Zeta Economic Index (ZEI) Highlights Strong Momentum Heading into the Critical Holiday Season

Zeta Global, the AI-Powered Marketing Cloud, released the Zeta Economic Index (ZEI) for November 2024. The ZEI is one of the first AI-powered economic indexes, utilizing Zeta’s proprietary Generative AI technology and real-time consumer behavior from over 240 million US consumers to reflect the current state and trajectory of the US economy.

“As the election concludes and the holiday shopping season drives an economy on the rise, the start of 2025 will bring new challenges and opportunities. The ZEI serves as a critical barometer, delivering real-time insights into shifting consumer sentiment and behavior to help decision makers plan for the coming year.”

The ZEI’s primary measure of US economic health, the Economic Index Score (EIS) for November rose to 70.9 points, marking a 2.4 point month-over-month increase. This is the first time the EIS has reached above 70 since April 2021, signaling positive momentum for the economy as the holiday season commences.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Gulab Patil, Founder & CEO @ Lemma

In November 2024, the US economy experienced significant events that influenced consumer and market activities such as the conclusion of the US presidential election and the lowering of the federal funds rate by 25 basis points. These have made consumer confidence more robust, reflected in rising interest in the retail, travel, and automotive sectors.

“The Zeta Economic Index provides a distinctive lens on the economy, leveraging real-time signals from actual consumer behavior powered by Zeta’s proprietary data cloud,” said David A. Steinberg, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Zeta Global. “As the election concludes and the holiday shopping season drives an economy on the rise, the start of 2025 will bring new challenges and opportunities. The ZEI serves as a critical barometer, delivering real-time insights into shifting consumer sentiment and behavior to help decision makers plan for the coming year.”

Marketing Technology News: Ethical Programmatic Advertising: Balancing AI, Automation, and Consumer Trust

Additional highlights from the ZEI:

• Increased Consumer Attention Towards Relocation: Online searches for moving services and real estate saw a significant uptick of 34.7% month-over-month. This sharp spike of individuals seeking to move to other states or even outside of the United States could indicate a specific sentiment of unrest due to potential tariff increases and higher cost of living.
• The Job Market Stabilizes: Job Market Sentiment rose by 13.9% month-over-month, underscoring a steady perception of the labor landscape. Notably, unemployment applications saw the smallest increase in seven months, reaching a seasonally adjusted level of 213,000.
• Holiday Season Brings Revived Retail Engagement: Retail activity grew in November by 4.7 points, with Retail Sales Activity increasing 7.2% month-over-month. These gains align with early holiday shopping and widespread promotional campaigns during Black Friday. The travel sector also experienced a boost with consumer interest rising by 5.5 points month-over-month due to record-breaking Thanksgiving travel traffic.

The ZEI utilizes generative AI to analyze trillions of behavioral signals providing comprehensive scores that reflect economic sentiment, trends, and dynamics. Unlike surveys, this index utilizes over 20 proprietary inputs that recalibrate each month based on actual behavior, enhancing the understanding of a key driver of economic growth – consumer activity.