Summer vacations will be more expensive this year as US consumers face price hikes over considerations like airfare and lodging. As a result, many travelers are cutting back and turning to digital channels to find deals. Despite these economic headwinds, US digital travel sales are expected to reach $332.56 billion, up 5.0% YoY, EMARKETER forecasts. If sales are increasing on digital travel channels, it’s not because consumers are looking to buy more things. The rise in travel-related expenses is much higher than modest gains on digital channels, suggesting travelers are cutting back.

Apple is positioning its redesigned Siri to compete directly with ChatGPT and other AI assistants with what competitors can't match: billions of active devices already in users' hands and deep integration with personal data stored on those devices. "It's less of a takeover, but more like a fork in the road," said our analyst Gadjo Sevilla, on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers." "Apple is not competing in that space. It's not a general free-for-all model. What it is doing, however, is infusing its own brand of safe, and as we're seeing, highly personalized AI features designed around its users."

Identity resolution is becoming standard practice for marketers. More than 90% of survey respondents use identifiers, and more than half (54.5%) say they sometimes, often, or almost always work with multiple third-party identifiers, according to a March 2026 survey of 112 US-based agency and marketing professionals by EMARKETER and Acxiom. Eight in 10 respondents say identity resolution has improved marketing ROI. Personalization tops the list of benefits, with 40.2% reporting measurable gains, followed by attribution and measurement (32.1%) and media efficiency (28.6%). This helps explain why 60.7% of marketers expect to increase investment in identity resolution over the next two years.

Brands are adjusting to a different setting for this year's FIFA World Cup, as fans of the tournament, which runs through July 19, follow the action on a highly fragmented array of channels, forcing brands to come up with creative ways to engage them. “Hosting the tournament in North America, specifically in the States, is pulling fans decisively off traditional broadcast and into digital and connected TV (CTV) to follow along,” said Rod Paolucci, global head of marketing at Channel Factory. In addition to streaming the games on a big screen, many viewers will be checking social media and other feeds on a mobile second screen.

Soccer Shots, an organization of youth soccer clinics at schools and public spaces in the US and Canada, is giving brands an opportunity to build relationships with new and experienced sports families. National and global brands are connecting with Soccer Shots families on the web, and with the orange Soccer Shots jersey that arrives in the mail. Organizations like Soccer Shots are a way for brands to gain a presence in front of sports parents that is very favorable to businesses that support their children’s athletics.

A growing number of advertisers are finding success by targeting a moment traditional advertising ignores: the seconds immediately after a purchase is complete. Rather than interrupting consumers during their browsing journey, these brands are rethinking when and how to engage. "When you create first-party data with the buying mindset, with this capability of engagement, you have a really amazing opportunity to show up to a consumer and offer a reward or an acquisition event that's actually gonna feel like it's a gift post-checkout," said Callum Donnelly, senior vice president of strategic key accounts at Rokt, on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers." Here are three reasons why the post-purchase moment delivers superior results for advertisers.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is breaking records as the largest tournament in history with 48 teams, but economic pressures and shifting demographics are reshaping expectations for what was projected to be a $30 billion windfall for host nations. "Over the last 12 months, we've seen a flurry of activity from outside the retail sector," said our analyst Sarah Marzano on a recent episode of "In the Game." While early forecasts painted a rosy picture, with FIFA projecting over $30 billion in economic impact and the US Travel Association expecting visitors to spend $5,000 per trip, the reality has proven more complex as tariffs, inflation, and geopolitical tensions dampen international travel.

While most marketing leaders know AI-driven discovery is reshaping how consumers find brands, almost none of them have built the infrastructure for it. They know a partner is driving discovery. Their systems cannot pay for it. From a partner's perspective, those two positions look identical.