As brands look to new and innovative ways of expanding their portfolio, expand to new markets and grow their customer base, they are embracing innovative advertising models and solutions with impressive results.

Afterpay, a company involved in "Buy Now, Pay Later" payments, has announced the debut of Afterpay Ads, a new suite of advertising products to help brands reach, acquire and activate high intent, loyal shoppers across the Afterpay ecosystem.

Built for brands who are focused on growing their base of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers, these powerful new advertising options help accelerate customer engagement and business growth.

Permission.io, a provider of permission-based digital advertising, has on the other hand announced the availability of its blockchain validator node and blockchain full node on Google Cloud Marketplace.

With both of these offerings available on Google Cloud Marketplace, users will have access to Permission.io's secure private blockchain to send transactions, test and install dApps, while earning Permission.io's ASK token, the currency for permission.

Human Security Inc. , a cybersecurity company that protects enterprises from bot attacks to keep digital experiences human, has entered into a partnership with InMobi, a provider of marketing and monetization technologies that fuel industries around the world.

The partnership, which includes a direct integration with Human’s MediaGuard solution, enforces both companies’ commitment to building a transparent and fraud-free in-app advertising ecosystem with real-time visibility and active protection against malicious bot activity.

Summit Health has announced the launch of its first consumer advertising campaign to illustrate its capabilities as a connected health care network.

Created by the 2019 merger of Summit Medical Group and CityMD, Summit Health is bringing deep clinical integration, an enhanced digital experience for patients, and growth in providers and locations to the greater New York metropolitan area.

Intracto Group has acquired the Stockholm-based agency Awave.

Now counting 180 Swedish team members, after the earlier acquisition of full-service agency Stendahls, this step underlines Intracto Group’s growth ambitions in Scandinavia.

On the acquistion and partnership front, WPP has announced that it has acquired Satalia, a technology company offering AI solutions for clients.

Satalia is a global leader in enterprise AI and one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies, whose clients include BT, DFS, DS Smith, PwC, Gigaclear, Tesco and Unilever.

TikTok is expanding its partnership with Shopify allowing merchants to add Shopping tabs and to create storefronts on their profiles.

The new partnership between TikTok and Shopify will allow users to buy the products they discover on TikTok straight from the app.

DoubleVerify, a software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Meetrics GmbH, a European ad verification company headquartered in Berlin, Germany, in an all-cash transaction.

The Meetrics sales, product and engineering teams will continue to operate from offices in EMEA, fortifying and expanding DV commercial operations in the region. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.

On the appointment scene,Hill+Knowlton Strategies, a global public relations firms, has announced the appointment of Laurie Rosenfield as its global chief people officer, effective September 13, 2021.

In this role, Rosenfield will lead the firm’s global human capital strategy across a network spanning 77 offices in 43 countries worldwide.

VMLY&R COMMERCE has announced the addition of Sergio Leon to the North America creative leadership team as SVP, Global Creative Director of Content & Experience.

In this new role, Sergio will be responsible for evolving the agency’s creative commerce product for existing clients, with a specific focus on Experiential and Content Strategy.

Smartly.io, a social advertising automation platform for creative and performance marketers, has announced the appointment of Ryan Jamboretz as its first Chief Strategy Officer.

In this role, Jamboretz will lead Smartly.io’s partnerships with major social media platforms, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as well as corporate strategy, as the company accelerates its global growth organically as well as inorganically.

And finally, Apple® has introduced the News Partner Programme, a new slate of initiatives to expand Apple’s work with and support for journalism.

The News Partner Program aims to ensure Apple News® customers maintain access to trusted news and information from many of the world’s top publishers, while supporting publishers’ financial stability and advancing efforts to further media literacy and diversity in news coverage and newsrooms.

Bob Koigi is an editor at Marketing Report EU

www.marketingreport.eu