New consumer research reveals a growing divide between AI-powered discovery and purchasing decisions, suggesting that brand recognition may become even more valuable as algorithms reshape how people shop.
Read MoreCreator marketing has become a permanent fixture in brand strategy, but the industry is still treating campaigns as temporary investments. The real value may come from what happens after the campaign ends.
The holiday shopping season is shaping up to be bigger, more competitive and more complicated than ever. Consumers are spending, but they’re also scrutinizing every purchase. Here’s what marketers need to understand before the year’s biggest shopping event.
As AI reshapes how consumers find and evaluate products, marketers are racing to improve visibility in AI-generated recommendations. But the real competitive advantage may have less to do with search optimization and more to do with the people willing to recommend a brand. For years, brands have invested heavily in…
Consumers are discovering apps through personal recommendations, questioning subscription value, and approaching AI-driven discovery with skepticism. For marketers, the next phase of app growth will depend less on acquiring downloads and more on earning a permanent place in people’s lives.
As financial anxiety reshapes holiday shopping behavior, marketers face a fundamental challenge: generating demand is no longer enough when consumers are increasingly uncertain about their ability to spend.
NordVPN’s new partnership with the Los Angeles Lakers is the latest example of a growing relationship between technology brands and professional sports.
As AI agents take control of product discovery, comparison and purchasing, marketers face a fundamental challenge to how brands create value. The real threat isn’t that consumers will stop caring about brands, but that brands may lose the opportunity to influence the decisions consumers increasingly delegate to machines.
Read MoreWhen anyone can produce polished creative work at extraordinary speed, making more is no longer an advantage. The real advantage is being remembered.
As advertising costs surge during the World Cup final, smaller brands face their toughest media environment of the year. Yet the data suggests that relevance, creative agility, and authentic content remain more powerful competitive advantages than simply spending more.
Adidas’ “Backyard Legends” campaign during the World Cup left me wondering whether modern marketing has become so obsessed with celebrating culture that it sometimes forgets to communicate with everyone outside it.
TikTok has quietly rewritten that equation by rewarding brands that learn faster instead of brands that polish longer, making volume less about flooding the platform and more about accelerating the pace of discovery.
Funko transformed thousands of niche obsessions into one of the most recognizable collectibles businesses in the world, proving that emotional relevance could outperform traditional branding. Its struggles since then reveal a much broader lesson for marketers.
Agencies spent the better part of two decades convincing clients that marketing expertise could be measured in hours, priced like labor and purchased from whoever offered the lowest rate, and the consequences of that decision are only now becoming impossible to ignore.
