#multichannel

#multichannel

Regulators are paying more attention to data privacy because their constituents consider it a 'kitchen table' issue, highlighting its importance in everyday life.

Statistics from the 2025 holiday shopping season clearly show that AI is playing a huge role in how people shop. But new research from retail payment platform Adyen found that many consumers are ready for AI to become their personal shopper. Just over half-51%-said they're open to letting AI take over the entire shopping process, including making final purchases. Millennials are the most willing to let agents do their shopping, with nearly three in five saying they are ready for such a shift.

The traditional customer funnel is quickly giving way to a more fragmented, dynamic and self-directed journey. Today's buyers move fluidly across platforms, channels and touchpoints-often gathering information, building trust and forming preferences long before brands realize they're in the picture. As AI, creator influence and real-time intent signals reshape how decisions are made, brands must rethink where trust is built and conversion truly happens.

As the market grows increasingly saturated with traditional digital content, brands are exploring new ways to stand out by engaging more than just sight and sound. Advances in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), spatial audio and other immersive technologies are opening the door to richer, more memorable brand experiences that feel interactive rather than interruptive. The challenge is knowing how to experiment thoughtfully and how to use these tools to deepen connection without novelty overshadowing their purpose.

With digital trends accelerating, it's more important than ever that marketers know how to build strong, data-driven marketing strategies. Data-driven marketing is a type of marketing strategy that is based on using consumer information to develop and optimize marketing campaigns and messaging. It is extremely impactful because marketing efforts are based on online trends and are specifically tailored to the organization's target audience.

Brand builds long-term awareness, perception, and emotional connection. Performance marketing focuses on immediate, measurable actions and specific behaviors like clicks, sign-ups, purchases, or downloads which drives conversions and business goals. The most successful companies know that true growth happens when these two objectives work in harmony, not in opposition. The evidence is now clear: Brand and performance are not opposing forces; they are multipliers.

Performance has always been the foundation of commerce media because it tied spend to measurable behavior. From sponsored search to sponsored products, the category scaled by delivering outcomes that could be directly attributed to transactions. Automation, AI-driven optimization and closed-loop measurement accelerated that model and made outcomes-based buying the norm. Outcomes still matter. But as AI reduces friction and increases competition, outcomes alone no longer create separation.

But the facts are here: Wall Street darlings Netflix and Snap saw their valuations drop by about 80% in a few weeks, Meta has seen a 34% decline in its overall reputation since its inception (sorry Mark, the Hawaiian honeymoon is over) and Sundar Pichay seems to be spending most of his time talking about his spoiled Googlers needing to come back down to Earth.