According to MediaOcean’s H2 Market Report for 2025, emerging and developing technologies as well as digital marketing methods are being adopted, with methods and techniques considered experimental earlier this year becoming established for marketers.
The survey is based on responses from more than 500 marketing professionals contacted by the company, and is the eighth publication in MediaOcean’s bi-annual research series.
MediaOcean says the biggest and most powerful trends in the industry over the past six months have been AI, CTV and identity, with nearly three-quarters of marketers surveyed citing AI as a priority. Current use of the technology focuses on creative, copywriting, media planning, data analysis and campaign optimization.
Identity remains a core pillar for marketers, driven by the apparent decline in cookie usage as well as the increase in media channels available for campaigns. The survey results show that pinning down the elusive customer profile involves a mix of first- and third-party data and “prospect approaches.”
As part of activities increasing the focus on personalization, cultural and political sensitivity were considered increasingly important by marketers responding to Mediaocean. Brands are becoming aware that their communications are becoming increasingly aligned with political and advocacy issues, requiring more detailed and nuanced messaging to reach different audiences, with messages needing to rapidly change according to events.
As companies examine and allocate their budgets, connected TV (CTV) looks to benefit the most from marketers’ spending. CTV is introducing advertising to streaming platforms, and thanks to both the multiplicity of providers and better user identification metrics from broadcasters, companies can now focus more on precise targeting and personalized ad performance rather than a ‘spray and pray’ approach that focuses only on reach.
Privacy concerns have slipped down the list of things marketers consider important, with the survey showing that marketers are “de-prioritizing compliance-specific initiatives in favor of more proactive, identity-based solutions.”
MediaOcean says search ad spend declined 22% from the first half As AI results continue to replace ‘traditional’ SERP pages, marketers are now optimizing wider than pure-play keyword and incoming link activities – traditionally the cornerstone of SEO.
Optimizing content for AI can be highly technical, requiring processes that are outside the scope of the marketing function: moving JavaScript rendering to the server-side rather than the browser, for example, requires re-coding the online platform.
MediaOcean says that despite the decline in search advertising budgets, overall marketing spend is increasing, with companies reallocating funds from search to different channels and methods.
“Marketers are facing change with a mix of flexibility and reinvention,” says Carsten Weide, principal and chief analyst at W Media Research. MediaOcean’s Aaron Goldman says technologies and methods like AI, CTV and multi-ID strategies have moved beyond an experimental stage for marketers, and predicts that success in marketing later this year will depend on “how well brands align their technology, data and creative.”
A primary technical challenge in digital marketing remains the integration of data sources from disparate platforms, an issue that is both technical and time-based – technologies and channel popularity change faster than the speed at which data aggregation technology can be built and put into production.
Mediaocean is hosting a webinar on July 29 with input from IAB, Weide and Lafayette Media to discuss its H2 market report.
(Image source: “Mistakes Made: Evolution (Hmm!)” by LindaKoven is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.,
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