Our search strategy across both Google and Microsoft combined brand and generic PPC to capture both high intent users familiar with the charity and broader audiences searching for information about the disease.  We aligned all our TV activity with sport to ensure that we were speaking to men while they were engaged with the media. We ran across a range of sports including football, darts, cricket, boxing, rugby and Formula 1 to reach a breadth of men. Finally, we monitored the news for relevant breaking stories that would drive interest in men checking their risk of the disease such as when public figures including Jeremy Clarkson and Lord David Cameron have spoken up about their prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. We made sure that Prostate Cancer UK was present in these moments when more men would be looking for information by uncapping search and social budgets

Prostate Cancer UK’s award-winning risk checker is free, anonymous and simple to use. It can help you understand your risk of prostate cancer in around 30 seconds and support you with information about what you can chose to do next. To take the Risk Checker today visit: Prostatecanceruk.org/risk-check

*The Office of National Statistics

We sat down with senior account manager, Wendy Chung, to grill her about how we approach paid social for our clients. For Wendy, our strength is in looking at campaigns from the perspective of both the client and their audience so we can create the right moment, message and environment to deliver results.

What do you wish everyone knew about paid social?

Paid social naturally offers a more relaxed environment for receiving information compared to paid search, where users are proactively looking for information with a specific intent. This is where the social element comes into play. As consumers, we are immersed in social platforms every day, often without recognising how much information we absorb unconsciously as we scroll. We move between different platforms intuitively and adapt to the ways in which each platform shapes how users discover and consume content.

For advertisers, understanding audience mindset is crucial. Often, advertisers want to prioritise channels based on their larger user bases or stronger returns. However, audiences rarely engage with just one social platform. Instead, they move across multiple platforms. Therefore, it is important to understand where we position our clients across these platforms within the different stages of the funnel, and how we can create experiences that feel natural, relevant and that genuinely resonate with audiences.

What is the biggest opportunity for advertisers in paid social this year?

AI is constantly evolving, and we are continuously adapting our best practices to keep up. With AI now embedded across paid media, from Advantage+ on Meta to AI Max on Google, the question is no longer whether we use AI, but how we work with it effectively.

AI can help us expand reach, optimise performance and generate stronger signals, but it doesn’t replace strategic judgement. While platforms increasingly automate audience targeting and optimisation, we still need to consider creative, placement, context and brand sensitivity. These are areas where AI is stepping up too, but it demands more human attention. The opportunity is to work with AI, learn from its signals and recommendations, while maintaining strategic control over how and where we use it.

How can media agencies get the most out of paid social for their clients?

Understand both paid and non-paid activities happening at the same time. Reusing content across channels can create a more connected journey as audiences encounter different touchpoints. For example, we have boosted clients’ organic content through paid social, using additional messaging that may not have been part of the original paid activity. Looking beyond advertising also helps us understand what clients are doing to achieve their wider goals. We can then determine where those activities can be leveraged within paid campaigns, particularly at the awareness and engagement stages. Ultimately, it is about understanding both what the client wants to deliver and how audiences will receive it. Creating the right moment, message and environment by looking at the campaign from different perspectives.

To help brands earn meaningful attention, Tom Firkin, Senior Client Partner at Reddit wants advertisers to respect why people use different platforms, understand the distinct behaviours and expectations within each environment and create work that feels genuinely relevant rather than interruptive. Here he explains what a platform-independent approach could look like.

What is the one thing you wish everyone knew about paid social?

Paid social isn’t one homogeneous channel. Each platform is inherently different because people visit it to fulfil a different need – whether that’s entertainment, distraction, connection, inspiration, discovery or validation. Those motivations directly affect the quality of attention a platform commands. The best planning begins by understanding that mindset, then adapting the message accordingly. Reddit is particularly powerful when people are actively seeking information, exploring interests and learning from communities, which creates a naturally engaged environment for brands.

If you could change one thing in the industry, what would it be?

If I could change one thing in the industry, it would be how we measure the true impact of social campaigns. Too often, success is defined by the metrics that are easiest to count – clicks, views and engagement – rather than the outcomes that matter most, such as incremental sales, brand growth and long-term customer value.

I’d also like advertisers to rely less on last-click attribution. An old colleague explained its flaw brilliantly: imagine having six beers, three gin and tonics, four glasses of wine and a shot of tequila, then blaming the tequila for your hangover. That’s essentially what last-click does, it gives all the credit to the final interaction while ignoring everything that influenced the customer beforehand.

I’d like to see the industry adopt a more consistent, platform-independent approach that combines brand-lift studies, incrementality testing and commercial results. Social’s influence is rarely linear, so its measurement should reflect its role across the entire customer journey. Better measurement wouldn’t just prove social’s value; it would help brands invest more intelligently and reward work that creates genuine impact rather than simply generating activity.

How can media agencies get the most out of paid social for their clients?

Give every platform a deliberate role based on why people actually use it, not simply because it appeared on last year’s plan. Creative should be built for the environment, rather than declaring one asset “platform-agnostic” and resizing it nine different ways.

Agencies should also test off the beaten track and include emerging partners early enough to generate meaningful learning, not once the plan, creative and budget have already been set in stone. That includes involving platforms such as Reddit early, when they can help uncover audience insights and inform the wider strategy. Ultimately, the strongest paid social plans give each platform a clear purpose while leaving enough room to experiment, learn and adapt.

This month’s we sat down with media Account Executive, Aimee Williamson, for our Day in the Life chat. Aimee tells us why you shouldn’t go into new roles with your blinkers on and why it’s important not to be too hard on yourself in the first few months in a media agency.

What led you to a career in media?

I’ve always been quite creative leaning. Following an English and Drama degree at university, I was lucky enough to get a graduate placement in film marketing at Warner Brothers. For a year I got to learn about international marketing for Warner Brother’s European cinema releases. As part of my placement, I worked alongside media agencies and was even able to spend a couple of days in the agencies themselves, learning about how they run and the role they play.

When I started at Warner Brothers, I thought I’d landed my dream job straight out of uni. But I quickly realised that there were so many options out there in the world of marketing, entertainment and media that I hadn’t realised even existed. When my placement ended, I was drawn to experiencing advertising from the other side and working in agencies. I wanted to work in a smaller, independent agency so I could gain experience across multiple channels, rather than being siphoned into one small area of the business. That’s how I found MI Media!

What does a typical day look like for you?

A lot of my role involves client communication: being open with feedback about how campaigns are working, what we recommend changes and what they need from us over the coming weeks and months.

To be able to do this effectively, I have to be across our reporting and planning. I pull together reports on our TV and press activity, monitoring how current activity is performing and working with the sales houses to make any changes we need. Alongside this, I work with the team to use the data from current activity to plan our campaigns three to four months head of time, considering how we can optimise activity or try something new.

More recently, I’ve been getting involved in digital channels; doing daily pacing, monitoring to see if we’re meeting target costs and putting together performance reports. It’s been great to get the chance to work across a new team and try a different channel mix. Having the opportunity to learn digital alongside the offline channels I work on is really valuable.

What mistake have you learnt the most from?

When I joined MI, I expected to understand everything quickly. I was being too harsh on myself if I didn’t pick things up straight away. But I came into this role with no media knowledge or experience and there’s a lot to learn, especially in those first few months when all sorts of acronyms and channels are thrown at you. It’s easy to be hard on yourself, but this is just the nature of the work. You will learn.

As I’ve settled into the role, I’ve also learnt that every client wants to be treated differently. At first, I was just sending reports in the exact same way to every client but I quickly learned that while some may want lots of detail, others are looking for an overview. You can’t expect to have the same routine to cover every client but must learn to adapt depending on who you’re communicating with.

Who’s your role model and why?

Having an older sister is like having a built-in role model in life. I’ve always looked up to her Every good decision she makes I can follow, and every bad decision she makes I can learn from. God I hope she doesn’t read this!

Prostate Cancer UK is uniting all football fans against one shared rival, prostate cancer, in a campaign for its fundraising challenge Prostate United. As reported by Campaign.

“This club matters more” is a new brand platform for Prostate Cancer UK and was created by Elvis. It aims to drive sign-ups to this October’s challenge and is part of the charity’s three-year strategy to grow awareness of Prostate United. 

Prostate United was founded in 2018 by Stephen Gilpin and Ross Burbeary after Gilpin lost his grandfather to prostate cancer. Now in its eighth year, the challenge asks participants to walk, run or cycle every day throughout October while raising funds for Prostate Cancer UK. 

The campaign will run across paid social, paid search, radio and podcasts. 

Seren Evans, head of events and community fundraising, Prostate Cancer UK, said: “What started as a football-led movement eight years ago has grown into a powerful team effort, uniting people from every corner of the football community behind a shared goal of saving men’s lives. ‘This club matters more’ captures exactly what Prostate United is about; rivalry set aside for a cause that matters more than any result on a Saturday. Every mile covered and every pound raised helps fund more groundbreaking research and work towards a screening programme, to catch prostate cancer early and save lives.” 

I was asked to write an article about OOH. Anything I like! Sometimes a loose brief is more difficult to respond to, so I was thinking about it whilst walking to the station. In that time, two people bumped into me because they had their heads down looking at their phones whilst walking along. What could possibly be that interesting that you’re not looking where you’re going? Obviously, I shouted, “look up,” at them in a slightly aggressive way, which did make me happy. But it got me thinking about the article; looking up and being in the real world, so here goes!

There is a massive misconception about OOH, that it’s a traditional, old-fashioned medium trying to keep up with modern advertising. But (and hear me out) OOH combines the scale and visibility of the physical world with the targeting and flexibility of digital technology. OOH cannot be skipped, blocked or just scrolled past. And the best part: OOH lives where people live, work, shop and socialise. OOH reaches audiences when they are actively engaged in the world around them. This gives brands something increasingly rare: presence.

OOH remains one of the few truly shared media experiences

I think that one of the most important points about OOH’s place on a media plan is that it remains one of the few truly shared media experiences. It exists in public places and can become part of culture. The most memorable campaigns are discussed, photographed and shared on social media, amplifying them far beyond their original location. This ability to bridge the physical and digital world is becoming one of the channel’s greatest strengths. A striking billboard can generate millions of online impressions. A clever digital screen activation can become social content. I don’t think that OOH should sit at the edge of a campaign. Perhaps increasingly, it is becoming the creative spark that can drive wider conversations.

The future of advertising is already being shaped by technology and AI, but in a landscape where digital messages are limitless, the power of a physical presence and real-world attention will prove more valuable than ever.

OOH’s biggest competitive advantage is not technology but the fact that it inhabits the one place where consumers do not switch off: the world around them.

Gambling brands have a responsibility to their players which must be considered when planning and buying media

Stricter gambling regulations on affordability checks and deposit limits were introduced in August 2024, impacting gambling brands’ revenue. This had a knock-on effect on our media strategies. To drive new customers to gambling websites and apps, we needed to increase awareness and shift brand appeal to a broader audience. This led to us buying high impact TV spots in appropriate programming, whilst also widening our targeting across VOD and linear radio to reach a more diverse audience.

All these gambling regulations were introduced as part of the industry-wide safer gambling initiative, designed to protect high risk players. The initiative was also an opportunity for media to emphasise the importance of the responsible gambling strategies our clients were implementing; such as aiming to reduce revenue from harmful gambling and creating community-first men’s mental health and wellbeing programmes.

This meant delivering messaging that resonates with the right audiences in contextually appropriate environments, requiring a tactical and targeted approach. Brand activity needed to communicate social responsibility and promote the brands, while performance activity had to continue to deliver profitable customer acquisition.

Adaptation is key to the success of gambling brands

At first glance the restrictions placed on the gambling industry could be viewed as a barrier to effective advertising. However, they provided gambling brands with an opportunity to discover new audiences, whilst creating positive changes for their customers. There is an ongoing challenge for regulated gambling brands, that comply with restrictions, to reduce the increase in play going via the growing black market. Consolidation of the number of regulated operators has felt inevitable for some time, but those who adapt their approach frequently and effectively can continue to thrive.

Once renowned for driving fame, today there’s so much more to OOH than static posters. We spoke with Mark Bucknell, Chief Commercial Officer, JC Decaux who told us that OOH is a data-led, digital and accountable channel that still delivers the public scale only real-world media can provide.

If you could change one thing in the industry, what would it be?

I would speed up the move from ‘panel first’ to ‘people first’ planning. We still spend a lot of time talking about formats and frames; we should spend more time on audiences, journeys and outcomes.

Concretely, that means standardising data, measurement and attribution across OOH so that agencies can compare it more easily with other channels and include it naturally in every omnichannel brief. OOH shouldn’t be a last minute add on, but a core part of the strategy.

How do you think advertising on OOH will change over the next three years?

OOH will become more dynamic and responsive. The growth of digital and programmatic DOOH means campaigns will be adapted in near real time; copy changing by location, audience segment, time of day or external signals like weather and sports results. Programmatic DOOH at scale presents a huge opportunity: buying audiences, moments and contexts rather than just panels. For advertisers, that means using OOH to bridge brand and performance: trusted public canvases, activated dynamically to drive both perception and action.

Measurement will get richer. We’re already seeing stronger links between OOH exposure and outcomes like store visits and online conversions. That will become standard, helping OOH play a bigger role in performance-oriented plans.

But what won’t change is the core strength of the medium: big, bold, public canvases that cut through digital noise and build long-term brand trust. The future is more data and more flexibility, sitting on top of that physical foundation.

What’s the biggest misconception advertisers have about OOH?

The biggest misconception is that OOH is static and hard to measure. OOH is no longer just posters. It is a data-led, digital and accountable channel that still delivers the public scale only real-world media can provide. At its best, OOH combines strong creative, smart data and the right environments to lift the whole media plan.

It is also not just a fame channel. With the right data, context and creative, OOH can drive action as well as awareness.

What’s the best use of OOH you’ve seen in the past three months?

The Grand Prix-winning “Keeping hair in the game” campaign for L’Oréal Paris is a standout. Live football moments, real-time creative and relevant environments working together brilliantly.

McDonald’s programmatic DOOH work is another strong example, using dynamic targeting and real-world triggers to deliver clear commercial impact.

Both show where OOH is heading: smarter, more responsive and still rooted in powerful public presence.

We’ve watched them evolve into mainstream pop culture figures and land high profile celebrity status. Now, it feels like influencers have become the ‘it’ channel in marketing circles.

When Unilever CEO Fernando Fernandez announced in 2025 that more than half of the company’s marketing spend would shift to influencers, many interpreted it as another signal that brands were shifting budgets away from traditional media. Still, it seemed a bold move when the tangible business impact of influencer campaigns was not yet understood.

However, when investigating further it’s clear that this is not what was going on. Fernandez himself acknowledged the importance of TV. The move towards influencers was instead a shift from polished, high production ads towards authentic messaging and content that builds trust. Unilever was essentially re-positioning influencer marketing as influencer-led creative production, not using them as an awareness-focused media channel.

One year on, is Unilever’s influencer strategy working?

Unilever has indeed dramatically increased its spend on paid social. This signals that influencers aren’t a media channel in themselves. Long gone are the days when you could solely rely on someone’s organic content to drive significant reach. Unilever’s shift towards creator-led marketing tells us that the biggest opportunity is not replacing traditional media with influencers but using them as a more trusted and scalable source of content. Financially, early business results have been positive, but it’s too soon to conclusively attribute its growth to influencer activity alone.

One standout success was Unilever’s skincare brand, Vaseline. Using social listening tools, it realised that there were already streams of content on TikTok documenting its widespread use in ‘life hacks’. Launching its ‘Vaseline Verified’ campaign, the brand contributed to a conversation that had already begun on social media, rather than trying to dominate or control it. Using 450 influencers, Vaseline gave its own seal of approval to the various life hacks it was associated with, from blocking hay fever pollen to softening leather.

Influencers won’t replace mass-reach media, but they do play an important role in the marketing mix

Influencers can play an important role as part of a wider marketing strategy, but they are not a replacement for mass-reach media. Broadcast channels remain the most effective and efficient way to build awareness and mental availability at scale. Equally, brands cannot completely control creator messaging; excessive control risks undermining the authenticity that makes influencer marketing effective in the first place.

A few years ago, the conversation about influencers, or creators, was all about likes, comments and follower counts. Today advertisers are much more focused on understanding the impact creators can have on real business outcomes. We spoke with Dafs Rhys Woodward, Founder of Creator by Infinitum, who told us why the old perceptions of influencer marketing being a bit of a Wild West are outdated and how media agencies can get the most out of creators for their clients.

What is the one thing you wish everyone knew about creators?

I wish more people appreciated just how professional you need to be to build and maintain an audience today.

Whether you’re producing long form YouTube content or short form social videos, standing out has never been harder. Audiences are bombarded with content every minute of every day, platforms constantly change their algorithms, and attention is one of the most competitive commodities in the world.

The creators who succeed are not just creative. They are strategists, producers, editors, presenters, community managers and business owners all rolled into one. They have to consistently create content that people actively choose to spend time with.

That is why I think some of the old perceptions of influencer marketing being a bit of a Wild West are outdated. The best creators are highly professional media businesses, and brands should have confidence in trusting them to create content that genuinely resonates with audiences.

What are the questions you’re most often asked by advertisers?

The question I hear most often is, “How do I know if this is actually working?”

A few years ago, the conversation was all about likes, comments and follower counts. Today advertisers are much more focused on understanding the impact creators can have on real business outcomes.

Can creators drive awareness? Can they increase consideration? Can they influence search behaviour, website visits or sales?

That shift is a really positive sign for the industry. The more influencer marketing is judged against business objectives rather than social metrics, the more seriously it will be treated as a media channel.

Recently the IPA, in partnership with all the major agency HoldCo’s, delivered a groundbreaking econometrics research study that showed that Influencers were the number one channel for long term return on investment with 3.35X returns, above even TV. This level of industry-wide research should give us huge confidence to plan this media channel moving forwards.

How do you think advertising using creators will change over the next three years?

I think we’re witnessing the evolution of creators from content producers into media companies.

We’ve already seen this start to happen. The Sidemen have built an entertainment business that spans multiple channels, products and ventures. The Overlap has expanded beyond a single show and is now acquiring football YouTube channels to build a broader media network. Creators such as Jesse Burgess are moving into mainstream media partnerships while maintaining direct relationships with their audiences.

Over the next three years, I expect this trend to accelerate. The next generation of media conglomerates won’t be built by traditional broadcasters or publishers. Many will be built by creators who have mastered audience attention and community building.

I also think we’ll see a continued shift towards longer-form content, particularly on platforms like YouTube and podcasts, as audiences seek deeper engagement. However, the real magic will come from how that content is distributed. As Ed Elson and Scott Galloway have discussed, clips and cut downs are increasingly becoming the discovery engine for long-form content. Short-form content will drive awareness and reach, while long-form content will build deeper audience relationships.

For advertisers, that creates a huge opportunity. The most successful brands will be those that partner with creator-led media businesses and think beyond individual posts to become part of entire content ecosystems.

What’s the best use of creators you’ve seen in the past three months?

I’m slightly biased because we worked on it, but a recent campaign for Sky promoting its partnership with the Winter Olympics was a great example of how creators can connect traditional and digital media.

We placed Winter Olympics creators at iconic OOH locations including Piccadilly Circus, the Liverpool Media Screen and Westfield, supported by a small VFX production team. By capturing creator content around the installations and enhancing it with innovative visual effects, we created social assets that felt native to social platforms while showcasing the scale and impact of the OOH activity.

What made it particularly effective was how it blurred the lines between physical and digital media. The OOH generated attention in the real world, while creators amplified the experience online through content designed for social audiences.

The result was highly engaging creative that delivered strong performance and demonstrated how creator content can help make traditional media work harder.

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