Month: January 2025

Amazon is again bend-and-snapping up an upfront week presentation slot for 2025, but its second year presenting will have some tweaks. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) today, Amazon announced it will have its second annual upfront presentation on Monday, May 12, at 6:30 p.m. ET at The Beacon Theatre in New York City. The…

The market for absurdist cryptocurrencies mutated into a hundred-billion-dollar phenomenon in 2024. Yes, things can get even more deranged.

In fact, HTML is the most significant computing language ever developed. Underestimate it at your peril.

With a TikTok ban looming, LinkedIn putting a stake in the ground as an influencer platform, and pharma finally finding its footing, 2025 is shaping up to be a transformative year for the world of influencer marketing. We’re about to see some major shifts that will impact how brands operate and where they invest, as…

It’s a new year, which means plenty of opportunity for growth and change in the world of TV. Last year, the TV industry learned a lot amid increasing consolidation, declining upfront prices, and shifting consumption. Now, it appears that ad-supported streaming, new forms of measurement, and commerce media are set to take center stage. As…

By grappling with the messy and unpredictable side of existence, machine learning can have impact beyond the digital.

If Perplexity wants to make a mark on advertising, Andrew Beck will be one to watch.

As head of business development, he’s been at the forefront of convincing advertisers (so far) to buy in — a task he took on just months before the company began selling ads around its search results.

And what a task it is: leading the AI startup’s bold attempt to challenge Google’s auction-based ad system, where marketers bid for sponsored links against search queries. Instead, Perplexity’s model lets marketers sponsor questions, generating AI-produced answers approved by the advertiser. The twist is its reliance on CPMs over CPCs, an unexpected approach for an AI-powered search engine.

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Several new ad networks joined the bevy of existing (and growing) retail media networks last year with new terminology to match: financial media networks, travel media networks and, as of just last month, the (allegedly) first real estate media network (Re/Max). Ah, 2024, the year that nearly every brand (well, every brand that hadn’t yet done so) realized the potential of an ad network. The thinking seems to go, if everyone else has one — and they’re getting the additional revenue from ad dollars — why shouldn’t my brand have one too?

Re/Max aside, the bulk of 2024 ad network debuts took place during the first half of the year (Chase, Revolut, United Airlines, Expedia, T-Mobile, Costco). The second half was quieter for new entrants (PayPal, Grubhub, Thrive Market), but many of the existing players beefed up their capabilities. Walmart finally finishing its Vizio acquisition was likely the biggest example of this. Could it be that all of the brands that were setting up their ad networks had already done so? Have we finally reached peak ad network?

“While the pace of new ad network launches has slowed, it is unlikely that we have fully reached ‘peak ad network,’” surmised Jim Misener, president of creative consultancy 50,000feet. “Instead, the market is likely entering a phase of consolidation and specialization.”

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Every December, the industry churns out breathless predictions about what’s next in media and advertising. Spoiler alert: most of it won’t happen. 

Unified CTV measurement? Influencers with integrity? Ad tech that’s not a black hole for your budget? Dream on. 

Instead of joining the prediction parade, let’s talk about the things we know won’t materialize in 2025 — because some traditions are just too persistent to break.

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Billy (not his real name) is the kind of senior marketer who usually has a hot take for every occasion. Brand safety? He’ll unravel the industrial complex behind it. Transparency? Buckle up; he’ll spill it all.

However, when it comes to Interpublic Group’s Acxiom, Billy’s take is conspicuously missing. It’s not because he’s uninformed; he just doesn’t think IPG has offered enough answers to form an opinion worth having. 

“It [Acxiom] was always much stronger in the U.S. compared to Europe in terms of the IDs at its disposal, so there wasn’t really enough we could’ve done with them,” said Billy, who is one of IPG’s clients. “And even then, it was us pushing for it, not them [IPG].”

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