmaxxinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-brands-looksmaxxingB2B is in the middle of the largest rebrand wave in a decade. SaaS companies are redesigning websites, building new design systems, and overhauling visual identities at an unprecedented pace. But at what cost?Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:54:56 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-creator-marketing-metricshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-creator-marketing-metricsFor years, B2B creator partnerships lived in the brand budget and died on soft metrics, now they're being measured against pipeline, revenue attribution, and customer acquisition cost.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:10:27 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/spacex-acquires-cursor-for-60-billionhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/spacex-acquires-cursor-for-60-billionSpaceX announced tonight that it has an agreement to either acquire Cursor, the AI coding startup, for $60 billion later this year, or pay $10 billion for their partnership work together.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:03:16 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/does-chatgpt-sends-traffic-to-googlehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/does-chatgpt-sends-traffic-to-googleSemrush research showed that 20% of ChatGPT's referral traffic fed back into Google, exposing a discovery loop that rewarded B2B brands visible in both layers.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 01:53:02 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-flattening-corporate-ai-language-brand-voice-opportunityhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/great-flattening-corporate-ai-language-brand-voice-opportunityBarron's found 73 corporate documents using the same "not just X, it's Y" construction in one quarter, creating a brand opportunity for any company willing to sound distinct.Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:35:29 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-launches-design-toolshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-launches-design-toolsThree days. One board resignation, one product launch, and a 7% stock drop. What happened to Figma this week is a brand strategy story.Mon, 20 Apr 2026 01:26:24 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-ad-strategy-automatedhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/meta-ad-strategy-automatedMeta removed manual targeting, deprecated legacy campaigns, and started generating creative by default in 2026. For brand leaders still treating this as a media buying problem, the damage is already compounding.Sun, 19 Apr 2026 19:44:24 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-marketing-investment-strategy-95-5-rulehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-marketing-investment-strategy-95-5-ruleThe 95-5 rule is the entire case for brand in B2B, and every pressure in 2026 is pushing marketers to ignore it.Sun, 19 Apr 2026 19:42:37 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-mythos-openai-cybersecurity-brand-trust-restraint-enterprisehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-mythos-openai-cybersecurity-brand-trust-restraint-enterpriseAnthropic and OpenAI both shipped cybersecurity models this week, and the contrast in how they did it is the most revealing brand positioning moment of the year.Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:30:44 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/stanford-ai-index-brand-investment-trust-transparency-2026https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/stanford-ai-index-brand-investment-trust-transparency-2026Stanford's AI Index findings on transparency, convergence, and sentiment all point in one direction: brand is the hardest advantage to build and the hardest to replicate.Fri, 17 Apr 2026 03:47:07 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-killed-company-pageshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/linkedin-killed-company-pagesLinkedIn's algorithmic shift toward authentic, expert-driven content just made that official. Now there is only one channel the platform is actively rewarding, and for B2B brands, that means leaning into people.Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:33:30 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/allbirds-newbird-ai-pivothttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/allbirds-newbird-ai-pivotAllbirds pivoted to GPU leasing under the name NewBird AI, and the story is a case for why brand discipline outlasts every hype cycle.Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:31:04 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/emdash-cloudflare-wordpress-alternativehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/emdash-cloudflare-wordpress-alternativeEmDash is the first CMS built around the idea that AI agents are an audience worth charging. For owned media, that changes everything.Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:16:41 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/outlever-launches-new-publication-state-of-brandhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/outlever-launches-new-publication-state-of-brandThis publication will cover marketing, growth, GTM, and brand as it's actually evolving. Not the version that looks good in a recap deck, but what's really shifting, why it matters, and what to do about it.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:58:34 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-buyer-shortlist-brand-pipeline-forrester-buyers-journey-2026https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-buyer-shortlist-brand-pipeline-forrester-buyers-journey-2026The game is mostly over before your sales team knows it started, and brand is the only asset that travels into the rooms where shortlists get built.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:28:57 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/why-b2b-rebrands-failhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/why-b2b-rebrands-failFor most of the last decade, B2B marketing teams optimized for MQLs. Budget flowed to paid search, gated content, and email nurture sequences, because those were the channels that produced a number by next Tuesday.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:26:23 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-tbpn-media-buying-spreehttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-tbpn-media-buying-spreeWhen billionaires start buying the same asset class at the same time, it's worth asking what they see. The answer isn't content.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:23:39 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-blind-spot-for-cmoshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-blind-spot-for-cmosIt's not a skills gap. It's a standards gap. AI adoption is nearly universal, but almost no one has built the systems to govern it. Brands are fragmenting from the inside, and most CMOs don't see it coming.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:21:46 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/growing-audience-b2b-teams-are-ignoringhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/growing-audience-b2b-teams-are-ignoringMost B2B brand teams are optimizing for one audience while a second, faster-growing one forms impressions of their brand in conversations they can't see.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:19:15 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/influencer-growth-strategyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/influencer-growth-strategyB2B influencer marketing has a structural problem. The budgets are growing, the voices that matter have options, and most brands are still negotiating like neither of those things is true.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:16:23 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-marketing-shift-from-gated-contenthttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-marketing-shift-from-gated-contentThe gated whitepaper model broke because AI can't crawl it, buyers won't tolerate it, and the leads it produced were never that good.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:13:44 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-jobs-threatened-by-ai-displacementhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/marketing-jobs-threatened-by-ai-displacementAI is stripping the execution layer from marketing, and what survives is the strategic brand work that was always the most valuable.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:21:44 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-direct-mail-micro-events-physical-experience-brand-strategyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/b2b-direct-mail-micro-events-physical-experience-brand-strategyAfter a decade of digital saturation, the B2B brands seeing the strongest pipeline results are investing in physical experiences that can't be replicated or automated.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:20:10 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-30-billion-revenue-no-ads-brand-trust-enterprise-growthhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/anthropic-30-billion-revenue-no-ads-brand-trust-enterprise-growthAnthropic tripled its revenue in four months and overtook OpenAI without a single ad, proving trust is the growth engine enterprise buyers pay for.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:18:21 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/beehiiv-launches-podcast-hosting-platformhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/beehiiv-launches-podcast-hosting-platformWith newsletters, websites, and podcasts manageable from one dashboard, Beehiiv has made owned media frictionless. The harder part was never the tech.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:15:14 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-overviews-b2b-brand-visibility-pipeline-click-through-rates-2026https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-overviews-b2b-brand-visibility-pipeline-click-through-rates-2026AI Overviews reduced click-through rates up to 61%, making brand authority the last remaining path to visibility where B2B buyers actually make decisions.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:07:09 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-b2b-media-strategy-jake-blockhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/clay-b2b-media-strategy-jake-blockJake Block, Head of Studio at Clay, on why the brands winning the next era of B2B are the ones treating storytelling as a strategic operation, and he's building a two-part media organization inside Clay to prove it.Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:02:18 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/stensul-enterprise-marketing-ai-surveyhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/stensul-enterprise-marketing-ai-surveyMost enterprise marketing teams have an AI adoption mandate but no governance for what those tools produce, and the gap is already causing campaign errors, compliance risk, and slower workflows.Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:31:58 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/mckinsey-report-cmos-ai-roihttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/mckinsey-report-cmos-ai-roiMcKinsey found that CMOs are winning with AI, but very few can demonstrate ROI on more than half of their marketing spend.Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:31:10 GMTAI & Technology https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/air-brand-creative-moat-ariel-rubin-b2b-marketinghttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/air-brand-creative-moat-ariel-rubin-b2b-marketingAir's Head of Content Ariel Rubin on the operating model behind B2B's most culturally fluent brand, from the Rizzler to a handwritten New York Times ad with the CEO's phone number.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:27:21 GMTBrand & Creative https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/using-linkedin-to-appear-in-ai-searchhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/using-linkedin-to-appear-in-ai-searchLinkedIn now ranks as the second most-cited domain across major AI search platforms, meaning AI systems regularly pull from employee posts and long-form articles to answer professional questions.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:25:05 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-tbpn-acuisition-price-of-owned-distributionhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/openai-tbpn-acuisition-price-of-owned-distributionOpenAI’s acquisition of TBPN, a daily live tech talk show, signals that even the company building the tools behind today’s content ecosystem still has to buy trust instead of generating it.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:24:06 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/why-did-openai-acquire-tbpnhttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/why-did-openai-acquire-tbpnOpenAI acquired TBPN, a live tech show averaging 70,000 viewers per episode and on track for $30 million in revenue this year. It's the latest in a string of smart-money bets on owned media.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:22:44 GMTGrowth & Strategy https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/shoptalk-2026-ai-brand-governance-challengeshttps://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/shoptalk-2026-ai-brand-governance-challengesAt Shoptalk 2026, the gap between onstage AI ambition and offstage reality was hard to ignore, with more than half of organizations still operating without clear governance for marketing campaigns.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:21:28 GMTAI & Technology