Advertising Will Boom in 2026, but Hollywood Is at Risk of Being Left Behind
Geopolitical pressures and AI concerns still loom, but advertising is predicted to keep growing this year … though it's the tech giants that will reap the rewards.
2025 was the year that advertising dealt with shocks to the system: AI disruption reverberated across every part of the ecosystem, Omnicom completed its $13 billion megadeal for IPG, creating a marketing Goliath, and tariff uncertainty threw certain sectors into chaos.
But when it was all said and done, the ad business grew in 2025, with WPP Media raising its estimate to 8.8 percent for the year, and Madison & Wall raising its estimate to 11 percent growth. Both prognosticators expect 2026 to continue that growth trajectory, with WPP Media forecasting 7.1 percent growth this year (excluding political advertising) and Madison & Wall forecasting 6.6 percent growth this year (also excluding political).
2026 is shaping up to be just as disruptive as 2025 to the industry, as every sector of the advertising business grapples with this new reality. Or as WPP Media frames it, advertising is in an era of “creative destruction”:
“Within these aggregate figures, we see the forces of creative destruction at work: streaming video cannibalizing linear television, retail media capturing budget from legacy digital channels, AI-powered answer engines beginning to reshape search behavior, and creator-driven content continuing its displacement of professionally produced media,” the media buying firm wrote in its 2026 This Year Next Year report. “Each of these shifts resets the scoreboard, ranking losers whose models are disrupted and winners who capture the value being created. At least until the next disruption.”
Unfortunately for Hollywood, it is facing a double whammy.
