Klarna’s Latest Loyalty Play? Surprise Gifts Powered by AI

In a move to redefine customer experience, Klarna has partnered with Nift, the AI-powered gift-matching platform, to deliver personalized, high-value gifts to its shoppers in the U.S. and U.K. The goal? Make shopping with Klarna more rewarding—and more memorable—by thanking customers with curated gift offers based on their preferences and purchase behavior.

This partnership doesn’t just sprinkle in a little delight. It’s a calculated strategy to increase customer sentiment, drive repeat business, and monetize engagement through Klarna’s commerce media network.

“We’re able to thank our customers with surprise gifts that introduce them to new brands and experiences tailored just for them,” said David Sandstrom, CMO at Klarna.

A Smarter, More Human Touchpoint

The typical customer journey is cluttered with pop-ups, banner ads, and loyalty emails that barely get noticed. Klarna and Nift are betting on a different approach: meaningful moments of appreciation. These gifts aren’t generic coupons—they’re product offers and subscriptions from brands like Chewy, SiriusXM, HelloFresh, Quince, and NatureMade, matched to each customer’s unique tastes using Nift’s proprietary AI.

It’s personalization with a purpose: gifts are served right after key moments, such as a purchase, a payment, or a points transfer. And brands in Nift’s merchant ecosystem benefit, too—they get access to a closed-loop model that generates qualified, intent-driven leads without paying upfront advertising costs.

Strong Early Returns

Since launching the program, Klarna reports results that would make any marketer raise an eyebrow:

• 30% click-through rate on gift offers

• 40% activation rate in the U.S.

• Now expanding across the U.K.

These aren't just vanity metrics—they’re well above average engagement rates in retail email and app marketing, signaling that customers actually enjoy and respond to this format.

Nift’s own data reinforces the lift in customer loyalty:

• 88% of recipients rate their gift positively

• 72% report liking the gift-giving company more

• 70% say they plan to buy from the gifted brand again

Those are the kinds of stats CMOs crave, especially as traditional digital ad ROI continues to decline.

A New Era of Nonintrusive Engagement

Consumers are increasingly ad-fatigued. Platforms like Klarna, streaming services, fitness apps, and fintech firms are all exploring less disruptive ways to engage users—ones that build goodwill instead of burning attention.

“Surprise and delight” used to be a marketing cliché. Now it’s becoming a measurable strategy. As Elery Pfeffer, Nift’s founder and CEO, puts it:

“We’re helping Klarna strengthen its customer relationships while unlocking a recurring revenue stream. It’s a win-win.”

And flexibility is built in. Brands can give Nift gifts in the moment (like a real-time purchase thank-you) or delay delivery via email or app notifications—whatever works best for the customer flow.

Gifting Is Now a Growth Strategy

The Klarna-Nift partnership is more than a loyalty stunt—it’s a glimpse at the future of retention marketing, where personalization, surprise, and utility converge.

With Klarna facilitating over 2.9 million transactions daily across a network that includes names like Nike, Airbnb, Sephora, and H&M, the scale of this initiative could shift how loyalty is engineered at the enterprise level.

And with Nift’s footprint expanding—delivering over 50 million gifts monthly across North America and the U.K.—the platform is rapidly emerging as a core component of the digital customer journey for brands aiming to cut through the noise.

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ZoomInfo Sweeps TrustRadius Awards with Top Ratings Across Nine Categories

ZoomInfo, the Nasdaq-listed go-to-market (GTM) intelligence platform, just earned TrustRadius Top Rated Awards in nine distinct categories, a rare feat that puts a spotlight on the platform's real-world impact across sales, marketing, and AI-powered engagement.

For an industry often flooded with jargon and overpromises, these awards—based entirely on verified customer feedback—act as a solid stamp of approval. TrustRadius, a respected B2B software review platform, honors products that consistently deliver on user expectations, not just their marketing copy.

Where ZoomInfo Stands Out

ZoomInfo’s suite didn’t just squeak by in a few categories—it dominated:

• ZoomInfo Sales:

  • Sales Intelligence

  • Intent Data

  • Market Intelligence

• ZoomInfo Marketing:

  • Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

  • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

  • MarketingOS

• Chorus (a ZoomInfo company):

  • Conversation Intelligence

  • Sales Coaching

  • Call Recording

That spread signals something important: ZoomInfo is no longer just a sales data tool—it’s becoming an end-to-end GTM operating system for enterprise revenue teams.

Why It Matters

For B2B organizations navigating increasingly complex buying journeys, having siloed sales and marketing tools just doesn’t cut it anymore. ZoomInfo’s platform aims to unify data, insights, and execution—from identifying intent signals and crafting ABM campaigns to coaching sales reps based on real conversations.

As ZoomInfo founder and CEO Henry Schuck puts it:

“It’s incredibly validating to see our solutions solving real pain points for our customers across the entire revenue organization. We’re committed to helping them sell smarter and win faster.”

That’s not just CEO-speak. With more than 35,000 companies on its platform—including Fortune 500 firms—ZoomInfo is being trusted to power the entire go-to-market engine, not just fill a CRM with leads.

A Platform Built for Real-World Revenue Teams

ZoomInfo’s recent enhancements—including tighter integrations with CRMs, more robust AI insights, and tools like MarketingOS and Chorus—reflect a broader move in B2B: less tool sprawl, more precision execution.

It’s no longer just about having data—it’s about having trusted, actionable data that’s usable by both sales and marketing teams, in real time.

MarketingOS, for example, allows demand gen teams to activate precise campaigns fueled by deep intent signals. Chorus, on the other hand, turns sales calls into training opportunities and insight engines. And everything is underpinned by ZoomInfo’s commitment to privacy-first data, offering GDPR and CCPA compliance out of the box.

TrustRadius: A Barometer of Buyer Satisfaction

The TrustRadius Top Rated Awards, launched in 2016, are among the most consumer-driven awards in the tech sector. Unlike pay-to-play recognitions, these are awarded based solely on user-submitted ratings and satisfaction scores—no influence, no inflated PR metrics.

The fact that ZoomInfo swept nine categories across sales and marketing, all in one year, sends a strong message: The platform isn’t just growing—it’s working.

The Takeaway

In an over-saturated martech and salestech landscape, ZoomInfo is emerging as more than just a database or a point solution. It’s a core infrastructure play for modern revenue organizations—and this latest recognition from TrustRadius shows that customers feel the impact where it counts: in smarter selling, faster growth, and tighter alignment across teams.

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Hightouch Just Solved the Biggest Trade-Off in Real-Time Marketing

In today’s high-stakes digital environment, brands have milliseconds to capture attention. And until now, marketers have had to choose between speed and precision—either act quickly on limited session data or wait to apply full customer intelligence from the data warehouse.

Hightouch just obliterated that compromise.

The composable customer data platform (CDP) today launched same-session personalization, a first-of-its-kind feature that fuses live behavioral signals with warehouse-level data—in less than a second.

What It Means for Marketers

This isn’t just a minor upgrade—it’s a major leap for personalization strategy. For the first time, brands can:

• React to in-session behavior (e.g., searches, pageviews, clicks)

• Leverage rich customer profiles (e.g., past purchases, preferences, geography)

• Deliver context-rich personalization instantly, without latency trade-offs

So instead of showing a generic car rental ad to someone who already lives in Los Angeles and prefers a specific rental agency, brands can tailor the experience on the fly—with real relevance.

Bridging Browsing Behavior with Customer Intelligence

"Marketers have never had this level of precision and speed at the same time," said Tejas Manohar, Co-founder and Co-CEO at Hightouch. "It’s like pressing the lever on a toaster—that’s how fast our system responds with fully contextualized content."

The breakthrough lies in Hightouch’s ability to synchronize session data with a brand’s complete customer profile housed in its data warehouse—without slowing down the user experience.

No caching. No shortcuts. No data loss. Just real-time personalization at scale.

How It Works—and Why It’s Different

Most real-time personalization systems rely solely on what happens during the current session (clicks, scrolls, exits). While useful, this limits the depth of personalization, especially for returning users or high-value customers.

Hightouch changes the game by combining these session signals with the entire warehouse of first-party customer data. This includes:

• Demographics

• Loyalty tier

• Purchase history

• Subscription status

• Product preferences

• Previous engagement patterns

There are no limits on the amount of data that can be factored in—giving brands the full picture of each customer, even mid-session.

From Click to Conversion—In Real Time

The use cases are powerful:

• A user searches for waterproof hiking boots → sees location-specific promotions based on local weather and prior purchases

• A known subscriber starts exploring a new category → receives messaging tailored to loyalty status or previous browsing

• A prospect browses pricing pages → triggers a chatbot experience or content offer mapped to their industry or segment

And thanks to Hightouch’s 250+ downstream integrations, brands can extend the experience beyond just the website—triggering emails, mobile messages, in-app updates, and ad campaigns that feel tightly orchestrated, not disjointed.

A Natural Evolution for Hightouch

Same-session personalization adds serious firepower to Hightouch’s growing arsenal of real-time capabilities. Already positioned as a leading Composable CDP and AI decisioning platform, Hightouch enables marketers to centralize and activate data without relying on stitched-together point solutions.

This feature also reinforces a broader industry trend: moving personalization closer to the point of engagement, without sacrificing the depth of insights typically reserved for post-session analysis.

And in a world where customer loyalty is won in moments, that speed—and relevance—makes all the difference.

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Newell Brands Picks Adobe’s AI Arsenal to Rewrite the Rules of Content Production

In a strategic push to meet skyrocketing content demands, Newell Brands—the company behind household names like Sharpie, Coleman, Rubbermaid, and Yankee Candle—has expanded its partnership with Adobe, doubling down on generative AI to reinvent its content supply chain.

Announced today, the collaboration integrates Adobe Firefly, Express, and other enterprise-grade tools directly into Newell’s marketing and creative workflows. The goal? Deliver five times more content, faster, without compromising brand consistency or creative integrity.

Why It Matters: Content Is the New Bottleneck

For brands operating at global scale, the days of manually repurposing content across regions and channels are over. Consumer attention spans are shrinking, while content needs are growing exponentially—especially across social platforms, e-commerce storefronts, and in-store displays.

According to Melanie Huet, Co-CEO of Newell’s Home & Commercial Segment, that’s exactly what prompted the Adobe expansion:

“We leaned into Adobe to rebuild our content supply chain... enabling faster, higher quality content creation that can be leveraged globally with ease.”

Newell’s content team isn’t just looking to move faster—it’s looking to move smarter, using generative AI to offload repetitive design work and focus on more strategic, high-impact creative.

Firefly and Express: Automation Meets Brand Safety

At the heart of this initiative are Adobe Firefly Services and Firefly Custom Models, which allow Newell’s teams to scale content variations (e.g., region-specific backgrounds or campaign-based product imagery) without starting from scratch. These models are trained on Newell’s proprietary brand assets, ensuring the outputs remain on-brand and safe for commercial use.

The impact is already measurable. In one use case involving Paper Mate packaging, content production sped up by 75%, and time-to-market shrank significantly.

Meanwhile, Adobe Express is being rolled out across Newell’s marketing org as a design democratizer—empowering regional teams with customizable templates and branded toolkits. In Latin America, Express helped the Oster team reduce content creation time for 52 assets from 12 hours to 8, a 33% efficiency gain.

A Full-Stack Play: Beyond Creative Tools

Newell isn’t just using Adobe’s AI to push pixels. The partnership includes deeper integration with Adobe’s content supply chain solutions—including:

• Adobe Workfront for streamlined campaign planning and task management

• Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) for asset governance and omnichannel delivery

• Firefly Custom Models for on-brand generative creation

• Express for regional customization at scale

All of these work in sync to ensure that Newell’s millions of assets—across dozens of brands and markets—are orchestrated with speed and precision.

Broader Trend: From Creative Teams to Content Factories

Newell’s move reflects a growing shift across the consumer goods sector: the operationalization of creativity. With generative AI embedded in production pipelines, companies can transition from creative bottlenecks to agile, responsive content operations.

And Adobe isn’t alone in this space—rivals like Canva, Figma, and even Salesforce (via Tableau and Einstein) are vying for pieces of the same AI-augmented creative stack. But Adobe’s long-standing integration across content planning, creation, management, and delivery gives it a serious head start.

Brent Rudewick, VP of Adobe GenStudio, summed it up:

“Businesses expect the demand for content to rise dramatically over the next few years. Adobe’s AI-enabled enterprise solutions will empower [brands] to unify creativity and marketing, scaling the production of standout content.”

The Bottom Line

Newell Brands isn’t just upgrading tools—it’s reengineering its entire content engine. With Adobe’s generative AI, the company is aiming to scale fast, stay on-brand, and reach more consumers with less manual work. In a world where content is king and speed is currency, this might be the blueprint other consumer brands soon follow.

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At Cannes Lions 2025, PMG Introduces a Game-Changer for Martech Stack Flexibility

In a bold move at Cannes Lions 2025, PMG unveiled Alli Marketplace—a plug-and-play martech app exchange embedded directly within its marketing operating system, Alli. Unlike typical app stores or partner directories, Alli Marketplace is engineered to let brands test, activate, and swap out marketing technologies instantly—without leaving the core operating environment.

In short: it’s Shopify for your marketing stack.

A Platform Built for Speed, Not Spreadsheets

Traditional martech integrations can be a nightmare—weeks of procurement, IT tickets, vendor onboarding, and platform training. Alli Marketplace trims that down to a single click. It’s not just embedded into Alli’s UI—it’s embedded into how marketers actually work.

As George Popstefanov, PMG’s founder and CEO, put it: “We’ll collapse months of integration and onboarding into a seamless, one-click experience—so our customers can stay ahead of change without getting bogged down in it.”

That’s a welcome shift in an era where agility is everything. Martech budgets are under scrutiny, and CMOs are expected to prove ROI fast. Alli Marketplace speaks directly to that pressure by turning strategy into execution—without the traditional operational drag.

What’s Inside? A Curated Tech Stack Buffet

At launch, Alli Marketplace features 29 partner integrations spanning data, AI, measurement, media, and creative. Major players like Amazon Ads, Google Cloud, TikTok, Reddit, Roku, Disney, Experian, and LinkedIn are already on board. Another 100+ are natively baked into Alli OS, with PMG aiming to double the Marketplace’s roster within six months.

Each app is categorized by function—think Audience Enrichment, Creative Generation, Media Forecasting—and works inside Alli without additional IT work or re-platforming.

It’s modular by design. Need a new data enrichment tool for a campaign pivot? Toggle it on. Want to trial a creative automation platform? No procurement bottlenecks. Each partner is pre-approved and consumption-based, meaning marketers only pay for what they use.

Why It Matters: Martech Moves at the Speed of Strategy

Alli Marketplace supports a major shift: building a tech stack around strategy, not the other way around.

That agility is central to how modern marketing needs to operate. Marketers can run pilot tests, scale successful tools, or quickly sunset underperformers—all without rebuilding infrastructure or realigning systems.

Chris Alvares, VP of AI & Technology at PMG, framed it simply: “Brands now have the power to adapt their tech stack as fast as their strategy evolves. They have the freedom to choose the right tools for the job, swap them as needed, and stay firmly in control.”

It’s a shift from static martech stacks to what can best be described as “stack streaming”—constantly optimizing your tech lineup like a playlist.

Strategic Implications: Not Just for Marketers

Marketplace also changes the game for PMG’s tech and media partners. It offers a low-friction way to reach enterprise brands—PMG handles integration, billing, and product discovery.

Plus, partners benefit from usage reporting, joint marketing, and direct customer feedback. Perhaps more importantly, PMG is making the Marketplace framework open-source, inviting other players to adopt and adapt the model into their ecosystems. That could signal the beginning of a more interoperable martech future—where innovation isn’t throttled by procurement pipelines.

A Nod from Amazon

Amazon Ads was quick to endorse the initiative. “We look forward to collaborating with PMG,” said Krishan Bhatia, VP of Global Video Advertising & Partnerships at Amazon Ads. “By integrating our solutions within Alli, we’re making it simpler for brands to leverage Amazon Ads’ full-funnel capabilities.”

Translation: big players see this as a strategic alignment—not just a distribution channel.

From Operating System to Open Ecosystem

Since its 2013 launch, Alli has grown from an internal OS to a $6B media platform powering campaigns for brands like Apple, Sephora, and Whole Foods. Alli Marketplace marks its most public evolution—extending the benefits of its closed-loop system to external developers and marketers alike.

In an industry that too often confuses complexity with sophistication, PMG’s move stands out for its simplicity: make powerful tools accessible, contextual, and instantly usable.

Whether others follow suit remains to be seen. But one thing is clear—marketers are done waiting quarters to implement what they need today.

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ThrivePOP Becomes Platinum HubSpot Partner, Cements Status as Inbound Marketing Heavyweight

ThrivePOP, the Muskegon-based digital marketing agency with a flair for brand strategy and inbound innovation, just climbed into HubSpot’s Platinum Tier—a big deal for any agency looking to punch above its weight in the crowded MarTech world.

HubSpot’s Solutions Partner Program is no casual directory. Its tier system recognizes agencies that not only understand the platform inside and out but prove they can use it to drive serious client results. Platinum Tier isn’t handed out for enthusiasm—it’s earned through consistent campaign wins, measurable business growth, and deep alignment with the HubSpot ecosystem.

For ThrivePOP, it’s a major milestone—and a mark of momentum.

“Achieving Platinum status is a testament to our team’s dedication,” said Michele Ringleberg, CEO of ThrivePOP. “As a female-owned agency, we’re proud to lead the way in transforming how businesses connect with their audiences.”

What It Means for Clients

With its new Platinum status, ThrivePOP unlocks a wider set of perks: deeper access to HubSpot resources, beta features, and partner-only support tools that can directly benefit clients. It also signals to potential partners that ThrivePOP isn’t just capable—it’s proven.

The agency specializes in a full-stack offering of inbound marketing, SEO, web design, content creation, and HubSpot platform services. The Platinum Tier recognition reinforces its commitment to not just strategy, but to execution that scales and sticks.

This elevation also means a stronger seat at the HubSpot table—collaborating with the CRM giant on new developments, platform enhancements, and industry best practices. For clients, that means faster solutions, smarter workflows, and measurable ROI.

Why It Matters

In the current landscape—where inbound is the foundation of sustainable, long-term growth—being tied closely to HubSpot is an advantage. As businesses push for tighter alignment between marketing, sales, and service, ThrivePOP’s expanded capabilities allow for more cohesive implementation across the HubSpot suite.

“This milestone reflects our success as an agency—and our commitment to every client we serve,” Ringleberg added.

For a local agency, ThrivePOP is showing national-grade ambition. And as the MarTech stack grows more complex and personalized, the ability to stay agile while backed by enterprise-level partnerships will set firms like ThrivePOP apart from the pack.

Bottom Line

ThrivePOP’s climb into HubSpot’s Platinum Tier shows it’s not just playing in the inbound space—it’s leading with results. For businesses looking to grow smarter (and faster), the agency just became a much more compelling partner.

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Herringbone Digital Makes Strategic Play in Legal Marketing with Hennessey Digital Buy

In a move signaling the rising consolidation of niche digital marketing agencies, Herringbone Digital—backed by private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners—has acquired Hennessey Digital, a leading player in law firm marketing. It’s the platform’s first foray into the legal vertical and a calculated step in its multi-industry strategy that already spans dental, healthcare, and home services.

Founded in 2015 by SEO veteran Jason Hennessey, Hennessey Digital built its reputation delivering white-glove SEO, digital PR, PPC, and web design services to personal injury law firms. The California-based firm operates fully remotely with a 125-person team and has earned accolades including Fortune’s 50 Best Workplaces in Advertising & Marketing.

Under the deal, Hennessey Digital keeps its name, leadership, and operational autonomy—a smart move for continuity in an industry that values trust, performance, and long-term relationships.

“This partnership represents a transformative new chapter,” said Hennessey. “We’re preserving what made us successful while gaining the scale to do even more for clients.”

Why It Matters

Digital marketing for law firms is a $6B+ space and growing, driven by fierce competition among firms seeking higher visibility and lead conversion. With Google algorithm updates, AI-assisted search, and client acquisition costs soaring, demand for expert SEO and performance marketing continues to rise.

Herringbone’s acquisition positions it to capitalize on this shift, offering law firms a broader stack of tools—potentially enhanced by shared tech, AI capabilities, and cross-industry learnings from other verticals.

“This is more than just a bolt-on,” said Raj Ramanan, CEO of Herringbone Digital. “It’s a cornerstone investment in our legal marketing strategy.”

Connecting the Dots: The Rise of Multi-Vertical Martech Platforms

Herringbone joins a growing list of martech roll-ups targeting high-touch, high-margin service verticals. The model? Acquire top-performing agencies in fragmented markets, standardize operations and tech infrastructure, and scale under a unified strategy—without stripping away the nuance or culture that drives client loyalty.

Similar moves are playing out across industries—from SaaS consolidation in retail tech to AI-powered marketing suites for healthcare. But in legal marketing, where credibility and compliance matter as much as creativity, bringing in a battle-tested brand like Hennessey Digital is a savvy bet.

What’s Next

Expect Herringbone Digital to continue picking up high-performing niche agencies. With Trinity Hunt’s backing and a proven integration model, this platform play could reshape the landscape for boutique service providers—especially those looking to scale without selling out their identity.

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Gannett Co., Inc. has launched DeeperDive, an industry-first Generative AI (GenAI) answer engine powered by Taboola, now live in beta on USA TODAY’s website. This innovation brings the benefits of AI search directly to publisher-owned platforms, using trusted, real-time journalism from the USA TODAY Network to deliver rich, contextual answers to user questions.

Unlike typical GenAI tools that scrape content from the open web without consent, DeeperDive sources its responses exclusively from licensed, high-quality journalism, solving a major pain point in today’s AI content economy.

“This innovation will lead to deeper engagement with consumers as we continue to expand our audience,” said Michael Reed, Chairman and CEO of Gannett. “DeeperDive combines USA TODAY’s high-caliber reporting with Taboola’s AI technology, creating a smarter and more monetizable content experience.”

Features of DeeperDive

• ???? Smarter AI Responses Based on Live Engagement:
  DeeperDive generates rich answers based on real-time insights from 600M+ daily users across 9,000 global publishers, instead of static data sets. It reflects what people are actually reading and searching for at that moment.

• ???? Deeper On-Site Content Engagement:
  Readers are directed to related USA TODAY articles alongside their answers, promoting longer sessions and higher loyalty.

• ???? Search-Like Ad Monetization for Publishers:
  High-intent ads are contextually inserted within results, allowing Gannett and other publishers to capture search-like revenue from user interactions — all within their own ecosystem.

“With DeeperDive, we’re giving publishers the power to join the GenAI revolution on their own terms,” said Adam Singolda, CEO and Founder of Taboola. “This is a big day not just for Taboola, but for the open web.”

What This Means for Publishers and Readers

This marks a transformative moment for digital publishing, enabling media organizations to:

• Protect and monetize their own content in the GenAI age.

• Deliver a more human, trend-aware search experience.

• Unlock new ad revenue through high-intent content queries.

• Increase reader time on site and session depth through interactive content discovery.

Gannett is the first U.S. publisher to roll out DeeperDive (in beta), with access granted to ~1% of USA TODAY’s 195M+ monthly users. Human oversight is currently in place to ensure quality responses before full deployment.

Gannett | USA TODAY Network

Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is a leading media company headquartered in the U.S., reaching millions through its flagship brand USA TODAY and more than 200 local media outlets. Visit: www.gannett.com

Taboola

Taboola powers recommendations for the open web, helping users discover things they may like across thousands of trusted publisher sites. Learn more: www.taboola.com

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