Media verification and optimisation platform DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV) and Roku, Inc. (“Roku”) (NASDAQ: ROKU), has announced new milestones and insights from their two-year collaboration to protect connected TV (CTV) advertising. According to DV’s recently released report, Global Insights: Trends in the Modern Streaming Landscape, the ad industry continues to grapple with fraudsters targeting streaming environments that lack strong security measures. The scale of this problem is staggering, with 4 million infected CTV bot devices generating extreme volumes of invalid traffic daily. Since 2023, DV and Roku have partnered to block billions of fraudulent ad requests imitating Roku device traffic across the streaming ecosystem.
Enterprise CMS Storyblok has partnered with AI-native web development platform Netlify. The tie up will enable brands to close the gap between content management and project development – opening the door to faster and more reliable content deployment times at scale. The partnership is the latest move from Storyblok to help brands adapt to the impact of AI on their web presence.
VIOOH, the leading premium global digital out-of-home (DOOH) supply-side platform, today announced a programmatic partnership with RZK Digital, Brazil’s largest digital media operator in urban bus terminals, strengthening the presence of programmatic DOOH across Latin America. RZK Digital operates an expanding network of over 800 digital screens across 43 urban terminals, set to reach more than 50 locations by the end of the year.
Canva has announced that its UK-based professional creative suite, Affinity, has surpassed one million sign-ups in under a week, following its landmark move to make the software completely free — forever. The milestone marks the beginning of Affinity’s new era, unveiled through a month-long build of anticipation, a bold new visual identity, and a multi-asset brand campaign led by Tom Carey, Canva’s Europe Creative Director.
As Brits prepare to hunt down Black Friday deals, new research from Worldpay®, a global leader in payment technology, shows that many are ready to let AI do the legwork. AI shopping assistants might still be new, but Brits are already warming to the idea according to the findings in the recent survey. Almost one in three (31%) UK shoppers say they would be happy to have an agent browse on their behalf – and that jumps to nearly half (45%) among younger shoppers aged 18 to 34.
Kochava, the leading real-time data solutions company for omnichannel outcomes, today announced the launch of StationOne, a universal integrative AI client. It enables anyone in the marketing ecosystem to connect Model Context Protocols (MCPs) and AdCPs with any large language model, and leverage pre-prompt templates to deliver consistent results. StationOne acts as a conductor, enabling individuals to work as a unified team with AI tools ensuring that all components collaborate seamlessly to achieve complex business goals at scale, rather than operating in isolated silos. StationOne is an integrative orchestration layer; a centralized platform that lives on your own machine (not in the cloud) and integrates AI with the tools you already use and the models you’re authorized to access.
RateGain Travel Technologies Limited (NSE: RATEGAIN), a global provider of AI-powered SaaS solutions for the hospitality and travel industry, announced the completion of its acquisition of Sojern, the leading AI-powered marketing platform built for hospitality. The transaction brings together two complementary forces in travel technology, RateGain’s expertise in Martech, revenue optimization and distribution with Sojern’s demand generation and traveler engagement capabilities, to create one of the most comprehensive AI-powered growth platforms, serving 13,000 customers in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, today released a new Mailchimp report, The Marketing Equalizer: Leveraging AI for Mid-Market Growth. The report was created in partnership with WARC, the global authority on marketing effectiveness. Key report findings include: More than half of mid-market companies operate with 10 or fewer marketing staff; 98% of respondents believe AI will improve marketing effectiveness; Only a third of respondents report using AI widely in their organizations; Lack of in-house expertise (39%), integration challenges (35%), and data privacy concerns (33%) are identified as the top barriers to AI adoption.
This year’s TV Key Facts by RTL AdAlliance, the international sales house of RTL Group, centres on the value of trusted media and local market specificities. While digital platforms account for around 76 per cent of advertising spend, framing the market solely by advertising channels can be misleading. A more insightful approach, highlighted by the TV Key Facts, is to evaluate advertising by the value it delivers in terms of reach, engagement and impact to advertisers. This perspective provides a clearer understanding of the role each advertising channel plays in driving business outcomes. Here, content media, encompassing media properties such as entertainment and information content, leads the way with 58 per cent of ad investment, of which streaming TV grows the most with 12.5 per cent year on year.
Selfridges stores in London, Birmingham and Manchester as well as Selfridges.com have been transformed into festive wonderlands sprinkled in stardust. With enchanting Disney windows, over 70 brand collaborations across fashion, home, beauty and beyond (including limited editions of Disney favourites, specially commissioned fashion pieces and unique gift ideas), two bespoke Disney iterations of the iconic Selfridges yellow bag, and a truly unmissable façade bringing the irresistible charm of Disney to the heart of London.
Skai, an omnichannel advertising platform for commerce media, and Kevel, creator of The Retail Media Cloud®, have announced a strategic partnership to give advertisers expanded access to high-growth retail media networks. With Skai and Kevel’s strong API-based approach, this partnership will enable retailers to seamlessly scale their monetization strategies with transparent control over demand sources and performance. Combining Skai’s omnichannel intelligence with Kevel’s customizable ad infrastructure will deliver better margin control for retailers and give brands and agencies better access to premium retail media inventory that was previously fragmented or difficult to scale.
Catalog has debuted the first end-to-end curated music licensing marketplace for storytellers in film, television, video games, editorial and advertising. Arriving with an opening roster of 30,000+ tracks from over 1,800 artists and 60 defining imprints, the platform serves as an antidote to the $1.3B stock “royalty-free” sync industry – a vacuum which devalues artistry; where convenience is killing culture. Now, for the first time, licensing culturally relevant music is no longer a matter of months, but hours, meaning artists are rightfully restored the opportunity to have their music synced at the speed of culture and be compensated in real-time.
Supermetrics, a marketing intelligence platform company trusted by thousands of data-driven teams, has announced the expansion of its enterprise-grade platform by launching a suite of AI-powered solutions that strengthen its position as a reliable, governed foundation for marketing data, analytics, and automation. Built in response to customer demand for faster and more reliable ways to act on their data, Supermetrics AI provides teams with new ways to move from insight to execution with confidence. This expansion supports the company’s mission to close the gap between analysis and action, empowering marketers to make informed decisions that drive tangible outcomes.
New research from Talker and Virgin, based on a survey of 2,000 people in the US and UK who have taken a trip in the past two years, reveals that 93% of travellers recall a positive experience first when thinking about memorable interactions with travel staff, and on average, 76% of the quality of their best trips is shaped by the people they meet, with one in four saying most or all of their experience depends on these interactions. While technology continues to transform travel, the latest research shows that personal interactions remain irreplaceable. 54% say their trips would be less enjoyable if all staff were replaced by AI. 53% believe the people they encounter make just as much impact as the product itself. Two-thirds would pay extra for travel that guarantees a great human-first experience. Gen Z travellers, despite being the most tech-savvy, are the most likely to value human connection – 59% say it will become even more important to travel experiences over the next decade. Nearly six times the number of respondents surveyed would rather be served by a flight attendant with personality and warmth above one who’s purely efficient (53% vs. 9%).
A new study by WARC and Intuit Mailchimp presented by LIONS Advisory reveals marketing teams in mid-market companies are in transition in how they are leveraging AI as an “equalizer” that enables them to amplify their impact and give them a competitive edge. Often overlooked, these organizations with 10-499 employees, are vital to the business ecosystem. After weathering five years of unprecedented challenges — from pandemic disruptions to soaring costs and fragmented marketing channels — with the help of AI, they are adapting marketing strategies and team structures to overcome budget pressures, channel usage and martech priorities.
Worldpanel by Numerator has found that ad-supported streaming made up ground on ad-free alternatives, with a seismic year-on-year (YoY) increase of 6 million viewers in the UK now willing to see content with ads. Brits’ preparedness to accept ads on VoD streaming platforms continues to skyrocket as ad-supported streaming hit a record 23 million subscriptions in Q3 and closed the gap on ad-free alternatives, which account for 29 million viewers in total. The Q3 2025 Entertainment on Demand (EoD) findings show that Amazon Prime Video reclaimed top spot from Disney+ in new paid subscriptions, DAZN’s strategy to host the FIFA Club World Cup during the quieter summer months paid off and Disney+ overtook Netflix in delivering the best overall ad experience.
PwC UK and TheyDo have announced that they are collaborating strategically to help clients realise more value from their Customer Experience (CX) investments. Organisations big and small are investing heavily to better understand their customers. Many are still struggling to translate the enormous amount of data that they collect, through an ever-expanding set of customer touchpoints, into meaningful outcomes. PwC’s Growth Through Experience (GtX) research proves that organisations that invest in designing and delivering exceptional CX consistently outperform their peers on three key business metrics: revenue, retention, and brand reputation Complementary insights from TheyDo show that while leaders recognise the strategic importance of CX, fragmented data and disconnected insights remain a considerable challenge. The combination of PwC’s unique GtX model, which links investing in CX to measurable business outcomes, and TheyDo’s AI-powered Journey Management Platform, gives business leaders a new way to translate customer insights into CX opportunities that drive growth.
The biggest Black Ops ever also requires a bigger launch campaign, and this year Call of Duty® is holding nothing back. The Replacer, played by Peter Stormare, has an important role, taking over people’s jobs and daily tasks so they have more time to play Call of Duty. After helping Black Ops 6 achieve record-breaking success by appearing across 21 cultural touchpoints last year– from NFL games to F1 races to episodes of Jeopardy – The Replacer now features in custom vignettes created for UK and German audiences. The UK spot shows him interacting through a Ring Video Doorbell during a bake sale mishap. In Germany, The Replacer is played by German rapper and actress Nura, with the vignette featuring her interactions with Amazon Delivery Service during a workplace shredding incident. These ads will run exclusively on Prime Video to promote the game’s November 14, 2025 release.
AdLib, provider of the leading DSP-agnostic media buying platform for in-house programmatic teams and independent agencies, has announced a strategic partnership with Curated.Media, an intelligent software enabling multi-platform curation for programmatic media buyers. Together, the companies are tackling programmatic fragmentation from both sides of the transaction, removing barriers to entry and helping agencies achieve better performance with greater transparency and control. Through this partnership, AdLib customers will gain direct access to Curated.Media’s curated supply libraries – spanning CTV, display, video, audio, DOOH, and native – all within the DSPs they already use. By layering brand safety filters, audience data, contextual signals, and performance-sensitive packages, Curated.Media enables AdLib buyers to transact on high-quality supply without added contracts, fees, or operational lift.
System1 hasintroduced Test Your Ad Competitive Edge, the world’s largest open creative effectiveness database of more than 100,000 ads that gives brands the ultimate competitive advantage through a comprehensive, real-time view of their category and inspiration from best-in-class creative. The relaunched product builds on the strength of System1’s proprietary Premium database, which has been developed and expanded over the past six years. Advertisers can see not just how their campaigns perform, but how they stack up against competitors. Combining System1’s market-leading emotional response data with continuous ad tracking refreshed daily, Test Your Ad Competitive Edge allows teams to benchmark, learn, and optimise creative faster than ever before. Spend data also helps guide smarter media investment.
Nest Commerce, the human + AI marketing partner built for retail, and R.M. Williams, the iconic Australian boot and clothing brand, have announced a new partnership aimed at driving accelerated growth and brand awareness in key markets, including the UK. The collaboration will see Nest Commerce manage R.M. Williams’ global paid search and paid social and creative optimisation across the UK, Australia, and New Zealand including Meta Platforms and Google. R.M. Williams, a heritage brand celebrated for its handcrafted boots and unwavering commitment to quality, will be building on its market-leading position in Australia while expanding its footprint in the UK and Europe. Nest Commerce’s proven ability and expertise in combining digital brand-building initiatives with performance-driven results was a key factor in the brand’s decision.
Nearly a third (31%) of UK marketers say they’re struggling to differentiate their brand amid growing competition and a rise in AI-generated content. That’s according to new research from Optimizely, which surveyed 100 UK marketers to uncover the top challenges marketers are facing as we head into 2026 and how they plan to overcome them. While brand differentiation ranked as the #1 challenge, others include maintaining consumer trust and engagement (26%), scaling personalisation effectively (24%), budget cuts (22%), slow senior decision-making (18%), and proving ROI (11%).
GWI, the insights company, has announced a new integration with Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude. From today, users of GWI can access real, reliable insights grounded in human truth, all without leaving their chat with Claude. The integration between GWI and Anthropic comes as demand for reliable data to feed AI grows, with GWI users now able to access representative, bias-checked audience data all within their AI chatbot. By connecting its Model Context Protocol (MCP) with Claude, GWI is cutting down the time to insights and bringing trustworthy data directly into the AI tools people use every day. Instead of relying on scraped data or outdated information, Claude can now instantly generate outputs backed by real human understanding, with every answer a true representation of how people think, feel, and behave.
Gumtree has selected Mangopay for its wallet-first payments infrastructure and re-spend functionality, which enables sellers to instantly reuse their earnings to buy other items, making the experience more rewarding and convenient. By integrating Mangopay’s white-label wallet infrastructure, Gumtree gains full control over payment flows while offering users a safer, smoother user experience. The move from offline cash payments to on-platform transactions gives more confidence and convenience to buyers and sellers alike. This transformation positions Gumtree for sustainable growth and a richer, more connected community.
Trading 212, which democratises access to financial markets via free web apps, has launched a new video series in partnership with Metro. Metro Explains Investing is a monthly social video series that engages, educates and informs Metro’s audience on key investment topics. Created as a Metro Originals format and an addition to the popular Metro Explains… social video series, Metro Explains Investing forms part of Trading 212’s broader Investing Made Simple campaign, currently running across a number of Mail Metro Media titles. In conjunction with the video series, Metro has also launched a dedicated Investing channel on Metro.co.uk, also sponsored by Trading 212. A dedicated editorial lead ensures that Metro’s audience is informed and empowered to grow their money.
PropellerAds, one of the world’s leading advertising platforms, is proud to announce the official launch of the Chinese-language version of propellerads.com with native support team, marking a major step in its strategic expansion across East Asia. The announcement comes in response to growing regional demand for industry-leading advertising platforms specializing in high growth sectors, including gaming and ecommerce. To mark the launch, a Chinese version of the PropellerAds website is now live, complete with full translation and a dedicated team of native-speaking experts to support Chinese-speaking clients. This has been complemented by an official WeChat channel where updates, insights, and company news updates will be shared directly with its Chinese-speaking audiences.
A quarter of people say they’ll buy their Christmas gifts on TikTok Shop this year, according to new data from Kantar, jumping to 45% of 16-34 year olds. TikTok Shop launched in the UK four years ago. Kantar’s new research suggests that consumers are increasingly looking forward to seeing Christmas activity from brands on social channels. One in four (25%) are eager to watch ads on YouTube, up five percentage points on 2024. As well as planning to shop on the platform, 18% of people say they’re looking forward to seeing festive ads on TikTok too. However, TV still dominates the golden quarter with– half of adults say they’re looking forward to seeing ads there, holding steady year on year. Radio has leapt in popularity this year too. 18% of people are excited to hear campaigns on the airwaves, up from 12% in 2024. Print cuts through for some and 13% are looking out for ads in magazines and newspapers.
