The Ad, Media & AdTech Moments That Shaped 2025

By Lydia Oakes, COO and Co-Founder

Let’s be honest: 2025 has been a wild ride for anyone in advertising, media, or adtech. Forget "trends" and "buzzwords" - this year delivered not only real change but huge potential for further developments in 2026. We saw huge mergers, major regulatory moves, and the unstoppable rise of AI and retail media. It was anything but quiet.

We’ve rounded up the definitive moments and themes that really shaped the industry this year - and what you need to know for what comes next.

1. The Omnicom–IPG Merger: Hello, Advertising Behemoth

This was the bombshell news of the year. In the fourth quarter, Omnicom and IPG announced a colossal $13 billion merger, instantly creating the world's biggest advertising holding company.

Why should you care? It’s a huge signal about the pressure the big networks are facing. They need to provide clients with fully integrated services, high-quality data, and massive-scale, cross-channel delivery. This merger is their answer - and trust us, the consolidation isn't over yet. And yet we must never forget the real human cost. Thousands will lose their jobs in an already candidate-saturated market. Lastly, we need to note that of the fifteen senior roles created, only three went to women, which is a disappointing state of affairs.

2. Google’s €2.95 Billion Fine: Regulators Are Not Playing Around

September brought a major headache for Google. The European Commission slapped them with a €2.95 billion fine for how they handled their adtech business, specifically for stacking the deck in favour of their own services. This wasn’t just a big headline; it was a turning point. It shows that regulators are ready to act, and this move could fundamentally change how major platforms operate. With similar antitrust cases brewing in the US, the push for greater transparency and competition in digital advertising is intensifying.

3. WPP Bags a Massive £2 Billion UK Government Contract

WPP proved that the old guard can still win big, landing a massive £2 billion government advertising contract in the UK - one of the largest ever. It covers planning and buying media for public campaigns and absolutely solidifies WPP’s position as a leader in audience-first media.

This was a big win for the network agency world. For some, it proves that scale and experience still matter as long as you have the data, the digital smarts, and the strategic thinking to back it up. For others, it shows a lack of innovative thinking in Government, even as the indie sector has never looked so strong.

4. Pinterest Jumps into CTV by Buying tvScientific

This was an unexpected but very smart move. Pinterest, the home of lifestyle inspiration, acquired the CTV adtech company tvScientific. Why is a platform like Pinterest entering the Connected TV space?

Because CTV is exploding. Advertisers are desperate for TV inventory that is more targeted, scalable, and measurable - and now, Pinterest has a direct way to deliver that. It’s a perfect example of how quickly platforms are diversifying and building out their own ad ecosystems.

5. Samba TV Secures $60M for an AI Accelerator

AI has been the dominant theme of 2025, and Samba TV’s $60 million funding round tells you just how much money the industry is throwing at it.

They plan to use the cash to build more sophisticated cross-screen measurement and AI-powered ad-delivery tools. The message is crystal clear: Artificial intelligence is the future engine for media planning, attribution, and optimisation.

6. Cookieless is Officially the Present, Not the Future

Seriously, 2025 is the year we stopped talking about the "cookieless future" ( and our editorial team breathed a huge collective sigh of relief) and started living in it. Brands and platforms went all-in on first-party data, contextual targeting, and identity solutions that protect privacy while still delivering performance.

The IAB Tech Lab also provided much-needed structure through key updates to global privacy frameworks. Privacy isn't just a legal checkbox anymore - it’s now a fundamental part of how you design your advertising strategy.

7. The Launch of ADCP

In October, we saw several ad tech industry members come together to launch the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP), an open standard designed to support AI agents in planning, transacting, and optimising advertising campaigns. Founding members of the standard include Scope 3, PubMatic, Ebiquity, and Yahoo, among others.

The launch of AdCP signals a significant shift in how the industry is thinking about AI and automation. If widely adopted, it could mark the transition from real-time bidding to real-time reasoning, in which machines don’t just transact faster but negotiate more intelligently. Just as OpenRTB standardised how impressions are bought and sold, AdCP aims to standardise how AI agents communicate deal terms, objectives and constraints.

However, while AdCP standardises the communication layer, the real differentiation will sit in the logic each agent brings to it. If agents can reason using richer contextual signals, attention metrics or outcome data, rather than just price floors, we may finally see more transparent, performance-driven trading emerge. And it's about time!

8. CTV, Retail Media, and Commerce Are Driving Growth

Beyond the big headlines, three persistent themes popped up in pretty much every marketing strategy deck this year:

• CTV is on fire: Advertisers are spending vast amounts on streaming and connected TV, especially in programmatic and for live sports content.

• Retail media is everywhere: Amazon, Walmart, Tesco, Boots - they are all pushing aggressively to monetise their customer data and ad inventory. And it’s why we launched the first retail media-specific title in the UK.

• Shoppable content is the new normal: The game isn't just about reach anymore. It's about driving a transaction, and media owners are quickly adapting to this purchase-driven reality.

Simply put, media has become more performance-focused, richer in data, and more directly tied to sales than ever before.

9. Transparency and Trust: Back on the Agenda

With programmatic still eating up the majority of digital spend, transparency is no longer optional. There's intense scrutiny on supply paths, how auctions actually work, and the true cost of media buying.

This is forcing buyers to demand clearer insights, cleaner inventory, and far more accountability from everyone - especially adtech vendors and SSPs.

So, what’s the big takeaway?

Here’s the deal: 2025 was a year of hard-to-ignore change, not just industry chatter.

From the Omnicom-IPG merger to the introduction of initiatives like ADCP, the industry is fundamentally restructuring itself around data ethics, automation, and commercial performance. Agencies are adapting or merging. Platforms are competing to diversify their ad options. And advertisers are demanding clarity, measurement, and accountability across the board.

For you, the brand, this means you need partners who can actually connect all those new dots. For agencies and platforms, it's a serious wake-up call to adapt, integrate, and think commercially - or get left behind.

You’re going to need a guide to navigate all this craziness. Whether you're focused on adtech, media, or B2B marketing, the shifts we saw in 2025 will only accelerate. Only Bluestripe has the unique mix of PR and media that enables us to build stronger, deeper relationships within the industry.