Sonder has released its 2025 Owned Media Global Market Report, exploring the current state of owned media and predicting ad expenditure for the new year. The report is based on research from 50 marketing leaders in 22 countries. According to the report, owned media is on the rise and is projected to continue growing in the new year.
‘Owned media has long been overlooked in favour of traditional paid advertising channels. In the past few years that has fundamentally changed as we enter a new era where any type of business can leverage their owned media networks both strategically and commercially,’ Jonathan Hopkins, founding partner of Sonder, said in a press release.
The research uncovered that marketers now view owned media as ‘a powerful, untapped asset’, with 27% planning on increasing their media value representation in partner deals. Moreover, two-thirds of respondents have shared that they will increase their owned media leverage in the coming year.
This is interesting considering that the report states that 36% of those surveyed currently provide owned media value to partners at no cost or are not leveraging it all and that 60% do not have an owned media rate card.
Other findings include that over half leverage first-party data with partners through customer targeting and less than a third use software platforms for audience targeting, ad-serving and campaign optimisation and monetisation.
Retail media continues to grow faster than most traditional advertising channels, with global media spend set to reach over $150 billion (over £118 billion) by the end of this year. Sonder predicts that the finance, travel, telco and convenience sectors will enter the market in 2025.
‘Retail has embraced the commercial potential of the opportunity and now other sectors are catching on. We expect to see more and more organisations launch owned media networks in 2025,’ Hopkins added.
This growth is expected to move ad spending away from Google, Meta and Amazon in the new year as brands turn to cost-effective alternatives.
Featured image: Annie Spratt / Unsplash
