The top two reasons shoppers worldwide buy directly from brands are a better price (53%) and free delivery (49%), followed by fast and convenient delivery and free returns (both 36%), according to Wunderman Thompson.

US marketers are allocating more of their advertising budget to social media and TV (19% each) than digital (14%), email (12%), and out-of-home (OOH) (7%) media channels, according to Quad.

US connected TV (CTV) ad spend will grow 63% between this year and 2027, for a total of $40.90 billion, according to our forecast.

Walmart was the biggest US retailer by US sales in 2022 with nearly $500 billion in sales, more than double the size of runner-up Amazon, according to the National Retail Federation.

US TV ad spend will fall 8% this year, per our forecast. Its share of total media ad spend is also in decline as marketers turn to faster-growing formats such as connected TV (CTV) and retail media.

In just five days, 100 million users signed up for Threads, compared with Twitter’s 364 million, according to our forecast.

With 13.4% YoY user growth in 2023, Snapchat will briefly overtake TikTok (12.7%) as the fastest-growing social media platform worldwide, according to our forecast. TikTok will regain the title come 2024.

In Threads’ first week, 33.5% of app downloads came from India, followed by Brazil (22.5%) and the US (16.1%), according to data.ai.

Digital ad spend worldwide will hit $601.84 billion this year, up 9.5% from $549.51 billion in 2022, according to our forecast.

Most market researchers do not think AI will take over completely, according to SurveyMonkey. Some 38% of US market researchers think that AI will take over data visualization completely, but more people (46%) believe that AI will assist while humans remain in control.

Less than 1% of US ad agency jobs will be lost to automation and generative AI technology this year, according to Forrester. Though that number will grow over the coming years, it will only total 7.5% by 2030.

LinkedIn is the social platform most commonly used by B2B marketers and their clients worldwide, according to a LinkedIn survey conducted by Ipsos. YouTube takes second place, followed by Facebook and Instagram.

Some 57% of US consumers started their online shopping searches on Amazon as of Q2 2023, according to Jungle Scout. That’s more than those who started on a search engine (42%), the Walmart website (39%), or TikTok (17%).

Nearly 175 million adults in the US will use Amazon Prime this year, making up 65.9% of the US adult population, according to our forecast.

US adults spend nearly 3 hours a day watching linear TV and nearly two hours watching connected TV, according to our forecast. Viewers are moving to CTV, and so are advertisers. Learn how to cash in on this seismic shift during our free webinar on July 12. Sign up here.

Gen Zers in the US want their brands to support mental health more than any other cause, cited by 53% of those surveyed by ICSC and Big Village. Tied for second place are environmental causes, including climate change and sustainability, and racial and gender equity (47% each).

Gen Z consumers of beauty and skincare products are most attracted to brands for their pricing (48%), samples (46%), and sustainability (44%), according to Bolt. Pricing is a bigger influence for older consumers, cited by 61% of those ages 18 and older.

Over half (53%) of executives worldwide say their leading concern regarding their digital advertising strategy is being able to reach target audiences effectively at scale, per IDC.

Some 29% of US adults are taking less expensive trips this summer due to inflation, according to Bankrate. Slightly fewer (28%) are engaging in cheaper activities as inflation, which has cooled slightly, wears on.

US adults will spend an average of 230.3 minutes per day on mobile in 2023, according to our forecast. While they will spend less time with connected TV (CTV), at 114.9 minutes per day, the gap between CTV and mobile is shrinking.