Winterberry Group Expects 9.4-Percent Growth In Its 'Annual Outlook' For U.S. Ad, Marketing And Data Spend In 2026 To Top $660B Following A Resilient, Stable 2025

(MENAFN- GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) AI is fueling the reintegration of media, data and creative to drive productivity and marketing effectiveness, and annual marketing plans are being increasingly driven by shorter-term executions, fueled by tech, analytics and agentic investments

NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial intelligence (AI) is translating from investment to practical application at a rapid pace in the U.S. advertising, marketing and data landscape, according to an annual report from the strategic consultancy Winterberry Group – with overall media expenditures predicted to top $664.2 billion – 9.4-percent growth over 2025 – and continued market share shifts from offline media to digital, data-driven channels.

The ad marketplace in 2026 will also gain stimulus from the World Cup, Winter Olympics and U.S. mid-term elections. Political spending will again drive more than $10 billion of spending acting as a further catalyst, lifting overall ad spend growth from 7.6 percent to the anticipated 9.4-percent growth forecast.

“A year ago, we had expected U.S. advertising, marketing and related data spending to top $585 billion – but we exceeded that with a stronger than expected second half of the year, achieving $607.4 billion, in spite of the tariff shock,” said Winterberry Group Executive Chairman Bruce Biegel.“With moderate inflation and increasing use of machine learning and AI, the macroeconomics underlying the media market were surprisingly stable, leading to net growth after inflation.”

Media Channel Winners – Investments for AI Lead Data Related Spending To Top $30 Billion

“Video is the winner as TV converges,” Biegel said,“as the video format and device drive engagement irrespective of linear, social or CTV. Also, we are seeing significant investments in data infrastructure underway to support the rise of agentic AI, changing how marketing technology is used across the entire ecosystem. Major impacts are already being seen across all digital media channels. As adoption accelerates the downstream impact is a rewiring agency business models- and the industry structure.”

While the overall increase in media spending was solid in 2025 (5.5-percent growth, nearly three times the growth of U.S. Gross Domestic Product), the shift in the mix of spend across channels was more important. In 2022, 56.4 percent of all marketing spend was attributable to online channels. In 2025, that share had grown to 65.1 percent.

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