Apple boosts its advertising business, while marketers look to power-up their martech

For decades, the telco business model remained relatively unchanged: generating revenue by selling voice and data minutes. Today, however, telcos are moving into vertical business segments and experimenting with new technologies, partnerships, and routes to market. The telecom operating model is evolving in new and unexpected ways as carriers look to unlock new sources of value and win over new customers.

Welcome to the latest edition of Spotlight, your monthly summary of what’s making headlines in the world of digital advertising.

What we have for you today: Walled gardens’ use of AI training data comes under scrutiny, AI has a reality check, and ad revenues pick up for 2025.

Make or break

Are the big walled gardens a force for good in the digital advertising sector? The answer is clear: yes and no. Depending on how they act, they can either make the sector or break it.

Google’s arguably monopolistic hold over adtech is an example of the latter (its antitrust case is to be decided on immanently), and so too are the major platforms’ recent forays into AI. According to a Senate select committee inquiry in Australia, Amazon, Google and Meta are “pillaging culture, data and creativity” to train AI. The committee found that some general-purpose AI models should automatically default to a “high risk” category and be subjected to mandated transparency requirements.

On the positive side is Apple’s latest attempts to boost its ads business. The company has begun selling its own advertising inventory for Apple News, rather than outsourcing it to third-parties. In the process, Apple has recognised that publishers need a bigger slice of the pie and is reportedly offering a 70% cut of ad revenue sold by Apple within their articles. This would be welcome news for publishers and reflects an adtech market that is beginning to unshackle itself from Google and present more choice to publishers and advertisers alike.

AI has a reality check

Speaking on condition of anonymity, programmatic marketers have gone on record to vent their complaints about AI-based buying tools. A lack of transparency is a key issue, with marketers saying that it is difficult to see what optimisations the DSP is making and why. Mendacity is another. As one marketer put it: “They’re pushing hundreds of millions of dollars based on these decisions on personas that not only don’t exist but they’re actually to take actions you can’t take.”

In our view, issues around transparency and privacy within the context of AI will come under the spotlight next year. AI for AI’s sake is not only pointless but is also a compliance risk. Users need to remain focused on what the technology means for the consumer – their experience, and their rights.

Big spenders

According to a new study from Acxiom, 99% of businesses plan to update their martech setups in 2025 in pursuit of excellence. Interestingly, only 21% of respondents see AI as a priority, with measurement and attribution cited as the top challenges (reported by 37% of respondents).

This study points to a sector in which brands are looking for new entrants to partner with and new technologies to enable them to enhance their relationship with their customers. More than ever, the tech choices being made now will help decide which brands thrive in future.

Playing catch-up

Once something of a regulatory laggard when it comes to privacy laws, the US is catching up state by state. Maryland is the latest state to ramp up its privacy rules, with the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act (MODPA) due to take effect on 1 October 2025. Under MODPA, a business is required by law to limit its collection of personal data to that which is “reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide or maintain a specific product or service requested by the consumer to whom the data pertains.”

With 19 states having enacted privacy laws, the US is fast becoming a bastion of data privacy. Whether this direction of travel continues under the incoming administration remains to be seen.

A giant is born

In the unlikely event that you missed it, Omnicom and Interpublic (IPG) have agreed on a $30 billion merger. Once complete, the unified company will overthrow WPP as the largest advertising firm in the world.

This is the latest expression of a wave of consolidation that has washed over the sector in recent times. It is also, no doubt, good news for brands as the new giants of advertising slug it out in the years ahead and look to differentiate through service excellence and new data- and technology-driven innovations.

Making bank

Finally, figures from GroupM suggest that the advertising industry will surpass $1 trillion in total revenue in 2024 and grow 7.7% to $1.1 trillion in 2025.

The report goes on to say that more than half of that trillion dollars will go to the top five digital advertising companies – Google, Meta, ByteDance, Amazon and Alibaba. That’s actually very good news for the rest of the industry. The advertising industry is now so large that publishers of all shapes and size can secure decent revenues given the right approach, regardless of what happens with the big five. 2025 therefore promises to be a lucrative year for the industry, and we for one can’t wait to get it started.

More from Novatiq

Thank you for being one of our more than 500 Spotlight subscribers – we sincerely hope that you have found the newsletters informative. We’re always looking to grow our readership, so do pass on our details to anyone who you think may be interested.

Our blog has also continued to draw in readers this year, with our pieces on how telco business models are changing, how telcos can increase revenue, and how telcos can turbocharge their own marketing strategies being among the most read. We’ve also just published out final blog of the year, which looks back on some of the big trends of 2024. Check it out here.

Well, that’s it for another eventful year. Enjoy the holidays and see you back in 2025. Strap in, it promises to be another massive year