Making Sense 2025: five takeaways marketers can’t ignore
Every year, a new buzzword threatens to ‘revolutionise’ media planning. Yet the IPA’s seventh Making Sense: The Commercial Media Landscape report is a timely reminder that while platforms shift and screens multiply, human behaviour is far more consistent.
People still consume, connect, and engage - just in different places, at different times, and on different devices.
The role of planning? To bring coherence to this evolving reality. Here’s what stood out, and what marketers should do next.
1. Evolution, not extinction (and the smartphone finally overtakes TV)
The myth of dying channels persists, but the data tells a different story. Behaviours endure; delivery evolves. The headline stat: For the first time, adults now spend a bigger share of their time on curated commercial media via smartphones (35%) than on TV sets (34%). Among 16–34s, the gap is even starker: 50% smartphone vs 22% TV.
This doesn’t signal the end of television. It signals the liberation of TV content from the confines of the living room.
The takeaway? Stop planning video by legacy labels. Start planning by context and device.
2. Fragmentation is real, so is scale (if you build it)
If you’re still searching for one channel to ‘do it all,’ you’ll be disappointed. Apart from OOH, no other curated medium now achieves a weekly reach of 90% or more.
But here’s the nuance: scale isn’t gone - it’s just assembled, not bought in one insertion order. Commercial TV (Live/Recorded/BVoD) no longer delivers 90%+ reach in isolation, but when combined with BVoD, ad-funded SVoD, and online video, it forms part of a much broader AV ecosystem.
The takeaway? Think portfolios, not silos. Assemble your scale strategically.
3. Commercial media holds strong, and tilts further into digital
Despite the doom-and-gloom headlines, commercial media isn’t crumbling - it’s holding. In fact, 67% of adults’ curated media time is still ad-funded, nearly identical to a decade ago. But the split has shifted dramatically: from 58:42 (non-digital to digital) in 2015 to 37:63 in 2025. Among 16-34s, it’s even starker: 83% of their commercial time is spent on digital platforms.
The takeaway? There’s still plenty of ad-funded attention. But it’s distributed differently - and requires integrated planning to capture.
4. Over-55s - from overspill to opportunity
For too long, the 55+ audience has been treated as a ‘linear TV overspill.’ That thinking is outdated - and costly. Their habits are modernising quickly:
31% now reach commercial online news weekly.
21% reach commercial SVoD (with ads).
Podcasts, streamed music, and voice-activated listening are on the rise.
Tablets are up; print is down (with compensating online growth).
The takeaway? Don’t relegate this audience to an afterthought. Re-map channel roles and creative with intent. The over-55s are not a sideline, they’re a growth engine.
5. AI - from exploitation to exploration (and the rise of AIO)
The report’s most provocative call: don’t reduce AI to a blunt tool for squeezing efficiency. That risks pushing brands toward homogenous, copycat plans.
Instead, use AI for exploration: testing, learning, and creating new combinations. And prepare for what’s next - if conversational search becomes mainstream, AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimisation) will sit alongside SEO as a core planning discipline.
The takeaway? Ensure your brand is findable in AI answers, not just on search results pages.
What does it all mean?
Think portfolio, not silos. Build reach and attention by combining TV, BVoD, SVoD, social, and online video, rather than relying on one hero medium.
Modernise for 55+. Treat older audiences as intentional, not incidental.
Embrace AI for innovation. Use it to experiment, learn and create, not just to optimise and squeeze efficiencies.
Measure what matters. Blend attention, quality, and business outcomes - don’t let fragmented metrics obscure true effectiveness.
Audiences haven’t vanished; they’ve redistributed. In the future, success will mean assembling the right mix, exploring new combinations, and planning with coherence across screens, platforms, and age groups. Fragmentation isn’t the enemy - it’s the opportunity.
Jasman Ahmad
Jasman is our Strategy Director and responsible for combining creative thinking with factual and statistical data to plan and solve clients’ biggest challenges.
