Global in-game audio advertising platform Odeeo has closed a strategic funding round of over USD $5M from both existing and new investors. Atinum Investments, one of Korea’s largest early stage investment funds, joins existing Odeeo investors Play Ventures and Anton Gauffin to help supercharge Odeeo’s global expansion. This strategic $5M investment is timed to coincide with Odeeo’s expansion in key markets, primarily in North America, where Odeeo is growing its US team ad operations: Co-Founder and President Elad Stern has relocated from Tel Aviv to New York to join VP Marketing Dan Feldstein, Commercial Lead James Kowan and Agency Sales Lead Kathleen Verdugo. This news comes hot off the heels of Odeeo’s announced expansion into MENA through a strategic partnership with Evolution Media Group. Odeeo will also partner with Atinum on greater presence in Asian territories including Korea and Vietnam in addition to existing partnerships in Japan.
Kantar, the world’s leading marketing insights and analytics company, has found that marketer confidence in X (formerly known as Twitter) declined significantly in the past year, driven by brand safety concerns and poor perceptions around innovation and trust. The findings are included in Kantar’s Media Reactions 2024 report, an annual study exploring the evolving media landscape. The study, based on interviews with c.18,000 consumers in 27 markets and 1,000 senior marketers globally, also reports that YouTube remains the ad platform marketers most prefer, while, for consumers, Amazon and TikTok share the top spot. Kantar’s findings reveal that a net 26% of marketers have reported plans to reduce ad spend on X in 2025, the biggest recorded pullback from any major global ad platform. Marketers’ trust in adverts on X, historically low, has decreased further under Elon Musk’s leadership, from 22% in 2022 to 12% in 2024. Only 4% of marketers think adverts on X provide brand safety (in contrast to Google, which comes top for brand safety at 39%). X scores outside of the global top ten for trust and for the perception of how innovative advertising on the platform is. This contrasts with TikTok, the most innovative advertising publisher for the fifth consecutive year, and YouTube, the most trusted.
Evolve, a provider of Managed Network Solutions and IT services, has announced its pivotal role in Asda’s strategic move towards becoming Britain’s second-largest grocer. Following Asda’s acquisition of 116 petrol forecourt sites from the Co-op in 2022 in a £600 million deal, the supermarket giant faced the challenge of delivering a seamless and efficient user experience at these new locations. To meet this goal, Asda required state-of-the-art technology and dependable managed connectivity services. Evolve stepped in to provide the essential infrastructure, ensuring that consumers can enjoy a broad range of products and services conveniently and reliably. Fully managed network solutions, including SD-WAN, connectivity, and guest Wi-Fi, as well as connectivity to third parties such as POS vendors and fuel tank polling, are essential for businesses in the forecourt sector to operate efficiently and deliver a seamless customer experience.
Deliveroo has its new global brand platform ‘Now Just Got Even Better’, with the first campaign focusing on Deliveroo Plus, the company’s loyalty programme. Developed with agency of record, Pablo London, the new platform leverages brand codes and visual devices to build creative consistency and recall across all consumer touchpoints, both on and off the app. The new global platform, inspired by insights from the UK, France and UAE, is based on the idea that Deliveroo enhances every moment, even great ones. Whether it’s dinner with family, cooking at home, DIY at the weekend, or self-care – Deliveroo is there to help you enhance the moment – in the moment – by bringing the neighbourhood to your door. This launch follows Deliveroo’s expansion beyond food and groceries into retail, with several major retailers joining the platform. The first campaign under the new platform will be the first time Deliveroo has featured the Plus loyalty programme ATL. The campaign follows significant updates to the Plus programme this year as Deliveroo seeks to become a Plus-first business by 2026, including 10% credit back on restaurant orders over £30 on Plus Gold, and a new invite-only tier, Plus Diamond. The Plus campaign will be brought to life across channels, including OOH and digital, created by Pablo London, Deliveroo Creative Studio and social-first content created by Vidsy and Coolr and media planning by Initiative London. Following the UK launch, the campaign will be rolled out across Europe over the coming months.
The first exhibition to showcase artists from the UK public relations (PR) industry, ‘The Art of PR’, will open to the public for a week in London this November. The exhibition, taking place at The Coningsby Gallery in the heart of Fitzrovia, London, features works from PRs who have launched successful art careers including Tonye Ekine, ROSL 2024 Rising Star and Venice Biennale Fellow, and Stella Tooth, a professional portraitist specialising in musicians. It also presents emerging artists from within the PR industry including Nadia Padayachy, Simon Moore, Joe Thomas, Ruby Quince, Emily Rose Halladay, Justine Bower, Francesca Hales, Alexandra Heybourne and Ade Lee. This diverse and vibrant exhibition, open to the public and free to view, will show a collection of original contemporary works in various media including oils, watercolours, pencil, digital, print design and photography. The exhibition will also feature live portrait drawings in the gallery by artist and PR Joe Thomas. The exhibition has been organised by Ade Lee and supported by brand and communications agency Boldspace. The free exhibition is open to the public between 18th and 23rd November 2024 at The Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Steet, London. Artworks will be available for sale. A Private View event will take place Tuesday 19th November 5.30pm – 9pm.
Ella d’Amato, the former interim CEO of marketplace Notonthehighstreet.com has co-founded i love it, a social commerce platform that will reward users for their recommendations.i love it aims to ‘rewrite commerce for good’, by creating a recommendation-led video and image shopping app that rewards users for their genuine product endorsements. The platform is curated by AI but driven by authentic, passion-fueled recommendations from regular people so, when any users recommend products to their friends, family or even followers, they earn. Currently in beta mode, i love it is focusing on the fitness space, allowing users to shop, share recommendations, and earn. The platform already boasts over 10,000 products, with plans to expand into other passion areas in the future. The founding UK team brings together leading industry expertise from a mix of retail, ecommerce, media and social companies; including TikTok Shop, LTK, Klarna, Stylist and Omnicom – all looking to revolutionise the market. Investment to date has concentrated on building a scalable web 3 platform that blends human curation with the power of AI to personalise and scale trusted recommendations at scale. This approach aims to create an ecosystem of pure positivity, where great products naturally rise to the top based on genuine user endorsements.
