This year’s Singles’ Day sales period will be the longest yet as Chinese companies look to maximize revenues. JD.com, Xiaohongshu, and ByteDance's Douyin are among those hoping to get a head start over sale originator, Alibaba. Whether this year’s Singles’ Day turns into a price war depends on how strictly Beijing chooses to stem “disorderly” competition in the retail sector. While the government is unlikely to apply new competition guidelines too strictly this Singles Day, given the event’s importance to businesses and its role as a barometer of consumer confidence, the rules will inform how Alibaba, JD.com, and their peers approach pricing in the future.
EQ Bank launched a banking platform for small businesses, according to fintech.ca. It includes a business checking account with no monthly fees or minimum balance, many types of transactions for free, up to 10 sub-accounts, and Canadian customer support. EQ Bank has created a huge opportunity for itself given the size of Canada’s addressable market for small businesses. Going head to head with Canada's large banks would be challenging, but small business services from a direct bank are compelling play: CIBC’s Simplii does not offer small business banking and Tangerine’s are limited.
India is piloting a program to allow consumers to shop and pay for products directly through AI chatbots using United Payments Interface (UPI), per TechCrunch. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the first chatbot to join the pilot, with integrations for Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude to follow shortly. The agentic commerce pilot in India could inform companies’ shopping initiatives in the US, though the two markets differ significantly in how consumers use AI.
The biggest banks will spend $6 billion or more on marketing in 2025, or 0.10% of their total asset value, per an analysis of the American Bankers Association Bank Marketers Survey in the ABA Banking Journal. On average, 32% of banks’ marketing budgets were allocated to new customer acquisition—more than any other allocation. Bank marketers are clearly focused on digital advertising, and with greater resources and scale, the largest institutions won’t find it hard to drive awareness, attract new customers digitally, and dominate the conversation. Community banks will need to be scrappy.
Mastercard and Coinbase are reportedly in talks to acquire BVNK for approximately $2 billion, per an exclusive from Fortune Crypto. The scale of this deal underscores stablecoin’s acceptance into the mainstream of payments. Mastercard’s eagerness to seize BVNK’s capabilities suggests that traditional payment rails can no longer ignore stablecoins, and must integrate with the payment method to avoid being left behind.
Checkout.com launched Flow Remember Me, a one-click checkout solution for global merchants, per a press release. Merchants may be more keen to partner with Checkout.com if it can show that it’s prioritizing their tech goals with things like one-click checkout. Now that it has acquirer status in the US, Checkout.com could also use faster or cheaper digital payment processing to cement their loyalty.
Pharmacies and prescription drug discounter GoodRx are in talks with the Trump administration about joining its planned direct-to-consumer (D2C) prescription drug portal called TrumpRx. Pharmacy retailer and GoodRx participation could determine whether TrumpRx stays a niche effort or evolves into a consumer prescription drug marketplace. Pharma marketers joining the platform should build on existing pharmacy and GoodRx partnerships, and focus on creating consumer-friendly e-commerce and telehealth experiences.
Nearly all of healthcare professionals' (HCPs) medical content consumption is happening via digital channels and sources, according to a July 2025 M3 MI study. Healthcare and pharma brands have recognized that they must meet time-strapped HCPs on online channels, many of which allow drug advertising. Drug and medical device marketers can deliver more effective and personalized information to clinicians once they gain a better understanding of their preferences for consuming online medical content.
Pharma linear TV ad spending totaled $1.25 billion in Q3, with prescription drug commercials taking the leading share of national TV ad spending for the quarter, according to iSpot.tv. Pharma marketers are reallocating more of their budgets toward digital—especially connected TV (CTV) and social media—for more precise targeting and measurement gains. However, linear TV is still important for Big Pharma, especially for mainstream events like live sports, to drive board awareness of common health conditions. We expect linear TV’s scale, trust, and cultural relevance will keep it in the mix for the foreseeable future.
Streaming is becoming a critical investment for marketers as the format evolves and continues to chip away at linear TV’s dominance. In an exclusive EMARKETER interview at Advertising Week New York, Reed Kiely, director of data insights and trends at the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), outlined how marketers can tap into streaming’s potential and what will define success in a fragmented ecosystem. Marketers should follow audience attention and gradually allocate more budget to streaming services—but “prioritize quality content and ad experiences” as fragmentation heats up.
YouTube creators are becoming media companies in their own right, argues Nic Paul, co-founder and president of Spotter. In an interview, Paul said top creators now operate like TV networks—producing serialized, appointment-style content that builds audience loyalty and predictable viewership. Spotter’s own data shows 78% of creator watch time now happens on connected TVs, blurring the line between streaming and social. For advertisers, that means treating creator content as premium media, not influencer collateral. “The click is gone,” Paul said. “It’s about engagement, completion, and fandom.” Brands that adapt fastest will win the next era of audience attention.
The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) is considering including ads on player uniforms in the 2026 season, per the Associated Press. Current rules prohibit commercial logos on uniforms unless the logo is of the apparel or equipment manufacturer. Marketers should keep an eye out to see if the offering progresses, but approach the format with caution if it gets approved.
Tubi is giving advertisers a broader arsenal of contextual targeting tools through an expanded partnership with Viant. The free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platform is tagging its on-demand content based on emotional and thematic cues, per Digiday, with categories such as “hopeful” or “suspenseful.” For CMOs, this represents a turning point—contextual intelligence is a strategic advantage for brand safety, emotional alignment, and performance in an increasingly fragmented streaming landscape. Leaning into emotional targeting tools will let marketers fully capitalize on FAST’s growth, the platforms’ broad range of content, and the opportunity to dominate ad fill.
As AI slop, influencer content, and an abundance of ads push Gen Zers into private messaging spaces, brands have a new channel for contact. The majority (86%) of US social media users are comfortable receiving messages from brands within apps like Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, per a Snap and MAGNA survey. As users retreat into these private digital spaces, the marketing playbook must prepare to meet them there. That may require new efforts, such as rebalancing budgets, building new capabilities, and finding what engagement metrics are key. Start small with a few chat-based campaigns to track what resonates.
Both Google and Apple ramped up their bug bounty programs and are now offering record payouts to secure sprawling digital ecosystems. Big Tech’s rapid expansion has outpaced internal defenses, forcing companies to rely on external hackers to find and fix security gaps. Big Tech’s growing reliance on outside hackers shows how fast digital risks are rising. Brands can’t wait for problems to surface. Protecting data and trust now requires constant monitoring, quick response plans, and open communication when things go wrong.
65% of US adults plan to begin their holiday shopping before Black Friday this year, according to August data from McKinsey & Company.
New York City filed a sweeping federal lawsuit against Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok-owner ByteDance, accusing them of addicting children and worsening a youth mental health crisis, per Reuters. The complaint states that the social platforms “exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of youth” to drive engagement and profit. Youth protection and digital well-being are now business imperatives. Marketers should expect tighter guardrails on engagement, targeting, and design and consider it an opportunity to build trust by carefully segmenting teen and adult experiences.
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days failed to spark early holiday shopping, with only 23% of consumers buying holiday items and just 7% picking up Halloween goods, according to a Numerator survey. Most shoppers used the event for everyday essentials, apparel, and beauty products rather than seasonal purchases. Despite 59% planning future holiday buys on Amazon, many were cautious due to inflation and economic concerns. With weaker engagement and no sales statement from Amazon, this year’s event likely underperformed expectations, highlighting a shift toward more deliberate, budget-conscious consumer behavior ahead of the holidays.
The Bank of North Dakota and Fiserv launch the “Roughrider Coin,” the first stablecoin from the state of North Dakota. While its individual use case may be limited, it opens the door for a stablecoin issued by Fiserv on behalf of a major retailer with significant use case for processing sales. A retailer like Starbucks would be a prime candidate—it’s already ingrained the habit of loading a wallet that can only be used at Starbucks in its most loyal customers. In that case, a limited network isn’t nearly as much of a liability—it’s the whole point.
JPMorgan Chase spends $2 billion per year on AI and finds an equal amount of cost savings as a result, said CEO Jamie Dimon in a recent Bloomberg TV interview. During its April investor day, JPMorgan forecast spending $18 billion on technology in 2025. JPMorgan is increasing the gap between the haves and have nots in bank technology. AI development in financial services, supported by modern platforms, is outrunning nearly everyone.