Pure-play advertising fuels US ad growth: Recurring events like the Olympics drive spending, but the market is steadily expanding even without them.

Compared with other traditional media channels, out-of-home (OOH) is resilient. US OOH ad spend will grow 5.2% this year, per our March 2024 forecast, significantly more than TV, radio, and print, which will mainly see declining figures over the next few years.

This year, US holiday sales will reach a record $1.353 trillion, per our July 2024 forecast. That holiday season is starting earlier and earlier, which means marketers need to be prepared now for shopping to pick up in September and October. The election and consumer concerns about the economy will complicate where advertisers reach consumers and what messaging they use. Here are five stats marketers should see as they prep their holiday campaigns.

The first $12 billion ad spend US presidential election is underway. That ad spend figure breaks 2020’s by more than $2 billion. Whether or not brands engage in political messaging, they will be impacted by the volume of ad inventory and how the election influences consumer sentiment.

Amid shifting consumer priorities, competitive promotional activity, and an unusual calendar, brands and retailers must fine-tune their holiday 2024 marketing strategies to maximize sales during this critical period.

Consumers don’t feel great, but they’re still spending: Retail sales blew past expectations in June despite subdued confidence among lower-income households.

With its shift to digital, political advertising is increasingly programmatic. US digital political ad spend will grow by 156.3% this year over 2020, the last presidential election year. That growth outpaces the 28.7% growth overall US political ad spend will see, as noted in our US Political Ad Spending Forecast 2024 report.

Big Tech has a big problem: The regulatory tide has turned against it. Digital advertising giants face several major lawsuits, and competition authorities are working to launch more before a possible change in leadership following US elections.

64% of US adults think disinformation and “fake news” are most widespread on social media, according to a September 2023 survey from UNESCO and Ipsos.

It’s an election year in the US, one where we’ll see record-breaking political ad spend. While political advertising is often viewed as a separate game from other industries, the trends set by campaigns ripple into the rest of the marketing atmosphere. What will 2024’s version of Nixon and Kennedy navigating live TV or Obama embracing social media be, and what will be the impact on the ad industry at large? Here are five trends all advertisers should be watching.

Social media’s relationship with news and politics is getting even more complicated in the age of AI. Brands and the platforms will face big risks and challenges as mis- and disinformation proliferate this election year.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the impact of multimodal chatbots, the copyright case between The New York Times and OpenAI, and how AI could influence the election. "In Other News," we talk about how much Microsoft's new AI keyboard key might affect AI use. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Yory Wurmser.

On today's podcast episode, our contestants compete in The Great Behind the Numbers Take Off, 2024 health trends edition, where they will try and cook up the most interesting predictions for the coming year. They'll discuss why healthcare is going to be a hyper-partisan issue in the 2024 US election campaigns; how that will affect how people think about and deal with their own healthcare going forward; and why the coming year will create unprecedented challenges for patients when it comes to affording care and treatment, leading them to explore other options for accessing and paying for care. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Rajiv Leventhal and Lisa Phillips.

Among US citizens ages 18 and older, 60% feel there should be political ad spending limits for groups not affiliated with political candidates. Only 16% think their spending should remain unlimited.

In the lead-up to the election, many social media users expressed growing exhaustion with the user experience due to the influx of political content. But those feelings of “election fatigue” didn’t cause most users to decrease their engagement on social.

Despite how consumers feel about it, politics remains a core part of the social media experience. This report explores how marketers should navigate social in the aftermath of the 2020 US presidential election.

The pandemic led to lower TV ad spend and increased connected TV viewing this year. The shift in TV viewing means TV audience measurement gaps must be addressed to keep pace with how, what, and where consumers are watching TV.

The US election on Tuesday pits fundamentally different visions of the US against each other. It might seem trivial to look at how the election could affect the marketing world—but the impacts will be real.

This report explores the latest developments in the social media landscape, including a look at TikTok Global, Instagram’s launch of Reels, and new election-related moves from Facebook and Twitter.