Nate Carter, vp, global sales, agency and identity, Dun & Bradstreet

Marketers today are operating in the aftermath of a fundamental shift. The signals that once powered precise targeting are disappearing. Regulatory crackdowns, shifts in consumer behavior and changes among major ad platforms have all converged to create a fragmented, foggy view of the customer journey. 

Even Google’s announcement that it will not introduce a separate consent prompt for third-party cookies in Chrome changes very little. The reliability of third-party cookies for cross-channel consumer understanding has always been limited. These days, given the deprecation of cookies in other browsers and the rise of so many inherently cookieless environments, the collective signal thrown off by third-party cookies has never been weaker. 

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As economic uncertainty and talk of recession intensifies, automakers face an uphill battle in everything from tariff impacts on production costs to fluctuating consumer spending in response to inflation. 

The uncertainty has left marketers shaken because it’s historically meant cuts to marketing budgets. But as one of the biggest spending categories in media and marketing, auto makers aren’t ready to take their foot off the gas just yet. To put some numbers to it, automotive media spend in the U.S. is expected to hit $31.77 billion this year, up from $29.48 billion in 2024, according to eMarketer.

In January, Digiday reported auto marketers aren’t slowing ad spend in light of tariff tension. Recently, Digiday caught up with Denise Cherry, vp of marketing at Rivian, an electric vehicle company, about how the car brand is navigating economic headwinds, why it’s launching its first ever brand campaign now, and planning for the long term amidst uncertainty.

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Pharmaceutical advertisers are one of the biggest television spenders in the U.S. Collectively, they’ve injected $2.18 billion into linear media this year already, according to iSpot data.

But this year’s upfronts have thrown a spotlight on the growing list of challenges facing marketers in the space, from turbulent economic conditions to the looming threat of a pharmaceutical TV ad ban floated by U.S. secretary of health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“Pharma is the port in the storm. When other categories might be pulling back, it’s not unusual to see pharma stay flat to up, in terms of overall investment,” Publicis Health Media CEO Andrea Palmer told Digiday.

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You’ve seen the headlines: “The TCF is illegal.” “RTB ruled unlawful.” But as usual in advertising, the truth is less clickbait, more caveat.

What did happen is this: Belgium’s Court of Appeal finally weighed in on the long-running saga around the Transparency and Consent Framework — the industry’s de facto permission slip for tracking-based advertising in the European Union. Depending on who you ask, the ruling was a win for privacy, a loss for business or just more fuel for a fight that’s far from over. One thing’s clear: it didn’t end the debate — it sharpened it.

Still parsing it all? We’ve got you. Here’s what actually happened, and what it means for Google, Amazon, IAB Europe and just about everyone else in the tracking-based ad economy. 

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The closure of Microsoft Advertising’s demand-side platform is part of a broader shift toward AI-powered advertising and (arguably) the dawn of a new world order, one where Big Tech and independents operate in separate spheres.

That’s the opinion of several Digiday sources consulted in the days since the May 14 announcement, with some wondering what the second-order impact, or opportunity for both independent DSPs and sell-side players.

Last week, Microsoft Advertising told clients it would stop supporting its demand-side platform, Xandr Invest, starting in February. This was an apparent echo of the planned closure of Microsoft’s retail media network, PromoteIQ, as it appears to be consolidating its online advertising offering. 

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Upfront Week is over; let the upfront negotiations begin. Sorta.

In the past, last week’s Upfront Week presentations by TV and streaming ad sellers would be swiftly followed by the start of the annual haggle with advertisers and their agencies. But the TV and streaming ad market has become more of an always-on marketplace.

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Search marketing, once a relatively narrow and technical sect of marketing, is becoming much more wide-ranging.

One year in from the launch of Google’s AI Overviews, adoption of AI-assisted search tools has led to the rise of so-called “zero-click search,” meaning that users terminate their search journeys without clicking a link to a website.

“People don’t search anymore. They’re prompting, they’re gesturing,” said Craig Elimeliah, chief creative officer at Code and Theory.

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One year after the launch of Google’s generative AI search feature, AI Overviews, publishers are recalibrating.

One publisher is rethinking its SEO strategy, backing away from optimizing content for long-tail search queries. Another is reinvesting in exclusives, scoops and breaking news — prioritizing urgency over evergreen stories. A third is actively working to reduce its reliance on Google for traffic altogether.

These are just some of the ways publishers are shifting their strategies, having learned what’s working — and what isn’t — since the launch of Google’s AI Overviews.

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OK, ad marketplace — media buyers, marketers and all associated media players — what you just experienced this past week wasn’t an upfront. It was a sportsfront.

Sports content, both live games and all manner of shows around sports, dominated the upfront presentations like no other source of programming. From new NBA and NFL rights holders, to sports-themed series, to Michael Jordan returning to TV in some vaguely-defined capacity with NBC Universal’s NBA coverage, sports dominated all the upfront conversations and even some of the prior week’s NewFronts. 

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After more than two decades in the holdco machine, Marcy Samet knew that striking out on her own likely meant a one-way ticket. For years, the industry ran on a reliable cycle: execs left bloated networks, built indie shops then cashed out by selling right back into the machine. But that cycle’s losing steam. The exits keep coming but the re-entries aren’t always part of the plan anymore.

“There are more options open now for people like me,” said Samet, who left her role as a growth specialist at IPG last summer. 

By “people like me”, she means the wave of senior execs leaving the holdcos in droves. Some jumped, others were pushed — many under compromised agreements that allow a push to look like a jump. Whatever the backstory, the draw of starting something new has never felt strong. Not because returning is too cutthroat or bruising, but because — for the first time in a long time — it feels like building something that can stand on its own is actually possible.

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Jimmy Fallon greeted the crowd at what he called “the NBA upfront” before correcting himself at the NBCUniversal upfront presentation on May 12. He had it right the first time.

Sports has played a primary role in TV networks’ and more recently streaming services’ upfront shows for years. But this year it was the show and is expected by agency executives to dictate the upfront marketplace to a greater degree than previously.

While many ad buyers expect the amount of money committed in this year’s upfront overall across traditional TV and streaming to be flat if not down compared to last year, the sports side of the upfront is another story.

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Pinterest is still a minor line item on most media plans, but agency execs say that could change fast if its ad platform keeps evolving.

Five ad buyers told Digiday their clients’ PInterest budgets remain small. None offered exact figures but the direction of travel is clear. Even with modest spend, momentum among buyers is building.

“For those where it [Pinterest] is part of the plan, we’ve seen investment levels range from 0.50% to 11% of their budgets over the past year or so,” said Andrew Richardson, senior vice president, advanced analytics and measurement at New Engen.

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Google’s AI Overviews feature marked its first birthday this week.

The feature shows users AI generated summaries at the top of their search queries, ahead of links to articles and websites. As the AI-generated summaries have become more common in search results, marketers have begun actively examining how their sites can appeal to both human users and AI crawlers, throwing established SEO strategies into question. They’re also keeping a close eye on the performance of their paid search investments.

Overviews has been credited with cratering search traffic to publisher and brand sites since it was launched in the U.S. on May 14 last year. Clickthrough rates for publisher Mail Online fell over 56% as a result of the Overviews appearing in search results, for example. Meanwhile, 80% of consumers resolve 40% of their searches without going further than the search results page, according to research published in December by consultancy Bain.

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Earlier this week, it emerged that Microsoft is shutting down its demand-side platform, Xandr Invest. This move signals the broader strategic shift toward AI-driven advertising and an end to the old AppNexus as many once knew it. 

Related Insights

The Programmatic Marketer

Microsoft Advertising is closing the Xandr DSP, layoffs pending Read More

The company informed clients on May 14 that the DSP would cease operations by Feb. 28, 2026, citing misalignment with its evolving priorities.

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Parallel to the glitz and glamour of the upfront conversations this week, ad tech execs have also been congregating en masse in New York City, with DMS by LUMA a highlight of the past five days for such types.

The May 13 event was capped off with The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green discussing the evolving digital advertising landscape on stage. The discussion included Google’s prolonged deliberations on whether it should deprecate cookies, The Trade Desk’s recent financial performance, and its TV-play Ventura.

‘Big Google’ wants to maintain cookies

Green was vocal in his doubts that Google would follow through on its initial intention to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome, a position that made him a voice in the wilderness in 2020.

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AI is speeding up everything in advertising — except how advertisers pay agencies, which is still moving at a crawl. 

There are early signs — just look at Sir Martin Sorrell’s latest quarterly reflections — but, he, his peers and their clients are still in the foothills of this shift, not anywhere near the summit.

“AI has not as of yet transformed the remuneration model,” said Forrester analyst Jay Pattissall.

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This State of the Industry Report, produced in partnership with Piano, explores how publishers engage with social media, specifically paid social media, what strategies they use, the challenges they encounter and how they plan to overcome them.

As social platforms become more fragmented and organic reach continues to decline, publishers and media companies are leaning more heavily on paid social to meet specific business objectives. But without clear, effective strategies in place, paid campaigns risk falling short — leading to missed goals, budget overruns and underwhelming performance. Determining the most efficient and impactful ways to deploy paid social is ever-critical.

To successfully manage paid social campaigns that deliver impact while separating publishers and media companies from competitors and providing value to consumers, teams need a strategic approach that combines leveraging data, testing and thoughtful campaign design.

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The creator economy is growing rapidly, but the technology infrastructure required to manage and scale it has yet to catch up. It’s a problem that some creator platforms are now trying to solve.

Major creator platforms CreatorIQ and Captiv8 expanded their measurement and AI functions last week for creator vetting and brand safety for brands and agency users working with creators. Other creator platforms are also expanding in their own focus areas, like Upfluence integrating with Shopify or Grin recently adding social listening and affiliate tools. Other platforms, like shopping app LTK or creator marketplace Aspire, are pitching themselves as specialists in creator commerce and affiliate marketing management.

The moves come as major marketers continue to increase their influencer marketing spending; Unilever said this year it plans to work with “20 times” more influencers. Meanwhile, the creator industry is projected to reach some $480 billion in size by 2027 from $250 billion in 2024, per Goldman Sachs.

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Tariffs are creating confusion in the marketplace, and retailers and advertisers alike are anxiously waiting to see how they will impact the economy. In this edition of the Digiday+ Research Briefing, we examine the impact of tariffs on consumers, retailers and advertisers. As uncertainty remains, we look at some different predictions and their impacts.

A University of Pennsylvania Wharton study noted the increase in economic uncertainty driven by tariffs: “Economic policy uncertainty can be quantified using the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) Index, a measure designed to capture uncertainty surrounding economic policy decisions. By the end of March, the EPU reached its highest point since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, doubling in value from the start of January.”

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This week’s Media Briefing looks at publishers facing the slow erosion of search referral traffic amid the shift towards generative AI search experiences — and the pressure to plan more proactively for that future.

• With AI-driven updates coming for search referral traffic, publishers are starting to plan for a more “zero-click” future.
• The Washington Post’s leadership struggles to find cohesion, L.A. Times owner doubles down on presidential endorsement decision, and more.

Publishers face a ‘zero-click’ future

Search is in flux. 

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