Public support for regulations around warning labels and marketing restrictions raises stakes for food brands’ messaging strategies.

Lawmakers target unbranded pharma campaigns, spotlighting a staple of many drug brand playbooks.

79% of Gen Zers miss pre-ad days on TikTok as distrust, algorithm gripes, and ad overload dent the app’s credibility.

Programmatic dominates display advertising across the UK, France, and Germany. But growth looks different in each country. Market maturity, video momentum, and transaction preferences are reshaping where budgets flow—and how buyers need to adapt.

Performance TV drives growth, but weak transparency undermines trust--meaning marketers should be selective about partners and prioritize contextual targeting.

AI is already disrupting programmatic. Generative search is reshaping web traffic, while agentic buying and curated deals redraw how ads are bought and sold. Expect more automation and more premium pipes, but tougher transparency tradeoffs.

Agentic AI is expanding across ad platforms; CES reveals acceleration in autonomous planning and optimization, even as many marketers hesitate to trust full automation.

45% of creators say working with a high-quality brand is their top priority when considering a brand deal, according to a July 2025 survey from Ipsos and Publicis Media.

Advertisers must understand what makes influencer marketing effective and prioritize vetting to combat distrust.

The Trade Desk is laying off fewer than 1% of its 3,900 employees, a small reduction that nonetheless comes at a pivotal competitive moment. The cuts follow notable departures and last year’s major reorganization, as TTD prepares for an AI-first future centered on Kokai. Agencies say Amazon’s DSP is winning share with lower fees and strong performance, pushing TTD to negotiate pricing and offer service incentives once considered off-limits. At the same time, scrutiny over transparency, reseller accountability, and TTD’s OpenAds wrapper is rising. For marketers, the moves signal a company recalibrating—not retreating—as it works to steady growth heading into 2026.

Reuters reporting suggests Meta has been unable to contain large-scale fraud in its China ad ecosystem. Despite launching a dedicated crackdown in early 2024 that cut violating ads from 19% to 9% of China revenue, enforcement was later relaxed, allowing misconduct to climb back to 16% by mid-2025. A multilayer reseller network, weak overseas deterrence in China, and partner whitelisting made violations difficult to trace. China advertisers still generated more than $18 billion for Meta in 2024, creating tension between revenue goals and quality controls. The case raises sharp questions about platform accountability and advertiser risk.

Streaming TV advertising is moving toward transparency and accountability as DoubleVerify (DV) brings Open Measurement (OM SDK), a standard in desktop and mobile advertising, to streaming environments. Expanding access to OM SDK and providing standards for transparency in streaming will enable advertisers to plan and measure streaming ad campaigns effectively—marking a major industry shift.

Personalization remains one of the most reliable attention drivers, but recent data shows consumers are still uneasy about how brands achieve it. People across age groups feel more negative than positive toward personalized ads—even though they pay more attention to content that feels relevant. The result is a widening gap between consumer expectations and marketer behavior. To unlock personalization’s upside, brands must apply AI to improve relevance and transparency, not just scale output.

Authenticity (35%) and track record (32%) are the top two factors US adults consider when deciding which online product reviewers to trust, according to Ipsos data from October 2025.

AppLovin’s launch of Axon marks its transformation from mobile gaming to full-scale AI ad platform — and one of ad tech’s boldest pivots yet. The new Axon Ads Manager promises real-time AI bidding, Shopify integrations, and transparent attribution as the company positions itself as a performance-driven alternative to Meta and Google. The rollout comes as the SEC investigates AppLovin’s data practices, spotlighting the tension between AI-powered innovation and compliance. Marketers see opportunity — regulators see risk.

A new Billion Dollar Boy study shows marketers are spending more on AI-generated creator content—even as audiences grow wary. Seventy-nine percent of marketers increased AI investment this year, and 77% plan to shift more budget to AI-driven creator campaigns. Yet audience enthusiasm for AI content has plunged from 60% in 2023 to 26% in 2025, reflecting frustration with formulaic, unlabeled “AI slop.” As the creator economy enters its “post-AI” phase, the challenge isn’t whether to use AI—it’s how to use it without losing authenticity.

Horizon Media and Havas are teaming up in a new $20 billion joint venture, Horizon Global, designed to add scale without a full merger. Headquartered in New York, the entity will focus on U.S.-centric global accounts while Horizon and Havas continue operating independently. Horizon Global unites Horizon’s Blu platform and Havas’ Converged.AI into a new system called BluConverged, billed as the first AI-native media network. The move comes as Omnicom and Interpublic finalize a $13.5 billion merger, intensifying competition across the agency sector. Horizon Global offers clients a more flexible, performance-based alternative to mega-holdcos weighed down by bureaucracy.

Google introduced new features for Demand Gen campaigns and said it will publish monthly, newsletter-style updates to keep marketers on track with the latest Demand Gen updates. Google is moving to chip away at advertisers’ black-box concerns by adding more visibility, measurement, and testing options into Demand Gen, signaling its push toward greater transparency and control for campaign performance.

AI search engine Perplexity is facing potential ad business struggles with the departure of its head of advertising Taz Patel. The departure comes as Perplexity eyes new avenues for growth and is faced with legal pressures, per Adweek. Patel’s departure signals a deeper issue with AI search ad monetization, reflecting advertiser hesitation to spend without proven formats, measurement, and ROI, even as AI adoption grows.

The news: Meta is moving forward with its ad automation ambitions by introducing new options to consolidate ad targeting, per a company announcement. Meta’s Ads Manager page noted that “some detailed targeting options have been combined,” and that ads using now-unavailable options no longer deliver starting in January. Our take: Automated AI campaigns are the path forward as long as giants like Meta continue pushing for automation and away from manual—necessitating advertisers take key steps to adapt. Campaign goals must be reframed for an AI-first environment.