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A study conducted by Rival Technologies in July 2026, covering 903 Gen Z consumers in the U.S. and Canada, shows that only 11% of respondents believe brands understand them "very well." The proportion of consumers who feel understood and are unconditionally loyal to a brand (45%) is about nine times that of those who feel misunderstood (5%). The study also found that 64.5% of respondents hold negative attitudes such as "indifferent" or "I don't care" toward brand messaging; price and value (82%) and product quality (80%) are the most important factors influencing loyalty, while influencer recommendations were mentioned by only 9% of respondents, ranking last.

On August 24, 2026, ContinuumGlobal announced that its Smart Marketing Engine™ platform has added Figma-to-HTML capabilities, reducing email coding time by 66% and significantly accelerating the design-to-deployment process. This capability is already in production at a Fortune 10 technology company and is now available to all Smart Marketing Engine™ customers.

Informa TechTarget announced the launch of the B2B AI Authority Index on August 25, 2026, aimed at helping B2B marketers assess and improve brand influence in AI-mediated buying journeys. The index is based on 24 questions, identifies brand strengths and weaknesses, and categorizes brands into four archetypes. According to Forrester data, 94% of B2B buyers already use AI tools in their research process.

A new study by Rival Technologies found that Gen Z's trust in AI companies, influencers, and social media ranks lowest among 14 types of institutions. Trust in AI companies is only 24%, influencers 31%, and social media 33%. In comparison, trust in healthcare institutions reaches 79%. The study also shows that Canadian Gen Z's trust in AI companies is only half that of their American counterparts (14% vs 33%).

Kate's Real Food has selected Pinnacle Advertising as its new agency of record to drive growth in the brand's DTC channel and strengthen retail and Amazon operations. Pinnacle will lead integrated marketing services including strategic planning, creative development, full-funnel media, website optimization, and social media.

MERGE acquires Brado's insights and digital business, combining qualitative research with digital performance capabilities, including generative engine optimization, to build the industry's most complete human-centric growth engine. This move responds to the trend of patient digital decision-making revealed in the 2026 EY report, strengthening the application of the Humanity Suite in the AI era.

FouAnalytics, an independent digital advertising, website, and mobile app analytics and verification platform, announced on September 1, 2026, the public release of the "Digital Media Governance, Verification, Transparency, and Brand Safety MSA Template" (Master Services Agreement Boilerplate). The template provides advertisers and procurement teams with a contractual framework requiring directly observed delivery-level analytical evidence as the basis for media delivery, quality, and billability. The template adopts a "measurement-first" billing model and clearly distinguishes between measurement gaps and measurement discrepancies. FouAnalytics CEO Dr. Augustine Fou stated that advertisers should not rely solely on dashboards, invoices, or aggregate scores to judge the effectiveness of media investments.

VG Health by ViralGains has received the Fierce AI Innovation Award. The solution uses zero-party data and VoiceAlike® AI technology to help pharmaceutical and healthcare marketers precisely reach patients, enhance media efficiency, and achieve significant growth in commercial outcomes.