The news: Brands are ramping up influencer investment and creator rates are skyrocketing following Unilever’s commitment to allocate half of its advertising budget on an “influencer-first” strategy. Numerous influencer and social agencies “unanimously” claimed a notable increase in client spend on influencer marketing since Unilever’s announcement, per sources cited by The Drum. Our take: Unilever has accelerated a trend that was already in motion, signaling the broader shift among advertisers toward influencer-led strategies that deliver consistent engagement and targeted reach among key demographics.

The news: Podcasts audiences are growing and becoming a more valuable channel for brand discovery. 73% of US adults over 12 have watched or listened to a podcast, per Edison Research’s The Podcast Consumer 2025 report. 65% of all podcast fans feel grateful to brands that support their favorite podcasts. Our take: Podcasts are platform agnostic and consumed actively, making them a standout medium for savvy advertisers. Partnering with shows and hosts whose content aligns with brand messaging and product offerings can help ads come across as authentic and maximize campaign efficacy.

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 news: Magnite and Dentsu are expanding their partnership in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region to streamline video and connected TV (CTV) capabilities, per a press release. The agreement will use Magnite’s SpringServe video platform across markets like the UK and Spain to support Dentsu’s programmatic CTV offering, Total TV. Our take: Magnite and Dentsu’s partnership marks a critical expansion, giving advertisers a better opportunity to deliver impactful, precise, and measurable video and CTV experiences at scale across key markets.

The news: Dentsu recently launched Robmix, a new business embedding itself in Roblox’s culture and users, per a Dentsu press release. Robmix is a platform created with the goal of “discovering and developing the next generation of creators” on Roblox and focuses on entertainment opportunities related to Roblox users. Our take: Dentsu’s latest move gets ahead of the in-game wave, capitalizing on the future of marketing where creators and advertisers are increasingly turning to gaming as a critical opportunity to reach audiences when they’re most engaged.

Incrementality has always been the holy grail of retail media. But lately, it’s taken on greater importance as ad budgets are squeezed and retail media networks (RMNs) fight for their share of ad dollars.

M&A activity in the marcom space fell 37% in 2024: The decline shows a field in peril—but preparing for a rebound promises success.

The 2024 US presidential election ushered in a new normal in brand safety, with prominent social media companies such as X and Meta shifting the burden of content moderation from internal teams and contractors to users.

Retail media networks (RMNs) are eyeing the open web as an opportunity for scaled growth, but successfully integrating retailer data off-platform won’t happen overnight.

The ad agency ecosystem is vast, complex, and ever-changing. It now faces changes brought on by AI and clients’ shifting preferences over how and where to spend their advertising dollars.

Roblox could kick down the door to an in-game advertising boom: The gaming and metaverse platform is deepening ties to the ad industry and hiring for ad tech roles.

Several retailers look to harness generative AI’s potential: Instacart, Walmart, and Levi Strauss are among those testing potential use cases for the emerging technology.

Even as digital makes steady gains in Japan, traditional media continues to play an important role in the lives of adults, as reflected by media time spent. This is due, in part, to an aging population—and it’s one of the reasons why time spent with digital video lags TV.