This week: UK advertising in the media

In this weekly series we pull together, in one place, a selection of must-reads from across our industry media. Hope you find it a useful edit of another week in advertising!

EA Sports scoops £1m Channel 4 diversity prize

Games publisher EA Sports has won the broadcaster’s £1m Diversity in Advertising Award, which this year is focused on the authentic portrayal of UK BAME cultures in advertising.

Global e-commerce sales to hit £3.9tn in 2020, says GroupM

Explosive e-commerce sales are on track to top out at £3.9tn before 2020 mercifully ends, according to a new calculation by GroupM.

The ‘new’ Sundance activates its community online, draws first-time sponsors

Each year, the Sundance Film Festival serves as a tentpole event for marketers looking to directly target independent film lovers. Next month, sponsors will look to deepen customer relationships online versus on the slopes of Utah. Here’s a look at what brands are planning.

Sex, Starbucks and free pints: Campaign’s most read work stories of 2020

Campaign rounds up the most-read work stories this year.

Campaign’s most-read news articles of 2020

A toilet prank gone wrong, the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement all made Campaign headlines in 2020.

‘Truth Decay’: Why it matters to advertisers

Nick Manning goes in search of the truth but finds only conspiracy theories, unreliable source material and deceptive content.

Body of Work: An Anatomy of 2020

The scramble towards the end of 2020 is nearly over, so LBB’s Laura Swinton takes a momentary breather to look back over the creative and production trends that no one was expecting back in January.

How Channel 4 got supermarket brands to put rivalry aside for one night

Sophie Lloyd tells Campaign how nearly every department at Channel 4 helped create and execute the idea in a matter of days.

Tooth Fairy and Cupid save Christmas in Channel 4’s first ever holiday ad

You may not be anywhere near the office water cooler right now, but we still want to spotlight the most talked about creative from the brands that should be on your radar. Today, we’re all about Channel 4’s first Christmas campaign, which sees the Pancake Day Pancake save the season.

Conscious Thinking – Advertising Sustainability

Conscious Thinking asked some key industry figures, including our Comms Director, Matt Bourn, how effectively they feel brands are using their marketing influence to accelerate best practice across the sector and what more can be done to shape a more sustainable future for advertising.

Year in Review: Change makers 2020

In a turbulent year for the marketing industry, and the world, we look at the people and brands that have been driving change.

Lessons from the NHS: recruiting for the future

MullenLowe Group’s senior strategist, Fran Griffin, reveals the thought process behind the agency’s most recent recruitment campaign for the NHS.

A glance across the media landscape for 2021

2020 saw the largest upheaval in media spend in living memory. In order to understand the media landscape for 2021, we need to explore what happened this year, because although the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly affected audience behaviour in the short term, it is likely to have ramifications well into the future.

So this is Christmas…

With the end of the year and possibly an end to the disruption caused by coronavirus both now in sight, Bob Wootton assesses where we are and discusses new start-ups and a new medium with an unfortunate acronym.

Nicky Morgan: If there’s no deal with the EU on data, Britain can set its own agenda

Modern economies are powered by data. Data is everywhere — on customers, sales, employees, health research, drug trials, spending habits; the list goes on.

Pinterest UK boss on its e-commerce development: ‘Brands are a natural insert’

Pinterest has long carved its niche away from the most common benefactors of digital ad spend, and in 2020, its efforts to be the shopping destination of at-home audiences finally paid off. Milka Kramer, country manager of Pinterest UK & IE, explains why brands should be paying attention to her ecosystem.

Google on its mission to keep a million businesses open in 2021

Google wants to start a national conversation about the British public’s love for all things local, as it looks to revive the UK high street and tap into trends within wider culture.

Review of 2020: The year we became ‘accidental climate heroes’

As part of Campaign’s ‘Not Normal’ series of essays about 2020, we examine the negative impact of climate change, which made its presence felt in 2020, but also the way that coronavirus brought some environmental positives.

Third of EMEA CMOs plan to boost budgets but roster cuts imminent

Findings from Campaign’s inaugural CMO Outlook report revealed.

From bog roll to bobble heads: 2020’s agency Christmas cards

Vote for this year’s best agency Christmas card.

Behind the Work: The Craft and Comedy of Hilarious Thai Covidman PSA

Suthisak Sucharittanonta breaks down the design and production of a Kamen Rider-inspired Thai Health ad from BBDO Bangkok.

WPP’s ‘punchy’ growth plan: 10,000 extra jobs, one third drop in travel

There will be £600m of savings from new ways of working.

4 things you need to know about WPP’s growth strategy for a post-Covid world

WPP boss Mark Read has unveiled a twin-pronged strategy to recruit 10,000 additional staff and trim £600m from costs in a mission to outperform its rivals by 2022.

Campaign podcast: Sue Frogley and Douglas McCabe review the year in media

Publicis Media UK’s Sue Frogley and Enders Analysis’ Douglas McCabe talk about the big commercial media trends of 2020.

Brands that referenced Covid in Christmas ads turned off consumers

Amazon saw the biggest slump in its performance between 2019 and 2020 in System1 testing.

Amazon is the perfect example of why big brands need to advertise

Amazon now tops the global ad spend charts, despite founder Jeff Bezos’s original scepticism towards advertising – not surprising, since it’s crucial for defending market share.