From MediaDailyNews: Search Ads Slide As A Way To Reach Consumers
Not a new trend—and likely even more pronounced since this was published—but search is no longer a discovery mechanism.
Search is truly an intent channel—harvesting discoveries happening elsewhere.
One of the 9 F’s of Attention is Future Me.
Purchasing is an act of aspiration. Buying a future state.
As Seth Godin says, very few of our purchases are for what the thing says on the tin.
Our focus, energy and money are often spent on transactions that are disguised as something else. What we’re really doing is buying affiliation, status or the freedom from fear.
Amazon is running a beta called shop brand sites directly, which surfaces results for brands not sold on the platform, directing shoppers to the brand’s site to purchase.
Likely 1 of 2 plays here (maybe both):
- It gets monetized as an ad product
- Recruit more sellers via website referral tracking
The Walmart index is…unclear
The mega-retailer forecasts lower growth this year, saying:
“We have to acknowledge that we are in an uncertain time and we don’t want to get out over our skis here.”
More high earners are shopping for rollbacks, as value remains shoppers' top priority.
Walmart did not factor looming US tariffs on foreign goods into its forecast, because it’s unclear if or when they’ll kick in.
inventory levels increased 3% last quarter, suggesting it may be calling in orders to get ahead of future levies.
via The Daily Upside
Retro is an evergreen trend, thanks to the One Song podcast I now have a benchmark for what that means:
Retro is almost always running on a 20 year clock
So if you want to try riding the front of the retro wave, look back 19-20 years and pick your trend to revive.