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Welcome to The Brief by Kuro House, your daily shot of sharp marketing insights and industry intelligence. Today, we’re diving into stories that are shaping the future of advertising, commerce, and brand leadership. From agency shakeups and AI shopping revolutions to transparency battles in programmatic media, there’s a lot to unpack. Let’s get right into it.
First up, McCann New York has just landed a significant win, expanding its relationship with consumer goods giant Reckitt as the U.S. creative agency of record for four key brands in the Essential Home portfolio—Woolite, Resolve, Rid-X, and Easy-Off. According to Adweek, this move follows an eight-week closed review, with McCann taking over from incumbent Havas. The agency will now lead strategy and creative across television, digital, social, and experiential for these brands, supported by both its New York and Toronto offices, as well as McCann Content Studios. Julia Mellberg, CMO of Reckitt Essential Home U.S., emphasized that this expanded partnership builds on years of creative collaboration and trust. This appointment also strengthens McCann’s global ties with Reckitt, as it already handles brands like Lysol, Mucinex, Biofreeze, and Airborne, and was named U.S. AOR for Air Wick just a few months ago. Notably, this all comes on the heels of Omnicom’s acquisition of Interpublic Group, McCann’s parent, which has led to a major restructuring of Omnicom’s creative networks. The first wave of McCann’s new work for the Essential Home brands is expected to roll out in Q2 of 2026, so keep an eye out for fresh campaigns in the near future.
Next, let’s talk about the seismic shift happening in e-commerce, courtesy of AI. Amazon’s AI assistant, Rufus, is already reshaping how people shop. As reported by Adweek, sessions that led to purchases doubled for Rufus users during Black Friday, compared to just a 20% increase for those not using the assistant. The trend is much bigger than just Amazon—73% of consumers now use AI assistants to help them shop, 58% use AI for holiday gifts, and a whopping 70% are comfortable letting AI complete transactions for them, according to a Riskified survey. The future of AI shopping could go in a few directions. Some retailers, like Amazon, will keep AI tightly integrated within their own platforms, controlling pricing and customer relationships. Others will collaborate with third-party AI tools using open protocols—Google’s AP2 initiative, backed by Mastercard, Amex, and PayPal, is an example of this. The most disruptive path is fully decentralized shopping, where tools like ChatGPT become the main interface and retailers risk being reduced to mere inventory suppliers. This raises big concerns about fraud, as AI can automate credential stuffing and mass order execution, making it harder to distinguish between legitimate and malicious activity. The advice for retailers? Start credentialing AI, demand transparency from platforms, and get involved in setting industry standards to secure transactions and define liability. Amazon’s Rufus is just the tip of the iceberg—the AI shopping revolution is only beginning, and those who prepare now will be best positioned to thrive.
In leadership news, Unilever is making headlines with a major organizational shift. Esi Eggleston Bracey, the company’s chief marketing and growth officer (CMGO), is set to leave in January 2026 after just over two years in the role and eight years with the company. Adweek reports that Unilever won’t be replacing the CMGO position directly. Instead, Leandro Barreto, currently CMO for Unilever Beauty and Wellbeing, will expand his responsibilities to include the company’s enterprise marketing agenda. This move is part of Unilever’s ongoing marketing transformation, aiming to bring global marketing capabilities closer to its business groups for faster execution and impact. Bracey, who joined Unilever in 2018, led the company’s purpose-driven marketing initiatives and was instrumental in pushing digital and AI-driven marketing strategies. She also played a key role in supporting the Crown Act, fighting for workplace hair discrimination protections. Under new CEO Fernando Fernandez, Unilever has been ramping up its marketing spend, pledging to allocate 30-50% of its $8 billion annual ad budget to social-first campaigns and working with far more influencers. Barreto now faces the challenge of linking Unilever’s long-term growth strategies with on-the-ground execution, especially as the company’s beauty and wellbeing division continues to drive profit growth.
Turning to the world of programmatic media, Digiday is reporting that media buyers are shifting spend away from The Trade Desk’s OpenPath product due to ongoing transparency concerns. OpenPath was launched in 2022 as a direct, cleaner programmatic pipeline connecting advertisers with publishers. Advertisers and agencies don’t pay to use OpenPath directly, but publishers are charged a fee—typically around 5% of advertiser spend. The issue? Media agencies are finding it difficult to pin down exactly how much they’re paying and what they’re paying for, thanks to a lack of visibility into costs. Some agencies have pulled or paused investment, with one holding company exec saying they can’t justify using a supply path if they can’t explain the costs to clients. Other agency leaders have estimated that OpenPath adds a 10-15% premium to transactions, prompting some to reduce their overall spend on The Trade Desk’s DSP. However, not everyone is abandoning ship; some agencies still see value in OpenPath’s directness and lack of intermediaries. The Trade Desk maintains that OpenPath is pushing the industry toward healthier supply chain dynamics, and Q3 revenues seem to back up its growth. Still, the company will need to address these transparency issues if it wants to win back skeptical buyers.
That’s all for today’s edition of The Brief. From creative agency shakeups and the rising tide of AI-assisted shopping to evolving leadership at Unilever and transparency battles in programmatic media, it’s clear that marketing is moving faster—and becoming more complex—than ever. Thanks for tuning in, and remember: staying sharp means staying curious. Until next time, keep questioning, keep learning, and keep leading the way.
