While some platforms handle moderation better than others, recent events have solidified the importance of clear policies and effective enforcement for protecting brand integrity. 

Ever since social media’s meteoric rise, community guidelines have proven essential to social media platforms’ business models. While some take moderation very seriously, others don’t – and they pay the price. 

X is losing advertisers

X (formerly Twitter) is losing money rapidly because of poor content moderation and posts from its owner.  

IBM, Apple, Disney, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and more halted ads on X (formerly Twitter) in Nov 2023 after owner Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Ad pull-outs were estimated to reach $75 million in advertising revenue loss by the end of 2023 – just two months. 

The New York Times reports that according to internal documents, more than 200 ad units of companies halted or considered pausing their ads on the social network.

X also discontinued one of its moderation tools – one that detected coordinated misinformation. The platform also removed a feature that once spotted accounts that shared identical media, which has been crucial for finding and stopping disinformation campaigns. 

Stepping away from content moderation has landed X in hot water with both advertisers and governments. The EU has issued a formal warning to the company about disinformation on the platform and X could face major fines if the issue isn’t resolved. 

Social media moderation is essential for compliance

X isn’t the only platform to run into hurdles because of poor community management, Meta has also had its fair share of content issues, with its Oversight Board currently examining a manipulated video of American President Joe Biden. The video will likely impact Meta’s Manipulated Media policies in 2024, ahead of the US election. 

This investigation comes as global governments look into the impact of disinformation campaigns and altered media on elections and the responsibility social media platforms have to tackle misrepresentation. 

Meta also suspended COVID-19-related searches on Threads, exemplifying the importance of social media moderation to the success and growth of its brand as well as to maintaining consumer trust and attracting advertisers.  

Many countries and governments have passed legislation to protect their citizens from disinformation online, and it behooves social media platforms to understand this legislation and comply with its terms. The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) contains strict content moderation rules and requires any platform operating in the EU to follow them or face severe penalties. 

This is just one piece of legislation passed in recent years and it marks a significant shift in digital regulation. The DSA compels companies like Meta and X to prioritize content moderation and conduct a proper risk analysis to protect European citizens’ privacy and to prevent misinformation and the misrepresentation of public figures. 

The DSA applies to 19 companies, all of which it defines as “very large online platforms“, having more than 45 million monthly users. This is likely only a first step from the EU in regulating user-generated digital content – other countries are poised to enact legislation in the coming years as well. 

The writing is on the wall; effective social media moderation is a critical part of successfully running a social media platform. Advertisers are paying close attention to which organizations take the task seriously. When user-generated content becomes hateful or works to spread disinformation, consumer trust is lost and advertisers are quick to move on. Instead, they will opt to spend their ad dollars where they can more effectively build trust with their audience. 

Trust is central to effective advertising – and that makes social media moderation essential for building an advertiser-friendly platform.

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The short answer is no, as long as you’ve followed email marketing best practices. The organizations the policies impact are the ones who’ve irresponsibly collected or bought email lists, and whose strategies rely on mass emailing rather than strategic, targeted communication.

In its announcement, Google says: “Starting in 2024, we’ll require bulk senders to authenticate their emails, allow for easy unsubscription, and stay under a reported spam threshold.” 

When bulk senders don’t securely configure their systems, they are left vulnerable to attackers who can easily target them and their recipients. This is just one reason why Google and Yahoo are keen to implement policies to protect their users. 

Another key factor: for many email users, bulk emails are a frustration. By limiting bulk emails and effectively filtering spam, Google and Yahoo can cement themselves as user-friendly. For marketers who rely on bulk emailing, it may pose challenges. 

Regarding security, Google states that their new policy will help validate “that a sender is who they claim to be.” This should come as no surprise; email marketers with above-board practices have nothing to worry about on this front. 

Google also now requires that emails sent to Gmail addresses have some form of authentication. Since these requirements were implemented in 2023, Google’s seen unauthenticated messages drop by 75% – helping to declutter inboxes and block scammers. 

Decluttered inboxes are great news for email marketers. With less spam floating around, qualified subscribers are more likely to see, open, and read the messages they receive. Google’s new policy hopes to improve upon this, blocking even more unwanted emails from reaching their users. 

How will Google and Yahoo’s changes impact email marketers?

Marketers who send less than 5000 emails a day will have an easier time following Google and Yahoo’s new policies, but there are still several requirements they need to pay attention to. Many of these items are already best practices. 

Email marketers should do the following to ensure their emails always reach their subscribers: 

• Utilize Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication. 
• Have a One-Click unsubscribe option for all recipients. 
• Maintain a low spam rate.

SPF and DKIM authentication is crucial for validating email sources. SPF validates that emails come from an authorized domain, which helps ensure that they won’t end up in the spam box. DKIM adds a digital signature, helping to ensure the integrity of the content and authenticate the sender. 

One-click unsubscribe buttons have been mandatory on mass emails for years, also known as RFC 8058 headers. By remaining compliant with this legislation, marketers ensure their emails continue to hit their recipient’s inboxes. 

Finally, by maintaining a low spam rate, marketers maintain a healthy relationship with Google and Yahoo and with their recipients. Google recommends that spam rates stay between 0.1 and 0.3%.

For larger, bulk senders who send more than 5000 emails a day, additional measures are needed. These include: 

• Create a DMARC record. Google and Yahoo will now require that large bulk senders have a DMARC record with an enforcement policy of ‘p=none.’ 
• Provide DKIM-Signed unsubscribe URLs and tracking links. Under new policies, marketers must ensure that their unsubscribe and tracking links and DKIM are signed. 
• Prepare for increased email deferrals. With the new policies, there will be more email deferrals for Gmail and Yahoo accounts. Anticipating this increase will help marketers react quickly and effectively. 
• Create separate email channels. By using multiple subdomains for different types of emails, marketers can more effectively filter by email services and keep their spam rates down. 

Email marketers with complaint strategies will have very little friction, if any, in adapting to Google and Yahoo’s new email policies. 

Email marketing’s future is one of quality over quantity – a future grounded in meaningful engagement that puts the security and privacy of recipients over the desire to hit as many inboxes as possible. Marketing as a whole is placing greater emphasis on consumer consent and privacy and these policy changes play their part in building a more secure digital future.

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As we enter this new age of advertising, both security and compliance are more important than ever. Privacy is top of mind for advertisers (and AdTech companies) because it is a central concern for their customers – both existing and potential. 

The industry has known about Google’s sunsetting plans for third-party cookies since 2018 when GDPR went into effect in the European Union; many marketers and vendors have spent the past six years preparing for this very moment. 

To meet clients’ needs, marketers must achieve consistency with their core guiding principles and strategy, seeking customer consent for advertising across all touchpoints and media. 

And what shouldn’t be lost is this: measuring media impact on brand equity lets marketers better understand business outcomes, achieving unduplicated reach and effectively retargeting and controlling ad frequency. 

Are you ready to go cookieless?

There may not be a need for dire panic just yet. If you’ve paid attention to warnings like mine in the past few years, you know there are clear steps to adapt your targeting strategy to a cookieless reality. 

A strong approach is based on a proprietary consumer identity stack with multiple layers of precision. These layers depend on the targeting needs of advertisers and the requirements of a given campaign. They can include:

• Contextual targeting free from IDs and based on customer interest, gauged from content consumed across web channels. (For instance, at illumin we partner with industry leaders like GumGum, Peer39, DoubleVerify, and Oracle for contextual targeting.) Marketers should also adhere to an industry-standard content taxonomy, such as the one adopted by IAB Tech Lab.
• First-party reach based on advertisers existing first-party, CRM data. Of course, always use consumer data collected with consent. 
• Consent-collected second and third-party reach to target customers based on interoperable IDs across publishers and devices. 

The second and third-party data gathered should only be collected with consent using authenticated and interoperable IDs to enable scaled reach across the privacy-compliant publishers on the open web. 

Now, let’s be honest with ourselves – none of the AdTech media vendors on the open web are completely free from third-party cookies. However, companies that heeded the clear warning that this day was coming and made significant progress in the elimination process are in a much better position going into 2024. 

It is easy to talk about the eventual demise of third-party cookies, it’s another altogether to have taken any steps to address your data stack to adapt to the new reality. 

How we adapted our internal data and identity capabilities

When it comes to practicing what we preach, here’s how we fare today.

Our platform reaches 270+ million unique monthly users and tracks over 120 billion events in real time each day – thus attributing to each user’s unique interests, needs, and behaviors. 

The volume and richness we are afforded when controlling our own data let us build our own Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) programs to establish unique identity graphs. We can further augment these graphs with external partner integrations to provide advertisers with legitimate cookieless targeting capabilities. 

Some of these partners include: 

• OpenRTB Publishers offering CTV, OTT & DOOH, and Digital Audio that do not rely on third-party cookies
• TAPAD cluster IDs (to provide cross-device graphs)
• Authenticated audience IDs from Publishers and data providers like RampID, UID2, and Panorama ID

This work is not easy. Marketers and companies like ours must constantly evaluate new players in the AdTech space to assess incremental reach, effectiveness, and opportunities. This is an arduous but essential part of remaining relevant in a highly competitive industry. We cannot snooze on upgrading our identity stack and providing the best possible service to our customers.

And guess what marketers? Your customers feel the same way. They don’t want you to talk about your commitment to finding them a cookieless solution. They want to see your workings when it comes to modernizing your targeting.

Consumer privacy and fraud protection are of the utmost importance in our industry and should be a marketer’s top priority going into the post-cookie age of advertising. By implementing strategies that respect the consent of consumers, marketers embrace the attitudes of a new era of the internet, rather than trying to fight against it while simultaneously futureproofing their targeting strategy as cookieless deadlines loom. 

I’ve given you solid advice above to find your foothold in this era: are you ready to step up?

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This is a long time coming; marketers who’ve prepared ahead of time are ready and able to pivot – adjusting their strategies and targeting approaches to still reach their audience effectively. 

Some marketers and advertisers will be unaffected by the elimination of third-party cookies. But for those working and targeting on the open web, adjustments need to be made. And they need to be made quickly. 

On January 4, the Tracking Protection tool was made available to the first cohort of Chrome users, a long-anticipated move from the search giant towards eliminating third-party cookies from its platforms. This is only the first step: by the end of 2024 marketers should completely eliminate third-party cookies from their strategies. 

This process is the culmination of years of effort to advocate for user privacy, empowering consumers to consent to where and when their information is gathered and to whom that information is shared. That’s why the two core principles all marketers need to consider when building a post-cookie approach to targeting are consent and privacy. 

And since customer consent and privacy are at the core of these plans, they need to also be at the core of marketing strategies going forward. 

Google’s first step toward cookieless 

On January 4, 2024, a random 1 percent of global Chrome users received the new Tracking Protection web-browsing feature, receiving a notification on desktop Chrome or their Android devices. The feature restricts third-party cookies by default, limiting tracking capabilities for many marketers. 

Google has planned to eliminate third-party cookies for years, but the company continually pushed back deadlines due to advertiser opposition and regulatory issues in the UK. Now, it appears everything is on track and Google users can expect to say goodbye to third-party cookies by the second half of 2024. 

Google isn’t the only web browser with removal plans; Firefox already removed third-party cookies in 2023. However, what concerns many marketers is Google Chrome accounts for a massive 65% of browser usage. 

Although the company gave marketers ample warning – and pushed back its plans several times – the Wall Street Journal reports that many marketers still aren’t ready. 

For those marketers looking to brush up on cookieless marketing, our full guide is here to lend a helping hand. 

According to eMarketer, cookies were used to target 78% or more of programmatic ad buys as recently as Q3 2023, showing an increase in cookie use. Many advertisers were even seen to be increasing their cookie ad spend. This is despite Google and Firefox’s plans to eliminate third-party cookie use. 

Marketers still relying on third-party cookies to build their 2024 strategies are in for a difficult year. 

Google’s third-party cookie depreciation trial

Google knows that removing these cookies leaves a void in many marketers’ strategies. To help them along and address potential compatibility concerns, it’s also announced a  third-party cookie deprecation trial. 

The goal is to eliminate third-party use of cookies on Chrome by 2024’s third quarter, but this program would let eligible brands extend that deadline until December 27, 2024. 

Qualifying websites can enable third-party cookie deprecation trials by providing unique access tokens in Chrome using JavaScript. 

To meet the requirements for this program brands must meet the following criteria: 

• Are not an advertising-related service
• Are not associated with advertising services or domains. 
• Can demonstrate a direct impact on end-users (this needs to be demonstrated in detail to Google) 

Google will only include sites with confirmed breakage as part of this program. There is also an appeals process for clarification or approval issues. 

Google’s Privacy Sandbox

With the removal of third-party cookies, many marketers are asking: what comes next? 

illumin’s Chief Strategy Officer Seraj Bharwani said in a recent article, “The emergence of large-scale data and identity resolution platforms with audience graphs across devices and households is a major step forward to helping reclaim control over reach and frequency. But there’s no single solution to the problem.”

Marketers need to critically think about what solutions will be most effective for their brands and they need to act fast. Google’s solution is its Privacy Sandbox. The goal is to make web browsing less intrusive for users by replacing cookies with contextual targeting. 

The Privacy Sandbox places users in groups according to similar interests and behaviors, without identifying them or overstepping privacy boundaries. The first stage of Google’s new targeting tool was rolled out in July of 2023. 

Contextual targeting like this is one of many ways that marketers can move forward in a cookieless world. 

With these targeting tools being brand new, marketers haven’t had much time to pivot. And while the market continues to speculate that Google will continue to delay its full cookieless launch, nothing is guaranteed. 

With the search engine’s January 4 launch, it seems Google means business this year. It is heavily speculated that third-party cookies will disappear from the digital world; marketers need to rapidly adjust their 2024 strategies to target and reach their audiences – the sooner the better.  

This is a new frontier for advertising on the open web. By embracing the change brands can make their mark and find a competitive foothold in a new era of digital advertising. 

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In the past few years, the media has seen the steady climb of women’s pro sports, from soccer to hockey, to basketball. Alongside increased sponsorship and marketing, athletes are garnering higher viewership. Women’s athletics are slated to continue their climb in 2024, with the launch of the PWHL in January. 

Deloitte forecasts that women’s sports will surge in popularity, and could potentially earn $1.28 billion in 2024 – a 300% increase from 2022 and a massive win for the sports industry and women around the world. 

Women’s pro sports have entered the mainstream

Though it’s been a long time, women’s pro sports are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve from the mainstream media. This increase in attention is resulting in higher earnings for both athletes and broadcasters. 

Among the highest projected earning sports for 2024 are soccer and basketball, each projected to earn $555 million and $354 million respectively. And while soccer and basketball are predicted to be the highest earners, they aren’t the only sports making progress.

Women’s hockey is making huge strides, with the PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) forming in 2023 after the Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA) acquired the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), combining the leagues to create a single, unified professional women’s league in North America. 

The unification of professional women’s hockey was a long road worth the journey. The new league sets the sport up for success, and advertisers can expect continued inroads in women’s hockey over the league’s first few years. 

Women’s pro sports are marked and marketed for success

2023 also saw the creation of the Women’s Sports Club, founded by ex-Olympian Angela Ruggiero. The organization partners with major brands like Coca-Cola and Nike and sports leagues like the WNBA to help break down barriers between brands and broadcasters to boost women’s pro sports coverage and investment. 

Lack of marketing and broadcast space was a major barrier for women’s sports for decades and with the removal of roadblocks, women’s sports can find their target audience. 

Evidence of market support for women’s sports is easy to spot, with the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) Championship garnering primetime TV slots alongside ample commitments from advertisers like Ally Bank.  

The FIFA Women’s World Cup also saw major support in 2023 with record viewership and crucial sponsorship from major brands like Adidas. 

ESPN recently launched an all-female team on its SportsCenter broadcast. This show, like the NWSL Championship, was sponsored by Ally Bank as part of its plan to dedicate 90% of its sports marketing budget to women’s sports.

Ally Bank allocated 45% of its 2023 sports marketing budget to women’s sports this year, moving towards a 50/50 split with men’s sports by 2024. Advertisers are supporting women’s athletics and broadcasters are following suit, leading the way for a bright and competitive future. 

Media and marketing are picking up on trends, as they always do. In this case, women’s sports are gaining popularity and in turn, gaining much-deserved media attention. This traction will continue as marketing budgets increase and television spots improve, making now the perfect time for advertisers to jump on board. 

Women’s athletics brings with it a new audience, primed and ready to experience sports with excitement and intrigue. This is a fantastic opportunity for advertisers to access new audiences at the forefront of a rising industry. 

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Meta advertising trends for 2024

In 2024, Meta, and Facebook in particular, are continuing to shift away from written posts and pictures and towards short-form videos. The rise of TikTok has caused many social media networks to question their strategy and product, and Meta is no exception. eMarketer predicts that by 2025, adults in the US will spend more time on TikTok than on Facebook. 

Meta holds in its hand the favor of marketers and the potential for higher ad revenue. eMarketer adds that while TikTok will remain dominant with users in 2024, Facebook is going to be the higher revenue earner, with Facebook bringing in $1.02 per user, per hour by 2025. 

Analyst Debra Aho Williamson describes the reason for this discrepancy in the podcast Behind the Numbers, saying: “Advertisers are just wedded to Meta…From the perspective of an advertiser wanting to have a regular, reliable partner to advertise on, Meta is still going to get that lion’s share of dollars.”

Advertisers are going to remain loyal to Meta not because of how the platform performs with users, but because of its familiarity and ease of use from a marketing perspective. Even though TikTok is the preferred short-form video app among users, the operational capabilities and ad products that Meta provides continue to keep them on the winning side with marketers.

Alongside the predominance of short-form video, here are some other key Meta advertising trends for 2024:

AI and retail take priority

As economic uncertainty continues to be a top concern for consumers and advertisers alike, commerce and retail are emerging as a steady ground to walk while the financial landscape evens out.

Retail was the largest ad spending vertical in 2023, accounting for 27.9% of US digital ad spending. This has led social networks to put their retail networks at the top of their priority list for the coming year, with Meta placing continued emphasis on their Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC+). 

AI was also a top priority for Meta towards the end of 2023 and will continue to be so in 2024.

The company launched its AI Sandbox in May of 2023, providing advertisers with a testing environment to experiment with emerging AI-powered tools, including an automated background generation tool for product images and an automatic resizing tool. These tools make it even easier for advertisers to create images that fit Meta’s ad formats. 

While advertisers aren’t keen to jump on the generative AI bandwagon, Meta is hedging its bets with this new suite of tools and is likely to persist with its AI efforts in the new year.

Ad supply will continue to soar

Ad supply is not an issue on Meta’s platforms going into 2024. In fact, its ad supply is oversized. In Meta’s Q2 2023 earnings call, the company declared it had sold 34% more impressions than in 2022; the company is going to continue to have ample supply in the new year. 

Since starting to sell ad space on previously under-monetized platforms, like Instagram’s search results and Reels, Meta’s had a huge uptick in impressions. This is going to continue next year, with both Reels and Instagram Search growing in popularity with users. 

Instagram Reels in particular was a major win for Meta in Q2 2023. For a third quarter in a row, CPMs on Instagram dropped. Not only did they drop, they dropped 29% YoY. This was largely due to Meta’s increased ad load and new Reels ad formats. 

In addition to the Meta’s success with Instagram Search and Reels, it has also seen major growth on Facebook. The quintessential social media platform now has over 3 billion users, with its daily active user rate climbing from 2.04 billion to 2.06 billion in Q2 2023. 

Since Meta has seen such great success with Instagram and Facebook in 2023, the company will likely continue to treat the platforms as its bread and butter going into 2024. 

Threads is unraveling

Along with this success, the company had some bumps along the road in 2023, which is likely going to impact Meta advertising trends in 2024. Specifically, Threads was a massive issue for the company. eMarketer predicts the new social platform will continue to decline, declaring that the network is “already unraveling.” 

This prediction came only a few weeks after Meta launched Instagram Threads, dominating tech and media headlines in the wake of Twitter’s sudden rebrand to X. While users flocked to the platform initially, usage steadily dropped.

It’s worth noting the “Twitter knock-off” isn’t dead just yet and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that Threads is “in line with his expectations”. Perhaps 2024 has some surprises in store for Threads users and marketers alike. 

The future is never set in stone, but predictions can help guide strategy and put marketers ahead of the curve. Whether or not Meta will continue to soar in 2024 is unknown, but it remains a safe bet for advertisers around the world.

If you’re looking to see even more of illumin’s predictions for 2024, be sure to check out our Programmatic advertising trends to watch in 2024. You can also read our advertising trends from fall 2023 to see how last season wrapped up.

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In fact, social media strategy ideally falls within a broader programmatic strategy, taking advantage of better targeting. Meta can and should be a part of a marketer’s programmatic approach. 

Marketers in the USA will spend more than $57 billion on digital display advertising in 2024 alone, with over half of this spent on social media – on track with the spending from recent years. 

In 2019, 56.3% of the $57 billion spent on programmatic advertising went to social media networks, and in 2021, social media spending increased to make up 57.6% of total programmatic ad spend. With this growth set to continue, it’s crucial that those marketers not already doing so shift their programmatic strategy to include social. 

On Facebook specifically, programmatic ads are popular among programmatic advertisers. According to Media Radar, of the 17,400 companies that advertised on Facebook in April of 2021, only 543 purchased direct digital ad space; the remainder opted for a programmatic approach. 

Meta already makes it incredibly easy to include their ads in your programmatic approach; Facebook ads purchased directly from Facebook’s ad inventory are delivered programmatically. But Facebook ads can also be bought through a separate DSP or journey advertising platform, making it easier to include Meta ads as part of a larger, more holistic programmatic strategy. 

Ad strategies on Meta with a DSP

Many marketers don’t feel a need to use a demand-side platform to buy Meta ads. Facebook Ads Manager acts as its own DSP, letting marketers buy programmatic ad space on Facebook. However, by using a DSP or journey advertising platform, advertisers can better include social as part of a broader and more holistic programmatic strategy. 

Using a separate DSP or journey advertising platform (like illumin) lets marketers approach their social strategy with greater context – including it within the same customer journey as their other ad platforms and formats. This allows for better targeting and broader reach. 

Including social in a well-rounded, programmatic journey advertising strategy enables marketers to precisely target personas based on a wide range of characteristics and online behaviors. In addition to targeting those personas based on their online activity, marketers can adjust their social strategy to fit within a broader customer journey. 

Adding journey advertising to your Meta media mix 

Journey advertising is a transformational shift in perspective. It is a way of thinking about the marketing funnel to target customers with personalized messages at every stage of their research and buying journey. 

From creating awareness to building loyalty, journey advertising lets marketing speak to customers more clearly and effectively depending on how much they know about the brand and what they’re looking for in a purchase. 

Marketers know that customers are heavily impacted by the messaging they receive and this is just as true online as it is in other media. The thoughts and opinions of audience members are highly affected by the order in which they receive communications and the forms of messaging they receive. Meta advertising needs to consider this to have a meaningful impact. 

In his article for Advertising Week, Seraj Bharwani, illumin’s Chief Strategy Officer, says to“Focus on the context (what consumers read, listen, watch, and share) and assess top-of-mind needs and passions.” 

This mindset has the power to transform your social strategy. Social media is about communicating with target audiences on their own turf, and that means fully understanding their interests and how they’re looking to engage. 

By including Meta in a journey advertising strategy, marketers can ensure that their social media footprint has the most impact possible. 

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Lower-funnel activities like this are important for engaging customers throughout their buying journey and in retaining brand interest after a purchase has been made.

While retail media has been long established as critical to promoting goods and services at the bottom of the marketing funnel, larger media agencies have recently started to pay it the attention it deserves. 

Before marketers can take full advantage of retail media’s recent growth, they first need to understand what it is and why it works.

What is retail media?

Retail media is the marketing of retail goods to consumers at the point of purchase or point of choice (be it in-store or online) and has been a part of retail campaigns for decades. Some of the most common types of retail media include online ads, in-store signage, free samples, loyalty card offerings, and coupons.

Media presented within a retail environment is the most encompassing description of it, given that the term’s definition is continuing to expand as retail and e-commerce evolve. 

According to eMarketer, retail media will be the fastest-growing ad channel by 2027, growing by more than 20% a year. Alongside its rise to fame, retail media is also seeing a renaissance. 

The discipline of retail media now includes a wide range of creative and engaging content from fleet media (including vehicles decked out with digital out-of-home ads) and onsite videos.

Marketers are also looking to bring higher levels of creativity to the medium, making entertaining and engaging content for audiences. The range of ways retailers interact with their customers is slated to continue its growth in the coming year and beyond. 

Retail media’s future in 2024

While retail media is a relatively new marketing channel for larger advertisers and agencies, it’s a medium they quickly adopted in 2023. According to research from McKinsey, most advertisers are currently splitting their business between an average of four retail media networks (RMNs).

These numbers are likely to grow substantially over the next few years as the definition of retail media broadens. Customers and advertisers are in for exciting new campaigns from their favorite retailers.  

One example of retailers pushing the boundaries of retail media is Walmart’s upcoming “RomCommcerce” series. Walmart created a series of 23 short episodes that feature over 330 products and released Add to Heart this past holiday season to connect with shoppers. 

By engaging with customer’s guilty pleasures and holiday traditions, the retail giant has created a sense of excitement that stays with their audience for the long run. Rather than creating a simple video highlighting its product offerings, Walmart has embraced creative storytelling to more meaningfully engage with its audience. 

Retail has been resilient this past year, holding on to revenue when so many other industries were at best seeing a halt in growth and a worst experienced a decline. eMarketer predicts that retail will spend $73.55 billion on digital ads in 2024 alone and that the industry will make up 27.9% of total digital ad spending in the US.

In a less stable economic environment, industries will look to retail to lead the way, marketers included. Advertisers know that banking on retail is a safe bet, which means embracing lower-funnel activities like retail media.

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Black Friday weekend saw record sales in 2023. While e-commerce saw impressive growth, brick-and-mortar sales only grew by a measly 1.1%. 

Sales growth returned to pre-pandemic levels for Black Friday 2023, with discounts drawing in shoppers and persuading them to loosen their purse strings. eMarketer reports that approximately 72% of holiday shoppers, about 130.7 million, planned to shop Black Friday sales in 2023, up from 69% in 2022.

And those plans were kept. Black Friday sales figures grew at a rate higher than expected in 2023, to the relief of retailers across the country. Retail sales in the US increased by 2.5% year-over-year (YoY) on Black Friday according to Mastercard Spending Plus, but the real excitement comes from e-commerce sales, which grew by a whopping 8.5%. 

E-Commerce and online shopping see an uptick

Black Friday 2023 saw retailers slashing online prices in addition to their in-store discounts, with the top sales going to apparel and accessories, health and beauty, and home and garden. Online shopping took the lion’s share of these sales, with the average cart price in the US reaching US$107.18.

Canada saw even higher spending than its southern neighbor. While newer to Black Friday shopping traditions, Canadians shopped in droves, with the average cart price reaching US$171.60.

Shopify, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms, says its merchants garnered US$4.1 billion globally on Black Friday, setting a record for the Canadian software giant. Its boon represents a 22% increase from 2022. 

Mobile shopping had a come-up 

In addition to e-commerce, mobile purchasing saw significant growth on Black Friday 2023. 

Ahead of 2023’s shopping madness, Adobe Analytics Black Friday 2023 study predicted that mobile shopping would overtake desktop purchases.

Adobe Analytics was right; the company predicted mobile spending would make up 51.2% of online sales and when all was said and done, 54% of online sales came from mobile devices.

Mobile shopping accounted for US$5.3 billion in Black Friday revenue, a 10.4% increase from 2022.

These sales figures show that customers are becoming increasingly comfortable making purchases through mobile apps. Adobe Analytics expects this to continue, proving the importance of robust mobile capabilities for retailers. 

Buy now pay later services incentivized shoppers

There are several reasons why e-commerce saw such significant growth in 2023.

One major factor is the availability of alternative payment methods. Being able to buy now and pay later lets customers with a tight budget stretch their income farther during heavy shopping periods such as the holiday season. 

The week of November 18, 2023, buy now, pay later (BNPL) orders increased 72% from the previous week. 

BNPL services like Klarna or After Pay let e-commerce customers stretch their holiday expenses over several weeks, making it easier to keep up with costs – something in-store shopping rarely offers. 

For many years, retailers have been encouraged to shift focus and prioritize online customers, it’s time that advertisers followed suit. Black Friday 2023 highlighted the importance of e-commerce and global power and popularity. 

In addition to focusing on e-commerce, retailers and advertisers need their foot in the mobile game. Mobile spending is increasing year after year; to remain relevant, marketers need to ensure their strategies for Black Friday 2024 include these audiences.

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Boxing Day didn’t originate as a day of shopping. Once spent at home with family or watching sports tournaments, the annual day off has changed to take on a similar role to Black Friday in the US, making it the perfect opportunity for a shopping spree.

Although shopping isn’t the only activity done to celebrate Boxing Day, it has grown to be one of the activities for which Boxing Day is most known. With shopping at the front of so many consumer’s minds on Boxing Day, it’s interesting to think about where this tradition started and where it might go next. 

Where did Boxing Day come from?

Boxing Day is frequently likened to Black Friday in the US: a free day when families are together and have the day off work – a day often spent watching sports matches, eating leftovers, and venturing to the local mall for great deals. 

There are a couple of theories as to the origins of Boxing Day. The most common story is that Boxing Day comes from the annual opening of the alms boxes in churches. These charity boxes were traditionally opened on the day after Christmas, with their contents distributed to the less fortunate. 

The other theory is that Boxing Day’s name comes from the presents given to employees following the Christmas holiday; in large estates, staff were required to work on Christmas Day. In exchange, they would have the next day off to celebrate themselves. Employers would also typically give workers a gift or a bonus on the 26th, to show their appreciation for a year of hard work. 

A day off became more widely given on December 26 as workers moved into factories throughout the Industrial Revolution. In the 1700s, Boxing Day became a day for sports, with many aristocrats taking part in hunting, racing, and shooting; as the working class gained more money and leisure time, soccer (or football) became an equally popular Boxing Day pastime. 

Aside from domestic workers who would already have the day off, Boxing Day grew as a popular vacation day for factory and office workers, eventually becoming a statutory holiday. 

So, how did a day of sports and leisure become one of the biggest shopping days of the year?

The trend of shopping on Boxing Day is newer than many would imagine. Historically, it was taboo to shop on a Sunday, with many stores closed alongside the stock market. However, these attitudes started to change in the late 20th century, with the British government even amending trading laws in the 1990s. 

The change in trade laws opened the floodgates. If it was socially acceptable to shop on a Sunday, then it was socially acceptable to shop on a holiday. And since so many potential customers were off work and flush with cash from traditional Christmas and end-of-year bonuses, businesses sought to draw them in with sales. 

Boxing Day sales pivotal to end-of-year sales figures

Since the late 20th century, Boxing Day has only continued to grow, solidifying itself as the best time to score savings, with deeper deals offered every year. And as sales have grown, so too has retail’s reliance on Boxing Day as a source of income – an end-of-year boon to carry them into the new year. 

As a pivotal point in the retail calendar, Boxing Day also holds great importance for advertisers. Where there are sales, there are ads, and nailing a Boxing Day campaign has become vital to building a healthy foundation for the new year. 

Advertisers vie for the top spot each year, with the best creatives and most impactful targeting taking the prize and earning them the sales they need to end the fiscal year on a high note. 

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