Author | Lightnews

MediaCat UK

MediaCat UK

@mediacatuk.bsky.social

31 followers 13 following 390 posts

An online publication covering the media side of the marketing industry https://mediacat.uk

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 12

'From an advertising and media perspective, data and technology are actually moving us away from people, seeing them almost as robots and machines.'

Havas Media’s Emily Fairhead Keen and Dan Holt tell us how brands can reconnect with real people through empathy, usefulness and trust.

Havas and the human experience of media - MediaCat UK

Havas Media’s Emily Fairhead Keen and Dan Holt on how brands can reconnect with real people through empathy, usefulness and trust

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 11

In this month’s ad formats roundup, scroll depth replaces IDs, inbox tabs become product surfaces and even UX design becomes a variable in ad pricing.

Ad formats: August 2025 - MediaCat UK

New inventory from Teads, X, TiVo and more

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 8

Airbnb announced that it is shifting its advertising from TV to social media in its earnings call.

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, attributed the shift to changing consumer habits, saying that search is ‘switching from desktop to mobile and from Google search to social media’.

Airbnb CEO: The holy grail is to be like Netflix - MediaCat UK

Travel booking app moves away from TV and doubles down on social

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 8

In this month’s ad formats roundup, scroll depth replaces IDs, inbox tabs become product surfaces and even UX design becomes a variable in ad pricing.

Ad formats: August 2025 - MediaCat UK

New inventory from Teads, X, TiVo and more

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 7

In February, WPP’s outgoing CEO, Mark Read, described 2025 as the ‘year of execution’. Halfway through, his words sound dangerously prophetic.

The holding company released its H1 results this morning. No crystal ball was needed here, a bleak July trading update had already lowered expectations.

WPP pins hopes on AI as profit plummets - MediaCat UK

WPP continued its painful 2025 with another set of disappointing results

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 7

Do you have a question about media, marketing or your career that you’d like answered? Ask Faris Yakob.

He has a world of experience within agencies and as a consultant, and he wrote the book on Paid Attention.

Just email your question to [email protected].

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 6

'As AI agents increasingly consume content on our behalf, will we start designing more and more content not just with AI but for AI? To what extent will we need to prioritise machines as a primary audience, designing content for algorithms whose ‘opinions’ could shape human decisions?'

The algorithmic era: rise of the consumer agents - MediaCat UK

What happens to marketing when everyone's got their own AI agent?

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 6

Selena Gomez’s cosmetics brand, Rare Beauty, unveiled three scratch-and-sniff billboards in New York City last week to promote its first fragrance.

The billboards weren’t just fragranced — they also featured QR codes passersby could scan to order a sample from Shopify’s Shop app.

Rare Beauty billboards offer perfume samples to NYC pedestrians - MediaCat UK

The brand combines scented ads and QR codes to drive perfume sampling

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 6

'YouTube’s entire model depends on avoiding television’s core responsibility: accountability for what it distributes.'

As we chase TV equivalence, are we failing to question what YouTube actually is?

If YouTube is TV, who’s the commissioner? - MediaCat UK

As we chase TV equivalence, are we failing to question what YouTube actually is?

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 5

'As AI agents increasingly consume content on our behalf, will we start designing more and more content not just with AI but for AI? To what extent will we need to prioritise machines as a primary audience, designing content for algorithms whose ‘opinions’ could shape human decisions?'

The algorithmic era: rise of the consumer agents - MediaCat UK

What happens to marketing when everyone's got their own AI agent?

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 5

Ad trade bodies are warning advertisers not to fall foul of the incoming restrictions on advertising less-healthy foods (LHF) during their seasonal marketing.

Don’t forget LHF rules during the holidays, warn industry bodies - MediaCat UK

Trade associations publish one-page explainer and offer online training

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 1

'Yes, search still works. But it’s capturing intent as opposed to creating it. If you’re only showing up when someone knows what they want, you’re competing for the narrowest slice of demand — often at the highest cost.'

Brave Bison's Mark Byrne explains how search is changing

Search spend is falling. Where's the cash going? - MediaCat UK

Search still works, says Brave Bison's Mark Byrne, but it's place in the customer journey has changed

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Aug 1

Heading into Meta’s second-quarter earnings call, many expected a stumble. Instead, Meta came out running.

‘The strong performance this quarter is largely thanks to AI unlocking greater efficiency across our ad system,’ Zuckerberg told analysts.

Meta turns AI into revenue, not just hype - MediaCat UK

A 22% revenue jump and $150bn added to its market cap show that Meta’s ad engine is now running on AI, with results Wall Street can’t ignore

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 31

Campaigns run through Meta's automated ad-delivery system, Advantage+, typically outperformed manually orchestrated ones by 9% at the midway point of the campaign --- but they then lost steam.

mediacat.uk/marketers-be...

Marketers best Meta's black box, report shows - MediaCat UK

AI targeting tool identifies likely buyers at the expense filling the funnel

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 31

'Yes, search still works. But it’s capturing intent as opposed to creating it. If you’re only showing up when someone knows what they want, you’re competing for the narrowest slice of demand — often at the highest cost.'

Search spend is falling. Where's the cash going? - MediaCat UK

Search still works, says Brave Bison's Mark Byrne, but it's place in the customer journey has changed

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 31

Traffic to VPN providers has exploded since the UK’s Online Safety Act took effect less than a week ago.

Just as publishers were beginning to find ways to stand on their own outside the walled gardens, the VPN boom is now herding advertisers straight back into the arms of Big Tech.

Online Safety Act exacerbates publishers’ ‘dark traffic’ problem - MediaCat UK

VPN adoption triggered by new age verification rules blinds advertisers and deepens the monetisation crisis for UK digital media

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 31

Ad trade bodies are warning advertisers not to fall foul of the incoming restrictions on advertising less-healthy foods (LHF) during their seasonal marketing.

The Advertising Association, ISBA, IPA, and IAB UK have published a one-page document explaining clearly what brands can and can’t do.

Don’t forget LHF rules during the holidays, warn industry bodies - MediaCat UK

Trade associations publish one-page explainer and offer online training

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 31

A new meta-analysis from Haus shows that manual campaigns still outperform Advantage+ for a slim majority of brands.

Still, there's plenty in the findings that Meta's salesfolk will lap up, including the stat that, on average, ‘Meta drove on average 19% lift to the brand’s primary KPI’.

Marketers best Meta's black box, report shows - MediaCat UK

AI targeting tool identifies likely buyers at the expense filling the funnel

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 30

It's not just grumble websites that are going to have to adjust to the new Online Safety Act...

mediacat.uk/online-safet...

Online Safety Act exacerbates publishers’ ‘dark traffic’ problem - MediaCat UK

VPN adoption triggered by new age verification rules blinds advertisers and deepens the monetisation crisis for UK digital media

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 30

New data from Digital i reveals that the most stable traffic on UK streaming platforms doesn’t come from prime-time hits or algorithmic discovery.

It arrives in two daily spikes (6-9am and 5-7pm) and it’s driven almost entirely by children’s programming.

Streaming's most reliable audience can't read yet - MediaCat UK

New research shows kids content is becoming a retention engine

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 30

The ads business of Spotify is the ‘one area that hasn’t yet met expectations,’ according to the company’s founder and CEO, Daniel Ek.

The streaming platform delivered healthy results in Q2 but saw its ad-supported revenue fall by 1% year on year.

Spotify CEO ‘unhappy’ with ads business - MediaCat UK

Execution, not strategy, to blame for poor performance

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 30

Traffic to VPN providers has exploded since the UK’s Online Safety Act took effect less than a week ago.

Just as publishers were beginning to find ways to stand on their own outside the walled gardens, the VPN boom is now herding advertisers straight back into the arms of Big Tech.

Online Safety Act exacerbates publishers’ ‘dark traffic’ problem - MediaCat UK

VPN adoption triggered by new age verification rules blinds advertisers and deepens the monetisation crisis for UK digital media

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 29

The ads business of Spotify is the ‘one area that hasn’t yet met expectations,’ according to the company’s founder and CEO, Daniel Ek.

Ek said Spotify has been ‘moving too slowly’ with its ads business, and it’s taking ‘longer than expected’ to see the results they anticipated.

Spotify CEO ‘unhappy’ with ads business - MediaCat UK

Execution, not strategy, to blame for poor performance

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 29

The in-car environment is 'one of the largest untapped frontiers in digital media', according to the driver interaction platform 4screen. And last week, Brand Metrics and LeadStory also found that in-car ads can have a significant impact on brand uplift.

In-car ads deliver 3X brand uplift, says LeadStory - MediaCat UK

Streaming platform study claims in-car consumers are 'the most engaged'

MediaCat UK @mediacatuk.bsky.social · Jul 29

New data from Digital i reveals that the most stable traffic on UK streaming platforms doesn’t come from prime-time hits or algorithmic discovery.

It arrives in two daily spikes — 6-9am and 5-7pm — and it’s driven almost entirely by children’s programming.

Streaming's most reliable audience can't read yet - MediaCat UK

New research shows kids content is becoming a retention engine