Fremantle and Merzigo, a global monetization partner for premium streaming content, have renewed their collaboration with a multi-year, multi-channel agreement that sees an extension of their AVOD partnership and a new publishing arrangement. Under the extended partnership, Merzigo will publish a bespoke selection of Fremantle’s catalogue content on Fremantle-owned YouTube and Meta channels. The initial partnership saw Merzigo licensing a selection of entertainment and unscripted titles on Merzigo-owned and operated social AVOD media channels which successfully contributed to commercial growth on YouTube and Meta. Under the new deal, a broader suite of programming, including scripted, will now be published across Turkey, Northern Cyprus and MENA. The new deal also allows for a broader offering of long-form programming from Fremantle’s diverse slate of popular scripted and non-scripted content.
Utiq, the European AdTech company providing Telco-powered infrastructure rooted in authentic, user-consented signals, has announced two major business milestones. Just two years since operations commenced, Utiq has now surpassed 55 million unique consent passes across its operational markets, representing over one-third of all mobile users. Each consent pass corresponds to a real, verified individual who has opted-in to data-driven advertising experiences. These deterministic identifiers enable precise frequency control, cross-environment reach, fraud suppression and consistent measurement, without relying on third-party cookies, fingerprinting or other probabilistic methods. Alongside this, Utiq now confirms that its infrastructure is powered by 26 Telco partners across Germany, Austria, France and Spain – spanning both mobile and fixed-line connections.
Klarna, the AI-powered payments and commerce network, is the headline sponsor of Latitude festival 2025, marking its first major UK festival sponsorship and the start of a multi-year collaboration. As headline sponsor, Klarna will have prominent branding throughout the festival site and deliver a major on-site activation, bringing its signature bold energy to life through immersive experiences, exclusive perks and giveaways for festival-goers. The sponsorship reflects Klarna’s growing presence across the experience economy, extending beyond traditional retail, with leading merchants in the travel and ticketing space. Research* shows that 88% of event goers are more likely to notice a brand when they’re at a music event. With up to 40,000 attendees expected each day across four days, Latitude gives Klarna a powerful opportunity to connect with an experience-driven audience. Latitude festival will take place from 24–27 July at Henham Park, Suffolk.
Sounds Profitable, the trade association for the podcasting industry, has released The Advertising Landscape: Trust and Attention report, which reveals that podcast advertising boasts an 86% ad recall rate among its most active users. Notably, podcasting’s ad recall rate is the highest of any media platform, surpassing traditional media like TV, radio, and social media. As the largest public study of podcasting and advertising in the US, The Advertising Landscape: Trust and Attention report by Sounds Profitable includes insights from more than 5,000 adults across the country. The study focused on the most active users across 22 different ad-supported platforms, defined as those who engage daily with their chosen media (“primes”). The report also unveils that podcasting defies gender barriers for brands among prime users, as 86% of male consumers and 85% of female consumers recall an ad after hearing it on a podcast. This outperforms all other tested media in both recall rates as well as in gender disparity.
Football media company, Footballco, has acquired popular animation brand and studio 442oons. With over 8m followers across its social channels, 442oons has racked up more than 4 billion views on YouTube alone. 442oons generates more than 50 million views a month on all platforms and joins Footballco’s portfolio of video-first football brands, which include GOAL’s Front Three and FanZone, YallaGOAL, and 1vs1. Each month, Footballco brands generate more than two billion views across all platforms. While 442oons will continue to operate as a standalone brand and channel, Footballco will integrate its content across its other brands, such as global football brand GOAL and women’s football brand, INDIVISA. Footballco will also launch new programming from the channel, connecting to more global football fandoms and including women’s football.
Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the customer engagement platform, has released its sixth annual State of Customer Engagement Report. Based on a global survey of more than 7,600 consumers and 600+ business leaders across 18 countries, the report underscores a powerful trend: AI is driving clear ROI—but unless businesses also earn consumer trust and deliver relevance in the moment, they risk leaving real value on the table. While 96% of companies say AI is improving customer-facing operations such as support, marketing, and personalization, and 75% see increased customer spend from personalization efforts, only 45% of consumers feel understood by the brands they interact with, down slightly from 46% in 2024. And despite 83% of business leaders claiming to deeply understand their customers, consumer behavior tells a different story: 71% will walk away from purchases if the experience doesn’t feel relevant.
Immediate, home to brands including Good Food, Radio Times, and BBC Gardeners’ World, has launched a competition offering a brand the chance to win a digital advertising campaign worth up to £200,000. The competition is open to any advertiser making tangible progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals to make a real difference. Entrants must submit a 200-word summary showcasing how their brand is delivering meaningful ESG impact via an online form. The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm on 4 July 2025.
Paragon, al business services provider, has purchased Service Graphics from Grenadier Holdings, based on a share purchase agreement. Service Graphics specialises in delivering brand activations, display graphics solutions, print and design, mail services and SaaS solutions. The company has recently refreshed its strategy and invested in new technology to match market demand and better serve the world-leading brands that make up their customer base. They will join Paragon’s fast growing Marketing Services business line and bring award-winning capabilities in large format display, creative studio and on-demand print and design services to Paragon’s extensive business services portfolio.
Retailers looking to get ahead of the AI hype-curve and realise the benefits of the technology are shelving planned store technology investment to prioritise AI, according to the latest research from Pricer, the preferred partner for in-store communication and digitalisation. Original research of over 100 senior UK retailers by Pricer revealed that over two thirds (67%) plan to invest in AI at the expense of existing road-mapped technologies within the store. Pricing automation and AI for customer service in-store were the top types of AI that 59% retailers plan to invest in over other technologies, according to Pricer’s research. This was followed by shelf-edge AI cameras (53%) and AI-powered in-store content (47%).
Moloco, a leader in operational machine learning (ML) and advertising technology, has announced a global strategic partnership with Xiaomi‘s International Internet Business Department. As a global leader in smartphones and smart devices, Xiaomi currently reaches over 702 million monthly active users worldwide. Collaborating to support the growth of developers in global markets, the partnership will offer more efficient advertising solutions, enabling brands to both reach a broader audience and significantly deepen user engagement. Given Xiaomi’s market leadership in 100+ countries and regions worldwide, this partnership will fully utilise its global resources to help brands more accurately reach their target audiences, enhance user engagement, and maximise advertising performance. Through this partnership, Moloco integrates its advanced machine learning algorithms to enhance the monetisation value of Xiaomi’s inventory by offering more personalised and effective ad targeting. By leveraging Xiaomi’s robust advertising and content service platforms, Moloco delivers highly targeted ad placements on GetApps, Xiaomi’s overseas app store, designed to help developers drive more app downloads. At the same time, Moloco’s advertisers are able to benefit from this partnership by gaining access to Xiaomi’s extensive global user base with high-quality ad placements.
Propagate Content has acquired Parker Management – a strategic move that signals a major shift at the intersection of entertainment, media, and the creator economy. With this acquisition, Propagate, founded by Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens, is now the largest digital talent management company in the industry. With Parker’s sharp focus on creator-driven brand partnerships and culturally relevant talent, the move cements Propagate’s commitment to evolving alongside the next generation of stars and platforms.
Meet The People (MTP), the innovative alternative to the traditional advertising holding company model, today announced the acquisition of Yeoman Technology Group, a leading consultancy specializing in the management, optimization and execution of organic and paid Retail Media strategies across Amazon, Walmart, Target and other platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The addition of Yeoman Technology Group represents MTP’s tenth brand acquisition since its founding and strengthens the agency group’s growing roster of specialized agencies. Building on its consistently rising client demand across North America over the past year, Meet The People’s Creative, Commerce, Media, Performance, and Retail Media teams are on track to grow to 800 full-time employees in the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2009 by Michael Healey in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Yeoman Technology Group has built a reputation as a trusted consultant to multi-channel brands, focusing on growing direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce, Amazon, and other marketplace channels without disrupting existing sales channels.
History Hit, the award-winning SVOD, content platform and podcast network founded by Dan Snow, and Ubisoft have renewed and expanded their partnership. This collaboration will see History Hit continue to produce the Assassin’s Creed-inspired evergreen ‘Echoes of History’ podcast, in addition to launching a new dedicated YouTube channel on the 5th of June 2025. Developer interviews will be introduced as a new format across both the podcast and YouTube channel. They will be hosted by historian Matthew Lewis (presenter of History Hit’s ‘Gone Medieval’ podcast) and game narrative designer Holly Nielsen, and will feature in-depth conversations with some of the creative minds behind Assassin’s Creed, including Ubisoft’s World Director for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Benjamin Hall, and Head Writer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Jeffrey Yohalem.
Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), a global leader in delivering performance at scale for advertisers, today announced an enhancement to Realize, its performance marketing platform, called Predictive Audiences. Predictive Audiences helps advertisers discover untapped, high-converting customers so they can meet performance marketing goals at scale. The Motley Fool, QuinStreet, and NerdWallet are among advertisers using Predictive Audiences to unlock incremental performance gains. Since launching in limited availability in February, weekly spend attributed to Predictive Audiences has tripled, as more advertisers begin to leverage the solution.
