Global advertising spend surged in the past 48 hours, with WARC upgrading its 2025 forecast to 7.4 percent annual growth, reaching 1.17 trillion dollars. This is a significant upward revision, driven by a strong Q2 and a notable windfall from social media advertising. The dominant platforms—Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon—now attract more than half of all global ad spend outside China and are projected to exceed 60 percent share by 2030. TikTok is gaining ground too, with ad spend on the platform expected to grow at an average of 21.6 percent, capturing 11.7 percent of all social media ad spend by 2027.

Market dynamics shifted further this week as Amazon and Netflix announced a major partnership, enabling programmatic ad buying for Netflix via Amazon’s demand-side platform. This deal, rolling out in Q4 2025 across key global markets, is expected to reshape the landscape for streaming and retail media convergence, making it easier for advertisers to integrate premium TV placements with retail-driven strategies.

Meanwhile, TikTok is finalizing a U.S. operating agreement that will give American investors greater influence, with Oracle taking the lead on data security and algorithm management. This action follows ongoing policy pressure and may affect user perceptions, even as TikTok’s ad business rapidly expands.

Retail media advertising continues a strong climb but at a slightly decelerated pace compared to prior years. Amazon alone is projected to capture 62 billion dollars in retail media ad revenue in 2025, dominating over a third of this fast-growing segment.

Despite robust digital growth, legacy media players are fighting for a shrinking share of incremental ad spend. New content deals, such as the Saudi Pro League’s media rights, signal global expansion and surging international revenues.

In terms of challenges, buyers remain sensitive to pricing and are navigating supply chain pressures and regulatory changes, particularly around data use and privacy. Leaders in the industry are responding by doubling down on data-driven, cross-channel, and programmatic solutions, embracing new partnerships, and investing in influencer and creator strategies to reach younger, digitally native consumers. Compared to previous months, the market is more optimistic, but competition among digital-first giants and regulatory oversight are shaping the next wave of advertising industry transformation.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI