Yext, Inc., the brand visibility platform, has released a new global report, The Rise of AI Search Archetypes, exploring how AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are reshaping consumer search behavior and trust.

Based on a survey of 2,237 consumers across the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany, the report highlights that:

• 62% of consumers now trust AI to help them choose brands — equaling traditional search engines.

• 43% use AI tools daily or more, showing how AI is becoming part of routine digital behavior.

• 75% report using new search tools more today than a year ago.

• 68% have used ChatGPT for local product/service research, yet only 19% trust AI more than traditional engines for local results.

• Generational breakdowns show Gen Z uses AI for brainstorming, Millennials lead in cross-platform research, and Boomers remain loyal to traditional search tools.

“Consumers are using AI tools to make real decisions. If your brand data isn’t structured and optimized for AI, you risk becoming invisible,” said Mark Kabana, VP of Data Innovation at Yext.

The report provides actionable insights for marketers to enhance their visibility across AI-powered platforms and maintain brand consistency in an evolving digital ecosystem.

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2025 Sammy Awards Spotlight the Brilliant Fusion of Tech and Creativity in Sales & Marketing

When strategy meets storytelling, real marketing magic happens—and the 2025 Sammy Awards are here to prove it. Presented by the Business Intelligence Group, this year’s Sales and Marketing Technology Awards (aka the Sammys) shine a spotlight on the marketers, creatives, technologists, and executives who are pushing the boundaries of what modern go-to-market success looks like.

From AI-powered CMS platforms to campaigns that punch through the digital clutter, this year’s winners showcase how the most effective teams blend left-brain execution with right-brain imagination.

“Sales and marketing are no longer working in parallel—they’re working in unison,” said Russ Fordyce, CEO of Business Intelligence Group. “The 2025 Sammys exist to recognize that convergence.”

Bridging the Divide: Logic Meets Imagination

The Sammys split their recognition into two distinct but complementary categories:

• Left Brain Awards: Honoring the platforms, products, and technologies powering data-driven marketing—from CRM systems to AI-enhanced UX tools.

• Right Brain Awards: Celebrating the campaigns, content, and creative teams crafting emotionally resonant brand stories.

In short, these aren’t your typical awards focused only on flash or function. They celebrate both—recognizing how today’s standout teams bring technical rigor and creative clarity to every touchpoint.

Who Took Home the Hardware?

Creative Awards – Where Brands Make Emotional Impact

• Brand Dominator: TARA Media – Top-performing agency

• Market Disruptor: ISE for an experiential campaign driven by a multidisciplinary creative team across marketing, design, and video.

• QNY Creative: Honored for integrated social, video, and advertising campaigns.

• Ulster Savings Bank: Recognized for its impactful video marketing with Big Chief Entertainment.

Industry Icons:

• Andre Robberts (IFS), Layla Kasha (Grocery Outlet), and Sumit Virmani (Infosys)

Impact Driver:

• Tiantian Shao, IKEA China – for non-executive leadership impact

Power Players – Teams Making a Mark:

• Loan Vision GTM Team (Small Company) and Stax Marketing (Large Company)

Technology Awards – Tools That Drive Revenue

Market Master (Top Organization):

• AtData, Cisco, Statara Solutions

Growth Catalyst (Top Tech/Product/Service):

• Allego (CMS), Anteriad (Insights), Concentrix MEP, InboxAlly (Email), Lawmatics (CRM), OmniSEO by WebFX (SEO), Salesmsg (CRM), Seismic's Aura AI (CMS), TrueDialog (SMS), and more.

Emerging platforms like RevenueCloudFX and Dash™ by LocaliQ were celebrated for enabling enterprise-level intelligence and analysis for mid-market brands.

Finalists included standout names like Black Book Research, Comcast Advertising, Sojern, Progress Sitefinity, and Verizon Business—a nod to the fierce competition and innovation brewing across the industry.

While many industry awards focus on big names or flashy creative, the Sammys go deeper—recognizing the systems behind the scenes and the ideas in front of customers. It's a full-spectrum view of what it really takes to win in today’s market.

Whether you're optimizing SEO with AI, building omnichannel campaigns, or crafting emotionally charged brand moments, the Sammys remind us: the best work happens when data and design, tech and tone, metrics and meaning all show up at the same table.

Elgato, the content creator tech brand under Corsair, has officially launched the Game Capture 4K S — a next-gen external capture card designed to meet the evolving demands of professional streamers and creators across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.

Priced at $159.99, the plug-and-play device supports cinematic 4K60 real-time capture, ultra-low latency (as low as 30ms), and is fully compatible with Windows, macOS, and iPadOS. Elgato’s latest release positions itself as a versatile tool for streaming from PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and even the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.

Built for the Modern Creator Economy

The 4K S is more than just a spec bump. It builds upon Elgato’s top-selling HD60 X and introduces key enhancements:

• 4K60 zero-lag passthrough, HDR10 capture support (up to 1080p60), and VRR for smoother gameplay.

• High frame rate recording, including 1440p at 120fps and 1080p at 240fps — ideal for competitive and cinematic streamers alike.

• USB-C connectivity and UVC compliance, ensuring seamless operation with OBS, Streamlabs, Zoom, and TikTok Live Studio.

The device also arrives alongside the new Elgato Studio app, offering tools for creators like low-latency previews, a snapshot tool for social media thumbnails, and minimal system resource use — key for mobile creators working with iPads.

Executive Insight

“Our new 4K S is a game-changer for both professional and aspiring content creators,” said Thi La, CEO of Corsair. “With cinematic 4K60 capture, ultra-low latency preview, and support for high frame rates, it delivers the visual fidelity today’s streamers demand. Its plug-and-play compatibility and ecosystem integration make it one of the most versatile solutions available.”

A Legacy of Innovation

Elgato has long held a leadership position in creator-focused tech. Since releasing the first capture card made for gamers in 2012, the company has expanded its portfolio to include microphones, studio lighting, and modular control systems. The launch of 4K S marks another step in Elgato’s mission to empower creators and streamline their content pipelines.

Backed by Corsair’s global infrastructure and R&D capabilities, Elgato continues to capitalize on the booming creator economy — a market projected to exceed $480 billion by 2027, driven by Gen Z’s preference for user-generated video content.

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In a SaaS world obsessed with headcount and hustle, TitanX just proved something radical: outbound sales can scale—without scaling your team. The startup, which launched in June 2024 with zero venture capital, is now boasting $5 million in ARR, a customer list including Workday, Hitachi, and Vanta, and triple-digit growth. And they did it all without asking a single investor for a dime.

At the core of TitanX’s growth story is Phone Intent™, the company’s predictive AI engine that figures out which prospects are most likely to pick up the phone right now. Instead of pushing sales reps to make more calls, the platform drives connect rates of up to 25%, obliterating the industry standard of 2–5%. That’s not just better—it’s revolutionary.

Turning Cold Calling into a Data Game

Sales teams have long accepted cold outreach as a numbers game: more dials, more pain, minimal return. TitanX challenged that premise by giving reps what they actually need—timing. With Phone Intent, outbound isn’t about volume anymore; it’s about precision. That precision has turned cold calls into warm opportunities and SDR teams into revenue machines.

“In just 12 months, we’ve proven that predicting behavior beats pushing volume,” said Joey Gilkey, Founder and CEO of TitanX. “There’s a mandate from the boardroom to scale without bloating your team—and we’ve hit $5M in ARR proving that’s possible.”

TitanX is walking the walk: no VC backing, no hyperinflated burn rate, and a product that not only works—it sells itself. Much of the company’s growth has come from internal use of its own platform, customer referrals, and proof-driven adoption by tech-savvy GTM teams across SaaS, tech services, and enterprise.

Customers Are Doubling Output—With Smaller Teams

Just ask Kevin "KD" Dorsey, CRO at Finally. “In the last 6 months, we’ve quite literally doubled SDR production,” he said. “The team is smaller, but they’re producing twice the pipeline.”

That kind of ROI doesn’t come from dialing harder—it comes from dialing smarter.

Building for Scale: Strategic Hires Signal What’s Next

To meet demand, TitanX is beefing up leadership across revenue, product, and engineering. New additions include:

• Rob Anderson, CRO – Formerly with Gong and Docebo, Anderson brings deep outbound expertise. Interestingly, he was once a TitanX customer—and now he’s in the driver’s seat.

• Eduardo Moreno Justiniano, Head of Engineering – Previously at Marriott, he’s set to lead the charge in scaling product infrastructure.

• Evan Dunn, Head of Marketing – Known for his GTM leadership at Airwallex, Pixis, and Rep.ai, Dunn will build TitanX’s paid growth and brand strategy.

• David Scott, Head of Product – Formerly Co-founder at Duality Consulting, Scott brings AI-native thinking to product roadmap strategy.

Why This Matters

TitanX isn’t just riding a wave—it’s making one. The company’s growth is a microcosm of a broader B2B shift: sales leaders want leaner, more intelligent GTM operations, and they’re done chasing brute-force tactics. Efficiency, not expansion, is the new growth model.

At a time when investor capital is harder to raise, and teams are being asked to do more with less, TitanX is showing what’s possible when innovation actually delivers. Cold calling may never be “cool,” but with TitanX, it’s finally effective.

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Swoop Hires Health Content Veteran to Lead MyHealthTeam’s Next Chapter

Swoop, the AI-powered healthcare marketing firm behind MyHealthTeam, is doubling down on patient-centric content with a major leadership hire. The company has named Sara Michael as Executive Vice President of Content, tapping the seasoned health journalist to lead a unified content strategy across editorial, design, video, and operations.

The move signals Swoop’s intent to scale MyHealthTeam’s medically verified, patient-focused media engine, while deepening engagement across its 60+ chronic and rare disease-specific patient communities—already the largest opt-in network of its kind in the U.S.

Michael joins from Dotdash Meredith, where she oversaw editorial and business strategy for some of the internet’s top health brands, including Verywell Health, Verywell Mind, and Health.com. Her track record of building high-impact, medically reviewed content experiences with commercial alignment makes her a strong fit for Swoop’s patient-first, privacy-compliant engagement model.

“This role brings together my passion for health journalism and innovation with a mission that truly matters,” said Michael. “I’ve long admired MyHealthTeam’s impact—and I’m thrilled to join a team so committed to empowering people with trusted information.”

Beyond Content—A Patient Media Model That Scales

Michael will lead efforts to:

• Expand content depth and reach across web, mobile, and social

• Integrate medical reviews and patient insights for richer engagement

• Elevate patient storytelling, reflecting the diversity of lived experiences

• Support privacy-safe brand engagement that aligns with patient needs

Her appointment comes as Swoop’s healthcare marketing model gains traction among pharmaceutical and life sciences brands seeking ways to authentically connect with condition-specific audiences. Unlike traditional healthcare media, Swoop’s omnichannel approach leverages AI and real patient data, while staying privacy-compliant.

A Strategic Bet on Credibility and Connection

The MyHealthTeam platform isn't just content—it’s community. That makes editorial leadership a strategic differentiator, especially in a space often flooded with unverified or generic information.

“Sara’s arrival marks a major step forward in scaling our patient-first model,” said Eric Peacock, Chief Patient Officer of Swoop and Co-founder of MyHealthTeam. “Her leadership will accelerate our ability to deliver authentic, high-quality content at scale—meeting patients where they are, and helping our brand partners engage with purpose.”

As misinformation and health fatigue grow online, Swoop’s latest move highlights a broader trend: quality, credibility, and human connection are becoming core assets in healthcare marketing. And with Sara Michael now at the helm of content, Swoop is making a clear bet that content strategy is patient strategy.

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Retail Gets a Reality Check: Listrak’s H2 2025 Outlook Arms Brands with Survival Tactics for an Uncertain Second Half

If the first half of 2025 taught retailers anything, it’s that flexibility beats foresight. Now, Listrak, the marketing automation platform known for its people-first, data-smart approach, is offering retailers a compass for the chaotic terrain ahead.

With newly released Retail Outlook Reports tailored for Fashion, Beauty, and General Retail, Listrak is equipping brands with strategic, data-informed guidance to maintain momentum through the year’s most volatile shopping season. Spoiler: the second half of 2025 won’t be business as usual—and that’s precisely the point.

“Retail success isn’t about prediction anymore—it’s about preparation,” says Jamie Elden, Chief Revenue Officer at Listrak. “We built these reports to help retailers adapt, not react.”

From inflation-fatigued shoppers to an AI-assisted buying journey, Listrak’s insights double down on what’s actually changing—and what to do about it.

Price Sensitivity Rules Holiday Strategy

Consumers are tightening belts. 37% of shoppers say they’ll cut non-essential spending, which spells opportunity for private labels, resale markets, and value-first marketing. Think price drop alerts, personalized discount journeys, and dynamic clearance promotions.

Listrak’s take:
Trigger-based messaging is king. Brands should deploy automated price drop alerts across email, SMS, and app notifications, and segment out sale-hunting users for specialized journeys. Even the email nav bar needs a tune-up—clearance and secondhand sections deserve premium real estate.

Supply Chains Still Wobbling

A 65% YoY drop in imports from China and a 60% spike in canceled orders (vs. 2020) show that supply chain disruptions haven’t gone anywhere. Product availability is already stretched—and that’s before the holiday rush.

Listrak’s fix:
Retailers need to rethink inventory triggers and alerts. Raise low-stock thresholds to reflect faster sell-through, and extend “back in stock” timelines to account for longer restock windows. Smart merchandising beats panic discounting.

AI Becomes a Retail Channel, Not Just a Tool

More than half of shoppers—53%—plan to use AI to guide purchases this year. Search behavior is migrating from traditional engines to assistants like ChatGPT and other AI shopping tools.

The playbook:
Listrak urges brands to personalize onsite pop-ups for users coming from AI referrers, and segment journeys by channel affinity—meeting customers on their most active platform, first. With AI-driven product recommendations, retailers can adapt in real-time as users browse.

What This Means for Retailers

The thread running through Listrak’s outlook is clear: reactive retail is dead. Today’s winners will be the ones who:

• Automate intelligently, not blindly

• Align messaging with economic realities

• Leverage AI not just in ops, but in the customer journey

While many retailers are still trying to stabilize after pandemic-era whiplash, Listrak’s H2 2025 playbook points to a sharper, more tech-enabled strategy. And with shopping behavior becoming more fragmented and AI-influenced by the day, the retailers that thrive will be the ones who optimize not just for sales, but for agility.

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Escalated.io Partners with TAG to Strengthen Ad Fraud Defense

Escalated.io, a rising player in the ad fraud detection space, has officially joined TAG’s (Trustworthy Accountability Group) Data Center IP (DCIP) program as a Qualified Data Contributor (QDC)—a move that bolsters both the company’s credibility and the broader industry's arsenal against invalid traffic (IVT).

The DCIP list, published monthly by TAG, aggregates high-risk IP addresses associated with invalid traffic across the digital advertising ecosystem. Companies in the supply chain—from DSPs to ad networks—can use the list to audit transactions and block fraudulent impressions before damage is done.

As a QDC, Escalated.io will contribute verified IP data each month, feeding into one of the most critical shared resources in the digital ad world.

“We’re excited to be contributing and giving back to the community in this manner,” said Kyle Smith, CEO of Escalated.io. “This partnership helps ensure that the intelligence shared across the ecosystem remains accurate and actionable.”

Why This Matters: Fighting Ad Fraud Needs Collective Action

Invalid traffic is more than a line item—it's a multi-billion-dollar leak in the digital ad economy. Fraudulent traffic inflates campaign metrics, skews performance insights, and robs publishers and platforms of legitimate revenue. Worse, it undermines trust between advertisers, agencies, and supply-side platforms.

While many vendors offer proprietary detection tools, TAG’s DCIP list functions as a neutral, industry-vetted defense layer, regularly updated with contributions from vetted players like Escalated.io.

“The effectiveness of shared tools like the DCIP list depends on the support of companies like Escalated.io,” said Lisa Gansky, Director of Product Management at TAG. “Their role as a QDC highlights leadership and a genuine commitment to protecting the digital advertising ecosystem.”

Escalated.io’s Growing Role in Ad Integrity

This move marks a significant step for Escalated.io, a company gaining traction for its ability to detect sophisticated, evasive forms of IVT across channels and platforms. Unlike generalized fraud blockers, Escalated.io emphasizes granular detection and real-time insights, helping both buy-side and sell-side players safeguard campaigns without sacrificing scale.

Becoming a QDC gives Escalated.io a stronger voice in industry standard-setting, and positions the company as a trusted partner for brands, agencies, and platforms seeking transparency in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

The Bigger Picture: Shared Data, Shared Defense

As ad fraud grows in complexity—spanning spoofed traffic, data center IP abuse, and evolving bot networks—shared intelligence becomes not just helpful, but essential. With TAG’s DCIP list acting as a shared firewall and companies like Escalated.io contributing to its upkeep, the industry moves a step closer to real-time threat mitigation.

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Sendbird Names Charles Studt as CMO to Supercharge Growth in AI-Driven Customer Experience

As the race to redefine customer engagement with AI accelerates, Sendbird has brought in a heavy-hitter to lead the charge. The company today announced that Charles Studt, a former marketing exec at Qualtrics, has joined as Chief Marketing Officer to spearhead its global strategy and help position the company as a definitive leader in agentic AI-powered CX.

Studt steps into the role at a pivotal moment for Sendbird, which recently launched Omnipresent AI—its flagship AI agent designed to transform customer support from reactive ticket resolution into proactive, omnichannel engagement. With over two decades of experience scaling SaaS brands, Studt is tasked with elevating Sendbird’s brand in a crowded AI market and expanding adoption of its conversation-centric platform.

“Charles joins Sendbird at a critical moment as we accelerate our vision for agentic AI in customer engagement,” said John S. Kim, CEO and Co-founder of Sendbird. “He brings the experience and strategic clarity needed to cut through the AI hype and build a brand that resonates with real business impact.”

From CX Growth at Qualtrics to AI-Powered CX at Sendbird

At Qualtrics, Studt served as VP of Marketing and GM of Product-Led Growth, where he drove 100%+ pipeline growth for CX product lines in under two years. He’s also held senior marketing roles at IntelePeer, QuanticMind, and Redbooth, building scalable marketing engines and customer-centric narratives across high-growth tech sectors.

Now, he’ll turn his attention to positioning Sendbird as a category-defining player in agentic AI—an emerging space where AI agents aren’t just reactive assistants but proactive participants in customer journeys.

“This is Sendbird’s moment to set a new standard,” said Studt. “We’re here to show that AI isn’t about replacing humans—it’s about making the customer experience more human by being more proactive, predictive, and persistent.”

AI With a Human Touch

Unlike traditional support bots, Sendbird’s Omnipresent AI enables brands to anticipate customer needs, initiate autonomous conversations across channels, and resolve issues before users even know they exist. It’s a fundamental shift in philosophy: from support-as-a-service to engagement-as-a-strategy.

Studt plans to amplify this differentiation through:

• Human-first brand storytelling

• Case studies that showcase ROI in real CX environments

• Market expansion for Omnipresent AI

• High-velocity, AI-powered marketing operations

Internally, he also aims to build a marketing culture powered by the very AI principles the product embodies—agility, responsiveness, and user-centricity.

Sendbird’s move comes as the AI-powered CX space becomes increasingly competitive, with players like Intercom, Ada, and Drift evolving their own AI capabilities. What sets Sendbird apart is its developer-first DNA, proven messaging infrastructure, and focus on agentic AI—an emerging frontier in which bots act as autonomous agents, not scripted responders.

With Studt on board and momentum building around Omnipresent AI, Sendbird is clearly betting that the future of customer experience isn't just smart—it’s self-starting.

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