Insights from Nebo

“Where else would you rather be than right here, right now?”

This iconic quote, originally uttered by legendary Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy, is still screamed by over 60,000 fans at every home game. It’s a line that immediately unifies the crowd, reminding us we’re all here for the exact same reason. They are words that fans long to hear from March to August — a battle cry signaling that football season is finally upon us.

Stepping on a crunchy leaf on the ground may indicate to some that fall is approaching. For Gilmore Girls fans, hitting play on the pilot episode is the official start of fall. For 26 years, the town of Stars Hollow has dominated screens. The cozy New England town with its warm aesthetic, charm, and “coffee, coffee, coffee” has swept the pop-culture scene — and the marketing scene. 

There’s a reason why Hulu and Gilmore Girls posted this on Instagram - because September 1 truly only means one thing.

To say that the only certainty right now is uncertainty seems like one of the biggest understatements I’ve ever made. AI, tariffs, war, inflation, political strife, and more make the current economic environment very challenging for most organizations.

And when tough times hit, we tend to see organizations start pressing familiar levers to get through the challenges. Marketing and advertising budgets get cut, yet the financial goals stay the same. People are asked to do more, but with less. And most of the time, that is not possible.

It’s 2026, and talking about search engines suddenly feels passé. Maybe not suddenly, but the transition has felt alarmingly quick for search marketers. Don’t get me wrong, the industry has been in a constant state of iterative evolution forever. LLMs have just made that process even faster and more chaotic, creating both pitfalls and opportunities for the intrepid PPC manager.

As Google de-prioritizes “Search” (the button is still there; it’s just shy), they have confirmed yet another massive shift in a product that changed in smaller, less-noticeable iterations for most of its existence. This points to a larger trend in the speed of Google’s product releases and the difficulty in adapting paid media strategies to an ever-changing landscape of campaign types, ad formats and policies.

YouTube. What began as a humble video-sharing platform where communities could gather around cute dog clips grew into a content giant for entertainment, information and, of course, marketing.

Today, YouTube gives brands an opportunity to market themselves and connect with current and potential customers around the world. But with more than enough content already competing for people’s attention, how can marketers use the platform to build an audience and turn it into one that converts? 

To answer this question, let’s look at one of the most successful movie and TV franchises of the 21st century: Marvel. 

Have you felt it? 

No, not a disturbance in the Force. I’m talking about a different kind of shift. One that’s quietly affected all of our lives. 

It wasn’t a choice we made. It doesn’t even seem all that dramatic. In fact, it's happened so gradually that you may not have noticed it at all. But over the last few years, something fundamental has changed about how we use the internet.