Register by Jan 13 to save on passes and connect with marketers from Uber, Bose and more
Around this time last year, many were hoping for the light at the end of the pandemic tinged tunnel. After 2020 shuttered office doors, in-store shopping and in-person events, 2021 promised vaccinations that could end the pandemic and return things to normal.
However, no one could have predicted the realities that 2021 brought with it, including everything from Apple and Google’s privacy crackdown to the surging preference for shopping online over in-store.
As another year of the pandemic sunsets, Digiday takes a look at the predictions versus realities of 2021:
More in Marketing
Inside the brand and agency scramble for first-party data in the AI era
Brands are moving faster to own first-party data as AI and privacy changes alter the digital advertising landscape.
Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media
The next retail media war is between Walmart Connect’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus, driven by agentic AI and first-party data.
What does media spend look like for 2026? It could be worse — and it might be
Forecasts for 2026 media spend range from 6.6% on the lower end to over 10% but the primary beneficiaries will be commerce, social and search.