WARC: consumer-goods giants spend more of revenue on ads.
Top FMCG advertisers lifted ad-to-sales from 11.6% in 2023 to 12.5% in 2025, while Big Tech fell from 13% in 2019 to 7.4%. A group of 25 large US advertisers dropped to 5.5% combined, from 6.1% in 2019, in what WARC calls a two-speed market.
Why it matters
Useful benchmark when defending brand budgets against cost-cutting peers.
Related trends.
AdvertisingPublicis aims to cut manual tasks by a quarter with AI
On its Q3 call, Publicis said AI agents should remove about 25% of manual, repetitive work. Unlike rivals cutting staff, Arthur Sadoun says the group keeps hiring and is giving over 90% of its 114,000 people AI tools.
Why it mattersHolding companies now split on AI: fewer people at some, same people doing higher-value work at Publicis.
AdvertisingClear Channel Outdoor goes private under Mubadala, hires TV veterans
Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital closed its $6.2B buyout. Former Univision chief Wade Davis becomes CEO and ex-Paramount ad boss John Halley joins as CCO, promising outcome measurement, programmatic buying and one national platform.
Why it mattersA Gulf-owned outdoor giant is betting measurement will unlock bigger OOH budgets.
AdvertisingGoogle Ads lets advertisers cap Display and Search partner spend
Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can now set Display and Search partners to low priority and cap them as a share of daily budget, down to zero. Google only promises best effort, and API support comes later.
Why it mattersMore control over low-quality inventory, though the cap isn't a hard guarantee.
