This year’s standout merch campaigns show why branded products are having a moment, not as giveaways, but as attention engines. From pop culture sparks to sustainability and event-driven personalization, the examples demonstrate what makes merch work when digital noise is at its loudest.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will enable Visa Intelligence in its marketplace, bringing agentic commerce capabilities to AWS’s merchant list, per a press release. However, US consumers still have trepidation about letting bots complete purchases on their behalf—almost 70% of US adults are uninterested in testing out AI shoppers, per an EMARKETER and Civic Science survey. Major payment players hoping to benefit from agentic-driven volume need to develop incentives or roll out education materials to assure consumers that bot-driven shopping is safe and effective.
Klarna rolled out tap to pay on iPhones and Androids across 14 European markets, expanding its reach for in-store purchases, per a press release. Rolling out tap to pay in Europe shows the Klarna’s ambition to secure seamless ways to check out for its users. With Klarna and Affirm already available in-store through Apple Pay in the US, BNPL providers have to weigh how much in-app tap to pay rollouts could gain traction among US consumers who are already accustomed to Apple Wallet—and what incentives could entice them to leave the Apple ecosystem.
Amazon is testing ultra-fast delivery for fresh groceries and other household essentials in some areas of Seattle and Philadelphia. The service, called Amazon Now, allows shoppers in eligible neighborhoods to receive thousands of items in 30 minutes or less. While Amazon continues to invest in its brick-and-mortar grocery business, enhancing its ecommerce initiatives appears to be taking precedence. Speeding up delivery could help Amazon extend its foothold in grocery while keeping shoppers wedded to its platform, but our forecast expects its share of digital grocery sales to dip as Walmart, pure-play grocers, and intermediary delivery platforms grow their piece of the pie.
The FDA is introducing agentic AI to help its drug reviewers, investigators, and scientists carry out more complex tasks and develop AI-driven workflows. Its move into agentic AI signals that AI-driven review is becoming a regulatory norm.
The UK will increase the price it pays for new medicines in exchange for evading tariffs on pharmaceutical exports to the US, under a trade agreement reached between the two governments on Monday. The deal is further affirmation that Trump will use tariff threats as a bargaining tool to advance what he views as larger measures against the pharma industry: increasing domestic drug production, reducing the cash-pay prices of some expensive medicines, and bringing US drug costs closer in line with those in other affluent countries.
Health insurance outranks all other factors when people consider their next career move, according to a recent survey from Talker Research and Oscar Health. While employers are unlikely to take on more healthcare costs soon due to their own financial strain, they must prioritize worker retention and use open enrollment for transparent communication on cost increases and plan adjustments
Acast has launched the UK’s biggest integrated podcast marketplace, combining audio and YouTube video inventory through a partnership with Little Dot Studios. The deal gives podcasters access to Little Dot’s 11 billion monthly YouTube views and enables advertisers to buy premium CPM audio alongside dynamic YouTube video ads and sponsorships within one system. This aligns with shifting listener habits: nearly half of UK consumers now prefer watching podcasts, and YouTube will reach over three-quarters of the country by 2029. As podcast video growth steadies, Acast’s unified analytics across audio, YouTube, and social offer marketers a more efficient, accountable way to scale creator-led campaigns.
Disney is moving toward a long-awaited CEO transition, aiming to name Bob Iger’s successor in early 2026 after years of instability. Top internal contenders Josh D’Amaro and Dana Walden have already presented long-range strategies, with the winner set to shadow Iger until his contract ends. The next chief will inherit rising streaming expectations, a $60 billion global parks expansion, and the challenge of reviving major film franchises while managing the decline of linear TV. EMARKETER data shows Disney+ and Hulu subscription revenues will keep rising through 2027, but with slowing growth—raising the stakes for a leader who can execute creatively and operationally.
YouTube and NBCUniversal are doubling down on creator-led Olympic storytelling for Milano Cortina 2026 after Paris proved how strongly younger viewers gravitate toward digital personalities. Top YouTubers will chronicle the journeys of 40 Team USA athletes, with unprecedented access inside trials, training environments, and even the Athlete Village. Nearly half of global sports fans—and 59% of adults ages 18 to 44—follow sports influencers, while YouTube captured 17% of all global Olympic engagement in 2024. For marketers, creators now sit at the center of Olympic discovery, highlights, and cultural relevance, making YouTube indispensable to Games-era planning.
Walmart finalized its Vizio acquisition one year ago, a move that clearly telegraphed its advertising ambitions and positioned it to be a dominant retail media player. Vizio considerably strengthens Walmart’s pitch to advertisers by giving it more opportunities to get in front of engaged audiences and providing more data for better targeting and measurement. Walmart’s newfound CTV capabilities also help establish the retailer as a full-funnel ad solution, increasing its appeal to both endemic and nonendemic brands.
A leaked memo from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed his “code red” orders to staff to prioritize ChatGPT improvements in the face of mounting competition. OpenAI is fast-tracking GPT-5.1 upgrades at the cost of new initiatives, including an advertising platform, its AI wearable, and an AI shopping agent. Its rush to refocus on model quality could improve user interactions and boost engagement while building loyalty. Brands should follow developments from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and others to track consumer preferences on AI use to optimize content for specific markets.
A group of Swedish publishers is suing Meta over scam ads on Facebook. The publishing group, Utgivarna, accused Meta of fraud, complicity in fraud, and preparation for fraud due to Facebook ads that impersonate Swedish journalists and media brands. In addition, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are investigating Meta’s role in financial scams. We’re likely to see more lawsuits from other publishers who are seeking to protect their brand, name, and ability to earn trust from new consumers.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how advertisers are faring amid the current economic backdrop of tariffs, inflation, and a government shutdown; how the digital ad triopoly is changing; and the biggest ad spending milestones this year and in 2026. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Senior Director of Forecasting Oscar Orozco and Principal Analyst Yory Wurmser. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
Most age groups show negative sentiment as the dominant response to personalized ads, with negativity ranging from 36% to 58%, according to an August 2025 survey from Verve and Censuswide.
Creator partnerships are increasingly a necessity for driving strong marketing results, according to a TikTok report on influencer-led campaigns. Even as influencer marketing proves its value, consumers are becoming more inundated with influencer ads. This makes it paramount that advertisers tailor their strategies for the best results as the influencer marketing space becomes highly saturated.
Generative AI tools increasingly rely on community-driven platforms—Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more—as primary sources that feed directly into consumer-facing answers. Because AI does not distinguish between search content, social chatter, reviews, creator posts, or earned media, brand visibility now depends on cross-team coordination rather than siloed optimization. Upstream conversations matter: if forums, reviews, or public commentary lack clarity or depth, AI responses will mirror those gaps. And because users often begin with general queries—not shopping-specific ones—early influence happens long before product discovery. To stay visible, brands must unify search, social, PR, and content workflows.
Brands are ramping up GEO efforts to ensure maximum visibility this holiday season. Tactics include flooding the internet with content; paying influencers to post on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook; and building entire websites visible only to AI scrapers. If that fails, companies have more opportunities to pay for advertising within AI search results as Walmart, Amazon, and Google ramp up efforts to monetize their AI tools. GEO is a strategic imperative for brands looking to remain discoverable as more shopping research migrates to AI platforms. Given the opportunity, companies should also be experimenting with AI search ads to see how shoppers interact with the format and whether these promos drive purchases or reduce trust in AI recommendations.
Alphabet shares hit an all-time high last week—up about 70% this year and nearing a $4 trillion valuation—after investor enthusiasm surged around its new Gemini 3 model, per CNBC. Google’s parallel push on AI models and custom hardware may pay off faster than expected. Its scale and consumer reach give Google a rare advantage anchored on rapid deployment, lower inference costs, and a massive user base already positioned to adopt whatever Google ships next through services they use every day.