Google Ads: Capture holiday peak demand | Rethink Retail 2026 (full keynote)

At Rethink Retail 2026, we showed you how to supercharge your business and win the first AI-powered holiday season across Google Search and YouTube.

In an era where consumers are super-empowered by AI, the path to purchase has fundamentally changed. Shoppers are exploring more options, consulting trusted YouTube creators, and expecting seamless checkout. Learn how to stay ahead with AI-powered campaigns like Performance Max and AI Max for Shopping, conversational Merchant Center attributes, Demand Gen, and agentic commerce foundations. Unpack how to put the Commerce Four into action to turn holiday inspiration into verified sales and higher return on ad spend.

Read the full recap and announcements on Accelerate with Google to capture peak season demand:
https://business.google.com/us/accelerate/rethink-retail

Explore the Google and YouTube holiday playbook:
https://business.google.com/us/think/search-and-video/ai-powered-holiday-season-playbook/

#Rethink2026 #GoogleAds #YouTubeAds #DigitalMarketing #GoogleAI

00:00:00 Opening film: Create, capture, and convert demand
00:03:17 Winning the AI-powered holiday season (Courtney Rose)
00:28:40 Discovery in the AI era (Brendon Kraham)
00:39:22 Build your brand and drive performance with YouTube (Khartoon Weiss)
00:46:54 Panel: Brands winning with Demand Gen (Khartoon Weiss with Nicholas Karrat and Annie Pemberton)
01:12:49 Frontier CMO live: Turning culture into commerce (Josh Spanier and Damon Berger)
01:44:50 Key takeaways and the Commerce Four (Courtney Rose)
01:47:07 Ads Decoded: How to prepare your Google Ads retail campaigns for holiday shopping (Ginny Marvin and Enric Durany)