Rory at CES 2025: Marketing in the Age of AI

CES 2025 was an absolute spectacle, with over 4,500 exhibitors and 141,000 attendees showcasing the future of technology. At the Aria Hotel, where the advertising and martech community within CES congregates, I attended meetings, keynotes, and panels featuring industry leaders like Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snap. It was fascinating to see how measurement has shifted from being a fringe topic to becoming central in discussions around advertising, with AI playing a pivotal role in accelerating measurement capabilities. Here are my top takeaways from the event:

Privacy and Measurement: Restoring the Fair Value Exchange

One of the hottest topics at CES was the balance between privacy and measurement. As sensitivity to user privacy increases, the "fair value exchange of the internet" is under pressure. This exchange, where consumers access free content, publishers monetize through ads, and advertisers reach new audiences, risks breaking down without robust measurement solutions. AI and data science provide a way forward, enabling marketers to measure performance effectively while respecting privacy, thus restoring this crucial value exchange.

The Retail Media Boom

Retail media continues its unstoppable rise, and Amazon remains at the forefront. At CES, Amazon announced its new retail ad service, Retail Connect, which allows e-commerce retailers to leverage Amazon’s ad tech on their own websites. This shift underlines the growing importance of retail media in modern marketing strategies. However, brands face the challenge of measuring performance across traditional and retail media channels. To tackle this, marketers need tools that provide consistent and comparable metrics, enabling them to allocate budgets with confidence.

Tackling Martech Fragmentation

In just three decades, digital advertising has evolved into one of the world’s largest industries, bringing significant fragmentation on both the buy and sell sides. CES underscored how this fragmentation complicates communication, strategy alignment, and even basic understanding between stakeholders.

Martech salespeople must communicate their value propositions clearly and without jargon. Staying ahead of industry trends is essential, and AI tools like Hive Perform can streamline complex data, providing real-time insights that drive clarity and alignment.

TikTok’s Business Transformation Trends

TikTok demonstrated how brands are breaking creative boundaries to connect with audiences. Rothy’s, for example, turned a talking shoe into a lovable persona—an eco-warrior and style icon. This campaign showed how humor and storytelling can deepen connections with consumers, with personalization and audience engagement at the core.

👉 My Key Takeaway

"CES 2025 highlighted the transformative power of AI in marketing. From tackling privacy challenges to optimizing retail media strategies, AI is not just a tool—it’s the future of performance marketing."

Fospha: Powering Smarter Marketing Decisions

At Fospha, we specialize in helping marketers navigate these challenges. Our solutions leverage AI to provide clear, actionable insights, enabling brands to measure, optimize, and scale their campaigns effectively. By bridging the gap between data privacy and performance measurement, we empower our clients to thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

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