Another year brings another reset, where assumptions are challenged and priorities come back into focus.
As part of our annual Three Trends series, we asked industry leaders to share their takeaways and predictions.
Next, we speak to Simon Clarke, Commercial Director – Asia at On Device.
Simon discusses his views on data quality, the importance of understanding measurement value, and more for 2026.
Looking Ahead:
What are three trends to look for in the coming year?
1. Quality of data
Advertising has been able to drive scale for many years now, and there has historically been increased demand for more reach and increased impressions. As budgets tighten, the demand for more effective campaigns has increased. The changes in the industry with the improvements in data usage and how AI is supporting these improvements mean the industry is now able to provide better quality data and more accurate targeting.
These advancements will lead to adtech evolving beyond a volume industry to one based upon trust, with more reliable data leading to accountable action.
2. Reduced domination of walled gardens
Let me be clear, I am not suggesting the end of the walled gardens, I haven’t completely lost my head. My point is, given the effectiveness of other media the walled gardens have been consuming a disproportionate amount of media spend compared with where consumers spend their time. With pressures on budgets and the need to be able to justify spending it is easy to default to the walled gardens due to familiarity, and this may continue into early 2026.
However, there is a growing realisation of how much time people spend on the wider internet: listening to audio, watching TV and gaming, not to mention OOH and retail media. Each media can perform different functions across the brand funnel. Audio excels at shifting lower-funnel behaviour, AV (TV and digital video) builds impact across the funnel (with the big screen experience of CTV – and TV in general – driving strong branding metrics), and OOH, especially when paired with social, drives preference and purchase intent.
Combining this with the knowledge that cross-media campaigns provide increased effect over single media campaigns, we might just see a small shift of media spend beyond the walled gardens.
3. Increased understanding of measurement’s value
Of course, you would expect me to talk about measurement, given the space On Device is in! In the last few months, I have had increased conversations with clients, whether at brands, agencies or adtech providers about the importance of good measurement and greater scrutiny of some of the traditional metrics that have been used. Last year we saw increased scrutiny of metrics like clicks and CTR and, although these metrics still rear their head too frequently in conversations given their lack of proven link to ROI, this scrutiny of metrics and their sources has shifted.
With tight budgets and a requirement to demonstrate effectiveness to clients and internally it is going to be more important than ever to have metrics and methodologies that are defendable and can show a link to ROI.
Looking Back:
Your favorite or least favorite trend of 2025?
The lack of discussion of anything other than AI (I realise I mentioned it myself above, albeit briefly). I am not a luddite, I understand the value AI can deliver, it’s just that it feels like the whole industry has boiled down to two vowels. Surely there are other great things happening that the industry can talk about.
What was your 2025 New Year’s Resolution, and did you keep it?
Having more face-to-face meetings! I can happily say that I kept it. I found more and more people wanted to meet face-to-face so it was pretty easy. The only negative was that I ended up drinking too much coffee, although a simple switch to tea helped limit the impact.
