📈 Walmart x ChatGPT, Google’s “Hide Ads” button, & Sora 2 upgrades

Walmart announced a partnership with OpenAI so customers and Sam’s Club members can purchase directly inside ChatGPT via Instant Checkout. The integration will connect existing Walmart accounts and Stripe-powered payments to one-tap purchases. Walmart frames this as a shift to “agentic commerce” where AI plans and predicts needs before customers ask. Markets liked it: the stock popped on the news. Launch is “soon,” with more details to follow.

Why it matters: Conversational commerce is moving from demo to distribution - brands should prep product feeds, attribution, and affiliate/retail media tactics for chat surfaces. 📰 Reuters

Google is regrouping paid listings under a persistent “Sponsored results” label and letting users hide ads after they’ve scrolled past them once. The update applies to text ads (and Shopping) and is rolling out globally on desktop and mobile. Practically, users still see ads first, but can collapse them for that query. Expect lots of UX hot takes and new attention on top-of-SERP real estate.

Why it matters: Expect CTR volatility in Search, tweaks to brand vs. non-brand bidding, and creative pressure to win attention before the collapse. 📰 Google Ads blog

OpenAI pushed two Sora 2 updates: free users can generate up to 15-second clips; Pro can go to 25 seconds and use a Storyboard tool to stitch multi-scene videos. The features are live in the U.S. and Canada first. The move further normalises AI video in social feeds and raises brand safety/provenance questions. Marketers should test micro-spots for Shorts/Reels/TikTok.

Why it matters: Lower friction + longer runtimes = more viable ad units and organic brand content created in-house. 📰 TechRadar

Google’s Gemini is removing separate “@YouTube” and “@Google Maps” app invocations in favour of direct, natural-language integration. Early signs show Gemini taking over voice in Maps and a broader push to unify connected apps. For marketers, that means more query contexts (video, local, travel) flowing through a single assistant layer.

Why it matters: Assistant-level integrations change discovery paths, think “plan my launch route and show creator videos nearby”, blending search, local, and video into one prompt. 📰 9to5Google

California’s AB489 bars AI developers and deployers from using terms in advertising or product functionality that falsely imply a health-care licence or that licensed care is being provided. Signed 12 Oct, it’s part of a flurry of AI bills moving through U.S. states.

Why it matters: If your campaigns feature AI “coaches,” “advisors,” or wellness tools, tighten copy, disclaimers, and UX to avoid regulatory risk, more platforms are also moving toward stricter AI disclosures. 📰 DLA Piper

The context: McMillon introduced Walmart’s OpenAI partnership as a shift to agentic commerce, signalling conversational, personalised shopping beyond the classic search-and-scroll.

Google’s new “Sponsored results” header corrals text ads into a single block with a sticky label and a ‘hide’ control. It’s positioned as “making navigation easier,” but functionally preserves ad primacy before giving users control. For marketers, small SERP UX tweaks can swing millions in spend and revenue. Here’s what to watch in the coming weeks.

Auction Dynamics & CTR Mix
Grouping ads could concentrate attention on the first two slots, increasing top-of-page CPCs while depressing tail CTRs. If more users collapse ads after the first scroll, impression counts may hold while effective viewability drops. Monitor Absolute Top IS, Top IS, and Search Lost IS (rank) to see who’s winning the condensed attention window. Expect budget to re-consolidate toward high-intent exact and brand terms to offset CTR drag.

Creative & Format Strategy
With a sticky “Sponsored” label, credibility cues matter: richer sitelinks, prices, ratings, and stronger first headline become table stakes. Test data-driven assets and brand-forward CTAs that deliver value fast (“Compare models”, “See sizes & stock”). For Shopping, ensure feed hygiene i.e. titles, images, and price competitiveness, to stand out in a denser visual cluster. Build organic fallbacks (FAQ, comparisons) for collapsed-ads scenarios.

Measurement & Experiments
Set pre/post experiments on key campaigns for CTR, CVR, CPA and incrementality. Layer consent-mode-friendly analytics and MMM to see if collapsed ads shift outcomes to organic or other channels. Build alerts around abrupt CTR deltas on mobile where the UI change hits hardest. If you use RSAs, increase asset diversity to let the model discover variants suited to the grouped layout.

Strategic Rebalancing
Revisit the brand/non-brand split and the share you allocate to retail media and chat surfaces (yes, including ChatGPT commerce). If your category skews research-heavy, fund content and creator SEO to capture post-collapse clicks. For demand capture, lean into first-party audiences and remarketing to claw back users who collapse ads on initial queries. The net-net: agility beats ideology, treat this as a live SERP experiment.

Our takeaway: The button may say “hide,” but the real action is in how quickly marketers adapt creative, bidding, and measurement to a new first-impression frame. Move fast, instrument everything. 📖 Read the full article on Google Ads & Commerce Blog

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A focused walkthrough showing how to generate a campaign with Accelerate, their brand-new AI tool for LinkedIn Ads. Create ad campaigns from brief, to audiences and creatives, then where to override defaults: objectives, placements, and bid strategy. Handy if you’re testing AI-assisted B2B demand gen and want quick guardrails before spend.- watch it here.

A high-level, single-day summit with deep dives on AI, copyright, and regulation, plus sessions on workforce transformation and digital trust. Speakers span government, Big Tech, and UK scale-ups. This will be useful for brand leaders navigating AI governance, content provenance, and enterprise rollout.

Three new roles we think are perfect if you’re ready to upgrade your title and your tech stack: