Maddie Basso. Credit: Yahoo DSP Australia
The AdNews end-of-year Perspectives, looking back at 2025 and forward to next year.
And see the AdNews 50 plus page state of the market report, Forecast 2026
Maddie Basso, head of Yahoo DSP Australia.
When I think back on 2025, the word that comes to mind is movement.
Not slow or predictable movement, but the kind that reshapes the ground underneath you while you’re still trying to stand on it. If the last few years were about experimenting with new channels, technologies and behaviours; 2025 was the year those experiments became real, operational forces.
It was the year of accelerated fragmentation, of AI landing with genuine practical impact and of teams across the industry recalibrating what “good” looks like. I’ve felt this shift in almost every conversation I’ve had this year with agencies, marketers, platforms or partners across the ecosystem.
There’s been something of an honest acknowledgement that the industry needed to work differently, not because it was fashionable, but because the old mechanics simply couldn’t keep up with the reality of modern media.
As I look back on this year, a few trends clearly stand out - trends that have quietly reshaped our industry and set the stage for what’s next.
The pace of change became impossible to ignore
Channel fragmentation isn’t new but this year it multiplied significantly.
Streaming matured, and we even saw some new players enter the Australian market. On the other end, CTV became more sophisticated.
Investment into retail media moved beyond experimental pilots into meaningful strategy. And audio, programmatic out-of-home and commerce continued to grow in reach and complexity, requiring more integrated and flexible planning.
In previous years, the development of these channels felt like they could be relegated to the fringes of a media plan - they were interesting, but not yet central. In 2025, they became non-negotiable.
To succeed this year marketers had to understand the role of new touchpoints, or they risked missing how people actually discover, consider and buy today. The challenge wasn’t choosing which channels mattered; it was deciding how many you could realistically master before the next wave arrived.
Another consequence of the accelerating pace of fragmentation is that it fundamentally changed the texture of planning. Instead of trying to build the perfect annual roadmap, teams were forced to become more fluid, adaptive and comfortable making decisions with imperfect information.
While there is a role for this kind of planning as we move into 2026, I think all marketers will breathe a sigh of relief when the pace of change relents and we can move into a more proactive state of mind.
AI made its move from hype to habit
The second defining shift was AI actually embedding itself into how work gets done. Not as a novelty or side experiment but as a tool that has been reshaped workflows.
Last year, most teams were still dabbling in this new technology. This year, AI became something you needed to understand in a practical, grounded way: when to use it, how to use it and, crucially, how to pair it with human judgement.
That required a very real cultural shift inside organisations. You could sense the industry collectively moving from a “playing with new tools” mindset to asking much deeper questions about how AI really supports creativity, innovation and operational discipline.
Consequently, I believe we will begin to see some more formal guardrails be put in place around this technology as we move into 2026. In lieu of formal regulation, this is an opportunity for businesses to really begin to put some rules around AI usage in their organisation - particularly now that most in our industry are using some form of AI on a regular basis.
Meeting clients where they want us
In 2025, I found client conversations changed in a noticeable way. Yes, the usual conversations about performance, audiences and outcomes remained but there was something more fundamental underneath: a hunger for simplification.
In a year where everything felt like it was accelerating, marketers wanted fewer moving pieces, not more. They wanted time back - time to strategise, reflect and think about the work instead of managing the machinery around it.
That shift also created a renewed demand for clarity in measurement. With so many channels exploding at once, the questions marketers asked became sharper:
- How do we connect behaviours across different surfaces?;
- What does attention really look like?;
- How do emerging channels fit into an orchestrated plan, not as bolt-on tactics?;
- What is our audience actually doing after exposure - and how do we know?
While we may not have all the answers yet, the fact these questions are even being asked means the knowledge and expertise in this space has become razor-sharp. The appetite for clarity has never been stronger and marketers are getting incredibly tactical with their plans.
In 2026, I’m positive we can begin to develop the answers to these all-important questions.
Commerce and retail media crossed their tipping point
If there was one space that transformed fastest this year, it was commerce. After years of education-heavy pilot programs, 2025 felt like the point where retail media grew up.
Better data partnerships, clearer value propositions and more mature measurement frameworks helped brands move from the testing phase towards tapping into genuine behavioural signals.
Over the past year, we’ve been able to draw some really meaningful patterns from commerce media - understanding not just how people engage but what they actually do next. That shift has opened new creative possibilities for brands that previously treated commerce as a strictly lower-funnel play.
And 2026 will be the year this area becomes properly integrated into planning, not siloed away as an add-on.
What we’re walking into next year
Despite the turbulence of 2025, I feel more optimistic heading into 2026 than I have in several years. Yes, budgets have been tight. Yes, teams have been stretched. But what emerged from all this turbulence is a sharper, smarter and more resilient industry - one that has stopped waiting for stability and is instead building confidence in constant change.
I personally stepped up into a new role this year that has opened me up to so many interesting conversations and given me a new perspective on what we may expect next year:
- Integrated, omnichannel measurement: We’re not looking at perfect attribution, but deeper, more connected insights across video, commerce, CTV and audio.
- New creative thinking powered by reclaimed time: As teams automate the monotony with the help of AI, they’ll be able to refocus on the strategic and imaginative parts of our craft.
- A return to purposeful, not reactive, planning: With the chaos of 2025 behind us, expect more clarity, focus and disciplined experimentation in 2026.
This year challenged us in the best possible way - and it forced us to evolve. It made us faster, more adaptable and, ultimately, more strategic. If this year was the reset, 2026 is where we build with intention.
And honestly, I think that’s the most exciting place the industry has been in a long time.
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