In Q1, marketers pivot to spending backed by AI and measurement

Between mass layoffs and shaken consumer confidence, brand advertisers are cautiously wading through the first weeks of 2026. With consumer demand harder to predict, advertisers are looking for clearer signals before committing to ad spend.

“Marketers are prioritizing spend where data shows the highest propensity to perform, while still recognizing the need to prime demand,” Swapnil Patel, co-president at Attention Arc, a performance marketing and media agency, told Digiday in an email.

Massive advertisers like P&G, Kimberly Clark and others have already set the tone, focused on improving the effectiveness of its advertising — at least that’s the case based on earnings calls at the start of the year.

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The case for and against bringing programmatic in-house

More brands are set to bring the media expertise in-house this year, with some, including Danish advertiser Lego, even moving to build out internal programmatic expertise.

In theory, they’re doing so to reduce the cost of managing media investments, while gaining the ability to act faster, and in closer coordination with the rest of their business.

In practice, there are good reasons why media planning and buying, and programmatic specifically, are considered to be the final frontier of in-housing.  

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