The year in media. A four out of 10?

We wanted to end the year by publishing quantitative research on how agencies, media owners and brands felt about the industry going into 2026. Several research firms agreed it was an interesting project but ultimately declined on the grounds that it was ‘unreasonable’ to expect them to do it in two weeks, and for no money.

So, we did some qualitative research instead, speaking to as many people from as many corners of the media industry as possible. Or journalism, as it’s sometimes called.

First of all, it’s clear that 2025 has been tough for everyone, except the big platforms, obviously, and agencies that paint murals, less obviously.

When we asked interviewees to give their year a score out of 10, most alighted on a six or a seven. But when we asked interviewees to give the same score to their competitors — because we’d read about political pollsters getting more accurate election data when they ask people how they think their neighbours will vote — the scores invariably dipped to around four, which may give a truer picture of industry conditions.

We’ll be discussing our findings in-depth at our free MediaCat Live event on 3 December when, in the spirit of the Abundance Agenda, I’ll be telling you what you can expect more of in 2026.

In the meantime, here’s a few nuggets that came out of our research:

We’re exiting a period of marketing McCarthyism: Agency folk have for the longest time been scared to question tech or data practices for fear of looking like luddites. But performance marketing hasn’t been performing quite as well as it used to, and that appears to have broken the spell.

AI Mechanical Turks: There’s some rumblings that big media agencies’ AI services aren’t as automated as they make out, and still require a lot of manual input. ‘It’s like those Amazon shops that were supposed to be run by AI, but actually had people in India watching everything on cameras,’ said one former network agency MD.

Publisher web traffic down 25-30%: AI overviews have taken a significant chunk of clicks away from B2C publishers. On the plus side, those with print products still can expect a little bump next year as junk-food brands look for new places to spend their digital budgets in the wake of the Less Healthy Foods advertising restrictions.

LinkedIn is having a negative impact: ‘It’s the most poisonous thing because all we get are provocative statements,’ said one media agency head. ‘We've lost confidence that there’s a profession — supported with well-written research — at the heart of this industry.’ 

Pause ads are a gateway drug to telly: ‘Arguably, they’re not TV ads; they’re digital posters in your living room, but they’ve been a great story for us. You can do it really quickly. I think nearly a third of our ad customers have never been on TV before,’ said a broadcaster.

Go a bit or go home: While some brands seem to have rediscovered the importance of storytelling, Les Binet’s IPA research calling for them to ‘Go Big Or Go Home’ by investing in creativity at scale may be a bit ambitious. ‘There is no world in which, given the current business uncertainty, people are going to go, “I'll just write a bigger check”,’ said a broadcaster.

James Swift, editor

MediaCat Live II: bigger and insight-ier

Meet, think and be merry* at at MediaCat Live in London on 3 December. Join us (for free!) from 6-8pm at Havas’ St Pancras offices for an evening of media insights and mingling.

Agenda:

More, please! MediaCat UK’s editor, James Swift, will give you a steer on what people in media and marketing can expect more of in 2025.

Prophetic or pathetic? Leaders from EssenceMediacom London will hold their forecasting abilities up for scrutiny as they review their media predictions from the beginning of the year, and discuss what they got right and wrong — and why.

Where human reactions become creative intelligence: DiO’s Ade Shannon and Simon Morris will talk about the shift that will redefine advertising, storytelling and audience connection.

Have a humanistic Christmas: Havas Media strategy partner Hayley White will talk about the importance of taking a humanistic approach to creativity at Christmas, applying a human-experience lens to three festive ad campaigns.

6 Media Opportunities for 2026: MediaCat UK reporters Elliot Wright and India Stronach will share their calendar of under-the-radar events that could prove to be prime media opportunities in 2026.

* It’s just a pun. You can be in any kind of mood you want.

TikTok to test user controls for AI content

TikTok users will soon be able to choose how much AI-generated content they want to see on their feeds.

The platform announced last week that it will test adding AI-generated content to its Manage Topics feature, which allows users to choose whether they want to see more or less content related to specific themes (eg, health and fitness, food and drinks, current affairs).

TikTok is handing more control to its users and expanding its existing suite of personalisation tools, which already includes customisable keyword filters and a ‘not interested’ button.

The platform also announced that it will invest in new AI-labelling technologies, including an invisible watermark for AI-generated images and videos. The move comes as platforms ramp up efforts to give users greater transparency around the content they encounter.

Last year, Getty Images conducted a global study on consumer attitudes toward brands using AI-generated content. It found that 90% of people wanted to know when content has been created with AI, and 76% said they couldn’t tell whether images were real or AI-made.

Against this backdrop, advertisers should consider whether the risks of cheap and cheerful AI-generated content might outweigh the benefits — especially if platforms continue handing over AI content control to users.

The big stat

The number of views ‘Baby Shark’ has on YouTube, cementing it as the platform’s most-watched video.

Pinkfong, the studio behind the viral kid’s song, went public this week, with shares jumping as much as 62% on its trading debut, raising ₩76bn ($51m). The surge underscores the growing clout of South Korea’s entertainment industry — from K-pop to streaming phenomena — as a force reshaping global culture.

Pinkfong has built out a wider kids’ universe through shows like Bebefinn and Sealook, and has patented many of its characters. It now plans to scale that portfolio with more shows, more toys and a wider international footprint. It already has subsidiaries in the US, China and Japan, and plans to expand into Europe next year, and south-east Asia in 2027.

Notes from an AI summit

I went to Telescope AI’s Future AI Summit in London last week to find out what tech experts thought about the AI bubble. Despite major figures at Facebook, Google, and OpenAI warning of an impending crash, the attendees didn’t seem unconcerned. 

One, who works in the tech industry, told me ‘cost and environmental’ factors were the biggest drivers of concern, and they argued that these are both issues that will recede with time, as companies work on alternative cooling systems that waste less water.

An entrepreneur told me: ‘It’s not a bubble. It’s only going to get more applications. We already have two AI use cases in our company, and we hope to use it for more.’

There were some who shared concerns about the bubble. One marketing manager, who uses AI heavily in their team, told me that there is a hype bubble about AI, and it will inevitably burst. He added that he sees real value in what AI can do, and people who can make good use of those tools will have to navigate the crash to continue getting the most out of AI.

Several of the attendees, who work with AI in their fields, were convinced that a collapse would be contained to the bandwagon jumpers, and that the real uses for AI will still be workable and valuable after that.

That may be naive. Even OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman has said that the burst will mean ‘really bad things’ for the whole industry — regardless of how useful the products themselves are.

By India Stronach, reporter

‘The CMO has the hardest job in business.’

Fresh from Forbes’ CMO Summit Europe, MD Seth Matlins, chatted to MediaCat, reflecting on marketers’ biggest challenges and gripes.

Find out what’s on marketers’ minds — from media agencies double-dipping, to their own place in the corporate hierarchy — in the full interview. 

Ads found in AI overviews

Ads have been detected inside AI Overviews for the first time, signalling Google’s move towards monetising the generative summaries now dominating its search results.

Adthena, a search intelligence platform, detected 13 ads across 25,000 US desktop searches. With a frequency of 0.052%, the roll-out may be tiny, but it’s the first independent confirmation that ads are entering the AI-generated answer layer.

The units look like classic Google text ads, complete with blue headlines and ‘Sponsored’ labels, but they sit directly under the AI summary. Ads appeared across categories including education, retail, and health. Detections occurred on U.S. desktop results only.

Earlier research from Adthena found that paid search click-through rates could decline by 8-12 percentage points due to AI-generated answers occupying more space on search engine results pages. With AI Overviews cannibalising clicks wherever they appear, the move shows how Google intends to preserve its ad engine even as the open web gets squeezed.

Adolescence lasts into thirties, scientists say

Adolescence lasts far longer than previously thought, extending into the early thirties, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge found the adolescent phase — traditionally thought to be confined to the teen years — runs from nine to 32, and is the brain's only period when neural networks grow more efficient.

The study, published in Nature Communications, analysed MRI scans from more than 4,000 people aged up to 90 to map how efficiently different regions of the brain communicate. It identified four sharp neurological turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, dividing life into five distinct brain phases. 

While individuals may reach these landmarks earlier or later, the researchers said it was striking how clearly these ages emerged from the data.

The findings not only help explain why the risk of mental health disorders and dementia varies across the lifespan but could also offer insights for age-based targeting, given that the ‘teen brain’ persists well into the early thirties.

Amusing ourselves to death

The advertising industry has always been something of a circus, argues Nick Manning. But now it’s only entertaining itself rather than its audiences.

As agencies obsess over industry gaffes and scandals, the real issues that plague advertising are ignored.

In this piece, Manning suggests ways to tackle the extreme dominance of tech platforms, the toxic effects of non-transparent media trading in all its forms and the dysfunctionality of the advertiser-marketing model. 

The year of The Grinch

It’s been a big year for the estate of Dr Seuss, with multiple brands opting for The Grinch over Santa in their Christmas campaigns.

McDonald’s in the UK is (from today) selling The Grinch Meal, which was created in partnership with Dr Seuss Enterprises and includes new menu items, as well as a pair of festive socks. The QSR was already selling its Grinch meal in Australia (which swaps the toasty socks for four collectable sand globes), and it is teasing the US release 2 December.

Walmart meanwhile teamed up with Dr Seuss Enterprises to create ‘WhoKnewVille’, releasing a series of ads featuring Walton Goggins [him again? Ed] as The Grinch, after social media users claimed the actor looked like the Dr Seuss character earlier this year.

Asda also cast The Grinch in its Christmas ad, although he turns into a cheerful dad at the end of the spot. Rachel Eyre, chief customer officer at Asda, said in a statement that the holidays come with ‘financial pressures’, and ‘if we can win over the Grinch, the biggest cynic of all, then we know that… we can all have a truly fabulous Christmas together at Asda.’

While some brands may be leaning into the grumpy Christmas character because of the challenging economic landscape, another reason could just be that this year marks the 25th anniversary of Jim Carrey’s turn as the green malcontent in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

By Svilena Keane, reporter

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