Nielsen has released its 2025 global media planning report, which found several trends for marketers to keep in mind, such as generational differences in media consumption.
To help marketers plan advertising strategies for 2025, the report identifies three main trends that are reshaping how brands connect with audiences.
The report reinforces the need to find the right mix of traditional and emerging digital media channels when creating media plans. Whilst the channel mix becomes more complex, balancing investment across traditional and emerging channels is difficult but necessary. Despite the rise in streaming and the growth of Connected TV (CTV) devices, the report states that traditional TV remains a significant part of global media consumption, showing resilience in the face of digital competition.
But there is no one-size-fits-all approach, with some markets, for example, Poland, remaining strong in traditional TV viewership and only having approximately eight per cent of its audiences’ time spent streaming, which is in sharp comparison to that of the U.S. at 40 per cent of total TV time. As a result, media strategies must be nuanced and adaptable as traditional and digital platforms continue to coexist.
The second trend centres around retail media advertising and the opportunities that are available for brands to reach shoppers at the point of purchase on retailers’ digital platforms. This rapid area of growth offers new opportunities and is evolving, now holding a prominent position in global marketing strategies.
Retail media advertising is increasing across the globe with an example of this being that for the five months inclusive from August to December 2024, there was a steady month-on-month growth in Amazon retail media ad spend in Japan. Retail media offers advertisers and publishers another channel to utilise beyond traditional digital and offline media platforms.
The third trends focuses on the difference between how generations consume and interact with media, emphasising the planning required for this shift in global media consumption habits. Whilst this is not a new phenomenon, the trend reiterates the importance of both how content is consumed, and now also how it is produced, distributed, and monetised. The media industry must continue to account for older generations as they can typically be heavy consumers of traditional media, and reflect this with an advertising strategy that understands the value of differing media types.
“Media landscape fragmentation combined with platform convergence, is creating new opportunities for advertisers to effectively reach their audiences. Cross-media measurement and personalisation are possible, requiring new data sources and methodologies allowing brands to drive more meaningful and beneficial engagement with consumers. The insights from this report help the industry take advantage of these new opportunities,” Alison Gensheimer, head of global marketing, Nielsen said.
