Each day, New Digital Age gathers the most interesting digital marketing industry news from around the web…
AI
Digiday – Krystal Scanlon, 6th August 2026
OpenAI brings product carousels to ChatGPT ads
OpenAI is launching an ad carousel. The format, which has been seen via screenshots and verified by Digiday, shows a product carousel that allows multiple products to appear within a single ChatGPT ad placement, at the bottom of a user’s conversation — the same way a typical single product ad would appear.
PPC Land – Luis Rijo, 5th August 2026
PubMatic guardrails block AI agents from unapproved ad inventory
PubMatic guardrails halt AI ad agents at a locked gate until a human approves the buy
PubMatic today opened a five-step governance layer inside AgenticOS, its autonomous buying platform, restricting what AI agents can transact and recording every decision they make. Rise, a Quad agency, is among the first partners piloting it, one day before the company reports a quarter its own guidance places in decline.
RADIO
The Media Leader – Charli West, 6th August 2026 (also in Advanced Television, Little Black Book, RadioToday, Prolific North, Press Gazette, Decision Marketing)
Rajar Q2 2026: A record 51m people listen to UK radio each week
A record 51m people listened to UK radio each week in Q2, up 2% year-on-year, according to the latest Rajar figures.
CREATOR
Advanced Television – 5th August 2026
Disney, TikTok sign creator content-sharing deal
The Walt Disney Company and TikTok have announced a global deal that will bring fans and creators alike a new way to discover and create content utilising scenes and moments from Disney content
ROUND UP
ExchangeWire – Sheila Obeng-King, 6th August 2026
Digest: Apple Expands OpenAI Data Theft Claims; Grubhub & 40 Brands Test ChatGPT Ad Measurement
In today’s Digest, we discuss Apple’s escalation of its OpenAI trade secrets case, including its request for an injunction and expedited discovery, OpenAI’s integration with AppsFlyer to bring in-app measurement to ChatGPT Ads and, Snapchat’s push to attract small businesses with a more focused advertising platform
AdExchanger – Allison Schiff, 6th August 2026
A Retarget On Their Back; FuboTV Touts Its Tie-Up With Disney
Criteo Loses A Comma. Criteo shares dropped by 24% yesterday after reporting sluggish, down-trending Q2 earnings. The company’s market cap dipped below $1 billion for the first time since the 2020 stock market crash.
Bloomberg – Upmanyu Trivedi, 5th August 2026
Google to Face UK Class Action for Alleged Abuse of Ad Power
Alphabet Inc.’s Google faces a class action lawsuit over alleged abuse of its dominance after an antitrust tribunal allowed a claim on behalf of hundreds of thousands of British firms to go ahead.
PUBLISHERS
PPC Land – Luis Rijo, 5th August 2026
Advertising drops to 15% of News Corp revenue as digital reaches 61%
News Corporation today reported fiscal 2026 revenues of $9.03 billion and Total Segment EBITDA of $1.63 billion, both records on a continuing operations basis, while advertising settled at 15 percent of the revenue mix and grew nothing at all once currency movements are stripped out.
SOCIAL
Prolific North – Karl Holbrook, 6th August 2026
‘Virality is not a strategy’: New research challenges social-first thinking
Brands are at risk of sacrificing long-term growth by becoming trapped in a “social sprint” as marketing budgets continue to shift towards social media and creator content, according to new research from WARC.
