This week’s round-up of the latest mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and account moves include TikTok, Nest Commerce, Meta, WPP, and more.
Deal Desk rounds-up the latest moves across the global affiliate and digital marketing industry and why it matters.
This week, TikTok joins forces with Nest Commerce to launch an AI measurement solution; Meta partners with three payment providers to build its commerce stack; and CGC launches a new performance marketing division.
Nest Commerce partners with TikTok
Nest Commerce, a UK marketing agency, has partnered with TikTok to launch an AI platform, Hummingbird.
TikTok provided Nest with a tech grant to develop Hummingbird, which analyses how a brand’s live advertising is performing in real-time.
The platform identifies the creative elements that resonate with the audiences and is able to use those insights to inform the future creative assets. It also has the ability to produce creative variations of assets across images, videos and in a user-generated content-style.
Hummingbird for TikTok launched on 23 September at TikTok Unlocked in London.
Kris Boger, general manager, business solutions UK, Ireland and Benelux at TikTok, said: “Creative is one of the biggest drivers of performance on TikTok, but the challenge for brands is keeping pace with how quickly culture and audiences move. The opportunity for AI isn’t to replace creativity, it’s to help great creative teams learn faster, experiment more and turn those insights into better work.
“That’s what we saw in Hummingbird. Nest has combined technology with real creative and performance expertise, with people firmly in control of the process. It’s exactly the kind of innovation we want to encourage on TikTok, which is why we backed its development.”
Will Ashton, chief executive of Nest Commerce, added: “Winning this direct funding from TikTok for tech innovation is a huge endorsement of the direction we have taken.
“We built Hummingbird to help teams learn from creative at greater speed and scale, understanding what’s resonating, using those signals to shape the next round of creative, and keeping expert judgement at the heart of every decision.”
Leaders take
One of the biggest drivers of performance on TikTok is creative – whether that’s creators’ live posts or brand campaigns. This new AI-powered platform, Hummingbird, can now take those campaigns to the next level through real-time optimisation and creation. It will help brands streamline processes and understand quickly what is working and what is not.
Meta partners with Shopify, Stripe and PayPal
Meta has built an integrated commerce stack within its AI agent through a series of partnerships with payment providers.
The Facebook-owner has integrated Stripe, PayPal and Shopify into Muse that enables users to move from product discovery to purchase seamlessly.
Stripe’s Link wallet for agents was the first to be built in, which will enable users’ to checkout using their saved payment method.
Through the partnership with Shopify, Meta has been added as an AI channel inside Shopify’s agentic storefronts with Shop Pay enabled so users can checkout directly from Muse.
Finally, PayPal has been integrated into Meta’s AI platform, which will enable the agent to checkout using the provider’s global merchant network.
Leaders take
Meta is moving quickly in building up its AI commerce infrastructure. This has all come together in a matter of weeks. Stripe acts as the payment rail, Shop Pay offers a merchant base service, while PayPal offers global reach.
For marketers, this is worth taking note. It means they’ve now got to tailor their strategies not for humans, but AI agents, which changes the game. It means building presence on AI chatbots, social media, publisher sites as well as retailer product pages.
CGC brings influencer, AI search and affiliate marketing together
CGC, a global communications agency, is bringing influencer partnerships, paid media, user-generated content, AI search and affiliate marketing under one division, called CGC Performance.
The new digital-first arm will combine the agency’s communication and storytelling expertise with data-led campaign delivery for existing and new clients across its London and New York offices.
The department will be led by Lauren Coles, CGC’s global director of influencer and partnerships, and Veronika Ullmer, president of CGC New York City and global chief communications officer.
The team will work with AI firm ROIROI and affiliate marketing specialist Cirincione Consulting.
CGC founder, Clare Goodwin, said: “In today’s fluid landscape, the best marketers understand that creativity creates attention, but investment enables scale.
“CGC Performance brings together our unparalleled storytelling with data and technology expertise to turn cultural relevance into measurable business impact, helping brands capture attention and convert it into growth.”
Leaders take
The move by CGC comes as no surprise. The new division is a response to how the industry is evolving. The rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini has changed the way consumers search and discover products. Therefore, brands are focusing on how they appear in these searches and earned media, affiliate coverage, creator or influencer content play a major role in this. The modern media plan needs all of these performance marketing channels to work cohesively.
Other notable deals
WPP has opened Devon’s Point, a new production studio in London. The facility will be operated by WPP Production, which is part of its global unit.
WPP Media has been appointed by DoorDash as its first global media agency of record. The mandate will cover the firm’s portfolio of on-demand services including DoorDash, Wolt and Deliveroo across more than 40 markets.
Scope3 has rebranded to Apostra as it pivots from sustainability and into agentic AI media buying. The move comes as brands reduce their spend on carbon measurement. Apostra’s will enable advertisers to communicate with an AI agent representing a media owner and negotiate terms for buying inventory.
Betfred will no longer be the title sponsor of the Super League, Challenge Cup and England Rugby after the 2026 season.
Solas Compliance has partnered with bet365 to support the operator’s marketing activities and brand globally. As part of the deal, Solas will help ensure its campaigns meet the various compliance requirements in different countries.
Press Box PR is expanding its services into the African media market. The PR agency, which specialises in betting, sport, gaming, consumer and technology will initially focus on sport and B2B igaming.
