Consumer goods giants keep betting on advertising while the biggest tech spenders pull back, per WARC.
Consumer Goods Giants Step Up Ad Intensity as Other Big Spenders Pull Back
A WARC Media report finds top consumer goods marketers raised their ad-to-sales ratio from 11.6% in 2023 to 12.5% in 2025. Their ad spending rose 36% from 2019 to 2025 while revenue rose 29%. Of six consumer goods companies analyzed (PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, The Estee Lauder Companies, L'Oreal, Nike and Procter & Gamble), all except PepsiCo raised their ratios over that period.
Technology firms, including Alphabet and Meta, went the other way. Their ad-to-sales ratio fell from 13% in 2019 to 7.4% in 2025 while combined revenue grew 146%. Across 25 major U.S. advertisers, the total ratio fell by more than half a percentage point to 5.5%. WARC forecasts global ad spending to grow 11.9% to $1.34 trillion this year. Alex Brownsell, WARC Media's head of content, said growth from smaller businesses and cross-border e-commerce sellers is outpacing big-brand ad growth, with "major implications for the ecosystem of agencies and vendors operating in the enterprise market." The report notes consumer goods brands are shifting more budget to retail media, and dollars once booked as shopper and trade spend are now recorded as advertising.
Part of that CPG climb is accounting. Trade and shopper dollars now get booked as advertising, so read the ratio with care before you quote it in a budget meeting. The real signal is where the money lands: retail media, and smaller sellers taking share from the enterprise accounts agencies depend on.
Ad-to-sales ratio is a spend-intensity measure, not an effectiveness measure. A rising ratio can mean a brand is investing, or that reclassified budget now shows up as advertising. Always ask what changed in the numerator before comparing across years.
TikTok is turning creators into a vertical studio system, with exclusive rights as the prize.
TikTok Inks Microdrama Partnership With Made By Us Studios
TikTok announced a partnership with Made By Us Studios, which will produce a new slate of microdrama content for the app. Made By Us works with high-profile creators including Teyana Taylor, King Bach and Josh Peck. TikTok gains exclusive rights to a selection of that content and plans to expand its vertical microdrama pool across TikTok and its PineDrama app.
The first series under the deal is a romantic revenge thriller starring creator Hannah Stocking, and a horror series starring creator Adam Rose is also coming. The partnership builds on Screen Time, a micro-series TikTok made with HOORAE, an Issa Rae company, which launched in April. TikTok says it has amassed nearly 580 million views globally and is the top-performing show ever on TikTok and PineDrama. Made By Us describes itself as a next-generation content developer "at the intersection of Hollywood and the creator economy." The article first appeared on Social Media Today.
Exclusive rights are the tell. TikTok is not renting creator reach anymore, it is commissioning owned content with creators attached. If your client's creator budget only buys sponsored posts, ask whether a series with a recurring cast would build more audience than one more integration.
A vendor-commissioned study makes the case that visible sources decide whether people trust an AI answer.
Study Finds 74% of Consumers Want to Know Where AI Gets Its Answers
Raptive, an advertising technology company, commissioned a September 2026 survey of 3,083 U.S. consumers. 74% said it is extremely or very important to know where an AI answer or recommendation comes from, and 59% said citations would make them more likely to trust it. Trust (completely or somewhat) was 42.0% with no source shown, 77.2% with a trusted publisher or media brand, 75.4% with a trusted creator or expert, and 78.7% with both. An unfamiliar source did nothing, at 41.8%.
Usage is heavy and checking is light. 72% use AI tools or AI-powered search at least a few times a week, 41% daily, and more than half always or often accept an answer without checking another source. When AI conflicts with a source they already trust, 19% would believe the AI, 33% would stay with the trusted source and 37% would investigate. John Roa, Raptive's Chief AI Officer, said "AI may be the interface consumers see, but it cannot be the source of trust on its own." Raptive sells to publishers and creators, so read the findings as vendor-commissioned research.
If you want AI to recommend your client, the work is being the source it cites: a known publisher, a credible creator, or both. An unfamiliar source earned no more trust than no source at all. Build recognized proof points before you chase prompt tricks.
Source visibility moved trust by 32 to 40 points among people who trust AI answers on their own, and by 8 to 10 among those who trust answers that match what they already know. Credibility transfers from the cited source to the answer. That is the same mechanism that makes an endorsement work.
Nike is the household name behind today's ad intensity story, and the stock is a watch item.
Nike (NKE): A Consumer Goods Name Behind the Ad Intensity Data
Nike appears in WARC's group of consumer goods companies that raised their ad-to-sales ratios between 2019 and 2025, and its swoosh is the lead image on today's Marketing Dive story. NKE closed at $37.13 on Oct. 16, down 0.03%, one day after a 5.21% jump to $37.14 on volume of about 46.3 million shares. The sources we fetched do not explain either move, so we treat them as price data only.
The close is the Oct. 16 figure. The 52-week range, P/E, dividend yield, market cap and analyst view come from a live Oct. 22 snapshot on StockAnalysis, with the stock near $38.38. It shows a Hold consensus from 42 analysts and an average target of $37.67, slightly below that price. The shares sit far below the 52-week high of $70.44.
A big brand that keeps its ad intensity up while the stock trades far below its 52-week high is a useful case for any marketer arguing brand spend in a downturn. Watch whether Nike's marketing spend and share trends line up in coming quarters. This is a watch item, not a recommendation.
⚠️ Not investment advice. Verify independently before any decision.
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