How AI is supercharging a 1.3 trillion ad market (feat. Spotify at Cannes Lions)

The numbers are in — and they're bigger than anyone expected. WPP Media's President of Global Business Intelligence, Kate Scott-Dawkins, breaks down the This Year Next Year 2026 Global Midyear Forecast, and the headline says it all: global advertising revenue is now projected to grow 8.9% to $1.3 trillion by year's end — a significant upward revision from December's 7.1% forecast.

So what's driving the surge? In short: AI. An investment cycle of historic scale is proving remarkably resilient in the face of armed conflict in the Middle East, elevated oil prices, and deepening geopolitical fragmentation. From AI-native companies flooding the ad market to traditional advertisers deploying AI to sharpen efficiency, the technology is rewriting the economics of the industry in real time.

In this episode, we unpack what the midyear data really means for marketers:

• Global ad revenue has hit its highest share of GDP since 1999 — outpacing even the dot-com peak, but this time built on performance, not speculation
• Generative Search is on track to be the fastest-scaling ad channel ever recorded — from 5.1Bin2026toover5.1Bin2026toover100 billion by 2030
• Market power is increasingly concentrated: Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon alone control 57.6% of the global market outside China
• Content-driven advertising reaches $720.2 billion — but the story beneath the headline is uneven, with streaming, social, and gaming surging while linear TV and audio plateau
• Asia-based advertisers are emerging as a powerful global growth engine as they seek international expansion amid soft domestic demand

Kate is joined by Katie English, Global Head of Ad Product at Spotify, who brings a front-row perspective on how these sweeping industry shifts are playing out on one of the world's biggest streaming platforms.

Learn more about TYNY Midyear 2026 here: https://www.wppmedia.com/news/report-this-year-next-year-midyear-2026?utm_source=podcast