What Apple and Google’s 2025 updates mean for email and SMS in 2026

What Apple and Google’s 2025 updates mean for email and SMS in 2026

Email and SMS didn’t undergo a seismic shift in 2025, but they did change in ways that materially affected performance and strategy. Three updates, in particular, reshaped how messages are delivered, displayed and engaged with across email and SMS campaigns: Apple’s iOS 18.2 rollout. Gmail’s “Manage subscriptions” feature. Apple’s iOS 26 update introduced an “unknown sender” …

AI governance without strategy is setting marketing teams up to fail

AI governance without strategy is setting marketing teams up to fail

Marketing organizations are racing to adopt AI while simultaneously trying to contain it. About 76.6% of marketers now have AI policies in place, up from 55.3% just a year earlier, per the Association of National Advertisers’ January 2026 survey (registration required). Investment is also surging. Nearly 89% plan to increase AI spending, and two-thirds would …

Loyalty didn’t disappear. Brands traded it away.

Loyalty didn’t disappear. Brands traded it away.

Every few years, loyalty comes under renewed scrutiny. Customers are described as fickle. Switching costs are low. Attention spans are shrinking. The story is familiar: loyalty is no longer realistic in a digital, price-sensitive world.  That framing is convenient and mostly wrong. Loyalty didn’t disappear. Brands diluted it — slowly, deliberately and often unintentionally — …