Unilever’s Beauty & Wellbeing business has partnered with The Brandtech Group to build and scale generative AI infrastructure. The collaboration establishes a genAI operating model and governance system to build a content supply chain powered by AI. At the heart of the partnership is Unilever’s Beauty AI Studio, a content engine that leverages Brandtech’s Pencil Pro platform for content generation and optimisation. Unilever has also created a proprietary AI governance platform that centralises and structures brand data for use across the AI ecosystem. Brand DNAi doesn’t create assets itself. Instead, it serves as a data pool that genAI tools can draw from during the creative process.
Bauer Media Outdoor (BMO) has announced the launch of Roadblock, a new media proposition that allows brands to achieve total, uninterrupted share of voice across roadside digital out-of-home screens nationwide. For the launch, BMO joined forces with Heineken to display their latest Birra Moretti campaign across more than 2,000 screens on Saturday 5 July. The campaign spanned the breadth of the UK – from Scotland to the South West – covering more than 100 major cities and towns, including Aberdeen, Leeds, Norwich, Cardiff, Plymouth, Southampton, London, and everywhere in between.
A new study from the IPA and Financial Times has found that trust is a core strategic asset that directly drives profit, customer acquisition, brand strength and long-term success for businesses. The ‘Bridging the Trust Gap’ report draws on insights from over 750 global B2B decision-makers who are part of the FT reader panel. The research found that more than two-thirds of B2B decision-makers feel trust in business has become more important, and over half believe it has become much more important. Companies which measure trust as a board-level KPI are believed to be over three times more likely to report stronger profits than those that don’t – but only 22% of companies have trust as a board KPI. Trust is now the second most powerful metric (after product or service quality) for driving key business outcomes such as profit, market share, and acquisition – up from sixth place 20 years ago. Brands that advertise in trusted media environments see a measurable halo effect, with decision-makers more likely to believe those brands will “deliver on their promises.” Meanwhile, 60% of people are more likely to trust a brand if its ads appear in “gatekeeper” media, such as business newsbrands, rather than brands and platforms with user-generated content. 69% of business decision-makers disagreed with the statement that “Trusting a piece of technology is the same as trusting a human”, and only 9% trust generative AI.
Independent media group Dazed Media has announced the Android expansion of its creative network, the Dazed Club app. Officially launching on Google Play, the platform has been opened up to Android users globally for the first time. Since launching on iOS in 2024, the app has welcomed a community of over 15,000 creatives. The aim of the app is to provide a community for emerging creative talent, while functioning as a talent pool for new hires, a collaboration hub, and a direct line into the creative industries.
Origin, ISBA’s cross-media measurement solution, has moved into its expanded availability (EA) phase following the completion of its beta trials incorporating linear TV, online video, and online display. These trials involved over thirty of the UK’s largest advertisers and their agency partners. The EA release will initially allow users to produce deduplicated reach and frequency reports across YouTube and linear TV. Sky is amongst the first group of new advertisers to sign up. According to ISBA, the solution will continue develop in the remainder of this year and beyond, with new measurement features, longer campaign time windows, and additional measurement scope, including the addition of Meta, TikTok and Amazon inventory, as well as functional and usability improvements. In time, the promise is of advanced reporting, planning services, and measurement of outcomes-based metrics.
Supply-side platform TripleLift has released the holiday season edition of the ‘The Creative Edge in Retail Media’ guide, revealing that just under a half of UK marketers initiate their Q4 retail media off-site planning between May and July. Christmas campaign execution is challenged by both strategic and resource-based constraints, with having limited access to advanced creative technology indicated as a top barrier by 40% of marketers. Budget limitations (36%) and inventory constraints (31%) further impact scalability, while over a quarter are uncertain about which retail partner best aligns with their goals. More than half of marketers expect to increase their spend during the pre-Christmas period. Over two-thirds of marketers plan their largest budget increases during Black Friday/ Cyber Monday. 65% of marketers plan to increase holiday campaign spend in December. Seasonal creative strategies play a pivotal role in campaign success, with Christmas-specific best practices (73%) and A/B testing for holiday messaging (61%) ranked as the most impactful. Audience targeting strategies during the Christmas season are heavily shaped by shopper behavior and purchase intent. Seasonal segmentation strategies are the most widely used (75%). Other popular approaches include category-specific targeting (58%) and differentiating between gift buyers and self-purchasers (57%). Online video (79%) and native advertising (75%) are considered the most effective off-site formats for Q4 holiday campaigns, outperforming both display (68%) and Connected TV (37%).
Sojern, a marketing platform built for hospitality, has joined forces with PubMatic, a programmatic advertising technology company. The new relationship will enable agencies and advertisers to access and activate Sojern’s travel data insights with PubMatic’s inventory.
Fashion retailer New Look has announced the successful implementation of Amperity, a customer data cloud, integrated with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. The joint solution will enable New Look to better connect data across its online and in-store touchpoints. The partnership leverages capabilities from the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform in combination with Amperity’s customer data cloud, and is said to use bidirectional data sharing that processes over 7.5 billion records in minutes.
Independent out-of-home solutions business Billups has announced it achieved 73.8% year-over-year net revenue growth in Q1 2025. The company has expanded to 19 countries with new operations in New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Mexico, and India, with imminent launches in Latin America and the Middle East, and added 156 new employees over the last 12 months, bringing the total headcount to 365.
