Our annual lookahead for Canada highlights some growth areas for brand marketers as well as the mediascape that’s evolving to serve them.

Instagram’s new safety controls for teens could hurt attempts to attract them: The features are intended to halt harmful content, but teens were already losing interest in the platform, and additional limits could be counterproductive.

It’s still early days, but augmented reality is showing real potential for social commerce. Brands can use the technology to improve the experience and help customers make more informed purchase decisions.

As the lines continue to blur between digital and physical channels, retailers will need to master both to entice consumers to continue to return to their brand. Here are five trends they should keep an eye on.

The company formerly known as Facebook will face its toughest challenges ever, while viral commerce will take center stage, TikTok-style short videos will evolve, and social audio will fade away.

Move over, celebrities and mega-influencers. Creators with smaller followings will be the strategic play in the influencer marketing world in 2022.

Every national market in the world will finish this year with more ad spending than in 2020. In most categories, worldwide growth records will be shattered. But 2021 was a very unusual year, following a very unusual 2020.

Older generations rely more heavily on family, friends, and TV ads to learn about new products. Personal recommendations are the most powerful purchase drivers for Gen Z as well, but social media—which includes ads, videos, and online influencers—is increasingly important to product discovery.

On today's episode, we discuss how Americans feel about the different social media platforms and the extent to which trust affects usage and attitudes toward advertising. We then talk about Facebook scrapping certain kinds of ad targeting and some rather lofty expectations for TikTok. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Audrey Schomer.

The past two pandemic-driven years have accelerated digital transformation and consumer behavior. Here are our top 10 trends to watch in 2022.

TikTok’s new report on teen safety is part of an ongoing effort by the app to ease scrutiny: After Instagram’s bombshell report about teen health earlier this year, platforms like TikTok and Snap are racing to show regulators, users, and advertisers that they don’t share the same issues.

Gen Zers make heavy use of many social networks to create connections, consume multimedia, play games, and share content.

TikTok will surpass 1.5 billion users in 2022: Despite challenges, TikTok has proven resilient and will likely command marketers’ attention and ad spend.

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, owns the top four mobile apps worldwide, with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram seeing the most cumulative downloads between Q1 2014 and Q3 2021.

It’s not alone in the race. An influx of new BaaS entrants indicates the emergence of an industry to underpin embedded banking.

Our fifth annual primary research survey reveals the level of trust US social media users have in nine major social platforms, and the role trust plays in the willingness to engage with advertising on those platforms.

Even amid swirling controversies, Facebook is the single most popular US social network, with 83% of adult social media users in the US reporting that they visit the platform in a typical week.

YouTube is carving into social commerce and TV measurement: The platform is leveraging both its deep pool of creators and large TV-based audience to get a leg up on competitors.

YouTube videos are the most popular media among US children online, with 85% of those surveyed watching that content recently.

Is TikTok ready to take on Amazon? ByteDance wants to launch an international ecommerce platform; whether it rolls out as a TikTok integration, or as a standalone app, will be a litmus test for the strength of the US social commerce market.