Deloitte, OpenAI and Unilever: This Week's Top Five Stories

Deloitte Partners with Optimizely to Accelerate AI Marketing

Digital experience platform Optimizely has announced a strategic technology collaboration with Deloitte Digital. 

This partnership has been developed with the goal to enable brands to redesign how they deliver digital experiences – combining AI-led personalisation, content and experimentation with new marketing operating models to improve performance. 

In a press release announcing the partnership, the companies said they would bring together Optimizely’s “market leading experimentation, personalisation and AI orchestration capabilities,” with Deloitte Digital’s “global experience in transformation, creativity and human-centred design”. 

Through the partnership, the two companies say they are aiming to evolve how brands engage customers by aligning technology, people and process. 

OpenAI Hires ServiceNow CMO to Lead Business Marketing

OpenAI has appointed Colin Fleming, formerly the CMO of ServiceNow, as its new Chief Marketing Officer for its business unit. 

He joins the company following the departure of former Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch, who announced that she was stepping down in early April to focus on her health as she recovers from breast cancer. 

While Colin shared on LinkedIn that the decision to leave ServiceNow after two years was a “gut-wrenching” one, he said that he “would have regretted not taking the swing”.

“The gap between ‘what if?’ and ‘it works’ is getting smaller by the day,” he wrote. “That is the work I’m excited to help do.”

Unilever Launches its Largest Ever Sports Partnership

Unilever has launched its largest ever sports partnership activation for the FIFA World Cup 2026 as its Official Personal Care Sponsor. 

The global campaign is led by Unilever Personal Care, and will see over 35 brands activate – such as Dove, Dove Men+Care, Rexona/Degree and Axe/Lynx – and is designed to ensure players and spectators alike are “fresh for every stage”.

“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is one of the biggest cultural moments on the planet,” says Afke van de Klashorst, Vice President of Integrated Brand Experience at Unilever Personal Care.

“Our ambition is for our brands to show up in spaces where fandom lives and in ways that are authentic, native to social and meaningful by bringing freshness and confidence to matchday moments that matter most for fans, players and spectators. 

“This activation reflects how we’re engaging with sport not just as sponsorship, but as a platform to build brand desire and cultural relevance to drive superior growth.”

Ahrefs: YouTube Mentions Build AI Brand Visibility

Are YouTube mentions leading AI brand visibility?

According to research from Ahrefs – which looked at 75,00 brands and drew insights from 146 million search results and 730,000 AI responses – YouTube mentions correlate more strongly with AI brand visibility than any other metric. 

Other indicators, such as a site’s link volume and total page count, showed only a weak correlation. 

“As brand discovery spreads across AI platforms that each behave differently, tracking and growing online visibility has fundamentally changed,” says Glen Allsopp, Head of Marketing Strategy and Research at Ahrefs.

“I expect the teams that win will continue to follow and learn from the data, while prioritising building genuine authority in their industry.”

Conran Design Group’s CEO: Brand is an Assessment Tool

Brand management has moved from the purview of marketing departments to the boardroom agenda.

In an environment where customers share experiences on social media and access to information is instant, companies face pressure to align internal operations with external messaging.

Thom Newton, Global CEO of Conran Design Group, has worked with companies including Aston Martin, Coca-Cola, Peugeot, McDonald's and Nokia for more than 25 years.

He says brand strategy has become a tool for organisational health and why marketing leaders must work with the C-suite to optimise brand frameworks.