In the ever-evolving tapestry of American society, the retail sector serves as both a mirror and a catalyst of the prevailing economic climate. My earlier musings in “The Gilded Age 2.0” touched upon the seismic shifts in socioeconomics and their reverberations in the realm of retail. Today, as illuminated by a recent USA Today piece by Daniel de Vise, the landscape has grown more stark: the wealthiest 1% of Americans have eclipsed the entire middle class in terms of wealth accumulation. This profound divergence sets the stage for a retail sector grappling with new realities and challenges.
Will we always value human-made creativity in advertising and marketing? The answer to that question is complicated. In April 2021, computer scientist, podcaster, and artificial intelligence researcher Lex Fridman tweeted the following. Fridman’s Law states:
Humans have been gradually merging with AI for 20+ years. At some point in this century, as a collective intelligence system, we will become more AI than human and we won’t notice.
Campaign performance data has been a struggle to track, but that will not slow retail media’s continued growth. In today’s volatile business environment, brands close to or beyond profitability are perpetually on the hunt for innovative ways to enhance their Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA). Campaign performance be damned – if EBITDA can be increased, brands will find new ways to grow their own advertising operations.
