A new study shows that while commerce media enthusiasm is high, actual readiness is far lower. Nearly half of respondents believe they are operationalized, yet only 13% qualify as advanced across leadership, technology, and measurement. Most fall into nascent or emerging categories, limited by siloed workflows, manual creative processes, and fragmented data systems that prevent closed-loop attribution. Advertisers seeking accountable, performance-driven programs may be surprised by how few networks can truly support scaled, automated operations. The findings highlight a widening gap between ambition and capability—and the need for unified data, automation, and clearer measurement.

The New York Times is posting advertising momentum as its proprietary AI stack reshapes how marketers reach premium audiences. Q3 ad revenues climbed 11.8%, with digital ads rising more than 20% and generative AI tool BrandMatch now powering more than 150 campaigns. NYT’s first-party data engine interprets emotional cues, reading patterns, and topic affinities to deliver precise contextual placements—fueling strong campaign lift for partners such as Crown Publishing and Belmond. With 11.76 million digital subscribers and a diversified product suite, NYT’s fully owned ecosystem gives it targeting capabilities most publishers cannot replicate.

The IAB’s 2025 Creator Economy report shows creator marketing has become a full-fledged media channel—one projected to reach $37.1 billion in spend next year, growing 26% YoY and outpacing the broader ad market by a factor of four. Nearly half of advertisers now call creators a must-buy, yet workflows remain fragmented across budgets, discovery tools, and measurement systems. With AI accelerating both production and complexity, the report lays out the emerging mandate: treat creator marketing as its own discipline with centralized budgets, standardized vetting, unified measurement, and formal AI governance. For marketers, real performance now requires real structure.

As retail media moves from side business to centerpiece, big brands are prioritizing measurement and efficiency to cement the channel as a mature budget item. Retail media will grow almost 20% this year (19.4%) to reach $58.79 billion, according to EMARKETER's September 2025 forecast. In recent earnings calls, tech leaders described a channel that is now about solid data, AI-driven relevance, and reshaping how advertisers reach shoppers.

Latin America’s digital ad market is transforming as new formats, channels, and players emerge. Understanding the market forces, challenges, and opportunities driving these shifts is key to staying competitive in this fast-evolving landscape.

This benchmark covers how ad buyers can calibrate their retail media ad spending and budget allocations against the market, and how publishers and solution providers can assess whether their ad revenues align with industry trends.

The Trade Desk posted another strong quarter, with revenue up 18% to $739 million and EBITDA margins above 40%, but CEO Jeff Green’s focus remains philosophical. On the Q3 call, Green said the company’s “AI-first” Kokai platform and new tools—Open Ads, Deal Desk, Audience Unlimited, and Trading Modes—position TTD as the infrastructure layer of an open, transparent internet. CTV now accounts for half of total revenue, with Disney and Hearst partnerships lifting publisher yields by 23%. Yet Green acknowledged the open web’s challenges, calling the vision “more aspirational than factual” as walled gardens tighten control.

LiveRamp CEO Scott Howe says marketers are now fighting a “war for signals”—a race to collect, clean, and connect data fast enough to prove every dollar’s impact. Speaking alongside Q2 earnings of $200 million (up 8%), Howe described marketing’s new reality as “precision and proof.” LiveRamp’s clean room tech now lets brands merge data across partners like Netflix, Uber, and PayPal to tie spend directly to transactions. With AI acceleration and data collaboration redefining performance, Howe says growth depends less on scale and more on signal speed: “Access to better data gets the flywheel going—and determines who wins.”

Reddit’s Q3 earnings confirmed what advertisers have suspected: the platform’s community-driven ad model can scale profitably. Revenue jumped 68% to $585 million, crushing Wall Street estimates, while EPS of $0.80 easily beat forecasts. Global daily actives climbed 19% to 116 million, though US user growth slowed to 7%, down from 12% last quarter. Data licensing revenue rose 7% as Reddit continues to defend its content from unauthorized AI scraping—a fight central to its long-term strategy. For advertisers, Reddit’s results underscore its strength as a high-intent, performance-focused channel—even as slower domestic user growth raises questions about future expansion.

At the Marketecture conference, MiQ’s global VP of strategy and partnerships, Moe Chughtai, said advertisers are finally connecting platforms like Meta, YouTube, and TV through clean room technologies that enable unified measurement. Traditional marketing mix models are being replaced by one- to three-month measurement cycles that allow for real-time optimization and smarter KPI alignment. The result: advertisers can move beyond isolated reporting and toward integrated, cross-platform performance strategies that strengthen confidence in ROI.

Travel media networks like Marriott, Expedia, and Uber are tapping loyalty data to compete in commerce media. To drive growth, TMNs are turning to off-site activations, cross-industry partnerships, and non-endemic advertising.

A Yext analysis of 6.8 million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity found that 86% of AI-generated answers rely on brand-managed content—from official websites and listings to reviews. First-party sites led with 44% of citations, followed by listings (42%) and reviews (8%). The findings suggest AI models increasingly trust structured, authoritative data over publisher or community sources. But fewer users click through—only 8% from AI summaries versus 15% from standard search—indicating that generative platforms are capturing more engagement directly. To stay discoverable, marketers must pair clean, structured first-party data with strong social visibility as AI search reshapes traffic flows.

Video is now core to B2B marketing. This report shows how trust-building through creators, as well as increased AI use, are supporting video’s rise—and how to link performance to pipeline despite rising costs and resource gaps.

B2B digital ad spending is rising as marketers lean into formats that build visibility and engagement. Video and display are growing faster than search, reshaping strategies to reach decision-makers.

The Trade Desk unveiled Audience Unlimited, a new tool designed to simplify and lower the cost of third-party data. The product bundles hundreds of data sources at a consistent price and uses AI to rank relevance, letting advertisers access as much as needed without unpredictable fees. The launch aims to make programmatic buying faster, cheaper, and more effective.

Latin America’s retail media ecosystem is expanding fast as new players, formats, and solutions draw in more ad dollars. But limited self-service offerings and the lack of standardized metrics hinder its full potential.

The NFL is challenging Nielsen’s ratings accuracy, with chief data and analytics officer Paul Ballew telling the Wall Street Journal the firm is “systematically undercounting” millions of viewers. Nielsen countered that its new “Big Data + Panel” product—combining set-top box data with digital signals from 45 million homes—makes this season the most accurate yet. The dispute highlights mounting pressure on Nielsen as streaming reshapes sports viewership. While rivals gain traction, Nielsen remains the dominant measurement firm, but slow integration of first-party data from streaming services leaves major partners like the NFL frustrated. The debate underscores urgency in modernizing TV ratings.

In-store retail media is Europe’s next big ad opportunity. But as retailers digitize stores, standardization and measurement challenges are dragging advertiser adoption.

Google is enhancing its retail ad offerings with loyalty-driven personalization tools aimed at retention. New features include personalized pricing and shipping perks for loyalty members, a “loyalty mode” in Google Ads’ retention goal to optimize for high-lifetime-value customers, and personalized annotations in Performance Max campaigns. Sephora, an early adopter, reported a 20% lift in click-through rates from loyalty-focused annotations. The launch comes as loyalty ranks high on shoppers’ holiday priorities and as CMOs lean on loyalty programs to bolster first-party data. With Amazon pulling away from Google, the updates position Ads as a retention engine in the retail fight.

Microsoft reported $76.4 billion in Q2 revenue, up 18% YoY, as cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and embedded AI drove strong performance. Microsoft Cloud grew 27% to $46.7 billion, and Azure's annual run rate surpassed $75 billion, overtaking Google Cloud. Enterprise adoption of tools like Dynamics 365 continues to rise, reinforcing Microsoft’s role in AI-powered operations. Following the report, Microsoft’s market cap crossed $4 trillion. The company plans to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while showing capital discipline. Microsoft is positioning itself as the foundational enterprise platform for the AI era.