Earlier this month, Cloudflare announced an ambitious plan to charge LLMs for access to online content. This move is intended to ensure the online media model’s survival in the age of AI. 

This week, Marc Sirkin talked to Will Allen, VP of media and AI privacy products at CloudFlare, for the latest episode of his Playbook Broken podcast. Among the topics Will and Marc discuss: The busted value exchange between content creators and search companies.

In other news, have you registered for our free, one-day virtual MarTech Conference events this fall? Join us September 17th for “Marketing reimagined: How to seize the competitive edge with AI and data” (details and registration link here). And we’ll be back on November 4th for “AI and agents: Transforming marketing now – and redefining what’s next.” 

Both free, both online. You can pre-register for November when you sign up for September!

Mike Pastore
Editorial Director

Ecommerce

Distributed storefronts demand smarter, faster brand strategy

Legacy marketing structures can't keep up with distributed commerce. Unify operations, identity and intelligence to thrive in an always-on retail environment.

Marketing operations (MOps)

Why AI spending isn’t boosting marketing

A disconnect between leadership and marketing teams means AI investments aren't going to solve critical operational bottlenecks.

Social media marketing

LinkedIn wants to be the TikTok of business — will it work?

With video surging and organic reach falling, LinkedIn is shifting toward a TikTok-style model. Can it still serve business users?

Identity resolution

The myth of the modern identity graph

We’ve gotten better at connecting data. But in the rush to unify, we forgot to ask: are we connecting anything real?

Optimization

26 A/B testing ideas

These 26 A/B test ideas help marketers improve what happens after the click—from landing pages to CTAs and conversion flows.

Conversations with MarTech

Outsmarting entropy: Shipping beyond the playbook

In this episode of Playbook Broken, Will Allen of Cloudflare talks about re-thinking the business model for content creators and more.

Customer experience

When AI makes customer experience feel personal

Great CX starts with purpose, not technology. Create smart, human-centered experiences by focusing on what really matters.

Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)

Think you’re good at AI? So does everyone else

This year’s State of AI report reveals that marketers still believe they’re ahead of the curve—whether they are or not.

Marketing technology

5 critical mistakes in marketing budget allocation, and 5 ways to spend smarter

Wasting budget on stale channels and shiny toys? Learn the smarter ways to shift spend and fuel real marketing performance.

Online Event

Data and AI are rewriting the rules of marketing… are you ready to lead?

Attend MarTech, online September 17, to learn how to modernize your stack and leverage the combined forces of AI and data to enable smarter, more compliant customer experiences.

Meet the new MarTech

What else we're reading

• How to get fired as a B2B CMO: A foolproof guide
• Is an affiliate model the future of LLMs?
• The ChatGPT you’re paying for is using Google to search…
• … which may be why marketers are asking if ChatGPT sucks
• It’s not sunscreen, it’s funscreen (and it’s selling)
• Work communication is a mess. Here’s the solution.

MarTech research

• Get the 2025 State of Your Stack Survey report by downloading the PDF, flipping through a carousel, listening to a discussion of the results or watching the keynote session from the Spring 2025 MarTech Conference — all without registration.

MarTech Intelligence Reports are in-depth, independent and indispensable. They’re designed to help marketers navigate the martech landscape with questions to ask during the buying process, vendor profiles and more.

Download your Intelligence Report today:

• Enterprise Digital Asset Management Platforms
• Generative AI for Content Creation
• B2B Data Enrichment and Hygiene
• Email Marketing Platforms
• Identity Resolution Platforms 
• Marketing Work Management Platforms 
• Marketing Automation Platforms 
• Customer Data Platforms.
• Call Analytics and Conversational Intelligence

What they're saying

• “Every media experience is now a storefront or leads directly to one. Social content, search results, shoppable ads, influencer videos, retail media, product pages, even physical shelves — are all nodes in a sprawling, real-time commerce ecosystem.” – Jason Colon in Distributed storefronts demand smarter, faster brand strategy.

• “Realigning executive understanding and AI investment toward operational bottlenecks maximizes AI’s business impact and achieves the strategic outcomes executives ultimately desire.” – Ana Mourão in Why AI spending isn’t boosting marketing.

From Search Engine Land