The collaboration seeks to address one of retail media’s longstanding challenges: the disconnect between media metrics and merchant priorities.

While retail media has increasingly adopted the language of digital advertising—focusing on impressions, reach, click-through rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS)—retailers have traditionally measured success differently, prioritising sell-through, product velocity, and margin performance.

As a result, sponsored products and organic listings have often been ranked separately, creating situations where products that perform well in ad auctions may not necessarily support broader commercial objectives.

Under the partnership, Zitcha and Pentaleap aim to bridge that divide through a unified ranking approach that evaluates sponsored and organic products within a single system.

The integration combines Pentaleap’s ranking technology with Zitcha’s merchant decisioning capabilities to ensure media investments are informed by factors such as product relevance, likelihood of conversion, and margin contribution.

At the centre of the collaboration is Margin Manager, Zitcha’s merchant intelligence layer, which feeds product-level margin insights into Pentaleap’s auction and ranking engine.

Pentaleap, in turn, governs how products are ranked and served by connecting multiple demand sources—including ad servers, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and major platforms such as Teads and Amazon Ads—to a unified decision-making framework.

The companies said the resulting model enables retailers to adopt a “best-of-breed” technology stack without overhauling their existing systems.

Designed to be ad-stack agnostic and privacy compliant, the solution operates within retailers’ own data environments and can integrate with existing search, personalisation, campaign management, and demand partner systems.

Rather than requiring retailers to replace current infrastructure, the combined offering is intended to improve existing capabilities incrementally.

“For too long, retail media networks have operated in isolation using digital advertising metrics that do not speak the language of the merchant,” said Troy Townsend, Co-Founder and CEO of Zitcha.

“Our partnership with Pentaleap introduces a shared language. By infusing margin-aware insights into the media workflow, we ensure retail and media grow together while producing evidence that retailers can trust.”

Andreas Reiffen, Co-Founder and CEO of Pentaleap, added that the ranking process remains one of the most critical moments in the shopper journey.

“The ranking decision is the moment of truth. If organic and sponsored products are ranked by separate systems, neither can be optimised,” he said.

“Pentaleap rewrites that decision so organic and sponsored products are judged against the same standard of relevance, media performance, and product margin. Partnering with Zitcha delivers a best-in-class stack that plugs into existing retail systems to improve them incrementally.”

As retail media networks mature and retailers seek stronger proof of commercial impact, the partnership reflects a growing industry shift towards balancing advertising performance with merchant outcomes.

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The six-part series — created in collaboration with WPPCP, WPP Media, WPP Production, and Ogilvy ANZ — features Asian influencers in place of traditional actors, reimagining familiar K-drama tropes such as awkward blind dates and disapproving relatives.

Across the episodes, Colgate Optic White Purple is positioned as a narrative device within the storyline, with each instalment centred on moments of social discomfort that transition into expressions of confidence. The product is integrated into the narrative and linked to character development throughout the series.

The campaign reflects the brand’s broader push to expand its K-beauty positioning, with a shift towards episodic, social-first storytelling distributed across TikTok and key regional markets in Asia Pacific.

Featured influencers include Andrea Nicole and Evan Tan from the Philippines, Malle Christian Anderson and Siti Khadijah Halim from Malaysia, and Baby Jingko and Cute Kiw from Thailand.

In a TikTok-exclusive activation, the campaign also invites users to create their own storylines to respond to AI-generated antagonists, positioning the initiative as an effort to open up storytelling participation and highlight human creativity in contrast to artificial intelligence.

“We are incredibly proud to unveil the next evolution of the incredibly successful Colgate Optic White Purple franchise with our social-first ‘Purple Café’ K-drama series,” said Samir Singh, EVP Marketing, Colgate-Palmolive, Asia Pacific. “We recognise that the way people consume media and content has dramatically changed, especially on TikTok. Our campaign takes our association with Korean beauty and culture to a whole new level, presenting our product not just as a beauty essential but as a pivotal character that transforms our influencer protagonists’ confidence in fun, cheeky ways.”

The full episodic series is available on the Colgate Thailand, Colgate Philippines, and Colgate Malaysia TikTok channels.

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According to the study, nearly half (49%) of Asia Pacific travellers use AI to discover destinations and travel ideas as its most common use case, while also utilizing it to gather reviews (41%) and discover local tours and experiences (35%), complementing traditional travel websites and social media.

This suggests that travellers are becoming more deliberate in how they plan holidays amid rising costs and global uncertainty, using AI and digital tools to make trips more practical, flexible, and personalised while reducing uncertainty before they travel rather than travelling less.

Travellers are also increasingly carrying out detailed research before booking, checking accommodation, insurance, visa requirements and local developments before departure, with AI simplifying their planning process by making information easier to access and compare.

Alongside AI, payment confidence has become a crucial part of pre-trip planning, with 33% of respondents citing payment security as their biggest travel concern and 27% worried about card acceptance, which reflects a growing reliance on digital payments as 73% of travellers now carry payment cards or mobile wallets during their trips.

The report also highlights that travellers are balancing careful planning with flexibility. Nearly four in five (79%) book accommodation before travelling, while only 51% secure activities in advance. 

Most dining (72%) and transport (65%) decisions are made after arriving at their destination, allowing travellers to adapt their plans based on local recommendations and experiences.

While planning habits are evolving, Asia Pacific travellers continue to favour destinations closer to home. Around 63% travelled within the region, with Japan remaining the most popular destination, followed by Australia, Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong. 

Beyond familiar locations, travellers are increasingly planning holidays around food, culture and major live events, with 37% prioritising unique local experiences and one in four travelling for sporting or entertainment events.

“The latest Global Travel Intentions study  affirms the importance of travel to Asia Pacific. Travel is not slowing – it is becoming more planned,  purposeful, and intentional,” explained Danielle Jin, Chief Marketing Officer at Visa Asia Pacific. 

“As digital-first travellers seek familiar sights and plan more practically, what  matters is how destinations, businesses, and issuers enable every traveller to explore the places they love 

in their own way, from using AI to help travellers pursue their passions, values, and aspirations to  delivering secure and seamless payment experiences at every stage of their journeys,” added Jin. 

The findings are based on Visa’s 2026 Global Travel Intentions study, which surveyed more than 47,000 consumers worldwide, including over 17,000 respondents across Asia Pacific. 

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Running until 13 September 2026, the campaign transforms two Scoot aircraft—an Airbus A321neo and a Boeing 787 Dreamliner—into flying tributes to the iconic superhero, complete with exterior decals, Spider-Man headrest covers, and a specially curated onboard soundtrack inspired by the upcoming film.

The collaboration marks Scoot’s latest effort to elevate the passenger experience beyond affordable travel, blending entertainment with aviation through immersive brand partnerships.

The themed aircraft will make their inaugural journeys on 30 June, when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner departs for Tokyo (Haneda), followed by the Airbus A321neo’s first Spider-Man-themed flight to Chiang Mai on 1 July.

Following these debut services, the aircraft will rotate across selected routes in Australia, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand. Due to regular scheduling operations, some passengers may unexpectedly find themselves aboard one of the themed flights.

The Spider-Man experience begins even before take-off. Travellers departing from Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1 can encounter themed installations at the check-in area, setting the stage for the adventure ahead.

Passengers can also purchase exclusive collaboration merchandise onboard, including limited-edition flight tags and foldable eco bags, while stocks last and subject to terms and conditions.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day, bringing our customers a truly immersive and memorable travel experience,” said Calvin Chan, Chief Commercial Officer at Scoot.

“Beyond our continual efforts to deliver quality service and value, this collaboration demonstrates Scoot’s commitment to constantly push boundaries and look for innovative ways to delight our customers.”

Customers looking to secure a seat on the themed services can identify eligible flights through Scoot’s website, mobile app, and WeChat Mini Program.

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Created by marketers for marketers, the programme offers short-form, social-first courses designed for professionals at all career stages, particularly those unable to commit to extended learning sessions.

The launch comes as agentic AI reshapes marketing workflows. Data from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph, which spans 1.3 billion members, 71 million companies and 42,000 skills, shows AI as the top priority skill area for marketers. It also indicates that job postings requiring AI literacy have risen 113% year-on-year.

Adobe said the initiative aligns with its broader focus on building tools and platforms that support creativity, productivity and customer experience orchestration, noting that 99% of Fortune 100 companies use AI in its applications. LinkedIn, meanwhile, said its learning platform is designed to provide insights into evolving workforce needs and close emerging skills gaps.

Rachel Thornton, Chief Marketing Officer, Enterprise at Adobe, said, “Marketers everywhere are eager to embrace AI but need the right skills to do it with confidence. AI Essentials for Marketers is about more than mastering new tools; it’s about reimagining what creativity, marketing strategy, and customer relationships look like in an AI-powered era.”

She added, “Through Adobe and LinkedIn’s partnership, marketers can now access hundreds of hours of content, training, videos and expertise from a global community of marketers and technologists who are using and shaping AI and marketing tools and products. Training and re-skilling are top of mind for CMOs, and at Adobe we are excited to partner with LinkedIn to make it easier and faster for teams to learn and train on what’s next for marketing, creativity and AI.” 

The programme builds on Adobe Digital Academy and LinkedIn Learning and will be available free of charge on LinkedIn Learning, with additional content hosted on Adobe Experience League. It includes four role-based courses covering digital marketing, content and creative, social and communications, and data and analytics, available in 47 languages.

It will also provide certificates of completion that can be added to users’ LinkedIn profiles.

“Marketers are navigating the shift to AI, and it is both daunting and exciting,” said Jessica Jensen, Chief Marketing Officer, LinkedIn. “LinkedIn’s labour market report provides insights for marketers to see where the industry is going and to understand the skills they will need to be successful both in their current job and for what’s next in their careers. Together with Adobe, we’re helping make AI skills accessible to every marketer — not just technical specialists — through scalable, practical learning designed for the realities of modern work.” 

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The collaboration is designed to help businesses operationalise AI at scale as demand grows for faster, more personalised, and intelligent customer experiences, aiming to move past simple AI pilots to help brands build AI systems that deliver measurable business outcomes across marketing operations, customer engagement, and commerce.

Through the agreement, WPP Enterprise Solutions will combine its engineering and customer experience expertise with AWS’ generative and agentic AI technologies to develop scalable AI solutions for enterprise clients. 

The collaboration also supports growing industry demand for AI-powered marketing, with Gartner forecasting that 60% of brands will use agentic AI to deliver one-to-one customer interactions by 2028.

As part of the collaboration, WPP Enterprise Solutions will expand a portfolio of production-ready offerings built on AWS, including an Amazon Marketing Cloud Centre of Excellence to strengthen audience intelligence and measurement, a Composable Content Engine powered by Amazon Bedrock that enables local teams to create brand-compliant creative assets at scale, and Agentic CX and Commerce Accelerators that help businesses deploy autonomous marketing, personalisation and commerce workflows more quickly.

According to WPP Enterprise Solutions, enterprise clients using its Composable Content Engine have achieved up to a 90% reduction in production time and a 40% reduction in content creation costs, demonstrating how AI can improve operational efficiency while maintaining brand governance.

“This collaboration with AWS is about one thing: helping our clients turn generative and agentic AI from experiments into operating systems for their businesses,” said Jeff Geheb, CEO at WPP Enterprise Solutions. 

“We already build and operate production AI on AWS for the world’s biggest brands. This SCA reinforces the shared commitment, engineering depth, and go-to-market alignment to deliver at even greater scale,” added Geheb. 

The collaboration also highlights how AI is moving from experimentation into everyday business operations, with WPP Enterprise Solutions stating that its engineers will continue building and operating AI systems directly on AWS to help brands integrate generative and agentic AI into customer experiences at enterprise scale.

“WPP Enterprise Solutions engineers build and operate production AI directly on AWS for some of the world’s most recognizable brands, and together we’re scaling a proven model that’s already delivering measurable outcomes for customers,” shared Ruba Borno, Vice President of Global Specialists and Partners at AWS. 

One example is equipment rental company United Rentals, which worked with WPP Enterprise Solutions and AWS to develop Equipment Agent, an AI-powered recommendation solution built on Amazon Bedrock technologies that improved customers’ ability to identify suitable equipment by around 70% during internal testing, with the company now planning to expand additional AI applications across its business.

“With WPP Enterprise Solutions engineering and Amazon Bedrock anchoring it, we have moved generative and agentic AI from ideas to production at the pace our business demands and believe this SCA supports continued development,” said Tony Leopold, Chief Technology & Strategy Officer at United Rentals.

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Available within the IAS Pulse publisher platform, Quality Connect is designed to address a long-standing transparency gap between buyers and sellers. It enables publishers to understand, report on and align with advertiser campaign settings across brand safety, suitability, fraud prevention and other media quality criteria.

Publishers are often required to meet advertiser quality standards without full visibility into how those settings are configured, which can lead to under-delivery, unnecessary impression blocking, operational friction between ad operations teams and agencies, and missed optimisation opportunities. With greater insight into advertiser preferences, Quality Connect is intended to reduce wasted impressions, improve delivery efficiency and surface campaign issues earlier in the process.

Quality Connect introduces three capabilities for IAS Pulse publisher clients, available when advertisers opt to share campaign preferences. 

Campaign Transparency provides direct visibility into advertiser-defined media quality settings, including brand safety categories, risk tolerance, fraud prevention criteria, brand suitability and contextual avoidance segments, and keyword exclusions, as well as geo and language targeting, helping publishers align delivery from the outset. 

Campaign Reporting enables publishers to run on-demand, in-flight performance reporting across metrics such as viewability, invalid traffic and brand safety, allowing earlier optimisation and clearer visibility into campaign performance while it is still running. 

Campaign Segments consolidates advertiser-defined fraud, brand safety, suitability and keyword avoidance criteria into a single dynamic avoidance segment within IAS Pulse, which automatically updates as preferences change, helping publishers maintain alignment, reduce wasted impressions and minimise manual operational effort.

By linking advertiser campaign preferences with publisher delivery and optimisation workflows in a consent-based environment, Quality Connect is positioned to improve alignment and operational efficiency across the digital advertising ecosystem. 

IAS said the solution supports more consistent campaign delivery against intended quality standards, while helping publishers strengthen buyer relationships and improve overall performance outcomes.

“The quality of a media buy shouldn’t be a secret,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of Integral Ad Science. “For too long, publishers and advertisers have had to work across information gaps that create friction, waste, and missed opportunity. Quality Connect gives both sides a more transparent way to work together – helping publishers deliver against advertiser standards with confidence, while giving advertisers greater trust in the quality and performance of their media investments.” 

Quality Connect is available to publishers within the IAS Pulse UI. Campaign Transparency is available at no additional cost, while Campaign Reporting and Campaign Segments are expected to roll out in Q3 2026.

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The campaign centres on a 30-second hero film that follows five students across disciplines, including journalism, electronics and information engineering, robotics, industrial design, and multimedia entertainment. 

Rather than a single narrative arc, the film stitches together parallel student experiences, reflecting the shifting pace and uncertainty of campus life as ideas are developed, tested, and reworked. Across these moments, Mac is positioned as a constant across changing academic demands.

Filmed on university campuses in China, the campaign goes live on June 15 across digital and social channels, aligning with the post-exam period when students typically transition into planning and preparation for the year ahead.

Three additional 15-second films expand on individual student workflows and will be released on June 22, each anchored on a specific Mac capability.

In “Apple silicon”, electronics and information engineering student Li Yixuan works across 3D rendering and AI coding as she develops Emobird, an emotional support doll project, using a MacBook Pro for both creative and technical tasks.

“Continuity” follows Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics student Wu Tianyu, who moves an error message from his iPhone to his MacBook Pro using Universal Clipboard, streamlining the debugging process for a robotics application.

“Battery” features journalism student Wang Yan, who conducts interviews across campus and relies on the MacBook Air’s battery life to sustain her work throughout the day.

The campaign features MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Neo, each positioned for different user segments.

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Developed with creative and content partner WondrLab India, the campaign centres on a 10-episode series that moves away from traditional awareness campaigns and instead focuses on honest, human conversations. 

Rather than framing cancer as a battle to be won, the campaign encourages a more compassionate dialogue centred on care, resilience, and shared experiences.

‘Voice of Courage’ brings together a diverse range of voices, including healthcare professionals, researchers, a cancer survivor and filmmaker Amole Gupte, with each episode exploring a different aspect of the cancer journey from prevention and early diagnosis to treatment, recovery, and the stories that shape public perceptions of the disease.

A key objective of the campaign is to challenge the long-standing use of military language such as “fight,” “battle,” and “warrior” in cancer communication, with ‘Voice of Courage’ instead promoting the belief that courage is often found in everyday acts of support, care, and companionship: “Courage isn’t loud. It’s what we carry, together.”

Speaking on the launch, Dr. (Prof.) Shailesh V. Shrikhande, Chief Executive at Tata Cancer Care Foundation, said “Cancer care is ultimately human care, delivered by doctors, nurses, families and communities to people who often meet the word ‘cancer’ with fear. Voice of Courage is an attempt to replace that fear with clarity.”

“Across these episodes, listeners will hear from surgeons, pathologists, a cancer warrior and a storyteller on what truly changes outcomes: prevention, early detection, timely diagnosis and care that reaches people where they live. If these conversations encourage even one family to seek a timely check-up or a second opinion, the series has served its purpose,” added Shrikhande.

Hemant Shringy, Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner at WondrLab India said, “Our job as creative and content partner was to build a format quiet enough to let those voices carry, and contemporary enough to take them well beyond hospital walls. And when cancer care has such a long way, it’s about time the conversations around it did the same.” 

The podcast also highlights the Foundation’s wider efforts to make quality cancer care more accessible through its Distributed Cancer Care Model, which connects specialist cancer centres with regional healthcare networks across several Indian states to bring treatment closer to patients.

New episodes are released every Friday on YouTube and Spotify, with shorter content distributed across LinkedIn, X and Instagram to extend the campaign’s reach and encourage wider public engagement around cancer care.

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Released as a digital film, the campaign centres on the idea that meaningful memories are often created through everyday moments spent together rather than grand celebrations. 

Through the story of a father and son, the campaign highlights how shopping, dining and entertainment can become opportunities for families to connect.

The film follows the pair as they spend the day exploring Sky City Mall, capturing moments of laughter, conversation and quality time. Instead of focusing on Father’s Day gifts, the campaign encourages audiences to value shared experiences and the lasting memories they create.

Beyond celebrating fatherhood, the campaign reflects a broader shift in retail marketing, positioning malls as lifestyle destinations where people gather not only to shop, but also to celebrate milestones, spend time together and build meaningful connections.

For Sky City Mall and Oberoi Realty, the campaign supports the growing emphasis on experience-led retail by showcasing how physical destinations can become part of consumers’ everyday lives and special occasions alike.

Speaking on the campaign, Sarina Menezes, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Communications at Oberoi Realty, shared, “Through this Father’s Day film, we wanted to celebrate the special bond between fathers and their children while showcasing how our retail destinations bring people together through shopping, dining, entertainment and shared moments.”

“The campaign reflects our commitment to creating vibrant spaces that foster connection and become part of our consumers’ most meaningful occasions,” added Menezes. 

The Father’s Day film has been released across Oberoi Realty and Sky City Mall’s digital platforms, extending the campaign through online channels while reinforcing the brands’ commitment to creating spaces that bring communities and families together.

With its latest campaign, Sky City Mall continues to position itself as more than a retail destination, demonstrating how shared experiences can strengthen emotional connections between both families and brands.

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