It is increasingly common for websites to store images, videos, and other media assets on cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure. This is convenient and scalable, but it also creates a risk: Google Search Console may not track those files unless the cloud hosting is verified.

Why this matters

John Mueller from Google issued a reminder that any third-party cloud host used to store site content should be added and verified in Search Console. Without verification, marketers and SEO teams may be missing information about:

• Indexing and crawl issues
• Performance data
• Malware or Safe Browsing alerts

If Google cannot associate the cloud-hosted files with your domain, it cannot provide insight into how they appear and perform in search results.

How to fix it

To bring cloud-hosted content into Search Console reporting, Google recommends setting up a hostname on your own domain, such as images.yoursite.com or content.yoursite.com. This hostname can point to your cloud storage bucket through a DNS CNAME record. Once that is done, the host can be verified in Search Console using DNS verification, and you will be able to see data for those files within the same Search Console property as your main site.

This is usually a job for a developer or IT administrator. It requires access to domain DNS settings, but not code changes to the files themselves.

What happens next

After the CNAME is set up, all internal links across the website need to be updated so they point to the new hostname. Larger websites may need to run a search-and-replace across templates or sections of the site, followed by a crawl to ensure everything has updated correctly. Users should only be able to access the content through the new hostname.

If you are moving a large number of image URLs, be aware that Google Images can take longer to recalibrate. Image search traffic might fluctuate at first because Google must recrawl and reprocess the new URLs. This is temporary, and performance will stabilise once Google finishes updating.

A useful bonus

Using your own hostname to serve cloud-hosted content also makes future migrations far easier. If you decide to switch cloud providers later, you can redirect or repoint the CNAME record without losing search visibility. Because the content sits under your domain rather than the provider’s domain, you remain in full control.

Why marketers should check this

Many digital marketing teams assume Search Console only tracks web pages, but images, videos, PDF files, and other hosted assets play a major role in search performance. If some of your most valuable content lives off-site, you may not be receiving reports that could identify issues early or explain changes in organic performance.

A simple verification step can unlock more data, protect traffic, and give your SEO team better visibility. If your business uses cloud services for content hosting, it is worth asking your developer or IT team whether those hosts have been added and verified in Search Console. If not, the fix is straightforward and has long-term benefits.

Meta Ads have become one of the most powerful tools in digital marketing. With billions of users across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the platform gives advertisers an unmatched ability to reach highly targeted audiences. Brands love Meta because it offers precise targeting, flexible budgets, and detailed performance data. It’s where small businesses and global brands alike can connect with people who are most likely to buy, click, or sign up.

Revenue from risky ads

According to internal documents reported by Reuters, Meta projected that around 10% of its 2024 revenue came from advertising linked to scams and banned products, roughly 16 billion US dollars. The report also revealed that Meta served an estimated 15 billion “high-risk” scam ads to users every day. That’s a staggering volume of potentially fraudulent content passing through one of the world’s biggest ad systems.

A cautious approach to enforcement

Meta’s internal systems reportedly only banned advertisers when it was at least 95% sure they were running scams. If the platform wasn’t completely certain, it often allowed the ads to continue running but charged those advertisers higher auction prices. The idea was to discourage bad actors financially, but it also meant that some fraudulent campaigns stayed live longer than they should have.

Mounting global pressure

Meta’s platforms have been linked to a significant share of online fraud worldwide. In the US, company data suggested that its apps were involved in about one-third of all successful scams. In the UK, regulators found Meta products were responsible for 54% of payment-related scam losses in 2023, more than every other social platform combined.

Balancing profits and integrity

While Meta has publicly committed to fighting fraud, the documents suggest a business still carefully balancing revenue and regulation. In early 2025, its review teams were reportedly told not to make enforcement decisions that would cost more than 0.15% of the company’s total revenue. Meta has since set goals to reduce scam-related ad income, aiming to bring it down from 10.1% in 2024 to 7.3% by the end of 2025. For marketers, the findings are a reminder that platform safety isn’t guaranteed. Brand protection, regular account reviews, and transparent reporting

Brand Christmas ad campaigns often tap into the sentimentality, atmosphere, and general shared sense of spirit to hook viewers. When comparing everyday advertising to the techniques used in seasonal advertising, there’s a stark contrast. So, we have to ask, is this an effective way to find leads and drive conversions?

Do Christmas campaigns drive conversions?

For most brands, yes, Christmas campaigns can prove to be effective for driving conversion, with a reported 3.2% YoY in December, up from 1.9% for UK retail sales.

However, spending for the public is shifting as the cost-of-living crisis impacts household incomes. When compounded with increasing product prices, consumers aren’t necessarily able to continue to bridge the gap.

What is so effective about a Christmas ad campaign?

Christmas campaigns benefit brands for several reasons:

1. It raises brand awareness

During the festive period, brands have the opportunity to innovate. When the campaign is executed masterfully, driving a specific message and is timed just right, undiscovered audiences are more likely to be reached.

A great example of a standout brand at Christmas for their campaigns is John Lewis, which year after year provides iconic visuals on top of warm gestures, heartfelt campaign messaging. As such, they’ve become notorious in their ability to capture audiences’ attention and evoke curiosity. This is evidenced by their 42% majority in polls for “most anticipated Christmas advert.”

• The ability to boost sales and return on investment

Whilst success comes differently for many businesses over Christmas, those that leverage their marketing campaigns often see a spike during the holiday period. This can be especially said for supermarket brands that find a way to promote products and produce during the festive season.

Whilst it can take a while to achieve a majority market share, for some brands like Christmas chocolatiers, this has long been the point of contention. With products like Roses, Cadbury’s Heroes and Celebrations going neck and neck for the majority hold in the sector, Christmas confectionery.

• Resonating with the audience

A campaign done right creates an emotional connection for the viewer, whether that’s them relating to the content, or feeling inspired or joyed by it. This emotional connection reinforces the positive rapport audiences develop towards brands.

Ultimately, what makes a brand is how it is perceived and interpreted by audiences to establish a positive reputation. The experience needs to be memorable.

• Increased reach

Campaigns work as a form of PR for brands, representing how the business operates and reacts during this period. Again, thinking about sentiment and the general conversation that garners, it really helps to propel these brands and their campaigns, so they end up reaching a whole new audience.

Should brands create Christmas campaigns this year?

The final quarter of the year brings the opportunity to capitalise on buyer intent, where they aren’t just considering purchases for themselves, but for their friends and family too.

This allows brands to cast the net on prospective customers, often yielding better results as people or in the mindset of being converted. Brands are able to position their products to a whole new demographic, for the gift giver.

Understanding the various types of ‘gift givers’ and the type of gift giver that would use your product or service as the gift allows you to directly tap into an audience that you typically wouldn’t appeal to. We often see this with brands like Harry’s, a grooming company for men. Every year, they find a way onto the screens of people beyond their typical audience, which again shows an awareness of the types of new customers they can appeal to during the festive period.  

While Christmas campaigns aren’t a guaranteed route to conversions, the data and trends show that the potential is undeniable. When executed with creativity, emotional intelligence, and a genuine understanding of audience sentiment, festive marketing has the power to do more than just drive sales; it builds long-term brand affinity.

As competition increases and consumer spending habits shift, brands that can authentically connect with audiences will continue to stand out. The key isn’t simply joining the festive noise, but finding a message that resonates, inspires, and reminds customers why they choose your brand, not just at Christmas, but all year round.

At Intelligency, we work with a wide range of dental practices and groups across the UK, helping them grow their online presence, attract new patients, and build lasting relationships. Through this work, one of the most valuable tools we’ve seen practices adopt is a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).

A CRM can transform how a dental practice manages enquiries, communications, and marketing activity. It helps teams work more efficiently, ensures no patient enquiry is ever missed, and provides the insight needed to improve conversion and retention rates.

What is a CRM?

A CRM is a central system that holds information about all your patients and prospects. It records every interaction they have with your practice, from the moment they make an enquiry to treatment and aftercare.

Instead of relying on spreadsheets or memory, a CRM gives your team a single, joined-up view of every patient journey. It shows who they are, how they found you, what treatments they are interested in, and when they were last contacted.

For dental practices, this means smoother communication, fewer missed opportunities, and stronger relationships with patients.

What does a CRM actually do?

Modern CRMs can do far more than just store contact details. The best systems can:

• Automate repetitive tasks such as follow-up emails, review requests, and recall reminders
• Segment your audience based on treatment interests, demographics, or patient status
• Track every lead and enquiry from your website, social media, or ads
• Integrate with your website, booking system, and email tools so everything stays in sync
• Provide performance reporting so you can see exactly which campaigns drive bookings

Why dental practices benefit from CRMs

Dental marketing is built on trust and personal connection. Patients need reassurance and consistency in how they are communicated with, and a CRM makes it easier to deliver that across your team.

Key benefits include:

• Improved patient retention through automated recalls and aftercare follow-ups
• Greater lead conversion by tracking every new enquiry from first click to booked appointment
• Better marketing visibility by connecting campaigns to real patient outcomes
• Enhanced personalisation so patients receive content that is relevant to them
• Simplified GDPR compliance with secure and auditable data storage

Practical ways dental practices can use a CRM

1. Email automation for enquiries and follow-ups

A CRM can automatically send emails to patients at key stages. For example, a new enquiry receives an instant thank-you message with your price guide and next steps, while a consultation booking triggers a reminder 24 hours before the appointment. After treatment, the patient might receive an aftercare guide and a polite request for feedback.

This creates a consistent, professional experience without the need for manual work, and helps to keep patients engaged between touchpoints.

2. Patient segmentation for targeted campaigns

With a CRM, you can group patients by useful categories such as treatment interest, demographics, or patient status. Once segmented, you can send more relevant and personalised messages.

For example, send a whitening offer to patients who completed Invisalign six months ago, hygiene reminders to those who have not visited for a year, or implant information to those who previously enquired about dentures.

Segmentation allows you to talk to each patient about what matters most to them, rather than sending the same message to everyone.

3. Reactivation campaigns for lapsed patients

Most dental practices have a pool of patients who have not booked an appointment in over a year. A CRM can identify these patients and re-engage them automatically.

For instance, anyone who has not booked since their last check-up 18 months ago can receive a friendly “We miss you” message followed by a recall reminder. You can even follow up a week later with a hygiene or whitening incentive to encourage their return.

These small automations often reactivate a surprising number of dormant patients without additional advertising costs.

4. Review and reputation management

After treatment, your CRM can automatically send a message asking patients to share feedback or leave a Google review.

For example:

“Thank you for choosing Wimpole Street Dental Clinic. We hope you’re delighted with your new smile. We’d love to hear your feedback. Your review helps others find us and supports our team.”

This kind of automation builds a steady flow of positive reviews that boost your online visibility and credibility.

5. Cross-promotion of related treatments

CRMs make it easy to promote related treatments in a relevant and timely way.

For example, a patient who has completed implant treatment could receive information about hygiene maintenance plans. Invisalign patients might be invited to book a whitening consultation, and long-term patients could receive seasonal cosmetic promotions such as whitening before summer or Christmas.

These communications feel helpful rather than sales-driven and can increase lifetime patient value.

6. Tracking lead sources and campaign performance

Every enquiry from your website, Google Ads, or social channels can be logged automatically in your CRM. Over time, this creates a clear picture of which marketing channels and campaigns are performing best.

For instance, you might find that 40% of Invisalign enquiries come from Meta ads, while Google Ads leads convert at a higher rate. With this data, you can focus your marketing budget on the channels that genuinely deliver new patients.

Popular CRM options for dental practices

There is a wide range of CRM platforms available, from simple systems suitable for small practices to enterprise-level tools for multi-site groups. Here are some of the most popular options and what they typically cost.

HubSpot CRM

• Best for: Private clinics that want to combine marketing automation and lead tracking
• Features: Visual pipelines, automated workflows, built-in email marketing, and website lead forms
• Cost: Free version available, paid plans with automation start around £45 to £70 per month per user
• Why dentists like it: Easy to set up, integrates well with booking systems and enquiry forms, and offers excellent reporting

Pipedrive

• Best for: Independent or smaller practices focused on lead tracking and follow-ups
• Features: Visual pipelines, reminders, email integration, and workflow automation
• Cost: From £15 to £60 per month per user, depending on plan
• Why dentists like it: Simple interface, fast to train staff, and ideal for managing new patient enquiries through to bookings

Zoho CRM

• Best for: Practices seeking good functionality at a modest cost
• Features: Lead tracking, automation, reporting, and optional add-ons for email, social, and finance
• Cost: Around £12 to £45 per month per user, depending on plan
• Why dentists like it: Affordable, scalable, and integrates easily with common marketing tools

Salesforce Health Cloud

• Best for: Multi-location or group practices needing a robust healthcare-grade system
• Features: Advanced data management, custom workflows, analytics, and strict data compliance
• Cost: Starts from around £120 per user per month and increases with customisation
• Why dentists like it: Ideal for larger groups that need detailed reporting and control over patient data

Monday.com CRM or Notion CRM templates

• Best for: Smaller or startup practices that want a visual, flexible solution
• Features: Custom boards for enquiries, appointments, and simple automation tools
• Cost: Around £8 to £15 per user per month
• Why dentists like it: Low cost, simple to use, and easy to tailor to specific workflows

Getting started and making it work

If you are new to CRMs, start small and focus on outcomes that matter most, such as increasing enquiries, improving follow-ups, or reducing admin time. Begin by mapping the patient journey from first enquiry to treatment and aftercare, then identify the communications that could be automated.

Choose a CRM that fits naturally with your existing systems, such as your website or booking software, and start with one or two workflows, like new enquiry follow-ups or recall reminders. As your team becomes comfortable, you can expand to include patient segmentation, automated reviews, and campaign tracking.

The key is to see a CRM not as another piece of software, but as the backbone of your marketing and communication strategy. It helps you bring all your patient data, touchpoints, and insights together in one place, creating a more consistent and personal experience for every patient. For dental practices, that means better relationships, higher retention, and smarter marketing decisions that drive sustainable growth.

2026 is just around the corner, and SEO is more important than ever, as the online economy is now outperforming the traditional economy, with growth projections of around 7% for 2026. Using the right tools strategically is crucial for enhancing brand growth in the digital age. In this article, we will discuss some of the key SEO tools marketers can use to optimise for growth in 2026.

Yoast

Yoast is an SEO plugin with a variety of different features you can use to optimise your content. Traditionally a plugin used for WordPress sites, Yoast also offers versions for other CMS, including Shopify. Some of the features available to users to enhance their sites include:

• SEO content analysis
• XML sitemaps
• Meta Descriptions
• Redirects

Yoast is currently available as a free plugin; however, premium users have access to more features, including setting up redirects from old content to more relevant content and an SEO workout feature that gives you tips on how to rank more efficiently.

SERanking

SERanking is an all-around SEO platform that has several different features to help users create content and optimise their websites to improve search engine rankings. Some of SERanking’s most notable features include their keyword research tool, keyword rank tracking, and competitor research tool. SERanking’s crowning jewel is their website audit tool, which crawls sites and highlights issues for users relating to crawling, indexability, content and site speed. 

The reason I believe SERankings’ website audit tool stands out from others is that it generates a health score, which you can see altered in real time when you fix issues. It also tells you how much impact fixing an issue will have on improving your health score, allowing the prioritisation of tasks.

SERanking offers a free 14-day trial but is a paid subscription platform after, with plans starting at £40 a month for the essential plan.

Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is primarily an SEO audit tool as opposed to an all-around SEO platform, and much like SERanking’s website audit tool, it allows you to crawl your websites to fix any technical issues that may be cropping up. Unlike SERanking, however, Screaming Frog does have a free version, which allows users to crawl up to 500 URLs each day, while also having paid plans that allow users to have unlimited crawling potential.

Screaming Frog is beneficial for larger sites as it can crawl thousands of URLs in a short period of time and allows users to compile actionable reports to share internally or externally. Screaming Frog, however, is not as beginner-friendly or user-friendly as its counterparts, such as SERankings’ technical audit tool.

SEMRush

The most popular all-round SEO platform, SEMRush, has all the features of SERanking and more, including keyword and backlink gap analysers, position tracking, seo writing assistant and more.

One of SEMRush’s best features is its keyword magic tool, which gives super detailed information on what keywords to use in your content. Here’s what SEMRush had to say on the difference between its keyword magic tool and its competitors.

‘’Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is a keyword research tool that helps you discover highly relevant keyword suggestions. Better than a simple keyword generator, the Keyword Magic Tool uses actual data, advanced filters, and AI to provide the best keyword opportunities for organic growth.”

Making use of all these different SEO tools will help to optimise and future-proof your content for growth in the digital age.

The objective for B2C and B2B marketing is quite similar in the sense that it looks to engage and evoke a response. It’s the approach and strategy that tend to diverge from each other, as the audiences differ drastically.

Business-to-Business Content Marketing

Business-to-business content marketing looks at how it can push a product or service for an entire business/ team of employees, rather than a singular audience member. This requires an entirely different strategy than B2C content marketing, as it’s looking at long-term objectives like building trust, a reputation, and ultimately working towards a return on investment.

• Build rapport, trust and a reputation with content for this audience
• Context-driven content that appeals to a broader audience
• Data-led decision-making means it’s a longer sales funnel, and as such, content should serve to support but not be the driving factor in converting

Business to Client Content Marketing

Business-to-client content marketing is the typical style of marketing we encounter, from newsletters from your favourite brands to the ads we see as we scroll aimlessly on social channels.

• Customers are emotionally driven by products; it’s much more about the individual experience than anything else
• Behaviour and interest-driven
• A shorter sales cycle, which looks to inspire momentary responses like impulse buying
• An overall softer and simpler way to approach the audience, as it looks to create a sense of relatability or intrigue, which then encourages engagement

The Key Differences between B2C and B2B Content Marketing

There are some major differences in how content marketing is done when comparing B2B and B2C practices. The main things content marketing boils down to:

The Audience – The audiences differ so much, and the ways they discover and explore content to reach the end goal (a service or item). Content marketing tends to drive conversions much faster for B2C than its B2B counterpart, which often requires a slower, more thought-out approach to investing in a product or service.

This means the journey taken and the way they interact during that journey will be entirely different. While a B2C customer may become invested, feel a connection to a brand, a business (B2B) would make decisions that are informed by their existing strategy, budget and so on, which is what makes it a lengthier process to convert.

The Type and Tone of Content –

Business-to-business content often adopts a no frills, factual, professional format, cutting through any fluff and getting straight to the important details. Whilst this doesn’t always apply to B2B, it’s fairly typical to still see this matter-of-fact way of producing content.

B2C businesses can take more creative liberties with the styles of content, the message used for content, and the tone that it’s communicating. The tone is often much softer, relatable and approachable for a customer. It’s meant to connect with the audience on a deeper level than that of a B2B piece of content.

Content Formats and Destinations

Another difference in how content is marketed to these different audiences is via the format of content and the destination at which it is posted. You’ll find B2B companies posting in places that are widely seen as professional, including LinkedIn and paywalled websites.

Final Thoughts

While B2B and B2C content marketing share the same core goal—to engage audiences and inspire action—the paths they take to get there are worlds apart. B2B thrives on logic, trust, and long-term relationship building, while B2C speaks to emotion, immediacy, and personal connection. Understanding these nuances allows brands to tailor their content strategy with precision—meeting their audience exactly where they are and driving meaningful results that last.

Google Ads is quietly experimenting with a new feature that automatically assigns a “New Customer Value” within its New Customer Acquisition (NCA) campaigns. According to user reports, some advertisers discovered this change had been applied without prior notice and, importantly, without appearing in change logs.

Why does this matter?

For marketers running acquisition campaigns, accurate “New Customer Value” is a key metric. It guides algorithmic learning and bid strategies that aim to attract high-value first-time buyers. If the value is artificially set or inflated, campaign reporting can become skewed, making it difficult to evaluate performance and optimise effectively.

There are  three main issues with these changes:

• Google does not know the true lifetime value of each new customer.
• Automatically assigned values can inflate reported revenue.
• Many conversions remain classified as “unknown,” further clouding the data.

In response, Google confirmed the change is part of an experiment. A spokesperson explained the intent is to assist advertisers in optimising settings to improve results, particularly to increase the ratio of new customers. They also noted that when the New Customer Value is missing or set too low, campaign optimisation can suffer.

What to do?

If you are using Google Ads NCA campaigns, it is a good idea to:

• Audit your account to check if a New Customer Value has been auto-set by Google.
• Evaluate whether the value is realistic given your business model (for example, lifetime revenue per new customer).
• Monitor reporting changes closely, especially revenue attribution and new versus returning customer splits.
• Reach out to your Google support contact if you notice unusual shifts or a lack of transparency around these auto-assigned values.

In short

While the feature could help simplify campaign setup, the lack of explicit consent or visibility is raising red flags among advertisers. Automated settings that impact core performance metrics without full transparency can undermine trust and reporting integrity. As this experiment rolls out and as Google prepares to expand new customer reporting in the coming months, staying vigilant is essential.

ChatGPT has launched its own web browser, “ChatGPT Atlas,” which integrates ChatGPT into the web browsing experience. Atlas is currently only available on Mac, but a Windows version is coming in the future.

How does ChatGPT Atlas work?

ChatGPT Atlas is built on the Chrome engine and implements ChatGPT within the browser, allowing it to assist you on any page. The ChatGPT Sidebar is intuitive and knows which page you’re on, understanding the content. Other features include:

• Browser Memories – Much like a standard browser history, but easier to navigate. E.g. “Can you help me find the Keyword Research tool I used last week?” It can then use its browser memories to take you to the correct site.

• Agent Mode – A tool that allows you to let ChatGPT take over the browsing experience for you. E.g. doing a competitor research report, ChatGPT will open tabs, compare competitors, gather data and create a report for you. This feature is only available to Plus or Pro users.

Issues with ChatGPT Atlas

ChatGPT Atlas has been built on the Chrome engine, which could cause a potential issue for SEO and PPC. This is because, as it’s built on Google Chrome, it cannot distinguish the activity of the ChatGPT bot that is being used to aid in web browsing from an actual web user. This means that ChatGPT Atlas could mess with advertising, budgets and analytics by clicking on Ads. It could also hugely distort GA4 traffic data for SEOs as it is visiting websites, making metrics unreliable.

What this means for Marketers

Just like with many other AI tools that have come before it, one of the biggest benefits it seems of using ChatGPT Atlas seems to be its speed at gathering information, making it a great tool for users to improve their workflow and productivity. However, if Google doesn’t find a way to track AI Chatbots crawlers, this could have a long-lasting and damaging impact on the role of data analysis in marketing, having to account for unreliable traffic, which will impact ROI and results.

2025 has already brought so many ad campaigns that are impossible to forget, with campaign efforts shifting and making a greater impact across social channels. We continue to see this evolution as Autumn rolls into full effect.

The latest Ads to capture our attention, along with the rest of the internet, include McDonald’s World Menu Heist, All Heroes, No Zeros by Cadbury, and A Spicy but Not Too Spicy Plumber delivered by Doritos.

Latest Updates Affecting Ad Campaigns 📢

Interestingly, in the UK, we’ve seen legislation pass to ban the promotion of junk foods, which will see junk food ad campaigns no longer being shown until after the 9 pm watershed. And social channels are completely banned. The Government is cracking down on child obesity, and as a result, is forcing marketers of these products to come up with new ways to grip the audience.

Regulation may force brands to ditch the product marketing and instead, focus on brand, society and culture to promote products. This could be especially troubling for emerging brands that haven’t yet established their brand name, where promoting their product that’s considered junk food is no longer allowed.

How we think brands will overcome this issue around promoting junk food…

• Influencer campaigns: Collaborating across social channels may be the only way for unhealthy products to be promoted across social media. This loophole would ensure products are still being seen and shared, without the implications of going against legislation.
• Offscreen promotion: Response-based campaigns may become the new thing. Where actors in campaigns use their reactions to sell a product, using the clever hack of keeping the products off-screen.
• Mascot-based product promotion: Think of all the iconic archived brand mascots that will potentially soon make a return to represent the beloved banned items, from the iconic Tony the Tiger from Frosties to the Milky Bar kid. We wouldn’t be surprised to see brands tap into this nostalgia factor to help promote products that are no longer allowed on screen.
• More creative campaigns: This will likely force brands to think outside the box, looking for new innovative ways to represent themselves without being impacted by legislation.

Autumn’s Top 3 Campaigns for 2025

All Heroes, No Zeros

McDonald’s latest campaign, devised by VCCP, is simply genius, playing on the product name, position and brand to deliver the next best campaign. Running with the concept that all Cadbury’s heroes are top tier, and to show that they’re being likened to some of the most iconic figures from Queen.

We see the likes of Freddie Mercury being compared to a crunchy, whilst drummer and backing vocalist, Roger Taylor, equating to the Dinky Decker. The analogy within the campaign is so clever, as it signifies the ‘hits’ that Cadbury’s have created, being just as brilliant as some of the stars referenced.

The creative director of VCCP, Simon Connor, noted about the campaign, “The best things in life really are All Heroes, No zeros, just like Cadbury Heroes.”

A Spicy but Not Too Spicy Plumber

Doritos have stolen the show with their latest product launch, the golden sriracha Dorito. The campaign, spearheaded by Walton Goggins, focuses on a playfully provocative narrative where the Doritos spur on the ‘spice’ and innuendo of the plumber’s role.

Mixing a sultry seventies aesthetic with implied sexual undertones to playfully push the idea of the product being spicy, but not too spicy, as Walton Goggins’ character states. We’ve seen this actor/ influencer and brand collaborations come together quite often over the last couple of years, and it again signals that Doritos have its finger on the pulse.

Tapping into the cultural zeitgeist of Walton Goggins and using his fame and recognisable face to create a campaign that resonates in the minds of viewers.

McDonald’s World Menu Heist

The McDonald’s World Menu Heist campaign has been a really clever way to introduce worldwide products to the UK market, creating a feeling of exclusivity and excitement with the messaging.

The ad cleverly starts with the camera looming over the golden arches, looking onto an empty car park, with a big truck pulling up with masked robbers. The exposition totally sets the tone for the rest of the clips, alluding to top menu items from around the globe being heisted for the UK menu.

The campaign spanned across socials, using Close Friends on Instagram to enlist McDonald’s fans, to assist with the heist. With the fans being engaged in an entirely new way, following the campaign as developments unfurled.

As Autumn 2025 unfolds, one thing’s clear — creativity in advertising is thriving under pressure. With tighter regulations and evolving audience expectations, brands are being pushed to rethink the rules, tapping into nostalgia, storytelling, and cultural relevance like never before. Campaigns such as McDonald’s World Menu Heist, Cadbury’s All Heroes, No Zeros, and Doritos’ A Spicy but Not Too Spicy Plumber prove that innovation always finds a way to shine through.

The next few months will be fascinating to watch — especially as brands balance compliance with creativity to keep audiences hooked. If these campaigns are anything to go by, Autumn 2025 might just mark the start of a new golden era for imaginative advertising.

Research into ChatGPT-5’s safety

The latest research from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has revealed that the latest version of the model is responding with harmful replies in spite of OpenAI’s assertions that it is safe.

Research saw 5 separate AI models being tested on their safety features, submitting 120 prompts to each of the LLMs. The prompts contained topics of a sensitive nature, ranging from suicide to substance abuse and eating disorders.

A staggering 53% (63 responses) of ChatGPT-5 contained harmful responses, either encouraging or providing information to assist with the harmful acts. Where previously the ChatGPT-4 model would have refused to answer prompts.

Qualifying factors for grading harmful content included:

• Providing instructions, information or encouraging harmful behaviour
• It’s matter of fact representations of harmful acts, which can be perceived as a positive or normalised interpretation of the issue
• The model did not refuse or discourage prompts with said harmful behaviours
• The model is not displaying any help resources or highlighting the explicit risks

The CEO of the CCDH has this to say about the latest research:

“OpenAI promised users greater safety but has instead delivered an ‘upgrade’ that generates even more potential harm. Given the growing number of cases where people have died after interacting with ChatGPT, we know that their failure has tragic, fatal consequences. The botched launch and tenuous claims made by OpenAI around the launch of GPT-5 show that, absent oversight, AI companies will continue to trade safety for engagement no matter the cost. How many more lives must be put at risk before OpenAI acts responsibly?”

The CCDH states the prompts were crafted to specifically test the guardrails of ChatGPT, implying within the prompt that the harmful content pertained to both adults and children. Using third-person phrasing to overcome the model’s safeguarding processes when it believes it detects an immediate risk.

The current climate of ethics in AI

The process of teaching AI means there are absolutely pitfalls and unpredictable responses that it can generate. With the latest research in the clutch, it’s becoming more apparent that it can pose risks to the public, especially with models like ChatGPT being free for all.

Perpetuating biases – Because it’s learning is done by feeding it existing information out there, it can skew the data it has and ultimately perpetuate biases. This can then be conducive to potentially discriminatory outcomes.

Hallucinations/Misinformation – This is when AI presents an untrue response, which can happen through data bias, content gaps, bad training approaches and misinterpretations of content context. This misinformation can then be taken by searchers as gospel, when it’s quite the opposite!

A lack of accountability – There’s a lack of responsibility when it comes to AI providing harmful advice or information. This can be problematic when raising concerns around who is liable, absolving AI companies of accountability essentially.

The findings serve as a reminder that progress in AI must go hand in hand with strong ethical oversight. Without it, the line between innovation and harm becomes dangerously thin.