The Weekly 10: marketing, media and industry statistics to know now — October 15, 2025 edition

From the decline in self-reported spending among U.S. teens to the most efficient TikTok post cadence, these are the data points we’re paying attention to right now.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (MCSI) score in October — basically flat versus last month (55.1) but down 15.5 points (22%) from October 2024.

The estimated growth in total retail sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday this year compared to 2024, according to a new Bain forecast.

The share of consumers who say they’d be more likely to buy food at gas station convivence stores if cleaning and product rotation schedules were visible, according to new research from Logile.

The estimated number of national linear TV ad minutes during Q3 — an increase of 2.4% year over year — according to new iSpot data via TVREV.

The estimated number of household TV ad impressions during Q3 — a decrease of 2.7% year over year — per the same iSpot data.

The share of consumers that Lay’s says aren’t aware its chips are made from real potatoes — the impetus behind the “brand’s biggest [redesign] in nearly a century,” rolled out in a new PepsiCo blog post.

The annual self-reported spending among U.S. teens — down 6% year over year — according to new research from Piper Sandler. The data, gathered from 10,969 young people (with an average age of 15.7) in households with an average income of $69,527, also indicates that 1 in 3 teens have a part-time job.

The observed lift when posting on TikTok two to five times per week (versus once per week), according to Buffer data scientist Julian Winternheimer, who analyzed 11.4 million posts across more than 150,000 accounts. While continuing to increase weekly post frequency does provide additional lift and increases virality potential, returns begin to diminish after this initial 17% jump, Winternheimer’s research finds.

The number of gambling marketing messages observed by Bristol University researchers during the Premier League’s opening weekend in August, per a new report from The Atlantic detailing the challenges around regulating sports betting ads in pro soccer.

The score that ChatGPT assigned OpenAI’s new hero spot when prompted to rate and review the ad by Adweek’s Mark Ritson. While the campaign video is “strategically on-brief and nicely made,” according to the AI-generated critique, it may be too generic to become a “memorable ChatGPT ad that builds future sales.”