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From ad dollar spend to influencers and connected TV, we deliver daily insights on media, marketing, and advertising. Not a subscriber? Sign up here and get our quizzes sent directly to your inbox to see if you can pick a winner. SEPTEMBER 5, 2025. A third of Gen Zers expect to adjust their spending due to tariffs in which way?

With margins already thin, these advertisers are reassessing spending, pausing some influencer campaigns, and tightening marketing budgets to offset rising costs. While the exact status of these shifts remains unclear, the tariffs still pose near-term challenges to growth, particularly for platforms more exposed to Chinese ad dollars.

Airline and hotel co-brand credit cards are contending with shifting travel spending trends and rising competition from general travel cards. Tapping into Gen Z鈥檚 love of experiences and exclusivity can help them stand out in a crowded field.

Basing influencer partnerships on follower counts doesn鈥檛 make much sense when marketers leverage paid media鈥攁n effective tactic for every brand, said Nikki Bock, senior manager of influencer marketing and social engagement at Newell Brands. 鈥淚f you can put some paid spend behind your content, you can control where it's living and how it鈥檚 showing up to a degree,鈥� she said.

Meta will have more than $25 billion in US video ad revenues this year, but the vast majority of those revenues will come from Story and feed ads, rather than Reels ads. On a global basis, we estimate that only $2 billion in spending went toward Reels ads last year. A NewFronts showdown is ahead. Meta and YouTube will make the case that now is the time to shift spending away from TikTok.

Unilever, meanwhile, has lifted marketing spending to 15.5% of revenues as part of a turnaround strategy that includes leaning heavily into social media, scaling influencer partnerships, and using AI to speed up content production for its biggest brands.

But the potential of brand-creator partnerships goes beyond influencer marketing (i.e., when influencers are paid to promote a product or service on their own platforms): Insurers can integrate creators within their own campaigns across social media and TV, both traditional and connected.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss when we might be approaching the consequential ceiling of 鈥減eak media鈥�, which folks watch the most influencer videos, where smartphone time is still climbing, and entirely too much more. Tune in to the discussion with our Principal Analyst and host Bill Fisher, Principal Analyst Paul Briggs, Vice President of Research Jennifer Pearson, and Chief Research Officer at GWI Jason Mander.

The deal, which accounts for roughly 1% of WPP鈥檚 global revenues, includes media planning and buying across Mars鈥� global brands, along with production, social, influencer, and connected commerce. IPG鈥檚 Weber Shandwick will take over PR duties, while creative work remains with Omnicom鈥檚 T&P.

Influencer and creator marketing is a powerful way to get in front of consumers without going overboard on ad spend. On Instagram, nano-influencers, which have under 10,000 followers, can actually be more effective than bigger creators.

Target鈥檚 loyalty program, Target Circle, has cultivated an engaged customer base that accounts for an outsized portion of revenues, said Renee Doerre, Senior Target鈥檚 loyalty partnerships director. Target Circle members drive nearly five times more shopping trips than regular guests and spend five times more on average.

鈥淲e鈥檝e had luck with big influencers, and we鈥檝e had tremendous failure with big influencers, and we鈥檝e had sleeper hits [with] micro-influencers,鈥� said Krasnow. Reddit has become an underrated social listening tool for thredUP, according to Delory. Consumers are discussing any and every product in Reddit threads. Use those for key customer insights.

Many brands on TikTok have even begun to turn to influencers from the Gen X and baby boomer generations to help distill their messages. With the threat of a TikTok ban waning in the UK, marketers should continue allocating spend to the platform. The UK banned TikTok from all government devices earlier this year.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the likelihood that news influencers will replace traditional media, whether in-store sampling can make a comeback, how many ads are enough ads, what the science says about social media being addictive, why more brands don't encourage consumers to recycle, where daylight savings time actually comes from, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian and analysts Bill Fisher and Carina Perkins.

The big idea: Pharma marketers should pivot away from TV advertising even if the government doesn鈥檛 implement a ban on D2C drug ads. Our take: Pharma is a unique industry that still benefits from linear TV. However, more drug brands should consider D2C online platforms that serve as quasi substitutes to TV commercials at a much lower cost, plus channels like influencer partnerships.

As marketers combat signal loss, they鈥檙e turning to channels less reliant on cross-site or cross-app tracking, according to 蘑菇AV鈥檚 鈥淎d Measurement Trends H2 2024鈥� report. 76% of brand and agency marketers worldwide plan to increase their digital ad spend on social media/influencer marketing in 2025, while 64% will increase retail media spend and 47% will increase spend on connected TV (CTV), according

Video is key for influencer marketing. Among B2B marketers worldwide, 75% use influencers, and 93% plan to increase their spending on influencers, based on positive results, according to a 2023 Ogilvy report. Over half of all B2B marketers use video for interviews with influencers and subject matter experts, per an August 2023 Content Marketing Institute (CMI) survey.

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.

"If you want to see interviews with celebrities, there are so many places now where you can do that on YouTube, on Instagram, with influencers perhaps moderating these debates who consumers might feel a closer kinship to.". And analysts say that the ad revenue for late night shows has fallen precipitously in recent years.