UK advertising investment reaches £11.7bn in first quarter of 2026
The Advertising Association and WARC have reported that UK advertising investment increased 9.3% year on year to £11.7 billion during the first quarter of 2026.
The latest Advertising Expenditure Report found strong growth across retail media, digital out of home, social media and addressable TV. Search remained the largest advertising category, attracting £4.6 billion of investment during the quarter.
The organisations forecast total UK advertising spend will reach £50.5 billion in 2026, rising to £53.5 billion in 2027.
VIOOH expands Brazilian DOOH inventory through b.drops partnership
VIOOH has partnered with b.drops to make the Brazilian digital out-of-home network available through programmatic buying.
The agreement provides advertisers with access to 7,680 digital screens across gyms, beauty salons and barber shops in more than 120 Brazilian cities, representing around 165 million monthly impressions.
Deliveroo Media opens Order Tracker advertising to programmatic buyers
Deliveroo Media has launched programmatic advertising on its Order Tracker page through Google Ad Manager.
Advertisers can now buy the inventory through Programmatic Guaranteed deals using demand-side platforms including Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP. The placement is available in the UK, France, Italy and the UAE.
Deliveroo Media also plans to introduce first-party audience targeting and contextual “Cuisine Signals” for programmatic campaigns later this year.
esbconnect adds four brands to Optivo platform
esbconnect has signed four new customers for its Optivo email retargeting platform: Go Ape, Simba, Broadband Genie and Costway.
The platform is designed to help brands re-engage website visitors who have not logged into an account or joined a CRM database by matching opted-in email addresses with anonymous site visitors.
StackAdapt launches economic impact measurement tool
StackAdapt has introduced an in-platform Economic Impact Report designed to measure the commercial impact of advertising campaigns while they are running.
Powered by transaction data from Affinity Solutions, the reporting tool links media exposure with aggregated consumer spending data to measure visitor spend, return on ad spend, transaction volumes and origin markets.
The feature is aimed primarily at travel marketers, tourism organisations and brands with location-based marketing objectives.
Social media generates business for most UK SMEs, study finds
Markel Direct has published research suggesting that social media has become an important source of new business for UK SMEs and tradespeople.
A survey of 501 businesses found that 84% generate at least some work through social media, while 59% said their social media activity had helped increase sales or generate leads. The study also found that 38% pay for social media advertising and that most respondents spend time creating content each week.
The research also highlighted potential legal risks. Fewer than four in 10 respondents said they had insurance covering issues such as copyright infringement or breaches of confidentiality linked to social media activity, while 19% said they do not always obtain client permission before sharing completed work online.
Research finds marketers spending more time reacting than planning
Optimizely has published research suggesting many UK marketers are spending more time responding to short-term demands than developing long-term strategy.
Its survey of 100 UK marketers found that 74% believe the industry is operating in “survival mode”, while 64% said they spend most of their time reacting to immediate requests. More than half also reported having insufficient time to evaluate campaign performance before moving on to the next project.
Respondents identified integrated marketing platforms, workflow automation and closer integration between AI and marketing tools as the changes most likely to improve productivity.
Assertive Yield signs multi-year agreement with Trusted Media Brands
Assertive Yield has agreed a multi-year partnership with Trusted Media Brands to support the publisher’s programmatic advertising operations.
The agreement includes deployment of Assertive Yield’s monetisation platform across Trusted Media Brands’ portfolio, which includes Reader’s Digest, Taste of Home, Family Handyman and The Pet Collective.
The companies said the project includes infrastructure consolidation, advertising operations tools and machine learning-based optimisation designed to support programmatic revenue management.
AI-generated audio campaign boosts awareness for Wella haircare brand
Azerion has released results from an audio advertising campaign delivered with Digitas for Wella brand Nioxin Pro Clinical.
Using AI-generated dynamic creative, the campaign produced 100 versions of the audio advertisement tailored to different audience groups and locations. According to a brand lift study, 70% of listeners said they had taken, or intended to take, action after hearing the campaign, while awareness and ad recall also increased among the target audience.
The campaign directed consumers either to nearby Boots stores or online retailers depending on their location, using dynamic creative optimisation to tailor messaging.
