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Morning, gap-hunters.

Live shopping is crossing over, audio keeps stealing quiet budget, and search is fragmenting in ways your 2023 playbook cannot track…

GAP OF THE WEEK: “Live Shopping Is The New Sales Floor”

The hole:
Most brands still treat live shopping like a novelty. They wait for Q4, throw one stream, then declare it “not for us.”

The wedge:
Treat live as a weekly storefront. TikTok Shop sellers are calling the channel “explosive,” with seasoned Amazon operators shifting time and inventory toward TikTok affiliates and live sessions. Results vary by category, but lower-price, impulse-friendly goods are printing. (Business Insider)

Why now:

• TikTok Shop is expanding internationally, including a push into Japan, while Western markets ramp live commerce. Expansion is uneven, but the direction is clear. (Financial Times)

• U.S. TikTok Shop sales are up about 120 percent year to date versus 2024. If your catalog fits social impulse, this is not optional. (Social Media Today)

• Category proof points are stacking up. UK jewelry brands report double-digit revenue shares from TikTok Shop and frequent live sessions. High-ticket items benefit more on awareness than direct conversion. (Vogue Business)

Exit vision:
Stand up a 4-week live cadence.

Three formats work: quick haul with affiliate codes, “how we use it” demos, and limited time drops.

Stream three to five times per week, rotate two faces, and measure view-to-cart and new customer rate.

Treat each stream like a mini-landing page with tight product sets and pinned offers. Calibrate expectations by price point and margin.

Backstop with creators who already stream in your niche.

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SPOTLIGHT: YouTube Shopping’s Quiet Upgrade

YouTube is broadening its Shopping affiliate program through agency partnerships across multiple countries, while the core program lets creators tag products and drive sales directly from videos. For brands that prefer creator content over live marathons, this is the cleanest bridge into video commerce. (PPC Land, Google Help)

Why it matters:
Creators already own attention inside YouTube. Give them clear bundles, tracked links, and fast shipping pages. Your “live” alternative is evergreen video that sells daily.

⚡ 30-SECOND GAP

WhatsApp As Micro-CRM
→ Run Click-to-WhatsApp ads and use Broadcast lists or a Channel for drops and post-purchase upsells. Short message, one offer, one tap to pay link.

Turbo Marketing Headlines

• Broadway glow-up marketing: Korres inks official skincare deal with Mamma Mia! so the cast’s glow doubles as product placement and backstage UGC fuel.

• WNBA sponsorships keep climbing: 450 brands spent about 76 million last season across 531 deals, Mercury lead revenue with Bally Bet, Fever lead in number of partners. (SponsorUnited)

• Emi Jay’s smart pivot pays: accessories darling expands into styling products, Sephora launch drives hair care up 42% year over year and overall revenue up 34%. (Revenue Brew)

• Threads keeps stacking users: Meta’s text app hits a new milestone and is closing the gap with rivals, worth reassessing your posting mix. (French Press roundup)

• Super Bowl ads that earn the price: brands share what makes the splurge convert instead of trend for one day then vanish. (Ad Age via French Press)

• Google’s “Preferred Sources” test matters: some searches now let users pick favored outlets, a signal to deepen publisher relationships and schema hygiene. (French Press roundup)

• YouTube’s creator math is changing: platform pushes both TV screens and Shorts, raising questions on production costs, CPMs, and how midsize creators survive. (From the Crew)

• Tariffs hit SMBs hard: new estimate pegs small business drag at roughly 202 billion, plan margin buffers and pricing updates now. (Bloomberg citing U.S. Chamber)

• Brand measurement confidence is shaky: marketers say measurement matters, budgets say otherwise, tighten lift studies and MMM before Q4. (Marketing Week)

• Summer of the influencer engagement: audiences reward real interaction over gloss, shift budget to comments, lives, and replies instead of static posts. (The Cut)

WEEK IN 3 TWEETS

1) Cash is King

2) When you get smacked by common sense

3) You forgot the part where you have to pay to play.

STAT OF THE DAY

120 percent: U.S. TikTok Shop sales growth so far in 2025 versus the same period in 2024. Translation: the cart is moving to the feed. (Social Media Today)

VIRAL STORY OF THE DAY

From TikTok To Walmart In Four Months

Creator-backed candy brand 1UP Candy moved from idea to Walmart shelves in roughly four months, co-founded with YouTuber FaZe Rug, and shows how creator distribution can compress retail timelines. If you sell consumables, your pitch deck is now a channel plan plus proof of demand, not a long buyer meeting. (Forbes)

⏭ CLOSING LOOP

Publishing Monday through Friday.
Forward this to the teammate still scheduling one stream per quarter and hoping for miracles.