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Today, like most days, I made a trip to the post office to ship out my Poshmark sales. But what I'm shipping out looks a little different than it might have a few months ago. Of the seven packages I'm handing off, only one contains an item I'd consider "nice." Alongside that Fendi top are six pieces from fast-fashion brands—ultra cheap stuff I ordered from Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu that, until recently, I never expected to actually sell, given that someone could buy the same item new at, well, Shein and Temu prices. But since the United States' new tariff structure went into effect (primarily the elimination of the de minimus exemption), consumers have been forced to adjust to a reality in which they can't easily source everything from toothbrush holders to micro-trendy outfits from an low price Chinese retail giant, to say nothing of concerns over how much more they could be paying for pricier items like autos and appliances made with foreign parts or manufactured overseas. In this period of uncertainty, resale apps may be filling the void. My own Poshmark sales are up compared to the month before the tariffs went into effect, with a notable rise in sales of basic, cheap stuff. Curious, I talked to a few experts to see if my experiences were indicative of a broader trend—one that could mean good things (well, relatively speaking) for resale buyers and sellers alike.The vibe on the resale apps in the wake of tariffsThe rollout of the tariffs has been confusing and disjointed. It was (and still is) hard to predict when consumers will see price increases on foreign-made electronics, cars, and other goods, or on products assembled in the U.S. but made with imported parts. But from the start, it has been obvious that goods from China in particular were about to cost a whole lot more—including the volumes of stuff shipped directly to consumers from the likes of Temu and Shein, the latter of which is famous for uploading 10,000 new styles to its site every day (and for charging unbelievably low prices for all of them). Months ago, when the tariffs were first announced, people started wondering if they should start stocking up (and on what), whether they were importing cheap clothes from Shein or bracing for higher prices on more substantial goods like smartphones. I've bought more than my share of junk from Shein, though I know it is not exactly a sustainable or environmentally friendly choice. To make myself feel better about that, I've always listed the clothes on resale apps once I'm done with them. To be clear, these are cheaply made garments—you don't buy your capsule wardrobe on Shein; Shein is where you shop for micro-trends (styles that are currently all over your Instagram and Pinterest feed, but which won't be in two months) or basics like tank tops that you can use and abuse. Prior to the tariffs rolling out, it was inconceivable that anyone would pay me $9 (plus shipping) for a pre-worn, cheaply-made dress or workout set that I had only paid $15 for in the first place—but that's what started happening. In the past month, I've still sold clothing and accessories made by Adidas, Gucci, Skims, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Reebok, and Givenchy, but those tend to be one-off sales. My Shein resales for the last four weeks absolutely dwarf them. I also sold a few electronics items—an Apple Watch and facial micro-current device—I had listed in my Poshmark shop months earlier. Could I chalk up all of these sales to tariffs, and to anxiety about impending price increases on electronics? My Shein sales this month vs. everything else Credit: Lindsey Ellefson Certainly I'm not alone in noticing it this trend. A Poshmark spokesperson tells me, "We’ve seen an increase in sales of internationally-made items, especially from brands that have announced price hikes due to high tariffs. Despite rising prices, demand for fast fashion remains strong as consumers seek trendy, affordable styles. Buying those pieces secondhand lets them stay on-trend while keeping clothing in circulation."In addition to Shein and Temu, higher-priced brands that publicly announced tariff-related price increases have also seen resale spikes, with sales of Columbia button-down shirts surging by 61% month over month, and sales of Hermès sandals up 27%. Buying used Hermès sandals is one thing—not all of us have $840 laying around to spend on designer slides to ring in the summer. But a Columbia button-down? That's the kind of item I'm used to finding at Marshall's for maybe $30—but people now seem to be flocking to buy them used, worried that even cheap shirts will become relatively priceier due to tariffs. Meanwhile, Poshmark reports sales on consumer electronics have increased as well: The week of April 27, resales of Sony products were up 22% month over month, and Apple products were up 21%. The times seem to be changing, and they're doing it in a hurry.What tariffs means for resale shoppersI am not only a resale seller, but a resale shopper, and the uncertainty around tariffs has made me a lot more discerning with what I'm buying new. Part of this is just that I'm now paying more attention. I love the leisure and athletic wear made by SET Active. I own a lot of it, and I have never before considered selling any of it because it lasts so long and maintains its shape so well. Until recently, I have also never paid much attention to where it is made: While SET Active designs its products in California, its active fabrics are all made in China. Prices haven't gone up on the official website yet, but in preparation for a time when they might, I've already started shopping the brand on Poshmark and Depop. It's not the worst thing in the world; buying used is both cheaper and more sustainable. I've always been an avid purchaser of resale goods—I've just never had to do it so strategically before. (I've found it easier to give up Shein altogether—I can manage fine without the $4 tank tops I've been putting through absolute hell the past few summers—but my Poshmark customers have proven more reluctant to resist the allure of fast fashion, even used.)I'm not alone in being more strategic with my resale purchases. Financial experts are noticing the same thing. "In the wake of the announcement and implementation of the tariffs, people have been looking for cheaper alternatives to the more expensive imported goods," says Aaron Razon, a personal finance expert at Couponsnake, "especially as many domestic products not only fall short in meeting the demand for certain products, but lack the variety and style that imported goods offer. [Domestic products] are also not exactly the cost-effective option consumers are looking for, and this is one of the major reasons interest in resale platforms [has] been on the increase."Bill London, an international business attorney, points out that in addition to causing prices to rise, tariffs have resulted in potential shipping delays, a fact that has also contributed to, "a surge in second-hand fast fashion interest." Six months ago, if you needed a certain kind of dress for, say, a themed bachelorette party, you could order it from Shein for $20, safe in the knowledge that you'd probably never wear it again. Today, its price could be closer to $30 or $40, and you might face delays in receiving it. The appeal of fast fashion was always in the low cost and convenience, provided you had 10 to 14 days to wait for the thing to arrive from China. Now, it just makes more sense to buy that dress from someone in the U.S. who likewise didn't see themselves rewearing it, —and now, they're selling it for roughly the same $20 they originally paid. For the buyer, it's still a relative deal, and it'll even arrive sooner. It's not just fast fashionBrands beyond Shein and Temu are seeing a lift. As the Poshmark rep pointed out, resales on select high-end brands are up, too. Buying used luxury goods has always been a smart financial decision (certainly it's a practice I've been dedicated to for a long time), but with manufacturing and importation costs an ever-murkier question, it's more sensible than ever. A spokesperson for Vestiaire Collective, a designer resale platform, tells me that U.S. buyers are increasingly able to see the duties applied to their purchases from Europe and Asia at checkout, and that the company has been working to beef up its American foothold for years. That effort is now paying off in a big way thanks to tariffs: In 2022, VC acquired Tradesey to increase its selection of pre-owned fashion offering for U.S. buyers, and it ramped up associated brand marketing the following year. VC also curates a list of goods that are ready to ship from New York City, making it easier for American buyers to identify items that can easily come to them domestically, no tariffs or duties required. Consequently, the brand rep says VC has, "seen a shift of more U.S. buyers buying from U.S. sellers" lately. Personally, I've noticed people buying from me lately, in particular, is workout attire. With the cost of everything going up, it might seem more of a stretch to pop into Lululemon to buy a new pair of leggings for over $100. Meanwhile, the trusty Shein alternative is now more money than its worth. It's this class of in-between necessities—things you don't need to survive, but may be a nice-to-have for your particular interests or lifestyle—that is a source of personal economic woe, and where resale can fill the gap. Whether you need new workout gear, a one-time wear outfit, a few basic pieces, or even a designer handbag, the reality of the post-tariff world is that you're almost certainly better off looking on resale apps before even considering buying new. (You certainly have options—I've assembled a rundown of my own favorite resale apps, including the goods you're most likely to find on each.)What this trend means for resellersI remain shocked that people who presumably would have once ordered their workout sets and summer shorts off Shein are filling the fast-fashion void by purchasing mine, but take it from me: If you have ever considered selling your old clothes or housewares, but figured what you have to offer is too basic, cheap, or plentiful to make the effort worth it, this is your moment. I used to have cheap goods and fast fashion listed on my resale accounts only because it helped keep my number of available listings up, which contributed to my profiles' reputation and lured in buyers for the pricier objects I actually expected to sell. Now, though, it's the cheap stuff that is really moving, and making me money. I've started reevaluating my closet and reconsidering what meets my threshold for "worth it" to list. Post-tariffs, everything is worth it to list. As London puts it, "The tariffs have altered the way in which people do their shopping." It's still pretty early into the great American tariff experiment, but some brands commissioned surveys early on this year to see how people were planning to deal with cost increases and found that a major chunk of consumers indeed expected to rely more on resale. ThredUp, another online resale platform, found that 59% of consumers reported that if apparel got more expensive, they'd look to more affordable options, like secondhand buying, and consumers planned to spend 34% of their apparel budget on secondhand items this year. And those figures are a lot higher for Millennials and Gen Z buyers: They reported planning to spend almost half their clothing budget on resale. Data from Smartly, an online shopping rewards app, also shows that 50% of survey respondents planned to consider resale goods in the face of rising costs. This means that even for casual resellers or those new to the concept entirely, there are a lot of new prospective buyers, which can translate directly to quick sales. At a time when the cost of necessary goods is rising right alongside those in-between necessities, you can make extra cash by selling what you already have. In general, my sales are way up month over month since tariffs went into effect in early May Credit: Lindsey Ellefson Will the resale spike last?I've been buying and selling on resale apps for years and have always had success finding cool stuff to buy as fast as I could get rid of my old clothing, accessories, and electronics. While I've definitely noticed a spike in my sales lately, that's not to say there wasn't demand before the tariffs were announced. If you're new to buying or selling on an app, don't worry that the bubble will burst and you'll have invested a bunch of time in listing your wares for nothing—even if and when the moment passes, reselling can still be a reliable way to make a little extra cash. (In the meantime, if you have a lot to sell and want to maximize your profits, download a cross-lister like Vendoo, which helps you easily list the same product across multiple marketplaces.)Some experts do expect that things could cool down in the nearer term. "Whether the trend persists depends on a number of things, such as how long the tariffs are in effect and how buyers respond to costs," London says. "The resale market for the products is likely to continue expanding if the tariffs are maintained. The demand might plateau or divert towards quality goods or eco-friendly goods when buyers adapt." Razon, meanwhile, thinks resale apps will continue to thrive, but that the interest in procuring cheaply-made things, like fast fashion, may wane. "Resale platforms have been on the good end of the recent tariff increases, especially with consumers looking for cheaper alternatives to imported goods," he says. "The truth is—though it may take consumers time to realize it—they will eventually come to appreciate better-quality goods. There is a great chance that consumers' interest in these lesser-quality goods will wear off as soon as they begin to adjust to the new economic reality."That is to say, list your Shein, Temu, and Aliexpress stuff now while people are still mourning its loss, but also consider those more familiar brands that may also soon see price hikes. Take stock of your closet and do a bit of research to see where all your potential stock is made. Just like I'm worried my beloved SET Active attire is going to go up in price because it's made in China, consumers may soon find themselves wanting to source cheaper stuff from Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Levi's, and more, as all of those companies manufacture a lot of their clothing overseas. The resale platforms themselves are already anticipating that their digital products are going to get more valuable and stay valuable through (and beyond) the tariff era. Manish Chandra, Poshmark's founder and CEO, says, "As the landscape of tariffs and imports evolves, we believe the secondhand marketplace will become an increasingly valuable and cost-effective resource for American consumers. By shopping from Poshmark closets or starting their own, consumers are supporting sustainability and helping strengthen the American economy." In other words, buying resale is another way of buying American, even if everything you're buying was made in India or China.

Millennial culture has officially made it to the history books.  A history teacher recently turned her sixth grade classroom into a museum for millennial paraphernalia with the help of her Gen Alpha students’ parents. Judging by the comments on the teacher’s TikTok video, millennials aren’t sure whether to be thrilled or horrified.  Malinda Nichols (@hipsterhistorywithmrsn) posted the video earlier this month, highlighting “historical artifacts from the 1990s” for her students’ benefit. Out on display were flip phones, Nintendos, and disposable cameras. Boyz II Men and Beanie Babies also made an appearance. “The collection in here has easily got to be worth 10s of dollars,” she joked. “But the nostalgic value is truly priceless.” In a second video, with almost 800,000 views on TikTok, she showed the students’ reactions to the “museum of the millennial,” as she called it. Students played POGS, a popular playground game played with flat circular cardboard milk caps, and attempted to figure out how buttons worked on an old-school Nokia.  The parents also made a surprise appearance for a “history lesson” straight from the horse’s mouth. Students’ questions included: “How did you make plans with your friends before texting?” and “What commercials or jingles do you still remember from when you were younger?” Finally, students were tasked with creating their own AOL screen names to round out the full millennial experience.  “I created the ‘museum of the millennial’ lesson for my sixth grade students to show them that history isn’t just found in dusty textbooks—it’s alive, personal, and being made every day,” Nichols told Fast Company. “By inviting parents to share artifacts from their childhood in the ’80s and ’90s, students saw firsthand how the people who raised them, including myself—I’m a proud millennial and parent of a sixth grader—helped pioneer the digital age, even if we didn’t realize it at the time because for us it was just living our lives.” For a much-maligned generation (those born roughly between 1981 and 1996), it was a welcome change to see their culture finally getting the recognition it deserves. For too long, millennials have been forced to listen as older generations chastised them for overspending on avocado toast, before they became sandwiched by a younger generation who roasted them for their unironic love of Harry Potter and penchant for burger joints.  Nichols’s video also brought with it the horrifying realization for millennials that their childhood is now the subject of history lessons. “Historical Artifacts?” one wrote. “I feel attacked.”

When Anna Ginsburg opened her talk at OFFF Barcelona with her showreel, it landed like a punch to the heart and gut all at once. Immense, emotional, awesome. That three-word review wasn't just for the reel – it set the tone for a talk that was unflinchingly honest, joyously weird, and brimming with creative intensity. Anna began her career making music videos, which she admitted were a kind of creative scaffolding: "I didn't yet know what I wanted to say about the world, so I used music as a skeleton to hang visuals on." It gave her the freedom to experiment visually and technically with rotoscoping, stop motion and shooting live-action. It was an opportunity to be playful and have fun until she had something pressing to say. Then, Anna began to move into more meaningful territory, blending narrative and aesthetic experimentation. Alongside music videos, she became increasingly drawn to animated documentaries. "It's a powerful and overlooked genre," she explained. "When it's just voice recordings and not video, people are more candid. You're protecting your subject, so they're more honest." Talking genitals and creative liberation: The making of Private Parts A formative moment in Anna's personal and creative life occurred when she saw the artwork 'The Great Wall of Vagina' by Jamie McCartney at the age of 19. It followed an awkward teenage discovery years earlier when, after finally achieving her first orgasm (post-Cruel Intentions viewing), she proudly shared the news with friends and was met with horror. "Boys got high-fived. Girls got shamed." That gap between female pleasure and cultural discomfort became the starting point for Private Parts, her now-famous animated short about masturbation and sexual equality. It began as a personal experiment, sketching vulvas in her studio, imagining what their facial expressions might be. Then, she started interviewing friends about their experiences and animating vulvas to match their voices. When It's Nice That and Channel 4 emailed her looking for submissions for a late-night slot, Anna shared a clip of two vulvas in casual conversation, and they were immediately sold. With a shoestring budget of £2,000 and a five-week deadline, she rallied 11 illustrators to help bring the film to life. "I set up a Dropbox, and talking genitals started flooding in from the four corners of the world while I was sitting in my bedroom at my mum's," she laughed. One standout moment came from an Amsterdam-based designer who created a CGI Rubik's Cube vagina, then took two weeks off work to spray paint 100 versions of it. The result of what started as a passion project is an iconic, hilarious, and touching film that still resonates ten years on. From humour to heartbreak: What Is Beauty The talk shifted gear when Anna began to speak about her younger sister's anorexia. In 2017, during her sister's third hospitalisation, Anna found herself questioning the roots of beauty ideals, particularly in Western culture. Witnessing her sister's pain reframed how she saw her own body. This sparked a deep dive into beauty through the ages, from the Venus of Willendorf, a 28,000-year-old fertility goddess, to the Versace supermodels of the 1990s and the surgically sculpted Kardashians of today. "You realise the pace of the change in beauty ideals," she says. "If you revisit the skeletal female bodies which defined the super skinny era of the 2000s and compare it to the enhanced curves of today, you realise that trying to keep up is not only futile; it's extremely dangerous." She also explored the disturbing trend of dismemberment in advertising – shots taken where the heads are intentionally out of frame – and the impact this has on self-perception. Her response was What Is Beauty, released in 2018 on International Women's Day and her sister's birthday. The short film went viral, amassing over 20 million views. "It was a love letter to her," Anna said. "Because it didn't have English dialogue, it travelled globally. The simplicity made it resonate." And despite its runaway success, it brought her zero income. "Then I made the worst advert for a bank the world has ever seen," she joked. "I made money, but it broke my creative spirit." Enter the Hag: Animation, myth and millennial angst OFFF attendees were also treated to the world-exclusive first look at Hag, Anna's new animated short, three years in the making. It's her most ambitious and most personal project yet. Made with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, Has is a 16-minute fantasy set in a surreal version of Peckham. The main character is a childless, single, disillusioned woman with snakes for hair. "I had just broken up with a lockdown boyfriend after struggling with doubts for nearly 2 years,"' she reveals. "The next day, I was at a baby shower surrounded by friends with rings and babies who recoiled at my touch. I was surrounded by flies, and a dog was doing a poo right next to me. I just felt like a hag." Drawing on Greek mythology, Anna reimagines Medusa not as a jealous monster but as a feminist figure of rage, autonomy and misinterpretation. "I didn't know she was a rape victim until I started researching," she told me after the talk. "The story of Athena cursing her out of jealousy is such a tired trope. What if it was solidarity? What if the snakes were power?" In Hag, the character initially fights with her snakes – violently clipping them back in shame and battling with them – but by the end, they align. She embraces her monstrous self. "It's a metaphor for learning to love the parts of yourself you've been told are wrong," Anna said. "That journey is universal." Making the personal political (and funny) Telling a story so autobiographical wasn't easy. "It's exposing," Anna admitted. "My past work dealt with issues in the world. This one is about how I feel in the world." Even her ex-boyfriend plays himself. "Luckily, he's funny and cool about it. Otherwise, it would've been a disaster." She did worry about dramatising the baby shower scene too much. "None of those women were horrible in real life, but for the film, we needed to crank up the emotional tension," she says. "I just wanted to show that societal pressures make women feel monstrous whether they decide to conform or not. This is not a battle between hags and non-hags. These feelings affect us all." Co-writing the script with her dear friend and writer Miranda Latimer really helped. "It felt less exposing as we'd both lived versions of the same thing. Collaboration is liberating and makes me feel safer when being so honest," Anna explains. Sisterhood, generations and the pressure to conform It was very clear from our chat that Anna's younger sisters are a recurring thread throughout her work. "They've helped me understand the world through a Gen Z lens," she said. "Stalking my youngest sister on Instagram was how I noticed the way girls crop their faces or hide behind scribbles. It's dehumanising." That intergenerational awareness fuels many of her ideas. "I definitely wouldn't have made What Is Beauty without Maya. Seeing what she was going through just unlocked something." She's also keenly aware of the gender gap in healthcare. "So many women I know are living with pain, going years without a diagnosis. It's infuriating. If I get asked to work on anything to do with women's health, I'll say yes." Medusa, millennials, and the meaning of self-love One of Hag's most biting commentaries is about millennial self-care culture. "There's a scene in the character's bedroom – it's got a faded Dumbledore poster, self-help books, a flashing 'Namaste' sign. It's a shrine to the broken millennial." She laughs: "Self-love became a commodity. An expensive candle, a jade roller, and an oil burner from Muji. Like, really? That's it?" Her film pokes at the performative of wellness while still holding space for genuine vulnerability. This same self-awareness informs her reflections on generational shifts. "Gen Z is going through the same thing, just with a different flavour. It's all about skincare routines now – 11 steps for a 14-year-old. It's wild." Feminism with fangs (and a sense of humour) Anna's feminism is open, intersectional, and laced with humour. "My mum's a lesbian and a Child Protection lawyer who helped to make rape within marriage illegal in the UK," she shared. "She sometimes jokes that my work is a bit basic. But I'm OK with that – I think there's space for approachable feminism, too." Importantly, she wants to bring everyone into the conversation. "It means so much when men come up to me after talks. I don't want to alienate anyone. These stories are about people, not just women." What's Next? Hag will officially premiere later this year, and it's likely to resonate far and wide. It's raw, mythic, funny and furious – and thoroughly modern. As Anna put it: "I've been experiencing external pressure and internal longing while making this film. So I'm basically becoming a hag while making Hag." As far as metamorphoses go, that's one we'll happily watch unfold.

The Coca-Cola Co. just announced its newest limited-time soda, and it’s a combination of Sprite and tea that was initially floated by a team of interns six years ago. Sprite + Tea just hit shelves earlier across the U.S. and Canada, and is expected to remain on the market through October. The soda is available in both regular and zero-sugar varieties, and, according to a press release, it “blends the crisp, lemon-lime refreshment of Sprite with the classically refreshing flavor of tea.” The new product arrives just a month after Coca-Cola announced better-than-anticipated first-quarter 2025 financial results, logging a 2% year-over-year revenue decline but maintaining its growth forecasts for 2025, unlike rival PepsiCo. For years now, Coca-Cola has been experimenting with new, unexpected flavor combinations designed to attract younger consumers, ranging from Spiced Coke to last summer’s Sprite Chill and the ever-popular seasonal rerelease Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry. Most recently, the company introduced Orange Cream Coke, citing “growing demand among millennials and Gen Z-ers for fun, unexpected tastes and sensory experiences” as the inspiration behind the nostalgic flavor. [Photo: Coca-Cola] Unlike these other flavor plays from the company, Sprite + Tea might already be familiar to many fans. That’s because before it became an official product, the soda started as an idea floated by Coca-Cola interns that later became a viral DIY TikTok trend. TikTok saw it first In an interview with Ad Age, Coca-Cola Co. senior creative director A.P. Chaney explained that Sprite + Tea first landed on executives’ radars back in 2019, when a group of interns pitched a combination of the two beverages.  “It was an R&D project, and interns were asked to come up with different innovations and marketing ideas for different brands, and Sprite + Tea was an ideation of that,” Chaney told Ad Age. From there, the idea seems to have sat on the back burner until summer 2023, when a DIY Sprite tea started popping up on TikTok. In an initial TikTok by Malaysian chef Hisham Raus, Raus is shown steeping Lipton tea bags in a regular bottle of Sprite and enjoying the concoction with a slice of lemon. The video, which has since racked up 19.8 million views and 1.3 million likes, has spawned dozens of copycat videos across platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Food influencer @shophocho7798 re-created the concept in a YouTube video with 3.7 million views, calling the result “literally a carbonated Arnold Palmer.” In another YouTube short with 8.3 million views, creator Jordan Howlett declared the hack “delicious” and encouraged his 4.4 million subscribers to give it a try. “When [the trend] blew up on TikTok with millions of views, it was a gut check that we were on the right track,” Chaney said in the company’s press release. While it’s unlikely that Coca-Cola is actually using the tea bag hack to mass-produce Sprite + Tea, the release does note that Coca-Cola’s North American R&D team “completed several rounds of consumer testing to fine-tune the formula for the amber-colored sparkling beverage.”  For Coca-Cola, Sprite seems to be a reliable base for flavor remixes: In 2024, the limited-time Sprite Chill became the company’s best-selling drink innovation, and Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry has returned several times as a holiday fan favorite since 2013. Meanwhile, the recent Spiced Coke experiment was phased out after just six months when it failed to land with customers.  TikTok is already flooded with videos of fans trying Sprite + Tea, with some reviews commending the drink’s “strong tea flavor,” while others recommend that viewers stick with the DIY version.

Hard as it is to believe, there was a time when using any personal technology at work was such a radical concept that most people wouldn’t even consider it an option. IT departments went to great lengths to prevent workers from using their own devices, computers, apps/subscriptions, email, and cloud services. The release of the iPhone in 2007 began to change that. Suddenly people were discovering that the smartphone they bought for their personal use could make them more efficient and productive at work as well. But it was Apple’s launch of its mobile device management framework in 2010 that truly created the bring your own device movement. MDM meant that users could bring their personal devices to work, and IT departments could secure those devices as needed. Almost instantly, BYOD was something that companies began to support in industries across the board. Fifteen years later, BYOD is fully mainstream, and a majority of businesses actively support it. But advances in technology, changing user expectations, and the fallout from Covid’s remote work mandates (and subsequent return to office mandates) have shifted the landscape, sometimes without being overtly visible. With that in mind, I decided to reexamine the assumptions and realities of BYOD and see what has and hasn’t changed in the past decade and a half. BYOD is everywhere but device management isn’t The exact numbers on BYOD adoption vary depending on the source you look to and how it’s being measured. A 2022 paper from HPE claims that 90% of employees use a mix of work and personal devices on the job, while Cybersecurity Insiders says that 82% of organizations have a BYOD program. However you look at it, BYOD is now massively entrenched in our work culture and extends beyond just employees and managers. According to data from Samsung (cited by JumpCloud), 61% of organizations support BYOD for non-employees including contractors, partners, and suppliers to varying degrees. But overtly or tacitly accepting BYOD doesn’t mean that companies actively manage BYOD devices. Cybersecurity Insiders data (also via JumpCloud) also indicates that as many as 70% of BYOD devices used in the workplace aren’t managed — a number that may seem shocking, but that figure includes personal devices used by non-employees such as contractors. About those cost savings… In the early days, there was an assumption that BYOD would lower hardware and service costs, but that wasn’t certain. Today there’s data. In the early 2010s, Cisco estimated a $900+ annual savings per employee, though more recent data from Samsung (cited by JumpCloud) pegs the savings as significantly lower at $341. Despite that disparity, it’s obvious that there are savings to be had, and with significantly climbing smartphone prices, those savings are is poised to grow rather than shrink. Of course, the cost of managing devices needs to be factored in. That cost can vary widely depending on the vendor, specific products, and adopted features, but some MDM vendors charge as little as $1 per user per month (not including staff resources). The cost of providing employees company-purchased apps is also worth noting, though that falls more in line with traditional software procurement. Productivity gains are real, but so are distractions The data is clear that there can be significant gains in productivity attached to BYOD. Samsung estimates that workers using their own devices can gain about an hour of productive worktime per day and Cybersecurity Insiders says that 68% of businesses see some degree of productivity increases. Although the gains are significant, personal devices can also distract workers more than company-owned devices, with personal notifications, social media accounts, news, and games being the major time-sink culprits. This has the potential to be a real issue, as these apps can become addictive and their use compulsive. Tools of the trade When I think back to the first five to ten years after Apple introduced MDM, it reminds me of the later stages of the birth of the solar system, with dozens of companies offering discrete tools that solved part of the mobility and BYOD puzzle, many colliding into each other or being flung out of existence. Some focused on just supporting the MDM server spec sheet, others on cloud storage, securing and managing access to corporate content, corporate app purchasing and management, secure connectivity, user and identity management, Office alternatives (Microsoft waited nearly five years releasing an iOS version of Office), and more. Along the way, major enterprise vendors began dominating the market, some by acquisition and others by building out existing capabilities, although there were also businesses that came out of mergers of some of the new players as well. As the market matured, it became easy to pick a single vendor to provide all enterprise mobility and BYOD needs rather than relying on multiple companies focusing on one particular requirement. Multiplatform support has morphed into something very different The iPhone was the clear early standard for supporting personal devices at work, in part because the hardware, operating system, and MDM mechanics were all created by a single vendor. Going multiplatform was typically assumed to mean iOS and Android — and Android was a fragmented mess of different hardware makers with sometimes widely varying devices and customized Android variants (built to spec by the manufacturers and the demands of wireless carriers) that resulted in no coherent OS update strategy. The gap in management capabilities has narrowed significantly since then, with Google taking a much more active role in courting and supporting enterprise customers and providing a clear and coherent enterprise strategy across a wide swath of major Android phone makers and other vendors. But that isn’t the only massive shift in what it means to be multiplatform. Today the personal devices used in the workplace (and able to be managed using MDM) include non-phone entries including Macs, Apple TVs, Chromebooks, and Windows PCs — with Macs and PCs making up a significant number of BYOD devices. Most MDM suites support this full range of devices to one degree or another, but support costs can rise as more and more platforms (and thus complexity) are implemented — and those costs vary by platform, with general agreement that Apple devices provide the greatest savings when it comes to technical support. How Covid changed the BYOD equation I’m pretty sure that in 2010, not one person on the planet was predicting a global pandemic that would lead to the vast majority of knowledge workers working from home within a decade. Yet, as we all remember, that’s exactly what happened. The need to work from home encouraged broader adoption of personal devices as well as ancillary technologies ranging from peripherals/accessories to connectivity. Despite a litany of return-to-office mandates in recent years, remote work is here to stay, whether that’s full-time, hybrid, or just working outside traditional office hours or location. Samsung notes that 61% of businesses expect employees to work remotely to some degree, while Robert Half reports that only 61% of new job postings in 2024 had full in-office requirements. And data from WFH Research shows that at the start of 2025, employees are working remotely 28% of the time. Passing support to new generations One challenge for BYOD has always been user support and education. With two generations of digital natives now comprsing more than half the workforce, support and education needs have changed. Both millennials and Gen Z have grown up with the internet and mobile devices, which makes them more comfortable making technology decisions and troubleshooting problems than baby boomers and Gen X. This doesn’t mean that they don’t need tech support, but they do tend to need less hand-holding and don’t instinctively reach for the phone to access that support. Thus, there’s an ongoing shift to self-support resources and other, less time-intensive, models with text chat being the most common — be it with a person or a bot. They also have different expectations in areas like privacy, processes and policies, and work-life balance. Those expectations make it more important for companies to delineate their BYOD and other tech policies as well as to explain the rationale for them. This means that user education remains important, particularly in a rapidly changing landscape. It also means that policies should be communicated in more concise and easily digestible forms than large monolithic pages of legalese. Users actually want to update (and repair or replace) their devices Twenty years ago, the idea of updating workplace technology was typically met with a groan from users who didn’t appreciate downtime or changes in the way things looked and worked. Even as BYOD gained traction, getting users to update their devices wasn’t always easy and required a certain amount of prompting or policing. While resistance to change will never truly die out, most smartphone (and other device) users actively update on their own because of the new features that come with OS updates and new hardware. Upgrades are something to get excited about. BYOD users also tend to be more careful with their devices just because they are their own devices. Likewise, they’re more on point with repairs or replacements and are keen to handle those issues on their own. Security is ever evolving Security has always been (and always will be) a major concern when it comes to BYOD, and the threats will always be evolving. The biggest concerns stem from user behavior, with users losing devices being one big concern. Verizon reports that more than 90% of security incidents involving lost or stolen devices resulted in an unauthorized data breach, and 42% involved the leaking of internal data. Another big concern is users falling prey to malicious actors: falling for phishing schemes, downloading malware, allowing corporate data to be placed in public spaces, or letting others use their devices. Devices themselves can be major targets, with attacks coming from different directions like public Wi-Fi, malicious apps or apps that are not designed to safeguard data properly, OS and network vulnerabilities, and so on. Supporting infrastructure can also be a weak point. These threats are real. Research by JumpCloud indicates that 20% of businesses have seen malware as a result of unmanaged devices, and nearly half aren’t able to tell if unmanaged devices have compromised their security. Cybersecurity Insiders research shows a similar statistic of 22%, while also noting that 22% of BYOD devices have connected to malicious wireless networks. Shadow IT will always exist Shadow IT is a phenomenon that has existed for decades but grew rapidly alongside BYOD, when users began leveraging their personal devices, apps, and services for work without IT’s involvement, knowledge, or consent. Almost every company has some degree of shadow IT, and thus unmanaged devices or other technologies. Organizations need to educate users (even digital natives) about security and keeping their devices safe. They also need to engage users involved in shadow IT and make allies out of them, because shadow IT often stems from unmet technological needs. Then there’s the trust component. Many users remain uncomfortable letting IT manage their devices, because they don’t understand what IT will be able to see on them. This is a user education problem that all companies need to address clearly and unequivocally. Still the same goals Although much has changed about BYOD, the basic goal remains the same: allowing workers to use the devices and other tools they are comfortable with and already own… and are likely to use whether sanctioned to or not.

Lloyd Lee/BI 2025-05-25T10:37:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter. You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here. Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. This week, BI's Polly Thompson took an inside look at how artificial intelligence is set to upend a pillar of the white-collar world: the Big Four.On the agenda today:Many millennials face a cursed inheritance with their parents' homes.Internal memos reveal how an ex-Facebook exec leads Microsoft's new AI unit.Losing faith in the ROI of college, Gen Z is pivoting to blue-collar jobs.Wall Street bigwigs are questioning the safety of government bonds. Now what?But first: Tesla's robotaxis are taking the wheel.If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.This week's dispatch Robin Marchant/Getty, Sean Gallup/Getty, Tyler Le/BI Tesla's big betI remain in awe of self-driving cars.I took my first Waymo earlier this year in San Francisco. Like any newbie, I immediately pulled out my phone, recorded the ride, and then gleefully shared videos with friends and family.The market for robotaxis is well beyond the shock and awe phase. For Tesla, the stakes are high to get it right.The EV maker's long-awaited autonomous ride-hailing service is expected to debut next month in Austin. It will join Waymo, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, which is already entrenched in San Francisco and expanding into other cities.My BI colleagues Lloyd Lee and Alistair Barr tried to see which company offers the better self-driving experience: Tesla or Waymo. They test drove both, expecting the results of their not-so-scientific test to come down to minute details. (They couldn't compare the robotaxi services because Tesla hasn't launched its yet).The results surprised them.While the rides were mostly similar, the differentiator was Tesla running a red light at a complex intersection. It was an error too big to overlook. Waymo won the test.Lloyd and Alistair's story ricocheted around the internet and social media. On Tuesday, CNBC's David Faber pressed Tesla CEO Elon Musk about it, particularly the Tesla running a red light.Musk didn't address specific details in BI's reporting. Instead, he said Tesla's robotaxis will be "geo-fenced" — meaning they will avoid some intersections and certain parts of Austin.Waymo already uses geo-fencing. Its car avoided the intersection where the Tesla ran the red light, instead taking a route that was farther away and less time-efficient but perhaps safer to navigate, according to the BI story.Tesla's robotaxi plans come at a critical time for a brand that's taken a hit from Musk's work with the Trump administration. Overseas competition is also ramping up, and prices for used Teslas, including Cybertrucks, are falling.The excitement around the robotaxis is helping, though. Tesla's stock has risen about 40% since Musk talked up the robotaxi last month and signaled he was re-committing to Tesla and stepping back from DOGE.We'll stay all over this coverage for you, including the big debut.The new millennial home dilemmaMillennials are set to benefit from a massive wealth transfer from their boomer parents, most of which is held up in real estate.But because boomers tend to stay in their homes for decades, many children will inherit properties in need of some serious TLC.Microsoft's "age of AI agents" Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently tapped Jay Parikh, formerly Facebook's global head of engineering, to spearhead Microsoft's new AI unit, CoreAI. BI viewed internal memos to get a glimpse of Parikh's vision and progress.Parikh is focusing on cultural shifts, operational improvements, and customer experience as he leads Microsoft into a new era.He has plans for an AI "agent factory."From PowerPoint to plumbing Peter Dazeley/Getty Images AI is decimating jobs, and the cost of college is ever-rising. Gen Zers are losing faith in the ROI of a degree, but they've got another option: the trades.White-collar jobs are stagnating, but fields like plumbing, construction, and electrical work are projected to grow. Blue-collar jobs offer a work-life balance and a path to becoming your own boss.The shaky bond market Mario Tama/Getty Images Bonds have always been viewed as a safe haven, especially ones backed by the US government. But concerns over the growing deficit are changing investors' perspective on the asset.KKR has cast doubt over bonds, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been vocal about US credit being a "bad risk." Here's what investors have to think about amid the turmoil.Also read:This week's quote:"But if you want one of these jobs, you've got to play the game."— A recent graduate who moved to New York City early to be in a good position for the private-equity recruiting process.More of this week's top reads:Duolingo drama underscores the new corporate balancing act on AI hype.Elon Musk went on a media blitz. Here are five takeaways from his interviews.See inside the luxurious Boeing 747 Qatar is giving to Trump to serve as Air Force One.Instagram head Adam Mosseri on the "paradigm shift" from posting in public to sharing in private.Four reasons Walmart is raising prices and Home Depot isn't.Please, Jony Ive, I beg you not to make a voice device.Meet the Yale student and hacker moonlighting as a cybersecurity watchdog.Inside the little-known perks that come from a stock exchange "bake-off."Why these Americans agree with the DOGE firings: "Welcome to the real world."The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.

Jennifer Meyer always knew she wanted to work in fashion. It probably comes, she says, from the hours she spent in her grandmother’s Santa Monica, California, apartment, playing with art supplies, and the small kiln her grandmother kept on the kitchen counter. “She did a lot of enameling,” says Meyer, an LA-based jewelry designer. “She had all of these colors and plaques to put things on; wiring. I would design things with her for fun; I have this love of design from her.”  Still, as the daughter of an entertainment executive, Meyer didn’t really have a road map for a career in design. She completed her education on the East Coast, studying child and family psychology, and landed her first job in magazines, which she ultimately parlayed to PR jobs at Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren. “I wanted to start my own thing,” says Meyer. “I had this idea for jewelry, but I had no idea how to do it.”  In 2005, Meyer made some basic sketches—her first a riff on a leaf design—and began knocking on doors, armed with equal parts curiosity and tenacity. So began the launch of her line, Jennifer Meyer Jewelry. Now, 20 years later, Meyer describes herself as self-taught. She’s leveraged her love of the natural world and her instincts for a simple, unfussy aesthetic to guide a business that’s become as popular with Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as millennials and suburban fortysomethings.  If the door said jeweler, I knocked on it. I knew nothing. It was trial and error. I had a bad sketch of a leaf on paper. I had no clue what I was doing—which, by the way, as I look back was the best way to learn. I made a few pieces, and that’s how I understood what I was doing.   There is a Star Wars quote, “Do or do not; there is no try.” I started in 2005. My boyfriend at the time, who became my husband, said, “What do you want to do?” I said, ”I don’t know.” He said, “That’s a lie; Everybody wants a thing and we’re embarrassed to say it. You think you’re too old, or too young. What do you want to do? Act? Write? Work for NASA? It can be anything.” He said, “You have to say it out loud.” I said, “I want to design jewelry. I don’t know how to do it.”   When I started, I was doing everything from designing to FedEx. I was alone, and I did it all. I have such an amazing group of people I work with now. Now it’s shorthand: We can have one quick conversation and say, “Hey do you remember the leaf with the baguette diamonds?”  I like when things feel organized. When I walk into a room and I know where everything is . . . organization is inspiring to me.  As a business owner, I’m available 24/7. I don’t care what time you text me, I don’t care what time you call or email me. If it’s 11 p.m. on a Saturday and you work with me and you said, “Jen, do you have five minutes?” I have five minutes. Unless I’m sound asleep, other than that I am available. I do, though, [I] still think it’s important to set boundaries to make you feel good, but I don’t have a boundary with my time.  I love a reminder. When someone says, “Just bumping this to the top of your emails. Or, hey, making sure you did this.” You cannot bug me. It is the greatest feeling in the world. Bother me until it’s finished.  I always get up by 7 a.m. I always make sure my kids are fed and out the door. They drive now, which is such a weird thing. I love to work out and I go to bed thinking about my coffee. I drink decaf. I used to have really bad panic attacks. They were debilitating. If I’m drinking caffeine first thing, that’s not good for anybody. I always have a book with me. Everything is written down. I have to write it down and I have to take a highlighter to it. That is it for me. That’s how I do things. When people have notes on their phones, it gives me hives.  Being creative is throwing it all out there, making mistakes and making it your own. How many times have you looked at something and thought, “I would never wear that, what is that? No.” And then, somehow six months later you’re around it enough and you see that woman whose aesthetic you love and you’re like, “I get it now.”  Hard work pays off. You have got to develop those relationships; you have to sit with people and get to know their wives and children and husbands. You have to get in there and spend the time and energy and the focus and you have to develop the same aesthetic, which is really challenging. Everyone has their own idea of how things should be made. It’s a lot of working together and explaining yourself and being clear. You talk about boundaries. Those that are the boundaries that are important. Clarity is kindness. I grew up going to art galleries with my dad. He loved going to galleries. I remember I was like 8 years old and he bought this art and it was on our wall. It was literally a green and blue triangle—nothing else. Half was blue and half was green. I remember saying to him, “What is that? I could have done that.” He looked at me and said, “But you didn’t.” It never left my head. That artist did it and thought of it and created it. It was easy for me to have a 10-minute opinion, but I didn’t do it. I was like, “He’s damn right.”

Time spent in apps always peaks during the holiday season. The key to making that uplift work for your user acquisition is tackling it from all angles - from optimizing existing channels to expanding into new ones. That way, you can generate the installs and ROAS you need to start the new year off right.That’s why we invited three ironSource experts to this edition of our Angles of Acquisition webinar series:- Noa Eckstein, Head of Business Operations at ironSource Luna, covered building holiday-themed creatives that spike IPM - Sarah Chafer, VP US Sales at ironSource Sonic, discussed how to set up an offerwall campaign that'll generate record ARPU - Jess Overton, Director of Demand at ironSource Aura, walked through setting up an on-device campaign at a time when everyone's buying new phones Read on for a summary of the webinar or watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvewwdzvVBMConsumer insights during the holidaysTo kick off, Marketing Director at ironSource Lauren Baca set the scene with consumer insights during the holidays pulled from ironSource and M&C Saatchi Performance’s holiday marketing playbook:- 75% of consumers plan on purchasing clothes and footwear as gifts this year, making them the most popular gifts across all generations. - 65% of consumers plan to spend more or the same on holidays gifts this year compared to last year - 28% of consumers plan to start shopping in the fall and 27% of consumers plan to start shopping on Black Friday or Cyber MondayDownload the report for more data and insightsWith a better understanding of how consumers plan to shop and celebrate this season, Lauren passed the mic to our ironSource experts to break down some best practices for optimizing UA - from how to build holiday-themed creatives to making the most of a unique ad unit all the way to how to leverage a time when everyone's buying new phones.How to build holiday-themed creatives that spike IPMNoa explained that while the holiday season feels quite special, the marketing problems you face during the winter months are the same problems you face every other season - you need to find the best content and creatives, you need to optimize key channels, and you need to utilize your data better. The only difference? Your creatives get a holiday makeover.During the holidays, people tend to be their most emotional - it’s a time for nostalgia and thinking about friends and family. This emotion is a key ingredient to building high-IPM creatives - the goal is always to get users to go from seeing a creative to actually feeling something that encourages them to download, and the holidays are a time when that’s even more feasible.So if IPM has the potential to be so high, why wouldn’t you invest in building holiday creatives? Noa covered a few reasons why some studios might choose not to:- Holiday creatives can cost a lot to run and need more resources and attention to build, but may only run for a very short amount of time - Most creatives don’t end up scaling and often fail - it is more challenging to find the winning creative within such a short time period - Users who see a holiday-themed creative may expect to play a holiday-themed game, so you might need to adjust your gameplay or pay closer attention to user quality. - On the flip side, there are tons of data that show why you should invest in building holiday creatives, according to data from the ironSource Luna platform:- IPMs are significantly higher throughout the holiday season due to more engagement in apps and on phones (2021, US, iOS)- In fact, game installs surged 3x during the week of Christmas (2021, US, Facebook)- Advertisers test 2x the amount of creatives during the holidays, which means you don’t want to be left behindLooking deeper, Noa explained that building holiday-themed creatives can have a positive impact on your team and collaboration:- It’s an opportunity to refresh, prevent fatigue, and get creative in a unique way - Holiday elements trigger a lot of emotion leading to higher intent- You can create a really healthy dialogue between your creative team, UA team and product team as everyone works on holiday plansNext, Noa gave us some proof and walked through case studies. First, she presented a game studio that works with ironSource Luna that changed the sword in their playable ad to a Christmas tree, which had a huge impact on IPM during the holidays. It performed so well that the studio chose not to deactivate the creative after the holidays - and it remained the top-performing creative even two months after Christmas day. In another example, the holiday-themed creative was a top performer until the end of April.Last, Noa showed what happened when Luna tested three different Halloween-themed creatives for a game studio. For the first one, the Luna team took an existing high-performing creative and just put a Halloween theme on top of it. For the second one, Luna replaced a mermaid’s head with a pumpkin head and changed the pointer to a witch's hand. Neither of these variations are showing positive results yet - but that may change the closer we get to Halloween! For the third variation, Luna built a creative where the witch is playing the Halloween-themed game, which became one of the most successful creatives for this title and led to a 20% higher D7 ROAS.So how can you find this same success without heavy production?- Use real footage of real people that show pure emotion - Test holiday figures - snowflakes, witches, pumpkins - to spice it up - Give the pointer and buttons a holiday theme, like Santa Many advertisers are taking advantage of this time of year to increase performance, but you need to weigh that against the internal resources you have to build a new set of creatives. There are other ways to optimize your holiday strategy, such as with the offerwall - which leads us to our next angle.How to set up an offerwall campaign that'll generate record ROASNext up, Sarah Chafer discussed best practices for running offerwall campaigns during the holidays. First, she started with a brief background, explaining that the offerwall is a user-initiated, rewarded in app marketplace with three main constituents: developers use the offerwall to grow revenue, user retention, and app engagement, without cannibalizing IAP. Advertisers use the offerwall to reach a unique, quality audience that is looking for a transaction of some sort and will remain highly engaged in the app. Consumers engage with the offerwall for app discovery and brand discovery, all while getting further and deeper into the app they’re already using.So, how does this all work together - how do the advertiser and consumer come together in that moment or transaction? Sarah ran through a few of the most popular offerwall pricing models to help advertisers get campaigns started:Cost per engagement (CPE): Here, advertisers only pay when a user installs an app and completes a specific engagement event. This is all about getting users deeper down the funnel. Ask yourself, what do you want the user to do to remember the app and what would encourage them to use it again?Multi-reward cost per engagement (MR-CPE): In this pricing model, you pay in incremental steps as a user works towards completing a deep engagement event. This way, you can reward the user for completing more actions - not only installing and opening, but installing, opening and downloading a coupon or making a purchaseCost per action (CPA): You’ll pay when a user completes a quiz, action on a website, or purchases from a brand. This is the most common format during the holidays and it can be used in a lot of creative ways. Cost per install (CPI): You’ll pay each time a user installs your app, which is really about getting your app out there in the market and driving app discovery. Surveys: Pay when a user completes a survey to help you better understand user behavior - how they feel, what are their thoughts, what are they into, etc. Next, Sarah dove into best practices for mastering this ad unit during the holidays - saying that the most important thing to keep in mind is timing.There are tons of new devices entering the market - all the major players are releasing the latest versions of their best-selling devices and if you’re an early adopter of technology, you may already have one. Device sales increase heavily starting now and many will end up wrapped up as gifts. Starting with the offerwall now can help you be top of mind as new devices enter homes globally. Second, with holiday shopping starting earlier this year compared to last year according to our report, it’s important to remind users that the holidays are coming and that right now is the time to shop. You can provide this sense of urgency in your messaging, which we will discuss in the next section. Third, level up with currency sales and double down on rewards on key shopping days, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consumers will be inclined to engage with an offer that gives them extra rewards. As an advertiser, you can double down on your bid - the reward is higher, the traffic is higher. In fact, we’ve seen around a 35% lift in conversions during previous currency sales. Once the timing is right, how do you get your creative to capture all the great offerwall traffic?Stay competitive with special promotions, also known as currency sales. We know that users are looking for deals - 40% said that rewarded ads influence their purchasing decisions according to our report. Whether you’re offering a sale or special package, get creative and switch it up frequently to stay fresh, unique and competitive. Going back to providing a sense of urgency, it’s important to be reminding users not only to shop but who to shop for. Include “gifting” and “holiday” in your messaging and add holiday-themed graphics to your creatives, which are consistent reminders that the holidays are coming. You can even call out someone in particular with phrases like - “for that someone special in your life,” or “for your pet” to get consumers thinking about their gift lists. The Tapjoy offerwall has a shopping tab, which gives consumers a better understanding of what our advertisers do by highlighting their packaging, merchandising, and best-selling products. Give the shopper an idea of who your brand is and what will be shipped to their home.Overall, the offerwall is an excellent touchpoint to reach high-intent users that will drive high ROAS. If you’re looking to expand your touchpoints even further, on-device advertising is a unique way to take advantage of the new phones entering the market - covered by Jess Overton.Setting up on-device campaigns when everyone's buying new phonesJumping off of Sarah’s point that there are tons of new devices sold, unboxed, and unwrapped this time of year, Jess shared that 51% of consumers plan to give a new device as a gift for the holidays. With each new device, consumers get access to new forms of entertainment - Jess even alluded it to the world’s greatest mall. Ultimately, how consumers decide to interact with their devices is a function of the apps they download and engage with.Jess shared that 95% of users that will be unboxing new devices this Christmas will be downloading apps in the first 48 hours. During those 48 hours, consumers will install 60% of the apps they’ll download for the lifetime of the device. If you look at your device's home screen and ask yourself, “when was the last time you downloaded a bunch of apps?”, it’s probably been a while. That’s the power of capturing a download at device activation.ironSource Aura partners with top device manufacturers and mobile carriers to deliver app discovery experiences directly to users on their devices so you can get your app discovered at key moments during the device lifecycle, whether it’s during device activation on Christmas morning or after a major operating system update. On-device marketing enables dynamic bidding and endless opportunities for optimization, which is largely impossible on traditional preload channels. Being able to meet users at moments when they're ready to discover and experiment with new apps along with first-class optimization capabilities means that on-device marketing is a channel that converts potential users into high-value customers.There are three things to keep in mind about running on-device during the holiday season. First, holiday-ify your creatives. Second, you can reach a range of demographics for your app and price accordingly. Third, sit back and watch that LTV rack up.Holiday-ify your creativesData shows that tailoring your on-device creatives to the audience and the placement can generate a significant uplift in performance. For example, you can add a holiday graphic or theme, such as a Santa hat, to your app icon on the device setup placement. Or you can show real people in the holiday spirit on the full-screen offer placement.Reach a range of demographics and price accordinglySecond, you need to ensure the bid for each demographic. This is especially important during the holidays, because you only get one shot. There’s only one Christmas morning, consumers only unbox your device once, which means you as the advertiser have to get your bids right the first time. So pay attention to price and understand which demographics are most important to your campaign.To paint a better picture, Jess broke down demographics of device activations last Christmas: the Boomer group is slightly less represented, with 15% activating new devices. 29% of activations came from Gen X, 25% from Millennials, and 21% from Gen Z. Bottom line? The on-device channel is a great way to get in front of hard-to-reach demographics, such as the older than 55 group. For Gen Z who are bombarded with ads, the on-device channel cuts through the noise and gives you a way to reach these users in a different mindset.Prepare for long LTVOn-device channels are a much slower burn in terms of LTV and app engagement. When you think about Christmas morning and setting up your new device, you might download a travel app, food delivery app, a few shopping apps, a bunch of games, but you’re not ordering food right away or booking your next trip on Christmas. Ultimately, you’ll see users start to engage more at D14 or D30, and this effect is even more significant during the holiday season. After all, we spend a lot more time on our phones and dabbling with apps.Having a multi-channel approach to your holiday advertising strategy is critical, and being well-informed on how to optimize all of those components is a huge benefit. If you’ve made it this far, you should have all of the best practices you need to drive high-performing creatives, create an offerwall strategy that converts, and leverage a time period high in device activations.

All throughout 2025, I've been bursting with podcast recommendations (which might not be surprising, given writing a podcast recommendation newsletter is part of my job). I've shared my lists of the best podcasts about liars and scammers, podcasts that expose the nonsense in politics and pop culture, and podcasts you'll like if you miss Heavyweight. But then I awoke and realized that we are almost halfway through the year, and I haven't spent nearly enough time talking about my favorite new shows that debuted this year. June is a great time to take stock of all the new podcasts from the first half of the year. These are the shows that made my jaw drop, made me laugh, and inspired me to subscribe—and pester all of my friends to do the same. I think you'll like them, too. Alternate Realities (Embedded) Credit: Podcast logo Embedded recently produced a 3-part series, Alternate Realities, focused on a bet between reporter Zach Mack and his father, who intended to determine once and for all who was right about the other having been lost to conspiracy theories. Zach’s father had started to believe in chemtrails, that the government controls the weather, that ANTIFA staged the Jan. 6 riots, that a cabal called the globalists is controlling the world. Zach…did not believe those things. In early 2024 the two agreed: Zach’s dad would make a list of 10 prophesies that he was 100% sure would happen, (i.e. a bunch of democrats would be convicted of treason and/or murder, the U.S. would come under martial law), and on Jan. 1, 2025, Zach would have to give his father $1,000 for every one that came to pass. For every one that didn’t, Zach would get the same. It’s a zingy idea for a series, but also a dark family story—the bet is the make-or-break thing for not just Zach and his dad, but for the entire family. Beyond the money, the stakes are high.Debt Heads Credit: Podcast logo Friends Jamie Alyson Feldman (@realgirlproject) and Rachel Gayle Webster (@webbythefox) are using storytelling, research, springiness, humor, and fun audio elements in their podcast Debt Heads, which examines Jamie’s deeply ingrained issues with debt and uses them as an entry point into the question of why so many young people are in the same boat. It's a fascinating dive into the issue of millennials and their money—harrowing and fascinating and occasionally funny, and a rich listening experience even if you (like me) want to crawl under a table when the conversation turns to money.Our Ancestors Were Messy Credit: Podcast logo If you love the way Normal Gossip pulls you into the juicy drama of strangers, and especially if you also love history, you’ll get sucked right in to Our Ancestors Were Messy, Nichole Hill’s show about the gossip, scandals, and pop culture that made headlines in historical Black newspapers across America. Nichole tells true stories from the past (a Victorian-era love triangle that hit DC elites, a mystery concerning a tabloid sensation in Harlem) with help from a guest, placing you inside of a vintage scandal, providing the context you need to understand why it was a scandal at all, and fleshing out the characters involved with the skill of a novelist. Nichole’s storytelling is descriptive, funny, conversational, and crisp, and she uses amazing sound production that pumps it all into life. Why Is Amy in the Bath? Credit: Podcast logo Have you ever noticed that Amy Adams seems to do a lot of bathtub and shower scenes in her films? After listening to this show, you won’t be able to un-notice it. Certainly that fact stuck out to Brandon R. Reynolds and Gabby Lombardo, who spun the observation into the podcast Why Is Amy in the Bath? In six episodes they ask: Is Amy, who has never won an Oscar, doing all these bathtub scenes because they offer the opportunity for the kind of dramatic acting that earns the biggest, golden-est prizes? Brandon and Gabby went through 1,500 movies, including all the Best Actress Oscar nominees, to see if there was a correlation to tub scenes, and their conclusions are the stuff of the best conspiracy theories.What We Spend Credit: Podcast logo If you love Refinery 29's Money Diaries, or if you’re just a nosy person, you’re going to salivate over What We Spend, in which regular people take us, day by day and purchase by purchase, through what they spend in a week. It's like looking inside their wallets, flipping through their credit card statements, and hearing the personal stories behind the financial decisions they make. One person is scared about having to pay for a cat funeral. A 35-year-old asks her dad to pay her bills for a month. In each episode, the subject realizes, along with us, that there are usually deeply rooted personal issues underneath their money issues and the anxieties they bring up. Listeners can contact the hosts for a spot on the show, but that's a huge no thanks from me! But I’ll be listening. Text Me Back Credit: Podcast logo If you’re looking for a chat show that will have you laughing out loud without making you feel like you just lost a bunch of brain cells, try Text Me Back. Bestselling writer Lindy West and democracy policy expert Meagan Hatcher-Maysget are childhood friends who get on the mic for convos that range from off the rails goofy stories to insightful pop-culture and political commentary, with an irresistible friendship vibe flowing throughout. Their chemistry is nothing that could be rehearsed or planned, and they are both such good storytellers, they can spin gold out of the most mundane things that happened to them in a given week. Text Me Back will be a balm for listeners who still miss the iconic podcast Call Your Girlfriend (RIP.) The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs Credit: Podcast logo Delivered in four short episodes, The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs explores the fate of the titular geriatric cat, who went missing in Manchester, New Hampshire, then turned up dead, causing a huge blowup in the community he left behind. Rose, Sgt. Tibbs’ owner, was devastated when Tibbs went missing, and infuriated to learn that he might not have actually been missing at all, but in the hands of neighbors, the mother/daughter duo of Debbie and Sabrina, who claim to have saved the cat's life. We going in knowing that Tibbs has died. The question is, what happened? Todd Bookman puts a microscope to the kitty's last days, and finds a story of adults behaving badly and a community torn apart. At one point, Todd wonders if there are better things he could be doing with his time (and microphone). “But imagine something more important than something you love disappearing and dying," he says. "It seems worth every second trying to figure out what happened.” Pet lovers get it. RIP, Sgt. Tibbs.We Came to the Forest Credit: Podcast logo We Came to the Forest introduces you to Vienna Forrest, an environmental crusader remembering her life living in the forest with a bunch of other activists as they protested the construction of Atlanta’s Cop City, one of the biggest police training facilities in the country. She speaks intimately about her partner Tortuguita (Manuel Esteban Paez Terán,) another protester or “forest defender” who was allegedly shot and killed by Atlanta law enforcement. We Came to the Forest revolves around Tortuguita’s murder and everything that led up to it. What seems obvious (Tortuguita was shot by the police) is tough to prove. A cop was also shot, but who shot him? There is no body cam footage to prove what happened. Through storytelling and interviews, the show will make you think about how fast things can turn sideways when law enforcement gets involved in a situation, and how thin the line can be between safety and danger.CRAMPED Credit: Podcast logo Kate Downey has been having debilitating period pain every month since she was14 years old. Debilitating period pain is common, yet something nobody seems to want to talk about or research—and certainly nobody is trying to have fun with it. But Kate is doing all of the above with CRAMPED, which is somehow boisterous and dead serious at the same time. It's full of fascinating interviews, illuminating info, and helpful tips for anyone with a uterus. She gets smart, funny people on the mic to talk about their that-time-of-the-month experiences, what is really going on in their bodies and why nobody cares, and why Kate hasn’t been able to get an answers from a doctor after 20 years of asking questions. Suave (Season 2) Credit: Podcast logo In its first season, Suave won a Pulitzer Prize-winning for telling the story of Luis "Suave" Gonzalez, a convicted man who turned his life around in prison, and his relationship with journalist Maria Hinojosa. The show is assembled from years of recordings of their conversations, an audio document of the highs and lows of Suave's life both in and out of jail, and the mother/son bond that develops between the two. At the end, Suave is released, and we are left to wonder what freedom really means. That’s where season two picks up: Suave is now “Mr. Pulitzer,” but life on the outside is very hard. Proxy Credit: Podcast logo With her beautiful show Proxy, "emotional journalist" Yowei Shaw investigates and solves deeply intimate conundrums by proxy—she finds people with unresolved relationship issues and links them up with a stranger who can help them better understand what's going on. (Recently she connected a man whose wife left him for a woman with a woman who'd left her husband for a woman.) Yowei also appears on the massively popular NPR podcast Invisibilia, so you know you can trust her to deliver a good story that will be professionally structured. It's a space for unique conversations the likes of which I have never heard before. Sea of Lies (Uncover) Credit: Podcast logo On Sea of Lies (available on the Uncover podcast feed) Sam Mullins (Wild Boys) tells the tale of one of the most wanted men in the world, Albert Walker, who is arrested for fraud after a dead body wearing a recognizable watch washes ashore. The globe-spanning saga gets wilder from there, always zagging left when you think it will go right. Via meticulous reporting, Sea of Lies skirts around Walker’s manipulative tactics to get to the psychological questions at the root of his crimes.