Tag: advertising
GIVING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES THEIR FIRST TV SPOTLIGHT
23. 2. 2026 Background B Corp certification is a globally recognised standard for businesses that meet high levels of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. The certification is awarded by B Lab, a non-profit organisation. In the UK, there are thousands of certified B Corps, many of them small businesses with ambitions to reach mainstream audiences at scale. Channel 4 saw an opportunity to use its platform to spotlight these purpose-driven businesses while supporting its own sustainability commitments under the Ad Net Zero Action Plan, an industry initiative to reduce the carbon impact of advertising.
ELEVATOR PITCHES MADE REAL: GIVING BLACK ENTREPRENEURS A NATIONAL STAGE
23. 2. 2026 Black-owned businesses in the UK face significant barriers to success. Only 0.24% of venture capital funding reaches Black founders, and one-third of Black entrepreneurs struggle to gain belief in their ventures. Channel 4, in partnership with Lloyds Bank (one of the UK’s largest retail banks), created the Black in Business initiative to address these disparities. Rather than simply highlighting the problem, the initiative addressed it by removing barriers to accessing national television advertising, enabling Black-owned businesses to scale.
WHEN ADS DON’T STOP THE RACE: HOW BRANDS CARVE OUT A PLACE IN WINTER SPORTS STORYLINES?
22. 2. 2026 | 11 min read Winter sports events are more than just ad space for brands – they are fully formed worlds with a distinct atmosphere, visual identity, and an audience that knows exactly why it is watching. That’s why campaigns work best when they don’t try to overpower the action but instead build on it. From the nighttime energy of the Winter X Games to the alpine precision of the World Cup, to the calm intensity of the biathlon range, it’s clear that when a creative concept respects the event’s pace, aesthetics, and values, advertising stops being an interruption. It becomes a continuation of the experience. Progressive prime-time revolution Anyone who considers themselves a fan of modern winter sports like snowboarding or freeskiing undoubtedly knows the Winter X Games. Held every year – usually in January – in Aspen, Colorado, they serve as a key showcase of the very best in Big Air, Slopestyle, SuperPipe, and many other disciplines. A significant portion of the programme takes place in the evening and at night, meaning the event is designed from the start for television prime time. The schedule is carefully planned well in advance to fit ABC and ESPN broadcast slots while also accommodating streaming on ESPN platforms. This setup aligns with the established aesthetics of the event and explains the enormous interest from advertisers wanting to be visible at an event of this scale.
WHEN SILENCE SPEAKS LOUDER
22. 2. 2026 Code of Silence was a landmark drama for British television. The show starred Rose Ayling-Ellis, a deaf actress who became famous after winning Strictly Come Dancing, a popular British celebrity dance competition. In the drama, she plays a deaf woman whose exceptional lip-reading skills make her central to a covert police investigation. The production featured cast and crew from deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse communities, with innovative on-screen graphics that visualised how deaf people piece together conversations. ITV saw an opportunity to extend this representation beyond the programme itself and into the commercial break.
TURNING ONE TRAVEL OFFER INTO TWO TV STORIES FOR TWO TYPES OF FAMILIES
22. 2. 2026 Attraction Tickets sells Florida attraction tickets and theme-park hotel packages to UK customers. It has served more than five million customers since 2002 and offers access to destinations including Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld and Disneyland Paris. In a competitive travel market, people compare options quickly, and marketing is judged by its ability to turn interest into bookings.
UPGRADING A TV SPONSORSHIP WITH ADDRESSABLE IDENTS
21. 2. 2026 Volvo and Sky Atlantic have partnered since 2013 through a TV sponsorship. The partnership has built long-term brand strength and has widened Volvo’s image beyond safety, with more focus on innovation, design and a progressive mindset.
BUILDING TRUST FOR PRIVATE HEALTHCARE BY PUTTING DOCTORS FIRST AND USING TV AS A TRUSTED NATIONAL STAGE
20. 2. 2026 Campaign objectives To challenge the belief that only state hospitals deliver life-saving care, AKFA Medline decided to produce a doctor-led manifesto film and placed it on national TV, with IM Service handling broadcast delivery, timing, and exposure for a sensitive message.
RADIO ADVERTISING GREW BY TWO PER CENT IN 2025, BUT THE MARKET SLOWED DOWN
20. 2. 2026 | 3 min read Although the overall increase in net investment in radio advertising did not keep pace with previous years, it still showed a slight increase of two per cent. The significant reduction in advertising on Czech Radio last year did not help commercial stations.
YOUR CITY, YOUR AD: HOW AD ALLIANCE MADE TV PERSONAL
20. 2. 2026 Background Polestar, the Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer, was rapidly expanding its dealer network across the Netherlands. New showrooms were opening in cities nationwide, but there was a challenge: how do you build awareness for a showroom in one city while also maintaining broad brand visibility? As this was not a typical brand-building campaign, for which an entirely national approach might have been perfect, but rather a call-to-visit campaign, dentsu Benelux suggested exploring this option together with Ad Alliance: making it more targeted, bringing Polestar the best of both worlds—reach and targeting within the same campaign. Case description Ad Alliance deployed its Addressable TV technology to solve Polestar’s regional awareness challenge. The technology works by replacing regular TV commercials with versions tailored to specific household characteristics. Instead of every Dutch household seeing the same Polestar ad, Ad Alliance could serve different versions to different viewers during the same ad break.
DRESSING THE SCREEN: HOW ADIDAS BECAME GOLF’S NEW LOOK
20. 2. 2026 Golf is a globally popular sport, but it has historically struggled to attract younger audiences. The sport’s traditional image does not always reflect the diversity and style of today’s players, which can limit its appeal to new generations. Adidas, one of the world’s leading sportswear brands, saw an opportunity to help modernise how golf is perceived and broaden its reach. Sky Sports Golf, the UK’s leading dedicated golf broadcaster, offered the perfect platform to showcase a fresh, contemporary vision of the sport. Description Sky Media and Sky Sports Golf partnered with adidas to use television as a linear. Rather than a traditional sponsorship with logo placements on studio backdrops, pitch-side boards, or on-screen graphics, the partnership made adidas the exclusive apparel partner for all Sky Sports Golf on-screen talent. Every presenter, commentator, and expert wore adidas throughout tournament coverage and studio programming.
TURNING TRUSTED TV MOMENTS INTO BOOK SALES BY LINKING ATTENTION TO CLEAR PLACES TO BUY
20. 2. 2026 Standaard Boekhandel is a Belgian book retailer. It wanted to make reading feel relevant again at a time when many people spend more time with other entertainment. The brand also wanted its bookstores to stay strong places for discovery, where people browse and find new titles, not only pick up a book they already decided to buy.
DON’T SKIP THE BREAK: TURNING FRANCE 2’S AD BUMP INTO A LIFE-SAVING REMINDER
20. 2. 2026 Campaign objective FranceTV Publicité (FTP) built the campaign around a single TV-native move: take the short on-air ident that usually marks the start and end of advertising on France 2 (a well known visual “bump”, where the channel’s celebrities seem to be touching the screen to ‘enter’ into the advertising break) and turn it into a moment to pass an important message.
STUDY BY BARB: LIVE TV STILL ACCOUNTS FOR 45% OF VIEWING AS STREAMING HITS 38% IN 2025
19. 2. 2026 | 3 min read Barb has published a new report, What People Watched in 2025, arguing that UK viewing habits are better explained by adaptation than a clean break from linear television.
SUPER BOWL LX ATTRACTS NEARLY 125 MILLION U.S. VIEWERS
18. 2. 2026 | 5 min read Viewing peaked at a record 137.8 million; 128.2 million in the U.S. viewed Bad Bunny’s halftime show, which also set records on social media.
ADFORUM: THE MOST APPRECIATED CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR IS “PRICE PACKS” BY PENNY
18. 2. 2026 | 2 min read According to a report by AdForum, the most creative awards last year went to German retailer Penny's "Price Packs" campaign.
VAB STUDY: SOCIAL MEDIA HAS NO CHANCE OF HELPING SMALL BRANDS BREAK THROUGH WITHOUT ADVERTISING ON STREAMING TV
17. 2. 2026 | 5 min read Today’s VAB webinar showed that while social media is popular among advertisers, it is far from a silver bullet. It’s true that it is easy to buy, easy to measure, and allows for quick testing. But there is one major problem: new research shows that its effect on new brands is limited and absolutely insufficient for breakthrough success. However, when streaming TV is added as an additional channel alongside social media, brands achieve significantly greater attention, better recall, and higher purchase intent.
HOW LUNAR NEW YEAR BECAME A MARKETING MOMENT
17. 2. 2026 | 5 min read The holiday can be a playground for cultural appreciation, but marketers should take care when showing up around significant moments, one exec told us.
THE CHINESE NEW YEAR IS UPON US. DIOR WELCOMES IT WITH A COLLECTION AND A SHORT FILM IN BAROQUE STYLE
17. 2. 2026 | 3 min read Tuesday, 17 February marked the beginning of the Chinese Year of the Horse. Dior welcomes it with a new collection, accompanied by a new short film. The film was directed by Nina Gantz and Renée Zhan from the London-based production studio Blinkink.