The “never growing old” generation now faces retirement, a host of chronic health conditions, and mortality. The pandemic sparked a major shift toward digital channels to find health information, assess providers, and research Medicare plans and options.

China’s zero-COVID policy hinders retailers at home and abroad: The mitigation measures put the brakes on both retail sales and manufacturing, which could have long-term implications.

Coronavirus lockdowns in China have global repercussions: The ripple effect of Chinese factory shutdowns will be felt far and wide while businesses are forced to adjust expectations.

China tries to balance productivity amid COVID-19 lockdowns: The Chinese government struggles to contain infections in Shanghai while adopting a business-as-usual attitude toward closed-loop factories.

US retail sales growth will stabilize in 2022, but changes wrought by two years of the pandemic will drive growth in online automotive and grocery sales.

The pandemic, along with shifts in consumer health behavior, have heightened the need for medical payments innovation. With unpaid US medical debt approaching $200 billion, healthcare providers must take a patient-centered approach to enhancing their payment infrastructures.

For CMOs in the US, the biggest potential challenge to growth this year will be talent and labor issues, cited by 42.6% of those executives. The next biggest headwinds they anticipate are supply chain issues (29.6%) and inflation (24.5%). Two years into the pandemic, just 5.8% expect new coronavirus measures to hinder growth.

Younger consumers in the UK continue to drive the digital conversation, but older age groups did some catching up during the pandemic. And these older consumers are attractive to marketers and brands by dint of their disposable income.

Food and grocery delivery has spiked during the pandemic. Apps like SkipTheDishes, Uber Eats, and Instacart have gained new users who turned to delivery out of necessity. For marketers, these apps present a new opportunity to reach consumers with ad products rich in intent and location data.

Payments Ecosystem: This year will reveal how providers must adapt to lasting pandemic-driven digitization across payments channels, ranging from in-store retail to B2B ecommerce.

The pandemic has accelerated consumer adoption of QR codes. Here’s how marketers can take advantage of the technology.

Amazon and others are rapidly rolling out contactless checkout: While the pandemic sparked interest in contactless technology, the tight labor market could lead more retailers to adopt the tools.

The end of the public health emergency could eliminate telehealth access for many socioeconomically disadvantaged Medicare patients.

The average number of smartphone apps used in the US will decrease over the next few years, following a pandemic-driven bump in 2020 that did not change the overall trend. This year, users will access an average of 20.4 apps each month, a figure that will drop to 19.7 in 2026.

On this episode of Brand Anatomy, where we get exclusive looks inside leading brands, Briefings director Jeremy Goldman sits down with Dorothy Dowling, CMO of Best Western, to discuss the changing needs of today’s travelers given rising inflation and pent-up post-pandemic demand, and the importance of loyalty programs to better serve customers.

We unpack Teladoc’s Q1 earnings and explore how Livongo may not be living up to expectations and how telehealth firms will fare in a post-COVID world.

US average time spent with digital will hit 8 hours and 14 minutes per day in 2022 after first crossing the 8-hour mark last year. That 1.9% increase isn't as big as in past pandemic years, but it's still eating up a bigger share of overall time spent with media.

Digital advertising has taken a few hits in the recent past (ahem, the pandemic), but there's still lots of hope and some flat growth that can't be ignored. "In Other News," we discuss Vizio's new ad solution and what exactly service hoppers are. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Peter Newman and Paul Verna.

In Southeast Asia, total media ad spending snapped back to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 and will continue rising strongly this year. The growth in digital ad spending, though tamer in 2022, will again outpace that of the overall ad market.