No one was prepared for what the world has experienced over the past year. The widespread disruption has meant something different for everyone, but businesses and households alike have responded similarly: do your best to adapt, and then continue adapting.

For businesses, the need for agility was clear, but uncertainty and disruption left most ill-equipped to know how and where to make adjustments—often  while managing cutbacks, layoffs and curtailed (sometimes dramatically) marketing budgets.

Now, as marketing and advertising begin to rebound, brands need to be smart about their strategies and tactics if they want to reach a world of audiences whose habits and preferences have shifted. Media preferences are ever-changing, and new policies and regulations have triggered new identification and deduplication challenges across platforms and devices. 

There is no more one-size-fits-all approach for businesses looking to engage with consumers. Some may opt to invest in addressable ads in linear TV programming, while others might lean into ad-supported video on demand platforms. For others, a mix of targeted email campaigns and paid social media spend might be more appropriate. The variations are seemingly endless.