NEW YORK—Ad spend in the creator economy has more than doubled since 2021 from $13.9B to $29.5B in 2024 and that amount is projected to reach $37 billion in 2025 — a 26% increase year-over-year and about 4x faster than the media industry overall, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

In its 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report, the association says the surge in investments in the U.S. creator economy “is reshaping modern media strategies.”

Creator ad spend has jumped up the ranks as brands are now treating creators as a distinct channel, not just a tactic within social media, IAB said, with nearly half (48%) of ad spenders considering creators a “must buy,” ranking only behind social media and paid search.

“Leveraging the creator economy to connect with audiences is no longer experimental for marketers — it’s essential,” said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. “The significant growth we’re seeing reflects a deepening commitment from brands to invest in creator-driven strategies. However, with that maturity comes a need for clear standards, better measurement, and tools to navigate an incredibly fragmented ecosystem.”

Additional key findings from the report reveal how brands are leveraging creator advertising to activate, scale, and measure their media strategies.

While brands leverage creator campaigns most often for awareness and reach, the study found sales is also among their top campaign goals:

• Building brand awareness (43%)
• Reaching new audiences (41%)
• Enhancing brand reputation / trust (35%)
• Driving online sales / conversions (32%)

With online sales listed as the fourth most common goal, brands are also utilizing creators across the purchase funnel, IAB says, with 40% of buyers ranking overall ROI as their top KPI for creator campaigns.

“Creators are unmatched when it comes to storytelling and cultural relevance — however, brands are also seeing them as performance drivers when integrated strategically,” added Chris Bruderle, Vice President, Industry Insights & Content Strategy, IAB. “Creator marketing isn’t just about awareness — it’s proving its value across the full funnel.”

The report also noted the challenges in helping connect content creators with the right brands and audiences, IAB said, with a third of the brands surveyed considering it their biggest hurdle.

According to the study, more than half of brands said creator reputation (58%) and audience alignment (56%) are among the top criteria when selecting a creator to align with their brand, demonstrating that credibility and relevance define effective partnerships.

“The creator marketing ecosystem is still highly fragmented, with varying partnership models, siloed budgets, and limited standardization making it tough for marketers to assess things like audience fit or creator credibility at scale,” said Zoe Soon, Vice President, Experience Center, IAB. “The result is an environment where strategic matchmaking is often more art than science, and where brands are calling for better discovery tools to guide their investment decisions.”

When it comes to artificial intelligence, nearly three-in-four creator ad buyers are already using or planning to use AI within the next year, IAB said.

This increasing reliance on AI underscores a strategic shift toward automation that prioritizes scale, speed, and creative optimization. Those currently using AI for creator content are leveraging it for content refinement, work efficiency, and scalability, rather than full creative replacement:

• Content editing (49%)
• Creator briefs (46%)
• Content personalization (45%)

However, despite AI’s growing role, 95% of advertisers have concerns about using AI in creator marketing overall, according to IAB. Brands state their top concern with AI is the loss of human connection, which is a very important consideration when “building genuine, relatable experiences” and the top reason they invest in creator marketing.

Brands are calling for better attribution, more consistent reporting, and operational tools to link creator efforts to measurable business outcomes.

Measurement, standards, and tools that promote transparency and comparability emerged as the top opportunity areas for improvement, including:

• Advanced attribution
• Consistent reporting
• Creator discovery and vetting tools
• Standards for audience authentication and fraud prevention

Soon concluded, “Without these foundational elements, it’s difficult to link creator activations to meaningful business outcomes, which is a critical next step as creator advertising becomes a core part of modern media strategy.”

For decades, TV advertisers have navigated a difficult trade-off between reach and precision, brand-building and performance, storytelling and targeting. Connected TV helped narrow that gap by preserving the visual and emotional power of the big screen while introducing data-driven precision. But even CTV has become overly focused on short-term gains, chasing quick conversions at the expense of long-term brand health.

As free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) continues its rise in viewership, it is time to ask a critical question. Are advertisers spending too much time focused on the small percentage of consumers who are shopping now and overlooking the much larger audience of those who could be ready to buy in the near future?

The Problem With Chasing Only In-Market Shoppers
Performance marketing can be effective when used in balance. But when nearly 70% of media budgets are allocated to converting people who are already ready to buy, marketers risk creating three major inefficiencies.

First, it inflates costs. Competing for the same small pool of in-market consumers drives up media pricing, especially in programmatic environments. Second, it creates missed opportunities. Only about five percent of consumers are actively shopping at any given time.

That leaves 95% of potential buyers unaddressed. Third, it creates a false sense of efficiency. Spending big to convert consumers who would likely have converted anyway often means missing the chance to invest in brand-building strategies that boost future performance.

The opportunity with future-ready buyers
The better strategy is to reach future-ready buyers. These are consumers who may not be actively shopping today but are open to a product or category and could enter the market soon.

Consider someone who already owns an electric vehicle. They may not be researching their next car yet, but when their lease ends in six months, they will be. Reaching that person early helps establish preference before the shopping journey even begins. This kind of brand priming leads to better recall, higher engagement and stronger performance when it matters most.

Why FAST Is the Right Channel at the Right Time
FAST platforms have become a vital piece of the modern TV ecosystem. Their rise is driven not just by affordability, but also by how well they support long-term advertising goals.

Viewers on FAST are choosing to watch free, premium content in exchange for ads. This creates a more relaxed and receptive viewing environment. Unlike many digital formats, FAST platforms deliver that content on a big screen, often in high-quality, brand-safe environments.

And with advanced targeting capabilities, FAST allows marketers to go beyond basic demographics to reach viewers based on behavior, interests and lifestyle signals.

All of these factors make FAST an ideal place to engage future-ready buyers. Marketers can combine the scale of traditional TV with the targeting of digital, creating campaigns that influence brand preference over time.

The Importance of Smart Data and Privacy
Targeting future-ready buyers requires more than intuition. Marketers need access to high-quality data to identify the right segments. This includes insights into lifestyle, purchase intent, psychographics and other signals that indicate openness to a category. Done right, this avoids wasted impressions and ensures budgets are used efficiently.

At the same time, advertisers must prioritize privacy and compliance. Consumers are increasingly aware of how their data is used, and regulations continue to evolve. Brands that align with trusted data providers and privacy-forward platforms are more likely to build lasting relationships with both customers and regulators.

Building a More Sustainable Advertising Strategy
The future of TV advertising will not be defined by performance vs. brand-building; the most effective marketers will find ways to blend the two. They will recognize that even lower-funnel conversions are influenced by what happens long before a consumer is ready to act.

FAST platforms offer a path to achieving this balance. They allow advertisers to reach people at all stages of the buying journey, including those who are not yet in-market but could be soon. By focusing more on future-ready buyers, advertisers can create momentum that drives results not just today, but into the months and quarters ahead.

In a media environment where budgets are scrutinized and attention is scarce, investing in long-term brand health is no longer optional. It is essential. And FAST is proving to be one of the smartest ways to do it.

In between helpings of turkey and other Thanksgiving Day fare, viewers will see companies dishing up hefty portions of ads on sports programming, with the national TV ad spend expected to hit $624 million over the four-day holiday weekend, according to new data from Guideline.

New insights from Guideline show sports programming will account for at least 84% of all broadcast dollars over the holiday weekend with NFL games accounting for 69% of all ad spending and 80% of the spending on sports.

“Thanksgiving weekend highlights the unmatched value of sports in video advertising,” Guideline Head of Product Strategy Alberto Leyes said. “With the NFL driving nearly 70% of national TV, advertisers see this holiday as a prime opportunity for massive reach and engagement despite double-digit growth in unit rates. From record NFL audiences to rising demand for college football, sports remain the go-to choice for connecting with viewers at scale.”

Guideline captures actual agency investment from all holding companies and most large independents, representing spend committed by contributing agency partners for yet-to-run inventory.

Ads during the NFL Thanksgiving Day games on Thursday (Nov. 28) have the highest 30-second unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year.

With the NFL setting a record of 34.1 million viewers for last year’s Thanksgiving games, Guideline reported that sports are once again expected to dominate broadcast ad spending with $570 million in spending from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.

That accounts for 84% of all broadcast dollars and includes streaming service Prime Video’s Black Friday NFL game. Factoring in sports content on cable during those dates, the figure tallies $624 million.

Guideline also reported that the share of spending on sports programming during the Thursday-Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is up from 81% in 2023 and up from 73% in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic.

The NFL Thanksgiving Thursday games (on NBC, Fox, CBS) have the highest 30-seond unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year. NFL Thanksgiving weekend games (NBC, Fox, CBS and Prime Video) cost $576,000 for a 30-second spot, up 11% YoY.

The Guideline data also indicated that college football also sees a boost during the holiday weekend, as 30-second units for college football Saturday games (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) cost $133,000, up 12% year over year.

All media companies are exploring new ways to maximize the value of their live and on-demand content. In a complex landscape where broadcasters, sports, entertainment and technology players compete for market share, capturing and retaining global and hyperlocal audiences across multiple platforms is a vital challenge. Leveraging the right ad strategies to monetize content of all flavors is mission-critical for business growth.

The New Broadcast Advertising Landscape
Before connected TV devices, smartphones and the streaming media revolution, the linear television world relied on traditional broadcast advertising strategies targeting wide audiences across shared household TVs. In the absence of more targeted advertising capabilities, brands leveraged broader demographic data and panel-based audience measurement to determine whether ads would reach the right audiences. We’ve come a long way from the days when measurement was hard to come by and return on investment difficult to quantify.

The digital world has changed everything. Consumers can watch their preferred content anytime, anywhere and on any platform. Brands and digital advertisers have a whole host of advertising strategies at their disposal to target specific consumers based on their content consumption patterns—and they can shape their ad-buying decisions accordingly.

The value of traditional broadcast advertising is being questioned, with WARC research finding that 39% of marketers plan to reduce spending on linear channels. Consumers are increasingly favoring event-based viewing and on-demand streaming content experiences instead of traditional linear TV consumption, contributing to significant declines in pay-TV revenue, which will sink to $15 billion annually by 2027, according to PwC. Media consumption is changing and the linear methodologies many people are accustomed to simply don’t translate in the digital advertising arena. New thinking is needed to bridge diverse broadcast and digital environments.

Increase ROI With Strategic Targeting
Media organizations are looking to expand their reach by delivering market-relevant and localized content that resonates with viewers and boosts engagement. This opens the door for brands and advertisers to explore new ways to tap into these audiences in a more targeted and precise way—and make the most of their investment.

Digital advertising is driven by data that sheds light on consumers and their viewing habits. Brands and digital advertisers now have the consumer insights they need to make informed decisions about their advertising real estate.

This is particularly useful for brands that target narrow audiences with hyper-targeted regionalization, tailored messaging and coordination to increase their chances of getting their messages to resonate with target buyers. Although this type of strategic targeting comes with a premium price tag, it should be seen as a worthwhile investment.

A Digital Mindset for Linear Channels
Media companies can uplevel their broadcast advertising strategies by adopting a digital advertising mindset for their linear channels. Customization and hyperlocalization can be critical competitive advantages that enable broadcast advertising to transition to the digital world and bring back much-needed investment. Content distributors with the infrastructure in place to support digital ad sales can apply their digital framework to their linear channels, creating compelling offerings that deliver similar value to digital ad packages.

This mindset requires a shift in approach from selling air time to impressions, which is commonplace in digital advertising. By seamlessly implementing impression-based broadcast advertising and digital models within the same hybrid ecosystem, they can offer brands and advertisers ad packages across digital and linear channels — optimizing content monetization and streamlining siloed ad processes.

Hitting Linear and Digital Advertising Targets
Today, media organizations are finding ways to grow their digital businesses while protecting and maximizing ROI on high-value linear channels and live events. Broadcasters with hybrid digital and linear offerings need to maximize the value of their content libraries by increasing reach and monetization potential. Innovation in IP video distribution and content versioning enables media organizations to produce highly regionalized content that targets multiple linear and digital markets simultaneously — without heavy costs or additional resources.

By intelligently creating and inserting multiple versions of SCTE-35 markers, it’s also easier than ever for media companies to enrich the downstream ad experience for any region, audience, or platform.

Broadcast advertising is not going anywhere — it is evolving. By harnessing the targeting capabilities typically associated with on-demand streaming, new broadcast advertising models can increase ROI and drive growth for broadcasters. As the volume of high-value content produced, delivered, and consumed through the event-based model increases, the new phase of digitally-inspired broadcast advertising will begin to deliver measurable results.

CHANTILLY, Va.—While even numbered years are usually a boon for broadcasters’ bottom line—with boosts in local ad spending spurred by the Olympics and political campaigns—slow economic growth is expected to dampen down expectations of a large boost in ad spending in 2024.

That’s the conclusion of BIA’s newly released 2024 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast, in which the research firm’s Advisory Services arm estimates local ad revenues across all media in the U.S. will increase 8.6%, totaling $175.6 billion, primarily due to the political season. 

That increase over 2023 is slightly shadowed by concerns of an economic downturn and overall lower ad spending, BIA said. With the forecasted political revenues removed, BIA’s projection in 2024 is $164.6 billion in total local advertising, only a 2.2% increase in local advertising year-over-year.

“As expected, 2024 will be driven by political spending, and, even in markets that are not highly contested there will be a large amount of political advertising,” said Nicole Ovadia, VP Forecasting & Analysis, BIA Advisory Services. “Local political advertising will be fueled by the Presidential and Senate campaigns as well as issue-based advertising. When we look at the forecast without political, we expect only a slight increase in ad spending due to both global and local economic trends that may create more cautious spending.”

The split between traditional and digital advertising shows that digital has a slightly smaller share, 48%, of the overall advertising spend at $84.1 billion. Traditional media ad revenue is slated at 52% of the ad spend at $91.5 billion.

Commenting on the ad split, Ovadia said, “Digital isn’t growing as fast as it once was. Meta, Alphabet, and others lowered their advertising revenue expectations several times throughout 2023, which in turn has caused us to reflect these reductions in the digital ad spend we track across 96 business categories.”

Key takeaways from the 2024 U.S. Local Advertising forecast include:

Top five growth channels for 2024:

• CTV/OTT (+39.5%)
• TV OTA (+30.0%)
• TV Digital (+24.3%)
• Cable TV (+19.7 %)
• Out-of-Home (+9.4 %)

Top three fastest-growing categories year-over-year:

• Political (+2028.3%)
• Special Restaurants, Food & Beverage Stores (+17.2%)
• Realtors (+16.7%)​

Key local business verticals declining year-over-year:

• Veterinary Services (-15.8%)
• Online Gambling (-15.3%)
• Funeral Homes & Services (-14.4%)

“When you look at which media will grow from this year to 2024, local political advertising is the main driver, which is terrific for local sellers of these channels,” said Ovadia. “Beyond political, several other verticals will increase next year. One category to keep an eye on is Realtors looking to advertise to drum up demand. Declining verticals include those that experienced growth during the pandemic, like veterinary services, that have now waned. Also worth noting is that many states legalized online gambling this year so we expect this sector to reduce its local ad spending and move towards National/Network advertising going forward.”

NEW YORK—After being ravaged in the early part of 2020 due to the pandemic, the U.S. ad market saw a rise in the fourth quarter, which indicates things may be turning the corner in terms of market recovery. However, it is digital, not TV, that is the primary driving force.

The end-of-year and Q4 report form Standard Media Index shows that the last three months of 2020 saw the first growth in U.S. ad revenue for the year, a 6% increase. Because of the hits in Q2 (-30%) and Q3 (-3%), the overall market decline was at 7%, but SMI appears encouraged by the trend that the U.S. is on.

The U.S. has had five consecutive months of growth, thanks in large part to the growth of digital advertising. Looking at the full year, the U.S. saw a six point increase from digital allocation in 2019 (42%) to 202 (48%). In Q4 specifically, 53% of ad spending was digital, surpassing all other forms of media for the first time.

As a result of this, TV ad spending has been on the decline. Per SMI, since starting 2020 making up about 50% of the ad spending, TV ad spending has steadily declined, finishing at 42% in Q4. However, it fared better than other forms of media (radio, newspapers, outdoor). Overall, TV ad spend dropped 3% for the entirety of 2020.

SMI also found that demand for video advertising is also shifting, at least in part, from broadcast TV to OTT/streaming.

Compared to other Anglo markets (Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand), the U.S. was the only one to see a decline of less than 10%.

For more information, visit Standard Media Index’s website. 

LONDON—Video entertainment ad spending looks like it will get out of 2020 little worse for wear, according to projections from Zenith Media that see the overall market dipping just 0.2% across 10 markets. The entire ad market is expected to drop 8.7%, per Zenith.

The forecast comes from Zenith’s “Business Intelligence—Video Entertainment” report, which cites that the increased demand from consumers, increased supply of content and competition among video brands for viewers allowed the video entertainment sector to remain stable during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online video brands are leading the way, outpacing traditional TV, Zenith shares. In the U.S., online video brands increased ad budgets by 142%, compared to a 15% increase in spending by TV brands. The U.K. had similar disparity, with a 79% increase in ad spending by online video platforms while TV grew 34%. 

Zenith points out that TV broadcasters and pay-TV platforms increased spending in response to this new competition, but believes that it will be unsustainable as decline in revenues continue because of COVID-19 and structural issues. Meanwhile the online video platforms will continue to raise their budgets as they seek to build a loyal customer base.

Digital advertising has been a key area of focus for video entertainment ad spending with other options like out-of-home and cinema avenues limited or outright closed. In 2019, video entertainment ad spending for digital was 53% of its total, in 2020 that is expected to increase to 57%.

However, video entertainment is not expected to increase its ad spending tremendously over the next two years, Zenith estimates. Online video platforms are expected to have less capacity to raise budgets after heavy spending in 2020, while traditional TV will continue to be weighed down by shrinking revenues from TV advertising and pay-TV subscriptions. 

PLUS: TV Advertising Stems Losses in Q3 With Return of Sports, SMI Reports

The U.S. is one of the only markets where Zenith estimates the video entertainment ad spending will decline after 2020, saying that rising online revenues will not be able to compensate for the ongoing traditional TV’s shrinking revenues, which will result in reduced ad spending budgets. Growth is, and will be, strongest in Spain and India.

Zenith projects no growth in video entertainment ad spending in 2021 and 1.3% growth in 2022. That will still bump it up 1.2% in 2022 compared to 2019; the overall ad market will be 0.6% below 2019 levels.

For more information, visit www.zenithmedia.com.  

NEW YORK—While IAB reports “light at the end of the tunnel” for the likes of digital advertising, the outlook for traditional media does not look so rosy. Buyers expect an average estimated -8% ad spend across all media channels, with linear TV in particular down 24% in 2020.

IAB projects that overall U.S. traditional media ad spend is expected to be down 30% in 2020 from its 2019 numbers. Digital, on the other hand, is estimating a 6% increase year-over-year. As has been reported by other outlets, the amount of time and money spent on digital platforms during the pandemic has increased, likely helping push it to this growth.

IAB gives a specific focus to the rise in digital video consumption (OTT/CTV) during the height of the pandemic (March through May). The number of households that watched OTT daily went up from just over 44 million at the start of March to nearly 50 million by the end of May, per IAB. The average daily streaming hours rose from right around 240 million to more than 280 million as June started—it reached a height of 300 million hours a day during April.

As a result, while linear TV is expected to decline 24% in as spend, CTV and digital video ad spend is expected to increase 19% and 18%, respectively, over 2019 numbers.

There is still a lot of uncertainty about how the pandemic will continue to impact advertising as we head into 2021. At least 70% of buyers still have 2021 ad dollars in flux, according to IAB. However, there is an expectation that 2021 ad budgets will increase by 5.3% from that of 2020.

The full IAB report is available online. 

NEW YORK—The advertising landscape took a substantial hit from COVID-19, which according to Advertiser Perceptions will result in three out of five advertisers spending less in 2020 than in 2019. However, spending is expected to increase during the last two quarters of the year.

This data comes from Advertiser Perceptions' latest edition of its biweekly report, “The Coronavirus Effect on Advertising.”

In the second quarter of 2020, 72% of advertisers decreased their ad spending compared to the same period in 2019; 19% maintained ad spending levels and 9% increased. However, while budgets for Q3 and Q4 are still expected to be less year-over-year, they are getting closer to those previous levels (a 12% decrease for Q3, 7.5% for Q4).

This has Advertiser Perceptions projecting that the percentage of advertisers increasing their ad spending in Q3 will jump to 16% and 23% for Q4, while the percentage of decreased ad spending will fall to 54% in Q3 and 40% in Q4.

Helping to drive this push will be regional advertising, as there are expected to be staggered openings by state and locality. Also, two-thirds of advertisers who had earmarked ad money for the Olympics are expected to reinvest it into the second half of the year.

On the logistics side, Advertiser Perceptions found that 87% of advertisers will now negotiate for greater flexibility in media contracts, though 70% still anticipate to maintain their same budgets. In addition, 61% of advertisers are now looking for insights into how COVID-19 is changing the advertising landscape.

“Perhaps the greatest impact of COVID-19 on media is the way it will be bought and sold,” said Lauren Fisher, vice president, Business Intelligence, at Advertiser Perceptions. “Everyone now operates in a faster-moving marketplace, and that means two things. First, advertisers need more insights into changing consumer appetites and connection opportunities. Second, they need the ability to change plans and buys more often.

“Moving forward, all signs point to increased spending on CTV/OTT and ecommerce, emphasizing more integrated, holistic programs,” continued Fisher. “As the economy reopens and recloses at various speeds and to different extents across the country, the right message at the right time becomes even more important. Media that answer these critical questions will gain in engagement, spending and trust.”

For more information, visit www.advertiserperceptions.com.

CHANTILLY, Va.—Most local advertisers around the country will hold steady on their ad spending and media allocations this year, a new BIA reveals.

The forecast, part of the newly released U.S. SAM Survey of Advertising and Marketing, projects that amusement parks, sports teams, movie theaters and other entertainment venues are the only advertisers that will spend slightly more this year. Retailers, service professionals and home/trade service advertisers are expected to maintain their ad spend.

When it comes to platforms, advertisers have expressed a willingness to bump up their ad spend on mobile and social.

“Over the past several years, our research indicates that advertisers are more focused on personalized, targeted communications, and they believe mobile and social deliver on important customer engagement KPIs,” said Celine Matthiessen, BIA's VP of Analysis and Insights and SAM study director.

The survey also revealed an important shift in the priorities of advertisers. It found advertisers are interested in more than basic demographic targeting; they want insight into the behavior of consumers as they make their path to a purchase.

Advertisers want to know the websites and social pages consumers have visited and their searches that have led to their buying products and services, the SAM survey said.

As a result, ad sellers have an obligation to show how their channel reaches the right customers throughout the buying process in a trackable manner, it said.

The area of location-targeted ads is the category of mobile with the greatest growth. According to the findings, just 13 percent of businesses surveyed said they were not spending money on mobile advertising, but planned to do so this year.

Across all business categories, 35.5 percent of businesses use mobile location-aware, while 24 percent use mobile search, the SAM survey revealed.

“Because businesses like the targeting (behavioral) opportunities that mobile and social offer, these platforms continue to show the largest signs of advertiser growth,” said Matthiessen.

The survey also found buyers of traditional media are “extremely comfortable” buying digital ads from their local sales person, “so sellers should be prepared to sell offers across multiple platforms,” she said.

Social and mobile media, email, video, display and SEO are the most popular digital ads purchased via traditional channels, the survey said.