Online Marketing

Black Friday has long been defined by speed. Shoppers saw a deal, felt the pressure of a limited inventory, and bought before the moment passed. That pattern is changing. New RTB House research, Who’s Buying? Consumer Trust in the Age of Agentic AI, shows that artificial intelligence tools are reshaping Black Friday consumer behavior, turning rapid impulse buying into a longer, AI-guided evaluation period. For performance marketers, this shift changes when, where, and how holiday shoppers can be won over.

The food and beverage industry has always been incredibly competitive. After all, food is important to all of us. It’s not just a necessary source of nutrients, protein, and fiber; it’s inextricably linked with culture, community, family, and friends. It brings comfort, togetherness, even bliss. It’s the way to our hearts.

But in recent years, the competition in food & beverage has reached a boiling point. There’s been a feeding frenzy as a horde of new players has entered the fray. Between any brand and a customer’s table lies a crowded, fiercely competitive marketplace. The advent of food apps and a growing consumer expectation of convenience has further heightened the competition. The latest digital technology provides unprecedented convenience for the consumer and a widening plethora of choices.

From the printing press to Deep Learning, the history of marketing shadows all our great leaps forward in communications technology. It is the marketer’s job to identify how these novel technologies can be used to reach potential customers, and educate them about products and services that enrich their lives.

The printing press let us create posters, radio and television enabled us to speak to people in their homes, and the internet gave us new ways to sell to people. Today, we’d like to take a moment to dive into how marketers can take advantage of the next big leap forward in technology: Deep Learning.

Ask ten marketers whether you should run two retargeting vendors simultaneously and you'll get ten different answers. We think the data settles it—but we'll let you decide.

Core takeaway

Multiple retargeting means running two or more retargeting vendors simultaneously against the same pool of site visitors. Because each vendor uses different algorithms to evaluate user intent, they identify different high-value opportunities within the same audience. The result: more conversions, without proportionally increasing your budget. The biggest objections—overlap, bid inflation, added complexity—don't hold up under scrutiny. The data consistently favors a stack approach.

Whether clients use self-service platforms or managed service providers, they must be able to recognize the benefits of marketing technology while keeping an open mind on which approach is best for them.

How will clients assess their marketing services partners amid the decline of 3rd-party cookies, and what strategies can help firms prosper?

The digital advertising industry is facing a precipitous moment on the back of Google’s decision to remove 3rd-party cookies from its Chrome browser in 2023, but marketeers must act now by implementing other strategies rather than waiting for the perfect solution to replace their favourite tracking tool. In this interview, Louise McMahon, Automotive Marketing Communications Section Manager at Honda UK, outlines what changes her business has made and what marketing services partners need to do to stay relevant when it comes to cookieless advertising.