Brand Innovators 2025 Outlook: Entertainment – Brand Innovators

After a post-pandemic spike, the entertainment sector is expected to settle into a more sedate growth pattern in 2025. Streaming will continue to experience a shakeup, live events will continue to climb out of their Covid-induced downturn and the film industry will see a more normal release schedule as it recovers from the aftereffects of the actors’ and writers’ strikes. For marketers, this means audience-building groundwork using data-driven strategies, user-generated content and social media sharing to drive consumer fandom. 

A forecast from PwC has already predicted that, after a big spike in revenue in 2023, growth in the entertainment and media industry will settle to a calmer 3.9% per year through 2028, and advertising will be a bigger factor in revenue growth, making up 55% of the growth during this period. PwC has projected advertising spend on entertainment properties will double between 2020 and 2028, topping $1 trillion in 2026, as even previously ad-free media look to that revenue stream to make up for stalling subscriptions. 

“Looking ahead, it’s about leveraging streaming’s versatility to create tentpoles and meaningful moments that resonate with audiences’ passions,” said Karen Kovacs, President, Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “This dynamic between premium content and ad-supported streaming has repeatedly driven effectiveness and shaped the cultural zeitgeist. We saw it this year with the extraordinary symphony around Wicked, the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live,” and the success of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. From sports to blockbusters to late night, ad-supported platforms continue to thrive, and innovative ad formats will further integrate brands into these cultural touchpoints, enhancing how fans connect with content.”

“The pipeline is back” 

The film industry was kneecapped over the last year by the lengthy tandem strikes of the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild, which were only resolved in late 2023. This means 2025 will be a recovery year, after the pace of new releases in 2024 suffered the aftershocks of the strikes, said John Partilla, CEO of Screenvision. 

The movie business will be very robust going into 2025 and 2026, said Partilla: “The pipeline is back.”

Studios have recently tried to replicate the recipe of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon of summer 2023 with the holiday releases of Gladiator II and Wicked, but the jury is still out on whether the “Glicked” combination will have the legs to create a cultural moment that can carry into the new year. A number of other releases are expected to provide tentpoles, said Jen Cowan, VP of entertainment at TMA. The films that could create fan excitement include the final installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, a new Captain America film, a new Jurassic World installment and the reboot of the Fantastic Four, she said. 

Barbenheimer was “a special kind of lightning in a bottle,” said Cowan, but “with so many different audiences and fandom, studios will continue to innovate and find more ways to engage those desired audiences.” Entertainment companies keep seeking brand partnerships, licensing, events and stunts build awareness and excitement for movie releases that may soon be available in streaming, anyway, as the theater window becomes a smaller one. 

While the movies find their footing, the streaming wars will continue shaking up the segment. By the end of 2025, more than half (53.5%) of video subscription revenues in the U.S. are expected go to streaming services. 

“As the streaming industry continues to evolve with consumer behavior, they’ll abandon today’s growth-at-all-costs mindset and provide—profitably—what streamers want: choice, ease, and great content,” said Sarah Harms, VP of ad marketing and measurement at Roku. Subscriber churn will be an issue going forward, said Harms, who noted when one premium service announced a rate hike in 2024, its cancellations on Roku shot up 109% that day, compared to its annual average. 

“Streaming services will need to get creative” to address churn, she said. Companies will continue to experiment in 2025 with pricing tiers, bundles and incentives to target consumers who concerned about the cost of subscriptions. 

While the premium services tinker with their models, ad-supported free streaming services will gain strength. “The free space is thriving,” said Scott Donaton, CMO of the entertainment startup VersusGame. “The ad revenue is flowing there, and so are the eyeballs.” 

For consumers who watched basic cable before, ads are not a new experience, and for viewers who don’t want to spend on premium subscriptions, they are an attractive option that is gaining traction, said Donaton, a former head of marketing for Hulu and author of Madison And Vine: Why the Entertainment and Advertising Industries Must Converge to Survive. 

“If you’re a cord-never or cord-cutter, why not?” he asked. 

Streaming services will continue to experiment with ad formats that integrate marketing messages into programming “because nobody wants to annoy viewers,” said TMA’s Cowen. Roku’s Harms noted the platform’s Roku City screensaver has become a popular real estate for advertisers. 

“The creative potential of TV streaming exceeds the constraints of a traditional 30-second TV spot,” said Harms. She noted Roku worked with Ally Financial to co-create the show “Side Hustlers” as an integrated marketing vehicle for the brand. “Over the next few years, we’ll continue to see brands get creative and find innovative ways to connect their story in unique ways with streamers,” she said. 

Surrendering IP and building fandom 

Just like movie marketers have found new ways to drive people to get out of the house post-pandemic, live events are also climbing back to the pre-Covid levels of attendance and fandom. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour demonstrated that large events are back in a big way, if the passions of fans can be harnessed to sell tickets. But many industry observers say marketers need to turn up the volume on the fans’ excitement to bring in the crowds. 

“As at-home entertainment continues to improve, live events must offer exclusive value,” said  Warren Godridge, founder and CEO of experiential marketing and design agency drive21. “Elevating the overall journey—before, during, and after the event—is key to staying competitive.” 

In 2024, touring artists and festivals turned live events into travel adventures and cultural milestones, and in 2025, they events will seek to engage communities around everything from EDM to Latin music, said Russell Wallach, global president of Live Nation. 

“Engaging subcultures will be essential for brands. These communities create deeper emotional connections that drive lasting loyalty,” said Wallach. “By offering meaningful experiences at scale—like VIP access, immersive activations, or exclusive storytelling—live music becomes a year-round strategy for authentic engagement.”

Marketers will need to tap communities of fans on social media and encourage more user generated content while also recruiting content creators in order to reach audiences that are connecting on social media instead of traditional channels, say experts. 

“Social media will continue to be a game-changer for live entertainment, turning local events into global conversations,” said Wallach. “Fans are reshaping how cultural moments are experienced and shared, amplifying their reach and impact. Brands that embrace this shift won’t just join the conversation—they’ll help shape it.”

Influencers are savvier about brand safety now, so that’s taken out some of the brand risk, said Donaton, and Gen Z trusts influencers more than traditional media. “You’ll see more people letting go in ways that make brands nervous, but it looks worse to try to knock that down than to try to take advantage,” he said. 

“The Taylor Swift effect has made UGC an essential part of any major event strategy,” said Ramaa Mosley, founder of Gen Z research agency Adolescent Content. Successful events in 2025 will need to integrate community-building opportunities before, during, and after the event, and brands are already planning hybrid experiences that merge events, creator activations and fan generated content. Mosley noted her research shows that 85% of Gen Z consumers now expect live events to have some social component.

“A lot of lessons were learned from the case study of Barbenheimer,” said Partilla. Entertainment companies are increasingly allowing consumers to “get into the conversation” while still protecting their intellectual property, encouraging the use of their assets in social media to encourage the passionate fandom, as in the Wicked release. Companies that used to guard their assets against any unauthorized use are now “feeling that this drives energy and drives sales,” and that will continue to grow, he said.