Curated by eMarketer, this special collection of interviews will help you understand how consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers’ digital ad spend and commerce strategies have evolved due to market challenges, including waning loyalty, rising prices, and stocking issues.

After an inconsistent year for digital ad spending in 2020, every industry in the US will increase their outlays in 2021. The retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and entertainment industries will provide the biggest boosts, driving up overall digital ad spending by 25.5%.

Apparel and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands should gear up to be a big focus on Prime Day. A successful Prime Day will be needed to give Amazon a jolt of momentum for the back half of the year. It’s a chance to lure new subscribers with faster delivery, omnichannel grocery options, and Amazon Prime Video content, all of which support the continued growth of its ad business.

The impact: While Amazon didn't name specific brands that are beta testing VPP, it did report that one consumer packaged goods brand saw a 6.9% increase in favorability as well as a 14.7% jump in purchase intent attributable to its VPP campaign. Zoom out: Product placement has been a fixture of television advertising since its debut, but digital and streaming TV is rethinking the concept.

It’s still early days, but augmented reality is showing real potential for social commerce. Brands can use the technology to improve the experience and help customers make more informed purchase decisions.

We expect a slowdown in growth for CPG and computing products and consumer electronics after benefiting during lockdowns last year. Retail ad spend will ramp up this year, aided by the easing of restrictions. Spending in the CPG and computing products categories are rising, as auto and travel fall.

We estimate that digital ad spending by consumer product good (CPG) brands will hit $30.56 billion this year. What's more is that the CPG sector is one of five industries to devote more than 70% of their total ad budgets to mobile.

When Amazon starts a new business, competitors scrap business plans and markets shudder. We examined 19 of Amazon’s divisions to help parse how the company fuels its flywheel to keep driving the virtuous cycle.

But travel’s difficult 2020 dropped the industry to the bottom of the rankings, tied with CPG. Both accounted for just a 5.4% share of overall ad spending in Germany last year. Travel will begin its slow reascent this year, pulling back ahead of CPG in 2021, and eventually exceeding healthcare and pharma by 2023.

The reports in this collection look at ad spending in the retail, financial services, computing products and consumer electronics, automotive, telecom, travel, health and pharma, media and entertainment, and CPG industries. Countries covered in this report series include the US, UK, and Germany.