US advertising and marketing media spend grew by 5.1% year-over-year in 2023 to total $515.1 billion, a slower rate of growth than seen in 2022 and in 2021. Offline media was responsible in large part for the slowdown, as a 'down year for offline' pushed spending down on these channels by 3.8% to $195.1 billion, erasing gains made in 2022, per a report from Winterberry Group. Offline media's drop in 2023 came after increases in the couple of years prior, in so doing bucking the 4-year comp...

The season of love is upon us, and so are plenty of Valentine's Day promotions. Here's a few, along with some grand openings. Menus Dutch Bros. is donating $1 from the sales of any of its limited-time-only Valentine's Day-themed Dutch Luv drink collection to local food organizations. The new themed beverages, available through Feb. 18, include the Dutch Luv Latte, which is white coffee with frosted sugar cookie flavor. The Dutch Luv Rebel contains a blended Rebel energy drink infused wit...

Google said Thursday that it plans to integrate Gemini generative artificial intelligence (GAI) models into Performance Max, an advertising platform that allows advertisers to access all the company's advertising channels from one platform. The integration is part of an ongoing effort to support conversational text and realistic images into more of its services. The company made several announcements around the features to help advertisers scale campaigns. In the coming weeks, as Google u...

The Federal numbers released last week paint a juggernaut economy—surging into 2024 with a 3.3% GDP rise in Q4, hot on the heels of an even more impressive 4.9% in Q3 in real terms. Inflation is coming down; real wages and employment are still up. Personal consumption makes up 70% of the economy. Retail sales continue to rise, with a 0.6% increase in December. Consumers, who seemingly never stopped spending, have been vocal in their economic pessimism. But numbers don't lie, and the...

Phygital commerce is the fusion of the physical and digital shopping realms. It's the best of both worlds—the endless aisles of online shopping combined with the hands-on, sensory thrill of a store visit. With 71% of customers expecting consistent experiences across all channels, this can improve sales and loyalty considerably. To leverage this, I'm going to dive deep into some clever tactics—complete with real-deal stories—aimed at winning customer hearts (and wallets) in ...

In the latest sign that consumers' financial fears are fading, the National Retail Federation predicts a record $14.2 billion on significant others this Valentine's Day. It forecasts total spending for the holiday, once you factor in other family members, galantines and classmates, to reach $25.8 billion, on par with 2023. That is the third-highest amount in the survey's history. Candy, as always, is the top gift, with 57% saying they'll buy something sweet for someone. Greeting cards are ne...

California's attorney general on Friday warned streaming apps as well as sellers of streaming devices that they must allow residents to easily opt out of the use of their data for advertising purposes. 'Consumers that are using a SmartTV should be able to navigate to the settings menu in a streaming service's mobile app and enable the service's 'Do Not Sell My Personal Information' setting,' Attorney General Rob Bonta's office stated Friday. 'Consumers should also be able to have this choice...

For the first time, mobile sales surpassed desktop sales in the 2023 holiday season. Google is now prioritizing mobile-supported webpages over desktop-first sites. Yet we're still seeing brands build websites for the desktop experience and retrofit them for mobile. Let's explore the differences between mobile and desktop SEO, the costs of falling behind in mobile SEO, and the areas to prioritize as the Web 3.0 era dawns. Mobile SEO vs. traditional SEO: the costs of misalignment S...

Marketing industry constituents consider performance-driven paid media to be a more important investment than brand advertising given current macroeconomic conditions. But in an interesting twist, both are rising in importance rather than moving in opposite directions, according to the latest bi-annual study from Mediaocean. Mediaocean surveyed more than 1,000 marketing industry constituents around the world in November 2023, asking them which advertising capabilities and media investments th...

There was a time when advertising strategy in the consumer packaged goods ecosystem was fairly straightforward: Reach as many consumers as you can with your message. But changes in technology and consumer purchase behavior are challenging this conventional wisdom. Brand factors, including consumer loyalty, market share and brand penetration, now impact 21% of incremental sales — an increase of 6% since 2017, when we released our study, 'The Five Keys to Advertising Effectiveness.' ...