Hi and welcome back to another edition of our newsletter. This week: Hollywood A-listers, famous for their distinctive voices, have given brands the access to licence AI replicas in their campaigns. More on that below.

Also coming up:

Perplexity’s free shopping tool is coming soon
Google now has an ‘AI Ads Advisor’
Reddit launched interactive ads
TikTok announced Podcasts

 — Kole

Feature

ElevenLabs launched a new Iconic Voice Marketplace that lets brands legally license AI-generated celebrity voices. 

It opened with 28 voices, including Sir Michael Caine, Judy Garland, and Maya Angelou. Brands can apply to use AI voice replicas in ads, podcasts, audiobooks, and video, but every project needs sign-off from the talent or the rights holder.

Matthew McConaughey has invested in ElevenLabs and is using the technology to translate his newsletter into Spanish audio. Although his voice is not available on the marketplace.

The launch follows years of tension between Hollywood and AI companies over voice cloning. Scarlett Johansson publicly accused OpenAI of mimicking her voice without consent last year, and AI protections were a central demand in the 2023 Hollywood actors' strike.

This move gives brands a clean, ethical path to enhance their campaigns with famous voices (without landing in legal hot water).

Listen to Caine’s AI-generated voice in this sizzle reel.

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More Headlines

👀 Sam Altman has “no idea” what ChatGPT ads will look like yet

The OpenAI CEO referenced Google, saying “ads on a Google search are dependent on Google doing badly. If it was giving you the best answer, there would be no reason ever to buy an ad above it.”

🛍️ Google announced shopping updates to AI Mode

Users can now ask detailed questions, see shoppable visuals, compare options, and check prices directly in AI Mode. Users can also shop directly in the Gemini app, which now supports product ideas, comparisons, and pricing from multiple sources.

🤖 Google launches ‘AI Ads Advisor’

The new tool will act as a conversational assistant inside Google Ads, offering suggestions on keywords, creative content, and budget adjustments. Google is also introducing Analytics Advisor, which provides insights and visual summaries from Google Analytics data.

🧩 Reddit launches new interactive ads

The format lets brands create in-feed interactive ad experiences for Reddit’s communities. Advertisers can build custom campaigns or use templates such as quizzes, games, countdowns, and trivia.

🎙️ TikTok and iHeartMedia launch a podcast network

As part of the deal, TikTok and iHeartMedia are also launching TikTok Radio. The company says this launch will partner TikTok creators with experienced iHeartRadio hosts in a format that mimics scrolling through TikTok, but through audio.

📈 TikTok Shop tops $19 billion in global sales in Q3 2025

The U.S. market accounted for about $4 billion, marking a 125% jump from last year. TikTok Shop’s quarterly sales are now comparable to eBay, which reported $20.1 billion in the same period.

📺 Prime Video ad-supported hits 315 million monthly viewers

That's an increase of 115 million viewers since April 2024, when it had 200 million monthly users. According to the company, over 130 million monthly viewers are from the U.S., its largest single market.

🔍 LinkedIn rolls out AI-powered people search in the U.S.

The search feature lets users describe who they want to find, and LinkedIn will return profiles that match that description. The update is available to only Premium subscribers.

🛒 Perplexity is launching free AI shopping tool

The tool will go live soon, according to CNBC. It will allow merchants to sell directly to users through Perplexity’s search engine without intermediaries. PayPal will handle payments, returns, and customer service for participating merchants.

Worth knowing

With Reels, Meta copy > pasted > and scaled TikTok’s short-video format better than almost anyone could have expected.

For comparison:

• YouTube’s total annual revenue in 2024 was ~$35B.

• TikTok’s global revenue in 2024 was estimated at ~$20–25B.

• Snapchat’s total annual revenue is ~$5B.

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You are caught up 

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^{Written from Medellín, Colombia}