Data-Labor-Technology

Uncertainty around TikTok’s future in the U.S. led many advertisers to slam the brakes on their advertising there. Others treated the turmoil as a green light. 

Walmart, Coca-Cola, Comcast, PepsiCo, Warner Bros Discovery, Google and Amazon have increased their U.S. social media spend on the platform by two percentage points, on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter of 2025, according to Sensor Tower. 

Those seven brands were also some of TikTok’s top spending U.S. advertisers in 2024, per the market intelligence firm. However, PepsiCo and Amazon declined to comment on this, while the other five companies did not respond to Digiday’s request for comment.

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This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how the programmatic guaranteed versus private marketplace debate is shaping up as programmatic becomes an upfront fixture.

• Get with the programmatic
• Amazon’s studio chief exits, Disney’s DE&I dilemma and more

Get with the programmatic

Programmatic has firmly become part of the upfront. “There was a huge swing last year,” said one agency executive, referring to TV network and streaming services being more willing to allow advertisers’ programmatic spend to count toward their upfront commitments.

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With influencer marketing budgets steadily rising, more multinational brands are partnering with influencer agencies as the industry becomes more complex.

The World Federation of Advertisers released a report today showing that some 54% of multinational brand marketers plan to boost influencer marketing spend in 2025, with 61% agreeing that influencer marketing will become more important in the future. However, due to ongoing challenges navigating the space, like issues with disclosures and transparency on creator campaigns, more brands are employing the help of agencies that play a role in influencer marketing.

“Budgets will reflect this as will the increased usage of partners with expertise in influencer marketing,” said Will Gilroy, director of communications and strategy at WFA. “But this opportunity is a double-edged sword unless we get it right through responsible practices.”

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Being small and less data-dependent aren’t always selling points for attracting search advertisers. But in the case of one privacy-focused browser, both are core selling points.

Since introducing search ads in 2024, Brave has courted big brand budgets, pitching itself as the place to squeeze out incremental gains beyond Google’s well-trodden turf.

Part of its differentiation lies in how it matches ads to queries without using behavioral or personal data. Rather than relying on traditional keyword targeting — and the endless back-and-forth of asking marketers “what keywords do you want?” Using embeddings, Brave offers contextual ads with a system mapping queries and ads into the same semantic space, allowing it to match users with relevant results based on meaning and intent, not just exact phrasing.

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The payment company rolled out the US division in October.

Snapchat first started testing Sponsored Snaps in October to accelerate the growth of its ad business by reaching users directly in their chat inboxes with vertical full-screen branded content.

It’s the culmination of a weeks-long standoff between Elon Musk’s DOGE team and the United States Institute of Peace.

Meta’s VP of AI Research Joelle Pineau says she plans to leave the company at the end of May. She says “as the race for AI accelerates, and as Meta prepares for its next chapter, it is time to create
space for others to pursue the work.”

The Austin ABC affiliate said Mays co-anchored Daybreak alongside Yvonne Nava for eight consecutive years until 2020.

The selections followed a formal review that began last year and was managed by ID Comms.