The COVID-19 outbreak undermined many of our pre-pandemic US forecasts. Insight can now be gleaned by examining the difference between what we thought would happen as of February 2020 vs. what our forecasts now show.

A little over a year since its debut in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, Disney+ is now officially available to consumers in Latin America. Subscribers to the platform will be able to enjoy unlimited access to the company’s vast array of content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Fox, and more.

Grocery ecommerce is continuing to have a moment as more consumers get in the habit of shopping this way.

FreshDirect, like nearly all brands, has had to listen, test, learn, and pivot amid the pandemic.

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.

Today’s sociopolitical events have lit a fire under brands to address social injustice and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in deeper ways than they have in the past. Companies are using marketing and advertising to respond to and support discussions about systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter protests, the fight for LGBTQ rights, the #MeToo movement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and issues of immigration reform, to name a few.

Digital retail will have a huge impact on UK shopper trends in the coming holiday season. This year, ecommerce will account for nearly a third of all holiday spending, its largest share to date. Brick-and- mortar shopping, meanwhile, remains on the precipice.

For knowledge workers, the coronavirus pandemic brought an abrupt change to daily work life. As many companies shut down their corporate offices—some out of regard for employee safety and others due to government mandates—the norm of conducting business from an office ceased. Without an in-person option, teams were forced into a distributed work model and given little to no time to prepare.

Prior to the pandemic, we expected search ad spending to grow by 14.4% this year as part of a trend of gradually slowing growth from 2018 through the end of our forecast period in 2024. When the pandemic upended those expectations, we revised our outlook in anticipation of a virtual halt to travel industry search spending. But as more information has come in throughout the summer and early fall about the pace of consumer ecommerce spending, we have again updated our estimates of search ad spending in 2020—this time, in a positive direction.

China’s Singles’ Day is no longer just a discount shopping event, as participating digital giants are now leveraging livestreams, new product launches, and novel technologies to enhance customer engagement and the buying experience.

The pandemic has been able to make common what would previously have stood out as extreme amounts of screen time.

The screen-time wars are over in many households, with parents having surrendered en masse. In a period when large numbers of parents and school kids are stuck at home with one another, this is one battle many parents choose to forego, at least for now.

The large increase in live video viewers is one of the biggest digital media growth stories of the pandemic.

The UK is something of a global leader when it comes to retail ecommerce. As a proportion of total retail sales, only China will trump the UK in ecommerce sales penetration this year (41.2% versus 30.9%, respectively). The UK’s fulfillment and delivery infrastructure is, as one would expect, quite mature.

Early in the pandemic, most consumers went through a panic-buying period—stocking up on essential goods like toilet paper—as uncertainty over lockdown restrictions loomed.

Roughly 69.0% of US companies with over 100 employees will use communication and collaboration tools this year, according to our estimates. That’s an increase of 15 percentage points from 2019, when 54.0% of such companies utilized these tools.

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 year, 146.3 million US smartphone users will use mobile messaging apps at least once a month.

Earlier this month, Mucinex unveiled Sickwear, a six-piece fashion collection that aims to help consumers get through the cold and flu season in style. While it may not be the typical route for a healthcare brand, its parent company RB has been leveraging different channels, including TikTok and now social commerce, to reach consumers—particularly those who may not be aware of its direct-to-consumer (D2C) business.

Pandemic-related stay-at-home mandates have accelerated OTT messaging app adoption in most parts of the world. In the US, however, alternative means of communicating, including Zoom and FaceTime, have hindered usage of OTT messaging services.