IAB UK has announced the formation of a new Measurement Advisory Board, bringing together senior representatives from some of the most influential companies in digital advertising, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok, to drive a cross-industry push towards more transparent, consistent and effective digital measurement. The launch of the Board follows independent external research commissioned by IAB UK, which highlights significant challenges across the current measurement landscape. Findings show a notable disparity in knowledge and measurement maturity across organisations, a lack of standardisation in methodology, and a call for more transparency across all digital channels. These issues are felt most acutely by publishers, who often sit within broader multichannel plans but lack access to the holistic measurement frameworks brands require. According to the research, the industry’s continued reliance on click-based metrics, combined with growing platform complexity and limited visibility into proprietary measurement systems, is undermining trust and inhibiting progress. IAB UK is calling on the industry to work collectively to address these problems, warning that meaningful improvement will only happen through shared commitment and open collaboration.
Displayce, a specialist technology suite for Out-of-Home, has announced a collaboration with TikTok as enabler of the Out of Phone (OOP) solution. Through this collaboration, Displayce helps bring TikTok campaigns to life beyond mobile screens and into the real world. The partnership is active across Europe. TikTok’s Out of Phone initiative extends the platform’s creative energy and entertainment beyond the mobile experience, allowing audiences to discover the content they love outside the phone, in the physical world. The partnership enables campaigns to appear on premium, high-visibility DOOH screens, like JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor or Bauer Media, located in key urban areas, high-traffic zones, and spectacular screens at landmark locations, ensuring strong visibility and impact. It also blends full motion creative production with strong delivery expertise, bringing TikTok’s unique storytelling to life on urban screens.
Comedian, writer and broadcaster Maisie Adam will appear as a special guest speaker at MAD//North 2026 when the unique marketing and creativity festival returns to Manchester next month on 25-26 February. Taking place at Aviva Studios alongside additional venues across Manchester’s St John’s creative district, the award-winning festival will bring together thousands of marketers, creatives, founders and cultural leaders for two days of talks, experiences, conversations and, with Maisie, some humour. Across two days, attendees can expect headline talks, workshops, live experiences and networking that blend marketing, culture and creativity in a way that feels distinctly northern. Tickets are available now.
Arcade, the management company behind the global phenomenon The Sidemen, and creator funding company, Viewture, have launched Creator Access in EMEA, enabling direct ad sales alongside YouTube content. Creator Access offers another commercial route for brands seeking to engage high-quality creator content. Through Creator Access’s integration with YouTube, brands and advertisers will be able to benefit from direct deals on popular creator content from Creator Access’s talent roster, securing reserved delivery of video ads to their videos. Creator Access introduces incremental ways for leading creators to maximise commercial value as the creator economy rapidly expands and matures, marking an important step in Arcade’s ambition to build the leading creator-led platform across content, community and consumer sectors.
Anonymised, an AI data platform that helps publishers and advertisers understand, reach and measure incremental audiences for better marketing outcomes, has announced the launch of Audience Lift, a new product that transforms first-party data into intelligent, high-performance audiences across social and search platforms. The new data product enables advertisers to move beyond traditional action-based seed audiences by enriching first-party data with live interest and intent signals. Using Anonymised’s privacy-by-design, on-device technology, Audience Lift creates multiple people-based audiences that unlock smarter lookalikes and diversified targeting. The solution transforms static campaigns into dynamic, self-optimising audience strategies that Anonymised say can drive performance uplifts of 30-40% across platforms such as Meta and Google Ads.
More than half of UK households (59%) are worried about streaming annual price increases according to the latest EY Decoding the Digital Home Study. The survey of 2000 UK consumers, which reviews attitudes towards technology, media and telecoms (TMT) found that most consumers believe streaming platform price hikes (65%) are unfair and unreasonable. Across all markets, streaming services continue to gain traction. The 1.8 billion paid monthly subscriptions worldwide are set to top 2 billion by 2029, although growth rates are set to flatten. Against this backdrop, competition remains intense. Households often subscribe to multiple paid platforms, but more than one-third (35%) of UK survey respondents say they are interested in reducing how many platforms they pay for. In 2025, 34% of households paying for streaming services have either cancelled or plan to cancel a service, marginally down from 35% last year. Making savings still leads as a driver of cancellation, but other reasons are becoming more prominent. These include platforms lacking content they previously carried (11%) and, as choice continues to broaden, preference for other platforms (10%).
The IPA has launched IPAi Forum, a new, free thought-leadership platform designed to help advertising agencies navigate the fast-moving and increasingly complex world of Generative AI and practical AI deployment. IPAi Forum cuts through the AI hype to provide grounded, real-world insight into where AI is adding genuine value, how agencies are deploying it today and what pitfalls to avoid. It also explores what comes next. Alongside this, the Forum supports agencies in building the skills and capabilities the industry needs, with practical guidance on training, legal and regulatory considerations, and answers to the questions people don’t always feel comfortable asking about AI. Issue 1 of IPAi Forum, ‘AI as a creative collaborator – From hype to hands-on’, is out now.
Twilio, , the customer engagement platform, and AEG, the sports and live entertainment company, are expanding their relationship with the launch of a new strategic, multi-year partnership. The deal will see Twilio’s customer engagement technology implemented by Crypto.com Arena, the LA Kings, and AXS – AEG’s global ticketing platform – to create more streamlined and elevated customer communication from ticket purchase, to in-venue experience, and beyond. The agreement, brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, represents a significant expansion of Twilio’s presence in pro-sports and live entertainment, marking its first partnership with both a major venue, NHL team, and ticketing platform. As part of the partnership, Twilio will hold key designations across AEG’s flagship properties, including Founding Partner of Crypto.com Arena, a signature category-exclusive designation; official away helmet partner of the LA Kings; and a media partner across AXS, AEG’s global ticketing platform that connects millions of fans to live events worldwide.
Mediaocean, a software and AI partner for omnichannel advertising, has released its 2026 H1 Advertising Outlook Report, revealing how marketers are entering 2026 with renewed confidence in digital media investment even as marketers face growing pressure to turn AI enthusiasm into real-world execution. Based on insights from hundreds of marketers, the bi-annual report shows AI evolving from an experimental capability into a core force shaping modern advertising, while also exposing critical gaps in how systems, data, and workflows are connected. For the third consecutive period, Gen AI ranks as the most important consumer trend, cited by 70% of marketers, underscoring its growing influence on how people discover content, engage with brands, and make decisions. While enthusiasm for AI remains high, adoption patterns reveal a steep maturity curve. Even though 43% of marketers are using AI for data analysis and 43% for market research, adoption drops as AI moves closer to execution, with 33% using AI for creative development and only 19% for campaign orchestration, highlighting a gap between insight and impact.
SuperAwesome, a leader in data, technology, and services for safely engaging Gen Alpha and Gen Z, has released new research based on nearly 2,000 kids and teens aged 4–18 across the US and UK. Titled ‘From Discovery to Devotion: The Evolution of Gen Alpha & Z Fandoms’, it reveals how brands that tap into fandom dynamics to enter youth culture can sustain relevance and drive impact. The importance of fandoms in young people’s lives is now well established. SuperAwesome’s research found that almost 90% of 4–18-year-olds are connected to a fandom. 56% engage daily, and 80% have spent money on fandoms in the past three months, with nearly 30% spending over $100 / £100. The number one job for any fandom today is to generate conversation. The research reveals that continuous talkability is critical for brands and IPs to have success in the modern fandom lifecycle: brands must build or become interwoven with rich lore and backstories that fans can contribute to, debate, and remix.
Mercurius Media Capital (MMC), the first U.S.-based media-for-equity venture fund, today announced that First Media, an award-winning digital media company, has joined the fund as a Limited Partner. The addition reflects MMC’s continued expansion of its media-for-equity offering, deepening its ability to support its portfolio companies with growth capital. Through the partnership, MMC’s portfolio companies gain access to First Media’s owned consumer audiences across digital and social platforms, as well as television and out-of-home channels. Portfolio companies can also leverage First Media’s content-to-commerce capabilities, including shoppable content, performance marketing, and affiliate programs, enabling a direct path from product discovery to purchase. First Media reaches more than 250 million engaged followers globally through its owned brands, including So Yummy, Blossom, Blusher, and BabyFirst, delivering over a billion monthly video views across platforms.
Omnichannel advertising platform Azerion has launchedMind Map is a new media planning tool that enables advertisers to target audiences when they are most likely to engage. The new tool is based on understanding how people feel and what they are doing when exposed to media on different channels, so that campaigns can be designed to reach them when they are most cognitively and emotionally receptive. Mind Map is rooted in Meaningful Connections, an initiative launched by Mindshare – with Azerion and Differentology then joining as contributing partners – that explores when, where and why people are most receptive to advertising. The first study defined 16 consumer mindsets (see note 1) and quantified their importance in determining when people are most receptive to advertising; the most recent project expands the findings to produce a metric that enables precise mindset-based targeting and fine-tuned channel strategies. Full details of the most recent research are in Azerion’s Meaningful Connections white paper, which is free to access and available to download here.
BritBox, the leading streaming service for British television in North America, Australia and the Nordics, has unveiled a refined new brand identity designed in partnership with creative company Sibling Rivalry. Building on BritBox’s existing equity and profitable position in the market, Sibling Rivalry’s brief was to evolve, rather than reinvent, the brand for today’s viewer. The team audited years of organic growth and informal brand use, then codified a coherent system spanning visual identity, motion, tone of voice, and sonic branding, anchored in the idea of a British speciality streamer bringing a curated eye and fresh perspective to an increasingly crowded streaming landscape.
GWI, a global insights company, has launched Agent Spark, an always-on insights agent now integrated into leading AI platforms, including ChatGPT and Claude. Designed for a world where AI has become the default interface for work, Agent Spark embeds trusted, human-grounded insights directly into the tools decision-makers already use, enabling users to analyse more than 35 billion data points in seconds. Powered by GWI’s proprietary dataset built from billions of verified responses across 50+ countries, Agent Spark enables users to explore audiences, behaviours, and cultural trends using natural language processing.
