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Accenture Song has acquired Superdigital, a Florida-based social-first and influencer agency with clients including Microsoft, Welch鈥檚, and Nerf. Founded in 2013, Superdigital specializes in TikTok-driven content, community building, and creator-led campaigns, with activations ranging from Welch鈥檚 pop-ups to Microsoft鈥檚 AI influencer work. The deal reflects a broader wave of M&A as consultancies and holding companies buy into the creator economy. With social and influencer marketing outpacing other formats, the move positions Accenture to win young, digital-first audiences and scale creator-driven growth.

Est茅e Lauder posted a wider quarterly loss as sales slumped and warned that tariffs could reduce earnings by about $100 million over the next year. Est茅e Lauder is taking necessary steps to turn around its business鈥攆ocusing on product innovation, cutting costs, and broadening its customer reach鈥攂ut it will be tough given intense competition in the beauty market. With key rival L鈥橭real gaining US momentum and newer brands emerging, Est茅e Lauder must accelerate product innovation, reduce reliance on discounting, rebuild momentum in China, and take other steps to win new customers, or risk ceding more ground in the longer term.

Fiddelke inherits a tough hand. Target鈥檚 recent missteps鈥攆rom scaling back DEI initiatives to pulling back Pride Month offerings鈥攈ave weakened its brand and left it vulnerable to rivals like Walmart, which continues to win over shoppers with lower prices and broader grocery selection.

The news: CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reorganized Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) into four units focused on research, superintelligence, products, and infrastructure, per The New York Times. Meta further splitting its AI division, which it spun off in June, underscores both ambition and internal turmoil as it races rivals like OpenAI and Google. Our take: Meta鈥檚 public growing pains show it won鈥檛 sit out the AI race, even if upheaval is the cost. Its future direction will have wider implications鈥攊f Meta leans into closed AI models, the shift could reshape how outside developers and partners interact with its platforms. For advertisers, the signal is clear: Expect fresh AI features in Meta鈥檚 ad products, but brace for volatility as Meta struggles to align its people, platforms, and technology.

The news: Epic rolled out new genAI tools for clinicians, including an AI scribe solution that transcribes doctors鈥� notes during patient visits. Epic will incorporate ambient technology from Microsoft to power its medical documentation technology. Our take: Epic鈥檚 AI scribe solution with Microsoft/Nuance as its development partner delivers a major blow to startups like Abridge and Ambience. These two companies are part of a booming ambient AI scribe space that has totaled nearly $1 billion in investment funding so far this year, per a July analysis from STAT. But Epic鈥檚 presence will make it much tougher for smaller players to stand out in the category, since doctors will be drawn in by the efficiency of using scribe tools from their EHR system.

Consumer trust in the US healthcare system and its key players has eroded. Brands now face patients who distrust traditional guidance鈥攐ften due to political polarization鈥攁nd seek answers from unverified sources. Here鈥檚 how brands and marketers can win back patient trust and rebuild deteriorating reputations.

The news: Meta is moving forward with its ad automation ambitions by introducing new options to consolidate ad targeting, per a company announcement. Meta鈥檚 Ads Manager page noted that 鈥渟ome detailed targeting options have been combined,鈥� and that ads using now-unavailable options no longer deliver starting in January. Our take: Automated AI campaigns are the path forward as long as giants like Meta continue pushing for automation and away from manual鈥攏ecessitating advertisers take key steps to adapt. Campaign goals must be reframed for an AI-first environment.

The news: Google Ads is ending manual language targeting, taking over a significant element of campaign management. In lieu of manual targeting, Google鈥檚 AI will detect user language automatically using signals such as language settings and historic search activity. Our take: Brands should consider auditing current campaigns to identify where automated language detection might create gaps and establish safeguards, such as breaking out campaigns by region or market and including clear, native-language text in headlines and descriptions to signal intended language to both users and Google鈥檚 systems.

The news: President Donald Trump expanded his steel and aluminum tariffs to cover 407 consumer goods that either contain, or are packaged in, aluminum or steel. The scope is wide-ranging, hitting everything from baby booster seats to microwave ovens to personal care products that come in metal containers or packaging.The news: President Donald Trump expanded his steel and aluminum tariffs to cover 407 consumer goods that either contain, or are packaged in, aluminum or steel. The scope is wide-ranging, hitting everything from baby booster seats to microwave ovens to personal care products that come in metal containers or packaging. The takeaway: The sweeping scope and sudden rollout underscore that tariff uncertainty isn鈥檛 going away鈥攁nd could easily intensify. With US consumers now facing the highest average effective tariff rate since 1933, the ripple effects are clear: Higher costs will flow downstream, squeezing retailers and dampening consumer spending.

Generative AI is rapidly moving from novelty to necessity in advertising, collapsing production costs and timelines while expanding creative possibilities. National TV ads that once required six figures and weeks of work can now be made in days for a fraction of the budget, opening broadcast-quality campaigns to smaller advertisers. With nearly 90% of large video advertisers already adopting AI, use cases like personalization, ideation, and versioning are proliferating. Yet consumer skepticism remains strong鈥攅specially among older audiences鈥攗nderscoring that human craft and cultural nuance still matter. The challenge ahead: merging automation鈥檚 efficiency with trust and authentic creativity at scale.