Clear Channel LaunchPAD, a leader in connecting brands to the programmatic ecosystem, is making significant strides with the expansion of its Business Development function across Europe. This move aligns with the anticipated growth of programmatic digital Out of Home (prOOH), projected to rise steadily through 2027, as reported in recent IAB Compass and State of the Nation reports.The newly expanded Business Development Team will focus on cultivating deeper relationships with key partners and clients, helping them leverage programmatic solutions that are now integral to today’s data-driven marketing environment. With its continued emphasis on programmatic integration, Clear Channel’s LaunchPAD has established itself as a vital component in growing the prOOH industry, driving innovation and empowering brands to execute more impactful campaigns across Europe. This is evidenced by recent integrations with Vistar Media in Sweden and Norway, and Place Exchange in the
Netherlands. These connections have expanded LaunchPAD’s reach, now encompassing nine business units across Europe, enhancing access to Clear Channel’s premium digital inventory and enabling programmatic advertising at scale. LaunchPAD now connects more than 4,700 advertising sites in the UK alone.
MobileFuse, one of the largest in-app, CTV, and DOOH advertising platforms, has announced a strategic partnership with Criteo (Nasdaq: CRTO), the commerce media company. The partnership strengthens MobileFuse’s retail media capabilities by providing current retail clients access to Criteo’s Commerce Audiences, granular audience segments built from real-time shopping signals. When Commerce Audiences are packaged with MobileFuse’s premium SDK-connected in-app supply, retail brands and advertisers are empowered with more effective audience discovery and engagement — ultimately driving conversions. Criteo’s Commerce Audiences consist of continuously refreshed, high-intent audiences actively navigating the web and ecommerce sites. These audiences predict the likelihood of what a consumer will buy based on their previous shopping behaviors and commerce signals, such as site activity, ad engagement, browsing, cart activity and more. This partnership enables retail brands and advertisers to connect with consumers at every stage of their buyer journey based on shopping interests and preferences across MobileFuse inventory, using real-world transaction and browsing signals from Criteo. This news showcases MobileFuse’s commitment to providing publishers and advertisers with innovative tools that drive results.
Shoppers are increasingly focused on value for money and smart spending this season, with nearly 1 in 4 planning to reduce their holiday expenditures, according to new research from eBay Advertising. The survey of 2,006 UK consumers who celebrate Christmas found that 17% will opt for pre-loved gifts this year rather than buying new items, as a means of reducing the environmental impact Of those planning to shop for pre-loved items, 81% say this is to save money – though consumers are also choosing pre-loved as a way to be more sustainable (68%) and to give unique and thoughtful gifts (67%). They are most likely to choose pre-loved gifts such as clothing (60%), jewellery (38%), computers/tablets (22%), or even garden and patio furniture (14%). As inflation prompts people to tighten their purse strings, UK consumers are not only planning to spend less this Christmas, but also spread the cost throughout the year. [2]25% say they intend to spend less on shopping and celebrations this year, after spending an average of £625.57 in 2023. 28% also say they will be starting their Christmas shopping and preparations earlier this year than last – with 15% who say they have already started – in efforts to keep spending manageable in the run-up to the festive period. Value for money and product quality are also considered to be more important for shoppers this year when deciding where and what to spend. 58% of Brits say good value for money is their biggest priority for Christmas shopping this year, increasing from 51% in 2023, while 42% say the quality of the products they buy is their biggest priority, increasing from 31% in 2023.
SXSW London has announced it will begin accepting submissions on 28 October for session proposals across its Conference, Music, and Screen verticals. Artists, performers, thought leaders, community representatives and industry professionals are encouraged to submit their bold and unexpected ideas for the inaugural 2025 Conference via the SXSW London submission portal. Integral to the SXSW London vision is the central philosophy of open submissions – creating an inclusive programme of diverse voices with public involvement. Submissions for the Conference Programme will close on 29 November, and then from 9-17 December the community will be able to view and vote for sessions they want to see in the vertical. Submissions for Music and Screen will close in January 2025. Along with submissions, SXSW London also announced its programming vision for the week-long festival, which was inspired by the key themes of convergence and unexpected discovery. The intersection of Conference, Music, Screen, and Visual Arts & Fashion provides a unique environment for imaginative and innovative content. Detailed programming will be announced in the coming months, surveying the convergence of all art forms at a grassroots level.
The emergence of generative AI, with its ability to analyse large volumes of data and automate complex tasks, is revolutionising the way marketers understand the needs of their audiences, create content and measure the impact of their actions, according to a new report by Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, “Modern Marketing Data Stack 2025: How Leading Marketers Are Thriving in a World Redefined by AI, Privacy and Data Gravity”. The third annual edition of Snowflake’s Modern Marketing Data Stack report identifies the technologies, tools, and platforms used by Snowflake customers to show how marketers and advertisers can leverage the Snowflake AI Data Cloud with accompanying partner solutions to serve existing customers and convert valuable prospects. Snowflake analysed usage patterns from a pool of approximately 9,800 customers as of April 2024, and identified 10 technology categories that organisations consider when building their marketing data stacks to capitalise on AI. The extensive report highlights three core factors throughout the industry that create a new normal where AI, data gravity, and privacy are intertwined. Marketers have never had so much information to help them create more innovative, personalised campaigns. At the same time, consumers, increasingly aware of the importance of their personal information and how it’s being used, demand transparency and control over its use. The ‘data gravity’ phenomenon underscores the need to unify and centralise data, breaking down the silos that limit an overview of the customer, and thus make the most of the potential of AI while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.
Research on Peak Season shopping – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) – in the UK released by leading digital payments company Checkout.com has revealed that bargain-hunting Brits are planning to expand beyond clothing, beauty and electronics for Black Friday Cyber Monday purchases, with new categories such as air travel and health gaining in popularity with younger generations. Air travel is forecast to see increased sales during BFCM this year, with 14% of the population intending to buy during peak season in 2024, up from just 8% saying they have purchased in peak season in the past (a 75% increase compared to previous years). Younger generations are driving this trend, with nearly a third (28%) of Gen Z (an 87% increase compared to previous years) and a quarter (24%) of Millennials intending to buy air travel during BFCM this year. A third (32%) of Millennials are looking to buy streaming services during BFCM deals – nearly double the UK average (17%). In fact, streaming is the most popular category for Millennials ahead of usual favourites clothing (31%), Beauty (30%) and electronics (29%). Healthcare and wellbeing is also high on UK consumers’ BFCM shopping lists, with 16% intending to buy products in this category, rising to nearly a third (29%) of Gen Z consumers. Clothing remains the most popular category, with a fifth (21%) UK adults planning to make a clothing purchase during BFCM, almost doubling to 40% of Gen Z adults intending to buy clothes during the peak sales.
System1, the marketing decision-making platform, has announced via its latest quarterly trading update that it has won over 160 new clients in the last half-year (H1 FY25), while revenues have continued to surge across the group’s platform, data sales and data-led consultancy divisions. Year-on-year, the group’s platform revenues in H1 FY25 increased by 53% to £16.7m, with data sales up 48% and data-led consultancy up 76%. In total, H1 FY25 revenues of £18.3m are up 38% above the same period last year. Much of this growth has been driven by expansion in the US, where platform revenues have more than doubled year-on-year, driven by the success of Test Your Ad. System1’s new clients include a global short-form video hosting platform, a leading global automotive business, and an international food delivery business.
Nexx360’s Programmatic Cloud for Video extends the benefits of the platform’s cloud-based programmatic advertising technology to video. Publishers can increase revenues, control ad auction dynamics, maximise ad delivery rates to increase page load speeds, and reduce their carbon footprint. The Nexx360 tool reflects that video advertising is a high-growth sector – digital video advertising expenditure in the UK reached almost £7 billion in 2023, up from £3.48 billion in 2020 – but that trading video programmatically can be challenging. The traditional waterfall model sees bid requests for inventory sent in sequence to multiple demand sources until the impression is filled. It is easy to implement but can introduce latency issues, reduce competition and limit opportunities to sell at the best price. The alternative, client-side header bidding, presents bid requests to different buyers at the same time, thereby helping to increase revenues through competition. However, it also suffers from latency problems as well as technical complications that prevent all relevant partners being included in a truly holistic auction; this means many publishers opt for the waterfall method for their video ad inventory because it is more straightforward to execute. The Nexx360 Programmatic Cloud for Video tackles all these issues; it bypasses both the waterfall system and classic header bidding, using instead one dedicated cloud-based mediation layer. This technique shakes off any technical glitches to produce a latency-free solution that enables publishers to integrate with multiple supply side platforms (SSPs) simultaneously without using significant processing power; this maximises revenues by increasing competition for their inventory without slowing down website performance, while also helping to reduce carbon emissions.
On Device today announced the launch of their latest whitepaper titled Unlocking the Power of Cross-Media Brand Advertising. The data for this study comes from 100 randomly selected brand lift studies undertaken for clients by On Device between June 2022 and June 2024. These studies contained over 320 separate media strands. There were a number of key findings from the analysis of cross-media campaigns including: Cross-Media Campaigns are more effective than Single Media Campaigns at moving brand lift metrics at all stages of the marketing funnel; Cross-media campaigns can create a Brand Lift multiplier effect resulting from improved performance from both the use of multiple media and a resulting boost in effectiveness of the individual media. The analysis also reveals a unique Brand Lift footprint for each media, showing the effectiveness in shifting consumers through each funnel stage. The data demonstrated that some channels excel at one or two metrics, and some are more consistent in their ability to drive uplifts throughout the marketing funnel. The increased effectiveness of Cross-Media Campaigns was interestingly also not related to the size of the media investment. The campaigns analysed had total media budgets ranging from £100,000 to £16 million. The findings showed that smaller advertisers also benefited from Cross-Media strategies, even with a modest budget.
Global affiliate marketing platform Awin announced its Conversion Protection Initiative (CPI) which is designed to significantly enhance affiliate tracking standards and counteract lost ad revenue from suboptimal tracking setups. In recent years, regulatory changes, ad blocker adoption, signal loss and data restrictions from browser and device-makers combining, have created increasingly hostile conditions for affiliate marketers to track and measure their activity accurately. Awin’s CPI aims to offset these issues by establishing a new precedent for deterministic tracking. Server-to-server (S2S) tracking and app tracking will now be expected as standard for all advertisers. For brands that can’t meet these standards by April 7th 2025, a new probabilistic tracking solution will be layered on top of the existing deterministic one to shore up these gaps. The new solution combines Awin’s own vast set of performance data and research alongside wider industry benchmark data to model a specific figure for each advertiser. This figure will be used to automatically apply a new set of probabilistic sales to their affiliate program with corresponding commissions then paid out to their affiliate partners. This will help to improve the quality of tracking in the affiliate space for everyone and ensure that the ad model remains fair and viable for all parties.
Shipster, a custom shipping integration platform, and Futura Retail Solutions, an advanced retail and warehouse management software, have announced a strategic partnership to target growing omni-channel retail markets. The alliance creates a robust end-to-end solution for Futura’s customers, boosting automation and flexibility with packing and shipping, and enhancing tracking, ensuring those final miles are faster, cheaper and more accurate. Futura, based in Reading, is a software provider specialising in the small to midsize lifestyle, gift and department store sectors. Oliver Bonas, Vinegar Hill, Morleys Department Store Group and Merlin Entertainment, which operates over 130 attractions worldwide, are among its biggest customers. Shipster, based in Manchester, connects online retailers, ecommerce warehouses and distributors with over 100 leading couriers. Its offering is disrupting the ecommerce shipping space, giving growing companies an affordable, customisable and flexible alternative to existing products. By bringing together their offering, Futura and Shipster will be well positioned to capitalise on the significant growth of retail, e-commerce and logistics markets.
adCAPTCHA, a new specialist security verification platform, has launched with £1m funding to tackle the ‘bots epidemic’ and protect organisations against cyber fraud. The London-based company, founded by industry veteran and entrepreneur Alfie Scarborough, equips organisations with the capability to identify and block bots through its sophisticated in-house developed patent-pending human verification technology. adCAPTCHA’s layered security solution leverages the infinite variation and constant change of media, generates billions of unique pathways, as well as behavioural analytics capabilities. It is estimated that 50 per cent of global web traffic is made up of bots, with leading brands losing millions every day due to fraudulent views and impressions from non-existent customers. The platform has been crafted to allow marketers and branding professionals to protect against online fraud, with bot-enabled false impressions repeatedly draining marketing budgets and resources. adCAPTCHA also allows brands to optimise the human verification process for advertising and cross-selling new products and services. The platform’s APIs also provide users with the ability to integrate into CMS and media libraries.
Ryff, the pioneer of in-scene advertising (ISA) and virtual product placement (VPP), has announced a new partnership with SoFast. Leveraging Ryff’s innovative Spheera platform, SoFast can now deliver nonintrusive, contextually relevant, brand-safe placements across all its 700 channels on 170 global streaming platforms, including premium movies, sports, news, lifestyle, kids, and more, from FAST, AVOD and SVOD. SoFast’s global distribution and hybrid approach ensures maximum visibility for advertisers, allowing for targeted placements across both free, ad-supported TV and subscription models. This creates a customized advertising experience, reaching viewers in diverse regions and languages and across multiple demographics. In an era where 66% of streaming viewers skip ads whenever possible, Ryff and SoFast provide a global solution that integrates targeted brand placements directly into content.
British heritage brand Denby Pottery has launched direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce capabilities into 29 European markets, in partnership with ESW, ending years of post-Brexit trading challenges. Denby Pottery prides itself on the strength and craftsmanship of its stoneware, which it has made on-site in Derbyshire, England, for more than 200 years. During the height of the industrial revolution, a Derbyshire potter pioneered and patented new methods for firing the strong, local clay. Those skills and attention to detail are still alive today, with each piece of Denby passing through at least 20 pairs of hands before getting the Denby quality stamp, preserving important traditional hand-crafting techniques and local craftsmanship. Denby Pottery’s provenance, unique brand story, and catalogue of hand-crafted premium products – which includes timeless English heritage collections alongside more contemporary ranges – attract a large and loyal customer base. From pottery collectors to British ex-pats who are familiar with the brand, to younger customers who recognise its Halo cup from the Netflix show Squid Game, Denby’s key markets include South Korea, China, India, United States and Europe which, pre-Brexit, accounted for a sizable proportion of revenue. However, since Britain’s exit from the European single market in 2021, Denby had been challenged by the complexity of meeting new regulations required to get its products into the Eurozone. The result was a poor customer experience, increased delivery costs and reduced revenue after the brand had to pull out of key European markets, including Spain which had been a strong market for Denby Pottery.
SoftwareOne Holding AG, a leading global software and cloud solutions provider, has launched a SoftwareOne Cloud Competency Centre in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Serving businesses across Southeast Asia, this new centre will provide clients with local expertise and support in AWS cloud services, including generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that provides a single API to access and utilise high-performing foundation model from leading AI companies, and Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered assistant for business and developers, to drive digital transformation. By establishing the SoftwareOne Cloud Competency Centre in Malaysia, SoftwareOne further expands its global delivery network across fast-growing technology markets to help local businesses innovate with the latest technology advancements. The SoftwareOne Cloud Competency Centre opening follows AWS’s own recent announcement of cloud infrastructure expansion in Malaysia. The SoftwareOne Cloud Competency Centre experts will guide clients in implementing the SoftwareOne Landing Zone for AWS, a comprehensive pre-configured and automated framework that provides a foundation for building a secure, multi-account AWS environment. Featuring cloud infrastructure, policies, and guardrails, including centrally managed services, it is designed to help organisations quickly set up a secure and scalable environment with a consistent set of AWS best practices.
