Advertising & Marketing

Personalization pays if brands get it right: Consumers want content tailored just for them, but the challenges can be daunting for marketers.

Overall digital ad spending in the US is set to grow by 17.8% in 2022, a steep deceleration from 2021’s 38.3% boom but still ahead of 2020’s pandemic-skewed slowdown. Industry-level digital ad spending has mirrored these extreme swings in recent years—with individual highs and lows often spread far apart from the median. Starting this year, however, most industries will settle into more steady spending patterns closer to the national average.

Starbucks faces off against workers on TikTok, and the latter is winning: That’s a problem for any brand with a substantial group of Gen Z consumers.

Even The Washington Post feels the ad downturn: Long-standing problems with digital publishing are combining with lower ad spending to create a perfect storm for the industry.

Google has added new features for merchants just in time for the holiday season.

COVID-19 shuts down Chinese cities: Millions of residents are locked down under zero-COVID policies in Shenzhen, Hebei, Dalian, and Tianjin, shutting down factories and compounding economic uncertainty.

The FTC is cracking down on location data: Regulators are suing an adtech firm for practices that are common across the industry.

Billions pouring into quantum computing: Rising beyond nascent stages, quantum tech is turning heads in government and business. As funding accelerates, society is likely unprepared for security and ethical challenges.

Intel leans on outside investment for new factories: Still reeling from poor Q2 performance, Intel is courting private equity investors to back its trillion-dollar factory ambitions. Will other semiconductor companies follow suit?

TikTok sees an opportunity in local content: The video app is testing a new feed that displays algorithmically recommended videos made in your area.

Twitter employee departures accelerate as Musk drama wears on: Uncertainty over company direction and stalled growth initiatives could be a turnoff to advertisers as well.

AI art can help and hurt advertisers: Several AI image generators have gained traction, but ethical problems could harm marketers who jump on board.

Potential privacy catastrophe: Oracle is accused of creating dossiers on billions of users and their personal information and making billions off the list in what could be a massive privacy violation.

YouTube amps up its podcast investment: A new dedicated podcasting page will solidify its place as a serious competitor for Spotify and Apple.

Qualcomm comes for data centers: Nuvia unlocks potential for Qualcomm to diversify into server chips for data centers, effectively meeting pent-up demand with faster, cooler, and more-efficient cloud server solutions.

Apple’s MacBooks are first to get self-service repairs: M1-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models can now be more easily repaired by owners. How will notebook competitors respond to Apple’s right-to-repair services?

Twitter takes further steps to authenticate user profiles: Plans to label verified phone numbers follows Elon Musk's claims of rampant bots on the platform.

Roku’s in a “Weird” situation: When your best chance to grow is a “Weird Al” Yankovic biopic, things can’t be going that well.

Here’s an outlook on how franchises will fare in the coming months.