Around the World: Meta expected to overtake Google this year

Media expert Antony Young rounds up media news from beyond Aotearoa in a regular column for StopPress.

This week:

• Meta is set to dethrone Google as the world’s biggest digital ad player
• A UK AI startup has pulled airport ads after being accused of misogyny
• American Eagle is doubling down with its next Sydney Sweeney campaign
• TikTok wins teens’ attention but is affecting their wellbeing
• Chipotle is gamifying its rewards programme
• AEO is pushing brands to break content into small chunks optimised for AI answers

Meta expected to overtake Google this year

Meta is set to dethrone Google as the world’s biggest digital ad player, with Emarketer projecting $243.5 billion in net ad revenue this year vs Google’s $239.5 billion. It’s a symbolic shift after years of search dominance.

The growth is being fuelled by Reels, AI-driven recommendations which have lifted watch time 30% in the US, and a steady rollout of monetisation across products like Threads and WhatsApp.

Meta’s ad growth is forecast to hit 24.1% in 2026, double Google’s 11.9%, while its AI tools are already driving a $10 billion revenue run rate from creative automation alone. Meanwhile, Google is getting pressure from multiple fronts: Amazon eating into search intent, AI platforms reshaping discovery and YouTube Premium limiting ad inventory.

For the first time in a decade, Google’s share of US search ad spend is expected to drop below 50%. In an added footnote, Netflix expects its ads business to double to $3 billion this year, with its advertiser base growing 70% YoY to more than 4,000 brands.

AI ad sparks sexism backlash

A UK AI startup has pulled airport ads after being accused of “misogyny with a marketing budget”.

Narwhal Labs promoted its “AI employee” campaign with lines like “She outworks everyone. And she’ll never ask for a raise,” triggering complaints to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority and backlash from unions and advocacy groups.

Critics said the work reinforces sexist labour tropes the ideal worker as compliant, always-on and unpaid. The company argued the campaign was meant to provoke debate about automation and the future of work.

The ads have since been removed from placements including Bristol Airport and yet now we’re talking about them! A quick check on ChatGPT warns this ad risks framing the product as a labour replacement and gender stereotypes.

American Eagle doubles down with next Sydney Sweeney campaign

American Eagle is leaning back into Sydney Sweeney after last year’s “genes vs jeans” backlash turned into the brand’s biggest campaign ever. 

The new “Syd for Short” ad pushes shorts for the summer, with a nod to the noise that made the first campaign unavoidable conversation fodder. CMO Craig Brommers in an interview with USA Today says customers were “clamouring” for more, and the brand is betting that cultural heat is now a growth lever, not a risk. He adds that Sweeney remains heavily involved creatively.

Pew Study: TikTok wins with teens for attention, but is affecting wellbeing 

Teens are spending time and feeling it differently across platforms, with TikTok ahead on attention but lagging on wellbeing.

New Pew data shows entertainment is the dominant driver across TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, but TikTok stands out for depth: 80% of teens use it for entertainment and nearly 60% for product reviews, reinforcing its role as both a discovery and commerce engine.

That attention comes at a cost. Around 30% of TikTok teens say they spend too much time on the app, and roughly four-in-ten say it hurts their sleep and productivity, higher than Instagram or Snapchat.

Snapchat, meanwhile, is still the messaging layer, with 57% of teens using it to DM daily and 44% saying it strengthens friendships. Across all platforms, most teens say the impact on mental health is neutral, but bullying remains a visible issue, especially on Snapchat where about 30% report experiencing harassment.

Chipotle turns loyalty into gameplay

One of my favourite fast food spots Chipotle has always done a fantastic job of embedding social cause to its brand. This piece in Fast Company shares how they’re delivering a masterclass in gamifying its app. 

The brand has rebuilt its rewards programme to feel more like a quest system than a points wallet, layering in badges, challenges and even leaderboards to drive repeat orders.

They’ve got rewards tiers for walking or running a certain amount of miles in a month or having a certain amount of workouts in a week. Features like ‘Summer of extras’ where users earned rewards for visiting multiple Chipotle locations and tracked rank on a leaderboard borrow directly from gaming mechanics.

The UX leans hard into this: progress animations, personalised “missions” powered by AI and a centralised dashboard that feels closer to a player profile than a checkout flow.

With 21 million active members already driving 30% of sales, Chipotle is doubling down on turning transactions into engagement loops especially for younger customer who expect interactivity, not just discounts.

How marketers are gaming AEO

As reported earlier AI answer engines are quietly gutting website traffic and forcing marketers to rethink the entire search playbook.

HubSpot reportedly lost 140 million visits in a year as users shift from clicking links to getting instant answers via ChatGPT, Claude, Co-Pilot or Google Gemini, where click-through rates can drop 60–70% .

AEO or answer engine optimisation is causing brands to restructure content into bite-sized, highly specific chunks designed to be pulled directly into AI responses. That means fewer long-form explainers, more FAQs, summaries and tightly structured guides that match how people now search often in 40-60 word prompts instead of keywords.

Some brands are going further, building full content ecosystems purely to train AI visibility (like Spice Kitchen’s “history of spices” hub) or creating “defensive” content to ensure AI cites them over competitors. The trade-off: less traffic, but higher-intent visitors who are more likely to convert.

SEO isn’t dying, it’s being upstreamed. Winning now means being the answer, not the destination.

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