蘑菇AV

Live Nation expects 2025 to be another record year for concertgoing, as global tours from superstars like Oasis, Coldplay, and Beyonc茅 fuel attendance and ticket sales. While it may seem counterintuitive for concert demand to be so strong even as other areas of discretionary spending, like travel and restaurant meals, falter, it鈥檚 clear that a sizable number of consumers view entertainment as a necessary splurge in an era of uncertainty. That could help give the US hospitality industry a much-needed boost as it grapples with declining international demand.

emu鈥檚 attempts to tariff-proof its business are running into opposition from regulators and sellers alike. The company has been accused of failing to protect EU users from illegal products. Efforts to woo US sellers to its marketplace are also running aground as companies and merchants refuse to sell products on Temu for less than what they retail for on Amazon. For all its troubles, we expect Temu鈥檚 US ecommerce sales to rise 13.5% this year, which would be the second-fastest rate of growth among the companies we track鈥攂ut a far cry from the triple-digit increases it enjoyed over the past few years. With governments increasingly unfavorable to its business tactics鈥攁nd Amazon increasingly inclined to flex its market power鈥擳emu will need a new playbook to navigate the current era of uncertainty and tariffs.

Walmart is going all in on AI as it prepares for a future in which more people rely on the technology to work and shop. The company is making strategic AI hires while streamlining its agents to make them easier for shoppers, employees, and partners to use. Agentic tools are both a threat and an opportunity for retailers. Companies need to prepare for a future where tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity make purchases on behalf of shoppers鈥攚hich will require them either to make their websites more accessible to these assistants, or to build their own AI agents to make those transactions seamless. AI agents are also a useful investment in the current era of uncertainty, given their ability to unlock cost savings at a time when every dollar counts.

Delinquency fears hit the highest since 2020. We look at how issuers can tailor their offerings for a new era of uncertainty.

The era of tariff-driven trade uncertainty is far from over: A flurry of legal decisions have thrown the administration鈥檚 trade policies into limbo, even as many duties remain firmly in place.

On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss the challenges the credit card industry is looking at over the next year. 鈥� In our 鈥淗eadlines鈥� segment, we focus on an Insider Intelligence article published at the end of August about Macy鈥檚 private label credit card sales and consider if it鈥檚 a harbinger of problems in the credit card industry overall. 鈥� In 鈥淪tory by Numbers,鈥� we center the conversation on what will happen to consumer credit card spending if鈥攐r when鈥攖here鈥檚 a recession. 鈥� And in 鈥淔or Argument鈥檚 Sake,鈥� we take up sides to discuss whether there will or will not be a recession, which is a critical issue for the credit card industry. Tune in to the discussion with host Rob Rubin and our analyst David Morris.

Appealing to consumers鈥� desire for flexibility will become only more important in this era of uncertainty. Insurers will now need to evolve beyond their longtime value proposition of permanence and predictability. Rapidly changing employment and lifestyle trends could suppress life insurance demand. Rising unemployment will shrink the pool of consumers who can receive life insurance as a benefit.

In the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump has reshaped business strategy across retail, tech, healthcare, and media. Here鈥檚 how tariffs, regulation, and market volatility are forcing brands to rethink spend, growth, and planning.

The tactic: Levi Strauss is reducing its SKU count鈥攅ven as it expands the range of items it sells鈥攖o minimize tariff costs and maximize full-price sales. Our take: SKU rationalization is becoming a necessity for Levi Strauss and other brands and retailers looking to manage the impact of tariffs.

The news: Global ad spend growth is slowing but staying positive, with WARC projecting a 6.2% rise to $1.16 trillion in 2025 and MAGNA forecasting a 4.9% climb to $979 billion. Retail media is outpacing linear TV for the first time, and Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon continue to control the majority of digital revenues. Measurable channels like short-form video, retail media, and ad-supported VOD are gaining ground. Our take: Amid economic pressures and trade concerns, advertisers are prioritizing performance, shifting budgets geographically and platform-wise. With elections, AI, and major global events on the horizon, platforms that prove outcomes鈥攏ot impressions鈥攚ill shape the next era.

50% of US adults are likely to cut back on spending at fast food restaurants if tariffs lead to higher prices, according to a February 2025 CivicScience survey.

Netflix House shows the power of brand marketing: The streamer鈥檚 retail play capitalizes on cheap real estate and consumer demand for experiences.

Voice assistants will add nearly 30 million US users between 2022 and 2029, fueled by genAI, demographic shifts, and new hardware. Key adoption trends, platform battles, and marketing opportunities are shaping the next era of voice technology.

The news: August job gains fell well short of expectations, with just 22,000 new positions versus the 75,000 economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast. That pushed the unemployment rate up to 4.3%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Revisions added 6,000 jobs to July but cut June鈥檚 total by 27,000, leaving the three-month average at a tepid 29,000. The overall unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, while Black unemployment climbed to 7.5%鈥攖he highest since October 2021 and, excluding the pandemic era, the worst in nearly eight years.

The news: Apple could soon renew its smart home and robotics plans with a slew of products. The hardware giant is planning an AI-enabled tabletop robot, per Bloomberg, a smart home camera, and a smart speaker with a display. This could all be accompanied by a major Siri upgrade built on large language models (LLMs). Our take: This could be Apple鈥檚 biggest ecosystem play since the iPhone. If successful, it could drive growth in a post-iPhone era, reestablish Apple in the AI game, and usher in a new era of home-based intelligence.

The news: YouTube is giving connected TV (CTV) users the ability to skip to the most-viewed part of a video, helping them avoid slow moments or sponsored content. The feature was previously available on mobile and web for Premium subscribers and is now rolling out to Premium users who watch YouTube on its CTV app, per Android Authority. Our take: Influencer sponsored content spots are becoming more invisible and avoidable. Brands should pivot toward native product integrations within core content or have creators place sponsorships in pre- and post-roll messaging, which may be less likely to be bypassed by AI. The era of passive viewing is over. Viewers have more control, and brands need to adapt to stay visible.

The news: Elon Musk tried to enlist Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a $97.4 billion takeover of OpenAI in February, per court filings in OpenAI鈥檚 ongoing countersuit against Musk. The failed bid was Musk鈥檚 response to OpenAI鈥檚 potential shift to a for-profit model, which he claims broke its founding mission. Our take: The initial phase of the AI boom, defined by research breakthroughs and experimentation, is giving way to a more aggressive era of market consolidation, legal entanglements, and power politics. Litigation is emerging as the last resort when innovation stalls or acquisition paths close鈥攁n indicator that the AI industry could be entering a defensive phase where court battles stand in for competitive breakthroughs.

Retailers face an atypical holiday season. Instead of the usual end-of-year boom, 2025 is expected to bring a rare deceleration in holiday sales growth.

Hogarth CEO Richard Glasson says AI hasn鈥檛 diminished creativity鈥攊t鈥檚 made craftsmanship more essential. By pairing genAI with human expertise, Hogarth is reengineering production to meet nonstop content demands without sacrificing cultural nuance or brand voice. In an era when 54% of marketers fear AI will erode creativity, the agency鈥檚 hybrid model positions craft as the premium differentiator.

Marketers have long associated connected TV (CTV) with big-budget national campaigns, but that鈥檚 rapidly changing. As CTV technology becomes more sophisticated and accessible, local businesses are entering a new era of precise, data-driven advertising that blends digital accountability with TV鈥檚 scale.

The news: Amazon will pay The New York Times between $20 million and $25 million annually in a multiyear content licensing agreement that was announced in May. This amount, close to 1% of the Times鈥� total annual revenue, is one of the largest disclosed payments for news content licensing for generative AI (genAI) training. Our take: The Amazon鈥揟imes deal underscores the growing value of premium journalism in the AI era, setting a precedent for how tech companies can ethically license high-quality content. For advertisers, this signals a shift toward AI-powered platforms integrating trusted media brands, which could enhance user engagement and credibility.

The situation: Amazon and Google, once bound by a symbiotic relationship in which Amazon funneled ad dollars into Google Search and Google indexed Amazon鈥檚 pages, are now veering toward open conflict as generative AI (genAI) blurs the lines between ecommerce, advertising, and search. Both companies are determined to own the entire journey from discovery to checkout, and that ambition is unraveling what remains of their former d茅tente. Our take: Amazon and Google are racing to define where and how consumers discover and buy products in the genAI era. If Amazon succeeds in walling off its marketplace data and steering shoppers to its own AI interfaces, the retail landscape could splinter into walled gardens where tech giants cooperate far less. That winner鈥憈akes鈥慳ll dynamic might suit the victors, but it risks degrading the overall consumer experience with fewer choices and less transparent pricing. At the same time, it could lead brands and retailers into a margin鈥憇apping race to the bottom inside whichever closed ecosystem proves most dominant.

Microsoft reported $76.4 billion in Q2 revenue, up 18% YoY, as cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and embedded AI drove strong performance. Microsoft Cloud grew 27% to $46.7 billion, and Azure's annual run rate surpassed $75 billion, overtaking Google Cloud. Enterprise adoption of tools like Dynamics 365 continues to rise, reinforcing Microsoft鈥檚 role in AI-powered operations. Following the report, Microsoft鈥檚 market cap crossed $4 trillion. The company plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while showing capital discipline. Microsoft is positioning itself as the foundational enterprise platform for the AI era.