The Friday Brief
Your weekly dose of marketing news 6.27.25
Happy Friday, Briefers! This week, AI-powered carousels and chatty search turn YouTube into your new best friend, Instagram’s Edits app levels up to studio-grade, and X’s DAU/MAU spikes thanks to the Musk–Trump showdown—while LinkedIn and Threads hand you the ultimate feed controls. Brands from Liquid Death (Ozzy guzzles iced tea!) to Burger King’s billboard hijack, M&S’s Wimbledon sando, and Greenpeace crashing Bezos’s Venetian wedding prove stunts still reign supreme. And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve got exoplanet selfies from James Webb, robotaxis doing phantom brakes, and Anna Wintour bowing out at Vogue. Strap in—your scroll stops here.
📱 5 Social Moves You Need to Know This Week
YouTube’s AI Discovery Duo
YouTube rolls out AI-powered search carousels to surface curated video highlights and expands its conversational AI to more U.S. users—turning every query into an interactive recommendation engine.
Instagram Edits flips on precision keyframes & studio-grade audio
Instagram’s standalone Edits app just unlocked frame-by-frame keyframe controls (with text, sticker, overlay, and cutout support on the way), added sticky-note–style saved audio in the Ideas tab, voice enhancement to kill background noise, and a fresh batch of text effects—all in one mobile editor.
X sees DAU/MAU ratio spike to 45% after Musk–Trump fallout
X reports its daily-to-monthly active user ratio jumped to 45%—an 8% lift—right after Elon Musk and Donald Trump went public with their feud.
LinkedIn gives articles and newsletters a video facelift
You can now upload 16:9 header videos to your LinkedIn articles and newsletters—because nothing beats motion to snag a scroller’s eye.
Threads simplifies your scroll
Threads is rolling out a cleaner mobile feed design—swipe between Home, Following, and For You streams to zero in on the convos you actually care about.
🔍 SEO: What’s Hot
Google lets you pick your news VIPs
Google’s new Preferred Sources test (US & India via Search Labs) lets you star your go-to publishers so Top Stories highlights the outlets you actually trust.
Search habits are shifting: 2.5 B users embrace alternatives
The new “Beyond Traditional Search” guide shows how 2.5 billion people now pick platforms by values and preferences
🎨 Cool Campaigns
Liquid Death drinks up metal legends
Metal god Ozzy Osbourne guzzled ten cans of Liquid Death Iced Tea on camera for new promo. LD launch a hyper-limited run of iced tea cans that come infused with actual Ozzy Osbourne DNA.
Burger King trolls McDonald’s Big Arch
BK reverses a digi-van to block McDonald’s Big Arch burger billboard—then slaps its own flame-grilled message in prime view.
M&S serves a strawberries & cream sando
Following in Subway’s shoes, M&S’s limited-edition Red Diamond Strawberries & Crème Sandwich tucks juicy berries and whipped cream cheese between sweetened brioche—summer picnic goals. Just in time for Wimbledon!
King’s Hawaiian gets a fluffy glow-up
To mark its 75th anniversary, Mrs&Mr rebranded King’s Hawaiian —turning classic sweet rolls into a modern design feast.
Activists crash Bezos’ Venetian wedding
Greenpeace and “Everyone Hates Elon” protesters unfurled a giant banner in St. Mark’s Square—“If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax
Burnable Billboards show sun damage live
Wonderhood and the British Skin Foundation’s “Burnable Billboard” uses real-time UV data and AI to morph healthy skin into blistering visuals on DOOH screens—scanning a QR code even delivers on-the-spot sun safety tips
Trip Advisor Get Punchy With Things To Do
More fly on the wall than lavish destination shots, packaging the experience of joy and chaos for young travelers who prefer living in the moment is the goal for these 15 second spots.
🧙 Weird & Wonderful
Unilever dives into men’s grooming with Dr. Squatch buy
Unilever inks a deal to scoop up natural, Gen Z–beloved Dr. Squatch soaps, body washes, and deodorants—doubling down on influencer-driven growth in men’s personal care. How many Sydney Sweeney bathsoaps did they really sell?
Google Launches Doppl: Your AI-Powered Virtual Closet
Google Labs’ new Doppl app uses AI to map any outfit—from thrift-store snaps to social-scroll finds—onto a digital you, generating both static try-ons and shareable videos.
James Webb spots a Saturn-size exoplanet
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope used high-contrast coronagraph imaging to reveal TWA 7b—a cold, Saturn-mass world orbiting a nearby young star, marking Webb’s first exoplanet capture since its 2021 launch.
Tesla’s robotaxis are still finding their lane
Early riders caught the new Austin fleet veering into the wrong lane and slamming on “phantom brakes” for ghost obstacles—a full list of all the Tesla fumbles here
Trump pushes crypto as mortgage collateral
The Trump administration is ordering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to formally weigh applicants’ crypto holdings—bitcoin, ether, and stablecoins—as part of mortgage risk assessments.
Anna Wintour bows out as Vogue EIC
After 37 years calling the shots, Anna Wintour is stepping down as American Vogue’s editor-in-chief—though she’ll stay on as Met Gala co-chair and Condé Nast’s global editorial boss.
Soft Baroque’s Dancing Bench brings street seats to life
At Concéntrico 2025 in Logroño, Spain, Soft Baroque’s kinetic bench subtly sways and twists under your weight—turning a simple sit into a mesmerizing ripple of motion and optical play.