As CTV ad spending accelerates, buyers are shifting focus from convenience to performance—zooming in on ad quality, viewer experience, and actionable signals that drive measurable impact. Nearly half of global agencies and demand-side platforms (47%) prioritize ad quality and a positive user experience, per BCG and Google. Easy integration, responsive customer support, and platforms’ ease of use rank far lower. Marketers should push for consistent data-sharing and collaboration with publishers to turn CTV from an experimental channel into a predictable growth engine.
After months of public and regulatory pressure, Instagram announced a sweeping overhaul of how teens experience the platform by applying the same “PG-13” principles used by the film industry. Its goal is to limit exposure to adult or explicit content and curb the backlash over teen well-being. Instagram’s PG-13 turn marks a new phase in platform governance where safety, not scale, defines success, and where brands must earn trust in a shrinking, more sheltered teen arena. Brands now need to create more nuanced campaigns to reach younger users without running afoul of guardrails or further alienating minors.
As the murky economic climate leads consumers to adjust their spending priorities, they're looking for luxury brands that can sell them more than a status symbol. Some 88% of high-income consumers now define status by knowledge rather than material possessions, according to a new report by Team One’s Global Affluent Collective.
LVMH unexpectedly returned to growth in Q3 following two quarters of contraction. The company's burst of momentum is a positive sign for the luxury industry, which has otherwise had a difficult year as consumers worldwide rethink spending amid considerable uncertainty. But to keep it going, LVMH will have to deliver freshness and creativity.
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is evolving into a dynamic, data-rich medium that blends physical and digital engagement. Speaking at Advertising Week New York, OAAA’s Anna Bager and Vistar Media’s Lucy Markowitz described how AI, measurement, and social media are redefining OOH’s role in omnichannel marketing. Digital formats now make up over 36% of total OOH revenues, while programmatic buying and AI-driven creative optimization are transforming static screens into responsive canvases. Partnerships like TikTok’s “Out of Phone” show how viral content can extend into public spaces. The next phase of OOH will be defined not by size, but by intelligence and interactivity.
Google updated ad arrangements across its Search interface globally, potentially amping up competition for visibility and user attention. Users can now hide sponsored content by collapsing text ads to only see organic results. The “Sponsored Results” label is pinned to the top of the search screen as users scroll, making that section more apparent even when collapsed. Brands that rely heavily on search visibility need to rebalance paid and organic SEO strategies. They should test how collapsed ads change click-through rates and revise bidding tactics to maintain a share of user attention in increasingly competitive results pages.
While marketers fixate on generative AI’s impact on search, the real risk is invisibility. AI crawler traffic jumped 96% YoY, with GPTBot’s share soaring from 5% to 30%, per Cloudflare, yet traditional search traffic flatlined. Thousands of AI crawls now yield only a handful of source links, making it urgent for marketers to optimize for AI bots, not just Google. Brands that address crawl inefficiencies now will gain search visibility, AI discoverability, and revenue edge over competitors that haven’t adjusted. Anticipating shifting search dynamics can help brands stay discoverable no matter how the algorithms evolve.
47% of US banking decision-makers say their institutions have already rolled out generative AI, up from 10% in 2023, said data from EY-Parthenon.
Klarna and Splitit are pursuing AI initiatives to keep their products top-of-mind for consumers, per press releases. Klarna partnered with Google Cloud to power AI-backed hyperpersonalized marketing campaigns. Splitit debuted its Agentic Commerce Partner Program, bringing card-linked buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans to agent-powered shopping. Replacing human created art with AI generated images is a risky play for marketing, but Splitit’s BNPL angle with agentic commerce may help it establish a foothold in the installment plan arena, especially when tied to shoppers’ preferred cards that they trust and earn rewards.
Technology modernization and attracting younger consumers are key to community banks’ survival over the next decade, according to a discussion between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Michelle Bowman at a Fed conference. Community banks face existential threats. Consolidation in the community banking market has been substantial. Community bank leadership is aging, and banks’ small scale makes it difficult to compete in a digitally interconnected banking market. Their strategies need to account for what’s changing.
Once seen as a revenue channel, commerce media is fast becoming the connective tissue between brands, retailers, and consumers. The industry’s focus is expanding from monetization to meaning, a theme that resonated throughout Advertising Week New York.
More than a quarter (28%) of consumers plan to spend more on Halloween items like candy, décor, and costumes this year, up from 23% in 2024, per CivicScience. While some of that uptick reflects growing enthusiasm, higher prices—driven by tariffs and other factors, such as rising cocoa costs—are also likely a factor. Halloween shoppers are proving you can have your candy and save, too. Even when they’re eager to splurge on sweets and costumes, they’re still looking for a good deal. The retailers that win this season will be the ones that offer value-driven promotions, making it easy to indulge without overspending.
Amazon will hire 250,000 workers this holiday season, the same number it brought on each of the past two years. The retailer could account for more than half of all seasonal hires in the last three months of the year, as other companies pare back hiring plans in the face of considerable uncertainty. Amazon’s consistent hiring plans illustrate its (relative) optimism heading into what could be a difficult season.
At Tech Futures 2025 in New York last week, IBM general manager of corporate strategy Roger Premo and VP of AI and automation Nick Fuller outlined how enterprises and brands can scale AI responsibly—and profitably. Acting as “client zero,” IBM has improved its run rate by $3.5 billion—about 8% of its revenues—through internal AI adoption. Brands that treat AI as a business transformation, not a tech trial, will move faster from proof of concept to profit. Align leadership vision with a disciplined data strategy, invest in unified platforms, and embed governance from the start.
TikTok Shop’s efforts to promote livestream shopping on its platform are beginning to deliver results for QVC, Pop Mart, Pacsun, Crocs, and others. Live shopping continues to gain momentum, but the format is likely to remain a small share of social commerce sales for the foreseeable future. The expense and effort required to put on livestreams means that, for now, they are most effective as tools to boost awareness and build community, rather than as an outright sales driver. Brands that start incorporating livestreaming in their commerce plans will be poised to benefit as the format matures.
A consortium of international banks are exploring whether to create a stablecoin-esque digital currency to facilitate payments on-chain across G7 countries, per a press release. Engineering a stablecoin-like digital currency that’s pegged to multiple currencies is a big task for the global banks logistically. These efforts also demonstrate that banks are taking the risk of payment disintermediation seriously—and, in the process, legitimizing stablecoin’s place in the payments ecosystem.
At Philadelphia’s 1682 conference, Coca-Cola’s Benny Lee and Hershey’s Andy Hunt shared how two of the world’s oldest CPG brands are transforming retail through creativity, data, and AI. Coca-Cola is evolving from selling beverages to designing experiences—using AI to power global design systems and create immersive in-store storytelling through products like Y3000. Hershey’s is closing the gap between physical and digital by embedding data into every stage of retail, from aisle feedback to retail media KPIs. Both executives envision the store of the future as dynamic, data-driven, and human-led—where AI supports storytelling, not automation.
AstraZeneca reached a deal with the US government to lower prescription drug prices in exchange for a three-year tariff reprieve. If more Big Pharma deals with Trump mirror Pfizer’s and AstraZeneca’s, it signals the sector views the terms as favorable, since core revenue drivers remain largely untouched. Still, pricing pressure won’t subside anytime soon, with more drugs expected to be up for Medicare price negotiations. Big Pharma shouldn’t view these latest agreements as the end of the line, but rather as important learning moments for which drug pricing concessions will appease the administration.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how linear TV ad dollars are still managing to outweigh CTV ad dollars, what’s primarily responsible for driving growth in out-of-home ad spending this year, and if some new high-profile print media initiatives can stem the print ad spend bleeding. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Senior Analyst, Ross Benes, and Senior Forecasting Analyst, Zach Goldner. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.