AI Shopping Companion Minty Launches Ads for Back-To-School and Black Friday

Minty’s Favorites ads provide brands a new way to bring awareness to their most compelling offers with high-intent shoppers

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Minty, the AI shopping companion that delivers cashback and rewards to millions of shoppers across apps, including on ChatGPT, today announced the launch of Minty Ads, a new advertising product that connects brands with Minty’s Gen Z and Millennial shoppers, a higher-income audience that relies on Minty's AI shopping tools to maximize savings.

“Minty's Favorites” is the first offering to launch under Minty Ads: a curated weekly spotlight on six brands, shown natively across Minty's owned channels — in-app, on minty.com, and via email and text — right as shoppers are making their decisions.

The ads arrive as AI is changing how consumers shop and brands compete for attention. Minty, the pioneer in proactive commerce, surfaces the right offer at the right moment, inside AI conversations and channels where purchase decisions are already happening. That approach is critical heading into the 2026 back-to-school season, where 77% of shoppers plan to use AI to shop, for everything from discovering deals, finding comparable alternatives, and deciding between products.

Because Minty runs on the Model Context Protocol, the same offers and shopping intelligence are built to work across AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Google, and Microsoft Copilot, making Minty's savings and cashback network one of the only places where a brand can show up consistently across the AI platforms shoppers are using to research and buy from.

"Minty shoppers are ready to unleash savings for back-to-school," said Rodney Mason, Minty's Chief Marketing Officer. "Minty's Favorites puts brands in the middle of shoppers' decision process across the Minty platform, where they make smart purchase decisions. For advertisers, this is the highest-value moment in retail.”

Collin Colburn, the Vice President of Commerce and Retail Media at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), noted, “As AI becomes increasingly important in the shopping journey, there is an opportunity to rethink how advertising creates value. Success will come from designing sponsored experiences seamlessly rooted in transparency, relevancy, and helpfulness.”

Minty's Favorites was built around that same idea — native, opt-in placements delivered only across channels where shoppers have already chosen to engage.

Minty's Favorites is available now for the back-to-school 2026 season. Weekly campaigns will launch July 20, 2026. Brands that purchase a four-week Back-to-School package will also receive first-access reservations for Minty's Favorites placements during Black Friday while supplies last.

“We will be adding more shopping holidays and events and ad experiences in the very near future as part of our Proactive Commerce initiative to scale Minty into a full funnel ad and marketing platform,” Mason noted.

Minty advertisers provide their branding, approved offers, and cashback messaging for Minty to render the complete placement natively within the platform experience. All promotional messaging is mutually agreed upon by the brand and Minty before launch, ensuring offers are live, accurate, and on-brand.

Campaign performance on Minty.com is tracked daily and delivers top-of-the-funnel metrics including impressions, unique reach, CPM (Cost Per Thousand) impressions, clicks, CTR (Click Through Rate), and viewability.

About Minty

Minty is the fastest-growing AI shopping companion that proactively unleashes savings that matter most for smart shoppers, creating more loyalty for the e-com brands they shop.

As the pioneer of Proactive Commerce, Minty has 100’s of millions of shoppers and is ranked by G2 as a top 5 commerce tool that generates incremental revenue for e-commerce brands from high-intent shoppers without disrupting existing marketing channels.

Learn more about Minty Ads and receive the 2026 National Back-To-School Shopper Study Whitepaper.

Minty Shop: www.minty.com

Minty For Brands: https://business.minty.com/

Minty app for ChatGPT