2025 MEDIA TRENDS

We just hit $1.07 trillion in global ad spend. That’s worth pausing on for a second. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, ad investment is seeing its strongest growth in six years. North America leads with +8.6% to $347.5bn, while Europe’s rising 5%. The UK secured the largest spend in the region, growing 8% to $47.5bn (Kantar Media Trends 2025).

What’s driving this growth? The convergence of traditional and digital media has created more effective advertising opportunities. When you combine this with better measurement capabilities and more precise targeting, advertising is simply working better than ever before.

The streaming landscape has transformed dramatically. Connected TV ad spend is jumping 19.6% to $35.2bn, while 40% of new Netflix and Max subscribers are choosing ad-supported tiers. Prime Video’s bold move to make ads the default added 50 billion new advertising impressions to the market (dentsu Media Trends 2025).

As GLADTOBE foresaw, streaming services are increasingly adopting traditional TV characteristics. They’re adding linear-style programming schedules, commercial breaks, and making major investments in live sports – Amazon’s 11-year NBA deal and Netflix’s WWE partnership signal a fundamental shift in how these platforms operate.

As Kantar’s report suggests, we might need to stop differentiating and just call it TV. For advertisers, this convergence means rethinking channel-specific strategies. The future isn’t about choosing between streaming and traditional – it’s about understanding how different formats serve different viewing behaviors.

Here’s a milestone worth noting: podcasts have officially overtaken radio in key markets. The Middle East and Africa lead this revolution, with Morocco seeing a staggering 243% growth, Kenya 56%, and South Africa 47% since late 2021 (GWI Podcasts 2024).

The transformation extends beyond just numbers. Video podcast consumption has increased by 88% on Spotify, with 21% of teen podcast time now dedicated to video. Even more telling, 37% of listeners are attending live podcast events, transforming a purely digital medium into a multi-channel experience (GWI Podcasts 2024).

For advertisers, this shift offers unique opportunities to reach premium product buyers when they’re highly engaged. Gen Z podcast listeners are more likely to purchase premium versions of products, and the medium allows hosts to deliver ads in their authentic voice, making the content feel less intrusive than traditional advertising.

Social media engagement has plummeted from 43% to 31%, and only 15% of users watch social ads to completion (Kantar Media Trends 2025). Meanwhile, 60% of Google searches now end without clicks as users get answers directly in search results (dentsu Media Trends 2025).

But as traditional social engagement declines, community-based interaction is thriving. On Reddit, communities like r/Costco and r/Silverado are in the platform’s top percentile without any official brand affiliation. These aren’t just discussion forums – they’re powerful purchasing influencers that traditional advertising can’t match.

For marketers, this means moving beyond traditional social media metrics toward community-building strategies that foster genuine engagement. The data shows that while social media accounts for 22.6% of global ad spend, its effectiveness is waning – suggesting it’s time to reallocate budgets to more engaging channels.

Retail media is growing at 12.7% annually, and there’s a good reason why. Amazon generated over $50 billion in ad revenue in just four quarters, while Walmart’s Vizio acquisition adds 18 million active TV accounts to their advertising reach. Industry forecasts suggest retail media will double its share to 14.3% by 2026 (dentsu Media Trends 2025).

What makes retail media particularly powerful is its ability to connect advertising directly to purchase data. This closes the loop between exposure and action in ways social media and traditional display never could. For brand marketers, this means unprecedented ability to track and optimize campaigns based on actual sales data.

While everyone’s talking about AI chatbots, the real transformation is happening behind the scenes. Media buyers using AI tools are seeing 200% YoY reach increases and 40% lower CPMs through enhanced targeting (dentsu Media Trends 2025). Meanwhile, customer service AI, like Klarna’s system, handles millions of conversations monthly at five times the speed of human agents.

However, integration comes with clear consumer expectations: 84% want transparency about AI interactions (Kantar Media Trends 2025). The environmental impact is significant too – training these models requires massive computing power and resources. For marketers, the key is balancing AI’s efficiency gains with transparency and sustainability concerns.

Marketing Mix Models are getting a major upgrade in 2025. Google’s Meridian launch signals a shift toward real-time optimization and cross-channel measurement. Meanwhile, 87% of CMOs are either using attention metrics or running early pilots (dentsu Media Trends 2025).

The real breakthrough is the ability to connect different measurement approaches. By combining MMM insights with granular attention data, brands can finally bridge the gap between long-term brand building and short-term performance. This evolution in measurement enables marketers to justify investment across both traditional and digital channels while optimizing campaigns in real-time.

The end of data silos and the rise of unified measurement approaches means marketers can finally understand the true impact of their media investments across all channels. This shift toward more sophisticated measurement will continue to drive the industry’s growth and effectiveness.