Ä¢¹½AV

The news: Cannes Lions 2025 marked a shift in retail media strategy, with platforms like Pinterest and Reddit forging deeper ties with retailers. CVS announced a clean room data partnership with Reddit to allow targeting based on shared first-party data, launching a Sensodyne and Advil campaign this fall. Pinterest partnered with Instacart to enable shopping from pins and connect ad exposure to sales via closed-loop attribution. Our take: Social platforms are becoming full-funnel retail media environments. By fusing community context with purchase signals, these integrations aim to blend discovery and commerce in real time—paving the way for more data-rich, measurable campaigns.

The year started with a flurry of commerce media news, from Meijer Media expanding into off-site channels to Microsoft’s new ad capabilities.

Combining premium video, RMN data, and frictionless checkout holds substantial potential. But it will create a complex framework for retailers to navigate. Those that own media properties will be better positioned to optimize measurement, but scale will be limited to their existing audiences.

Meta pays creators for traffic, Spotify wins in-app freedom post-Epic ruling, and Amazon’s Zoox expands robotaxi testing despite software recalls.

Over two-thirds (69%) of Gen Z consumers shop in-store weekly, according to an August 2024 survey from RetailNext. Gen Z were more likely than older generations to consider price and quality when purchasing new brands and products, according to our "Gen Z Path to Purchase 2024" report.

The triumvirate of retail media, video, and social will once again lead broad-based growth in digital advertising. Retail media ad spend will increase 20.0% YoY in 2025, digital video by 17.2%, and social media by 13.6%. Also, a strong economy will drive up ad spend in most other media and formats.

Programmatic guaranteed deals—video-on-demand and live inventory on Google Display & Video 360—are now available for select Latin America inventory. Disney’s proprietary Audience Graph will be available in Europe. The tool provides a comprehensive overview of consumer behavior across Disney properties.

Target’s net sales grew just 0.9% in Q3 2024, well below Walmart’s growth of 5.0% and Amazon’s 8.7%, according to company earnings releases.

The company is also exploring AI-generated content as a surface for advertising, with its AI shopping assistant Rufus now featuring shoppable video ads. “Post-purchase real estate is something that's actually kind of perked up quite a bit in the last couple of years in retail media," Marzano said, highlighting DoorDash's approach to boost basket sizes by offering post-purchase add-ons.

New subscription links inside the iOS app are already driving Premium spikes, showing how much Apple’s restrictions held developers back.

Over 55% of US grocery shoppers have started shopping based on discounts and promotions in the past year, according to a September 2024 study from Swiftly. Price increases for food away from home was up 3.8% YoY in October 2024, according to data from the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The news: Baidu has launched MuseSteamer, an enterprise-only AI tool that converts images into 10-second videos using three output modes—Turbo, Pro, and Lite—while upgrading its core search engine to support multimodal inputs. The tool targets businesses looking for scalable, automated creative output. Our take: With nearly half of marketers and creators now using AI for video daily, Baidu is doubling down on the enterprise market. MuseSteamer distinguishes itself from consumer-facing tools by offering speed, reliability, and tight workflow integration. As video becomes the default for content, the winners will be platforms that deliver pro-grade output without creative friction.

The news: Sezzle debuted a suite of payment and deal-hunting features, per a press release. Our take: Sezzle needs to find any kind of foothold in the BNPL space, as its market share is massively outstripped by competitors like Klarna and Affirm.

Less than 10% of shoppers don’t expect to make any changes to their shopping habits due to tariffs, according to February 2025 data from Numerator.

Seven in 10 (69.3%) customers discover new products weekly, according to an Ä¢¹½AV and impact.com study. 37% of US shoppers use social media to discover new products to buy, according to a September 2024 Bazaarvoice survey.