Publishers consider the nuclear option against Google

Welcome back. China’s new top model has changed the game for marketers. Less than a week after launch, Kimi’s viral new K3 is so inundated with demand that the startup has stopped accepting new subscriptions. The model tops several key marketing benchmarks — and it’s giving marketers these powers at a tiny fraction of the price compared to OpenAI and Anthropic.

This Week: Google search faces major exodus, what marketers should know about the clipping trend. Plus: strategies, trends, tactics, and more.

1. Kimi releases new model with major marketing powers: The new K3 model topped benchmarks for Brand & Marketing, Reference-Based Design, and Content Creation Tools, among other abilities. What this means: Marketers will be able to create top-tier websites, ad creatives, and other assets. The good news: Kimi is 1/3rd the price of Claude Fable 5, its closest competitor. The bad news: Kimi has temporarily halted subscriptions because of high demand. How to use it: Try it on the official Kimi web app, where you can scroll down to see examples of things you can build.

2. Publishers are considering the nuclear option against Google: Publishers have long tolerated Google scraping their content for free because search traffic was too valuable to sacrifice. Now, that leverage is eroding. USA Today says it’s prepared to walk away from Google Search in 6-12 months, while Beehiiv is offering tools to block Googlebot. Starting September 15, Cloudflare’s default restrictions could also block multipurpose crawlers like Googlebot on ad-supported pages for new domains.

3. Canva launches major upgrade to its AI design tool: Canva Code 2.0 helps marketers build interactive websites, landing pages, and product visualizers using plain-language prompts directly inside Canva. Start from a prompt, a template, or an existing design, edit the output like any other Canva asset, and embed interactive elements inside presentations and campaign decks. Users can also import HTML from other AI coding tools and finish it in Canva. See the new tool in action here.

GOOD TO KNOW: Instagram will now start charging for access to its AI features, Netflix dabbles in shorter video formats, and TikTok drops Agentic Hub, a central location for third-party AI ad tools.

The clip economy: Clipping is the practice of chopping long-form content, i.e., podcasts, livestreams, TV shows, etc., into snippets and pushing them on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. Business analyst Ed Elson argues that clips are outgrowing their role as simply promotional material, with audiences increasingly consuming content through clips, creating an economy built on reach, distribution, and clip-specific advertising.

A cottage industry manufactures that output on demand. Marketplaces like Content Rewards and Whop pay creators per 1,000 verified views instead of selling fixed placements, at roughly $1 CPM versus $40–$80 for similar reach on Meta or Google. Content Rewards runs 300,000-plus creators for clients including Netflix and the NFL. A rival platform booked $7.7M in revenue off 23,300 contract editors, with top clippers clearing $10,000 to $30,000 a month.

But marketers should be careful. Since bot traffic costs far less than the payout it generates, paying per view creates a direct incentive for creators to fake views. This isn’t some fringe risk — Content Rewards' own founder calls bot fraud "the single biggest threat" to the business model. Since clippers are paid on views only the platform can verify (and that platform takes a cut of total volume) no one in the chain has much incentive to look too closely.

The takeaway: Clipping is cheap, scalable, and clearly working for brands willing to experiment. The catch: "cheap" and "verified" may be mutually exclusive at this price point. It’s worth treating as a high-upside test budget, not a trusted channel, until someone can reliably audit it.

The Playbook: Want to experiment with clipping and build your first campaign? Check out this playbook. You can also check out platforms like Whop, Content Rewards, and Vyro (used by MrBeast for clipping).

🌑 Black Mirror: Anthropic’s latest ad is creeping viewers out. Using dystopian imagery, it leans into fear, surveillance, and existential questions about AI. Sam Altman summed up the reaction best: he admitted he initially thought it was satire.

📸 Prompt Power: A handful of AI prompts are quietly reshaping the entire creator playbook. Here are ten viral prompts driving the biggest visual trends you see on social media today.

🎨 Creator Academy: You no longer need to know how to use Blender to create polished 3D product visuals. A creator dropped their entire gpt-5.6 sol workflow to generate professional-grade renders of a MacBook.

🖌 Simple Solutions: A practical guide explaining how to design using AI is racking up massive engagement on social media — and its core insight is surprisingly simple.

💻 Slop Shop: A new study claims that more than 40% of long-form LinkedIn posts are fully AI-generated, making it the most AI-saturated major social platform.

Step 1: Generating an ad with AdCat

Step 2: Launching the ad inside Meta

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Until next time — Zain, Faiq, & the Superhuman AI team.