The marketing and advertising trends that will inform 2026

Mintegral, a global platform for user acquisition and monetisation, has released new data and advertiser guidance showing three shifts reshaping mobile growth heading into late 2025.

The data shows that AI features are moving mainstream, while short dramas from the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) are becoming the next global entertainment format. In addition, third-party Android stores are now delivering efficient scale, becoming a “blue-ocean” channel for low-cost, scalable user acquisition. 

Consumer AI gains traction

"Consumer AI apps have gone truly mass-market. In 2024 the category reached 1.5 B downloads and US$1.3 B in revenue. Within the category, AI chatbots led with 119% year-on-year (YoY) growth, while AI art generators still expanded at 21% YoY. Notably, 16 generative-AI apps surpassed US$10 M in IAP, and 25 apps broke 10 million downloads, evidence that consumers now routinely pay for AI-enhanced utility, creativity, and productivity," said Khai Le, Senior Director of Business Development, Mintegral.

"AI is no longer a novelty; it’s a durable consumer habit. Developers building pragmatic AI features around pain points (productivity, finance, PDF/chat, community) are winning traction, and advertisers are finding conversion-ready audiences at scale."

Short-form entertainment goes global

"Short-video apps centred on episodic, 'short-drama' content have grown at 50–200% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) since Q323. The monetisation model is overwhelmingly ad-supported (in-app advertising or IAA ~90%), with in-app purchasing (IAP) ~10% (subscriptions, token top-ups)," observed Le.

"Indonesia is now the single biggest downloader at 39% share, followed by Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, and Japan/Korea, signalling a cross-regional entertainment format with low customer acquisition cost (CAC) and broad appeal," added Le.

"A new mobile entertainment category born in APAC is exporting globally, and advertisers are meeting audiences where they binge micro-episodes. Rewarded video entry points like daily check-ins, unlocking new episodes, and task rewards are standard, giving performance marketers clear levers to balance reach and retention."

Third-party Android stores: a new blue ocean

Beyond Google Play and the App Store, third-party Android stores (including from Xiaomi, Amazon, Samsung, Oppo/Vivo, and Huawei) are emerging as underpriced inventory pools, Le said.

"Marketers don’t need to be 'small fish' fighting in red-ocean auctions. Third-party stores are expanding reach and smoothing supply shocks, especially for gaming, utilities, entertainment, and emerging short-drama publishers," Le said.

According to Mintegral, advertisers can ride these waves right now with creative testing, return on ad spend (ROAS)-aligned bidding, and diversified distribution beyond the duopoly. The company's advice for advertisers:

- Adopt ROAS-aligned bidding across models: Run target ROAS, hybrid ROAS, IAA ROAS, or target cost per engagement (CPE) to optimise toward paid actions (registrations, day 7 or D7 retention) and revenue outcomes rather than vanity metrics.

- Lean into creative automation: Use dynamic creative optimisation - creating personalised ads on the fly, large-scale creative analysis, and playables to iterate quickly across short-drama formats and AI-app utilities. Playable ads literally allow the viewer to play the game within the app.

- Diversify distribution: Add third-party stores to the media plan to unlock cheaper, incremental scale, then whitelist high-performing verticals and sub-channels.

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