Research from Amazon Ads shows UK SMBs are benefitting from the positive impact of advertising as they look to expand both at home and internationally. The study found that nearly nine in 10 (86%) said that their current advertising strategy is successful in acquiring new customers while more than three quarters (76%) said it had helped them to expand their UK business. More than half (54%) said that advertising had helped them grow their business internationally within the last 12 months. This confidence in advertising led more than two in five (44%) UK SMBs to increase their spend on advertising during the past year, while 35% kept their budget the same year-on-year. The most common motivations for this increase in spend include to drive awareness of a new product or service (48%) or to improve customer awareness of their brand (51%). The most popular channels for SMB spend in advertising include social media advertising (65%), followed by online search (58%) and online display (40%). Looking ahead, more than a quarter (28%) of those sampled said they planned to spend on streaming TV advertising during the next 12 months. Of the 300 SMBs sampled, almost three quarters (71%) of those sampled said they currently spend on advertising, compared to 29% that do not spend advertising at all.
Commerce media company Criteo has announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft Advertising to bring Microsoft’s demand to Criteo’s network of 225 retailers. Microsoft Advertising also intends to work with Criteo as its preferred onsite media partner, extending Criteo’s monetisation technology to Microsoft Advertising’s retailer clients. Criteo and Microsoft intend to help move the industry forward by tapping into Criteo’s network of retailers and developing a more unified buying experience for global advertisers. Criteo is also exploring the potential to tap into Microsoft Advertising’s leadership in generative AI and innovations, such as its AI-powered Retail Media Creative Studio.
Spotify has built on ‘Outside Voice,’ an annotated playlist series that celebrates and amplifies BIPOC voices in the global creative community, with the launch of the ‘Outside Voice’ podcast. The podcast – hosted by award-winning Podcast Host, Producer, Writer, and Co-founder of the POC in Audio Directory, Zakiya Gibbons – spotlights BIPOC professionals who have built equity for businesses and personal brands through programmes that authentically elevate their communities. Created in partnership with Molten Heart, Outside Voice’s inaugural season will include guests such as, voice behind AI DJ and Head of Cultural Partnerships at Spotify, Xavier “X” Jernigan; Founder and CEO of CultureCon & The Creative Collective, Imani Ellis; Executive VP, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for Sony Music Group, Tiffany Warren; and the chart-topping R&B icon, EGOT winner, and senior coach on The Voice, John Legend. These voices will discuss their lived experiences that have influenced their professional journey and the work that has moved the needle for their companies.
Clear Channel UK has released a study focusing on diversity in advertising and inclusive shopping experiences. The study of 2,000 respondents conducted via OnePoll revealed that Gen Z is more inclusive than older generations, especially when it comes to race and disability representation in media. According to the research, Gen Z considers the following groups greatly underrepresented in advertising: race and ethnicity (42%), people with disabilities (40%), plus size models (36%), older age groups (30%), neurodiverse (30%) and LGBTQI+ (27%). In comparison, only one in four (24%) of all Brits think that race, disability (31%), plus size models (25%), older generations (35%) and LGBTQI+ (16%) are underrepresented in the media. Despite an estimated 15-20% of the population being neurodiverse, as well as rising awareness of the subject, only one in five (20%) Brits think that neurodiverse people need more representation. Women also seem to be more in favour of diversity than men. For example, 41% of women would like to see older ages represented more in advertising compared to just 29% of men. On average, roughly 10-15% more women than men expressed interest in seeing disabilities, plus-sized models and neurodiversity in advertising. People who identify as non-binary came out as the most inclusive when it comes to older ages, plus size models, race and ethnicity and neurodiversity with 50% of respondents preferring to see them being represented.
TikTok Shop has announced its ‘£1Million Club,’ an initiative aimed at helping new merchants hit £1 million in revenue on the platform. The £1Million Club brings five core benefits to new merchants including up to 90 days of 0% commission free sales, free storage and fulfilment, seller experience & support, seller training, and marketing.
Currys Connected Media, the retail media network of technology retailer Currys, now offers connected TV advertising through a partnership with Titan OS. Brands can now reach in-market consumers on 100,000s of Philips and JVC CTVs across the UK and Nordics. Viewers can be targeted with ad formats such as homepage banners and instream ads. Adverts served will be targeted using a combination of viewing data from Titan OS and consented data from Currys and its partners, underpinned by a consent management platform powered by OneTrust.
Football content and media company Footballco has released FC Precision, a cross-platform audience segmentation and targeting solution. FC Precision helps advertisers to target key audiences within Footballco’s portfolio of media brands, going beyond football to include interests such as travel, gaming, fashion, technology, and film. The solution – which combines data sources, such as Footballco ID, behavioural data, declared data, lookalike profiling, and survey feedback, with in-house customised segmentation – currently operates across the company’s GOAL publication, including its 17 localised editions, and its FC Player web-video player. The company plans to roll out the solutions across its other web and social brands, including Kooora (MENA), Voetbalzone (Netherlands), Spox (Germany), and Calciomercato (Italy).
A report from MTM, titled ‘The Great Unwokening: Have Hyper Femininity and Masculinity Divided a Generation?’, has found that Gen Z is ushering in a new era of alliance and shared acceptance. MTM’s report highlights a generational shift in how Gen Z views gender roles. The era of the “girlboss” ideal, where women should “do it all,” is fading as women seek alternative paths to fulfilment. On the other hand, some young men are embracing traditional expressions of masculinity in response to emerging anxieties. This has sparked a critical conversation about the future of feminism, with some young women even exploring the #tradwife lifestyle. The report predicts that Gen Z’s primary motivation will be finding a sense of shared belonging that transcends gender. This shift will manifest in several significant ways. With a lack of traditional male role models, young men may increasingly turn to peers for guidance and support. Women will create more inclusive spaces that welcome all genders, fostering a sense of community and belonging. Disillusioned by societal pressures, Gen Z will explore how to make parenthood a fulfilling choice for all genders along with anticipating that as white-collar careers become more uncertain, blue-collar jobs with a focus on physicality and stability may attract a new generation of women and men alike.
Customer data platform BlueConic has announced the acquisition of Jebbit, a first-party data capture and experience creation software for marketers. The combination has led to the creation of an operating system for customer data. With Jebbit, marketers are able to gather their own first-party data through a variety of interactive tools such as custom quizzes, surveys, and lookbooks. This data will be merged with BlueConic’s enterprise data to provide customer insights, which can be anonymised in BlueConic’s clean room for further segmentation or activation across channels. BlueConic and Jebbit will now serve a customer base of more than 500 worldwide.
Sportian, the sports division of Globant, has been named by Google as a Google Ad Manager (GAM) 360 Multiple Customer Management (MCM) Video Specialist, expanding the monetisation potential of sports content. Any Sportian client can now upgrade to a GAM 360 publisher account and receive added monetisation support. Features available include ad exchange availability, the unblocking of direct programmatic deals with sponsors and other direct advertisers or media agencies, server-side ad insertion, advanced user analytics, and increased quality of video ads. These benefits can be extended by Sportian to sports organisations of any size.
Mobile-first advertising company MobileFuse has announced a key partnership with iSpot.tv, a TV ad measurement company. Through the partnership, MobileFuse can account for additional CTV audiences that brands can’t access when running a linear-only strategy. iSpot measures linear TV impressions for 30,000+ brands using their ad catalog, airing data, and Smart TV panel. This data will be combined with MobileFuse’s CTV solutions to give advertisers a clearer picture of linear and CTV overlap, expressed as incremental reach.
A report from AdSapiens has found that senior marketers are operating under an “efficiency illusion,” with the average ad campaign taking more than five months and significant resources to execute, but failing to meet KPIs in 48% of cases. Marketers cite quality assurance (29%), format adaptation (27%), and language translation to be the three main limitations that stifle progress, while the main barriers to optimisation and improvement include a lack of resources (46%), a lack of technology (46%), and an absence of benchmark data (44%). Adding to their challenges, nearly half of marketers (47%) report spending a “moderate” amount of time on scaling campaigns across different formats and languages, while more than a quarter (27%) admit to this taking a “significant” amount of time. Despite the challenges and frustrations of marketers, the vast majority of them (92%) claim to be “satisfied” with the efficiency of their creative advertising process.
Kevel, an ad serving company, has announced a branded AI feature set. Kai (Kevel Artificial Intelligence) is a suite of AI and machine learning technologies aimed at enabling performance optimisation and driving relevancy, profitability, and revenue. With Kai, alongside its existing AI Audience and DecisionAPI products, Kevel has introduced two features: Forecast and Custom Relevancy. Forecast predicts inventory and campaign performance for existing and future campaigns using machine learning simulations to generate insights on both current and future ad flights. Custom Relevancy enables retailers to input their own AI/ML algorithms into Kevel Ad Server for custom targeting geared toward the individual performance of each network.
Technology and business process services firm Hexaware has launched a generative AI app for retailers in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. The app leverages Gen AI to automate product description creation, streamline bulk image uploads, and transform product visuals to enhance customer engagement and improve search engine optimisation. AWS customers can now purchase and manage Hexaware’s Gen AI App for Retailers directly within the AWS Marketplace.
