Citing continued inflation and high interest rates, 33% of consumers say they will spend less this year on holiday shopping than in 2023, per a new report from Bankrate.

Almost half of all those surveyed by Bankrate said they would start shopping for the holidays by Halloween.

I understand the vibe, but I would not be surprised if this completely changes post-election.

Despite Apple’s long lead, Spotify Technology SA. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube have now become the most popular places to listen to podcasts.

A study published last month shows YouTube as the most popular podcast listening platform in the US, with 31% of respondents saying they use it. It’s followed by Spotify at 21% and Apple at 12%.

Through the lens of legacy Apple, the lack of focus on podcasts makes sense, despite basically creating the medium. But ads-and-services Apple has to be missing the potential of being the dominant player in a sector with growing ad and monetization potential.

YouTube, meanwhile, cracked the discovery code for podcasts. A persistent shortcoming of traditional podcasting apps.

Brands can help combat this general fatigue with campaigns centered around solving a problem in an impactful way, especially focusing on infectious positive energy.

The fatigue mentioned is compassion fatigue, but could as easily be noise / content fatigue.

This feels like a good campaign planning process regardless.

What?! The goldfish brain is evolving!

Engagement on longer short-form video is increasing across YouTube and TikTok as traditional short-form engagement declines on the trend machine.

users are now seemingly looking to engage with longer videos, not at regular long-form length, but an expanded variation of the short-form trend.