News and Insights
Media Pulse: Media planning in a world that won’t sit still
November 25, 2025
I kept noticing the same conversations playing out across clients, partners and our own team this month. Questions about performance volatility. Frustration with signal loss. Curiosity about why some creative suddenly spikes even when targeting doesn’t change. It all points to a bigger shift taking shape under the surface.
So instead of another round of year-end predictions, here are the two trends that are actually reshaping how smart teams are planning for 2026.
(Oh, and happy one-year anniversary to Media Pulse!)
Trend 1: The vibe economy might just be the solution to the personalization crisis
A colleague said something recently that stopped me in my tracks. He called it the power of vibes. It sounded simple, but it captured something I had been feeling for months across client conversations. Vibes shape attention. They shape how people receive messages. And the real challenge is figuring out how to read them, define them and use them as a strategic input. It was one of those moments that reminded me why I love this industry: when someone frames an idea in a way that suddenly makes the entire landscape make more sense.
Verve’s latest research helps explain why the idea matters. Most people say they pay more attention to ads that feel relevant — 76% to be exact — yet the majority dislike personalization because it feels too invasive. They want to feel understood but not watched too closely. Cake and eat it, too.
This is where vibes seem to fill that tension. They deliver relevance without relying on personal data (which is becoming harder to come by — just check out Trend 2 below). They match tone and mood instead of identifiers.
💓 The Pulse
- Tone match drives outcomes: Platforms like TikTok, Meta and CTV networks report higher recall, intent and completion rates when creative matches the emotional energy of the moment.
- Relevance without intrusion: Verve’s findings back this up. Consumers want ads that feel right for where they are mentally, not ads that use personal identifiers to “find” them.
- A privacy-safe performance signal: As data signals fade (see Trend 2), vibes offer a measurable way to stay relevant using mood and moment instead of identity.
OUR TAKE
Brands need a vibe strategy. A real plan for how the brand flexes its energy as culture and mood shift. The best place to start? Creators. Use them as cultural barometers, and back your strategy with solid tech and partners who can help you access tonal data before it hits anyone’s feed. Treat vibes as a performance driver that works even when identity no longer can. — Ashley Blais
Trend 2: Google’s privacy settlement sets the stage for a new phase of signal loss
For years the industry has talked about the decline of identifiers, but the change has felt slow and manageable. Google’s real-time bidding privacy settlement moves it from theory to practice. Once the opt-out requirement takes effect, a growing share of programmatic bid requests will no longer include the signals that buyers have relied on for more than a decade. Device IDs, cookies, IP-level detail and user agent information simply fall away for opted-out users.
The shift will not hit all at once, but the impact will build quickly. As more people opt out, the bid stream becomes thinner. Optimization loses confidence. Audience modeling weakens. Measurement becomes noisier. The open web, which has always depended on identity to power precision, begins to show the strain long before adoption reaches a peak.
Yet this is not a collapse. It is a reset. Signed-in environments maintain stability. Contextual signals regain value. Direct publisher relationships become more important. The teams that prepare early by building resilient systems will adapt smoothly. The ones who wait will feel the turbulence in real time.
💓 The Pulse
- Identity is thinning: Opt-outs strip away the core identifiers that gave the open web its precision.
- Modeling becomes unstable: With fewer signals, optimization and measurement lose reliability.
- Context rises: Publisher relationships, content signals and mood-based tactics step up where identity data cannot.
OUR TAKE
The biggest risk is not the settlement itself, but treating it like a small change. This is a reminder that identity on the open web is becoming unreliable. The next step is to build strategies that do not depend on it. Strengthen first-party data, deepen publisher relationships and expand contextual tactics now. Teams that plan ahead will stay in control while others deal with avoidable disruption — Lee Faulkner
About the authors
Ashley Blais and Lee Faulkner co-lead FINN Paid Media, our global team of experts who live and breathe today’s fast-paced and fast-changing media landscape. The team delivers a full suite of services, including omnichannel planning and buying, performance media strategy and management, and comprehensive measurement, resulting in award-winning campaigns that drive client success.
POSTED BY: Lee Faulkner, Ashley Blais
