They don’t write songs about Volvos
Advertising: So Simple.
Elements of a Successful Ad: Catchy Headline, Powerful Image, Benefits to the Reader, Your Unique Discriminators, Call to Action
So Simple, Right? Except it’s Not.
Executive Summary
The advertising industry is navigating a period of significant transformation, facing pervasive challenges while simultaneously being propelled by innovative growth drivers. A core issue is the poor perception of sales methods, characterized by a lack of clarity, transparency, and trust. Marketers often find themselves better informed than sales representatives, with only 20-30% fully trusting their media sales reps and less than 25% believing value is clearly communicated. Surveys reveal 72% of advertisers cite "lack of transparency" as a top concern, coupled with complaints about poor responsiveness, limited product knowledge, and inadequate post-sale support. Furthermore, fewer than 30% of sales reps are deemed competent in explaining ROI or campaign attribution, creating a disconnect with buyers who increasingly demand data-driven recommendations.
What do buyers want? Buyers don’t necessarily want advertising but they generally want Profit, Prestige and Protection. These have changed little over the years. Unfortunately, with all of the increased advertising choices, and the fragmentation of the industry, the clarity on value hasn’t improved much. This is counter to the more robust measurement and A/B testing available. Buyers of advertising are dealing with customer loss of around 1/3 each year. Some customers move away, some die, some have their needs satisfied, others become unsatisfied. Some are poor credit risks and cannot remain advertisers. Markets and customers are constantly changing – and competition is ever growing. So where do buyers find the new customers that will replace those they lose? The known market and the unknown market. The known market is made up of buyers who are looking for the specific the business company because of recommendations from other customers, advertising that attracted them, or from solicitation by them or their salespeople. The unknown market is made up of buyers who are looking for any firm. These buyers are comparison shoppers, infrequent buyers, Newcomers and people with lifestyle changes, dissatisfied buyers from a competitor, emergency buyers or traveling buyers. Advertising of various forms – helps businesses reach these buyers.
Key Challenges include the erosion of consumer trust due to intrusive and privacy-violating advertising techniques, leading to widespread use of ad blockers. Strict privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, along with the deprecation of third-party cookies, necessitate a shift to first-party data strategies. Advertisers struggle with fragmented measurement and opaque attribution models, making ROI clarity difficult. Ad fraud, a persistent and evolving threat, continues to siphon billions annually. Global losses are projected to reach $100 billion in 2024, with sophisticated tactics leveraging AI to mimic human behavior and target new channels like CTV and in-app advertising. While anti-fraud programs are effective, saving an estimated $10.8 billion in the US by reducing Invalid Traffic (IVT) losses to $979 million, the overall financial waste remains substantial. The dominance of tech giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon creates "walled gardens" that limit transparency and competition, and content saturation leads to ad fatigue, making attention scarcity a major hurdle. The rapid pace of technological change, particularly with AI and programmatic advertising, also presents a steep learning curve for many.
Advertising fraud continues to be a major issue for ad agencies, content platforms and brands. This is a difficult metric given that a significant portion of fraud goes undetected. Best estimates are that $88 Billion of U.S. Advertising spend will be wasted in 2025. This is almost 20% and up from $35 Billion or 15% in 2020. Despite prevention efforts, the global fraud numbers are trending upwards as well. The impact of AI is continuing to become relevant. Various forms of AI including generative AI may be harming the industry so far. While AI can aid in fraud detection, it also empowers fraudsters to create more convincing fake content and interactions.
Despite these challenges, the advertising industry is driven by several key revenue growth drivers. Digital transformation, fueled by mobile-first approaches, video advertising, and programmatic platforms, remains the primary engine. Data-driven strategies, leveraging first-party data, AI/ML for hyper-personalization, and contextual targeting, are enhancing efficiency and ROI. The evolution of ad formats and platforms, including the rise of retail media networks, the creator economy, connected TV (CTV) advertising, and in-game ads, opens new revenue streams. Economic factors, such as consumer spending and the demand for measurable ROI, coupled with operational efficiencies from marketing automation and new product development, also contribute significantly.
Don’t forget creative messaging: We believe the creative team can be a powerful element in every advertising campaign. Merging talented Artists with Copywriters and Brand Marketers will result in break-thru results for most products and services.
Moving forward, the industry's success hinges on a focus to rebuild trust, embracing intelligent disruption, emphasizing adaptability and utilizing practical innovations. This involves increased transparency, education, and the adoption of analytics-driven decision-making, moving beyond impressions to focus on quality leads and conversions. The strategic advantage lies in channel optimization, refined targeting, and leveraging data to support consolidation and improve value propositions. Those who embrace these changes will be best positioned to thrive in an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving landscape. In summary, the advertising industry's growth is heavily propelled by the continued shift to digital platforms, fueled by advancements in AI and data analytics, and adapted to evolving consumer preferences for engaging and personalized experiences across a multitude of channels.
Conclusion:
The advertising industry is under pressure to become more transparent, privacy-conscious, tech-savvy, and performance-driven. Success increasingly depends on adapting to new consumer expectations, leveraging data responsibly, and innovating in how value is created and communicated
CEVOH can help you navigate the changes and take advantage of the growth opportunities. We have a proven track record with advertising effectiveness and our team has over 60 years of experience across every medium offered. Our approaches are based on ‘truth’, working thru various tests to prove in the facts and ROI. We don’t take short-cuts.
helpful Advertising information and metrics
What Do Buyers Want? - and Key Metrics
Poor perception of sales methods continues to plague the industry as current sales personas and channel methods receive low ratings due to lack of clarity and transparency. It’s not unusual for the advertising buyer to be better informed than the advertising sales rep. The buyer often knows the characteristics of their target market, competitor strengths, weaknesses and marketing plans as well as significant knowledge about ad mediums, trends and prices. Satisfaction with advertising sales reps is a key issue in the industry, but there are others: Here are the most relevant metrics and findings:
Ad platforms report ROI such as these: Outdoor advertising – 497% ROI; e-mail advertising – 422% ROI; SEO – 222% ROI; Paid Search - 200% ROI; Direct mail – 161% ROI; We invite you to keep reading to see if these amazing numbers sound true to you.
Growing demand for ROI clarity: Buyers increasingly expect measurable return on investment. Each ad platform has boastful metrics on ROI, which cloud the issue. The determinates of ROI depend greatly on the goals of the brand, targeting, creative, preamble of brand loyalty, message relevance and ad placement.
Fragmented landscape: Emergence of new technologies, players, and shifting consumer expectations. There are exponentially more ad choices now than 10 years ago.
Inefficiencies in channel strategy: Self-serve vs. direct sales create diverging and often disjointed approaches.
While many advertising sales reps bring strong relationships and media knowledge, there is widespread dissatisfaction around understanding of advertiser needs, transparency and trust, ROI explanations, post-sale service, and data and tech fluency.
Trust and Value Perception of Ad Media Reps: Only 20–30% of marketers say they fully trust their media sales reps to act in their best interest. (Source: ANA & Ebiquity Transparency Reports). Less than 25% of buyers believe sales reps clearly communicate how media value is delivered or measured. (Source: IAB Research)
Clarity and Transparency Issues with Advertising Platforms: In a survey by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA): 72% of advertisers cited "lack of transparency" from media vendors as a top concern. A significant portion feel sales reps oversell capabilities or under-deliver on campaign outcomes.
Responsiveness and Service Quality: According to the Media Buying Satisfaction Benchmark (by Advertiser Perceptions): Only 32% of advertisers rated their reps as “excellent” in account servicing and follow-through. Common complaints include poor responsiveness, limited product knowledge, and lack of post-sale support.
ROI and Data Literacy: Fewer than 30% of advertising sales reps are viewed as competent in explaining ROI or campaign attribution models. (Source: eMarketer & IAB surveys). Buyers increasingly demand data fluency and analytics-driven recommendations, but many sales teams lag in this area.
Relevance and Customization: 56% of marketers say sales reps often provide irrelevant or overly generic proposals. (Salesforce State of Marketing Report). Advertisers value reps who understand their business and tailor solutions accordingly—but this remains inconsistent. There are emerging trends in evaluation advertising rep effectiveness - Some advertisers and publishers now use ad sales NPS (Net Promoter Score) to gauge client satisfaction with reps, though these scores are rarely publicized.
Sales rep turnover is extremely high – 60% per year in some mediums. This amplifies the problems as new reps have no customer continuity and steep learning curves. In many advertising companies, the majority of training time is spent on new to the industry reps instead of refining and improving skills of tenured reps. To improve, sales organizations are increasingly investing in analytics training, CRM tools, and consultative selling techniques—but adoption is uneven across the industry.
Immediate Changes Underway
Knowledge Gain: There has been a dramatic Increase in education and transparency about key metrics and comparative metrics for all platforms - to understand the drivers of ROI.
More Choice: The number of advertising choices has increased exponentially over the last decade, primarily due to the rise of digital platforms, advanced targeting capabilities, and new technologies like AI and immersive media.
Standard Analytics: There has been wide spread adoption of standardized analytics (mostly driven by wide-spread adoption of digital) that measure engagement and lead-gen over traditional impressions.
New Regulatory: There are constant pressures to regulate advertising, using privacy concerns and unhealthy levels of engagement for certain age groups as a catalyst for change.
New Tools: There has been development of tools for ad performance grading.
A push toward transformational content organization and delivery including building communities where like-minded people gather. And then surrounding this content and buyer/user experience with helpful product information – rather than pushing out intrusive ads.
Future Trends & How to Prepare
Intelligent Disruption will continue: This will accelerate the pace of change and the changes will intensify – only adaptive companies will survive.
Actions to take now:
Work with CEVOH (see our growth ideas)
Engage in cross-industry events (CES, SXSW, Cannes Lions) to stay ahead.
Partner with academics and think tanks for thought leadership and testing.
Stay close to customers, partners, and even competitors to clarify what’s working.
Build flexible, collaborative strategies and test with real-world pilots.
Strategic Advantages & How to Exploit Them
Channel optimization: Efficiency gains through aligned direct/self-serve strategies.
Targeting and segmentation: Refined audience focus for better campaign performance.
Analytics-driven decision-making: Replace guesswork with data.
Consolidation support: Help media companies restructure, improve their value proposition, and stay competitive.
Summary
The advertising industry continues to face persistent challenges stemming from a poor perception of sales methods and a lack of transparency. Buyers are often better informed than sales reps, knowing more about their target markets, media channels, and competitive dynamics. Trust remains low—only 20–30% of marketers fully trust media sales reps, and fewer than 25% believe reps clearly communicate media value. Transparency issues are widespread, with 72% of advertisers citing it as a major concern. Service quality is also lacking; only 32% rate reps highly on responsiveness and follow-through, while many complain about poor product knowledge and weak post-sale support. Additionally, fewer than 30% of reps are seen as competent in explaining ROI or using analytics effectively, despite rising demand for data-driven decision-making. Over half of marketers report receiving generic proposals, highlighting a lack of customization.
In response, the industry is seeing increased education around metrics, broader adoption of standardized analytics, and more tools for grading ad performance. Digital platforms, AI, and immersive media have rapidly expanded advertising options. Regulatory pressures are growing, driven by privacy concerns and overexposure to younger audiences. A shift toward community-based content and away from intrusive ads is also emerging. To prepare for ongoing disruption, companies are urged to engage in industry events, partner with academics, maintain close customer relationships, and develop flexible, testable strategies.
Strategic advantages lie in optimizing channel strategies, refining targeting, making analytics central to decisions, and supporting media consolidation. However, widespread dissatisfaction persists, driven by sales rep turnover (up to 60% annually), inconsistent training, and fragmented go-to-market strategies. Buyers increasingly demand clearer ROI, but inflated platform claims and the subjective nature of ad success complicate comparisons. As the landscape grows more complex, success will depend on adaptability, transparency, and a data-driven approach grounded in client understanding.
Important Links and Statistics for the Advertising Industry
Market Intelligence and Reports
Marketer / Insider Intelligence
https://www.insiderintelligence.com/
Statista – Advertising Industry
https://www.statista.com/topics/1176/advertising-industry/
Association of National Advertisers )ANA)
https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/pr-2024-12-programmatic
The World Advertising Research Center (WARC)
Organizations and Associations
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
American Advertising Federation (AAF)
World Federation of Advertisers (WFA)
Advertising Standards and Ethics
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – Advertising
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising
European Commission – Advertising & Marketing
Advertising Standards Authority (UK)
Better Business Bureau – National Advertising Division (NAD)
https://bbbprograms.org/programs/national-advertising-division
Industry News
Adweek
Ad Age
The Drum
key findings and challenges
Key Challenges in the Way
We Can Help
There has been a dramatic Increase in education and transparency about key metrics and comparative metrics for all platforms - to understand the drivers of ROI.
The number of advertising choices has increased exponentially over the last decade, primarily due to the rise of digital platforms, advanced targeting capabilities, and new technologies like AI and immersive media.
There has been wide spread adoption of standardized analytics (mostly driven by wide-spread adoption of digital) that measure engagement and lead-gen over traditional impressions.
There are constant pressures to regulate advertising, using privacy concerns and unhealthy levels of engagement for certain age groups as a catalyst for change.
There has been development of new AI tools for ad performance grading.
A push toward transformational content organization and delivery including building communities where like-minded people gather and surrounding this content and experience with helpful product information – rather than pushing out intrusive ads.
Key Findings and Challenges
Advertising can actually HURT buyers thru erosion of consumer trust for products due to advertising techniques, boastful messages, intrusion and privacy issues. In some cases these mistakes would have been preventable with additional pre-campaign research. Here are some findings:
Bud Lights campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney led to significant loss in sales, Bud Light being replaced by Modelo Especial as the top selling beer, and a social media backlash. Pepsi's "Live for Now" campaign featuring Kendall Jenner: The ad trivialized serious social justice movements and was pulled due to widespread condemnation.
Gillette's "We Believe" campaign: This ad, which touched on the #MeToo movement, generated mixed reactions and was labeled controversial.
Dove's Body Wash Ad: An ad featuring a black woman transforming into a white woman after using the product sparked accusations of whitewashing and led to a backlash.
Protein World's "Beach Body Ready?" campaign: The ad promoted an unhealthy body image and was seen as body-shaming, though the company claimed it boosted sales.
McDonald's Fillet-o-Fish Ad: This ad, which seemed to link a product to child bereavement, was deemed insensitive and withdrawn
Ad blockers and privacy tools are widely used, reducing reach and engagement. The use of ad blockers has reached 32.4% for digital engagement.
Privacy Regulations and Data Restrictions
Laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and global equivalents restrict how data is collected and used. The trends are showing more regulation and opt in requirements.
The loss of third-party cookies and limitations on tracking across platforms are forcing a shift to first-party data strategies. Since ad blockers often rely on cookies, there likely will be changes in how ad blockers perform.
Advertising Measurement and ROI Clarity
Advertisers struggle to prove the value and return on investment (ROI) of campaigns across fragmented channels.
Attribution models are often inconsistent or opaque, especially with cross-device and multi-touch journeys.
Advertising Fraud creates negative perceptions within the industry and Billions are lost annual to bot traffic, fake clicks and fraudulent impressions.
New techniques such as Programmatic advertising has increased efficiency but also introduced more fraud and brand safety risks. Low-Quality Inventory
Programmatic advertising has increased efficiency but also introduced more fraud and brand safety risks.
A few tech giants (Google, Meta, Amazon) are in control of most digital ad inventory, limiting transparency and competition. This platform dominance and walled gardens approach has created lawsuits, and court actions to reduce monopolies.
Research consistently shows that a significant portion of consumers feel bombarded by advertising. Here is a breakdown of the latest statistics.
High levels of feeling "bombarded": 75% of consumers in a 12-country study reported feeling "bombarded" by advertising. Text messages and email were tied as the most irritating channels for "bombarding" marketing messages at 39% each.
40% of consumers reported seeing irrelevant ads online every day, contributing to this feeling of "bombardment".
Irrelevant and excessive ads: Two-thirds (66%) of consumers believe the majority of digital ads they see are irrelevant to their interests or needs, with 39% labeling these ads as "excessive".
Negative feelings and actions: Over half (51%) of consumers have unsubscribed from or blocked brands who have "bombarded" them with irrelevant digital ads. Half (49%) of consumers report feeling negatively towards brands in response to poorly targeted ads.
Specific types of disliked ads: Consumers express strong dislike for intrusive ad formats, with 73% disliking online pop-up ads, 70% disliking mobile ads, and 57% disliking online video ads before content loads.
Ad Fatigue and its impact: 79% of US adults surveyed unsubscribed from at least one retail brand in the previous three months due to excessive marketing messages. 61% unsubscribed from three or more retail brands for the same reason.
Technology Complexity and Rapid Change
The rapid evolution of tools (AI, programmatic, analytics platforms) creates a steep learning curve.
Many brands and agencies struggle to keep up with the pace of change or to hire appropriately skilled talent.
Shift in Consumer Behaviors to include: spending time and money to deliberately tune out of ads and ad messaging, Forming negative sentiment towards brands that do repetitive high frequency advertising, and avoiding purchases from companies that are perceived as heavy marketers.
Younger audiences are shifting to ad-free or ad-light environments (e.g., TikTok, streaming platforms).
More affluent audiences are opting for higher paid ad free or limited advertising venues – these are often the most important psychographic for advertisers.
Traditional channels like TV and print are declining, forcing advertisers to rethink media mix strategies.
Future Trends & How to Prepare
Intelligent Disruption will continue: Historically, advertising has been sold and bought with mostly subjective value drivers. This has been changing dramatically and the pace of this change will accelerate and intensify – only adaptive companies will survive.
Actions to take now:
Work with CEVOH (see our growth ideas)
Engage in cross-industry events (CES, SXSW, Cannes Lions) to stay ahead.
Partner with academics and think tanks for thought leadership and testing.
Stay close to customers, partners, and even competitors to clarify what’s working.
Build flexible, collaborative strategies and test with real-world pilots.
Strategic Advantages & How to Exploit Them
Channel optimization: Efficiency gains through aligned direct/self-serve strategies.
Targeting and segmentation: Refined audience focus for better campaign performance.
Analytics-driven decision-making: Replace guesswork with data.
Consolidation support: Help media companies restructure, improve their value proposition, and stay competitive.
Summary
The advertising industry is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by digital expansion, rising consumer resistance, and regulatory pressures. Key challenges include increased complexity from new technologies like AI and programmatic platforms, growing use of ad blockers, and the erosion of consumer trust due to poorly targeted, excessive, or tone-deaf campaigns. High-profile ad missteps—such as those by Bud Light, Pepsi, and Dove—underscore the risks of messaging misalignment. Regulatory actions like GDPR and CCPA, along with the loss of third-party cookies, are forcing a pivot to first-party data and privacy-centric strategies. Advertisers struggle to prove ROI amid fragmented channels and flawed attribution models, while fraud and platform dominance (Google, Meta, Amazon) compound inefficiencies. Ad fatigue is rampant: 75% of consumers feel bombarded, with 51% taking actions like unsubscribing or blocking brands. Meanwhile, younger and wealthier audiences increasingly avoid traditional ads, favoring ad-free platforms. In response, advertisers are pushing for content-driven community engagement, adopting standardized analytics, and investing in performance grading tools. Looking ahead, intelligent disruption will intensify, demanding adaptive strategies. Immediate priorities include refining channel strategies, embracing data-driven targeting, and collaborating with thought leaders to stay ahead of trends. Brands that optimize for transparency, relevance, and agility—while addressing consumer sentiment and regulatory realities—will have a competitive edge.
Advertising Fraud
This Image is Obviously a Deep Fake Image. This Image Shows the Significance of This Type of Advertising Fraud. But There are Many Others, Please Read Below.
Fraud
Advertising fraud has been a persistent and evolving challenge for the digital advertising industry over the last five years (roughly 2020-2024, with some projections into 2025 and beyond). While exact figures can vary significantly between different research firms due to varying methodologies and definitions of fraud, the overarching trend is one of increasing financial losses for advertisers, coupled with more sophisticated fraud tactics and a growing emphasis on prevention.
Common Ad Fraud Types (Consistently Relevant Metrics):
Invalid Traffic (IVT): The broadest metric, encompassing non-human traffic (bots) and other forms of fake activity. Often categorized as General IVT (GIVT) and Sophisticated IVT (SIVT).
Click Fraud: Bots or click farms generating fake clicks on PPC ads to inflate costs or deplete budgets.
Impression Fraud: Generating fake ad impressions that are never seen by real users.
Domain Spoofing: Fraudsters mimicking legitimate, high-quality websites to trick advertisers into paying premium prices for low-quality inventory.
App Install Fraud / SDK Spoofing: Faking app installs or in-app events to claim attribution and payment. This includes click injection (last-click attribution hijacking).
Ad Stacking & Pixel Stuffing: Placing multiple ads in one tiny space or layering them so only one is visible, while impressions are counted for all.
Geo Masking: Falsifying location data to make less valuable traffic appear to come from high-value regions.
Made For Advertising (MFA) Sites: Websites designed primarily to host ads, often with low-quality content, high ad density, and poor user experience, but which generate IVT and low attention.
Deepfake Advertising
The bar is getting lower on generating both illegitimate and legal deepfake ads.
Examples of illegitimate deep fakes include: The image above with the fake Tom Cruise and Coca Cola Ad in front of an FA-18 superhornet took 5 minutes to create using MidJourney.
There is a growing trend to build legal deepfake advertising campaigns. These include authorized computer and AI generated fake elements to make the ad more catchy or more feasible to produce.
How to Grow your advertising business
Which Should Cost More? A Static Outdoor Paper Board, or a Digital Board that Rotates the Message Every 7 Seconds? Ask CEVOH.
CEVOH Advertising Industry Growth Drivers and What We've Done
(Proof of Impact)
For the Advertising Sector (as well as many other sectors), we recommend following the 3 Vs strategy for revenue growth. These include: Clarifying and offering Value, Using Volume growth approaches and Achieving Velocity with improved internal alignment. See more HERE.
We also believe that the process of intelligent disruption for the advertising industry will accelerate thru this decade. Buyers will demand more clarity for ROI. Those unprepared will be left behind as they will not see the clear and present threat and by the time they understand what has happened it will be too late. While the pace of change is accelerating, so is the ability to capitalize on these trends and to rapidly reroute your business and profitability from a disrupted track to a transformed course.
The advertising industry's revenue growth is driven by a complex interplay of technological advancements, evolving consumer behavior, and strategic shifts by advertisers. Here are our thoughts on the key drivers:
CEVOH Proof of Impact and Industry Growth Drivers
CEVOH has had a forward leaning role in advancing intelligent, transparent, and accountable advertising.
Formed MABI (Media Audit Bureau Inc.) to provide third party unbiased reporting on ad medium effectiveness for 256 business sectors.
We’ve built tools and apps that clarify value and ROI for use by U.S. and Canadian SMBs.
Tested over 1 Million ad programs to establish data verification models, machine learning algorithms and best practices for ad messaging and creative content.
Established and implemented pricing best practices across all major and minor ad mediums – to clarify value and ROI. We’ve done this for 16 major advertising companies.
Implemented value creation pricing approaches that resulted in revenue growth for ad platforms.
Trained over 60,000 ad sales reps to become better at adding value, and insight on the sales call and adapt consultative selling and data transparency techniques.
Trained over 5,000 first line sales managers (train the trainer) to achieve wide scale adoption of better ad sales approaches.
Consulted with many companies to properly recruit and on-board various types of ad customer employees including: business development channels, premise reps, appointment setting telephone rep channels, customer care, executive appeal, etc.
Consulted with many companies on how to properly ‘down channel’ customers without loss of customer satisfaction.
Industry Contribution:
Partnered with IAB, 4A and ANA to advance knowledge on ad fraud.
Developed ad grading systems.
Advanced transparency and analytics around Google advertising.
Innovation Leadership:
Explored substitutes for traditional advertising such as building communities of common interest hungry for content about products.
Shifted focus from impressions to quality leads and conversions.
Helped businesses pivot with measurable success. SMBs are most at risk for getting bad advertising advice – often getting visits from over 20 different ad medium sales reps/month.
We See Continued Digital Transformation and Ad Spending Shifts:
Dominance of Digital Advertising: Digital advertising continues to be the primary growth engine, capturing the vast majority of incremental ad dollars. This includes search, social media, retail media, video, and mobile advertising.
Mobile-First Approach: As consumers spend more time on mobile devices, advertising spend is heavily shifting towards mobile, including in-app advertising, which boasts higher click-through rates.
Video Advertising: Digital video, especially short-form video on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, is a rapidly growing format due to high consumer engagement. We see a degradation of quality from video advertising and recommend using artists, and copywriters to create messages.
Programmatic Advertising: The automation of ad buying and selling through programmatic platforms increases efficiency, transparency, and targeting capabilities, leading to wider adoption.
Data-Driven Strategies and Personalization:
First-Party Data: With increasing privacy regulations and the deprecation of third-party cookies, brands are prioritizing the collection and utilization of first-party data for more effective and compliant audience targeting.
AI and Machine Learning: AI and ML are transforming advertising by enabling more sophisticated ad targeting, hyper-personalization, automated campaign optimization, and even generative content creation. This leads to improved efficiency and ROI.
Contextual Targeting: As an alternative to user-level tracking, contextual advertising (placing ads based on the content being viewed) is gaining traction, often leading to increased user engagement and ad revenue.
Evolution of Ad Formats and Platforms:
Retail Media Networks: Advertising on e-commerce sites and retailers' owned digital properties is a significant and growing revenue stream, offering high-intent audiences and closed-loop measurement.
Creator Economy: Brands are increasingly engaging with influencers and content creators for authentic, sustained engagement, with a shift towards long-term partnerships and multi-platform expansion.
Connected TV (CTV) and Streaming: As audiences shift from linear TV to streaming services, ad-supported tiers on platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime are expanding inventory and attracting significant ad dollars, particularly for live sports streaming.
Gaming Advertising: In-app and in-game advertising is a rapidly expanding market, capitalizing on the immense popularity of mobile gaming.
Interactive Ad Formats: To combat "banner blindness" and increase engagement, advertisers are adopting more interactive and engaging ad formats.
Economic and Consumer Behavior Factors:
Consumer Spending and Confidence: Overall consumer spending directly impacts advertising budgets, as businesses adjust their marketing efforts based on market demand and economic conditions.
Demand for Measurable ROI: Advertisers are increasingly demanding measurable return on investment (ROI) from their campaigns, driving investments in AdTech solutions that offer robust analytics and attribution models.
Brand Loyalty and Awareness: While performance-based advertising is growing, building a strong and distinctive brand through creative and impactful advertising remains crucial for long-term growth and customer loyalty.
Meeting Consumer Needs and Intent: Understanding and anticipating consumer needs and desires, and delivering relevant and timely ads, is paramount to capturing attention and driving conversions.
Operational Efficiency and Innovation:
Marketing Automation: This industry is super large and brands are competing heavily for share. Automation tools for email marketing, social media management, and lead nurturing streamline processes and improve efficiency but are often priced per customer seat.
New Product Development: Companies that innovate and launch new products or improve existing ones create fresh advertising opportunities and can target new customer segments.
Pricing Strategies: Optimal pricing models, including dynamic pricing and various discount strategies, can stimulate demand and increase revenue.
Global Expansion of Digital Advertising: Increasing internet penetration and digitalization in emerging markets are expanding the global footprint of digital advertising.
Content and Creative:
Instead of the Drum Sound of Frequency, Try Thoughtful Creative to Break-thru: CEVOH is a strong supporter of the creative process, and often the quality of this will pierce thru the clutter of intrusive ads. The right creative team, with light touches from the brand marketers will provide meaningful advertising.
Great Products Excel Over Great Advertising:
Put another way: Trying to use an exceptional ad campaign to overcome product and service quality issues is bad for the industry and your firm. Double check the sat scores, net promoter scores, customer review – etc., before signing on an account.
Summary:
CEVOH emphasizes a “3 Vs” strategy—Value, Volume, and Velocity—as essential for revenue growth in advertising and beyond. With rapid changes in technology and consumer behavior, CEVOH argues that intelligent disruption is accelerating, and companies that fail to adapt will fall behind. To meet this challenge, CEVOH has led initiatives that improve transparency and performance in advertising, including launching MABI to audit ad effectiveness, building ROI tools for SMBs, and training over 60,000 ad reps in consultative, data-driven selling. CEVOH also contributed to industry best practices, collaborated with IAB and ANA to combat ad fraud, and innovated alternatives to traditional advertising such as community-based content marketing. As digital becomes the dominant force—especially via mobile, video, programmatic, and retail media—advertisers must adopt data-driven strategies using first-party data, AI, and contextual targeting. New formats like CTV, influencer partnerships, and gaming ads are gaining traction. At the same time, economic conditions, consumer expectations, and privacy regulations are reshaping how and where advertisers spend. Brands must offer measurable ROI, leverage automation, personalize content, and adapt pricing models to succeed. CEVOH has helped clients across these dimensions, pivoting business strategies toward more accountable, innovative, and effective advertising. Ultimately, the industry must shift toward transparency, responsiveness, and disruption-ready thinking. CEVOH’s guiding principle for the future: “Adapt Intelligently. Disrupt Strategically. In summary, the advertising industry's growth is heavily propelled by the continued shift to digital platforms, fueled by advancements in AI and data analytics, and adapted to evolving consumer preferences for engaging and personalized experiences across a multitude of channels.