Wars, Trump, weakening economy - but online advertising industry still booms

Despite ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties, the advertising industry is doing well. This can be seen in the figures from the latest forecast by the Online Marketing Group (OVK) of the German Digital Economy Association (BVDW). According to these figures, the market is set to grow by 8.5% to EUR 7.5 billion in 2025, thus reaching a new record.

The first half of 2025 has already closed with an increase of nine percent compared to the same period last year, although some advertisers reacted to the uncertainties with short-term, tactical booking behavior. The media (+30%) and finance (+28%) sectors saw particularly strong growth in gross advertising investment. Against this backdrop, the DMEXCO trade fair and conference, which is all about (online) marketing, opens in Cologne on Wednesday.

Online video advertising continues to gain in importance and is becoming the most important growth driver. By 2025, the OVK forecasts a 49% share of the online display and video advertising market, up from 45% in 2024. For 2025, the experts expect video sales of 3.6 billion euros. Pre-roll and in-stream video ads (i.e., video ads played before, during, or after a video) were the most successful forms of video advertising in the first half of the year, each generating EUR 230 million. In the mobile sector, the mobile medium rectangle remains the leader with sales of EUR 119 million.

More than 1000 speakers

Artificial intelligence will once again play a key role at DMEXCO this year. We will see how AI is changing the entire marketing value creation process—from design using image and text generators to automated campaign management and personalized customer journeys. On the first day of the trade fair, tech analyst and investor Philipp Klöckner will speak on the topic of “How AI is already changing marketing and e-commerce today.” On 17 stages, more than 1,000 speakers will address a wide range of digital business topics over the two days of the conference.

Many small sub-conferences and exhibition areas will be dedicated to special topics such as Digital Out Of Home (outdoor advertising on digital screens) or Retail Media (advertising on retailers' websites, apps, and physical stores). New additions include separate sub-events for decision-makers (DMEXCO CMO Summit), digital commerce, creators, and “creativity.” In total, more than 800 exhibitors will be presenting their products at DMEXCO, and the organizers are expecting more than 40,000 visitors.

(jo)