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Highlights from today’s newsletter:

Inside Adobe Summit 2025: How AI is reshaping marketing strategy
Fospha’s full-funnel fix: Smarter measurement without cookies
SXSW takeaways on what really drives advertising impact in 2025
Gartner’s top 3 imperatives for CMOs this year

EDITOR’S PICK

#ADOBESUMMIT – EVENT INSIGHTS

Adobe Summit 2025: What We Learned

From agentic AI to content automation, here’s what marketers need to know from this year’s biggest digital experience event.

Over three days in Las Vegas, Adobe Summit 2025 showcased the future of marketing — and it’s clear that the future is AI-powered, privacy-conscious, and built for speed. With 200+ sessions, keynote appearances from industry heavyweights like Jamie Dimon, and bold announcements from Adobe, the event set the tone for what’s next in customer experience.

Day 1: Measurement, Modeling, and Marketing AI

The opening day focused heavily on marketing measurement, with multi-mix modeling taking the spotlight. As privacy regulations limit access to user-level data, brands are turning to hybrid models that combine the precision of multi-touch attribution (MTA) with the predictive power of media mix modeling (MMM).

Fospha, a key sponsor, stood out by offering a unified solution that delivers privacy-first, full-funnel insights — helping brands reallocate spend dynamically and understand ROI without cookies.

Meanwhile, sessions on AI and automation highlighted Adobe’s Smart Plus campaigns (built with TikTok), showcasing how AI is now automating everything from creative testing to cross-platform campaign scaling.

TikTok x Adobe also introduced seamless commerce integrations, underlining the shift toward high-impact, real-time engagement strategies.

Day 2: AI as Strategist, Personaliser, and Performance Driver

Day 2 brought the big guns. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, joined Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen to talk leadership, resilience, and the economic outlook — a grounded take amidst all the tech optimism.

AI became the central character:

 Adobe’s AI-powered agents were shown helping marketers with audience segmentation, journey optimization, and experimentation in real time.

 Marriott shared how AI-driven incentives increased customer engagement — surfacing the value of micro-personalisation.

 Omnicom demonstrated operational wins, using AI to automate workflows, forecast campaign breakdowns, and train underperforming teams — turning marketing into a smarter, leaner machine.

Day 3: Agentic AI, Content at Scale & Marketing’s New Playbook

The final day explored the role of agentic AI — autonomous tools embedded into workflows that optimize performance across customer journeys, content creation, and even audience refinement.

Adobe’s Firefly updates expanded generative AI into video editing and localization, while the Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator showed how marketers can manage multiple AI agents seamlessly.

In a standout interview, Comwrap Reply’s Tim Conrad and Luke Barton shared how AI is transforming enterprise marketing: from multilingual asset generation to real-time content adjustments, they detailed how AI is shaving weeks off production cycles and delivering measurable results.

Their Co-Pilot tool now auto-tags and organizes massive libraries of campaign assets — reducing friction between teams and making large-scale, omnichannel activation faster and easier.

What We Learned

 AI is the new co-pilot – Marketers no longer have to choose between speed and personalization. AI lets them do both — at scale.
 Personalization is non-negotiable – From journey orchestration to dynamic content, brands must tailor experiences or risk irrelevance.
 Measurement is still a pain point – But players like Fospha are helping marketers finally connect the dots between strategy and performance in a cookieless world.
 AI + Human = Winning Combo – AI is augmenting, not replacing, marketing teams. The opportunity lies in combining automation with human creativity and judgment.

#SXSW – EVENT INSIGHTS

5 Key Takeaways on Advertising Effectiveness from SXSW 2025

What does great advertising look like in 2025? Insights from SXSW, paired with fresh data from NCSolutions and commentary from industry leaders like L’Oréal’s Join Han Wen and NBCUniversal’s Josh Feldman, suggest it’s about balance—not just performance.

 Top Insights:

Creative still reigns supreme, contributing 49% to incremental sales—quality content matters more than ever.

Brand-building is gaining ground, rising from 15% to 21% in sales impact since 2017. It’s about community, trust, and long-term love.

Targeting has become smarter, now contributing 11%, while the importance of broad reach has declined.

Measurement is critical. As Han Wen put it, don’t chase “false precision”—track full-funnel impact to see the big picture.

Timing still matters. Recency remains a consistent 5% driver—ads need to hit at just the right moment.

The verdict? Long-term brand connection + short-term performance = sustainable impact.

 “A healthy diet in advertising balances both brand-building and performance. Go too far in one direction and you risk losing impact.” — Join Han Wen, L’Oréal

MASTERCLASS WRAP-UP

What Marketers Learned at SXSW

ClickZ had the inside track at Fospha’s SXSW Masterclass series, where industry leaders unpacked the biggest challenges — and opportunities — shaping eCommerce in 2025. Here are the top takeaways:

The Amazon Measurement Struggle Is Real — But Now Solvable: At the Halo Masterclass, brands shared how they’ve struggled to measure the impact of off-platform ads on Amazon sales — a consistent challenge we’ve heard across the industry. Fospha’s latest research introduced Unified ROAS, a game-changing metric that connects external ad spend with Amazon performance for the very first time.

There’s More Headroom on TikTok and Snapchat Than You Think: Sessions with TikTok and Snap experts revealed that there’s still huge untapped potential for brands on these platforms. Full-funnel strategies, creative best practices, and better targeting are key — and data-driven approaches are already driving real results.

It’s Time to Quantify the Power of Brand-Building: Upper-funnel investment can’t be ignored — but it also needs to be justified. Fospha’s data shows how to connect brand investment with business impact, making brand-building a measurable growth driver rather than a leap of faith.

Like what you’re reading? There’s more to come. Fospha continues the Masterclass series at Shoptalk Spring (March 25–27, Las Vegas) with sessions on Amazon measurement, TikTok, Snapchat, Applovin, and measuring brand impact.

Explore Masterclasses at Shoptalk Spring

Exclusive: Get 10% Off Shoptalk Registration

ClickZ will be on the ground at Shoptalk, sharing exclusive insights with our readers. Fospha will be attending too—book a meeting to discover how performance-driven measurement can transform your strategy.

Register now using the code RBCLICK269.
Book a Meeting with Fospha

LEADERSHIP LENS

Strategic Imperatives for CMOs and Marketing Leaders in 2025  

Approaching 2025, CMOs and marketing leaders encounter a multifaceted landscape that requires strategic agility and operational prowess. The most accomplished CMOs will bridge the divide between strategic planning and execution. Gartner’s recent research identifies the three strategic imperatives that marketing leaders should focus on in 2025 to foster successful enterprise growth. 

Amidst the pressures of disruption and transformation, CMOs must prioritize the implementation of their strategic plans. However, many face challenges in demonstrating their value to CEOs and CFOs, who may not recognize marketing as a catalyst for growth.

To surmount this, CMOs should capitalize on marketing’s strengths, transforming it into a forward-thinking customer insights engine that guides enterprise strategy and commercialization efforts. 

How AI Is Refining Marketing Analytics

AI advancements are redefining marketing analytics by integrating custom AI assistants and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to deliver context-aware insights.

These innovations enhance data analysis efficiency and precision, adhering to specific business protocols and leveraging historical data practices, thereby empowering marketers to generate actionable insights and maintain competitive advantage.

WHAT WE ARE READING

How to Measure the ROI of Reddit Ads

Reddit’s substantial post-IPO growth and enhanced Google visibility position it as a critical platform for brands aiming to secure genuine audience engagement and enhance their digital presence.

Traditional ad metrics fall short in evaluating Reddit’s ROI, necessitating advanced methodologies such as incrementality testing to capture its true impact on brand interaction and sales.

Met & GA4 Integration Explained: Benefits, Setup & Considerations

Meta’s integration with Google Analytics marks a pivotal shift for advertisers, delivering profound insights into campaign dynamics and user engagement through sophisticated web traffic analysis.

The fusion facilitates seamless cross-platform attribution, optimizing ad performance and ultimately increasing ROI. Prioritizing data accuracy and privacy compliance is essential to fully exploit this integration’s potential.

Are In-Stream Video Ads Worth the Investment?

In-stream video ads offer digital marketers a targeted avenue to captivate audiences by utilizing platform-specific ad formats such as skippable and non-skippable ads.

They excel in capturing user attention and leverage sophisticated targeting capabilities to bolster brand recall and ROI. Success hinges on delivering impactful content swiftly to maintain audience engagement and optimize advertising investment.

WHAT WE ARE LISTENING

Telling Stories That Convert: How to Increase Your Leads and Sales

Storytelling serves as a crucial tool to bridge gaps between sales and marketing efforts, enhancing messaging clarity, as explained by Dr. JJ Peterson. Missteps in messaging can severely impact conversion success.

The analysis underscores the necessity for marketers to refine communication strategies, ensuring that campaigns not only reach but also resonate with intended audiences to optimize lead generation and sales outcomes.