They move with intention, build with evidence, and adapt faster than their playbooks can keep up.

Here are 3 takeaways we’re bringing back with us:

🧠 “Creative is the new targeting” isn’t a cute phrase, it’s operational truth.
Meta isn’t waiting for your targeting logic anymore. It’s optimizing based on the signals your creative gives it. That’s why smart teams are building personas-first, mapping funnel stage to asset type, and treating creative diversity as media infrastructure. (Huge credit to Tom Hancock and the SKIMS crew for showing what this looks like in practice.)

📦 Post-purchase is the new loyalty strategy.
From HERA Clothing to Unilever Prestige to DICK'S Sporting Goods, the quiet consensus was this: you can’t media your way out of a broken returns policy or a clunky checkout. The best teams are folding CX, delivery, and returns into their growth models with some even tying PDP updates directly to lifetime value metrics. We heard one stat we won’t forget: 80% of eComm orders at DICK’S are fulfilled by stores.

📊 Measurement is the new battleground for brand investment.
Full-funnel spend is back. But the CFO is watching. So brands like Timex Group, Bonafide Health, and rag & bone are rethinking what they test, how fast they learn, and which metrics earn trust. ROAS isn’t enough. The shift is toward incrementality, scenario modeling, and tools that bring brand and performance into one frame.

Here’s what stood out from the opening session:
🔹 The #1 eCom priority? Profitable new customer acquisition.
Performance is no longer enough. Brands are shifting investment toward experiences that reach net-new, low-intent customers with more content tailored to the actual scroll behavior of a disinterested user. (Reels now account for 50% of time spent on Instagram.)

🔹 Top-of-funnel investment is back with pressure to prove it.
There’s growing willingness to fund brand and creative again but only if leadership can see return. That’s where full-funnel measurement becomes a must-have, not a nice-to-have. (Shout out to our friends and sponsors at Fospha!)

🔹 AI is table stakes, but implementation is cautious.
AI isn’t being used to overhaul everything. It’s powering translation, product data enrichment, and customer service but CMOs are skeptical of the hype. The real unlock is in smart, embedded usage, not sweeping transformation.

🔹 International expansion is accelerating.
With the US ranked the most competitive market for digital ad spend, brands are doubling down on EU and MENA, investing in local headcount, creative, and fulfillment to win in cheaper, higher-growth regions.

🔹 Media Mix Modeling (MMM) is no longer a fringe tactic.
Open-source tools from Meta (Robyn) and Google (Meridian) are normalizing MMM adoption. Expect it to become commoditized placing pressure on vendors to prove value through innovation, not just outputs.

🔹 Simplification is a strategy.
Brands are consolidating their tech stacks and moving away from over-customized architectures. Efficiency and clarity are the new flex.

It sounds small. But when it becomes a reflex, it changes everything.

That was the common thread in yesterday's experimentation panel at hashtag#PulseSummitNYC where leaders from AS Beauty Group, Andie, and Bonafide Health broke down what it takes to scale meaningful testing across product, marketing, and CX.

What stood out?

🧠 At Andie, experimentation started post-site redesign. Now it’s cultural. “Let’s test it” isn’t just a CRO phrase, it’s a company-wide instinct, shaping creative strategy, content formats, and even how departments negotiate assumptions. One test showed that studio imagery won on-site, while lifestyle won in retention, and UGC won in paid. Without data, that debate would’ve been a deadlock.

📈 At Bonafide, tests don’t have to be complex to be valuable. Changing a CTA from “Next” to “Get 20% Off” drove a 34% lift in conversion. Setting the Buy Box default to a three-month subscription nearly doubled AOV. No dev time. Just smart decisions, grounded in real customer behavior.

🔁 At AS Beauty, experimentation scales when teams zoom out. Instead of isolated PDP tweaks, they're designing for full-funnel cohesion, connecting email, landing, and checkout around the same creative thread. They're even inserting email visuals directly into on-site experiences to create a seamless journey.

🧮 And the measurement mindset? Financial calculators, not guesswork. ROI per test. Real incremental impact. Resetting benchmarks when the journey changes (like when adding a mini-cart tanked checkout rate but doubled overall conversions).

🎯 As one speaker put it: “Conversion rate alone is flawed. Know what you’re testing for and who you’re designing it around.”