蘑菇AV

The news: Chases unveiled 鈥淭he Shops at Chase,鈥� an integrated shopping and promotion platform for Chase Freedom, Sapphire, and Ink cardholders. Our take: Being able to convert Chase rewards into material purchases is a draw. However, retraining Chase cardholders to make purchases at The Shops instead of starting their product search with Google or Amazon will be an uphill battle.

The news: Shopify partnered with Coinbase and Stripe so customers can pay with the USDC stablecoin at checkout. Our take: Coinbase is the biggest winner in this partnership. Cryptocurrency needs to gain traction with a wide merchant network to accelerate its use, and Shopify represents a huge score for Base.

The trend: Gen Z is turning to social media for job and career guidance in the UK, but typical pharma company content isn鈥檛 engaging them. The takeaway: Pharma and biotech companies need to embrace social media as serious recruiting channels to connect with Gen Z, and create unpolished, everyday snapshot-type videos with real employees. Social teams should track video trends on TikTok like 鈥渄ay in the life鈥� or 鈥減ut a finger down鈥� and enlist employees to replicate them.

Tariff uncertainty, billion-dollar merger and acquisition deals, and a jump in social commerce will create new dynamics in the payments industry in H2 2025. Burgeoning tech like agentic AI and stablecoins will further shake up the space.

The news: Auto parts maker Marelli filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, making it one of the first high-profile casualties of the Trump administration鈥檚 tariffs. Our take: Not all of Marelli鈥檚 problems can be blamed on tariffs. But tariffs and uncertainty have a way of magnifying the cracks in a company鈥檚 business鈥攃racks that will become harder to paper over the longer the Trump administration sticks to its hardline tariff policies.

The news: Cannes Lions 2025 is highlighting how retail media is moving beyond performance marketing into broader applications across brand storytelling, in-store influence, and customer experience. Executives like Victoria Usher and Jim Kane are calling attention to how brands now activate retail data for segmentation, planning, and innovation across media touchpoints including CTV and search. Our take: This shift reflects growing demand for privacy-safe, first-party data solutions amid signal loss and rising complexity. Cannes will underscore retail media鈥檚 potential to support creativity and full-funnel integration. The future isn鈥檛 just attribution鈥攊t鈥檚 about making retail platforms vital to brand equity and long-term engagement.

The news:** Amazon has quietly doubled the ad load on Prime Video, now serving 4 to 6 minutes of ads per hour鈥攗p from 2 to 3.5鈥攑lacing it alongside Hulu and Paramount+ in volume. This aligns with Amazon鈥檚 effort to scale its connected TV inventory and offers buyers greater reach. Our take: The added ad time could shift Prime Video鈥檚 role in media planning, attracting performance-focused advertisers if CPMs soften, or reinforcing a premium stance if PMP rates hold. Weekly user engagement remains high, making the platform a reliable environment for consistent exposure. Amazon is quietly positioning Prime Video as a leading CTV ad player.

TikTok Shop has emerged for many brands as a pivotal marketplace for discovery and sales. Some 50% of US consumers take product recommendation suggestions from influencers on TikTok Shop, according to February 2024 data from PartnerCentric.

The news: Reddit published a report Thursday highlighting its increasing relevance for advertisers as social media users gain trust in the platform for purchase decisions. Reddit routinely delivers promising ad results. Adding Reddit to ad campaigns leads to $6.94 higher incremental ROAS across channels. Our take: Despite lingering brand hesitancy to adopt Reddit as a core advertising channel, the platform is increasingly becoming a reliable source that promises high returns鈥攎aking it a key part of an effective campaign for advertisers who know how to navigate it.

The news: Gaming is becoming a powerful vehicle for delivering ads to engaged audiences, with gamers spending significant time gaming across platforms, per a study from Activision Blizzard Media. Seventy percent of gamers play or watch video games daily, while 95% play or watch weekly. Seventy-seven percent of weekly gamers play on mobile devices, while 52% play on console and 34% play on PC. Our take: In-game advertising provides reach that few other channels can match, connecting with an engaged, highly attentive, and diverse audience, making it a critical touchpoint鈥攂ut advertisers must understand what strategies work best.

Truist is making significant strides in optimizing its digital onboarding process, prioritizing increased personalization and a smoother customer journey to attract new clients. This multi-pronged strategy includes enabling mobile ID verification to boost conversion rates among younger generations, seamlessly integrating new clients with services like direct deposit and Zelle to establish Truist as their primary bank, and allowing personalized mobile app dashboards. These digital improvements, supported by AI for feedback aggregation, aim to offset the impact of branch closures and meet the demand for digital convenience, particularly from Gen Z. Truist should amplify marketing efforts to highlight the ease and speed of their fully digital onboarding, emphasizing that no in-person ID verification is required.

A recent study revealed that Gen Z is struggling with a desire for immediate summer fun with rising costs. Nearly half of Gen Z believes future planning is pointless, driving 37% to spend more on non-essentials and 32% to defer financial priorities until after summer. This presents a prime opportunity for financial institutions to engage Gen Z by framing budgeting as a tool for maximizing summer enjoyment rather than restricting it. Banks should offer intuitive, gamified budgeting tools with real-time insights and vibrant visuals. As summer ends, institutions need to be ready to help Gen Z transition back to financial planning with integrated tools, debt management workshops, and goal-setting features, cementing their role as a trusted partner.

The news: Snap announced its sixth-generation AR smart glasses at the 2025 Augmented World Expo (AWE). The wearables will be available to the public for the first time since 2016, potentially unlocking a new revenue stream beyond ads. The lightweight consumer smart glasses, called Specs, will launch in 2026 and include an 鈥渦ltra-powerful wearable computer.鈥� Our take: Snap鈥檚 next-gen smart glasses could diversify its revenue streams and show off its AR prowess. But unless the price tag is affordable and competitive, users may continue to just use Snapchat鈥檚 AR filters on their phones.

The news: Tech giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon are building tools that let brands bypass ad agencies entirely鈥攁utomating the creation, placement, and optimization of ads, per The Wall Street Journal. Yes, but: Strategy, storytelling, and brand stewardship can鈥檛 come from algorithms. Even with automation, brands need creative direction, long-term planning, and cross-channel cohesion鈥攔oles agencies are uniquely positioned to play. Our take: To stay relevant, agencies must move up the funnel. AI can optimize and target, but it can鈥檛 craft brand strategy or narrative. The edge belongs to firms that lead with insight, creativity, and cohesion.

The news: With scams on the rise, advertisers and brands need to be thoughtful with their communications to keep it out of junk folders. 96% of US adults get at least one scam email, phone call, or text message each week, per CNET. Our take: To stop volume fatigue, brands should avoid inundating users鈥� phones and inboxes with constant messaging. Social media could offer a less-saturated space where short-form content can exemplify brand personality and where users are more likely to expect engagement.

The trend: Retailers and brands are rapidly weaving generative AI (genAI) into their operations to boost efficiency and scale without adding significant headcount. The breadth of the initiatives signals an abrupt shift in many companies鈥� thinking about genAI from a useful tool to a potential core business driver. Our take: GenAI enables companies to do more with less鈥攁 crucial advantage at a time when macro uncertainty is making many firms wary of increasing their headcount. As early adopters scale their efforts and share results, momentum will grow鈥攑rompting others to follow out of necessity, not choice.

The news: The UK economy contracted by the most in 18 months in April due to the twin pressures of tariffs and tax increases. Our take: The UK economy鈥檚 contraction in April sets the stage for another year of tepid growth. Despite a highly publicized (and yet to be finalized) trade deal with the US, macroeconomic uncertainties are set to weigh heavily on corporate and consumer sentiment, while rising household and business expenses will limit investment and consumer spending.

The news: Eight years after acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon is moving to more fully integrate the grocer into its core business, Business Insider reports. Our take: Amazon is clearly aware of the friction鈥攁nd the opportunity鈥攊n its grocery ecosystem.

The data: Physicians are more bullish on AI in healthcare than patients. Our take: Doctors are still figuring out AI themselves鈥攂ut they can鈥檛 lose sight of how important it is to keep patients informed. They鈥檒l need to get patient consent for use cases such as transcribing visits, and should opt out of using AI if their patients aren鈥檛 comfortable with it.

The news: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced the CDC鈥檚 influential vaccine advisory board with 8 new members, including some anti-vaccine advocates. Our take: The new HHS administration's public statements and actions undermine the safety perception of all vaccines. Drugmakers on the sidelines risk consumer trust鈥攁nd vaccine uptake. It鈥檚 time to partner with respected medical groups like AMA to counterbalance confusion.

The news: Eli Lilly said it won鈥檛 partner with telehealth companies that sell compounded weight loss drugs. Our take: Lilly鈥檚 demand may signal that it鈥檚 in a better position in the weight loss drug market than Novo to play hardball with industry partners such as Hims & Hers.

The news: BioNTech is buying cancer vaccine researcher and one-time COVID-19 vaccine rival CureVac in a $1.25 billion all-stock deal. The takeaway: The new HHS is taking a less-than-positive view on mainstream vaccines and mRNA technology, but it鈥檚 also signaled strong interest in personalized medicines and novel therapies. That鈥檚 good news for BioNTech, and could be a sign to other pharmas and biotechs that precision and specialty drugs are poised for fast tracking, while vaccines caught up in public and political controversy will be overscrutinized and delayed to market.

The news: Klarna partnered with Nift, a gift platform, to offer 鈥済ift鈥�-style rewards for customers鈥� BNPL purchases. Our take: Until they can close that gap, BNPL players will struggle to attract a meaningful share of shoppers. It鈥檚 one reason we forecast BNPL user growth will slow every year through 2029.

The news: Global Payments rolled out a retail point-of-sale (POS) system under its Genius platform targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Our take: Despite that clout, as other merchant service providers also diversify their offerings through verticalized software, hardware, and partnership integrations, Global Payments鈥� Genius will enter a crowded POS space with its offerings nearly indistinguishable from Stripe鈥檚, Square鈥檚, or Toast鈥檚 hardware and software lineups.