Retail media growth is coming at the cost of paid search budgets.  Standard Media Index reports that search ad growth rates have fallen faster than non-search ads for the past year, and that search spending by companies that sell through retailers has dropped more quickly than spending by others.  They conclude that companies selling through retailers are shifting their spend from search to retail media networks.

Let’s look outside the conventional advertising box today, Dear Reader.  We’ll start with this survey from BWG Strategy and Talon America, which finds that out-of-home ads are taking a larger share of total marketing spend.  Funds are most likely to be shifted from social media (31%) and linear TV (25%) budgets.

CX management platform Sprinklr is introducing “digital twins.” Not your average chatbot, a Sprinklr digital twin is more like an AI-powered employee, able to plan actions, create workflows and make decisions, but at speed and at scale. They are said to be more easily trained than chatbots and can operate within brand policies and guardrails.