In tacit acknowledgement that low-price Asian marketplaces like Temu and Shein present a competitive challenge, Amazon is launching Haul, an ultra-low price section of its ecommerce site. Haul, featuring fashion, home, lifestyle, electronics, etc, will price products at $20 or under, likely sourced from China. Downside: longer delivery times.
While the U.S. Federal Election Commission is famously toothless in its attempts to enforce standards for political advertising, agencies elsewhere have considerable bite. In response to disclosure rules aimed at avoiding election interference and deception, Google has announced it will stop serving political ads in the European Union starting next year. It had already dropped political ads in Canada, France, and Brazil.
Rather than AI taking jobs away, it looks like marketers will need AI skills to get jobs. Ninety-four percent of marketing leaders say AI skills will be critical in next year’s hiring decisions, according to a report from Invoca. At least 90% will invest more in AI next year, will have budget allocations for AI and expect AI to have a positive impact on their organizations.
A U.S. district court judge has ruled that Google acted to create illegal monopolies in online advertising technology in a way that blocked competition and allowed higher ad prices to be charged. Google will appeal; meantime, the government will decide what to ask the court to do to remedy the monopoly. Google also faces a new U.K. antitrust lawsuit over its dominance of search.