2025 Advertising Trends to Watch

As we look toward 2025, the advertising industry continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, redefining how brands connect with audiences in an increasingly complex and fragmented ecosystem. Here are the key trends shaping the year ahead:

The Rise of Choice

The landscape is shifting as advertisers demand more control and flexibility in how they manage their media. Big tech players like Google are no longer the only game in town, as the industry gravitates toward a more diversified ecosystem. The emphasis on choice enables marketers to explore new channels, partner with niche platforms, and find unique ways to engage audiences, driving innovation and competition.

A greater focus on interoperability, open ecosystems, and advertiser choice is transforming the landscape.

Green Goals in Advertising 

Green advertising practices are becoming non-negotiable. Sustainability in adtech is moving beyond buzzwords, with genuine efforts being made to reduce carbon footprints, support sustainable brands, and enhance the eco-friendliness of advertising technologies. Brands are not just promoting eco-conscious values—they’re making them a key component of their ad strategies.

Sustainability is no longer a buzzword; it’s a mandate. From carbon-neutral ad buys to sustainable practices across the supply chain, the industry is taking green seriously.

The Cure for the Frequency Blues 

An age-old problem is being solved for advertisers. Achieving the right frequency in a campaign has always been a challenge. But technology has arrived that solves the frequency issue at the household level across an advertiser’s media portfolio — including CTV, OLV, display, audio, direct, sponsorship, and programmatic. Innovid’s Harmony Frequency leverages universal frequency intelligence to target or suppress over, under, and unexposed households for maximized efficiency. Use this insight to redirect budgets to increase reach.

Don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Adam Roodman, Yahoo DSP’s SVP of Product Strategy & Management, had to say about Harmony Frequency: “Automated, holistic frequency capping will play a crucial role in campaign effectiveness. We’re excited to bring Harmony Frequency to our Yahoo DSP advertisers in an effort to help make their campaigns run more efficiently.” 

Streaming’s Sports Surge 

Live sports are rapidly moving toward streaming platforms, and this trend will only accelerate in 2025. As networks and publishers shift their sports content to streaming, advertisers must adjust their strategies for a highly engaged, on-demand audience that demands both live content and targeted, real-time ads.

The shift of live sports to streaming is accelerating, creating unique opportunities for advertisers. With sports fans demanding seamless viewing experiences, the intersection of live events and personalized ad delivery is fertile ground for innovation.

Ad Serving: A Renaissance of Respect 

Often overlooked in the past, ad servers are finally getting the recognition they deserve. As the backbone of digital advertising, these tools are evolving to offer advanced targeting, seamless integration with other platforms, and the ability to scale with increasingly complex campaigns. Their role is more critical than ever in ensuring smooth ad delivery and optimization.

Ad servers, once undervalued, are becoming central to delivering seamless, omnichannel campaigns. As advertisers demand greater transparency, flexibility, and control, ad servers are stepping into the spotlight as indispensable tools for modern marketing strategies.

Everything is Shoppable

E-commerce and advertising are blending seamlessly, with shoppable ads becoming the norm across all platforms. Consumers can now shop directly from ads, whether they’re watching their favorite show, browsing social media, or interacting with video content. The ability to purchase with a click will continue to redefine the ad experience.

From video ads to connected TV, shoppable media is now ubiquitous, making it easier than ever for viewers to move from inspiration to purchase in seconds.

Interactive Ads: Powered by the Remote

Interactive ads, particularly in CTV, will take full advantage of remote control features, enabling users to engage with ads in a more personalized and immersive way. Expect to see more ads where the viewer is invited to take action—whether it’s making a purchase, participating in a poll, or accessing additional content—just by using their remote.

CTV’s evolution is making ads truly interactive. With just a few clicks of a remote, viewers can explore products, access exclusive content, or dive deeper into brand stories.

Personalization: DCO Makes Its Move to CTV

Advertisers have been effectively personalizing ads via dynamic creative optimization (DCO) on the internet for years. Using data-driven signals — such as geolocation, daypart, or whether the viewer has been previously exposed to the campaign — advertisers can deliver more personalized messaging to the consumer. As television viewing becomes more digitized via CTV, advertisers now have greater access to DCO on the biggest screen in the house. With DCO on CTV, brands create versions of ads based on a single template, where elements — such as images, text, headlines, and background colors — are automatically swapped out based on a variety of data signals. 

Innovid data shows that DCO television ads generate an average of 20.18 seconds of additional engagement compared with standard video ads.

DEI Will Persevere 

Despite calls for deemphasizing DEI, many brands will stick with their efforts to serve a diverse marketplace, which will be reflected in their advertising campaigns. Brands will continue marketing efforts that reflect their diverse customer base — primarily because they work. “Inclusive advertising not only helps to build a more inclusive world, but it also drives business results,” said Morgan Gregory, CEO & Co-Founder, Alltold. 

In conjunction with Innovid, Alltold produced a first-of-its-kind report, "The State of Representation in CTV Advertising 1H24." This report analyzes how six identity dimensions — age, gender expression, skin tone, body size, observed sexual orientation, and visible disability — are represented in the top 1,000 ads delivered by Innovid’s ad server in the first six months of 2024. 

Learn more about how the shift of live sports to streaming will transform CTV advertising. Download Innovid’s report, “Winning Big with CTV Advertising on Live-Streamed Sports” today. 

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