蘑菇AV

This is the first installment of our annual 鈥淏razil Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

Temu and Shein slashed US ad spending sharply in April ahead of Trump鈥檚 Q2 tariff and de minimis overhaul. Temu鈥檚 ad budget dropped 31% across Meta, YouTube, and X, and its Google Shopping spend fell to zero after April 9. Shein鈥檚 YouTube investments also took a hit. Given Meta鈥檚 deep exposure to Chinese ecommerce (up to 11% of total ad spend by some estimates) the risk to Q2 earnings was real.

Retailers that aimed to be media giants are hitting headwinds as ad growth slows. To stay competitive, retail media networks must rethink org structure, sharpen media skills, and plan smartly to thrive in a more challenging landscape.

This is the first installment of our annual 鈥淢exico Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The news: Consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers plan to hop on the AI train and scale up their retail, social, and connected TV (CTV) ad spending, but challenges around audience and data fragmentation remain. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of CPG marketers expect to increase their retail media spending in the second half of 2025, per MediaOcean鈥檚 2025 H2 Market Report, compared with 59% for social platforms and 55% for CTV. Our take: Using creative AI tools like one recently added to YouTube Shorts to resize and retarget content for different social platforms can maximize campaign reach. CPGs are huge advertisers, and when they pivot, they can influence the entire market. Broader marketers should follow their lead not only in spending but by immediately testing AI tools in high-impact internal areas like CTV creative or retail copy optimization.

This report compares our 2025 US ad spending and time spent with media forecasts. It identifies incongruities between how marketers are spending ad dollars and where consumers are spending their time.

This is the first installment of our biannual 鈥淯K Ad Spending Benchmarks鈥� series, which helps ad buyers and sellers calibrate their spending and revenue mix against the market.

The news: Global ad spend growth is slowing but staying positive, with WARC projecting a 6.2% rise to $1.16 trillion in 2025 and MAGNA forecasting a 4.9% climb to $979 billion. Retail media is outpacing linear TV for the first time, and Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon continue to control the majority of digital revenues. Measurable channels like short-form video, retail media, and ad-supported VOD are gaining ground. Our take: Amid economic pressures and trade concerns, advertisers are prioritizing performance, shifting budgets geographically and platform-wise. With elections, AI, and major global events on the horizon, platforms that prove outcomes鈥攏ot impressions鈥攚ill shape the next era.

The news: Macy鈥檚 Media Network, the department store鈥檚 retail media arm, will test a partnership with Amazon Retail Ad Service鈥攖he ecommerce giant鈥檚 ad tech product for other retailers. The pilot will launch in early Q4, just ahead of the holiday season. Our take: Macy鈥檚 is the first major retailer to test Amazon鈥檚 ad product since its January debut, making this a high-profile proving ground. The pilot will show whether Amazon can drive incremental ad spend for retailers, and crucially, whether other chains are comfortable sharing data with a direct competitor. The results will have ripple effects across the ad tech ecosystem. If the partnership proves effective, Amazon Retail Ad Service could emerge as a meaningful threat to intermediaries like Criteo and Publicis, which have built strong businesses helping brands navigate retail media. It would also open another lucrative revenue stream for Amazon鈥檚 already fast-growing ad arm, strengthening its position at the center of digital commerce.