Retail media is booming—and Costco just made a strategic move to keep pace. The membership retail giant has selected GrowthLoop to help accelerate its retail media business, tapping the company’s Compound Marketing Engine to improve audience creation, personalization, and campaign performance.

For Costco, the deal is about speed and scale. GrowthLoop’s platform lets marketers build audiences directly from the data cloud, iterate campaigns faster, and maintain the privacy and governance standards that matter to a member-driven business. In practice, that means advertisers on Costco’s retail media network can deliver more relevant messages while Costco sharpens the value it delivers to its 130M+ members.

Turning Data Into Action

Retail media is now a multibillion-dollar category, with players like Walmart, Kroger, and Amazon setting a fast pace. Costco’s adoption of GrowthLoop signals it’s serious about competing. The Compound Marketing Engine essentially gives Costco a centralized hub for retail media operations, letting its team streamline workflows and give advertisers clearer access to audience targeting and measurement.

GrowthLoop positions itself as a bridge between the data cloud and activation layers—helping marketers collapse marketing cycles from months to days. For Costco, that could mean moving from static, batch-based campaigns to real-time personalization at scale.

Chris O’Neill, GrowthLoop CEO, called the partnership a milestone:

“Costco’s commitment to its members is second to none, and we’re grateful to be part of their continued innovation in retail media and marketing.”

The timing is key. Retail media is forecasted to surpass $150 billion in U.S. ad spend by 2026, outpacing TV and traditional digital. For Costco, which has historically relied on its membership model more than ad revenue, this partnership shows intent to monetize its massive member base while keeping customer trust intact.

Unlike open-web advertising, retail media offers highly contextual, first-party data environments—something marketers crave as cookies fade away. Costco’s move to embed GrowthLoop’s engine puts it in the same conversation as other retail media heavyweights, though its value proposition is unique: affluent, loyal members who already trust the brand.

For advertisers, this could mean more precise campaigns running across Costco’s retail media channels with faster iteration cycles and richer personalization. For Costco, it’s an infrastructure play that turns its retail media ambitions into a scalable growth engine.

Whether Costco can catch up to Walmart Connect or Amazon Ads is still a question, but with GrowthLoop under the hood, it’s clearly positioning retail media as a strategic growth driver, not a side hustle.

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For years, advertisers have struggled with a familiar disconnect: creative teams focus on storytelling, while media buyers obsess over performance metrics. Clinch wants to close that gap.

The company, known for its Agentic AI platform for omnichannel advertising, has announced a first-to-market dynamic creative optimization (DCO) strategy that feeds media performance data directly into creative workflows within its Flight Control platform. The result: advertisers can now optimize creative not just by guesswork or surface-level engagement, but by hard business outcomes.

Creative Meets Media in Real Time

Clinch’s new feature expands on its existing ability to ingest external data like offline conversions. Now, it supports third-party aggregated performance data from media partners—think signals from The Trade Desk or other DSPs—pushed directly into Flight Control’s optimization engine.

Inside Flight Control’s Campaign Insights dashboard, those enriched data streams are visualized alongside creative performance metrics, offering advertisers a unified view of what’s actually working across channels and media partners.

CEO and co-founder Oz Etzioni framed it as a necessary evolution:

“By bridging the gap between external media performance and creative insights, we’re giving marketers unprecedented options to control driving outcomes and visibility into what’s truly working and what is not.”

The pitch is clear: Clinch wants to be the only platform that fuses creative and media data into one real-time feedback loop.

Early Proof: Genesis USA and Canvas Worldwide

Clinch says the innovation is already in-market. Genesis USA, working with its agency Canvas Worldwide, tapped the system to move beyond traditional video metrics like CTR and VCR. Instead, they optimized dynamic video creative toward post-exposure search engagement—a mid-funnel signal of intent—using external data from The Trade Desk.

According to Marisa Corvallis, VP and Director of Performance Strategy at Canvas Worldwide:

“We were able to optimize our video strategy in real time based on key intent signals, ultimately delivering more efficient business outcomes.”

That’s a glimpse of how Clinch wants brands to think: don’t just measure impressions or clicks, measure the signals that actually predict conversions.

Dynamic creative optimization isn’t new, but tying it directly to media performance data is. Traditionally, media and creative have operated in parallel silos, with optimization loops limited to clicks, view-through rates, or offline lift studies delivered long after campaigns ended. Clinch’s move brings automation and unification into the workflow, effectively making creative a performance lever, not just a narrative device.

In an era where CMOs are under pressure to prove ROI, that kind of integration could reshape how brands value creative. Instead of “the art department’s domain,” creative becomes a measurable, real-time driver of business results.

Redefining Creative’s Role in Performance Marketing

Flight Control has already built its reputation as a workflow efficiency machine, thanks to integrations across a broad ecosystem of media partners. Now, with this update, Clinch is staking a claim to redefine creative’s role in performance marketing: not just storytelling, but storytelling optimized by the same data signals that drive ad spend decisions.

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In the crowded world of healthcare marketing, timing and context can make or break engagement with physicians. Doceree, the AI-powered operating system for healthcare marketing, is aiming to solve that with its latest innovation: Premium Programmatic.

The platform is designed to reach healthcare professionals (HCPs) precisely when they are consuming clinical content—reading journals, researching treatment options, or exploring new clinical insights. According to Doceree, this is the moment when physicians are most receptive to information and shaping their prescribing opinions.

Precision Meets Scale

Unlike traditional programmatic solutions, Premium Programmatic combines scale, clinical relevance, and innovative formats. Doceree’s platform now allows life sciences marketers to deliver brand messages at the exact moment physicians are searching for answers, making impressions more meaningful and actionable.

Founder and Global CEO Harshit Jain framed it as a leap forward:

“Premium Programmatic brings precision, personalization, and context to every impression. We're meeting HCPs at the point of intellectual curiosity—when they're most receptive to information—with unmatched relevance, reach, and responsibility.”

He added that the platform solves a common challenge in healthcare marketing: the limitations of large, inflexible endemic platforms. Premium Programmatic offers a more interconnected, agile, and intelligent ecosystem, where every impression is contextually relevant, identity-verified, and optimized for format.

Premium Programmatic is purpose-built for how physicians think, search, and learn, offering three main advantages:

1. More Reach

• Largest verified HCP network with 6M+ authenticated professionals across 45+ specialties

• Integration with 2,000+ specialist medical platforms, including journals, news portals, educational sites, and physician communities

2. More Context

• 7M+ clinical terms mapped via Doceree’s patented MeSH-based taxonomy

• Real-time contextual targeting ensures brand messages appear only alongside relevant medical content

• Deterministic NPI-based identity matching enhanced with device/IP data and specialty-level filters

3. More Formats

• Beyond display: programmatic delivery of sponsored scientific articles, branded case studies, CME partnerships, and expert-driven features

• Formats optimized for physician learning, turning marketing impressions into meaningful medical dialogues

• Integrated AI-powered sales rep coming soon, providing HCPs round-the-clock access to personalized content

Healthcare marketing is increasingly moving toward precision, personalization, and accountability. While broader programmatic platforms often struggle with relevance or verification, Doceree’s solution ties every impression to verified HCP identities and clinical context, reducing wasted spend and improving engagement.

The platform also signals a larger industry trend: life sciences marketers are shifting from generic display campaigns to content-driven, educational formats that support real medical decisions—an approach likely to improve both ROI and physician trust.

For brands, the implications are clear: targeted programmatic campaigns can now reach physicians at the point of learning, not just while scrolling a generic site, turning advertising into actionable clinical dialogue.

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ZINFI Technologies, a leader in Unified Partner Management (UPM) solutions, has successfully completed a SOC 2 Type 2 audit for its UPM platform, underscoring the company’s commitment to security, compliance, and operational reliability.

Conducted by Sensiba LLP, the independent audit verified that ZINFI’s internal controls and operational processes meet the stringent standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The final report issued a clean opinion with no exceptions, confirming the platform’s robustness and reliability.

Security and Compliance at the Core

The SOC 2 Type 2 certification evaluates operational effectiveness of internal controls over a defined period, focusing on security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. For ZINFI, this audit validates the safeguards and processes protecting sensitive partner and client data across its Unified Partner Management ecosystem.

Founder and CEO Sugata Sanyal commented:

“The successful SOC 2 Type 2 audit is a testament to our strict security measures and dedication to maintaining the highest levels of compliance. This enhances our platform’s security posture and supports our customers’ regulatory requirements.”

ZINFI’s UPM platform allows businesses to manage the entire partner lifecycle, from recruitment to sales and ongoing success—making compliance and security particularly critical in channel-driven environments.

Customer Assurance and Trial Access

To provide transparency, ZINFI makes the SOC 2 Type 2 report available to potential and existing customers under NDA. Additionally, prospective users can experience the platform through a 30-day free trial, which requires no credit card and offers access to ZINFI’s full UPM automation suite.

This approach not only demonstrates confidence in the platform but also allows potential clients to validate its capabilities firsthand before purchase—a critical differentiator in the competitive channel management space.

Industry Context

In the broader UPM and partner marketing industry, security and compliance are increasingly vital. As organizations rely on partner ecosystems to drive sales and customer engagement, platforms that combine automation with verified security controls gain a competitive edge. By achieving SOC 2 Type 2 certification, ZINFI aligns itself with top-tier providers and sets a benchmark for trustworthiness in the channel management sector.

Sensiba LLP, the audit firm, is recognized globally for accounting, tax, risk assurance, and consulting services. Its SOC 2 Type 2 assessment reinforces ZINFI’s credibility among enterprise clients, particularly those with strict regulatory and data governance requirements.

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Understanding human behavior in the workplace has long relied on frameworks like MBTI® and DiSC®, but those tools capture only snapshots of personality. WethosAI, the Organizational Empowerment & Performance Platform, is raising the bar with its new Artificial Individual Intelligence (Aii™)—an AI-powered system that continuously maps and analyzes employee behavior, communication styles, and decision-making patterns in real time.

The goal: give organizations an unprecedented “mirror and lens” to understand, align, and optimize human performance at scale.

Beyond Legacy Behavioral Frameworks

Powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and advanced analytics, WethosAI now synthesizes insights from traditional personality frameworks with ongoing behavioral data from daily interactions. CEO Stuart McClure emphasizes that this is more than personality profiling:

“We are delivering the world’s first true Artificial Individual Intelligence (Aii). It’s not just about understanding personality; it’s about providing a dynamic, evolving ‘mirror’ that reflects individual traits and biases in real-time context, enabling unparalleled agility and strategic responsiveness.”

Board member CeCe Morken notes that such intelligence can be transformational:

“WethosAI’s always on-demand coaching and actionable insights create alignment, enabling teams to collaborate effectively, adapt quickly, and deliver results. In today’s hybrid and virtual environments, that combination of alignment, trust, and inclusive leadership isn’t just a competitive advantage—it’s essential.”

1. Artificial Individual Intelligence (Aii™)
Aii™ synthesizes behavioral preferences, communication styles, and decision-making patterns into a multi-layered profile, providing prescriptive guidance far beyond traditional assessments.

2. Dynamic “Mirror & Lens”
Unlike point-in-time evaluations, WethosAI continuously updates its insights. By combining Wethos Styles with MBTI®, DiSC®, and real-world interaction data, leaders gain a comprehensive behavioral blueprint for coaching, team formation, and talent deployment.

3. Agility in an AI-Driven World
WethosAI enables organizations to anticipate friction, leverage strengths, and mitigate biases—essential in an era where AI is reshaping roles and workflows. Decision-making becomes faster and more informed, fostering responsive, high-performing teams.

4. Context-Aware Coaching
The platform tailors guidance to each situation, ensuring that coaching is actionable and directly relevant to both individuals and teams.

As AI reshapes the workplace, human capital insights are becoming as critical as technical capabilities. WethosAI’s approach bridges the gap between behavioral science and actionable AI intelligence, allowing leaders to optimize team performance, improve alignment, and drive measurable outcomes.

For enterprises looking to future-proof their workforce, Aii™ offers a competitive advantage: a system that continuously adapts to both human behavior and organizational needs, turning insights into strategy.

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The NFL isn’t just a football spectacle—it’s still TV advertising’s most powerful stage, according to EDO’s third annual NFL TV Outcomes Report. The study analyzed every national TV ad across the 2024–25 season to identify which creative strategies, categories, and media placements drove measurable consumer response.

“In conversations with CMOs and media directors, I’ve arrived at an undeniable conclusion: the NFL remains the ultimate platform for brand engagement at scale,” said Laura Grover, SVP, Head of Client Solutions at EDO.

NFL Ads Outperform Traditional TV

EDO’s report confirms the league’s unmatched influence on consumer engagement:

• TV Impact vs. Average: One NFL ad during the 2024 regular season generated the same impact as 23 standard TV ads, with 19% higher effectiveness during the regular season, 63% during playoffs, and a whopping 243% for the Super Bowl. The league drives an estimated $5.2 billion per year in national TV ad spend.

• Streaming Boosts Engagement: Streaming-exclusive NFL broadcasts outperformed traditional TV by 66%, with highlights including Amazon’s Black Friday game, Peacock’s Week 1 Brazil broadcast, and Netflix’s Christmas slate.

Winning Categories and Standout Advertisers

Not all industries benefit equally from NFL airtime. The report found:

• Restaurants (+69%), Luxury Auto (+42%), and Finance (+27%) brands delivered the strongest engagement during the regular season.

• Solo Stove led the pack, outperforming the league average by 1,403%, making it the season’s most effective advertiser.

NFL players themselves also proved valuable in driving results: ads featuring stars were 13% more likely to generate engagement. Davante Adams’ Taco Bell spots outperformed the average NFL ad by 124%, while Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce drove standout outcomes for State Farm and Subway.

Strategic Insights for Marketers

The report, introduced by Gina Reduto, EVP of Strategy, Advertising & Partnerships at NBCUniversal, positions the NFL as convergent TV’s crown jewel. Reduto notes that evolving formats and streaming options create new ways for brands to connect with highly engaged viewers.

EDO’s NFL TV Outcomes Report also covers:

• Super Bowl LIX performance and engagement trends

• Regional and demographic analysis of ad effectiveness

• Top-performing categories and creative strategies

For marketers planning campaigns ahead of the NFL Kickoff on September 4, 2025, on NBC and Peacock, these insights offer actionable guidance on maximizing ROI and engagement on the nation’s most-watched sports stage.

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Procedureflow, a leading knowledge management platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Laivly, an AI solutions provider for contact centers. The collaboration merges Procedureflow’s visual guidance capabilities with Laivly’s AI intelligence to help agents deliver faster, more accurate, and consistent customer support across all channels.

“Partnering with Laivly allows us to offer agents additional tools and insights to better serve customers,” said Dan Keddy, VP Partner Sales and Channel Management at Procedureflow. “Together, we can help contact centers operate more efficiently and elevate service quality across industries like Retail, BFSI, Hospitality, and Healthcare.”

How the Partnership Works

Procedureflow’s platform guides contact center teams through complex workflows, reducing errors and streamlining processes. Features like Power Shapes allow automation to be embedded directly into processes, while task automation handles CRM updates, ticket creation, and other repetitive tasks—freeing employees to focus on higher-impact work.

Additional tools include:

• Built-in calculators for instant eligibility, payment, or balance determinations

• Display tables that sync data across systems, keeping agents informed without switching platforms

• Visual guidance combined with AI-driven insights to ensure consistent, accurate interactions

Laivly’s AI complements Procedureflow by providing intelligent automation that enhances decision-making and process adherence, enabling agents to respond quickly and consistently to customer needs.

Implications for Contact Centers

By integrating AI with knowledge management, organizations can establish a reliable foundation for AI adoption in customer support environments. Accuracy, accessibility, and actionable insights are critical for industries like BFSI and Healthcare, where compliance and regulatory requirements demand consistent processes.

This partnership reflects the broader industry trend of combining AI with human-centric workflows. Contact centers that adopt integrated solutions like Procedureflow and Laivly can improve operational efficiency, reduce errors, and enhance the overall customer experience—all while keeping employees at the center of the process.

As customer expectations continue to rise, the collaboration underscores a commitment to providing solutions that make customer support faster, smarter, and more reliable.

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When enterprise buyers shop, they don’t just want speed—they want scale, personalization, and procurement rules followed to the letter. At VTEX Vision 2025, the NYSE-listed commerce platform made its case as the backbone of modern connected commerce with a hefty lineup of new B2B features, fresh omnichannel capabilities, and its boldest play yet: an AI-powered workforce designed to automate enterprise operations.

The timing is spot-on. As digital commerce accelerates, enterprises are under pressure to cut costs, unify siloed systems, and deliver personalized experiences that rival consumer-grade platforms. VTEX’s pitch? A single platform that can do it all.

B2B Commerce Gets Its Own Playbook

Unlike consumer retail, B2B commerce isn’t about quick conversions—it’s about navigating approval hierarchies, budget controls, and bulk orders without breaking workflows. VTEX is doubling down on this complexity with new enterprise-grade tools:

• Personalized catalogs, pricing, and payments per buyer for tailored procurement.

• Buyer org management with branch structures, role-based access, and policy enforcement.

• Approval workflows that automate procurement compliance.

• Quick order tools & SKU matrix support for high-volume repeat purchases.

• Punchout integrations to plug directly into corporate procurement systems.

That’s not a shiny add-on—it’s infrastructure. According to B2B analyst Andy Hoar’s B2B Paradigm 2025 report, VTEX outscored rivals in Total Cost of Ownership and Marketplace capabilities. Translation: they’re not just keeping pace—they’re setting the bar.

Omnichannel Finally Feels Seamless

Retailers have long chased the dream of omnichannel, but reality often looks like a patchwork of siloed inventory and delayed delivery promises. VTEX is trying to fix that by giving brands a more intelligent backbone. New features include:

• AI semantic search & recommendations for personalized discovery.

• Unified inventory across B2C, B2B, marketplaces, and physical stores.

• Multi-seller carts that merge items from first-party, third-party, and in-store stock.

• Delivery Promise & cross-channel fulfillment, streamlining BOPIS and Ship-from-Store.

If this sounds like a direct challenge to the likes of Salesforce Commerce Cloud or Adobe Commerce, it is. Where rivals emphasize marketing-first, VTEX is making the supply chain sexy—because without operational accuracy, personalization is just window dressing.

Meet the “Agentic AI” Workforce

The flashiest part of Vision 2025 was VTEX’s first wave of AI agents—digital specialists designed to automate enterprise bottlenecks. This isn’t just chatbot 2.0; it’s a step toward an “agentic commerce” future where infrastructure thinks on its own.

• Customer Service Agent: Already in action at UNICEF and Cencosud, resolving 92% of support tickets autonomously and slashing average handle time from hours to minutes.

• Visual Editor Agent: Coming soon, it will let teams update storefronts using natural language or even a Figma file—no devs required.

• Data Insights Agent: Real-time performance data delivered in plain English, minus the dashboards and SQL queries.

If these land as promised, enterprises may finally shift from reactive firefighting to proactive growth strategies. In other words, AI becomes less about novelty and more about ROI.

Enterprise commerce is in a high-stakes transition. Companies are juggling global supply chains, buyer demands for personalization, and mounting pressure to prove ROI on every investment. VTEX is betting that one platform for B2B, B2C, marketplaces, and AI-driven operations is the answer.

Mariano Gomide de Faria, VTEX’s co-founder and co-CEO, summed it up bluntly: “Flexibility, transparency, and real-time adaptability will define the next generation of enterprise leaders. Anything else will be left behind.”

It’s a bold claim—but with AI agents running support, procurement running smoothly across continents, and omnichannel finally resembling the seamless vision brands were promised a decade ago, VTEX may have just raised the stakes for its rivals.

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