Canadian Ad Insider

Media Predictions for 2025

Bruce Neve, President of True Media Canada., stopped by to share insights from his 30+ years of experience in the advertising industry. He shared his thoughts and predictions for the media landscape in 2025.

Congratulations on another year of growth.  There has also been a big change after the acquisition by Meet The People (MTP), from a client’s perspective – how is it going?

Bruce – MTP (Meet the People) is a collective of independent agencies- each with its own culture, client partners and unique capabilities. Joining MTP does not impact the independence of  True Media. It provides us with four new agency partners, with talent in 11 markets across North America, additional services/capabilities we can bring to our clients and the opportunity to provide our services to many new clients in exciting categories. We are developing AI-powered proprietary tools that will benefit our clients moving forward.

Looking back at our predictions from last year, what do you feel you got right? wrong?

Bruce – My predictions for 2024 were mostly right on and were already apparent to most people. TikTok and Connected TV growth in attention and investment, disruption by government legislation, and AI is the industry buzzword of the year. As predicted the Metaverse conversation and infatuation died. I miscalled cookies’ finality and did not foresee Google delaying again. (2024 Predictions)

As we head into 2025, what emerging trends do you see reshaping the advertising landscape, and how should brands adapt?”

Bruce – Most trends are not so much  “emerging” or unexpected, but rather, they have been slowly building for over 5+ years and may start the hockey stick curve upwards to mass adoption /impact in 2025.

Trends I have my eye on that are quickly impacting the market include:

Search Diversification and Innovation 

• Google unveiled Gemini 2.0, featuring capabilities that process and generate text, images, audio, and video and are capable of complex reasoning and task execution. This is Google’s preliminary answer to everyone trying to get into the AI-assisted search business.

According to Google, Gemini 2.0 takes us one step closer to “agentic” AI. (Agentic is a system capable of  decision-making without continuous human intervention.)

Gen Z in particular has not started searching: via Google. Research shows that 45% of Gen Z prefer using social media platforms like TikTok for search functions given that they believe TikTok provides more authentic content.

Reddit has significantly impacted Google Search in recent years. There has been a dramatic increase in Reddit content appearing prominently in Google’s search results as  Google’s algorithms prioritize user-generated content, which is abundant on Reddit. Gen Z in particular often appends “#Reddit” to their search queries to obtain more authentic insights.

Social Commerce and Live Shopping

• Brands should make sure their products are shoppable via voice, either on websites like Amazon or on their own sites. It is early days, but consumers are starting to use voice assistants for shopping, particularly  GenZ shoppers. As generative AI (genAI) improves, voice assistants will be able to speak more naturally, and consumers will lean further into voice-enabled live shopping.
• China leads in live commerce, with 81% of consumers having used livestream shopping that merges entertainment with instant purchasing. Live shopping offers dynamic, interactive experiences, allowing consumers to view products in action, ask real-time questions, and make instant purchases. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have integrated live shopping features, capitalizing on their broad reach and engagement to drive sales.

Live Sports events on streaming services

• Streaming services are leaning into Big Events – such as the Netflix Tyson Fight ( yes, it was crap, but look at the audience numbers, social engagement/conversations), and Christmas Day Netflix NFL games. In addition, DAZN secured the rights to the 2025 Club World Cup of Soccer in June 2025, Amazon has been sold out for Monday Night NHL games. Netflix just announced their rights for Women’s World Cup soccer in 2027 and 2031.
• What will the future sports rights landscape look like for NHL hockey, Olympic Games? Likely a mix of linear/traditional broadcasters with unique events ( like Christmas Day NFL and International NFL and NHL games) on streaming services.

With increasing concerns around consumer privacy, how can brands balance personalization with compliance and ethical data practices?

Bruce – First off, respect your audience /consumer.  Most consumers don’t understand what they’re consenting to when they share data as overall privacy literacy is quite low. Cookie banners provide a convenient way to give consumers a chance to opt-out and can also act as an easy link to a company’s privacy policy.

Advertisers can balance privacy and personalization with compliance by following PIPIEDA (Canada’s Privacy law, which varies in the US), staying updated on new regulations like (BC11) and prioritizing consumer control. By using ethical data practices, collecting only the necessary data, and ensuring strong security, companies can build trust while offering personalized experiences. A privacy-first approach, coupled with clear, responsible data practices, is key to staying compliant and building long-term consumer loyalty in today’s data-driven ecosystem.

We build signal-agnostic targeting and measurement strategies that can leverage data./signals and relevant context without cookie data enabling a personalized and relevant experience for users and ensuring privacy compliance.

In an era of AI-driven content and automation, what role does human creativity play in crafting campaigns that truly resonate with audiences?

Bruce – AI is simply another tool in the Creator’s toolbox. Human creativity, informed by insights and human truths still drives the overall idea. AI tools promise to accelerate “ versioning” for relevance targeting based on triggers/signals received while a campaign is in the market. I can also see AI tools as being great for bringing ideas to life in the early stages of creative development to show clients what the idea “ could “ look like. Those clients opting for fast/cheap assets, using  100% AI creative, will all live in the average middle ground – perhaps good enough, but not rising above the noise/clutter.

What emerging technologies, such as generative AI or AR/VR, do you see having the biggest impact on advertising strategies in 2025 and beyond?

Bruce – Advances in AI will have the biggest impact on our business. Ideally, automating projects that have been time sucks will free up more time for strategic thinking, ideation, and surfacing actionable insights. In addition, the creation, testing and activation of more relevant ads at scale will be manageable. We will see more AI Influencers and AI-powered Social commerce and the beginnings of Google search being challenged by agentic AI.

With increasing concerns around consumer privacy, how can brands balance personalization with compliance and ethical data practices?

Here are Bruce’s predictions for 2022, 2023, 2024.

[adrotate banner=”10″]

[adrotate banner=”4″]

[adrotate banner=”6″]