9/12/25: Google Think Retail on Air 2025, Dick's Buys Foot Locker, & The Year 2040
- HK Digital
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
HK Digital Paid Media Industry News, Updates & More
Happy Friday Everyone!
Take a look at the "Top 10 Takeaways from Google Think Retail on Air 2025" and make sure you're up-to-date with all the latest bells & whistles Google Ads has to offer.
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Top Headlines
Google Think Retail on Air 2025, Dick's Buys Foot Locker, & The Year 2040
FTC probes Google, Amazon for allegedly misleading advertisers The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is probing whether Google and Amazon have misled advertisers. There could be regulatory pressure ahead to require more disclosure of how ad costs are determined.
TikTok’s AI Mandate for TikTok-Shop Ads (GMV Max) and Backlash TikTok has mandated that all advertisers using TikTok Shop must use its AI-driven tool “GMV Max” starting Sept 1, 2025. While it helps small businesses with automation and optimizing for ROAS, bigger brands are pushing back over lack of control, transparency, and insights.
HubSpot Inbound 2025: AI-Driven Messaging & “The Loop” At HubSpot’s Inbound 2025 event, they emphasized a shift from traffic-based marketing to AI-powered dynamic messaging. They also rolled out “The Loop” (200+ product updates), Data Hub & smarter CRM experiences. |
In Other News
This shifts the landscape in sports & sneaker retail — combining two big names. Dick’s will keep Foot Locker and its sub-brands running fairly independently. Could affect how sneakers / apparel are distributed, priced, licensed, and promoted.
Fun Stuff
Try this week’s AI icebreaker—copy/paste into ChatGPT and share your results with us or your team.
Prompt: “Imagine it’s the year 2040, and [Insert Brand Name] is launching its weirdest product yet. Write a funny 50-word press release for it.”
Our Silly Result: HK Digital has officially lost its mind. Today, we launch the world’s first AI-powered holographic ad hamster. It chews your data, spins in its wheel of KPIs, and squeaks campaign insights at 3 a.m. Weird? Yes. Effective? Absolutely. Coming soon to a Slack channel near you.
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That’s it for this edition of First Impression, hopefully you found some valuable nuggets in here. Feel free to send any feedback and suggestions for future topics our way.
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