Patrick Roman Gut, svp, head of new business, Adstra

Modern business relies heavily on the concept of identity and understanding customers and their preferences. The most common proving ground for the concept of identity has long been advertising. Marketers were the first to demand real-time resolution of individuals across platforms, devices and environments. That pressure forced innovation. 

Now, many brands operate advanced identity stacks designed to power targeting, personalization and attribution. These systems are functional, accurate and deeply embedded in campaign workflows — but rarely designed for broader enterprise use.

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For years, Amazon’s advertising playbook was all about keeping advertisers in-house — using its data to target shoppers within its own ecosystem. Now, it’s shifting gears, urging advertisers to take that data on the road to reach those same people, or ones just like them, elsewhere.

The shift isn’t exactly a surprise. Its ad chief has been signaling the suggested strategy for a while, and advertisers have been reading the tea leaves. Still, without something concrete, it’s been tough for marketers to plan around. That’s what makes the latest pitch deck for its demand-side platform so telling: it puts Amazon’s off-Amazon’s ambitions in black and white. 

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Even without the Olympics or a major soccer tournament to tide sports fans over this summer, marketing investment in sports continues to rise.

In the U.S. alone, brand sponsorships of major teams in the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and MLS amounted to $7.6 billion in 2024, a 12% increase on the previous year, according to a report by market research firm Sponsor United.

“Brand marketers are realizing that if you can connect through people’s passions and things that they love, it’s going to have much more effect and impact,” said Steve Martin, founding partner at specialist agency MSQ Sport & Entertainment.

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This article was first published by Digiday sibling, Modern Retail.

As brands recalibrate their marketing budgets amid a tough economy, they’re trying to get the most bang for their buck this summer.

While summer might be a slower season, it’s an important time for brands and retailers to ensure they’ve still got customers’ attention ahead of bigger sales periods like the back-to-school season and Black Friday. And this summer, it’s an especially critical time for companies to fine-tune their strategies while grappling with declining consumer confidence.

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Accenture Song is in for change, as its leader and creative power, David Droga, steps upstairs to the parent company Accenture’s corner office as vice chair. Droga, considered by many to be one of the last of a generation of creative agency leaders, is being replaced by Ndidi Oteh, who’s been running Accenture Song’s Americas unit for the last 17 months but is a longtime Accenture vet. 

The immediate question is how will Droga’s absence from Song affect that company’s creative chops? For one, Nick Law, a creative exec who joined Song a little over three years after a career at R/GA, Publicis and Apple, becomes creative strategy and experience lead following his stint as creative chairperson.

Droga told the Wall Street Journal he’s “happy to catch my breath, because I’ve been sprinting since I was 18.” He was not made available for comment, nor was Oteh. 

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Digiday editors asked the Digiday+ community for any questions it had during their first Ask Our Editors event on Thursday, which covered off expectations for the Google trial, updates on M&A activity and privacy workarounds.

Digiday editor in chief Jim Cooper kicked off the conversation between Seb Joseph, executive director of news and Ronan Shields, senior editor, discussing the potential outcomes between Google’s trials concerning Search and its ad tech business.

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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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