What Changed in Marketing This Week? Top Stories from Dec 14-20, 2025
Marketing doesn’t always shift because of one big announcement or viral campaign. More often, it’s the small updates that happen over a few days that quietly show where the industry is moving. A single week can reveal changes in how brands think, how platforms behave, and how rules around advertising are starting to tighten or loosen. When you step back and look at these moments together, they usually point to something bigger.
Advertising and media are changing faster than most people can keep up with. Platforms are changing, different formats are being tried out, and laws are increasingly influencing marketing decisions that are made day by day rather than being considered later. The industry updates for the short term are therefore of great importance. It is the way for marketers to grasp the long-term direction instead of being too late to react. Awareness of these changes is beneficial to anyone working in the field or taking a top digital marketing course to learn.
This article looks at five marketing developments that took place between December 14 and December 20, 2025, and why they’re worth paying attention to.
1.Digital ad volumes surged hugely in India
The TAM AdEx numbers made a lot of people in the industry stop and take notice. A 149% jump in digital ad impressions in 2025 isn’t something that happens by accident. It shows how quickly digital advertising has moved from being a supporting channel to becoming the main place where brands are spending their money. For many companies, digital is no longer something they test alongside traditional media, it’s where most decisions now begin.
This rise is largely attributed to e-commerce platforms and online marketplaces. Brands are looking for the places where people are actually visiting and purchasing and that activity is definitely on the rise. Furthermore, programmatic buying has allowed for the scaling of campaigns without the hassle of manual management for every placement. Once brands noticed the potential of this strategy to offer both reach and efficiency, they naturally increased their budgets.
Additionally, the fact that mobile usage is so pervasive in India’s daily life is a major contributing factor. People scroll, shop, watch, and search almost entirely on their phones. For advertisers and agencies, this surge also means tougher competition and higher media costs. Still, more than anything, it signals that India’s digital advertising market has grown up. It has become larger, more competitive, and much more respected than it was just a few years back.
2. Cricket-linked brand campaign in India
Cricket continues to be one of the few things in India that cuts across age groups, cities, and spending power, which is exactly why brands keep coming back to it. During the India–South Africa T20 series, Chinese Wok tapped into that shared attention in a way that felt timely rather than overplanned. Instead of building a long, drawn-out campaign, the brand focused on the moment when people were already watching, talking, and ordering food.
What worked well was how the campaign connected what was happening inside the outlets with what people were seeing online. Match-linked offers, in-store promotions, and social media activity all moved together, so customers didn’t feel like they were interacting with separate campaigns on different platforms. The experience felt joined up, which is something consumers usually notice when it’s missing.
This kind of time-bound, contextual marketing works especially well for mass consumer brands. Cricket matches create natural spikes in attention, and food brands benefit directly from those viewing moments. For other brands, the key takeaway is simple: cultural moments don’t need heavy storytelling to work. They need relevance, quick execution, and a clear connection to how people are actually behaving at that time.
3. ASCI plans AI-ready advertising regulations (India)
AI is already part of everyday advertising work, even if it’s not always visible. From writing ad copies and designing visuals to targeting audiences and optimising media spends, brands and agencies are using AI tools more than they openly talk about. As this usage grows, so do concerns around what is acceptable, what needs to be disclosed, and where the line should be drawn.
This is why ASCI’s shift to AI-ready advertising regulations is of great significance. The goal isn’t to hinder creativity or frighten companies off from applying these tools. It’s about preventing the consumers from being misled and ensuring that the advertisement is still fair and responsible. The absence of unambiguous rules leads to the increase in the risk of over-promising, synthetic content, and inadequate disclosure, which eventually harms trust.
For brands and agencies, these guidelines could bring much-needed clarity. Knowing what is allowed makes it easier to use AI confidently rather than cautiously. The influencers are also going to be required to disclose more about the method of production of their contents as AI-generated pictures and voices become more prevalent. However, the industry in the long run can be supported by the clearer rules. The consumers’ trust in what they see and hear would turn into profit for the brands too. Businesses reap the benefits of strong standards that do not hinder creativity but rather enhance its sustainability.
4. Influencer marketing company secures funding
The influencer marketing phenomenon, which has existed for a long time, is now manifesting its full extent with the recent funding round. The fact that Humanz managed to collect $15 million is not merely an indication of one company getting larger, but rather, it points out the influencer marketing’s major conversion into a recognized business channel. Brands are not just testing artists anymore to find out what they prefer. They are allocating significant amounts of money and demanding precise returns.
Additionally, a change in the mode of operation of the campaigns can be easily detected. The earlier phase saw influencer marketing characterized by creator power where individual celebrities and celebrity collaborations drove the growth of the field. Right now, however, the platforms’ contribution has increased significantly. Companies like Humanz focus on building systems around creators, managing campaigns at scale, tracking performance, and standardising processes that brands need to justify their spends.
A large part of this funding is expected to go into technology, data, and acquisitions. That makes sense, because brands are asking tougher questions than before. Reach and likes aren’t enough anymore. Marketers are looking to get answers about their campaigns by knowing what worked, what didn’t and the reasons for that. Such close examination shows sophistication. Influencer marketing is being incorporated into the media planning process gradually. It is turning into a regular, quantifiable, and answerable area, and that is precisely the reason why the financiers are interested.
If you want to catch up on the top digital marketing news from last week, click here to read this blog: https://bostoninstituteofanalytics.org/blog/top-marketing-news-you-shouldnt-miss-7-13-december-2025/
5. Taylor Farms pioneers TikTok × Instacart retail media launch
The TikTok and Instacart partnership, with Taylor Farms being one of the initial brands to access it, points to the rapid blurring of the boundary between content and retail. Social platforms are no longer just places where people discover products and move on. They’re becoming part of the buying journey itself, sometimes without the user even leaving the app.
What makes this launch important is the way entertainment, influence, and retail data come together. A product can show up in a video, feel organic to the feed, and still be directly connected to a purchase option on a grocery platform. For brands, this removes friction. By not depending on interest to eventually lead to action, the route from viewpoint to purchase gets considerably diminished.
Retail media is continually evolving into an important advertising channel, especially for FMCG and grocery companies that depend on regular buy-ups. The utilization of real shopper data makes the corresponding campaigns more precise and easier to measure than conventional digital advertising. In the future, it is expected that this type of approach will be adopted in other regions apart from the United States. With the universal advancement of social commerce, brands will have to offer a new way of thinking about the balance of storytelling, performance, and commerce in one connected experience.
Conclusion
Looking at these five developments together, a few things stand out. Marketing is getting bigger and faster, whether it’s the jump in digital ad volumes, influencer marketing growing more structured, or social commerce blending content and shopping. Brands are gradually integrating their various channels, campaigns, and platforms to make everything feel more unified. Concurrently, rules and accountability are increasingly influencing the planning of campaigns, rather than being an afterthought.
Data is influencing more decisions than ever, and platforms are playing a key role in getting to the audience. That’s why following industry updates week by week matters, even small changes can show where marketing is heading. For anyone learning the ropes at a top digital marketing institute in Mumbai, paying attention now makes a big difference later. Heading into 2026, the brands and marketers who stay aware will have a clear advantage over those who only react after the fact.
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