GroupM, the media investment group under WPP, launched the latest ‘This Year Next Year’ (TYNY) advertising forecast with updates for February 2025 and stated yesterday Indian advertising is to grow by 7 percent in 2025 to reach Rs.1,64,137crore, adding an incremental Rs.10,730cr.

The report also revealed that though TV is vital — and will continue to be so — techs like AI would impact advertising and brand-audience connections would get redefined.

Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia, said in a statement, “India is at the forefront of a marketing revolution driven by AI and data privacy. As global ad spend surpasses $1 trillion, India emerges as a top 4 growth market, with digital now accounting for over 60 percent of ad spend.

“With a shift to personalized engagement, commerce-driven marketing, and responsible innovation, mixed reality and immersive tech fuel experiential content. While TV is vital, we also see AI agents transform customer interactions, we also witness brand-audience connections getting redefined with the surge of emerging formats like programmatic CTV

and AI-driven retail media.

“All of this is positioning India for unprecedented innovation and impact in the modern marketing era.”

So, what are the top trends of the TYNY report? The following trends, amongst others, will be shaping the advertising and marketing landscape in 2025 in a major way:

• Reimagining Marketing: AI agents revolutionize campaigns and customer interactions in 2025
• Transforming Engagement: Mixed reality, immersive tech and smartphones fuel India’s experiential content surge.
• The Rise of Data-clean Rooms: Shaping India’s privacy-centric marketing frontier.
• Retail Media and Omnichannel Integration: forging the future of India’s ecommerce expansion.
• Quick Commerce: Accelerating India’s ecommerce landscape.
• Generative AI: Revolutionizing traditional search and SEO strategies.
• Revolutionizing Brand Storytelling: the ascendancy of AI influencers and action-oriented campaigns.
• Chief Prompt Officers: India’s content marketers drive global transformation as AI pioneers.
• India’s Big Screen Leap: CTV’s growth sparks hyper-personalization and programmatic advertising.
• Integrated Measurement Frameworks: Data privacy, fragmentation and AI drive the change

Ashwin Padmanabhan, GroupM COO said, “India’s advertising ecosystem is being reshaped by digital dominance and shifting consumer behaviours. Digital and TV together account for 86 percent of total ad spend, with streaming TV now making up 12.6 percent of total TV ad revenue — signalling a critical shift for brands to optimize across high-growth platforms.

“Key sectors like SME, realty, education, BFSI, and tech/telco —contributing to 60 percent of total advertising are set to grow at around 10 percent, further accelerating market expansion. Additionally, rising investments from EVs, fintech, and gaming are fuelling the market’s momentum.”

Parveen Sheik, Head of Business Intelligence, GroupM, said, “With India’s GDP projected to grow by 6.5 percent in 2025, its advertising market remains strong, ranking 9th globally. Digital ad spends is now close to 1 lac crore, driven by AI, commerce, retail, media, and hyper-personalization marketing. As the economy grows, brands must embrace agility, data intelligence, and sustainable strategies to maximize impact in this dynamic landscape.”

GroupM India is a data-centric, digitally charged marketing services conglomerate. With five agencies, including Wavemaker, EssenceMediaCom, Mindshare, mSix&Partners, Motivator and speciality services, GroupM India gives clients the advantage of global operation and learnings, along with local expertise and market insight.