Channel 4, ITV and Sky, in collaboration with Comcast Advertising, have announced their intent to launch a groundbreaking advertising marketplace that will allow easy access to a premium on demand and streaming inventory through a single campaign for the very first time. Building on the rich heritage of collaboration between the broadcasters, the marketplace, which is set to launch in 2026, will be powered by Comcast’s Universal Ads platform and FreeWheel’s technology. The broadcasters are also in discussions to simplify the purchase of addressable inventory for media agencies. This includes exploring the potential of a joint agency-facing solution, based on ITV’s Planet V technology.
Blis has launched Blis AI, a new AI-powered planning tool that turns a brief into qualified audiences ready for omnichannel activation without relying on identifiers. The product is designed to streamline the most manual, time-consuming part of campaign planning. Using natural language inputs, Blis AI translates a simple campaign brief into up to three ready-to-activate audience recommendations, each based on a dynamically assembled range of audience inputs and backed by transparent rationale. Built into Blis’ existing Audience Explorer platform, the tool draws on the company’s robust location, lifestyle, purchase, and behavioural data to surface audience combinations that are often overlooked in traditional workflows. The release of Blis AI marks the company’s most significant product launch since its acquisition by T-Mobile Advertising Solutions (T-Ads), the advertising division of T-Mobile that now also includes Vistar Media.
J Sainsbury plc’s (Sainsbury’s) loyalty, insights and retail media business, Nectar360, has announced the upcoming launch of a new unified retail media platform: Nectar360 Pollen. Designed to solve for the industry’s biggest pain points and to support Nectar360’s mission to create valuable relationships between customers and their favourite brands. Built in-house by Sainsbury’s and Nectar360 and co-created with partner brands and agencies, the proprietary platform is due to launch in late 2025 and will further advance Nectar360’s ambition to be a world-class leader in the growing retail media industry. It combines audience insights, media planning and activation, optimisation and measurement into one single platform.
New YouGov research shows the majority (95%) of Gen Z wouldn’t describe themselves as ‘impulsive’ when it comes to shopping, with ‘budget conscious’ (25%) and ‘thoughtful and considered’ (20%) coming out top – contradicting the view that they are a generation of shoppers driving fast fashion and frictionless consumption. The research commissioned by Snapchat UK and Portas Agency, explored the shopping habits of 2,000 Gen Z, to help spark change amongst UK retailers facing declining growth. It found Gen Z go through a period of discovery that blends real and online retail experiences – however, when they’re ready, three quarters (76%) want to buy ‘exactly what they want, when they want, as soon as possible’ – a digitally-native generation who’ve grown up with a world ‘on-demand’. The research also explored how Gen Z ‘hang out at the mall’ with 58% opting to shop as a form of entertainment, highlighting the opportunity for brands to resonate on a deeper level by injecting innovative ways for Gen Z to socialise within their retail spaces.
Multiply Media Group (MMG) has announced a strategic landmark long-term partnership with Wildstone, one of the world’s largest owners of outdoor media infrastructure with a portfolio of over 5,400 panels. This partnership gives MMG, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company Multiply Group (ADX: MULTIPLY), exclusive rights to manage and operate a portfolio of premium digital out of home (DOOH) sites in central London – marking a significant step in the group’s strategy to create a borderless, tech-enabled media powerhouse. These assets will be commercialised and operated by BackLite Media, a subsidiary of MMG. The first operational asset taken over is the Wandsworth Roundabout, which was among 13 high-traffic sites acquired by Wildstone from Transport for London (TfL) earlier this year. With London as a strategic gateway into Europe, MMG is actively exploring further market entries in other global cities.
Matt Ovenden, a serial entrepreneur best known for founding Borrow A Boat (the UK’s leading boating platform, aka “the Airbnb of boats”) has set sail on a new venture, turning his attention to wine with the launch of an all-new AI-powered digital wine platform: “The Wine Engine”. Recent research has found that people often find buying wine a stressful experience due to factors such as not being able to identify a good bottle from a bad one, or being bewildered by wine jargon. The Wine Engine is a digital platform which will feature a wide range of wines from all of the well-known wine regions, including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rioja, Champagne, and Tuscany, alongside a range of exotic and rarer wines, including wines from China, Brazil, Georgia, Romania and Greece, plus wines direct from growers, including passionate and artisan growers.
New online engagement data highlights the Glastonbury 2025 acts drawing the most audience interest, giving marketers a clear view on where to focus their campaigns. The data, from adtech firm Quantcast, reveals Olivia Rodrigo leads the way at a staggering 52.7 million interactions, just edging out Rod Stewart with 51.6 million. Charli XCX follows with 15.4 million, having doubled her audience engagement since the festival lineup announcement, the highest percentage growth of any headliner. Notably, Jorja Smith, performing at Woodsies, ranks as the third most-engaged act with 43.9 million interactions after Olivia Rodrigo and Rod Stewart – yet she is not slated to headline the Pyramid Stage, raising questions about lineup placement. Some headliners such as Loyle Carner (3.59m) and The Prodigy (2.31m), both on the Other Stage, have lower engagement than several non-headliners, including Weezer (12.3M). What’s more, younger Gen Z headliners drive higher engagement overall, though legacy stars such as Rod Stewart and Neil Young (12.1m) still secure strong attention, proving old favourites still pack a punch.
Marketing Intelligence Platform Supermetrics has abnnounced the acquisition of Relay42, a leading, real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP). The acquisition positions Supermetrics’ as the only Marketing Intelligence Platform to unify data integration, analysis and activation into one marketer-friendly solution. Founded in 2010, Relay42’s enterprise-grade CDP unifies customer data and enables dynamic audience building, targeting and personalized experiences across digital and offline channels, including email, web, apps and programmatic advertising. Customers of both platforms will soon see integrated features, including AI Agent–powered workflows that automate data analysis, journey optimization and activation across channels.
According to new research from digital analytics platform, Quantum Metric, quality customer support is more important than ever, as over half (57%) of Brits have abandoned purchases due to poor or non-existent assistance. Further, the findings reveal growing frustration with automated tools, as 42% of people admit they’re ruder to AI chatbots than they would be to a human. The new report, ‘The support struggle: Bridging the digital divide’ explores Brits’ differing preferences around virtual and in-person customer support and the nation’s top customer service pain points. When seeking virtual support, frustrations with AI and tech-powered customer support are clear, with 40% of Brits stating they would be willing to pay a monthly fee for human interaction, instead of using self-service and AI tools. What’s more, 54% feel their issues are only properly resolved when they speak to a real person.
Tubi, Fox Corporation’s ad-supported streaming service, today announced it has expanded upon its content offering in the UK with over a thousand movies and TV episodes added to its free video-on-demand library. With recently executed library content deals with global studios AMC Networks, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal (NBCU), New Regency and Sony Pictures Entertainment – Tubi viewers in the UK will have access to even more fan favourite movies across key performing genres such as action, thriller, comedy, and horror. Tubi launched in the UK in July of 2024 with 20,000, movies and TV episodes and has since expanded its offering for viewers with over 40,000 movies and TV episodes currently available in the UK.
