⚡️ A question is now an answer, attention is freed up, and ad auction pressure is relieved.

As I said at the end of Election Campaign Spending Crowds Out Your Messaging:

Your marketing and messaging is like a fire, it needs a steady source of fuel to keep burning—to act as a beacon to the people it’s for. The election is a vacuum, it sucks all the oxygen (and attention) out, making it all but impossible for that fire to keep burning without any changes.

The election coming to an end, along with its ad campaigns (and the now unlikely possibility of a January 6 repeat), brings closure to the biggest uncertainty event of the year.

The oxygen is back.

The election ending opened a whole new can of worms, of course. I’m not saying it’s all rainbow giggles and unicorn farts now. But people and societies don’t do well with uncertainty.

It’s like when you have a vacation coming up—or a holiday—you know life continues on the other side of it, but all your focus is on getting to that date. It’s a planning and attention checkpoint. Your main focus is on getting prepared for and then enjoying that cabin getaway or Thanksgiving or girls’ trip.

That’s the election, but at the societal level.

The Guy Fawkes dam has burst, the emotions released. Now there will be hirings and firings, moves and migrations, revenge shopping and stockpiling. Oh, and the holidaze.

If I’m reading tea leaves, this is the brew I’m using to inform this guess:

• Halloween spend was big
• Inflations measures cooled a bit in September (specifically energy costs)
• The Fed dropped the rate again
• Consumer spending grew a bit more in September
• Amazon’s fall Prime Day event went big, but holiday shopping played a small part—like the OG summer event, essentials and little luxuries were the big drivers
• Tariffs are coming (one of the worms in said can), some purchases will be pulled forward to avoid their impact

The oxygen is back. The fires can be stoked again.