For marketers, the social media treadmill never slows down. Platforms emerge, formats evolve, algorithms shift, and the brands that can’t keep up get left behind. Later, a player long known for its influencer marketing and social media management tools, wants to change that pace by giving marketers a better grip on what’s next.

This week, the company unveiled a wave of new platform enhancements—from advanced analytics to competitive benchmarking—packaged inside a new quarterly showcase it’s calling The Drop. Think of it as Later’s version of an Apple keynote, but for marketers, where product teams spotlight new features and roadmap previews directly to customers.

Why This Matters

Social media management is already a crowded space—Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer each jostle for attention among SMBs, while enterprise players like Sprinklr dominate at scale. Later is carving out its edge by doubling down on simplicity for SMBs and creators while layering in competitive-level insights that bigger brands expect.

Nicki Seaborn, SVP and Head of Later Social, put it bluntly: “Social media is evolving rapidly and our customers need a partner that helps them navigate what’s next.”

With brands like Fashion Nova, Kylie Cosmetics, and ESPN using the platform, Later is betting its data-rich insights—drawn from millions of posts and conversations—can help customers not just manage social, but anticipate trends.

What’s New in The Drop

Among the new capabilities rolling out:

• Custom Analytics & Post Tagging: Flexible reporting across platforms, with less time wasted in spreadsheets.

• External Approval Workflow: A login-free way for clients and stakeholders to review and approve content before it goes live.

• Brand DNA: AI-driven insights that reveal engagement drivers, suggest creator partnerships, and uncover content opportunities.

• Competitive Benchmarking: Side-by-side metrics on engagement, follower growth, and posting activity against rivals.

• Threads and Snapchat Scheduling: Plan and publish to two of the fastest-growing platforms, alongside Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more.

• Best Time to Post Enhancements: Recommendations tailored to Instagram Reels, feed posts, and Stories.

• Social Inbox: A centralized hub for DMs and comments across platforms.

Each update tackles a friction point marketers have been grumbling about for years: too much manual reporting, approval bottlenecks, scattered engagement, and uncertainty around when to post.

The Bigger Picture

The Drop isn’t just about features—it’s about positioning. Later wants to be more than a scheduling app; it wants to be a predictive engine for social. Tools like Future Trends, powered by Later’s massive dataset, aim to help brands spot shifts before they go mainstream.

That’s no small ambition in an industry where TikTok trends can boom and bust in a week, and where Threads and Snapchat are fighting to stay relevant against the juggernaut that is Instagram.

For SMBs and creators, the value proposition is clear: spend less time managing complexity and more time making content that connects. For larger brands, The Drop signals that Later is serious about playing in the same league as its enterprise-focused rivals.

And in a year when “doing more with less” is the mantra across marketing teams, automation, insight, and agility aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re survival tools.

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At its flagship K:BOS event, Klaviyo (NYSE: KVYO) took a bold step toward redefining customer relationship management for consumer brands. The company introduced its Marketing Agent and rolled out its Customer Agent to general availability, framing itself as an AI-first B2C CRM that unifies marketing, service, data, and analytics under one roof.

The move underscores Klaviyo’s ambition: to become the first autonomous CRM built for the AI era, offering brands more than just AI-powered tools — but a system that can run on autopilot while staying firmly within brand guardrails.

Marketing Agent: Creativity Meets Automation

For marketing teams stretched thin on budgets and bandwidth, Klaviyo’s Marketing Agent promises instant relief. The autonomous assistant can turn a URL into a full marketing plan in minutes, generating campaigns, flows, and content that’s on-brand by design.

Key features include:

• Instant Strategy: Generates a unique campaign or strategy in minutes.

• One-Click Launch: Campaigns are written, designed, and ready for approval.

• Trend-Aware Content: Continuously learns from industry, competitor, and seasonal trends.

• Always-On Ideas: Delivers four fresh campaign ideas weekly.

“Klaviyo isn’t just removing manual execution; it’s giving marketers a creative thought partner,” said Andrew Bialecki, Co-Founder and CEO. “It’s about turning vision into action and creativity into growth — all at the speed of AI.”

Customer Agent: Service and Marketing Converge

With 63% of consumers expecting AI shopping assistants to be standard by 2026 (per Klaviyo’s 2025 AI Shopping Index), the Customer Agent steps in as a 24/7 on-brand assistant. It handles everything from product recommendations and order tracking to returns, while escalating seamlessly to human agents when needed.

Embedded in Klaviyo’s CRM, it ensures service teams share the same data and context as marketing, turning conversations into conversions.

Capabilities include:

• Omnichannel Support: Chat, SMS, email, and soon WhatsApp.

• Personalized Shopping: Add-to-cart, apply promotions, complete purchases.

• Fast Setup: Auto-ingests storefronts and help docs for day-one readiness.

Beyond Agents: Platform Updates

Klaviyo also announced several new features, including:

• MCP Server for secure AI model connections (Claude, ChatGPT).

• Data Warehouse Import with Snowflake and BigQuery.

• AI Image Remix tool for creative teams.

• Expanded App Marketplace for prebuilt integrations.

• Omnichannel Attribution across Klaviyo and external platforms.

• Personalized Send Time (Beta) for optimized message delivery.

Conclusion

With Marketing Agent and Customer Agent at the core, Klaviyo isn’t just adding AI to its platform — it’s aiming to reimagine how B2C CRM should function in the AI-first era: autonomous, on-brand, and always learning.

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Springbot, the Atlanta-based AI-first marketing and sales automation platform, just made a bold play: it’s acquired Identity Matrix, a top-ranked visitor identification and attribution platform known for transforming anonymous clicks into named, high-intent prospects.

This isn’t a quiet tuck-in. It’s a doubling down on Springbot’s mission to give marketers sharper visibility into who’s actually behind the traffic, and how to convert them. Think of it as trading in night vision for X-ray specs.

Why It Matters

Identity Matrix has built its reputation on turning vague behavioral signals into actionable insights — identifying high-value buyers, reviving dead leads, and powering account-based marketing with precision. Folding that into Springbot’s AI-driven workflows gives the combined platform a much sharper edge in the increasingly crowded martech arms race.

With data privacy rules tightening and attribution headaches mounting, demand for accurate, first-party-centric identification tech has surged. Rival platforms like Clearbit, 6sense, and ZoomInfo have been muscling for dominance. Springbot’s move signals it wants to be more than competitive — it wants to be indispensable.

The Integration Playbook

Springbot isn’t just absorbing the tech; it’s bringing the people, too.

• Stephen Lowisz, Identity Matrix’s founder, joins as Managing Director of Data Ops and Interim CPO.

• Jean Hoffman and the engineering team plug into Springbot’s R&D, with Hoffman stepping in as Interim CTO.

• Clients gain instant access to Springbot Send (email, remarketing, abandoned-page workflows) and Springbot Studio (demand-gen and ABM playbooks).

CEO Marc Pickren framed the deal as a clear escalation: “Bringing Identity Matrix into Springbot doesn’t just expand our stack — it accelerates our mission to deliver measurable ROI through unified, intelligent marketing workflows.”

Lowisz was more blunt, calling the move “jet fuel” for innovation across demand gen, attribution, and customer journey orchestration.

The Bigger Picture

This marks Springbot’s third acquisition, reinforcing its profitable, debt-free, growth-at-all-costs strategy. While many martech firms are tightening belts or chasing profitability, Springbot is taking the opposite route: buy, integrate, and expand fast.

For marketers, the impact is tangible — fewer silos, better data enrichment, and campaign strategies that lean harder on AI and personalization. For competitors, it’s a warning shot that Springbot intends to scale beyond being another automation vendor into a fully unified growth engine.

The martech industry is consolidating quickly, but Springbot’s play is less about survival and more about sharpening its arsenal. If the integration lives up to its promise, marketers could soon have one of the most complete AI-driven marketing stacks on the market.

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Identity isn’t just a security concern anymore—it’s the beating heart of the global cybercrime economy. That’s the stark takeaway from a new report released by BeyondID, a KeyData Cyber company, which argues that usernames, passwords, tokens, and access rights have become the “currency of choice” for attackers.

The study, titled The Identity Economy: How Gaps in Identity Management Enable and Sustain Cybercrime, dives into how identity credentials now fuel everything from ransomware campaigns to AI-powered phishing operations. And while businesses pour billions into perimeter defenses, identity and access management (IAM) remains the weakest—and most exploited—link.

Identity Exploit Vectors: The New Attack Surface

The report introduces a chilling concept: Identity Exploit Vectors (IEVs)—systemic IAM weaknesses that hackers repeatedly leverage. These can be as simple as a misconfigured access policy or as subtle as an overlooked API token.

According to BeyondID, the numbers paint a grim picture:

• More than 90% of companies are impacted by credential theft.

• Stolen credential attacks linger for 10 months on average before detection.

• 60% of stolen credentials trace back to internal actors, often through accidental mistakes.

• AI tools are accelerating the threat, from ultra-convincing phishing campaigns to automated credential harvesting.

Financial services and healthcare remain prime targets, with U.S. hospitals reporting breaches involving 500+ patients nearly every business day.

“Identity Is the New Perimeter”

“Cybercrime once relied on brute force or network flaws, but now depends on identity,” said Arun Shrestha, CEO of BeyondID. “The stakes have never been higher, yet identity remains one of the most overlooked areas of cybersecurity investment. This report is a wake-up call.”

That wake-up call couldn’t come at a louder moment. The rise of AI in cyberattacks is making credential theft cheaper, faster, and harder to detect. Identity-first security—once considered a best practice—is fast becoming a survival necessity.

Industry Response and What’s Next

BeyondID isn’t just dropping research; it’s taking the message on the road. At Oktane 2025, Shrestha will join Laura Curtaccio, Head of Access Automation, Cybersecurity at Biogen, to discuss the findings and outline practical defenses. Their session will highlight how attackers are monetizing stolen credentials on a thriving black market, and how businesses can outpace these tactics with AI-powered defenses and stricter identity governance.

The broader industry context is clear: IAM is no longer a supporting player in cybersecurity. It’s the front line. And if BeyondID’s report is right, organizations that keep treating it as an afterthought may end up paying with far more than stolen passwords.

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SMS fraud is a $2.1 billion problem—and 8x8 thinks it has the fix. The cloud CX provider today rolled out Omni Shield Self-Service, a no-code tool designed to help businesses detect and block SMS fraud like Artificially Inflated Traffic (AIT) in real time.

Unlike traditional fraud defenses that require developers and delayed analysis, Omni Shield is built for business teams. The tool is embedded in 8x8 Connect and managed through an intuitive dashboard where users can spot anomalies, suspend suspicious traffic, and review live SMS performance trends—without touching a line of code.

“From e-commerce to banking, SMS is the backbone of digital engagement—and that makes it a growing target,” said Igor Mostovoy, Product Director, CPaaS at 8x8, Inc. “What used to take days now takes minutes—and that speed makes all the difference.”

Why It Matters: Fraud Moves Faster Than Businesses

In 2023, SMS fraud drained businesses of an estimated $2.1 billion, much of it tied to AIT schemes, phishing (smishing), and spoofing. With attackers scaling their operations globally, especially in mobile-first regions like Southeast Asia, traditional defenses often come too late to prevent financial or reputational damage.

Omni Shield flips the model by arming non-technical staff—marketing managers, operations leads, and security analysts—with real-time tools to stop fraud before costs balloon.

Features at a Glance

• Behavioral traffic analysis with live fraud alerts

• One-click blocking of risky operators or routes

• Auto-suspend controls to instantly halt bad traffic

• Real-time dashboards showing anomalies, conversion rates, and SMS health

Early Signals

According to 8x8, early adopters are already reporting significant reductions in AIT-related costs and stronger trust in SMS campaign performance. For industries like banking, logistics, and e-commerce, where SMS OTPs and confirmations drive daily engagement, the impact could be transformative.

8x8 isn’t the only vendor targeting SMS fraud, but by making its solution no-code and self-managed, it’s betting on accessibility and speed as the differentiators. In a channel where minutes can equal millions, that’s a compelling sell.

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StackAdapt, a leading advertising and marketing technology company, has expanded its revenue leadership team with the addition of Matt Phillips as SVP of Sales and Scott Bush as Head of Americas Client Services. Both executives bring experience from global heavyweights including Google, Amazon, Waze, Groupon, and Provi, signaling StackAdapt’s commitment to scaling client partnerships and accelerating growth across the Americas.

Driving Revenue with Experience

Phillips, with nearly two decades in revenue leadership, most recently served as Chief Revenue Officer at ShipSticks and spent nearly ten years at Google and Waze, where he led the global SMB Ads business. At StackAdapt, he will oversee brand-direct sales and vertical expansion, helping agencies and brands leverage the platform’s AI-powered, first-party data-driven solutions to drive measurable outcomes.

Bush brings deep experience in sales, account management, and go-to-market strategy, with previous leadership roles at Amazon Ads and Provi. At StackAdapt, he will lead the Americas Client Services organization, focusing on strengthening partnerships with agencies and brands across the US, Canada, and Latin America.

A Strategic Move in MarTech + AdTech

These hires come as StackAdapt continues to unify its martech and adtech capabilities under one platform. The company’s solutions span programmatic advertising, data activation, and dynamic creative optimization, enabling brands to connect first-party data with automated email and programmatic channels to deliver measurable results at scale.

“With Matt and Scott joining the team, we’re doubling down on our ability to drive impact for agencies and brands across the Americas,” said StackAdapt leadership. “Their expertise in revenue growth, client services, and data-driven marketing will help us accelerate adoption of our AI-powered platform.”

As advertisers demand tighter integration between first-party data, programmatic campaigns, and automated marketing tools, StackAdapt’s leadership expansion positions the company to compete more aggressively with other programmatic and martech platforms, including The Trade Desk, MediaMath, and Innovid.

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5WPR, a top-ranked independent integrated communications agency, has been named Agency of Record (AOR) for Yourgi, Inc., a U.S.-wide pet services marketplace connecting pet parents with trusted local providers—from grooming and training to walking, sitting, and boarding.

Yourgi’s platform streamlines access to pet services, bringing together resources, expert insights, and booking tools for modern pet owners while helping local businesses grow. The agency partnership will combine PR, thought leadership, paid media, and strategic reporting to amplify the brand’s visibility and market position.

Integrated Approach to Pet Marketing

5WPR’s scope covers:

• Public Relations & Media Relations: Developing key messages, securing earned media, local market outreach, and executive thought leadership.

• Paid Media Campaigns: Leveraging social, search, programmatic, CTV, and other channels to reach priority audiences.

• Strategic Reporting & Counsel: Ongoing account management, performance tracking, and identification of new growth opportunities.

“This partnership lets us elevate Yourgi’s mission through a fully integrated communications strategy,” said Marijana Gucunski, Senior VP at 5WPR. “We’re excited to drive awareness, establish thought leadership, and showcase the value the brand brings to pet parents and providers alike.”

Dr. Jennifer Strickland Fowler, CEO of Yourgi, added: “5WPR shares our commitment to excellence and innovation. Their expertise will be instrumental in advancing our mission and shaping the next chapter of our growth.”

Why It Matters

The collaboration builds on 5WPR’s experience in pet care and lifestyle sectors, combining traditional and digital PR with paid media to increase visibility, engagement, and long-term growth. For pet tech brands like Yourgi, integrated communications strategies are key to standing out in an increasingly competitive market.

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For the third year running, Reshift Media has secured a coveted spot on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Franchise Suppliers list—an honor that underscores its staying power in a highly competitive field.

The list, compiled from surveys of more than 1,100 franchisors across industries, ranks suppliers on value, cost, and quality. To put it simply: this is the list franchisors check when they want to know which partners actually deliver.

“Behind every great franchise system is a network of exceptional suppliers,” noted Entrepreneur editor-in-chief Jason Feifer. And Reshift, it seems, has become one of those indispensable players.

Why It Matters

Franchising is more than selling burgers or gym memberships—it’s a brand consistency game. Whether it’s a single-location startup or a global chain, franchisors increasingly lean on digital marketing firms to maintain unified messaging while scaling fast.

Reshift Media has carved out its niche by pairing traditional digital marketing with proprietary tech designed specifically for franchise systems. That means more than just ads and SEO; it’s a framework for keeping hundreds of local operators aligned without diluting the brand.

Expanding Its Global Footprint

The Toronto-based agency isn’t just working with one vertical. Its client list stretches across retail, restaurants, home services, fitness, and even pet care—industries where customer experience can make or break franchise reputation.

CEO Steve Buors puts the recognition down to results:

“Our mission has always been to empower franchisors with the tools, strategies, and insights they need to compete in a digital-first world,” Buors said.

And that digital-first world has only gotten more cutthroat as franchisors grapple with rising ad costs, shifting consumer habits, and AI-powered rivals promising cheaper customer acquisition.

More Than Just a Vendor

Reshift isn’t content to just run campaigns. The agency actively positions itself as a thought leader—publishing franchise-focused research, insights, and even launching World Franchise Day. It also redesigned the official site for the World Franchise Council, a signal that it’s as invested in the industry’s infrastructure as it is in its client roster.

Stacking Up Awards

The Entrepreneur recognition isn’t a one-off. Earlier this year, Reshift nabbed two Stevie Awards, including gold for Marketing Disruptor of the Year. Taken together, these nods suggest the company isn’t merely riding a wave—it’s shaping where franchise marketing goes next.

The Takeaway

While plenty of agencies pitch themselves as franchise experts, Reshift Media has something harder to earn: validation directly from franchisors. Being on Entrepreneur’s list three years straight puts them in rare air, especially in a landscape where digital partners can be as transient as social media trends.

For franchisors weighing marketing partnerships in 2025, Reshift’s consistent recognition makes it harder to ignore.

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