DesignRush

Your logo is not your brand. Your story is.   Dain Walker built Rivyl from the ground up, advises brands across four continents, and has amassed 600K Instagram followers and 1M+ YouTube subscribers doing one thing: helping brands stop competing on design and start competing on conviction. His take? Visual identity gets replicated. Messaging gets reverse-engineered. Lived experience never does. Read his full breakdown on DesignRush.

77% of B2B buyers describe agency selection as complex or difficult. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Cathleen Vermaak, Head of Marketplace at DesignRush, explains why. The challenge goes beyond capability. Agencies have too many options with limited trust signals and timing that’s hard to predict. You might find a great agency, but if the need isn’t there at that moment, nothing moves. It’s finding the right agency fit for your needs, at the right time. Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen via Spotify. Link in the comments.

Sprite’s latest rebrand feels like a reset on a global scale. They brought back the Lymon, sharpened the packaging, and introduced a sonic layer built from the actual product experience. The crack of the can, the fizz, that first sip reaction. None of it is random. It all points back to how the drink is supposed to feel. That’s what makes this interesting. Instead of chasing something entirely new, the brand is rebuilding around cues people already associate with it, then extending those cues into new formats like sound. Read the full brand breakdown in the comments.

Enterprise teams have been trying to fix onboarding for years. More tools. More automation. More layers. And still, timelines stretch for months. What’s changing now isn’t just AI adoption. It’s how AI is being structured. In one case shared by Alexey Spas, CEO of *instinctools, onboarding dropped from up to six months to just two weeks. Not because AI replaced the process, but because it was built around it.   Governed workflows. Clear orchestration. Human checks where they actually matter. AI can speed things up. But without structure, it just scales the same inefficiencies faster. Read the full breakdown in the comments.

Your website might be costing you revenue without you realizing it. A few extra seconds of load time can cut conversions in half, and it often goes unnoticed. That’s why the best teams in 2026 aren’t treating websites as design projects. They treat them as systems built to drive revenue. If your site isn’t built for speed, clarity, and scale, it’s probably holding growth back. Our latest newsletter breaks down who’s actually getting this right. Read more below.

Honda’s reported first annual loss in decades and its decision to pause three EV projects are a strategic signal. For years, Honda represented consistency: disciplined operations, strong profitability, and measured growth. But the loss shows how difficult the EV transition has become, even for one of the most operationally reliable companies in the industry. Rising costs, supply chain pressure, and intense competition are forcing legacy automakers to step back, reassess capital allocation, and protect long-term brand and business strength. Honda’s pause may look like a setback in the short term. But strategically, it may be the kind of reset that helps a legacy brand stay competitive in a market that is still finding its shape. Read more brand stories on DesignRush. Link in the comments.

Sales and marketing alignment is still one of the biggest challenges in B2B organizations. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Pam Didner, Founder of Relentless Pursuit LLC., highlights three recurring friction points that impact performance: - Misalignment on audience: users vs decision-makers - Conflicting timelines: quota-driven urgency vs campaign planning cycles - Content disconnect: sales-stage needs vs customer journey frameworks When teams operate with different priorities, even strong strategies can break down at execution. Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify. Link in the comments.

Google changed the Maps icon. Most people barely noticed. What matters is everything happening behind it. Maps is now part of a broader shift where Google is aligning its entire ecosystem around Gemini. Search, discovery, and navigation are starting to blend into one experience driven by AI. That changes how brands get found. At the same time, competitors like Apple Maps are gaining ground with a different positioning built on design and privacy. Read the full breakdown in the comments.

Meta is moving toward a future where AI handles much of the ad execution. But when algorithms control targeting and creative, the real advantage shifts to how brands define success. As Ridge A., Co-Founder of Rock Salt Marketing Cooperative notes, if you do not define what a qualified lead is, the system will optimize for whatever is easiest to generate. AI can run the campaigns. Brands still need to set the rules. Read the full breakdown in the comments.

Most companies started their AI journey with chatbots. But answering questions is not the same as running real business processes. That gap is what *instinctools is focused on solving. Through multi-agent AI systems, their approach moves automation beyond simple responses toward agents that coordinate tasks, execute workflows, and operate across enterprise systems. The shift is simple but important: AI is moving from tools that assist to systems that actually do the work. Find out more in the comments.