蘑菇AV

Our annual report on ecommerce in Canada highlights our most recent forecasts for all flavors of retail, including brick-and-mortar, digital buying, and mobile commerce.

Digital users in Quebec鈥攎ost of whom speak French as their first language鈥攈ave unique habits that are different from the rest of Canada. These include heavier consumption of TV and lighter usage of digital services and online shopping.

Nine in 10 consumers worldwide use social media to keep up with trends and cultural moments, according to a January report from Sprout Social.

On today's episode, we discuss the implications of the Federal Trade Commission thinking Amazon tricked customers into signing up for automatically renewing Prime subscriptions, whether it makes sense for companies to force livestream shopping on Americans, if speciality stores really work, the impact of Facebook and Instagram restricting news access in Canada, whether reduced inflation can save the day, what a real work-life balance looks like, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our vice president of content Suzy Davidkhanian, vice president of Briefings Stephanie Taglianetti, and analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf.

Canada trails just one country鈥攖he US鈥攊n average daily time spent with media. That means plenty of opportunity for media buyers to reach audiences across a range of devices and services.

Respondents represented Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US.

Our take: Meta's decision to discontinue the News Tab shows the challenges and dilemmas currently facing social media platforms. Last year, Meta opted to block Canadian news links in response to The Online News Act, which demands that tech platforms pay publishers鈥攎arking a pivotal conflict escalation between tech giants and the news industry, with potential global legislative implications.

Connected TV (CTV) has emerged as the fastest-growing ad channel tracked by 蘑菇AV. Its ad spend outpaced other digital ads, search, social media, and retail media in 2024.

Some 94% of consumers across the US, UK, and Canada prefer contextual ads over identity-based ads based on browsing history, per GumGum survey data. Almost 80% are more likely to engage with ads that match the content they are viewing, per the survey.

But many are turning to social media for other types of searches, such as:. Things to do. Over half (55%) of US consumers search for restaurants, per a 2022 survey by Frontier Communications. Searchers also look for travel destinations and recipes. Things to learn. 

Social media marketers worldwide use influencer marketing to support a range of business goals, including brand awareness (66%) and revenue growth (55%), according to a January Sprout Social survey. US enterprise marketers identify the top three measures of influencer success asreach (50%), engagement rate (48%), and conversions (46%), per a September 2024 Linqia survey.

Usage of the internet, smartphones, and tablets is comparatively high in Canada due to the pervasive digital infrastructure.

ARPU increased 5% globally, with stronger gains of 17% in Europe and 29% in developing markets, even as US and Canada growth remained more modest at 8%. Why it matters: Pinterest鈥檚 Q1 numbers suggest its efforts to become a more shopping-centric, AI-enhanced platform are bearing fruit鈥攑articularly overseas.

Both companies are highly marketing-savvy, with an ability to jump on鈥攐r even create鈥攖rends that go viral on social media. Rhode鈥檚 higher price point gives e.l.f. entry into more exclusive beauty retailers like Sephora, while e.l.f.鈥檚 manufacturing capabilities will help Rhode expand its wholesale presence.

By contrast, the US retail media market share stands at 17.5%, which is about the same as Canada, Germany, and Mexico. The US and China dominate global retail media spending, but by next year, the 鈥渞est of world鈥� segment will eclipse 20% of the total for the first time.

I think we're already seeing examples of regulators going after social media platforms based on privacy concerns. Paul Briggs:. Same in Canada. TikTok is under investigation right now by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for alleged privacy violations.

Social search is growing, fueled by consumer behavior and AI鈥攁nd so are the search ad opportunities on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and others. But search on social media isn鈥檛 the same as traditional search. Here鈥檚 what advertisers should know.

Rembrand's technology enables post-production placement in social media content, with plans to expand to connected TV and movies. The platform allows for region-specific targeting, showing different products to different audiences (think Dunkin' in the US versus Tim Hortons in Canada). Growth snapshot: Evidence suggests that Rembrand has a strong trajectory.

According to Sports Business Journal, thanks to the League's newly-enhanced dasherboard technology, which allows for the seamless insertion of virtual ads during live broadcasts, the NHL can finally target Canadian fans with Canadian ads during the post-season. That's one home win for the Canada team already. And that's my three in three this month.