LiveRamp leaders share their predictions for what’s in store for 2025, from retail media standardization to achieving true cross-screen measurement and optimizing marketing with AI. The year ahead promises lots of growth opportunities for brands who are willing to take the plunge.
As businesses pursue more powerful and privacy-conscious ways to connect with their customers, 2025 will be a year of opportunity for the industry: standardization is expanding, cross-screen measurement is becoming a reality, and AI is finally delivering on its promise to change how marketers operate.
These trends and more will transform the way brands, publishers, media networks, and their partners collaborate and build customer loyalty. Those who are willing to innovate and embrace new technology have the opportunity to transform their business.
Here’s what eight LiveRamp experts predict for marketing in 2025:
1. Marketers will “measure everywhere” to reach consumers on new channels
Jessica Shapiro, Chief Marketing Officer: People get their news, watch entertainment, and consume content in so many different places today – across CTV, mobile, web, and broadcast. Because where people spend their time and get their information is evolving so quickly, marketers must be able to measure media everywhere in 2025 to optimize campaigns with real-time insights and reach consumers anywhere and everywhere. As consumer attention shifts to new channels, I believe platforms such as podcasts have significantly more influence in 2025 than in years past. For example, we saw podcasts become an effective campaign strategy in the 2024 election, and I believe their impact in other sectors will only grow.
2. Retail media standardization will move from a “nice to have” to a “need to have”
Lori Johnshoy, Head of Global Retail and CPG Strategy: In 2025 we’ll see an increase in retailers adopting more standards across the ecosystem, starting with insights that drive segmentation & activation. Adding standardized templates to a tech stack creates an “easy button” to address hurdles advertisers face when their campaigns are stretched across multiple publishers and platforms. Standards are also critical to simplify terms and conditions for legal teams, and streamline common use cases with common measurement requirements to ensure performance can be compared across the ecosystem — all without sacrificing flexibility or privacy. Brands have countless options for allocating their ad budgets, so retailers and publishers that can align their offering with the industry’s standardization efforts have a key differentiator in the market for 2025.
3. Embracing turnkey partnerships will unlock accelerated value
Matthew Karasick, VP of Product: In years past, we’ve seen partners in clean room collaborations face prolonged periods of negotiation and technical setup, delaying the insights companies are eager to uncover to drive business value. In 2025, data owners and data consumers will opt for simpler, turnkey partnerships and tools that fast-track collaboration, such as LiveRamp’s Quick Start Insights. Enhanced standardization of legal templates and performance metrics will allow collaborating partners to unlock immediate access to campaign and audience insights, saving valuable time and driving faster, more efficient data driven decisions.
4. Truly comprehensive cross-screen measurement will finally be possible
Daniella Harkins, SVP, Product Go-To-Market: More than ever before, when it comes to measurement marketers are expected to do more with less – measuring performance across TV, CTV, social media, digital, and programmatic all at once. It can feel impossible to look across all these channels and understand what’s successful. By leveraging data collaboration, businesses can unlock near-real-time performance measurement across their entire media plan. The early capabilities of cross-screen measurement are constantly evolving to meet market demand. In 2025, we can expect to see new tools that enable marketers to measure and optimize campaigns across linear, digital, OTT, mobile, and social channels with unparalleled speed and flexibility, delivering tailored insights that drive real results.
5. Travel and hospitality media networks will see record growth
Tara Franceschini, Industry Specialist, High Growth Verticals: It’s evident that every brand is actively looking to best leverage their data and enrich it through strategic partnerships. EMARKETER projects that ad spending on travel-focused commerce media will rise to $2.96 billion by 2025, prompting brands to explore their role in this rapidly expanding market. Travel and hospitality companies that successfully unlock unique consumer insights from their data for advertising partners can tap into new, high-margin revenue streams across their owned and operated properties. Brands that embrace this data for enrichment stand to drive increased sales and measurable impact. United Airlines launched Kinective Media in 2024, marking the industry’s first airline media network, and we have seen remarkable success with our retail media network partners. It will be exciting to see how brands develop their own distinctive media network offerings in 2025.
6. Marketers will need to keep pace with AI transformations in marketing
Travis Clinger, Chief Connectivity & Ecosystem Officer: 2024 proved that AI is officially here to stay. Marketers now need to be forward-thinking in how to incorporate AI not only into their day-to-day workstreams, but into their external marketing mix. AI tools have the potential to revolutionize the search landscape, and brands need to be paying attention. In 2025, we can expect to see marketers reimagine their SEO strategies to ensure that content is optimized for inclusion and citation in AI summaries. When it comes to paid spend, Perplexity and others now offer paid AI search options, which brands should consider incorporating into their digital marketing efforts as a part of this fast-growing channel.
7. Identity will power the future of cross-screen measurement in 2025
Erin Boelkens, VP of Product, Identity and Connectivity: As brands prepare for the reality of true cross-screen measurement with new tools coming to market, in 2025 we’ll see marketers place a new level of importance on identity resolution. Businesses that want to get the most value out of these new tools must first prioritize creating a unified customer view within their enterprise’s own four walls. Without a robust identity strategy powering their data foundation, brands won’t have an accurate and connected customer view that allows them to take advantage of new advancements in areas such as cross-screen measurement.
8. New premium media experiences and platforms will lead to more fragmented customer experiences
Jimmy Ren, Senior Director of Corporate Development: Consumer attention is increasingly shifting to premium content such as CTV and, more recently, conversational AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. The corresponding growth in media investments toward these consumer experiences, along with the continued rise of commerce media as an addressable channel, means that marketers will increasingly have to manage their media investments across more siloed touchpoints in a fragmented media landscape. In 2025, brands must ensure they have broad data access and connectivity across all of their channel partners to continue to offer a connected customer experience.