Blueprint — page 21 | The Gradient

Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

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Paramount, Warner, and the Price of Consolidation

Are junior creative roles really disappearing?

A UK government review published recently revealed one million 16-24 year olds are out of work, with ministers warning of a “lost generation” of talent. In the creative industry it has been widely reported that entry level roles are disappearing. The annual IPA Agency Consensus showed a drop from 56% to just 43.4% in the

Google Analytics Is Adding Google Business Profile Data

Google has published documentation for a native link between Google Business Profile and Google Analytics, bringing local metrics like calls and direction requests into Analytics reports. The link may not appear in every Analytics account yet. What Shows Up In Analytics Once a profile is linked, a Google Business Profile section appears in your reports.

Brands want to be in and out of the closet for Pride Month

It’s Pride Month, and we’re seeing Schrodinger’s marketing, as brands try to be both in and out of the closet with their support of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s no secret that since the 2024 presidential election, corporate support for the 31 million Americans in this community has dropped faster than a disco ball on New

Google Tests AI Search Data, UK Requires Opt Out

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect how you measure AI search visibility, whether you can opt out of it, and how the completed core update reshaped rankings. Here’s what matters for you and your work. Google Adds AI Search Controls And Reports To Search Console Google is testing two new Search Console features for

How agencies are betting on entertainment to survive

Chris Hassell launched Ralph in 2010 wanting to make cool things and get paid for it. Fifteen years of running an independent shop in advertising made that harder than it sounds. Now he thinks he’s found a way through. The way Hassell sees it, entertainment is the one part of the creative business that can’t

Mark your calendars for New Designers 2026

One such graduate, who embodies both the contemporary creative dialogue and New Designers’ progressive approach, is Ella Blow, who studied Textiles at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. Her project, Interwoven, took to reclaiming second-hand, deadstock or found materials and transforming them into interlocking patterns that contrast geometric forms and floral ones. For Ella,

Google’s May Core Update Favored Pages That Match Intent

An analysis of SISTRIX visibility data by Aleyda Solis found a pattern in the final days of Google’s May core update. Sites that best fit a query’s intent, market, and result type tended to gain visibility, while sites a step removed from that fit lost ground. She measured domain visibility in the US and UK

MS NOW Has Demo Growth in Primetime and Total Day

This is TVNewser’s basic cable network ranker and cable news report for the week of May 25, 2026. All three cable news networks came out of the Memorial Day Holiday weekend with some semblance of good news. However, it was MS NOW that finished the week on a better footing, as it was the only

I take back everything I said about the PS5 DualSense controller – especially now it’s 30% off

Look, April 2020 was a strange time. Unprecedented, you might say. Emotions were high. But I’m sorry for slagging off Sony‘s new DualSense controller based on looks alone. Now that, six years later, I’ve actually held the thing, I take it all back. This week I was persuaded, for the first time in over a

Google Launches Search Profiles For Creators With 100K Followers

Google is launching Search profiles, giving creators a page to pull their content together from different platforms. The profiles show articles, videos, and social posts in one place. People can follow their favorite websites and creators to see more of their content in Google Discover. What Search Profiles Include Creators can customize their profile with

AI agents can’t help if they can’t see your marketing data

Ask any paid search manager who has tried to get an AI agent to do something genuinely useful with a Google Ads account and you will hear a version of the same story. They exported performance data, pasted it into a chat window, got a solid answer, and then did the exact same thing the

XTREME PETS THERAPIST

Welcome, design enthusiasts! My team and I designed all these characters for a gaming app called “Xtreme Pets Therapist” where pets piloting mechs battle with their steel fists in the championship arena… As an Xtreme Pet Therapist, your role is to help them process their emotions and perform at their best in battle. Help your

The Real Reason Organizations Struggle to Build Brand Trust

Brand trust isn’t built through endless content. Travis Claytor explains how emotionally connected, integrated marketing will set you apart. The post The Real Reason Organizations Struggle to Build Brand Trust first appeared on Spin Sucks.

Why Users Are Fleeing To AI-Free Search & What It Means For SEO

At Google I/O last month, the SEO industry waited for Google to launch AI Mode to the masses, and the fatalist viewpoint that it will end SEO. For the past couple of years, AI has been moving search through a structural shift. Every software tool is embedding generative AI as a new product feature for

Publishers remain skeptical of Perplexity’s “trust” pitch

This week’s Media Briefing dives into Perplexity’s uphill battle to rebuild publisher trust while fending off a growing list of copyright lawsuits. The words “trust” and “trustworthiness” came up at least a dozen times during a presentation by Perplexity’s head of publisher partnerships, Jessica Chan, at an IAB Tech Lab event last Thursday. And yet,

Murugiah on why you should make art about things you love

What has Murugiah, the multi-disciplinary British and Sri-Lankan artist, not done? He’s an artist, illustrator and designer in London, and his recent talk on May’s Nicer Tuesdays stage took us through just about everything he’s done with his boundless imagination, from exhibitions to film posters to even watches. Driven by an admiration for his older

Google’s May Core Update Complete After Volatile Rollout

Google’s May core update is now complete. The company confirmed the completion on June 2 on the Search Status Dashboard. The update started May 21 at 8:40 AM PDT and ended June 2 at 5:40 AM PDT, for a rollout of 11 days and 21 hours. That’s close to the March core update, which finished

Apple Turns Rival Browsers’ Trackers Into Creepy Chrome Stalkers

Apple is continuing its long-running privacy crusade by taking aim at the data trackers common on many web browsers. The tech giant launched a global campaign on Tuesday, “Clingers,” that uses absurdist humor to contrast the vast system of online tracking with its browser Safari’s privacy features. The ad dramatizes online trackers as an unsettling

Those Toy Story 5 plagiarism accusations explained

The hype around Toy Story 5 is huge. Just when we thought Pixar’s longest-running franchise might be growing tired, we get the announcement of a Taylor Swift Toy Story song and the unveiling of a new character to be voiced by none other than Bad Bunny, fresh from his Super Bowl performance. Alas, the reggaeton

What Is The Agentic Web?

The agentic web is the layer of the internet where AI agents, acting on behalf of humans, discover, read, and transact with websites. It exists alongside the human web and is measured separately. For most of the internet’s history, three classes of visitor showed up at a website: humans, search engine crawlers, and robots running

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