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“Podcasts are gaining the lion’s share of my media day - from soundtracking my commute to being a companion for insomnia,” explained James Chandler, CMO of IAB UK, opening our sixth annual Upfronts, hosted at The Steel Yard. Podcast advertising grew by 23% YoY according to latest Digital Adspend data , with James pointing out that it’s a safe bet that podcast advertising will overtake streaming to become the dominant format within audio this year. What followed was a snapshot of some of the best...

“ We’re not here to talk about newspapers or reach… we’re here to talk about an evolving media brand in 2024 and that starts with one word: community” explained Owen Griffiths, Commercial Revenue Director at The Sun, kicking off The Sun’s 2024 Digital Upfront. Here’s a round up of what followed… A younger, more diverse audience than ever before The Sun reaches 26.6 million people every month across multiple touchpoints - from the main app to Sun Holidays. As the brand diversifies, the audience...

Consumer trust, brand purpose and verified journalism were all on the agenda at BBC Studios’ 2024 Digital Upfront. “We are living in extraordinary times and it can sometimes feel like no one is in control,” said Lucy Hockings, BBC News’ Chief Presenter, opening the event. As a result, the BBC sees this “ as a time for action ” to uphold trust via verified, impartial journalism. For advertisers working with the BBCs global operations, the message was clear: identify and stay true to your brand...

Party Conference season has just come to an end and it has been another busy one from an IAB perspective, having attended all three of the major conferences and over 40 events and discussions on behalf of our members. Our aim at this year’s party conferences was to educate and inform some of the huge cohort of new MPs (over half of the total) about digital advertising and its benefits to UK consumers and businesses. Our intention was to make initial contact with political stakeholders through...

“By combining award-winning TV series and films, billions of first-party signals, and leading ad tech, we are helping brands deliver relevant ad experiences at an entirely new scale,” explained Phil Christer, Managing Director at Amazon Ads UK, opening the 2024 Upfront. Here’s a round up of what followed… Delivering full-funnel advertising at scale For the first time, Amazon shared the average monthly ad-supported reach of Prime Video in the UK, following the introduction of ads to Prime Video...

Winner of September’s Joy of Digital Award, Twinings’ creator-led campaign ‘A New Way to Tea’ promotes the launch of its new sparkling tea on TikTok and marks its debut on the platform. In collaboration with creator agency Whalar, the heritage tea brand, ventured onto TikTok for the first time with a creator-led campaign to tap into communities and capture the attention of people experiencing the afternoon slump. With the hashtag #ANewWayToTea, the brand enlisted a diverse group of creators -...

Just like a fiddly recipe with lots of ingredients - looking at you Ottolenghi - digital advertising can feel pretty complex. There’s a lot to weigh up when it comes to the choice of...

Restoring economic stability, rebuilding public services and creating more opportunities for young people were all top of the agenda at Labour’s first Annual Conference as the party in power since 2010. But what came up in Liverpool that IAB UK members should be particularly aware of? Gareth Lyon, IAB UK’s Public Affairs Lead, shares three key take outs from the floor. The role of regulation There was a keen focus on the role and right balance of regulation to shape flourishing industries -...

In July 2024, Google announced that it would be pursuing a new path for Privacy Sandbox and not be deprecating third-party cookies on Chrome in 2025 as previously planned. Following this, the CMA issued a call for views in order to understand different perspectives from across the industry, which closed on 12 August. It has now issued an update stating that “based on careful consideration of the responses we received, the CMA’s view is that competition concerns remain under Google’s revised...

Last week I attended ‘Advertising, Who Cares?’ - a summit created by Nick Manning and Brian Jacobs that is geared at creating better advertising and proactively addressing the challenges we jointly face as an industry, from ad fraud to bombardment. It’s been billed as part of a wider movement to combat “badvertising” and recover the reputation of the advertising industry, which the duo says has never been worse - a claim somewhat at odds with the Advertising Association's data showing that...

Brand safety is a subject that hasn’t strayed far from the spotlight since The Times’ landmark investigation in 2017. The development of transparency tools and shared standards has ensured progress in this space but, at the same time, the continued use of overzealous keyword blocking continues to disregard contextual factors and have a very real impact on online publishers. With the demise of GARM, the brand safety issue is once more grabbing headlines as people question the viability of cross...

Improving the ability for advertisers and publishers to carry out financial audits of their programmatic supply chains, the UK’s Cross-industry Programmatic Taskforce has released an update of the Programmatic Financial Audit Toolkit. First released in 2022, also known as the APL (Audit Permission Letter), Toolkit 1.2 includes refinements to enable more efficient access to the necessary financial transaction data from the supply chain participants. Additionally, improved definitions will ensure...

What has happened to date? In 2022, Parliament passed the Health and Care Act, which included new restrictions that prohibit paid-for online ads for “less healthy” food and drink products. The new restrictions were introduced as part of a wider Government push to tackle perceived drivers of childhood obesity Less healthy products are a subset of products classified as high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS), which have all been subject to dedicated restrictions in the UK Advertising Codes since 2007...

Upcoming events Future of Brands + Future of Audio & Entertainment Date: Tuesday 29 April 2025 Time: 09:00 - 17:30 Location: County Hall, Belvedere Rd, London, SE1 7PB The Podcast Show Date: Wednesday 21 May 2025 - Thursday 22 May 2025 Time: 09:00 - 18:00 Location: The Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, N1 0QH , London Programmatic Pioneers Summit 2025 Date: Thursday 05 June 2025 - Friday 06 June 2025 Time: 07:45 - 17:00 Location: Convene 155 Bishopsgate, Liverpool Street, London, EC2M 3YD...

What is it that sets good ads apart? ‘The idea’ is usually the default answer. If we learnt one thing from Don Draper it’s that an ad lives or dies by the quality of the idea and the human insight that informs it. It was true in Don’s day and it’s still true today - but it’s far from the whole story. In 2024, the human insight marketers can tap into is far beyond what Draper and his peers could ever have dreamt of. Powerhouse creative ideas still take precedence in brilliant ad campaigns, but...

Job description Background The IAB is the not-for-profit trade body for the digital advertising industry with members from some of the biggest companies in the world including Google, Disney, Amazon, News UK, Microsoft and TikTok. Our purpose is to build a better future for digital advertising, for the benefit of everyone. We do this through a range of activities including events, training, research, setting standards, helping the industry to remain self-regulated and more. You can find out more...

There’s a lot that Paris 2024 will be remembered for — Celine Dion atop the Eiffel Tower, Léon Marchand sweeping the medal board, Simone Biles making history and Andy Murray’s au revoir to the court all spring to mind. But while brilliant individuals dominated the headlines, there were plenty of astonishing displays of teamwork that shone through as well. At the velodrome, in particular, a total of 31 records were smashed, with Team GB responsible for three of them. Why am I telling you this? It...

The Advertising Association has launched a new hub designed to showcase professional training and development opportunities for people working in the UK advertising and marketing industries, in partnership with Adwanted UK. From launch, the new hub showcases over 500 professional training courses and qualifications from Advertising Association members and industry stakeholders including IAB UK , the IPA, ISBA, the Data and Marketing Association and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Training...

Created with BBH London, The Openness Medal aimed to strike a chord with Gen Z and spark a social movement celebrating those who share past failures and how they overcame challenges. The campaign utilised social channels to platform the personal stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes in Team Samsung Galaxy, with people able to nominate anyone for an openness medal - including coaches, parents and teachers. The campaign also encouraged Gen Z to share their own stories of openness to amplify...

Following Google’s recent announcement that it plans to remove the third-party cookie deadline and instead pursue a new path for Privacy Sandbox , The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) invited views from the industry on Google’s revised approach to Privacy Sandbox by 12 August. The CMA sought feedback on Google’s proposal to implement a user-choice prompt for third-party cookies, rather than phasing them out entirely. IAB UK has made a submission setting out the potential issues and risks of...