Search, display banners, streaming and CTV dominated local digital budgets last year, with Borrell Associates estimating the combined sectors will hold 78% of digital and 57% of total local
advertising within three years.
Analysts have begun lowering ecommerce and paid-media industry forecasts as tariff policies persist and consumer sentiment continues to fall. U.S. ecommerce growth for 2025 is now projected at 4.5%,
down from 7.5% -- and globally, excluding China, dropping to 6.5% from 9%.
Amazon has signed agreements to support development of nuclear energy projects with Small Modular Reactors - advanced reactors with smaller physical footprints. Google and Microsoft are working on
similar projects.
TikTok saw the strongest growth in ad spend, with about 27% vs. a year earlier.
Holiday shopping is projected to rise 7%, although 57% of respondents to a PwC survey describe their financial situation as strained.
Google on Thursday announced its rollout of AI-powered updates for search results and links, with AI Overviews ads on mobile in the U.S. and redesigned Shopping Ads to run with Google Lens visual
search results. Google says no action is required from advertisers for their ads to appear as AI Overview ads.. Amazon and Microsoft made similar announcements this week.
Because many Prime Video viewers consider the service to be "free," they are now seeing ads on the service.
Chinese marketplaces are gaining a strong foothold as inflation saps the spending power of Americans.
To help create and maintain a safer, more accountable AI ecosystem, Meta and Amazon have joined the Frontier Model Forum, an industry-led non-profit organization developed to ensure "safe and
responsible development" of the most impactful AI models.
New Street Research estimates generative AI will represent 21% of Amazon Web Services revenue in 2025. Comparing GAI vs. non-GAI revenue, the analyst firm says cash infusions will pay off in revenue
for some of the largest tech companies running ad businesses.
Anthropic today debuted Claude 3, a chatbot and suite of AI models that it calls its fastest and most powerful yet. Google will make the models available in its Vertex AI Model Garden during the
coming weeks. In addition to Google, the company's backers include Salesforce and Amazon.
Attention quality scored the highest for audio ads with the highest voiceover volume compared to ads with the lowest voiceover volume and the ads that had too many competing elements within the
creative at 25%, according to a controlled-study data released Tuesday.
The ad-supported service launches Jan. 29. MoffettNathanson research reiterated Amazon's statement that it will have "meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming providers."
With Amazon, the focus is on product reviews, while for Microsoft, it's about reliably sourcing election information.
Samsung and Roku are the best-selling TVs in the U.S. ranked by smart TV operating system, each with roughly a 19% share of the market in 2023 -- according to Guggenheim Securities.
One in five shoppers say they are buying gifts from smaller businesses as much as possible during Q4 2023, a stat from Jungle Scout that has doubled since 2022.
Elon Musk claims that Grok, the first product of xAI, is already superior to ChatGPT 3.5 in several benchmarks. Grok, which is being tested with a limited group in the U.S., is designed to answer
questions with a "bit of wit" and has a "rebellious streak," the xAI team said.
AI grew up this year, advancing into generative and other types. It is changing search advertising and marketing, TV and other media and how creative is produced and automated. It has become the
dominants theme across the industry in earnings calls and reports, and it won't let up anytime soon.
Amazon Web Services has announced data-matching capabilities for advertisers using AWS Entity Resolution through integrations with LiveRamp, TransUnion, and Unified ID 2.0.
Heading into a season of iffy consumer confidence, Amazon-type events are already snaring 44% of holiday shoppers.
Although there has been much analysis of expanding ad-supported streaming platforms, consumer spending on streamers -- subscription fees -- keeps rising.
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Sam Altman were among more than 20 business leaders meeting with senators this week. The first bipartisan AI Insight Forum is part of a series of gatherings
to craft AI law.
ESPN has been said among analysts to be the glue that holds the traditional pay TV bundle together. With its departure, cord-cutting could dramatically accelerate.
Global ad spend is on track to grow 4.4% to $963.5 billion in 2023, rising 8.2% to more than $1 trillion in 2024, which will be the first year expenditures top the trillion-dollar mark, according to
the World Advertising Research Center, with five companies responsible for the uptick.
Advertising a digital sales event on traditional media may not be as necessary.
Liquid Death is at it again. This time they are drawing the attention of grandmas everywhere and microdosing them with 6g of sugar and 30mg of caffeine. The brand expanded to a new product category
and became an Amazon #1 Best Seller in less than 24 hours. The Director of Digital Detail Retail, Natalie Cotter, discusses how Liquid Death took over the internet, broke Amazon, and murdered thirst
with their new Iced Teas.
Consumers also will shop around to make sure they're getting the best deal, with 50% saying they'll visit Walmart online or in-store.
Where do online shoppers start product searches and where do people get information on news? This has been a topic of discussion for years after reports surfaced that twenty-somethings were using
TikTok to search for restaurants and other information on the site.
Messages about economic forecasts are mixed and muddled this year. Third-party data and research companies have divergent views on how consumers will spend money. McKinsey & Associates released data
in June that suggests "optimism is trending upward, but spending isn't."
Prime Day spending is expected to be down, according to a survey of 1,000 prospective shoppers by Ziff Davis for RetailMeNot. The average respondent who will shop Prime Day plans to
spend $250 on Prime Day (and other retailers’ simultaneous sales) this year, down 16% from $388 in 2022 and 58% from $594 in 2021. Of that planned
spend, respondents intend to spend most of it ($150) at Amazon (down from $233 in 2022) and $100 at other retailers offering their own promotions during Prime Day (down
from $155 in 2022).