Google is all in on AI in its search results. For marketers who have long leaned on SEO best practices to show up in front of internet users, the old rules no longer apply.

“The guidelines that people were publishing even a year ago may not be relevant that much longer,” Simon Poulton, EVP of innovation and growth at the agency Tinuiti, told Marketing Brew.

Google users who are served AI-generated overviews at the top of their search results clicked on search-result links significantly less often than users who did not encounter AI summaries, according to a Pew Research Center report released in July. This shift, in which Google has essentially cut off search traffic to third-party sites, has been coined “Google Zero” and is upending search and creating some major challenges for brands that have used SEO as a way to drive traffic and maintain engagement.

As a result, SEO marketers find themselves looking to engineer new ways to keep users engaged and revisit what metrics are best in a new era of search.

“The entire industry is going through a relearning process right now,” Poulton said.

Continue reading here.—JS

Last year was a banner season for WNBA viewership, and brand spend followed a similar trajectory, according to a report from sports and entertainment sponsorship intelligence platform SponsorUnited.

During the 2024 season, 450 brands spent a total of $76 million on team sponsorships, for a total of 531 deals and an average of 44 deals for each of the 13 teams in the league, according to the report. The average number of deals per team was up 52% compared to the 2022 season.

The growth has been driven by brands in sectors including finance and healthcare, as well as a range of star players from rookies to veterans who are driving strong social engagement, SponsorUnited found.

Big shots: The average sponsorship revenue for a WNBA team last season was $6.3 million, with the Phoenix Mercury bringing in the most revenue from sponsorships thanks to a deal with Bally Bet, the largest team deal in the league.

• The Las Vegas Aces followed the Mercury, according to the report, which was SponsorUnited’s first that focused exclusively on WNBA sponsorships.
• Ally Financial’s sponsorship of the Aces is the third-largest team deal in the league.
• The Indiana Fever ranked third in terms of sponsorship revenue, with partners including jersey-partch sponsor Eli Lilly.

The Fever have the most sponsorship deals of any WNBA team so far this season, with 92, per SponsorUnited. They’re followed by the Washington Mystics (65 deals), the Chicago Sky (57 deals), the New York Liberty (56 deals), and the Mercury (52 deals).

Read more here.—AM

For hair accessories brand Emi Jay, the decision to branch into hair care 15 years after founder Julianne Goldmark first started the company in 2009 was calculated.

Instead of going the traditional hair care route with shampoo and conditioner, Emi Jay launched its hair care line in fall 2023 with a singular styling product, Angel Stick, and has slowly grown each year by introducing two to three new, but similar styling products. The expansion has been successful, giving Emi Jay, a brand beloved by both Gen Z and millennials, a new and growing revenue channel while boosting its existing ones.

“Our foray into hair care has been successful due to the love and trust we’ve received from our community throughout the years,” Goldmark said in an email. “As we segued into brushes and other hair tools, our customers naturally gained an admiration for their Emi Jay hair wardrobe and routine, so hair care and liquids felt like a very natural, trusted direction.”

To date, Emi Jay’s hair care range consists of five styling products, compared to the hundreds of products it offers under the hair accessories and brushes categories. Despite the comparatively smaller category, Emi Jay’s fractional chief marketing officer, Claudia Allwood said revenue from its hair care division has grown by 42% YoY, which has contributed to Emi Jay’s overall YoY revenue growth of 34%. The company declined to provide revenue numbers.

This growth can be attributed to Emi Jay’s new retail partnership with Sephora, which launched in February. Allwood said hair care has performed better at Sephora, adding that the partnership hasn’t negatively impacted the brand’s direct-to-consumer sales.

Of customers shopping at Sephora, she said, 63% are new to the brand.

Continue reading on Revenue Brew.—LI

AI is changing the game—and the workplace. On Sept. 10 at the Marketing Brew Summit, Colette Stallbaumer, co-founder of Microsoft WorkLab and GM of Microsoft 365 Copilot, will share how Microsoft is unlocking new levels of productivity and creativity. Get ready for a behind-the-screens look at the future of work.

From TV screens to bite-size videos, YouTube is reshaping how creators reach audiences—but not without challenges. As it dominates both long-form and Shorts, what does this mean for the future of content, costs, and creator survival? Dive into the platform’s evolving playbook and its impact on the creator economy.