Welcome to the Ecotone: Five Forces Reshaping Marketing at the 2025 NewFronts

We’re living in a media ecotone.

Ecotonos are a transitional space where two ecosystems meet. It’s not a hard line, not a clean break. It’s the space where species from both ecosystems coexist. Just like where the forest meets the field, or where the river fades into the seaside, we’re witnessing a meeting of two worlds: the precision of digital meets the emotion of storytelling, the past comfort of traditional media collides with the complexity of AI-driven platforms. This is not just a change. It’s a metamorphosis.

At the 2025 NewFronts, five dominant forces emerged—each representing a fault line between what marketing was and what it’s becoming. Here’s how to navigate this fertile, messy, exhilarating middle ground.

1. Creators Are the Keystone Species of This New Ecosystem
Creators have become the dominant force in media, overtaking traditional conglomerates by leveraging their authentic, community-driven content.

Platforms are expanding tools, analytics, and monetization opportunities specifically for creators like:

• YouTube’s expanded Partner Program for Shorts offering revenue sharing. New features make it easier for creators to partner with brands through YouTube BrandConnect.
• Meta’s Reels Trending Ads, which allow brands to place ads next to top-trending creator-generated Reels, categorized by topics like beauty, sports, and fashion.
• MyCode’s Creator Platform & Culture Suite is a new community-driven network that supports emerging creators who are deeply connected to their cultural niches.
• Mirror Digital operates a digital publishing platform and creator network with over 1,000 diverse publishers, influencers, and podcasters.
• Future Today is expanding with Bigger, Bolder Baking Network – a 24/7 baking channel led by creator Gemma Stafford, focusing on lifestyle and creator-led programming.

Brands now join narratives rather than just buy impressions, aligning with creators who command audience trust and cultural influence.

2. Retail Media: The Root System Linking Content to Commerce
Retail media has evolved into a crucial link between content and commerce, allowing seamless consumer journeys from awareness to purchase. Major moves include:

• The acquisition of Vizio enables Walmart to directly connect retail data with TV ad exposure, offering shoppable ads and closed-loop measurement (linking ad views to purchases).
• YouTube’s expansion of shoppable Shorts and creator integrations. Brands can partner with creators for direct-response ads linked to product feeds.
• LG is prioritizing shoppable ads featuring QR codes and add-to-cart functionality, turning the TV into a full-funnel commerce channel.
• Tubi Shop now allows commerce-centric advertisers to create storefronts where viewers can purchase products inspired by their favorite shows, directly from their mobile devices.
• TikTok shared data on its influence over consumer behavior: 25% of users go to TikTok first for shopping inspiration.
• Upwave provides real-time insights for campaign adjustments, measures emerging ad formats like shoppable ads and QR codes, improving effectiveness in outcomes.

All of these innovations illustrate how commerce and media are now deeply intertwined.  In the ecotone, performance and storytelling no longer live in silos. Brands must grow where retail data, media placement, and cultural context intersect. It’s a new root system—and it’s thriving.

3. AI Is the Sunlight Fueling Growth
Artificial intelligence is central to transforming media and marketing, enhancing content creation, optimization, and measurement.

• YouTube showed how AI helps advertisers customize assets for different formats and audiences. For example, Kraft Heinz used YouTube’s AI to localize creative effectively.
• The launch of Accelerate by LinkedIn, an AI-driven campaign creation tool, helps advertisers quickly build and optimize video campaigns with real-time insights, now available globally.
• Yahoo News improved its offering as a trusted guide, with advanced AI-powered personalization and editorial curation.
• Amazon debuted a host of AI-Powered advertising solutions including Performance Plus used to predict and optimize real-time conversions across channels Brand Plus which optimizes reach and frequency and delivery and Complete TV which plans, manages and measures streaming TV across owned and other properties.
• Cadent, which acquired Adcuratio last year, claims to have the most advanced predictive tech in the market, scoring 143 billion impressions daily with 22,000 models refined over 14 years.
• Snapchat introduced Sponsored AI Lenses that allow brands to create interactive, shareable experiences using just a few images.

Marketers who integrate AI as a creative partner will thrive, using its capabilities to drive efficiency and scale.

4. Current Landscape: Streaming, Ads and Partnerships
Ad-supported streaming has surged in relevance, with Netflix, Samsung, LG, Amazon, and others enhancing brand integration into content. New creator-driven and branded content partnerships are forming, including: The myth that only the large players can provide partnerships

Partnership(s) Announced: 

Samsung TV : Mark Rober, Jonas Brothers, David Letterman
LG: Curtis “50 Cent” Action Channel
Tubi:  We Got Time Today, Sidelined Intercepted and The Goats
Reach TV:  New Branded Content Studio
LatiNation Univision, Telemundo & Fuse
Future Today: Chuck E Cheese Streaming Network
Mirror Digital: Disney (partnering with HBCUs & Lyric Born
Yahoo Sports: One Football, The Athletic, Hockey News, On The Ground & Boardroom
Tik Tok: Live Nation (Sub X – Artists on Tour)
Snapchat: Live Nation (Under the Ghost – Intimate Sessions)

The myth that only the large players can provide partnerships is dying. In this new terrain, partnerships with smaller players is not a compromise, it’s a convergence. Marketers must relearn how to grow in this hybrid habitat.

5. If it’s Valuable, You Map it!
The ecosystem is changing and everything is becoming even more measurable

• YouTube doubles down on third-party measurement and transparency: Collaborations with Nielsen, iSpot.tv, and Comscore.  Push for cross-platform comparability in attention and outcomes.
• T-Mobile announced a TVision Partnership offers advanced attention and viewability insights for CTV and cross-platform video.
• Samsung’s automatic content recognition (ACR) technology now tracks ad exposures across streaming apps and FAST services enabling advertisers to measure reach and frequency more accurately across linear and streaming platforms.
• Amazon introduced the Amazon Publisher Cloud, a clean room for publishers to safely combine their first-party data with Amazon’s signals, optimizing campaign relevance/
• New partnership with Nielsen One Ads enables Reach TV inventory to be measured and bought alongside CTV, mobile, and streaming platforms.
• Leveraging deep research with Accolade and Lucid, Teads has identified the right attention thresholds by channel for optimal brand KPI delivery.
• New York Times highlighted its proprietary first-party data capabilities, allowing brands to reach specific demographics with precision.

While the measurement companies were mostly aligned on the issues:

• Cross-Platform Clarity and Audience Nuance are essential to move forward.
  • Both Nielsen and Comscore emphasized the urgent need for holistic, cross-platform measurement to navigate the fragmented media landscape.
  • Nielsen pointed out the disconnect between perception and actual channel performance, revealing that platforms like radio and podcasting are undervalued, despite performing comparably to video and social. They also stressed that brands are under-investing in digital display and video by as much as 66%.
• Transparency and Fraud Prevention in CTV need to be addressed.
  • DoubleVerify spotlighted the persistent transparency and fraud challenges in CTV advertising. They revealed that only 50% of CTV impressions are transparent at the app level, and that 25% of CTV ads are played while the TV is off, leading to massive wasted spend.
• Elevating Media Effectiveness with Smarter Measurement Tools would help.
  • All three companies leaned into the narrative that better measurement leads to better media decisions. Nielsen advocated for nuanced audience targeting, including cultural and behavioral segments.

The Call to Action: Thrive in the Transition
We are living in a transitional media “ecotone,” a space where old and new paradigms collide, creating both chaos and opportunity. To thrive, brands must embrace creators, integrate retail media, harness AI, expand into streaming partnerships, and prioritize advanced measurement. This new environment demands adaptability, narrative alignment, and deeper investment in holistic strategies.