The State of Advertising 2025 Report reveals key trends and insights in the advertising industry, backed by a year of neuroscience research.

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Discover highlights from our studies with leading companies and learn how the industry will be evolving in 2025.

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In this year’s edition, we also surveyed 321 advertisers to capture the latest industry pulse.

The full report gives you:

• Insights into customer behavior
• The latest advertising trends
• Industry best practices

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Our yearly report distills a year's worth of advertising and behavioral research into actionable insights. Use it to build better advertising strategies, sharpen your campaigns, upskill your team, and much more.

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This year’s edition covers trends like:

• Shrinking attention on mobile ads
• Platform impact on ad performance
• Benefits of vertical vs horizontal advertising

& more…

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Get the free report and update your advertising toolbox with relevant insights rooted in neuroscience.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll find:

1. Shrinking Mobile Attention - An Alarming Trend for Advertisers

We’ve long known that mobile ads struggle to capture sustained attention. 

Back in 2018, our research with MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) and ARF (Advisertising Research Foundation) revealed that the average mobile ad was viewed for 3.4 seconds.

Fast forward to today, and that number has dropped significantly.

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In 2025, the average viewing time for mobile ads is just 2.2 seconds. 

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This is a 35% decrease in attention in just seven years.

While 2.2 seconds seem short, its impact can be profound (if you use those moments effectively).

One of the best ways to combat short attention is the use of the 1-second strategy - an advertising strategy that aims to maximize the first seconds of your ads.

But mobile advertising isn’t everything in 2025.

We analyzed how different platforms influence the way ads are perceived, helping you make informed decisions on how to use each one in your advertising strategy this year.

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Find more advertising insights in the Report

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2.  Advertising Trend to Watch: Cinema Is Still the King of Ad Perception

We partnered with Dansk Reklame Film on a research project focusing on the four powers of effective advertising: attention, cognition, motivation, and memory. 

During our study, we found that cinema captures more attention than any other platform. This makes it easier for advertisers to convey complex messages, making it ideal for storytelling ads. 

Not only that, but cinema also drives stronger:

• Aided brand recall
• Unaided brand recall 

(Both critical for building brand awareness and equity)

Cinema’s immersive environment provides the perfect stage for storytelling ads. While this strategy isn’t for everyone, brands aiming to boost equity and build positive associations may find cinema a strong contender for their 2025 marketing strategy.

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Learn more about the benefits of cinema ads in the Report

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3. Choosing the Right Ad Formats for Your 2025 Marketing Strategy

Our research with Schibsted investigated how storytelling strategies impact ad performance in vertical vs. horizontal formats. Here are the trends we found:

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1. Complex brand stories thrive in horizontal ad formats 

When shown in a horizontal format, the storytelling ads significantly reduced negative reactions such as annoyance, boredom, intrusiveness, and avoidance behavior.

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2. Product-focused narratives reign supreme in vertical formats

When displayed vertically, the simple narrative of product-focused ads outperformed the storytelling ads across all metrics. Both ad and brand memory were significantly enhanced by the use of straightforward messaging in vertical formats.

Despite these fundamental differences, most advertisers don’t differentiate between storytelling strategies based on ad formats.

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See how you can benefit from this in your advertising strategy in 2025.

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