AI

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Meta, Adobe Stock

Meta’s plushy new homunculus wants to pull up a chair in your office.

As the Muse personal agent/cartoon mascot gains traction among consumers, Meta is also making a play for the crowded enterprise agent market.

Meta has hired former MongoDB CEO Chirantan “CJ” Desai to build out a new enterprise platform, as the company looks to provide services beyond advertising tools. It also announced a new Muse for Small Business tool that will integrate the agent into tools like Box, Figma, and Shopify, among many others. Details are vague right now on what an enterprise platform will look like, but Muse Code and Meta Business Agent will be among the already-existing offerings.

Business leaders and marketers said Muse shows computer use capabilities beyond those of other agents on the market, and could be more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses that already number among Meta’s advertising customers. But a wider enterprise play also comes with security concerns and wariness about Meta pulling in ever more data.

For Jeremy Schulkin, SVP of services at marketing agency Hawke Media, there’s the problem of Meta “grading its own work,” Would Muse ever tell business users that their marketing money might be better spent on TikTok, for instance?

“We have fought hard to not hand over the keys to Meta,” he told us in an email. “Connecting QuickBooks, Stripe, your customer list, and your email gives Meta a full view of your business.”

For more marketers’ thoughts on Meta’s agentic offerings, continue reading here.—PK

      

Sponsored By Tatari

Forward 2026 is coming up Oct. 29 at The Glasshouse in New York City, and you’re gonna wanna be there.

Made for marketing, brand, and technology leaders, the event features NYU professor, bestselling author, and Prof G Media founder Scott Galloway for a fireside chat on where attention, brands, and advertising dollars are headed.

Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman also takes the stage to discuss Reddit’s evolution into a major discovery, community, and advertising platform generating $2.2b in 2025.

Growth marketer Cody Plofker will share lessons on scaling Jones Road Beauty into a nine-figure brand, while the internet’s creative director Oren John will explore how brands build worlds. Plus, leaders from Liquid I.V., MANSCAPED, and Avocado Green Brands will share insights on customer acquisition, brand building, and growth.

Here’s the cherry on top, though: Attendance is free (yes, free). But capacity is limited— save your spot today.

BRAND STRATEGY

Merrell

Outside is everywhere, including at Sundance.

In April, footwear brand Merrell introduced its first global brand platform, “It Starts Outside,” encouraging audiences to experience nature and outdoor living ranging from grand adventures to neighborhood walks. Now, the brand is taking that idea to Sundance Film Festival, where Merrell is providing six filmmakers with $20,000 grants to interpret this messaging into short, social-first films.

It’s the start of a three-year partnership with the Sundance Institute’s digital learning platform, Sundance Collab, which Merrell Global CMO Rich McLeod said is about “consistency of message.”

“The beauty of ‘It Starts Outside’ is it certainly has longevity, and we contextualize it to the consumer depending on the moment,” McLeod told us. “I’m excited about the opportunity for consumers, for filmmakers, for storytellers to continue to bring their own personal stories to life.”

McLeod views the partnership as a way to expand the larger content ecosystem that the brand is trying to build, which he said also includes social media creators, media partnerships, and multiple perspectives from creatives like filmmakers.

“You don’t want to have a linear way of telling a story. What the filmmakers allow us to do is tell the stories in very different ways,” McLeod said.

For more on the partnership and how Merrell plans on promoting the projects, continue reading here.—JN

      

Sponsored By Wistia

Who benchmarks the watchers? Wistia’s new benchmarks report pulls from a survey of 900+ marketers—plus every webinar hosted on Wistia in 2025, so you can see where you stand. Their webinar software helps close the gap, score leads, sync data to your MAP in real time, and turn recordings into follow-up content automatically. Get the report here.

AD TECH & PROGRAMMATIC

Morning Brew Inc.

It feels like everything is getting more expensive these days. For some advertisers, Meta ads are among them.

In recent months, CPMs and PPAs on Meta, which is investing heavily in AI models and data centers, have increased for various ad formats, according to several marketers we spoke to. Meta’s earnings reports note that average price per ad, a benchmark that takes total advertising revenue and divides it by the number of ads delivered, increased 12% YoY in Q1 and in Q2.

Max Nelson, Meta spokesperson, said in an email that while average price per ad may have increased, the company believes advertisers are benefiting from Meta’s investments in its products like Andromeda that optimize campaigns and seeing results, citing an internal analysis, which looked at over 1 million campaigns and was published in June, indicated that advertisers saw $4.13 in revenue on average for each dollar they spent on Meta, a 25% increase since 2022.

Some media buyers told us that select clients are planning to purchase ads during the “Q5” period that runs from late December into January, rather than spending during the holidays. They’re also leveraging specific Meta ad units and tweaking their ad creative in an effort to improve campaign performance.

“If we can dial in the messaging and the audience, that 12% is not that big of a deal at the end of the day,” Ankit Jadav, associate director, paid social at Rain, said.

To learn more about how marketers and agencies are navigating higher ad prices on Meta, keep reading here.—JS

      

From Express Checkout

CPG newsflash. Get curated CPG industry news, insider perspectives, trend analysis, and more in Express Checkout, the newest member of Morning Brew Inc. Founders Nate Rosen and Jenna Movsowitz cover the why and how behind what we’re buying next in their twice-weekly newsletter.

Unpack the stories behind your stuff when you subscribe here.

french press

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

You’ve got mail: What is and isn’t working in direct mail marketing, per a new report.

Social playbook: Creator strategies for brands to borrow from.

Extremely online: Points to consider around AI usage when marketing to Gen Z.

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

The marketers pulling ahead aren’t the ones with bigger budgets, but the ones designing AI-driven systems. Get a practical framework for turning recurring tasks into repeatable AI workflows your whole team can run.

METRICS AND MEDIA

Stat: $11.8 million. That’s how much Warby Parker received in tariff refunds last quarter, a portion of which will be dedicated to marketing spend around its new AI-powered Intelligent Eyewear glasses line. per the Wall Street Journal, which reported that companies like Macy’s, e.l.f., and Levi Strauss have similar plans to direct refund dollars to marketing.

Quote: “You need to be absolutely transparent about who you’re working with. [And] you need very strict firewall rules in place when it comes to people, capabilities, and geographies.”—Arthur Sadoun, Publicis CEO, speaking to Adweek about the effects of holdco consolidation on competing clients

Read: “Comic conventions are becoming content studios. NYCC is embracing the shift” (Mashable)