The final quarter of 2025 revealed a divergence in performance across Big Tech platforms, with Amazon emerging as the clear outperformer against expectations while YouTube fell notably short, according to analysis from WARC Media. WARC Media’s Earnings Debrief is a new quarterly series that reviews the financial releases of Big Tech and compares their ad […]

WARC’s latest forecasts show that global advertising spend is forecast to grow 9.1 per cent in 2026 to $1.3 trillion (€1.1tn), doubling in size since the pandemic and equivalent to $150 spent on every person. The incremental growth is mostly being captured by digital platforms, not traditional channels. Almost 80 per cent of ad spend now […]

A study from WARC has found that global advertising spend is now on course to close out 2025 with growth of 8.9 per cent to $1.19 trillion (€1.6tn), an upgrade of 1.5 percentage points (pp) from WARC’s September forecast due to strong results from Big Tech platforms and a muted impact on global trade from […]

WARC has unveiled The Marketer’s Toolkit 2026, revealing five critical trends set to disrupt global marketing practices and reshape brand strategies in the year ahead. From the vanishing middle market and the creator investment gamble to the great escape, AI-driven zero-click journeys and shifting consumer milestones, the report provides marketers with insights to transform these […]

The global retail media market retains significant momentum, with ad investment projected to surpass $200 billion (€173.8bn) by 2027, reports WARC Media. However, underlying this growth is an evolving industry. As brands consolidate their ad spend across fewer retail media networks and sponsored search growth slows, retailers must reinvent themselves as ‘full-funnel’ platforms offering granular display and off-site solutions, whilst preparing for the impacts of agentic […]

UK advertising spend is expected to increase by 7.3 per cent to a total of £12 billion (€13.6bn) in the final quarter of this year, according to the Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report. The forecasts also show that total ad spend is set to rise by 8.2 per cent to £46 billion during 2025 as a […]

The shape of television media is changing, as consumers shift from linear TV to connected TV and the opportunity of TV advertising becomes more addressable. This transition has prompted a debate about what counts as television in 2025 – and whether TV advertising should be defined by format, device or media owner. WARC’s Global Ad […]

The search landscape is evolving beyond traditional search engines to social and video platforms, and is outpacing AI search. According to WARC Media, search advertising now accounts for nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of all media budgets, and forecasts global search advertising spend to reach $248.6 billion this year, rising to $265.5 billion in […]

UK advertising spend rose 8 per cent to a total of £10.6 billion (€12.2bn) in the first three months of 2025, +1.4 percentage points ahead of the April forecast, according to the AA/WARC Expenditure Report – with improved performance of search and retail media critical to this rise. “The latest survey data highlights buoyancy in […]

Since Reddit’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2024, the platform has captured the media industry’s attention with its high-double-digit advertising revenue growth, pushing ad income to a forecast $1.8 billion (€1.5bn) this year, finds WARC. Striving to be an “alternative to social media”, Reddit’s conversational and text-oriented engagement style gathers like-minded people, while users’ highly […]