The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 AMAZON MAKES TIKTOK BID

Amazon has submitted a last-minute offer to buy all of TikTok ahead of a looming U.S. deadline that could ban the app unless it cuts ties with its Chinese owner. But insiders say Amazon’s bid isn’t being taken seriously. While TikTok is a key retail channel, and Amazon has ties through influencers and past projects. Trump is meeting with officials this week to decide TikTok’s future. more

🥈 LOYALTY PROGRAMS

Loyalty to stop churn: A recent Salesforce survey found that two-thirds of retailers currently offer loyalty programs, with another 29% planning to introduce them soon. more

• Most customers (over 75%) are members of such programs, averaging four memberships each.

• Points-based programs are the most common, followed by cash-back and tiered models.

• One-third of shoppers belong to programs they never use

🥉 SNAPCHAT COURTS AGENCIES

Snapchat is expanding its Agency Partner Program to better support ad agencies and attract more media buyers. The program now offers new resources, training, and measurement tools to help agencies create and manage Snapchat campaigns. more

• It’s also adding certifications…

• …and more direct support from Snap reps.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• 📱 🇺🇸 TikTok ad spend rises despite uncertainty: While some advertisers paused TikTok campaigns due to a potential U.S. ban, major brands like Walmart, Coca-Cola, and Amazon actually increased spending in early 2025, according to Sensor Tower. Lower competition meant cheaper ads and better returns for those who stayed. Marketers are now feeling more confident as President Trump suggests a deal to keep TikTok in the U.S. is near. more

• 🌟 Brave’s privacy-first ad play: Brave Search is attracting big-name advertisers like Amazon and Booking.com by offering ad targeting without personal data. Instead of keywords, it uses semantic matching to connect ads to user intent. That’s helped Brave grow click volume 1,500% in a year, now hitting 2.2 million clicks monthly. more

  • With about 80 million users, it’s still tiny compared to Google

  • Brave is betting that privacy and precision will win over marketers tired of mainstream platforms.

• 🍔 📲 Wendy’s hits big on Snapchat: Wendy’s was the first fast-food chain to try Snapchat’s new Sponsored Snaps, an ad format that places full-screen branded messages directly in users’ chat feeds. Its ad, sent during Q4 2024, showed a playful Wendy’s sign and drove over 52 million U.S. impressions in a single day — the highest view rate among all advertisers in Snapchat’s test. The campaign boosted Wendy’s profile followers by 55% and led to a 17% increase in ad awareness. more 👉 more more

Social Media 📱

• 🎥 YouTube → TikTok content:
  YouTube is teaming up with Repurpose.io to let creators easily turn long-form videos into short TikToks. This new integration helps creators reuse content by automatically formatting and posting clips across platforms. more

  • It’s also upgrading its “Inspiration” tab in YouTube Studio with new features to help creators generate content ideas.

  • “Brainstorm from anywhere” allows users to draw inspiration from past videos and comments.

  • “Hooks” offers AI-generated suggestions to create more engaging video openings.

  • “Quick saves” lets creators save promising ideas for later use.

• 🎨 Instagram’s new edit app: Instagram's new “Edits” app, designed to compete with tools like CapCut, is reportedly close to launch. CEO Adam Mosseri announced that a select group of creators is currently beta testing the app, with a simple version expected in the coming weeks. While Edits will be free initially, there may be paid features in the future to cover costs, especially for advanced AI functions. more

B2B 📊 

• 📈 B2B ad budgets shift: B2B marketers are spending more on digital ads this year, but they're also being smarter about it. A new Insider Intelligence report shows that budgets are up 8.3%, yet marketers are focusing on higher-performing formats like video and display. Paid social is still popular, but search and programmatic are getting more attention. more

Retail 🛍️

• 📺 Retail meets TV: eMarketer cites more evidence that shoppable connected TV (CTV) is gaining traction as a new way for retailers to reach shoppers. With CTV, viewers can click or scan to buy products shown in ads while watching TV. Companies like Walmart and Kroger are testing it, combining video ads with retail media data to drive sales. It’s still early, but interest is growing fast. more

Ad Tech 🚧 

• 💼 Amazon uses ad discounts: Amazon is offering big discounts on its ad tools to pull media buyers away from rivals like Google and The Trade Desk. These “loss leader” deals make Amazon’s DSP more appealing by lowering prices, sometimes at a loss. The goal is to gain market share and keep brands spending inside Amazon’s growing ad ecosystem. more

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