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The latest figures from the Advertising Association and WARC show UK advertising spend increased 13.5% to £19.6bn in H1 – with a recorded £10bn spent during Q2 2024, up 13.4%. The growth, fuelled by strong digital performance and lower comparative results from 2023, exceeded forecasts by over four percentage points. And with the first-half results in, AA/WARC has revised its 2024 forecast upward by 2.9 percentage points, now expecting total ad spend to exceed £40 billion for the first time to...

“ Today’s Budget provides welcome clarity about the new Government’s plans, lifting some of the uncertainty that stalled marketing spend in Q3 . It comes on the same day as the release of our Digital Adspend update for H1 2024 , which shows that the total digital ad market grew 16% in the first half of the year, largely driven by investment in online video - up 26%. The fact that UK GDP grew by a far more conservative 0.5% during the same period indicates that marketers have continued to...

Created with OMD UK and social agency Coolr, the 90s revival ad features actor and singer Martine McCutcheon reworking the lyrics to ‘Ooh Aah Just A Lidl Bit’ to showcase the benefits of the Lidl Plus app – with the help of Charity Shop Sue, Diane from Traitors and Gareth Howells, Founder of Hunsnet. The celebration of Hun culture - which saw Lidl partner with Hunsnet - has all the ingredients of stand-out shareable social content with takeovers across TikTok, YouTube and Meta, alongside an...

Video display continued to drive investment across the UK market, marking the fourth year in a row that digital video has recorded double digit growth in H1 - indicating that advertisers are prioritising the brand building opportunities and high impact formula offered by the format. Overall, the UK digital ad market saw 16% YoY growth with spend reaching £16.2bn - far outstripping UK GDP that returned to cautious growth of 0.5% YoY during the same period. Meanwhile, search advertising performed...

“Gaming just remains this incredible high-growth opportunity - It's an industry by our own estimates that could be worth as much as £2 billion in advertising by 2026”, declared James Chandler, IAB UK’s CMO, opening our fifth annual Gaming Upfronts. The event attracted advertisers, agency strategists and key players in the industry to examine the emerging potential within the gaming industry. Here are our six takeouts... Work with, not just for, your community Amazon Ads kicked off the first...

“We predict that Connected TV ad spend is going to reach £3bn in the UK by 2028”, said James Chandler, IAB UK’s CMO, quoting IAB Compass to open our 2024 Connected TV Upfronts. And while CTV is fast becoming a stalwart on media plans as large brands harness its premium quality environment and smart targeting, James pointed out that one of the key drivers of future growth will be mid-size businesses. What followed was an essential download of expert advice and unmissable opportunities from the...

The Data (Access and Use) Bill, one of the first new pieces of legislation introduced by the Labour Government, is focused on the role data can play in economic growth and delivering public services while ensuring that personal data is protected. It contains some provisions that were in the previous Government’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, including on cookie consent, which is relevant to digital advertising. In a significant move, reflecting industry concerns, the new Data...

“This genuinely could be the area of the industry that has the biggest potential”, announced James Chandler, IAB UK’s CMO. “All the products, the newness, the relationship with consumers on a near-daily basis - the work of trying to get people to trust us already exists.” James went on to share a first look at new data from the IAB projecting advertising spend on retail media will exceed £1bn next year, and over the course of the afternoon, we heard why data points, brand collaborations and...

Advertisers’ investment in on and off-site retail media is set to surpass £1bn in the UK next year - excluding spend on Amazon - according to new data from IAB UK. The forecast underscores the buoyant health of the market as advertisers look to leverage the vast wealth of first-party data retailers can offer. Adding Amazon to the mix, retail media spend is on track to break through the £7bn mark in 2028. To put the scale and rate of that growth in context, spend on social display in the UK...

“Podcasts are gaining the lion’s share of my media day - from soundtracking my commute to being a companion for insomnia,” explained James Chandler, CMO of IAB UK, opening our sixth annual Upfronts, hosted at The Steel Yard. Podcast advertising grew by 23% YoY according to latest Digital Adspend data , with James pointing out that it’s a safe bet that podcast advertising will overtake streaming to become the dominant format within audio this year. What followed was a snapshot of some of the best...

“ We’re not here to talk about newspapers or reach… we’re here to talk about an evolving media brand in 2024 and that starts with one word: community” explained Owen Griffiths, Commercial Revenue Director at The Sun, kicking off The Sun’s 2024 Digital Upfront. Here’s a round up of what followed… A younger, more diverse audience than ever before The Sun reaches 26.6 million people every month across multiple touchpoints - from the main app to Sun Holidays. As the brand diversifies, the audience...

Consumer trust, brand purpose and verified journalism were all on the agenda at BBC Studios’ 2024 Digital Upfront. “We are living in extraordinary times and it can sometimes feel like no one is in control,” said Lucy Hockings, BBC News’ Chief Presenter, opening the event. As a result, the BBC sees this “ as a time for action ” to uphold trust via verified, impartial journalism. For advertisers working with the BBCs global operations, the message was clear: identify and stay true to your brand...

Party Conference season has just come to an end and it has been another busy one from an IAB perspective, having attended all three of the major conferences and over 40 events and discussions on behalf of our members. Our aim at this year’s party conferences was to educate and inform some of the huge cohort of new MPs (over half of the total) about digital advertising and its benefits to UK consumers and businesses. Our intention was to make initial contact with political stakeholders through...

“By combining award-winning TV series and films, billions of first-party signals, and leading ad tech, we are helping brands deliver relevant ad experiences at an entirely new scale,” explained Phil Christer, Managing Director at Amazon Ads UK, opening the 2024 Upfront. Here’s a round up of what followed… Delivering full-funnel advertising at scale For the first time, Amazon shared the average monthly ad-supported reach of Prime Video in the UK, following the introduction of ads to Prime Video...

Winner of September’s Joy of Digital Award, Twinings’ creator-led campaign ‘A New Way to Tea’ promotes the launch of its new sparkling tea on TikTok and marks its debut on the platform. In collaboration with creator agency Whalar, the heritage tea brand, ventured onto TikTok for the first time with a creator-led campaign to tap into communities and capture the attention of people experiencing the afternoon slump. With the hashtag #ANewWayToTea, the brand enlisted a diverse group of creators -...

Just like a fiddly recipe with lots of ingredients - looking at you Ottolenghi - digital advertising can feel pretty complex. There’s a lot to weigh up when it comes to the choice of...

Restoring economic stability, rebuilding public services and creating more opportunities for young people were all top of the agenda at Labour’s first Annual Conference as the party in power since 2010. But what came up in Liverpool that IAB UK members should be particularly aware of? Gareth Lyon, IAB UK’s Public Affairs Lead, shares three key take outs from the floor. The role of regulation There was a keen focus on the role and right balance of regulation to shape flourishing industries -...

In July 2024, Google announced that it would be pursuing a new path for Privacy Sandbox and not be deprecating third-party cookies on Chrome in 2025 as previously planned. Following this, the CMA issued a call for views in order to understand different perspectives from across the industry, which closed on 12 August. It has now issued an update stating that “based on careful consideration of the responses we received, the CMA’s view is that competition concerns remain under Google’s revised...

Last week I attended ‘Advertising, Who Cares?’ - a summit created by Nick Manning and Brian Jacobs that is geared at creating better advertising and proactively addressing the challenges we jointly face as an industry, from ad fraud to bombardment. It’s been billed as part of a wider movement to combat “badvertising” and recover the reputation of the advertising industry, which the duo says has never been worse - a claim somewhat at odds with the Advertising Association's data showing that...

Brand safety is a subject that hasn’t strayed far from the spotlight since The Times’ landmark investigation in 2017. The development of transparency tools and shared standards has ensured progress in this space but, at the same time, the continued use of overzealous keyword blocking continues to disregard contextual factors and have a very real impact on online publishers. With the demise of GARM, the brand safety issue is once more grabbing headlines as people question the viability of cross...