Marketers and media agencies continue to significantly overestimate audience shares to Pandora and Spotify, while massively underestimating AM/FMs. Audience Advertiser Perceptions August, 2025 study of more than 300 agencies and marketers found that AM/FMs perceived audience daily share was just 26% versus the actual 64%.

The power of influencers and creators today is now proven to be traditional advertising, messaging, and calls to action in driving sales. Particularly those from Gen Z shoppers. It's no surprise these days that social media platform shops are selling so effectively.

What's the key to increased sales in spite of all the challenges? It's AI, having a huge impact on consumer shopping. As reported by Reuters, the data shows that AI powered shopping tools help drive a surge in US online spending on Black Friday, in particular as shoppers bypass, crowded stores, and turn to chatbots to compare prices and secure discounts amid concerns about tariff driven price hikes. AI driven traffic to US retail sites soared 805% compared to last year.

Demographics continue to shape platform preferences. Women are more likely than men to use Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok while men report higher usage of Reddit and X. Age differences are significant as well when it comes to defining platform preferences. Nearly half of adults ages 18 to 29 use TikTok daily compared with 5% of those 65 and older daily. YouTube use is also highest among youngest adults. While Facebook sees its strongest daily engagement across those ages 30 to 64.

National Retail Federation reports that a record 202.9 million people shopped between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year, easily topping last year's 197 million, and beating the national retail federation's forecast by about 16 million people. This keeps sales growth projections on track for a 3.7. To 4.2% increase over the 2024 numbers totaling overall spend at over $1 trillion for the first time ever.

What are the hottest sectors based on wage growth for young workers as we head into 2026? Healthcare jobs are the most in demand roles with rising pay for young workers. Glassdoor lead researcher Chris Martin, told CNBC make it another hot sector. Private education jobs. Overall healthcare, along with those private education jobs have propped up the economy for some time. They make up about 17% of the jobs nationally, but accounted for 56% of job growth between July, 2023.

Consumer Predictions for 2025 Holiday Shopping Season

While the actual overall savings on the Thanksgiving dinner might amount to just a few dollars, the reality is that the psychology behind knowing that you are buying this year's dinner for less is something that just really feels good, especially amidst all the other rising prices we're experiencing.

Chief Marketing Officer at Constant Contact noted that small businesses are under pressure to deliver positive marketing results, but feel they are doing more without getting more in return. They're working harder than ever, but without the time, expertise, or data to guide them, many are still guessing about what will resonate with their customers.

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, individuals, and organizations who have expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field. Influencers are those that can affect the buying habits of potential buyers by uploading some form of original content to social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, for example. The use of influencers to drive important marketing outcomes will continue to grow in 2026 as 67% of marketers indicate that they're planning to boost their influencer budgets with brand awareness being the primary benefit and measure of success from those campaigns. Now, one of the most impactful factors underlying the success of influencer marketing is that consumers say that relatable content drives their purchasing behaviors.

In order to be competitive in courting businesses to locate in the state of Michigan as opposed to other states, something critical to our state's economy. Of course, one of the major factors is how Michigan ranks versus the others with respect to how taxation impacts both residents personally as well as at the business level.

One of the biggest industry sectors in the advertising business is the auto industry and new data provides insight into just what the auto industry is up to with their advertising spend these days. Where are they spending their ad dollars? What can we learn from the data?

Want to keep from getting replaced at your job by AI? Well, to do that, remember that AI can't replace creativity, and that may be the biggest differentiator when it comes to whether or not your job's really in jeopardy. No one knows that more acutely today than chief marketing officers CMOs, who are hoping to keep their jobs rather than lose them to AI.

As consumers across the economy segments of the population are increasingly dealing with tighter financial conditions, and while that's certainly true for federal workers, for example, and people dependent on food assistance from the federal government, the reality is that it's also now likely increasingly true for middle income Americans as well, and that is certainly impacting how we feel as consumers these days.

Morning Consult is out with their annual report on the fastest growing brands 2025. DoorDash topped the list of fastest growing brands with a 6.39 percentage point increase in purchasing consideration from Q1 to Q3 of this year. In part by growing its consumer base among Gen X, baby boomers and middle income households. The delivery service ranked number one with men and consumers from households with annual incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, and while first overall, it was the second fastest growing brand with boomers and came in six with Gen X.

Mascots are proving to have high value at little cost when it comes to establishing brand traction. How about all the insurance brands clearly benefiting from having a brand mascot like Liberty Mutual's, limu, imu, and Doug, which dominated in ad breakthrough messaging and branding in a market cast study. While All State, Mayhem, ranked first in likability and memorability, Progressives, Flo, excelled in message recall. While Geico's Gecko has maintained a 94% recognition rate and is a driving force in Geico becoming a leading US insurer. Research from Ipso shows that ads with brand characters perform six times better on brand recall than ads without double the attention of celebrity ambassadors.

Elizabeth Renter, senior Economist at Consumer Finance site, NerdWallet, has this to say about the survey's results and about how Americans are feeling these days. As consumers across the economy segments of the population are increasingly dealing with tighter financial conditions, and while that's certainly true for federal workers, for example, and people dependent on food assistance from the federal government, the reality is that it's also now likely increasingly true.

What is amazingly working for many brands these days? Getting a mascot. That's right, a mascot. Duolingo's Unhinged Owl has 16.8 million TikTok followers and turns language into a social phenomenon without spending a dollar on traditional advertising and it's not an unusual one-off outcome. Mascots are proving to have high value at little cost when it comes to establishing brand traction.

If you're a retailer, make sure you're optimizing for discovery, not only for traditional search, and for AI search optimization as well.

Millennials and Gen Z shoppers are leading the way in using AI to support their shopping this holiday season with 44% of millennials and 42% of Gen Z respondents saying they are likely to use chatbots and other AI tools for holiday purchase inspiration That compared to 23% of the overall population. How are they using AI? 72% said they plan to use AI for gift discovery ideas, followed by price comparison, then receiving product recommendations, meal ideas, and even clothing suggestions for holiday events.