Why 2025 became a wild year for Media and Advertising

The past year saw a slew of challenges and transformations in the global and Indian advertising landscape. From Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG and geopolitical pressures to the proliferation of AI, creator dominance and short-form narrative formats, the media and advertising industry had to offer new expertise and solutions and reinvent business models to meet client expectations. However, with global advertising networks feeling the pressure, there is also a silver lining for homegrown ad firms. Industry leaders recap the major shifts and learnings for the industry in 2025.

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The ad world’s big reset in 2025

By Lalatendu Das, CEO, Publicis Media South Asia

2025 was a year of reckoning and recalibration for the media and advertising industry. Structural realignments, technological leaps and shifting consumer realities converged to reshape both the Indian and global landscape. The year opened with geopolitical flux. Rewired supply chains and tariff pressures dampened business sentiment, prompting brands to approach investments with uncharacteristic caution. Yet, in a reminder of the Indian market’s resilience, the mood changed meaningfully in the second half. GST reforms and supportive monetary policy revived consumer confidence, allowing the industry to close the year with renewed optimism.

Against this backdrop, digital decisively established itself as the industry’s centre of gravity. Even in a constrained environment, digital and e-commerce spending held firm, reinforcing their position as the most accountable, outcome-driven components of the marketing mix. Social media and influence cemented their mainstream status—no longer peripheral levers, but essential engines of discovery, engagement and cultural relevance. Brands spent much of the year calibrating the right balance across paid, earned, owned and shared channels, acknowledging that influence now shapes the full funnel, not just the top of it.

The year Asia became an active architect of future global developments

By Rana Barua, group CEO, Havas India, Southeast Asia & North Asia

In 2025, global markets underwent considerable change, presenting our industry with a range of challenges and opportunities stemming from geopolitical instability, rapid digital advancements, climate-related concerns, and evolving workforce trends. This year was characterised not only by unpredictability but also by the unprecedented speed with which events developed and interacted. For leadership, adaptability became an essential policy framework rather than simply a managerial skill.

Resilience and acceleration amidst global uncertainty

Global sentiment shifted frequently due to major elections, supply chain realignment, and increased protectionist policies. Nevertheless, our region demonstrated both resilience and accelerated progress. India maintained its momentum and growth despite tough economic curbs and conditions. Southeast Asia experienced over 4% GDP growth, largely driven by the expansion of digital commerce. Collectively, the ambition and economic momentum within Asia positioned the region as an active architect of future global developments.

Disciplined brand strategies and value-centric creativity

In 2025, brands adopted more disciplined practices. Marketing strategies were informed by real-time risk measures including currency movements, shifts in data governance regulations, and sector-specific volatility across sectors such as automotive, FMCG, and entertainment. Clients expressed clear expectations for integrated value delivery, predictive analytics, and a balance between speed and accuracy.

CXOs and CMOs in India, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea increasingly prioritised value-driven communications, seeking direct impacts on revenue, operational efficiency, and long-term brand equity. This focus led to advancements in value-centric creativity, ensuring that commercial outcomes and cultural relevance were at the forefront of every initiative. Enhanced capabilities in commerce, retail media, and performance analytics ensured that all investments contributed meaningfully to business objectives.

Strategic resilience: the One Havas model

The One Havas model, designed prior to 2025’s turbulence, proved critical in managing complex environments. By integrating creative, media, health, content, commerce, and technology under one platform, we enabled clients to address market complexities with greater confidence and clarity.

AI: from capability to operating system

The year 2025 marked a significant transition for artificial intelligence (AI), as it evolved from a technological asset to a core organisational operating system. Our proprietary platform, Converged AI, facilitated the integration of data, content, media, and creativity into streamlined decision-making processes that prioritised discipline, precision, and accountability. Importantly, while AI drives efficiency, human judgement remains indispensable—particularly in culturally diverse markets where contextual understanding is paramount.

Responsible growth and sustainability

Sustainability moved beyond aspirational statements to become a non-negotiable requirement, with governments tightening environmental disclosure rules and consumers rewarding tangible actions. Our sustainability initiatives included carbon-conscious media planning and behaviour-driven brand strategy, embedding responsibility throughout the creative process.

Global Influence of Asian Creativity

Asian creativity has emerged as a powerful influence internationally. Indian storytelling, Korean entertainment, Japanese design thinking, and Southeast Asia’s creator economy have transformed global media consumption and established new standards. Our networks increasingly collaborate across borders to export original concepts, positioning Asian creativity as a leader in shaping global culture.

As we move forward, Havas and Asia stand at a pivotal juncture—economically robust, creatively influential, and technologically progressive. The future should be shaped through these strong filters.

‘Every advertising network is being pushed to rethink real integration’

By Rohan Mehta, Omnicom Advertising India (formerly CEO at FCB Kinnect)

(Note – His new designation at Omnicom Advertising is yet to be formalised)

The first shift in 2025 was at a global scale. When Omnicom completed the acquisition that made it the world’s largest advertising group, it created more than a structural change. It reflected a deeper truth about our industry. Scale still matters, but agility matters even more. Every network is being pushed to rethink what real integration must look like in a world where clients want creativity, media, commerce and technology to move in complete sync.

Cannes Lions mirrored that mood. The conversations were louder, more urgent, and centred on the value of real work. Work rooted in actual clients, actual outcomes, and actual consumer behaviour. The festival took a firm step toward cleaner, verified case studies. That cultural shift matters because it signals the industry’s growing desire for authenticity over theatrics.

AI, of course, shaped the year in a way nothing else did. What was once experimental has become infrastructure. Agencies, consulting firms, and tech companies are reorganising their operating models because AI has entered the mainstream of creation, optimisation, and decision-making. This sudden acceleration has also renewed the importance of the human instinct that guides judgement, emotion, and nuance. As AI gets sharper, the value of what only humans can bring becomes clearer.

Closer to home, India crossed a quiet but significant milestone. We are now a digital-majority market across almost every category, including FMCG. When giants like Unilever and Nestlé reoriented their structures toward digital-first thinking, it signalled that the era of digital as an “add-on” had fully ended. This transformation was reinforced by the cultural rise of quick commerce. What started as convenience has become an everyday habit, shaping how brands think about discovery, consideration, and purchase.

The year also carried a moment of deep reflection with the passing of Piyush Pandey. Every generation in Indian advertising has grown through a vocabulary and way of storytelling that he helped define. His departure felt like the closing of a foundational chapter, one that shaped how India speaks, feels, and responds to brands.

Taken together, these moments point toward a future where creativity thrives through truth, technology strengthens craft, and the industry keeps evolving with the culture it serves.

The lesson from 2025: Atmanirbharta in marketing and communications services

By Shekar Swamy, MD & Group CEO, R K SWAMY HANSA Group

The leading advertising and marketing services providers owned by MNC holding companies are in the throes of major changes. One could even call it turmoil. Omnicom has merged with IPG. WPP’s stock price has declined 80% from its peak. Dentsu’s international business (including India) is reportedly for sale. The prominent names affected include VML (former JWT), Mullen Lowe (still Lintas in India), Ogilvy, McCann, DDB Mudra, FCB Ulka, Dentsu, BBDO, TBWA and others. All of them have to deal with merging into one or more of their holding company brethren, or absorbing one or more entities into their fold. We are not talking consolidation of plant and machinery and capacity addition here, like a cement company. We are talking of thousands of people suddenly working with new bosses, new environments, new colleagues or simply being asked to go. We are talking of co-mingling of work cultures and loss of identity. We are talking of clients potentially losing their trusted colleagues and partners on the agency side and now being asked to deal with newer teams. Holding companies, which are essentially a financial construct, are now deciding to run operations after their excel-sheet force fitting of people.

The seeds for this were sown decades ago. One after the other, Indian service providers sold out to holding companies – HTA and O&M to WPP, Tara Sinha to McCann/IPG, Ulka to FCB/IPG, the Lintas buyout by IPG, Trikaya to Grey/WPP, Chaitra to Leo Burnett/Publicis and so on. It was but inevitable that the holding company will eventually look at consolidation. That is the promise of the financial people, in their estimate of savings through amalgamation. This is nothing but a euphemism for removal of jobs, what they call redundancies. The justification is provided by blaming the arrival of AI on the scene, which is nothing but a lame excuse.