The news: The P&C insurance industry posted a 96.6 combined ratio in 2024—its best in 10+ years—despite natural disaster losses. Major reserve boosts, surging premium growth, and smart underwriting (especially in personal auto and homeowners) drove this performance. GenAI adoption further enhanced claims processing and fraud detection. Strategic exits from high-risk areas also curbed losses. Our take: P&C insurers must double down on AI, automation, and risk analytics to sustain profitability amid growing climate volatility and economic headwinds. Innovation in underwriting and pricing, paired with disciplined risk management, will be key to staying resilient in an increasingly unpredictable risk environment.

The rest of the year is top-of-mind for leaders in marketing and retail, which they expect to be challenging but riddled with opportunities to stand out from competition.

Back-to-school spending is steady in 2025, but shopper behavior is split. Parents are prioritizing tech and clothing—yet these are also the first to be cut when budgets tighten. Consumers are shopping earlier, seeking deals, and using AI to keep costs down. With shopping habits divided by generation and income, retailers must stay flexible, personalize offers, optimize for AI, and create seamless cross-channel experiences.

Online fashion sales growth in France is stabilizing as global competitors capture market share and social platforms become more influential.

At Cannes Lions 2025, commerce media partnerships once again reigned supreme. Once the domain of digital shelf tactics and retail data, commerce media is now reshaping how brands show up across social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and in-store displays. This year’s festival offered a glimpse into a more integrated, AI-driven future—one where conversational ads, programmatic pipes, and real-world touchpoints blur the lines between media and purchase.

Retail media’s next phase will see billions of daily shopper signals paired with AI to fine-tune campaigns on the fly. Through consolidated buying, data collaboration, and transparent pricing, advertisers will have the ability to turn insights into measurement results.

A new four-day format for Amazon’s tentpole event will shake up the playing field.

The news: Prescription drug approval timelines will shrink under an FDA pilot program that will reduce the approval timelines from a typical 10 months to just 1 to 2 months. Our take: Speedier reviews and new AI programs for drug developers are good ideas, but pharma companies should remember the COVID-19 vaccines speed-to-market backlash and weigh the time benefit against whether their drugs will gain trust with physicians and patients.

The market will return to growth in 2025, but retailers face ongoing disruption from ultra-fast-fashion players and TikTok Shop.

Grocery delivery intermediaries like DoorDash and Uber are gaining ground, offering new ways to reach high-intent shoppers. Meanwhile, retailers like Walmart and Amazon continue to lead with strong delivery infrastructure and valuable customer data.

Programmatic ad buying is undergoing a sea change: Microsoft’s DSP closure signals a smaller role for Big Tech in managing third-party ad inventory—so who will take its place?

24% of shoppers have used generative AI (genAI) in shopping experiences, while 35% are aware of the use of genAI in shopping and plan to use it in the future, per November 2024 Capgemi data.

Retailers want richer experiences that still respect guest trust. Katy Hershey, senior director, partner solutions group at Roundel shares how Target’s 165 million guest profiles and 15 years of retail media insight fuels its brand-safe omnichannel campaigns—and outlines what’s next: goal-based buying, AI-driven personalization, and broader reach via off-platform partnerships.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands like Eyebuydirect are overcoming traditional barriers in high-consideration purchase categories like eyewear.

The news: Meta’s AI app is drawing backlash as users unknowingly publish private chats—some serious—under real names due to a confusing share feature, per TechCrunch. Many people thought they were using the chatbot or saving notes in private, only to find that their prompts—which included topics like gender identity, medical concerns, tax evasion, and job interviews—were visible to strangers. Our take: This episode poses significant issues for Meta regarding the metaverse, AI, and advertising.

The news: Pinterest will host high-performing influencer content posted on affiliate shopping platform LTK, automatically bringing popular images from the platform to Pinterest, according to The Verge. Pinterest also hired Chip Jessopp, former Amazon director of global accounts and ad tech sales, as head of programmatic, per Digiday. Jessopp will help Pinterest create new demand channels while scaling its programmatic abilities. Our take: Pinterest’s moves could better position it as a legitimate competitor in digital advertising and a promising growth area for influencers and marketers—giving the platform more legs against social commerce giants like Meta and TikTok.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss whether advertisers can still create powerful brand narratives in such a fragmented media universe, the best piece of advice for advertisers trying to negotiate a minefield of tariff-related changes, and how AI will impact advertising and marketing over the next 12 months. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Vice President and Principal Analyst Jasmine Enberg, and Principal Analyst Sarah Marzano. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

43% of creators and influencers in North America say AI tools help them streamline their workflows, according to April 2025 data from URLgenius. However, nearly a third (30%) say they haven’t noticed any impact.

Truist is making significant strides in optimizing its digital onboarding process, prioritizing increased personalization and a smoother customer journey to attract new clients. This multi-pronged strategy includes enabling mobile ID verification to boost conversion rates among younger generations, seamlessly integrating new clients with services like direct deposit and Zelle to establish Truist as their primary bank, and allowing personalized mobile app dashboards. These digital improvements, supported by AI for feedback aggregation, aim to offset the impact of branch closures and meet the demand for digital convenience, particularly from Gen Z. Truist should amplify marketing efforts to highlight the ease and speed of their fully digital onboarding, emphasizing that no in-person ID verification is required.

Connected TV (CTV) is booming in households and becoming significantly more important for advertisers.