Gen X is projected to lead all generations in total annual spending this year, per NielsenIQ. Brands often focus on younger consumers to build long-term loyalty, but in doing so, they’re missing immediate sales potential from Gen Xers, who account for 33.2% of retail spending despite making up just 19.4% of the population. Retailers and brands should seize the opportunity to build stronger connections with Gen Xers by sharpening their marketing focus and improving in-store experiences. The brands that blend authenticity in their marketing with well-executed in-store experiences will win Gen Xers’ hearts and wallets.
Payments companies are investing in sport marketing to capture volume at lucrative stadiums and live events, per multiple press releases. Standard arena deals have big value, but there’s another area of sports with even less penetration: Women’s sports leagues. Viewership and attendance for professional women’s basketball is exploding thanks in part to standout rookies like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Ads during women’s sports events have a 40% greater impact on consumer engagement than average primetime TV ad airings—meaning the opportunity to seize on rising attendance at women’s sporting events and TV viewership is ripe for payment providers trying to snag in-arena volumes and new customers.
US shoppers will spend $78 billion this Cyber Week, up 3% YoY and an all-time high, according to Salesforce. A record number of shoppers is also expected—186.9 million, per the NRF and Prosper Analytics. Cyber Five will be a barometer for the rest of the holiday season. While we expect healthy topline growth, driven by the resilience of higher-income consumers, shoppers on the whole are being much pickier about how and where they spend. Despite longer promo periods, most shoppers will wait for Black Friday to pull the trigger, possibly in the hopes of securing the deepest deals. AI will play a larger role this season, as more consumers turn to the technology to find gifts and secure discounts.
Block plans to offer savings and investing products for children 6 to 12 alongside savings tools for parents of even younger children. It introduced a banking product in 2021 for teens. And this fall it announced a high-yield savings product for the same demographic. Chase and Capital One offer products for kids, but banks overall do not. Young consumers are smartphone- and app-native and see any interaction with a bank in that context. The hook for a financial services company is now an experience—not a product.
Block will pilot a real-time credit scoring model called Cash App Score, per a press release. Users’ Cash App Scores are based on financial behaviors within the Cash App ecosystem: deposit frequency, spending habits, savings activity, and repayment history, and other metrics. Cash App’s micro loans have acted as a proof of concept for its proprietary underwriting model, which it now likely wants to expand into larger-value (and more lucrative) lending. Giving consumers a visible—and highly manipulable—score can boost loan value and overall engagement.
Walmart, TJX, and other US retailers are deploying body cameras to combat shoplifting, harassment, and violence against staff. While the full scope of retail theft is debatable, every stolen item chips away at revenues. With tariffs and rising costs squeezing margins, retailers are testing every lever to protect the bottom line. Body cams may help—but only if they reduce loss without eroding customer trust. Retailers should exercise care in walking a fine line between safety and scrutiny.
Scott Simpson, the president of America’s Credit Unions, called a recent ABA survey "deliberately deceptive" and said it casts credit unions unfairly. The study’s conclusions play a tiny part in an endless war over credit unions’ tax-exempt status and federal disclosure requirements. The ABA survey was designed to prove a point, but the threat to the banking industry is real: Credit unions may compete more effectively with banks because of a lower regulatory and tax burden than banks. The fight will intensify as credit unions get bigger.
Cryptocurrency valuations plunged across the board from frothy October highs, per Coinmarketcap data. Crypto volatility scares consumers and dampens consumer interest even in relatively safer types of crypto like stablecoins, which have practical applications for cross-border payments. Stablecoin services need to educate their consumers about the safety of their products, especially as other non-fiat-backed tokens hemorrhage value, to assure clients that their crypto-powered remittances are a safe choice for sending loved ones overseas money.
Personalization remains one of the most reliable attention drivers, but recent data shows consumers are still uneasy about how brands achieve it. People across age groups feel more negative than positive toward personalized ads—even though they pay more attention to content that feels relevant. The result is a widening gap between consumer expectations and marketer behavior. To unlock personalization’s upside, brands must apply AI to improve relevance and transparency, not just scale output.
Digital health tech funding continues to rebound in 2025, bolstered by AI deals. Funding reached $3.9 billion in Q3, already surpassing last year’s total, per PitchBook. AI is driving a new wave of digital health investment, and both healthcare systems and providers will feel pressure to adopt AI-assisted tool, not just experiment with them.
House Democrats introduced a new healthcare bill on Thursday aimed at expanding prescription drug price negotiations and extending Medicare benefits to consumers covered by private insurance. The proposal is unlikely to advance out of the House, but it adds fuel to the ongoing debate over drug pricing, and increases the pressure on pharma companies.
Starting next year, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will sell their weight loss shots directly to employers, cutting out pharmacy benefit managers, per Bloomberg. This move further signals drugmakers’ push into direct sales, both to consumers and employers. More businesses will likely cover obesity drugs for their workers if they can achieve greater cost control of their offered benefits. And pharma supply chain middlemen could feel mounting pressure to shift further away from the prescription drug rebate model that so many in the industry decry.
Lab testing company Function Health raised a $298 million oversubscribed Series B funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $2.5 billion. Consumer adoption of cash-pay wellness services is surging, though offerings exceeding $1,000 all-in may see constrained demand. Companies entering D2C lab testing should avoid overpromising the value of testing hundreds of biomarkers, ground their claims in solid science, and be transparent about pricing—including add-on costs.
Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount have all submitted acquisition bids for some or all of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), sources told Deadline, starting a bidding war that would fundamentally reshape the media landscape. Regardless of the outcome, a restructuring of WBD will impact marketers by unlocking the ability to increase audience reach, run integrated campaigns across premium properties, and simplify media buying.
Gap’s viral campaign featuring Katseye helped the retailer regain its fashion credibility and drive shoppers to stores. The campaign delivered “significant traffic and double-digit growth in denim,” Gap CEO Richard Dickson said on the company’s Q3 earnings call. In total, the ad generated 8 billion media impressions and 500 million views, making it one of the brand’s most successful campaigns of all time. The ad’s success is a clear indication that Gap Inc.’s playbook is working. By delivering both on-trend products and culturally relevant marketing, Gap is attracting more Gen Z shoppers while keeping its existing customer base engaged.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss the three big questions surrounding Amazon in Q3 and beyond: What Amazon's corporate layoffs tell us about how AI is actually affecting the broader job market. Is Amazon’s new “Help Me Decide” feature a significant stepping stone toward agentic AI? And could Amazon’s AI smart glasses for delivery workers be a Trojan horse for broader smart-glasses adoption? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Analyst Rachel Wolff. Listen everywhere, and watch on YouTube and Spotify.
OpenAI is rolling out a group chat option for ChatGPT to all logged-in Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users globally. The company said in a blog post that the feature is intended to help users collaborate with one another in the same conversation—such as working with friends, family, or coworkers on plans, decisions, and brainstorming. To capitalize on this new engagement tool, marketing leaders should start experimenting with group-based AI workflows and prepare for new discovery channels.
Reddit and mobile apps were the fastest-growing US ad channels in Q3, showing their emerging importance to advertisers. Ad spend on Reddit increased 46% YoY, per Sensor Tower’s Q3 Digital Market Index report, and mobile app ad spend grew 42%. Reddit is becoming a high ROI opportunity for early movers. Its growth suggests that highly engaged micro-communities (subreddits) are offering more precise targeting and less competition. That makes Reddit a strong testing ground for community-based and brand awareness campaigns for consumers who are actively looking to discover new content and products.
Walmart raised its full-year outlook again as its strong value proposition and fast-growing ad business drive broader consumer spending. It now expects net sales growth of between 4.8% and 5.1% this year, and EPS between $2.58 and $2.63. Q3 comps rose 4.5% YoY, with higher traffic and ticket size, and gains were strongest among higher-income shoppers. US ecommerce sales jumped 28%, supported by faster delivery, rising Walmart+ signups, and 33% growth in US ad sales (excluding Vizio). Walmart is also expanding to emerging channels, including ChatGPT. Its focus on value, convenience, and tech has strengthened its position, helping it compete with Amazon and capture more holiday and online spending.
LevelField Financial, a crypto-friendly “bank” without a bank charter, has obtained conditional state approval to acquire Burling Bank, a state-chartered Chicago community bank with $206 million in assets. Crypto-friendly and crypto-native banks are increasingly operating like traditional banks. That would be a mistake: As crypto firms acquire banks or receive bank charters—and as banks build crypto-related businesses—the lines will blur between legacy and decentralized financial systems. Banks must eventually be prepared to do it all.