September 2026
Industry News
Here's what happened this month, why it matters, and what your team should know.
The Rundown
- ›Meta put a price on organic reach. Meta One business tiers launched Sep 15 with 15 million subscriptions and trials at launch, and clickable links in organic posts and Reels now start at the Advanced tier. Two days later, more Facebook Pages began seeing a cap of two link posts per month without a subscription. Plan organic social as a reach and engagement channel, and model whether a paid tier earns its cost before paying for links.
- ›AI answers became a buyable, measurable channel. ChatGPT Ads added Sponsored Agents plus HubSpot and Shopify integrations on Sep 16 and became buyable through Amazon DSP in a Sep 10 US pilot, while Google gave retailers AI share-of-voice data across AI Mode and AI Overviews on Sep 16. Check how your brand shows up in AI answers before holiday budgets lock.
- ›Google moved Search campaigns into AI Max by default. The auto-upgrade of campaigns using campaign-level broad match or automatically created assets ran Sep 1-30, and former ACA campaigns now have search term matching on, so they can serve on queries they never matched before. Google also announced full-journey AI Max reporting on Sep 23. Audit search terms, add brand exclusions and negatives, and confirm conversion tracking before Q4 budgets scale.
- ›Google's spam update ran nearly two weeks. The September spam update ran Sep 24 to Oct 8, 13 days and 16 hours, versus under three days for each earlier 2026 spam update. Meanwhile, 97% of People Also Ask answers were AI Overviews in the first week of September. Measure ranking changes across the full window, not a single day, and track AI Overview citations alongside classic rankings.
September 2026 Timeline
SEO & AEO
Google launched the September 2026 spam update on Sep 24, its fourth of the year, and marked it complete on Oct 8 after 13 days and 16 hours. The year's three earlier spam updates each wrapped in under three days. Impact came in waves: a first wave Sep 25-27 and a second phase on Sep 30, when several site owners reported notable declines. Google did not say which tactics it targeted.
A longer rollout means a single before-and-after snapshot is not enough. Use Sep 24 to Oct 8 as the comparison window and confirm changes in Search Console clicks and impressions that hold across consecutive days. SEJ noted that some rank-tracker swings from Sep 26 reflected incomplete data returned to automated tools rather than what searchers saw. Sites with a sustained decline should review Google's spam policies before making broader content changes.
AlsoAsked data from 19.2M English queries showed 97% of People Also Ask answers in early September were AI Overviews, up from 86% in August and about 12% roughly 14 months earlier. Google also tested links at the bottom of AI Overviews that open AI Mode instead of a web page.
More of the SERP's question-driven real estate is generated, and some links now keep users inside Google's AI experience. That makes citation inside the answer the main visibility goal. Prioritize clear, quotable passages that answer the specific question, and track AI Overview citations alongside classic rankings for your key question queries.
On Sep 24, Google added a "Multimodal" search type to the Search Console Performance report, splitting Web results into Text-based and Multimodal. Multimodal covers searches triggered by an image, photo, or screenshot, including Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads, and Chrome's "Search this image." Query data is not available for the filter, and the data also appears in the Generative AI features report. Separately, Google added experimental CrUX ad metrics (ad count, density, and weight) to its page experience documentation, while John Mueller noted that "not everything is a direct search ranking factor."
This is new data, not reshuffled data, so teams get a first look at how much visibility comes from visual search. Add the Multimodal view to monthly reporting, export a baseline now, and check product, recipe, and visual-heavy pages first. Note any reporting shifts around the rollout date before drawing conclusions about trends.
Google is running an "AI Contribution Pilot" that pays a small set of publishers when their content "contributes significantly" to responses in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and the Gemini app. Payment is based on perceived value rather than raw usage, participants see an AI earnings widget in Search Console, and Google described it to Digiday as an "early-stage learning pilot." Days later, Google began testing "Dive deeper" in Discover, which opens an AI-generated topic overview with links to publisher articles instead of a single article.
Google is experimenting with value exchange for content beyond the click while also adding AI layers between users and publisher pages. Content teams should watch how Discover and AI surfaces report traffic, and focus on original reporting, data, and expertise that an AI answer would need to draw on, which is the type of content the pilot describes as qualifying.
AI
On Sep 16, OpenAI announced a test of Sponsored Agents with select US advertisers. After seeing a relevant ad, a user can opt into a clearly labeled conversation with a business's own AI agent, which can answer product questions, compare options, and link out to the brand's site, separate from ChatGPT's organic answers. HubSpot became the first integration partner, so teams can build campaigns and attribute leads from inside HubSpot, and a ChatGPT Ads app for Shopify lets US merchants run campaigns from their synced catalog, with international expansion starting Sep 23. Ads Manager now suggests copy and imagery from a landing page, and an opt-in setting adapts and translates headlines to the conversation.
This followed OpenAI's Aug 31 statement that ChatGPT Ads passed a $1B annualized run rate in under 200 days. ChatGPT ads are moving from a link-out placement toward a conversation the brand hosts. If your brand sells on Shopify or tracks pipeline in HubSpot, the setup cost for a test budget is now low. The bigger job is preparing a brand agent: product facts, comparison answers, and guardrails written so an AI can use them accurately.
OpenAI announced GPT-6 Astra on Sep 3 and rolled it out to Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users and the API over the following days, with computer use in ChatGPT nearly twice as fast. At DevDay on Sep 29, the company introduced Dots, Astra-powered agents that keep working toward goals after the user closes the tab, reachable through ChatGPT, Slack, and Teams. Per Reworked's recap, Dots can connect to more than 4,000 apps, alongside ChatGPT Space, a shared workspace for people and agents, an Agents API with computer use, and a $500 per month Pro tier.
The assistant is becoming a background worker. Recurring marketing work like competitor monitoring, review triage, weekly reporting, and feed QA is a good fit for persistent agents. Before handing any of it off, decide which tools an agent may touch and who reviews its output. Access currently depends on plan and market.
On Sep 16, Google published a set of agentic commerce updates for the holidays. AI performance insights in Merchant Center are now generally available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, showing a brand's share of voice against competitors across AI Mode and AI Overviews. US retailers can apply for a limited beta of Business Agent inside YouTube ads, which lets viewers ask product questions without leaving the ad, and Universal Commerce Protocol is adding cart transfer and checkout-flow testing. Google says merchants who adopt its core feed best practices see an average 5% conversion lift the following month.
For the first time, retailers get first-party Google data on how often they show up in AI answers relative to competitors. Pull that report before holiday budgets lock, and treat the product feed as AI-facing content: conversational attributes, video links, and loyalty perks all feed AI Mode recommendations. Google says lululemon's submitted attributes appeared in 50% of relevant AI Mode product recommendations in testing.
At Meta Connect on Sep 23, Meta expanded Muse, the AI agent it launched in early September. Muse can now search the full Shopify catalog and check out through Shop Pay, Link by Stripe, and PayPal, with new retail partners including Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora, Gap, and Wayfair. Zuckerberg said Meta plans to offer Muse free for a large number of tokens and earn revenue over time from small transaction fees, and Meta received more than 1,500 applications for developer-built connectors in under a week. On Sep 29, Meta launched Muse for Small Business, which connects to tools like Slack, Asana, and Zoom as well as Meta ad accounts and professional Facebook and Instagram profiles.
Meta is building an agent that can both find products and buy them, using a transaction model alongside its ads business. Brands on Shopify may become shoppable in Muse through their catalog, so product data quality matters here too. For smaller teams already spending on Meta, Muse for Small Business is worth testing as a campaign analysis assistant, with a human approving every change.
On Sep 16, Governor Newsom signed SB 1050, which requires an explicit disclosure when a video or audio ad uses an AI-generated performer to sell a product or service, and prohibits continuing to run an ad that violates the rule. WilmerHale's roundup of the month's California AI measures also lists SB 1111, which extends name, image, and likeness protections to AI digital replicas, SB 1000, which widens the California AI Transparency Act, and SB 1119, which adds protections for minors using companion chatbots.
Synthetic spokespeople and AI avatars are now common in paid social and CTV creative, and California is setting a disclosure standard national campaigns will likely adopt by default. Audit current and planned creative for AI-generated people, add a disclosure step to creative QA, and confirm likeness rights for any digital replica. The governor's release does not give an effective date.
Paid Media
At unBoxed in San Francisco (Sep 28-30), Amazon merged its Ads console and DSP into a single platform called Amazon Ads Agent, organized around three campaign types: Sponsored ads, DVA+ (display, video, and audio in one objective, one budget, one campaign), and a new Full-Funnel Campaigns product that lets AI handle channel mix, creative, and optimization. The "Amazon DSP" name is retired, though an advanced settings toggle keeps a traditional DSP-style setup, per AdExchanger. Amazon says Full-Funnel beta testers saw 67% higher long-term ROAS and 29% lower cost to acquire new-to-brand customers.
Retail media buying is moving from channel-by-channel setup to objective-in, plan-out automation, the same shift Google and Meta made over the past two years. Teams buying on Amazon should run Full-Funnel or DVA+ as a controlled test against existing structures, insist on new-to-brand and incrementality reporting rather than platform ROAS alone, and treat the beta figures as Amazon's own until independent results arrive.
On Sep 10, Amazon Ads opened a US pilot that lets select advertisers buy ChatGPT ad placements through Amazon DSP, paying per click or per thousand impressions, with Amazon managing campaigns and OpenAI's system deciding delivery. Four days later, Digiday reported OpenAI is testing a click-to-chat format that opens a conversation with a brand's AI agent instead of sending people to a website, and on Sep 23 ChatGPT Ads expanded to seven more Asian markets, reaching more than 60 countries.
ChatGPT is turning from an experiment into a line item that plugs into existing buying tools, which means it can sit inside the same planning, pacing, and reporting workflow as the rest of a DSP buy. Carve out a small, clearly measured test budget and define success metrics before launch: assisted conversions, branded search lift, and chat-to-purchase rate. Advertiser sentiment in Digiday's reporting is "still promising, still unproven," so keep it in the experimental bucket for now.
On Sep 10, Google rolled out a measurement package that integrates Data Manager into Google Analytics and DV360, brings enhanced conversions to both, makes the Data Manager API universal on the IAB Tech Lab's ECAPI standard, and adds a Data Strength Uplift metric in Google Ads. Google also made its Meridian GeoX geo-experiment library generally available, and says advertisers connecting offline and app data to Data Manager saw a 26% average increase in incremental ROAS. On Sep 25, Google added unhashed IP address and timestamp columns to Customer Match uploads (not available for users in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland).
As bidding automation expands, conversion data quality is one of the few levers advertisers still fully control. Check the new uplift metric once it appears, confirm enhanced conversions and offline imports are flowing, and use GeoX to validate platform-reported lift with a holdout test. The uplift figures are Google-calculated and largely reflect conversions that were already happening but went unmeasured.
On Sep 2, Judge Leonie Brinkema declined to order Google to divest its AdX exchange or DFP ad server, instead adopting most of the proposed behavioral remedies: making AdX real-time bids available to rival ad servers, dropping Unified Pricing Rules so publishers can set bidder-specific floors, and ending "first look" and "last look" advantages. Digiday reports the parties had 30 days to submit a proposed final judgment, and Google plans to appeal the liability ruling.
Day-to-day buying through Google's stack will not change overnight, but more interoperability and auction transparency could, over time, give programmatic buyers more pricing visibility and competitive supply paths. Watch the final judgment language, revisit supply path optimization as rival exchanges gain access to AdX demand, and avoid restructuring around the ruling until the appeal picture is clearer.
Meta launched its Creator Marketing Hub globally at IAB's first Global Creator Week, merging creator discovery, permissions, messaging, and Partnership Ad creation into one place. Facebook creators joined Instagram creators in the Creator Marketplace API, the AI business assistant now recommends creators via chat, and Partnership Ads can be built and managed through the Meta Ads MCP connector. Instagram Live video ads became generally available Sep 29, and Marketing Dive cites IAB data putting 2025 creator ad spend at $37 billion.
Creator content is becoming a standard paid input rather than a separate influencer line, wired into the same automation as the rest of Ads Manager. Build a repeatable pipeline: secure ad-use permissions when contracting creators, test Partnership Ads alongside brand-handle ads in the same campaigns, and track cost per result by creator so spend follows the content that works.
Reddit Roundup
The September spam update started Sep 24 and finished Oct 8 after almost 14 days, the longest spam rollout of the year, with most movement over the weekend of Sep 25-27, which Search Engine Roundtable called a "pretty heated" stretch. Google never named a tactic, but early analysis pointed to highly templated, programmatic, and likely AI-generated page sets, such as a page for every phone number or area code, and Roundtable noted it did not look like a link spam update. The consensus: wait for the rollout to finish before diagnosing, check thin, mass-produced templates first, and keep spam-update losses separate from normal ranking swings when reporting. Sources: Search Engine Roundtable Search Engine Roundtable
Google began moving Search campaigns with campaign-level broad match or legacy automatically created assets into AI Max on Sep 1, a phased migration through Sep 30. In an r/PPC thread covered by PPC Land, practitioners first worked out whether the notice even applied to them, and one called it essentially a rebrand. The more careful view: broad match campaigns mostly get relabeled, but ACA campaigns also get search term matching and text customization on by default, which changes the queries they can match. The consensus was to audit search terms closely, decide on purpose whether to keep search term matching on, and note that Dynamic Search Ads are not affected yet (their migration moved to February 2027). Sources: PPC Land Search Engine Roundtable
Meta One's four business tiers run from Essential at $14.99 to Advanced at $49.99, Expert at $149, and Max at $499 per month, each charged per Facebook Page, Instagram profile, or WhatsApp Business number. Clickable links in organic posts and Reels begin at Advanced, capped at 4 Instagram posts and 4 Reels per month, rising to 12 of each on Max. Social managers asked whether a long-requested feature is now paywalled and metered; Meta has not promised better distribution to subscribers, and no tier includes Ads Manager access or ad credits. Many concluded small brands are unlikely to go past Essential, mainly for verification, and that bio link pages, Stories, and DMs remain the main traffic drivers, with post links saved for a few high-value launches. Sources: Jon Loomer Digital Meta Help Center
Search Engine Roundtable reported on Sep 1 that the generative AI performance report and a new AI control had reached all sites worldwide. The report shows how often a site's URLs appeared in AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Discover AI features by page, country, date, and (for Search) device, but no clicks and no queries. SEOs welcomed first-party AI visibility data while noting impressions alone cannot show whether AI features send or absorb traffic. The new toggle lets sites opt out of being used as links or grounding in those features; the consensus was to benchmark AI impressions now and not opt out in a hurry, since AI citations given up could be hard to win back. Sources: Search Engine Roundtable
OpenAI said its ChatGPT ad business reached a $1 billion annualized run rate in under 200 days and opened self-serve Ads Manager to eligible advertisers in Europe, India, the Middle East, and North Africa. Ads appear below responses only for adult Free and Go users, and paid tiers stay ad-free. Paid search practitioners saw it as the first realistic chance for smaller advertisers to test conversational placements, while flagging that targeting is based on conversation context rather than keywords and that measurement is still maturing. The general view: worth a small, tightly tracked test budget, but not a reason to move core search spend yet. Sources: Campaign AI News
Creative & Brand
On Sep 22, McLaren revealed an evolved identity covering both McLaren Racing and McLaren Automotive. The new wordmark draws on the sign from the McLaren family's service station in Remuera, Auckland, with an underlined "c" as a nod to founder Bruce McLaren. Papaya stays as the core color, joined by an expanded palette pulled from moments in the team's history, and the Speedmark and Speedy Kiwi are retained. Coverage tied the system to McLaren's planned move into front-engined models, including its first SUV, and online reaction was mixed, with one viral post calling it the "Chanel-ification of McLaren," per Creative Boom.
This is a heritage-led refresh built to stretch across a wider product line, not just a logo swap. One shared system across business units makes expansion easier, but heritage cues need a clear story behind them at launch, or the conversation fills with comparisons you did not plan for. Write the origin story into the rollout, not just the press release.
On Sep 14, Novo Nordisk announced it will go by "Novo" day to day while keeping Novo Nordisk A/S as its legal name. The refresh keeps the Apis bull, in use since the 1920s, with a more contemporary treatment, and adds the tagline "Lasting health starts now." It arrives alongside an internal culture framework, "The Novo Way," built on customer obsession, competitiveness, clarity, and care and integrity. Trade coverage noted that competitor Eli Lilly increasingly goes by "Lilly" in its own marketing.
As pharma brands sell more directly to consumers, shorter, friendlier names are becoming a competitive tool. Pairing an external refresh with an internal culture framework is also worth noting, since brand changes stick better when employees have a reason to live them. If your brand name is long or formal, test whether a short everyday version would travel better in consumer channels.
On Sep 30, Runway introduced Runway Ads, an agent that generates video and image ads from brand guidelines, past ads, and product imagery, then publishes approved variants to Meta, Google, and TikTok and reads performance back to shape the next round. It handles localization, resizing across aspect ratios, an automated brand check, and budget guardrails, with human approval on by default. Adweek reports Lovable is the launch partner, and Runway says it has used the agent internally on campaigns tied to $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
AI video tools are moving from "make a clip" to running the full creative testing loop. Runway reports its own weekly ad volume rose from 77 to roughly 900 (vendor-reported, not independently verified). The opportunity is volume and faster iteration; the work that stays human is brand guardrails, approval rules, and deciding what a "winning" variant means for the business. Set those rules before turning on any automated publishing.
On Sep 24, Adobe announced that Photoshop, Lightroom, Express, and Firefly can now be used inside Google Gemini, rolling out globally on all Gemini plans. Users describe the outcome they want, such as cleaning up product photos or adapting one design into social-ready versions, and Adobe runs the steps. Adobe also expanded its Claude plugin to more than 80 tools, adding Acrobat for the first time plus a layer-based editor for adjusting images, copy, colors, and fonts in Express designs.
Creative production is starting where people already work, inside AI assistants, rather than only inside design apps. That lowers the barrier for non-designers to produce on-brand assets, which makes brand kits, approved templates, and clear usage rules more important than ever. Audit your templates in Express and similar tools so anything created through an assistant still starts from approved brand assets.
Social Media Updates
On Sep 15, Meta launched Meta One, a subscription for Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Meta AI. Plans start at $2.99 for single-app tiers, and creator and business bundles run from $14.99 (Essential) to $499 (Max), including a verified badge, links in organic posts and Reels (Advanced and up), automatic follow invitations, a bold follow button on Reels, and story scheduling up to 30 days ahead. Two days later, more Facebook Pages began seeing a cap of two link posts per month without a subscription.
Organic link distribution on Facebook was already small: link posts went from 9.8% of viewed content in 2022 to 1.3%. The cap makes this official and puts a price on it. Before paying, look at how much traffic Facebook link posts actually drive, then decide whether a Meta One tier is worth it for the badge, links, and scheduling tools, or whether to move traffic goals to link-in-comments, Stories, and paid placements.
On Sep 8, Australia confirmed plans for legislation that would require platforms to offer every user a following-only, chronological feed, with fines of up to $109.2 million for noncompliance. Adam Mosseri argued against the move on Sep 10, saying unranked feeds would be filled with posts from the most frequent posters, and on Sep 24 he published a video series explaining Instagram's four ranking principles: originality, recency, testing small creators with non-followers, and larger AI models.
Instagram rarely states its ranking priorities this plainly: original content beats reposts, recency counts, and engagement rate matters more than raw reach. Audit reposted or aggregated content, use Trial Reels to test formats with non-followers, and track engagement rate per post. Keep watching the Australian proposal too; if following-only feeds become a common default, follower base and repeat engagement will count for more.
At Made on YouTube on Sep 23, YouTube announced Custom Feeds, saved homepage tabs built around a viewer's interests, and Ask YouTube, a conversational search experience that can return organized product comparisons. Other announcements included Shorts series with seasons and episodes, a Gemini-powered editing assistant for Shorts, and likeness detection that will add speaking-voice detection alongside faces later this year.
Custom Feeds and Ask YouTube mean discovery will depend more on how clearly a video signals its topic and less on subscriber counts. Tighten titles, descriptions, chapters, and on-screen product details so conversational search can match and compare your videos. Brands with episodic Shorts concepts should get ready to package them as series.
LinkedIn began testing a Network tab that shows only posts from people a member is connected to or follows. The same week it replaced its AI post enhancement feature with Post Proofreader, a Premium tool that suggests tracked edits to a member's own draft instead of rewriting it. This follows LinkedIn's AI slop reporting option, used by more than one million members since its August rollout, on both posts and comments.
LinkedIn is steering distribution toward real relationships and away from generic AI output. Earlier alternative feed tests never launched widely, so the Network tab may not ship, but the signals all point the same way: executive and employee voices with active networks will carry further than polished brand posts. Invest in personal profiles, write in a recognizably human voice, and build real connections rather than engagement-pod activity.
TikTok added voice comments (up to 60 seconds, with translated text), creator-run comment polls with up to five options, and photo comments with up to nine images. Threads expanded its podcast toolkit with profile banners, episode cards, and Podcast Insights. Instagram now lets creators boost livestreams directly from the live composer, and Meta opened live video ads that let brands sponsor a creator's stream.
Comment sections and live broadcasts are getting richer, and platforms reward the engagement they generate. Use TikTok comment polls to gather audience feedback on new products or content ideas, use Threads podcast cards if you publish audio, and plan Instagram Live moments, such as launches and Q&As, with a scheduled boost (Instagram suggests at least two hours ahead).
Email & Deliverability
At its K:BOS conference in Boston on Sep 9, Klaviyo announced it is going "headless", making 260+ MCP tools and 490+ APIs available now from Claude, ChatGPT, or other AI systems. Marketers can run Klaviyo work from inside those tools, and agents can read, write, and launch on their own. The release also adds plain-language SQL in the Klaviyo Data Platform (preview), renames Marketing Analytics to "Personalization," expands Composer with scheduled tasks and saved team workflows, and extends Customer Agent to 100+ languages, with voice coming soon.
Email and SMS execution is moving out of the ESP interface and into whatever AI workspace a team already uses. Decide now which actions an agent may take on its own (drafting, segment edits, sends) versus which need human approval, and tighten brand, consent, and QA guardrails before connecting agents to live sending.
Google's Gmail Verified Sender Program opened to eligible US political committees on Sep 8, ahead of the midterms, as Engadget reported. Committees verify their sending domain through Campaign Verify, set up SPF and DKIM, register a verified Postmaster Tools account, and keep user-reported spam under 0.3% on a 14-day average. Google says enrollment does not guarantee the inbox: mail still goes to spam if recipients report or block it.
Political mail volume in Gmail inboxes is likely to rise through November, which means more competition for attention in the run-up to the holidays. The bigger signal for every sender is that Google's bar for "trusted" is authentication plus low complaints. Check your own Postmaster Tools spam rate, keep it well under 0.3% (Google's general guidance is under 0.1%), and make unsubscribing easy.
On Sep 3, Validity launched Heatwave, a blocklist that flags domains using "synthetic warming": automated networks of controlled mailboxes that trade fake opens, clicks, and replies to make new domains look trustworthy. Validity says it has already listed more than 1 million domains, and that Comcast, Proofpoint, Spamhaus, and SURBL are using or evaluating it. It is mirrored into Validity's existing DNS reputation zones and searchable at lookup.validity.tools.
Mailbox providers and ESPs now have a dedicated signal for reputation that was manufactured rather than earned. Warming can run through subcontractors or tools without a brand realizing it, so audit any outbound or warmup services tied to your domains, look up your primary domain, and build reputation the slow way: real opt-ins, gradual volume, and engaged recipients.
On Sep 29, Braze announced four AI launches, all in beta: Decisioning Studio Go, self-service AI decisioning agents Braze says can test more than one billion combinations at once (GA expected Oct 14); Agentic Standards, an AI review layer that checks campaign setup, copy, links, personalization logic, and compliance before sends (GA expected in October); Operator Connect, which brings Braze into Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot; and Conversational Agents for two-way chats across WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, and web.
Alongside Klaviyo's headless move, this shows the major ESPs converging on the same model: agents that decide, build, and check messages, reachable from outside the platform. Automated pre-send QA is the practical win for most teams. Pair it with clear rules on who approves agent-built campaigns, and start small with one lifecycle program before handing decisioning more of the calendar.
Campaign Spotlight + Cool Stat
September Campaign Spotlight
Wayfair introduced Wayfair Delivers, a long-term brand platform built around value and trusted service, timed to the NFL season. The lead 30-second spot stars Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, his wife Kelly, and their four daughters, debuted during "Monday Night Football" on ABC and ESPN, and runs across linear TV, CTV, and social. Wayfair is putting five times its previous ad investment into football-airing networks and is also sponsoring and decorating the set of CBS Sports' Sunday pregame show. The work was made in-house with Paramount's branded content studio.
Wayfair is pairing a values-based message (value, service, vetted products via "Wayfair Verified," and its "Wayfair Rewards" loyalty program) with one of the few remaining reliable mass-reach environments in live sports, and a real family in a real home makes a home-goods message feel lived-in rather than staged. When launching a long-term platform, anchor it in a recurring cultural moment and own a physical piece of the experience, like a set, so the brand shows up beyond the ad break.
M&M's rolled out "Screentime," three 15-second spots that drop its spokescandies into familiar TV and film genres: a crime thriller, a telenovela, and a "Survivor"-style reality competition. In each, the joke lands the same way: the characters realize they are the snack. Every spot closes on the couch with the tagline "It's more fun together," extending the brand's platform launched last year, across broadcast, full-episode player video, programmatic, and social.
Genre parody gives viewers an instant frame of reference, so a 15-second spot can set up and pay off a joke without explanation. The short format fits the streaming and social placements where attention is shortest, and the consistent end card builds memory structure across three different stories. A long-running mascot cast can stay fresh by changing the setting, not the characters, and a repeatable punchline makes a series easy to extend.
