This Tactics + Insights guide, sponsored by Simpli.fi, explores how brands and agencies can successfully navigate sudden and continuous market disruptions by prioritizing omnichannel strategies.

Disruption has become a defining feature of digital advertising. Seismic regulatory shifts, like the recent antitrust ruling against Google by the Department of Justice or the ongoing legislative scrutiny of TikTok, can instantly redraw the rules of engagement and send ripples through the industry that last for years.

At the same time, cultural flashpoints and breaking news stories can erupt without warning, complicating brand safety protocols and forcing campaigns to adapt in real time. In an era when a single headline can dominate the news cycle, marketers can be left with few safe places to pivot.

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When the economy turns sour, marketers are the first in their businesses to taste it, especially the ones on in-house teams.

Just last month, PepsiCo reportedly handed off parts of its internal creative studio to VaynerMedia, prompting some staff exits. Weeks later, Keurig Dr Pepper pulled the plug on its in-house creative team entirely, according to Ad Age.

And this may just be the start. 

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The recent reframing of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s public image as an unabashed figure with more “masculine energy” has sparked controversy in recent years, primarily due to the associated political implications. 

However, it was in an interview earlier this month that his comments to Stratechery, where he outlined his vision of Meta using AI to become a one-stop shop for advertisers, dubbed “infinite creative.”  

The reaction among agency execs has been understandably distressed, with vocal detractors highlighting the pitfalls of advertisers signing up to such proposals.  

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This week’s Media Briefing looks at advertising spend going to publishers, and which categories are faring well and not so well.

• Q2 ad revenue is pacing well, but publishers are dealing with some delays and jitters from advertisers.
• Politico’s newsroom in legal fight with management over AI use, Washington Post tech workers unionize, and more.

Market check

With President Donald Trump’s tariffs looming, publishers are dealing with some jitters from their advertisers. Fortunately, that hasn’t resulted in a bad second quarter for publishers. But it’s making planning for the rest of the year more difficult.

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Google’s rollout of AI Mode to search has rattled publishers, reinforcing fears of a future where the platform stops sending traffic to publishers’ sites outright in lieu of their AI-generated summaries. 

While that may still be a ways away, Google’s other generative AI search feature AI Overviews has already given publishers a glimpse into a future of Google search without the classic blue links. Daily Mail reported a nearly 44% lower clickthrough rate since the debut of AI Overviews. Another publishing exec told Digiday they had seen a 1-4% decline in page views.

So who stands to gain from AI Mode? And what else is threatened by Google’s integration of AI in search?

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LinkedIn has introduced a range of creator metrics aimed at giving brands and marketers deeper insights into the platform’s influence and ROI.

As of Wednesday (May 28), LinkedIn creators can now track how many profile views and followers they gain from each post, as well as how many times each post generates a click on creators’ “custom buttons” — which direct followers to creators’ online stores, newsletters or other web pages of their choice.

The “followers gained from this post” metric can, for instance, help creators understand how their posts are driving growth, which they can leverage when working with brands, according to LinkedIn vp of product management Gyanda Sachdeva. “‘Premium custom button interactions’ (like clicks to a website or newsletter for Premium members), on the other hand, gives them a way to show how their content drives action, which can be valuable in securing partnerships,” Sachdeva added. 

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Lindsay Shelton, director, North America, VIOOH

Not all screens are created equal, and in the modern fragmented marketplace, how advertisers access and activate the best placements can make or break a campaign.

Brands need guaranteed access to premium screens — those high-traffic, high-visibility environments that turn heads to drive engagement and action — but traditional OOH buying methods aren’t able to offer the dynamic data-triggered opportunities marketers have grown accustomed to in digital display. 

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This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how Amazon and YouTube are dangling incentives to get advertisers to buy more CTV inventory through their respective demand-side platforms.

• ‘Everyone’s trying to undercut The Trade Desk’
• YouTube poaches Disney exec, NBCU eyes MLB rights, Google debuts gen AI moviemaker and more

‘Everyone’s trying to undercut The Trade Desk’

Forget about the streaming wars; let’s talk about the connected TV ad battle. Specifically how Amazon and Google are looking to lay siege to The Trade Desk’s CTV ad business.

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It’s only been six months since Perplexity launched its ad business, but advertisers are already hungry for it to grow up fast and prove it’s more than just another shiny object.

Six media buyers Digiday spoke to say they want to see more from the AI-powered search engine, which has been tested by the likes of Indeed, Whole Foods, Universal McCann and PMG since November, when they signed up as the first brand and agency partners to the platform. The ads, tucked beside answers and marked “sponsored” are subtle but the expectations are anything but. Marketers are curious, the buyers said, but Perplexity hasn’t offered enough ad opportunities to match that energy.

Related Insights

Generative AI

Perplexity’s pitch deck offers advertisers a new vision for AI search Read More

So far opportunities to test Perplexity’s ads haven’t gone beyond the limited pilot group, said one ad exec who exchanged anonymity for candor. However, the AI-platform’s Merchant Program — an initiative which also launched last November, and is designed to give large and small retailers access to Perplexity’s users seeking AI-powered shopping recommendations, as well as increase product visibility, without any commission fees — is another way to get on board.

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Fine dining and globe-trotting travel have been displacing mere objects as consumer status symbols ever since Instagram first arrived on the app store way back in 2010.

It’s a shift that brand marketers have long sought to connect with. Few have been as persistent as Mastercard, though. The payments brand first began marketing around “experiences” almost 10 years back, according to CMO Raja Rajamannar; it first unveiled its “Priceless.com” loyalty platform in 2016.

A recent survey by research firm Dynata of 15,000 European consumers appears to validate that strategy. Despite the hairy economic circumstances facing shoppers across the continent, 70% said they wouldn’t hold back from spending on experiences like eating out or tourism.

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This is the third installment in Digiday+ Research’s 2025 CMO Strategies series that analyzes key marketer strategies and challenges across leading marketing channels, including ad-supported streaming, retail media, display advertising and social media.

Display advertising remains big business in the U.S. and its growth shows no signs of stopping. In 2024, digital display ad spending in the U.S. totaled $74.3 billion, up 12% from $66.1 billion the year prior, according to Statista.

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For ad tech bosses, the IPO dream is no longer just a late-night fantasy, it’s starting to look like a real possibility. 

“Look” being the operative word. Nothing’s guaranteed but there is momentum. MNTN’s splashy debut on the New York Stock Exchange last week didn’t just grab attention, it lit a signal flare. Priced at $16 a share on May 21, the company hit the market with a $1.2 billion valuation – right at the top of investor expectations. By Friday, it was already at $28. On Tuesday, it was around $26.

“This could be a meaningful moment for the CTV advertising ecosystem, even if MNTN itself is still relatively small in the grand scheme of AdTech,” said Karsten Weide, principal and chief analyst at W Media Research. “They’ve got a few strong things going for them: the backing of Morgan Stanley gives the IPO some institutional credibility, and the cachet of Ryan Reynolds as chief creative officer continues to generate attention well beyond the industry bubble.”

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The Future Leader Awards, presented by Digiday, Glossy, Modern Retail and WorkLife, recognize the next generation of leaders making a big impact in their industry, with 10 years of experience or less. 

This year’s finalists stand out for their bold innovation, measurable impact and deep connection to the audiences they serve. Each has harnessed data to shape strategy, delivered campaigns that drive real results or pushed creative boundaries within their roles. From cultural relevance to community engagement, these leaders are not just keeping pace with the industry — they’re setting it.

Alice Severs, for example, associate strategy director at T Brand Studio of New York Times Advertising, is nominated as a Digiday Future Leader in the publisher category for her standout work shaping how financial brands communicate with audiences. 

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Ad spending held steady in Q1, but the rest of the year is shaping up to be a far murkier story.

With companies adjusting earnings forecasts and the upfront market losing steam, the signs are clear: Advertisers are easing off the gas. Blame the tariff effect, or more precisely, the anxiety they’ll get steeper and hit harder than expected. In an already fragile economy, even the boldest marketers are treading carefully.

“Normally, we get visibility on ad spending six to nine months ahead for CMOs whereas now that’s three months,” said Tal Jacobson, CEO of ad tech vendor Perion. “They’re not necessarily spending less so much as they’re being careful.”

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Alphabet’s AI advancements continue to wow Wall Street, but they’re raising eyebrows with regulators in Washington, D.C., and last week’s launches at Google Marketing Live should cause advertisers on Madison Avenue to reserve judgment. 

Despite several tussles with the Justice Department and hand-wringing over the fate of third-party cookies, the company’s stock price popped last week, as the markets gauged Alphabet’s revenue plans following the Google I/O and Google Marketing Live announcements. 

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When programmatic media buying first started heating up in the early 2000s, it promised scale, efficiency and more precise ad placements. But some of that promise has worn off. Programmatic marketers are weary, wading through an opaque web of ad tech middlemen, questionable inventory quality and murky measurement. Marketers are now looking at retail media networks with a similar sense of caution and a renewed feeling of déjà vu.

“We’re going to have the same challenges as you’re seeing [with DSPs]. We’re going to have the same desires as the brands and agencies want,” George Musi, chief business officer at Night Market, the retail and commerce agency at Horizon Media Holdings media agency, told Digiday at the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, which took place in Palm Springs, California earlier this month.

Marketers want solutions to off-site inventory quality, transparency and measurement, Musi said. “Hopefully, this time around, we can shorten the distance between the need and the reality much quicker,” he added.

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Google’s traditional search business is transforming for the AI era. Last week’s roll-out of AI Mode in the U.S. enables people to replace the traditional search engine results page with one that more closely resembles an AI chatbot. It’s a far cry from the days of 10 blue links.

“We are certainly far beyond those days,” said Dan Taylor, vp of global ads at Google, on the latest Digiday Podcast episode. “I’ve been at Google for 19 years, and as the ways that people search has evolved, Google has evolved search along with it. And we think that AI Overviews and AI Mode and these generative AI-driven experiences are a pretty transformational change.”

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No apocalypse yet: Google’s March core update has brought manageable search traffic dips for some publishers, with AI Overviews dragging and Discover picking up some slack.

Google’s rollout of its generative AI search experience, AI Mode, in a new tab last week has stoked referral concerns, but for now, search traffic remains relatively stable, according to four publishing execs.

Referral traffic data from over 4,000 global sites shows Google Search and Discover traffic hasn’t changed that much this year, according to Chartbeat media researcher Cynthia Vu. There was a 9% decrease in Google Search pageviews from January 2025 to April 2025, and about a 6% increase in Google Discover traffic during that same period, according to Chartbeat’s analysis, which showed pageviews were flat from March to April 2025. 

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Ad spend is under more scrutiny than ever as economic headwinds pressure marketers to stretch budgets, making every dollar count. Marketers are scrutinizing their ad spend more closely than ever and pressuring retail media partners for incrementality, a metric beyond return on ad spend (ROAS) to determine if the RMN media buys are paying off. That includes RMN partners like Lowe’s Media Network.

Related Insights

Retail Revolution

ROAS vs. incrementality: Scrutiny around ad spend grows in booming retail media space Read More

To better compete and take in more ad dollars, Lowe’s Media Network has incrementality on the roadmap. Digiday recently caught up with John Storms, general manager and head of Lowe’s Media Network, to get details on the measurement plan going forward and how the retailer is navigating economic headwinds.

The Lowe’s executive has overseen the media network since 2023, guiding it through a rebrand last year where it was renamed Lowe’s Media Network instead of Lowe’s One Roof Media Network. Before Lowe’s, Storms spent 19 years at Target, serving as director of hardlines (products like appliances, sporting equipment, electronics, and home goods) strategy and sales at Roundel from 2019 to 2022, according to his LinkedIn.

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Over the past two years, clipping has quietly become a staple in some advertisers’ media mix.

The term “clipping” refers to the practice of sharing short clips from longer content such as podcasts, livestreams or YouTube videos on social media platforms, to boost the original content’s audience or promote a brand. Originally, the technique was championed by larger content creators, who paid other creators to share their clips.

In 2025, brands and advertisers are recognizing its potential — and are starting to pour more marketing dollars into clipping, according to three creators interviewed for this article.

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