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Today, we’re bringing you the latest in AI-powered marketing and business strategies. Here’s what’s inside:
🚨 AI Top Story: This week’s story breaks down the strange disconnect between rising AI adoption and stagnant marketing budgets.
🔧 AI Tool Of The Week: If TikTok is part of your marketing mix, Symphony Studio might just be your new best friend.
🎯 AI Use Case Of The Week: Here’s how WPP is using TikTok’s AI toolkit to deliver hyper-local content for global brands.
🌟 Creator Spotlight: If your LinkedIn outreach is falling flat, Stef Cucio has a system for that
💬 Killer Marketing prompt: Before you build strategy off a spicy stat or bold claim, run it through this fact-check prompt.
🎥 YouTube Resource Of The Week: Curious which deep research tools are actually worth your time? This video puts them head-to-head so you don’t have to.
Marketers Are Being Told to 'Do More & Spend Less'
More Output, Less Budget. The New Normal
There’s a weird tension happening within the marketing industry right now.
On one hand, 91% of marketing leaders are using GenAI in their day-to-day. On the other hand, they’re doing it with budgets that have been effectively frozen for the second year in a row - stuck at 7.7% of company revenue - following a drop from 9.1% the year before.
It’s not that budgets have been flat forever, but they’ve definitely settled into what feels like a new normal, and not necessarily a generous one.
What makes it even more interesting is that AI is helping. Teams are moving faster, relying less on agencies, cranking out more content in-house. But those savings aren’t going back into marketing. The money’s either staying put or getting shifted to other parts of the business. So while GenAI is absolutely making things more efficient, marketers are still expected to stretch the same dollar even further. So essentially there doing more with less, or at best, more with the same.
That said, the results are real. Nearly half of CMOs say AI is already helping them report on and evaluate campaigns better. Others are seeing real gains in speed and cost. And plenty are using that as a reason to rethink team structure. Close to 40% are cutting back on agency spend, and just as many are planning to trim internal headcount.
Of course, that optimism is mostly coming from execs and budget holders, not the marketers dealing with the fallout when things don’t land. Campaign performance has taken a hit lately. 87% of CMOs say they’ve run into issues, and 45% have had to kill campaigns early.
So this isn’t about chasing efficiency just for fun, it’s about staying afloat. AI isn’t going to fix everything, but right now, it’s one of the few tools helping marketers keep up in a tougher, leaner landscape.
🧠 How Marketing Teams Can Implement AI Successfully - A practical playbook that breaks down the people, process, and tech changes your team needs to actually make AI stick.
🔍The importance of quality third-party data in AI-driven personalization - What to watch for when sourcing and integrating it.
🚀 WPP Open installs TikTok’s AI toolkit - WPP is integrating TikTok’s AI-powered Symphony tools into its platform, giving its teams new ways to streamline and scale creative production.
🎬 Amazon has started selling AI video ads. What does this mean for digital marketing? -Amazon Ads’ new free AI video generator lets anyone crank out polished video ads in minutes - this changes who can play in the video ad space.
🎯 The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise - How to Actually Start Using AI Agents Today
💡 AI CIO - You Need Confidential Computing
☕ AI Tangle - o3-pro Makes its Debut, Zuckerberg's "Superintelligence" Team & Disney's Lawsuit VS Midjourney
📻 AI Confidential Podcast - Navigating AI Evaluation and Observability with Atin Sanyal
TikTok Symphony — AI-Powered Video Creation for Marketers
TikTok Symphony is a suite of creative AI tools built directly into TikTok for Business and TikTok Ads Manager. It helps brands ideate, produce, and scale native short-form video without extra downloads or onboarding hurdles. The toolkit includes AI scriptwriting, image-to-video, text-to-video, multilingual dubbing, and digital avatars. All optimised for TikTok’s vertical format.
Why We Like It
Platform-native excellence
Everything’s optimised for TikTok’s vertical video format, with pacing, transitions, and templates that match user behaviour.
Script to screen (fast)
Symphony Assistant helps you brainstorm, write scripts, and generate videos from just a few lines of text or product URLs.
AI dubbing across 10+ languages
Translate your videos with accurate lip-sync and auto-generated voiceovers, clearly labeled as AI-generated for transparency.
Image-to-video made simple
Upload product shots and instantly turn them into engaging TikTok-ready videos using Creative Studio’s auto-formatting engine.
Remix existing content
Rework past campaigns or organic content using TikTok’s built-in remix tools to give them a fresh spin in seconds.
Browser-based for Business accounts
Everything runs directly in-browser via TikTok for Business. If you’ve got a business account, you’ve got the tools.
How to Access TikTok Symphony
Sign up for (or log in to) a TikTok for Business account
Navigate to the Creative Center
Open the Symphony Assistant for ideation and scripting
Use Symphony Studio to generate videos, apply avatars, and enable dubbing
How WPP Uses TikTok AI to Power Client Campaigns
The Overview
WPP has built TikTok’s AI tools directly into its internal platform, WPP Open - enabling creative teams to generate TikTok-ready campaigns faster than ever. And it’s not just for internal testing. These tools are already being used to produce content for WPP’s global clients across industries.
That means less time spent on production, more variation for testing, and faster campaign launches across multiple markets. For marketers, it’s a glimpse into how leading agencies are deploying AI at scale - without sacrificing brand voice or creative control.
How It Works
Inside WPP Open, teams generate fully localised client assets using:
Symphony Assistant for trend-driven scripts and video concepts based on product URLs or marketing copy
Text-to-Video & Image-to-Video tools to turn written prompts or product images into short-form TikToks
Digital Avatars trained on client spokespeople or brand personas for consistent delivery across markets
AI dubbing for instant translation and natural-sounding voiceovers in 15+ languages
Direct API access to push finished assets straight into campaign workflows—ready for review, A/B testing, and launch
By integrating Symphony into its platform, WPP has reduced production time and unlocked a new level of speed and personalisation for client campaigns. It’s AI as an engine for scale. Serving global brands with local precision.
STEF CUCIO - Share’s how he uses AI agents to turn cold LinkedIn outreach into high-converting conversations with a clear framework and real automation examples you can steal.
The Truth Test Prompt
We’ve seen enough bold claims to know that not everything online is worth believing. So when we’re digging into a stat or story, we use this prompt to make sure it actually holds up. Before we build strategy off someone else’s hot take, we like to sanity-check the source. This is the prompt we use to make sure the numbers, and the narrative, actually stack up.
So next time you want to verify anything, this is a pretty good plug-and-play option!
Prompt:
Please fact-check the following article/document/post: [INSERT LINK OR DROP TEXT HERE].
I’m looking for a high-accuracy, bullet-pointed breakdown of the information, including:
Which specific claims, statistics, or themes are true, with credible source references.
Which are false, misleading, or overstated, with a short explanation of why.
Any missing context or nuance that could affect how the content is interpreted.
Please verify both individual data points (such as percentages, quotes, and cited stats) and broader claims or themes (such as trends, outcomes, or strategic conclusions). Prioritize accuracy for key takeaways, and back up findings with reputable, up-to-date sources when possible.
Format the output using ✅ True, ❌ False, or ⚠️ Needs Context, followed by a brief rationale.
Optional context to improve accuracy:
[INSERT INFO ABOUT MY ROLE, TARGET AUDIENCE, OR USE CASE]Testing Every Deep Research AI Tool
To Find The Best One
ChatGPT better not fumble this..🫠
