蘑菇AV

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

The news: Disney announced that it will merge Disney+ and Hulu in 2026, a move that could save it $3 billion. The news came after a mixed Q3 FY25 that beat expectations thanks to high spending at Disney theme parks and growth in streaming, but saw advertising revenues fall short of analyst estimates. Our take: Disney鈥檚 future success depends on whether merging its core streaming offerings boosts advertiser appeal and a successful sports push that can compete on a similar level as rivals with access to tentpole live events like the Super Bowl.

After beauty's social return on ad spend (ROAS) dipped to $1.90 in Q4 2024, the category saw a marked jump up to $3.50 in Q1 2025, according to a March report from Cart.com.

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

On today鈥檚 podcast episode, we discuss our 鈥榲ery specific, but highly unlikely鈥� predictions for the future of digital in 2026 and beyond. Why browsers will become the new AI battleground, what does it mean if agentic AI doesn鈥檛 take over shopping, and can GenAI actually lead to more of the jobs it can easily destroy? Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Senior Director of Briefings, Jeremy Goldman, Principal Analyst, Sara Marzano, and Vice President of Content, Paul Verna. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Ad dollars mirror that shift: Online formats will climb 12.3% in 2025 to $405 billion, while offline spending declines 5.5% to $181 billion. Newspapers will decline farther (-13%) than total offline spending. For economic coverage, newspapers (and magazines) are only used by 8% of the population.

Amazon closed its second annual Upfronts with 鈥渟ignificant growth鈥� across independent agencies and holding companies, per Adweek. An Amazon spokesperson cited excitement surrounding live sports offerings on Prime Video as a key driver of growth. Amazon is positioned for sustained ad growth if it continues relying on its sports properties to draw advertiser interest in Prime Video. With Prime Video only making up a fraction of Amazon鈥檚 overall ad revenues, the service is far from hitting its ceiling鈥攁nd future investment in tentpole sporting events will put Prime Video on par with its bigger competitors.

The news: YouTube鈥檚 lead in connected TV (CTV) advertising faces a real threat as Amazon Prime Video gains momentum. But that standing might be short-lived鈥擜mazon鈥檚 Prime Video is on track to surpass YouTube as the top CTV advertising platform by 2027, per Morgan Stanley as cited by Business Insider. Our take: Marketers should expect CTV ad dollars to shift toward Amazon鈥檚 ecosystem by 2027. Early investment in Amazon鈥檚 premium, shoppable ads can secure top inventory and sharpen targeting as streaming evolves.

Nearly 80% actively advertise in podcasts already, and ad spend intention for podcasts has reached 69% among agencies and advertisers. Our take: As audiences shift to digital, podcasts demand advertiser investment. Brands that pay attention to the format and take steps to innovate will succeed long-term. Investing in video podcasts will prove most valuable in the long run.

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

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

The situation: Amazon and Google, once bound by a symbiotic relationship in which Amazon funneled ad dollars into Google Search and Google indexed Amazon鈥檚 pages, are now veering toward open conflict as generative AI (genAI) blurs the lines between ecommerce, advertising, and search. Both companies are determined to own the entire journey from discovery to checkout, and that ambition is unraveling what remains of their former d茅tente. Our take: Amazon and Google are racing to define where and how consumers discover and buy products in the genAI era. If Amazon succeeds in walling off its marketplace data and steering shoppers to its own AI interfaces, the retail landscape could splinter into walled gardens where tech giants cooperate far less. That winner鈥憈akes鈥慳ll dynamic might suit the victors, but it risks degrading the overall consumer experience with fewer choices and less transparent pricing. At the same time, it could lead brands and retailers into a margin鈥憇apping race to the bottom inside whichever closed ecosystem proves most dominant.

The news: NFL ads are more effective than anything on linear鈥攂ut ads during streaming-exclusive games outperformed in the 2024-25 season. Streaming ads were 66% more effective than the cable and broadcast average during the most recent NFL season, per data from EDO. Our take: With streaming platforms capturing engaged audiences for tentpole sports like the NFL, advertisers can leverage CTV not just for reach, but for its superior ability to drive measurable action through precision targeting and interactive formats that linear doesn鈥檛 offer.

Amazon, seen as playing catch-up in the AI race, also signed multiyear agreements with Cond茅 Nast and Hearst in July, specifically to power its AI shopping assistant Rufus, per Digiday. Our take: The Amazon鈥揟imes deal underscores the growing value of premium journalism in the AI era, setting a precedent for how tech companies can ethically license high-quality content.

PRO+ subscribers have access to Industry KPIs, our collection of more than 400 benchmarks in marketing and retail and ecommerce across a range of industries and countries. AIOs are eating into traditional search ad real estate. Last May, AIOs took up to 600 pixels of screen space on search results pages, per BrightEdge data.