The deal lets mid-market advertisers tap intent-rich audiences with automated, outcome-based TV campaigns
On today’s podcast, we will cover a few of the takes from our Top Trends to Watch in 2026 report. Our analysts (or bakers) will compete in a Great British Bake Off style episode discussing if the micro-drama craze will mint a new generation of creators with dual support from social networks and entertainment studios, and why AI’s content takeover will shake consumer trust in the internet. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Jacob Bourne and Principal Analyst Max Willens. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
ChatGPT is closing 2025 as the most downloaded iPhone app in the US, vaulting past entrenched social platforms, search, and shopping apps, per TechCrunch. Google Gemini was the only other AI app in the top 10, landing in the final slot. This is the first time an AI assistant has outranked every social and utility app in the US. AI assistants are the new entry point for mobile discovery, and brands should optimize content, creative, and ad journeys for users who start—and often finish—inside conversational interfaces.
Mobile advertising remains concentrated around a few dominant platforms, but challengers are gaining ground, per AppsFlyer’s Performance Index. Worldwide, Google Ads and Apple Ads remain No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, but AppLovin, Mintegral, Meta Ads, and TikTok for Business are climbing the rankings. As industries push further into mobile ads, competition is intensifying around creative efficiency, privacy-safe measurement, and cross-platform diversification. Marketers should prioritize mobile-first creative, test emerging networks early, and diversify across iOS and Android to hedge volatility.
Meta acquired AI wearables startup Limitless as part of an effort to accelerate development of AI-enabled devices. Limitless’ main product is an AI-powered pendant that records, transcribes, and summarizes users’ conversations. Acquiring Limitless is likely less about the pendant itself and more about getting access to the startup’s technology. Meta could integrate Limitless’ Rewind software—which can compress over 10 GB of data into a 3 MB file, per 9to5Mac—into its glasses to maximize storage. The winners in the AI wearables category could be those that balance hardware innovation with the privacy challenges that come with always-on intelligence.
Samsung is showcasing its Z TriFold foldable just as chatter intensifies around Apple’s first foldable, expected in 2026, per The Verge. The TriFold unfolds into a 10-inch display—essentially a tablet that folds down into a phone—clearly aimed at productivity, multitasking, and Samsung’s vision of pocketable computing. Brands should prepare for content to stretch across larger, flexible canvases. Build adaptable layouts, vertical-first creative, and productivity-friendly experiences that respond to multi-window use. Those who design for these hybrid screens will gain an early advantage in a premium, high-engagement segment.
33% of US restaurant diners discover promotions via email/newsletters and 32% via social media, according to a September 2025 survey from YouGov.
Nine in 10 US consumers are open to watching TikTok-style vertical clips on publisher sites, according to a new survey from Media.net, pointing the way to how audiences consume content and where brands can meet them. Clips shorter than 60 seconds deliver roughly 2.5x higher engagement, per Media.net. By offering targeted vertical video on their websites and mobile apps, publishers can ramp up engagement and time spent. Brands integrating in-stream ads and links on these websites and apps could open up a new funnel for engagement.
Google, which successfully pushed for standardizing RCS messaging between Android smartphones and iPhones last year, has taken another step toward multi-platform interoperability by enabling its Quick Share feature to work with Apple’s AirDrop. Cross-platform connectivity can convert every customer’s phone into a node for frictionless word of mouth and every physical location into a potential digital touchpoint. Proximity-based marketing could take flight provided campaigns are firmly anchored by security and privacy.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Amazon in Q3 and beyond: What Amazon's corporate layoffs tell us about how AI is actually affecting the broader job market. Is Amazon’s new “Help Me Decide” feature a significant stepping stone toward agentic AI? And could Amazon’s AI smart glasses for delivery workers be a Trojan horse for broader smart-glasses adoption? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Rachel Wolff. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
Reddit and mobile apps were the fastest-growing US ad channels in Q3, showing their emerging importance to advertisers. Ad spend on Reddit increased 46% YoY, per Sensor Tower’s Q3 Digital Market Index report, and mobile app ad spend grew 42%. Reddit is becoming a high ROI opportunity for early movers. Its growth suggests that highly engaged micro-communities (subreddits) are offering more precise targeting and less competition. That makes Reddit a strong testing ground for community-based and brand awareness campaigns for consumers who are actively looking to discover new content and products.
Jack Dorsey is reviving nostalgic short-form video culture with diVine, a Vine reboot designed for authenticity at a time when AI-generated creator content is surging. The new app launched with over 100,000 restored Vine videos. Vine gives diVine an emotional head start—but survival will hinge on converting that sentiment into fresh creative momentum. Brands that lean into authenticity will find diVine a clean slate—one where trust and creativity drive engagement. Still, it must overcome one hurdle: persuading audiences to make room for one more app in an already-saturated attention economy.
50.3% of US grocery shoppers say they'd use in-store digital tools if instant savings and coupons were exclusive to those tools, according to July 2025 data from Amazon Ads and EMARKETER.
Apple and Google are aligning around safer AI use and user data protection through their private cloud computing platforms. The dominant smartphone and mobile computing ecosystems now have security and privacy at the heart of their AI expansion, which addresses the desire for safer AI use. Brands that design within secure ecosystems—where AI learns preferences without revealing identities—will earn audience trust, regulatory protection, and enduring loyalty.
CNN is adding a short-form video feature to its app’s homepage in a bid to attract younger audiences and boost engagement amid declining linear TV viewership. The “Shorts” tab, which previously existed outside the homepage, includes clips from CNN stories in a vertical video format similar to Instagram Reels or TikTok, per The Verge. CMOs should explore how news-aligned short-form content can enhance credibility and trust in brand storytelling and monitor how legacy media brands experiment with short-form video to inform their own content strategies.
Consumers without experience using digital health tools—like wearables, health apps, or devices to manage a condition—say they’d try one if recommended by a doctor or insurer, according to a recent report from Merge. Direct-to-consumer marketing isn’t the only effective way to drive digital health tool adoption. When it comes to their health, many consumers trust medical professionals over brands—giving health tech players a chance to further prove to insurers, employers, and doctors that their tools deliver real value.
Eighty-five percent of adult mobile gamers in the US, the UK, Japan, and South Korea play daily—but how they play and pay diverges sharply, per Mistplay’s 2025 Mobile Gaming Across Markets report. The East–West loyalty gap is redefining how mobile game studios and advertisers compete. Asian markets lean on depth and narrative while Western ecosystems chase reach and novelty. Brands and publishers must find ways to localize the full player journey—from discovery to monetization. Cultural fluency and first-party data will define who retains gamers’ attention.
Snapchat revenues and users grew in Q3—but the company warned that age verification laws would have unpredictable results on its business. While innovative ad tools and a new partnership with Perplexity could offer more value, stagnant growth and new policies that would restrict access to over 18% of Snapchat’s audience make the social platform a riskier investment than those with ad businesses less reliant on a youth-oriented audience like Instagram.
Meta’s internal documents show it knowingly earned up to 10% of its annual revenues in 2024—around $16 billion—from scam and banned product ads, per Reuters. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reportedly served 15 billion high-risk scam ads daily, often letting them run unless 95% fraud certainty was detected. Brands should audit ad placements to see if scam ads dilute their impact. Seek platforms guaranteeing ad integrity, and require clear enforcement and accountability from ad platforms.