News in brief: Consumers Shift Spend to Align with Values; Nine in Ten Shoppers Want Omnichannel Experiences; Marketers to Increase Budgets 

Consumers Shift Spend to Align with Values

With Trump back in the White House, politics are the cause of many US consumers refusing to shop with certain brands. Democrats are more likely to say they would stop shopping at certain companies which have political views they disagree with, according to findings from The Harris Poll. Almost half of Democrat respondents (45%) said they would turn their back on a brand, compared to 34% of Republicans. Half of Democrats indicated having shifted their spending entirely over the past few months to align with their morals; 42% of Republicans reported having done the same.

Overall, around four in ten US consumers have changed their spending habits over the past few months to align with their moral views. Around a quarter of respondents claimed they had stopped shopping at their favourite shops due to their politics; this sentiment was backed by 32% of Gen Z respondents, and 35% of Black respondents. 

Nine in Ten Shoppers Want Omnichannel Experiences

Highlighting the importance of a unified omnichannel strategy, around nine in ten consumers under the age of 65 want seamless omnichannel shopping experiences, according to Bazaarvoice’s latest Shopper Experience Index report. In positive news for advertisers, the main reason respondents reported making a purchase through social media was due to having seen an ad which caught their attention. However, for Gen Z specifically, the primary factor driving purchases on social channels is liking how the product looked in a post by the brand.

Interestingly, this study found that the social channels which dominate for product discovery and research among respondents across all demographics are Facebook (54%) and YouTube (53%). Instagram was still a popular option at 41%, while TikTok fell far behind at 25%. 

Marketers to Increase Budgets 

Lastly, drawing attention to figures from our latest ExchangeWire Media Pulse report. When it comes to marketing budgets, 89% of surveyed readers planned increases, or saw plans to in client budgets for this year, marking a huge uplift in optimism from earlier in 2024. In regard to the biggest legal case in ad tech at the moment, 76% of respondents believe Google will be forced – or will proactively choose – to divest parts of its ad tech stack following the DOJ ad tech antitrust trial. Elsewhere, the ExchangeWire audience was evenly split as to whether the forced closure of GARM, following the lawsuit by X, was positive or negative for the industry, reflecting the – at times – contentious nature of maintaining brand safety versus monetisation of content (especially premium news-based content).