The news: More than one-third (38%) of parents are stressed about affording back-to-school items, per Zip’s back-to-school survey. Our take: Given the level of strain for parents, BNPL providers have an opportunity to pitch their alternative credit models to overstretched families. Targeted marketing campaigns around back-to-school season and easy opportunities to use installments in store and online through BNPL-enabled cards and partnerships can strengthen spend.

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.

Total time spent with media per day in the US is no longer growing meaningfully, but there will still be significant churn between devices, activities, and platforms as consumers choose how to spend their time.

US consumers will spend 8.6 hours daily with digital media in 2025. How they divide that time across devices is evolving as video content drives strong growth in connected TV usage.

Top-line time spent with media will grow very little in the US going forward, making it essential to identify which formats and platforms are winning the newly zero-sum competition for consumer attention.

Consumer tech spending expected to reach record $537 billion in 2025—unless tariffs get in the way: The need to replace pandemic-era purchases and interest in AI-powered features will spur demand, assuming prices stay steady.

Disruption is imminent for programmatic. The market teeters on the brink of several seismic shifts around identity and audience data. And a landmark antitrust ruling could energize an already hot ad tech consolidation streak.

People worldwide spent less time with media across all categories except mobile (which remained the same) in H1 2024 as compared with H1 2023, per GWI data.

Advertisers won’t have to quit third-party cookies cold turkey, but long-standing market dynamics around access to quality data aren’t going anywhere.

Programmatic will account for more than 9 in 10 display ad dollars this year. How it fares as the last legacy identifiers die out will make or break the future of digital advertising.

The Asia-Pacific coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The Canada coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from internet user respondents in H1 2023 conducted by GWI.

The Central and Eastern Europe coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Turkey.

The Latin America coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

The Middle East and Africa coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Southeast Asia coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The United States coverage in the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from internet user respondents in H1 2023 conducted by GWI.

The Western Europe region of the Global Media Intelligence Report includes poll results from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK.

The 13th annual Global Media Intelligence Report details media and device usage in 47 markets and compares regions for a look at how people spend their media time—and where they do it.

US adults will spend an average of 230.3 minutes per day on mobile in 2023, according to our forecast. While they will spend less time with connected TV (CTV), at 114.9 minutes per day, the gap between CTV and mobile is shrinking.