This Week: UK Advertising in the Media 22.07.22

Adland braces for ‘thrifty times’ – but can it avoid recession?

The upcoming Q2 reporting season will be a moment of truth as businesses update their numbers.

Don’t Look Up? More like Don’t Dumb Down

We are being treated like children over climate change. Is 41-degrees enough to change attitudes in media?

Are we forgetting who advertising is for?

When it’s good, when it’s thoughtful, thought through and purposeful, advertising is a public service.

Leadership race: a Tory ad man’s review of the good, bad and bizarre campaign videos

As the Conservative leadership contest heats up, Tory ad man turned chief executive of London Advertising Michael Mosyinski gives his candid review of the candidates’ campaign videos, and makes his predictions for who will emerge triumphant.

Communicating effectiveness and ‘micro-upskilling’: Your Marketing Week

At the end of every week we look at the key stories, offering our view on what they mean for you and the industry. From calls to standardise the definition of effectiveness to increasing marketers’ data literacy, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take.

Channel 4 reports record-breaking year amid push to privatise

Channel 4 has reported its strongest ever financial performance in 2021 as revenues topped £1bn for the first time.

Has Channel 4 pulled off the Great Escape?

With the slow-motion departure of Boris Johnson, has Channel 4 dodged the privatisation bullet and what lessons should it learn?

A Few Of Dougal Wilson’s Top Spots Ahead Of Paddington 3

The Blink-repped director is set to helm his first feature and the third instalment of Paddington.

Co-op and Direct Line on teaming up to support new talent

Responding to a desperate need to create employment opportunities for young people, the Co-op has joined forces with major employers like Direct Line to fund SME apprenticeships.

Nielsen report: Advertisers aren’t spending enough money

Study finds that media spend needs to be between 1% and 9% of revenue to stay competitive.

Be Good And Don’t Cut Budgets

Building brands and doing good aren’t mutually exclusive as several recent recessionary campaigns show.

‘Office air-con is open to pets and housemates’: how adland is managing the heatwave

As temperatures across the UK soar this week, The Drum speaks to agencies and industry support organizations to find out how adland can help staff keep their cool.

UK SVOD market declines by nearly 500,000

The UK subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market contracted by 488,000 households over the last three months.

Oreo Invites Consumers To Share Their #OREOtwists In Digitas UK Campaign

Oreo has launched a campaign celebrating all the different ways people eat its cookies and encouraging them to share their quirky rituals and pairings.

Will Ofcom’s Proposed Changes To TV Ad Minutage Drive Levels Of Ad Fatigue?

The regulator is looking at increasing the length of ad breaks of the commercial terrestrial channels.

GroupM unveils carbon measurement standard to organise decarbonisation practices

While Europe suffers under record-breaking heatwaves, WPP’s GroupM has unveiled a first-of-its-kind effort to standardize the way carbon is calculated across the media industry in a bid at self-regulation.

Dramatic drop in number of clients awarding new business, says AAR

The AAR’s latest New Business Pulse data has shown a clear slowdown in account moves compared with the first half of 2021, and the intermediary is warning that growing client uncertainty is creating a “more threadbare new business market”.

Why the UK heatwave is too hot for even PR-land to handle

No ads? No stunts? No social media memes? The heatwave may be the talk of the UK, but for once most brands aren’t jumping on the bandwagon.

Nando’s Commemorates Hottest Day Of The Year

New Commercial Arts is behind chicken restaurant Nando’s newest campaign marking the hottest day of the year through its Peri-ometer.

10% of US programmatic ad spend is wasted on ‘made for advertising’ sites

Almost 10% of programmatic ad spend in the US goes to low-quality, low-value websites designed to trick advertisers, according to a study from Ebiquity.

Why Rankin Loved Photographing LEGO Lovers from Ages 1 to 90

The legendary photographer tells LBB’s Alex Reeves why he was so excited to shoot an intergenerational portrait series for the brand’s ‘Generations of Play’ 90-year-anniversary campaign.

The anti-Tory ad created by and starring… the Tories

Labour ad lets the Conservative leadership hopefuls do the talking to devastating effect.

IPA Bellwether: Marketing budgets stand firm as financial prospects deteriorate

A net balance of +10.8% of companies raised their total marketing expenditure during the second quarter of 2022.

Marketing budget growth slows as economic headwinds strengthen

Brands’ financial prospects for the year ahead have deteriorated sharply, falling to levels not seen since the height of the pandemic in 2020 and contributing to a cut in annual ad spend forecasts.

IPA Bellwether predicts 4 years of slashed UK ad budgets

The latest IPA Bellwether report is a story of two halves. UK marketing budgets have continued to grow in the second quarter, despite the economic headwinds.

Netflix says ad tier is coming ‘early 2023’ as subscriber losses mount

Streaming giant teases details of its advertising offering and why it chose to partner Microsoft as it reports losses of nearly one million subscribers in Q2.

Netflix offers new details on Microsoft ad tier partnership in earnings call

Netflix’s much-anticipated ad tier, in partnership with Microsoft, will launch in early 2023.

Publicis Groupe Chief Talks ‘All Time High’ Results and Climate Crisis Response

The network has increased its forecast to between 6-7% growth based on strong H1 performance.

How Ad Agencies Helped Spread the Truth about the Ukrainian War

LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to 72andSunny Amsterdam and Nebo about the ‘Torrents of Truth’ initiative, on how they managed to turn thousands of pirated torrents into a counterattack on the Kremlin’s propaganda.

Nationwide Building Society Campaign Supports Grassroots Football

VCCP is behind campaign celebrating Nationwide’s three-year partnership with The Football Association’s England Football Respect programme.

Big brands back government’s ‘Help for Households’ initiative

Amazon and Sainsbury’s are some of the brands cutting prices to help consumers.

Ask Not For Whom The Bellwether Tolls

The latest IPA Bellwether report reveals that adspend forecasts are set to fall over the rest of 2022 and 2023.

IPG organic growth slows in Q2 but remains strong over COVID period

Q2 earnings were released just after news of a new leadership team at McCann Worldgroup.

Arthur Sadoun: Clients are still spending but there are fewer pitches and ‘clouds’ over 2023

Publicis CEO talks after upgrading growth forecast at Q2 results.

S4 Capital shares plunge on new profit warning as staff costs spiral

Sir Martin Sorrell’s marketing group slices over £30m off EBITDA forecast and plans cost reductions.

‘No quick fix’: Consumer confidence stuck at lowest level on record

The cost of living crisis is weighing heavy on consumers’ minds, with confidence “languishing” at a historic low of -41.

‘Just do something’: The Guardian on its mission to recruit diverse talent

Urging other brands to get moving on plans to create opportunities for diverse talent, the Guardian believes its new marketing internship is a step towards bridging the socio-economic divide.

How are media buyers planning for a winter World Cup?

With the Fifa World Cup taking place in winter this year on account of the extreme heat in host country Qatar, there are dozens of implications for media buyers who (in the west at least) will simultaneously be plotting Christmas campaigns.

@VancityReynolds

We’re supposed to announce Logan and Deadpool will soon be the first R-rated movies on Disney+. But we all know some Disney movies should already be rated R for irreversible trauma.