Ä¢¹½AV

At Cannes Lions 2025, commerce media partnerships once again reigned supreme. Once the domain of digital shelf tactics and retail data, commerce media is now reshaping how brands show up across social platforms, connected TV (CTV), and in-store displays. This year’s festival offered a glimpse into a more integrated, AI-driven future—one where conversational ads, programmatic pipes, and real-world touchpoints blur the lines between media and purchase.

Some high-engagement platforms are still undermonetized—creating opportunities for advertisers to connect with audiences in less-saturated environments.

Our midyear report revisits the top trends we named in early 2025 to see what’s shaping the market, evolving fast, or fading in the rearview mirror.

The travel industry set the pace for digital ad spending growth from 2021 to 2023, but its annual increases will now decelerate significantly. Growth will lag the national average for the next two years, though it won’t collapse entirely.

The news: Amazon’s Private Auction is quietly reshaping the CTV landscape by introducing more flexible buying on Prime Video. The format allows smaller advertisers and performance marketers to compete for inventory through open bidding, bypassing the need for costly guaranteed placements. As CPMs decline and the demand for agility rises, this move gives brands better control over pricing and access. Our take: While big brands may still favor premium guarantees, Amazon’s shift reflects broader momentum toward programmatic efficiency. By inviting direct-response buyers into the Prime Video ecosystem, Amazon is not just monetizing scale—it’s redefining what CTV access looks like in 2025.

Creative pros are building AI-powered workflows, not just experimenting: 80% use genAI, and 40% run full-stack with it, showing adoption is strategic—not trendy—across text, audio, image, and video

The news: Google’s search dominance is slipping as AI innovations threaten its ad business. Its global web visits declined 1% YoY in April, according to Similarweb data published by AdWeek, compared with 182% growth for OpenAI’s ChatGPT and 181% for Perplexity. Google’s searches on Safari also dropped for the first time ever in April. In March, about 77% of all Google searches that triggered an AI Overview garnered zero clicks, which could dissuade advertisers from spending on the platform. Our take: As AI transforms search and keywords become less important, publishers and brands may need to rethink strategies for how their content is discovered and how they attract search users. AI-optimized content will likely become the next battleground for visibility and performance.

US advertisers will spend 82% of their media budget on digital in 2025, and allocate 66% of that budget to mobile, per a March Ä¢¹½AV forecast.

The trend: From insight generation and content creation to media placement and regulatory reviews, generative AI (genAI) is becoming more connected to every part of pharma marketing. Our take: The tech is helping pharma marketers and ad agencies create more personalized ads and better predict ad performance—but overall, genAI usage is still pretty nascent in the industry.

Lens integration sidesteps users to search without leaving the app. It sets up future monetization even if beta excludes ads and affiliate links—for now.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce is evolving, driven by Gen Z’s shopping habits and the rise of powerful AI tools.

GenAI adoption complicates retailers’ customer acquisition strategies: Brands are struggling to optimize their websites and product listings to account for rising traffic from genAI tools.

Until Google rolls out generative search to all users, most consumers won’t adopt the technology. That means AI isn’t driving search ad spending—yet.

With AI mostly glossed over online, there's a golden chance to stand out—teach, show, and prove what AI can actually do for people.

Google is monetizing AI search interfaces aggressively: But users, advertisers, and publishers remain skeptical of trust, data, and fairness.

From the rise of sophisticated AI-driven tools to new policies reshaping data privacy and competition, 2025 promises to be a year of relentless change. Companies that adapt will thrive, while others risk being left behind in a swiftly moving market.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss how Google embedding an AI chatbot into search changes things, why Anthropic’s Claude API could reshape search, and why tech companies might not be the winners of the AI search war. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, and Senior Analyst’s Gadjo Sevilla and Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Amazon faces renewed antitrust scrutiny in Europe: The retailer is under fire from German regulators concerned that its price controls limit competition.

Video ad spending continues to outpace overall digital ad spending and will power the fastest-growing ad-supported media.