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Amazon is expanding same-day delivery for fresh groceries to over 1,000 US cities, with plans to reach 2,300 by late 2025. The rollout integrates perishables into its core app for single-cart checkout alongside other goods, offering Prime members free delivery on orders over $25. Early pilots saw strong adoption, especially from first-time grocery buyers who shopped more frequently after trying fresh food. The move pressures rivals like Walmart, Instacart, and Kroger in a slowing but sizable $271 billion online grocery market. If Amazon can convert trial users into loyal customers, it could reshape expectations for grocery delivery speed and convenience.

The news: As budgets tighten, consumers are altering their streaming habits, per Hub Research鈥檚 annual Monetizing Video report. While the average user is unwilling to pay much more than they鈥檙e already paying for streaming subscriptions, 42% say they are much more likely to maintain bundled subscriptions compared with individual streaming subscriptions. Our take: Advertisers must pay attention to platforms that offer bundle packages as key areas for investment due to their lower churn. Bundles consolidate audience attention and offer more predictable engagement.

Brinker International and Cava Group posted diverging quarterly results, showing the split fortunes in the restaurant industry as consumers eat at home more often and become pickier about where they spend. In the current environment of economic pressure and home-shifted dining, restaurants can stand out from the crowd by making their value clear to cost-conscious consumers. Here鈥檚 how underperforming dining chains can improve: Offer value, not just lower prices. Deals like Chili鈥檚 鈥�3 for Me鈥� are easy to understand and come across as a genuine bargain. Try limited-time promotions for new items, or lean on nostalgia by resurrecting discontinued items. Invest in operational excellence. Well-trained staff and hospitality can encourage deal seekers to return.

Retailers are stretching traditional holiday shopping periods into longer seasons and creating new shopping moments throughout the year, as consumers become more strategic about their spending and retailers seek to drive consistent traffic.

The news: Fintech giant Chime beat Wall Street estimates in its first quarterly revenue reporting as a public company, driven by strong demand for its digital banking services, per Reuters. Our first take: Chime's impressive debut as a public company is a powerful statement about the shifting dynamics of consumer banking. For years, traditional banks have dismissed challenger banks as a fringe trend. But Chime's financial performance proves there's a huge, profitable market for digital-first financial services. In addition, Chime鈥檚 focus on short-term liquidity tools and early pay access has positioned it as a valuable financial partner, especially as consumers are faced with pressing economic concerns.

The news: Despite consumers鈥� rising use of AI agents for search, shopping, and discovery, brands are falling behind on generative engine optimization (GEO) strategies. 47% of brands have no deliberate GEO strategy or have no idea if they appear at all in AI agent responses, per a new report from Cordial. Another 47% have only just begun optimizing content for AI discovery. Our take: To boost visibility, brands should optimize for conversational context and create structured, machine-readable content that AI can index, like clear website FAQs, TL;DR summaries, and detailed product specs. Expanding presence across social platforms that feed AI training models, such as Reddit, Quora, and YouTube, can also improve chances of surfacing in AI-generated responses.

In this podcast episode, we discuss the difference between a real miss vs. sparking conversation, if there is such a thing as bad press, and what brands should do once a campaign doesn鈥檛 land. Listen to the discussion with Vice President of Content and guest host, Suzy Davidkhanian, Principal Analyst, Sky Canaves, and Analyst, Arielle Feger.

Some high-engagement platforms are still undermonetized鈥攃reating opportunities for advertisers to connect with audiences in less-saturated environments.

The news: 88% of mobile app ad spend is concentrated on Google and Meta, per Moloco鈥檚 Performance Through Independence report, despite high user engagement with independent apps. Advertisers who diversified their ad mix beyond the two Big Tech giants saw return on ad spend (ROAS) improve by up to 214%. Our take: Independent mobile apps offer untapped ROI. Reducing reliance on Google and Meta by diversifying mobile app spend could boost reach, hedge against platform risks, and better align with user behavior, especially as privacy challenges threaten to reshape targeting and measurement.

The news: Google is turning search results into a customizable, algorithmic feed. The search giant is rolling out Preferred Sources, which allows users to select their favorite blogs or news outlets to appear the most in the 鈥渢op stories鈥� section. The feature aims to help users see more content from their favorite sites, per Google. Our take: If search results become a more limited discovery engine, news sites and blogs may need to rely more heavily on traffic through alternative sources. Joining blogging sites like Medium and Substack could help maintain visibility and surface new readers who will add them as preferred news sources, considering the platforms鈥� focus on content discovery.

The news: Live-streamer Sling TV debuted day, weekend, and weeklong streaming passes as monthly subscription costs escalate. Consumers can buy a Day Pass for $4.99, a Friday-Sunday pass for $9.99, or a Week Pass for $14.99. Passes don鈥檛 auto-renew. All three passes offer access to the same 34 channels on Sling鈥檚 Orange package, including ESPN, TNT, A&E, Comedy Central, and more. Our take: If its short-term passes are successful, we can expect more streamers to follow suit and potentially offer popular IP for rent鈥攖hink 鈥淪quid Game鈥� on Netflix or 鈥淭he Gilded Age鈥� on HBO Max. That would allow advertisers to target specific, price-conscious audiences.

The news: President Trump recently signed an executive order to allow Americans to invest 401(k) retirement savings in private equity, cryptocurrency, real estate, and other alternative assets, per NBC. The administration believes this will give retirement savers more opportunities for potentially higher returns. Our take: This may excite younger consumers in particular, as they generally are more interested in alternative investments. But critics and financial experts warn that these new options come with higher risks and costs than traditional 401(k)s. The traditional banking model centers on stability, trust, and relatively conservative financial products. In addition to new opportunities, introducing high-risk, alternative assets into retirement accounts creates significant challenges for the banking sector.

The news: Paxos Trust Company鈥攖he firm behind PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD鈥攊s reapplying for a national trust bank charter with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), per Reuters. This is a renewed attempt after its initial application expired in 2023. Other cryptocurrency firms, like Circle and Ripple, have recently applied for similar licenses. Our take: This is a calculated move by Paxos that reflects an evolving crypto market. While its previous attempt at this license stalled, the current environment is dramatically different. Securing this charter would be a significant competitive advantage and give Paxos a higher level of trust and legitimacy. This is crucial for attracting institutional partners and mainstream companies that remain wary of the crypto space.

The findings: Bank of America鈥檚 report 鈥淎 Window to Gen Z鈥檚 Financial Health鈥� looks at some of the biggest financial stressors that Gen Zers face. 36% say their income doesn鈥檛 cover the cost of their basic needs. The survey also reveals the efforts Gen Zers have made in the last year to still meet their financial goals. 51% put money in savings. 24% paid off debt. 25% put money into retirement accounts. 41% started shopping at more-affordable grocery stores. Our take: Banks can effectively engage with Gen Z by offering products and services that acknowledge the desire for short-term gratification and long-term financial stability.

The news: Nvidia is facing a new obstacle in its ability to sell chips to China鈥擟hinese authorities are urging ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent, and others to halt purchases of Nvidia hardware. This follows an agreement between President Donald Trump, Nvidia, and AMD that requires the two companies give the US government a 15% cut of Chinese chip revenues in exchange for permission to sell hardware there, per Bloomberg. Our take: ability to develop and deploy AI models for things like algorithm recommendations, content moderation, and generative AI (genAI) features. Marketers should diversify their AI-powered marketing tools to stay ahead if TikTok鈥檚 ad products and UX features develop more slowly.

The trend: Most consumers are skeptical of the health information they see on social media, according to a new KFF survey. The big takeaway: Even as social media increasingly becomes a health information tool, consumers know there is plenty of medical misinformation and influencer self-promotion flooding the internet. But these survey findings also present an opportunity for healthcare brands and marketers to stand out from the crowd with platform-specific strategies that can help build customer relationships.

The news: Fox is teaming up with ESPN to bundle their upcoming sports streaming services, per Deadline. The bundle will focus on Fox One and ESPN and marks the first major sports rights package, though programming from Fox鈥檚 broadcast network and its local stations will also be available. Our take: An ESPN and Fox bundle will undoubtedly unlock major advertising opportunities for the channels as advertisers turn to sports as a key driver of revenues.

The news: BlinkRx debuted a new quick startup direct-to-consumer (D2C) offering for pharma companies, on the heels of President Trump鈥檚 demand for more D2C drug distribution. Trump鈥檚 son, Donald Trump Jr, joined the board of BlinkRx in February. BlinkRx told Bloomberg it did not consult with Trump Jr. nor anyone in the Trump administration about the new offering. The takeaway: Pharma companies were already looking at new access models and ways to build direct connections to patients, but with the now pressing Trump demands, there鈥檚 new opportunity for digital health companies to offer vetted plug-and-play models.

The news: Circle reported $658 million in total revenues and reserve income in its first quarterly earnings as a public company, amounting to 53% growth YoY. USDC in circulation also jumped 90% YoY to 61.3 billion by the end of the quarter. Net losses hit $482 million, which largely accounted for IPO-related non-cash charges totalling $591 million. Our take: Circle鈥檚 early mover status and the newly passed GENIUS Act are working in the stablecoin issuer鈥檚 favor. Circle anticipates a 40% annual compound growth rate for USDC. If it can establish the most efficient and easy-to-use infrastructure for the nascent stablecoin industry, it can garner lasting loyalty from financial institutions.

The news: GenAI models can easily be influenced to perpetuate false health facts when they鈥檙e fed made-up medical terms and information, per a new Mount Sinai research published in Nature last week. Our take: As more consumers rely on open GPT models for health answers, misinformation and intentional disinformation pose growing risks to both personal and public health. There鈥檚 an opportunity for healthcare and pharma marketers to step up science-based AI marketing and communications, such as Pfizer鈥檚 custom genAI medical query tool Health Answers that sources answers from medical journals and peer-reviewed research.

The news: Klarna, Affirm, and Zip will be available as autofill payment options through Google Pay on Chrome for cart sizes of $35 or more. Our take: Increasing the ease and availability of a payment method for US consumers can increase volume for BNPL providers and Google.