The latest dentsu Global Ad Spend Forecasts, published in December 2024, show that spending in the Media and Entertainment vertical is projected to grow by 4.7% in 2025. In this article, we look at three recent trends and developments that have an impact on the industry, potentially driving greater spending.
Building shared culture
Across the industry, there is a growing desire for shared culture and shared experiences. We are now five years on from the start of the global pandemic, and it feels the need for connection has never been greater, a trend covered in the recent Dentsu Creative Trends 2025 report, which talks about The Togetherness Deficit.
Consumers’ desire to find community and collective experiences manifests itself in several ways: in movies through the success of big event blockbusters like Deadpool & Wolverine where people watch together in a crowded theatre, in music through the success of big concert tours from artists like Taylor Swift whose Eras tour is estimated to have generated over $2bn in 21 months, and in TV and streaming through the success of watercooler moment shows like Baby Reindeer and Bridgerton.
This desire for shared culture also allows content creators to tap into groups and fandoms to seed and then grow the content, scaling from niche to mass quickly through the availability of digital distribution on platforms like Netflix, Spotify and movie chains. There is an opportunity for brands to create and deliver shared experiences with communities and forums like Reddit, with paid media used to amplify these authentic conversations.
There are also signs that entertainment companies are getting better at promoting their content. For example, Wicked, released in cinemas in November 2024, earned $165m globally in its opening weekend, helped in part by its marketing, which included more than 400 partnerships such as Starbucks and LEGO.
The need for shared experiences is set to grow in 2025 with a wealth of new content and events, including new Mission Impossible, Avatar, Jurassic World, and Snow White movies, series including White Lotus, Yellowjackets, and Harlan Coben’s Missing You, and new blockbuster concert tours including Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Coldplay.
Diverse and Inclusive Storytelling
The second trend is that globalization and inclusivity are bringing a greater opportunity for more diverse storytelling. Culture is becoming more diverse, with more openness to content that could have seemed difficult or challenging to English speaking audiences, like the anime shows on streaming, or even music like K Pop or Afrobeat that might have seemed alternative a few years ago.
The growing demand for diverse storytelling reflects a significant cultural shift. Productions like Netflix’s foreign language, trans-led musical Emilia Perez and Disney+’s epic TV series Shogun have swept awards, signalling a global appetite for stories that celebrate different cultures and perspectives.
In 2023, dentsu Entertainment launched Dentsu Anime Solutions Inc., leveraging the Dentsu network to deliver comprehensive services—content acquisition, co-production, licensing, marketing, distribution, and merchandising. This positions the company to thrive as diverse storytelling becomes central to global audiences.
Representation also makes business sense. In gaming, Horizon Zero Dawn, starring female protagonist Aloy, became Sony’s best selling franchise launch on PlayStation 4, with the series selling more than 32.7 million units globally. In sports, Netflix secured exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights for the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups, underscoring the value of diverse content.
In the algorithmic era, long-form storytelling within culture stands out as a key tool for brands. Algorithms naturally fuel fandoms, opening new opportunities for brands to connect with diverse audiences while cutting through the noise of short-form content. By engaging audiences with rich narratives across entertainment, gaming, and sports, brands can bridge cultures, build communities, and create lasting connections in an ever evolving digital world.
Entertainment leads the algorithmic era
The third big trend is the rise of AI and algorithms as gatekeepers within the ecosystem that choose what content to show and recommend, driving both more engagement in content, and more advertising, especially in major entertainment platforms. This means that not only do the bigger titles and artists get even more exposure, but also new content that starts to become popular for one group - whether it be a particular demographic cohort or a particular geographical area - can then be recommended to more users and expand its reach.
Advertising works in the same way. As we describe in our 2025 Media Trends report, advertising that is popular or engaging for one group can quickly be scaled up by the algorithms to reach more users, allowing the most compelling ads to go viral to new groups.
This comes at a time when advertising is more important than ever as a way of funding content and platforms. Amazon Prime Video now has more than 200m subscribers who watch ads with their content, Netflix has more than 70m, and Spotify has more than 380m (only 252m of its 640m monthly active users pay to go ad free).
We expect ad spending in these areas to grow as agencies leverage their scale and technology to deliver a unified video solution to help capitalize on this opportunity.
It is in this context that ad spend for the Media and Entertainment verticals is set to grow. Greater amounts of products to promote, greater opportunities for the best content to find audiences, and a greater upside for the most successful brands create a growing incentive to spend. To find out more about ad spend trends across industries, download the dentsu Global Ad Spend Forecasts today.
