Ori Gold.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2025 and forward to next year.
Ori Gold, CEO & Co-Founder, Bench Media
If 2023 was the year gen AI caught fire and 2024 was the year everyone pretended they had it mastered, then 2025 was the year the internet quietly rearranged itself. Beneath the demos and hype, a deeper shift rewired how people search, how they discover brands and how attention is valued.
AI compressed the funnel in ways no one was prepared for. Zero click journeys and summarised search meant people expect answers without clicking and personalisation without effort. The economics of the open internet have changed as traffic dropped and publishers recalibrated. Consumers became sharper and more sceptical, rewarding clarity and consistency.
In 2026 AI will shape most discovery moments. Brands without strong first party data and direct customer signals will simply disappear from AI results. The winners will be the ones who feed models with clear, trusted information so they are chosen even when no one clicks through to a website.
While search shifted quietly, TV shifted loudly. The 2025 Upfronts confirmed that big tech wants the biggest screen in the house. Netflix expanded its ad tier; Amazon pushed deeper with Prime Video and YouTube leaned into the living room celebration. Local networks fought back with premium content and richer audience signals. In 2026 the battle for television will become a battle for measurement and content. Cross-screen frequency, reach, and actual effective impact on brands will determine which platforms gain share. Expect more partnerships between local broadcasters and data or tech providers as they try to compete with global ecosystems.
This complexity pushed strategy back to the centre. Not the jargon heavy version, but the kind that blends business logic with cultural instinct. Media planning shifted from ticking channels to stitching contexts. Agencies that excelled were those that could link brand, performance, content, and data into a single, continuous narrative. In 2026 strategy will become the primary value driver in agency selection. AI has levelled execution. Clients will pay a premium for thinking that simplifies complexity and creates coherent direction across the entire media system.
Brands also moved past the ‘add another touchpoint’ mentality. The strongest work felt integrated, with emotional storytelling supported by performance intelligence. Integration became a must and the digital versus traditional divide has almost completely faded away.
In 2026 integration will accelerate as measurement gaps widen. Brands will prioritise unified journeys over channel expansion, and full-funnel accountability will become the expectation, not just an ambition.
As global agency networks spent the year consolidating structures and streamlining operations, independents gained ground. Clients wanted clarity, access and partners who move with the market. Independents delivered speed, transparency and genuine integration. As AI flattens execution, thinking, and personal service become the differentiators. When trust becomes the true currency, independence becomes an advantage. In 2026 independents will pick up more enterprise accounts. Procurement will learn to favour agility over scale not only price points, and clients will value a clear and transparent line of sight between investment, marketing craft and outcomes.
Bench’s evolution reflected this shift. We prioritised clarity over complexity, expanded our omnichannel capabilities and proved that creativity, strategy and performance can work as one. Whether reframing midyear enrolments for universities or driving cultural moments for FMCG brands, our work reinforced a simple truth. Intelligent media is not about channels. It is about momentum and the ability to place brands where culture is heading.
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