After plummeting in 2020 with live events virtually nonexistent, Ticketmaster surged 688% last year to 46.2 million visitors. Meanwhile, Macy’s also made a nice comeback with an 18% jump to 51.6 million. Some sellers benefited from the “new normal.” A few top retailers mostly maintained their massive pandemic-driven gains from 2020.

China’s second-largest annual shopping festival broke records last month, generating more sales and attracting more brands than ever before. Held each year around June 18, the 618 promotional event is still smaller than Singles’ Day, but its rising scale reflects a growing appetite for a midyear alternative to the November ecommerce extravaganza.

The news: Meta offered a glimpse of various AI-related projects in a streamed “Inside the Lab'' event Wednesday. Insights included speech-driven VR world-building tools, real-time speech and translation, as well as a look into its AI supercomputer.

It will continue to be a high-growth category this year, as new coronavirus variants and resurging cases have further delayed many weddings and other formal events, as well as return-to-office plans. Health, personal care, and beauty (15.1% YoY growth): The pandemic increased online purchases of everyday essentials, including hygiene products and toiletries.

For example, average costs per click (CPC) for ads on Amazon México during May 2021—when the country’s annual Hot Sale event takes place—were more than triple that of the month prior, Macarta found. Similar trends also held true in November when CPCs in Mexico were nearly double that of October’s due to the Buen Fin and Cyber Five shopping events.

Among holiday shopping events in China, many outside the country have probably only heard of Singles’ Day. However, 618—which ecommerce giant JD.com launched to commemorate the company’s founding day—is gaining popularity. And given the global interest in a post-pandemic retail rebound, this year’s event was particularly worthy of attention.

China’s Singles’ Day is no longer just a discount shopping event, as participating digital giants are now leveraging livestreams, new product launches, and novel technologies to enhance customer engagement and the buying experience.

Many consumers in Latin America are no longer content to let brands sit on the sidelines of tough conversations. The events of 2020 have increased the public’s expectation that companies will take a stand on top-of-mind social causes, such as discrimination, poverty, and climate change.

As shelter-at-home and quarantine measures keep consumers in China at home, brands ramped up their efforts to meet consumers' high expectations for digital services by offering free online tools and courses, streaming live events and adopting new ecommerce strategies.

That means when inaccurate readings/alerts cause patients to experience any adverse health events, tech companies would be subject to taking full accountability of their devices’ mishaps—including any legal action that would result.

For example, analytics can surface that a client with children under the age 21 has experienced a major liquidity event but hasn’t set up a trust for them. An advisor can consequently make a tailored recommendation. Personalizing interactions and financial advice will drive increased revenues.

GA4 works across platforms and can track data across websites and applications, doesn't require cookies, and measures insights using an event-based data model. It also uses data-driven attribution to assign credit to more than simply the last click, allowing marketers to see how various initiatives influence conversions.

Looking forward: The worlds of sports viewership and TV advertising are in flux, but the Super Bowl remains a key event for both broadcasters and advertisers, who are slowly gaining access to the tools needed to accurately measure impact across viewing channels. Read the full article. 2. ViacomCBS becomes Paramount, Paramount pushes Paramount+.

As we suggested in our recent report on the future of the bank branch, a metaverse-based alternative to a physical branch might let a customer meet with a banker avatar from anywhere, join bank-hosted events, or receive product education.

Pandemic flashback shows a similar discrepancy: In the early part of the pandemic, Twitter withdrew its Q1 2020 guidance, and it ended up being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19-related advertising pullbacks in Q2, including event cancellations and its heavy tilt toward brand versus performance advertising.

Across the board, millennial respondents displayed greater demand for membership features including free two-day shipping and perks such as member-exclusive sales and events. Gen Zers and boomers in the study were least interested in member-only access to events. Boomers also saw less value in rewards or loyalty points. See the interactive Paid Membership demand chart in the Appendix.

Petco promoted the event through a paid social ad campaign, in partnership with Blue Hour Studios. Running from April 29 to May 1, 2021, the event featured creators like livestream host Arielle Vandenberg (@arielle), who has 1.4 million followers on Instagram. Blue Hour Studios’ Higgins said the combination of creators, organic content, and paid media led to strong results.

Looking forward: Video platforms have become a major resource for those looking to communicate about and stay updated on global breaking news events, but their responses to the sudden surge of Ukrainian videos shows they still have a long way to go to reel in misinformation and handle advertising tied to such content.

The “return to normal”: Beauty and cosmetics sales are poised to see significant growth as the US emerges from the pandemic and consumers spend disposable income on products associated with going out and attending events. Amazon is also making a bigger push into beauty.

How we got here: Events from last fall brought children’s mental health and safety to the spotlight. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, leaked internal research showing the corporation knew about Instagram's detrimental health effects on some kids. This led to Meta postponing Instagram for Kids, which had been a controversial and criticized initiative.

Brand programs in the country that focus on events, like the Olympics or elections, have been the focus of Twitter promotion. For example, the snap election in Canada in 2021 was an opportunity for many brand campaigns to promote voting on Twitter, which launched an emoji triggered by a series of hashtags.

Twitter’s dependency on the news cycle and events is mainly to blame for the losses. The events of the past two years helped Twitter reach two important milestones: In 2020, it registered its highest growth rate in five years, and in 2021, Twitter hit its peak in monthly users.