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Banning online advertising of so-called "junk food" will have as much impact on childhood obesity as a sticking plaster on a broken leg. For the government to come out and issue a blanket ban on all online advertising and pre-watershed TV advertising, is a pathetic response to a major crisis. Obesity – in children and adults – is a chronic problem, and one that needs addressing urgently and comprehensively. But as the government’s own research shows, banning HFSS advertising has next to no...

‘Junk food giants will be banned from advertising online’ ran the front page of The Times yesterday morning and, in that sense, the Government has achieved what it set out to do. The news of the HFSS online ad ban has grabbed front page headlines, made a splash and - on the face of it - positioned No. 10 as taking decisive action on the critical issue of childhood obesity. The fact that all of the evidence suggests that it will achieve next to nothing in reducing childhood obesity is by-the-by...

I don’t think anyone would argue with me for saying that advertising is a fiercely competitive industry – and rightly so. From the best creative ideas to innovative execution, a high premium is placed on doing things differently and standing out from the crowd. Being unoriginal goes against everything that a good ad should be and, not to sound like a six-year-old, but nobody likes a copycat. Which leads me to something my actual six-year-old told me recently. Someone at school was copying his...

When the IAB’s leadership and research teams sat down last month to examine the H1 2021 Adpsend figures it’s fair to say we weren’t shocked at the news that digital spend was up year on year. After all, the figures pertain to a period in which the whole country was in lockdown more than they weren’t, when digital ad spend was one of the few remaining guaranteed ways for marketers to reach their audience en masse. But in that meeting in mid-September, when the data from PwC was presented back to...

With climate change increasingly, and rightly, dominating the news agenda, Newsworks and IAB UK are today making a joint appeal to advertisers to check they’re not unwittingly defunding trusted journalism. Since the beginning of the year, several publishers have seen climate wording and phrases – including "climate change", "environmental" and "clean air" – make their way onto keyword blocklists. This means online articles containing these words, wouldn't be able to run advertising alongside...

When it comes to TV, one thing hasn’t changed. What we watch – from Squid Game to Succession, and from Love Island to Line of Duty – continues to capture our imaginations, spark conversations and enter into our shared cultural vocabulary. The quality of content remains paramount in this space, something that has only been enhanced by the explosion of the connected TV (CTV) market. The digitisation of telly has created more viewing choice than ever before and provided advertisers with vast...

IAB UK's Real Living 2021 is a cumulation of four week-long specialism events we’ve run throughout 2021 with all of those deep dives laddering up to a set of brilliant insights relating to lockdown behaviour with our digital devices. In this episode, the IAB's Head of Research and Measurement, Elizabeth Lane, shares the research headlines and James gets the view of three of the industry’s smartest thinkers to interpret the consumer insights and help us all understand what they actually mean to...

Traffic to ticketing sites was up by 12.9% in September vs July, according to UKOM’s latest Digital Market Overview, signalling that people are feeling increasingly confident to book tickets to live events. Travel sites also saw a surge, with 2.1m visiting airline brands’ sites in September and people more likely to visit brands that offer long haul flights. Overall, the UK’s online audience (aged over 15) stands at 49.9m, with smartphones the most used device among all age groups. The top 10...

Real Living sets out to take the pulse of the nation’s digital habits, discover what’s changing and - crucially - what this means for advertisers. Having first conducted the study in 2015, the time was ripe to bring it back this year and discover how the turbulence of the past 18 months has impacted our relationship with digital devices. Working with Sparkler, part of PA Consulting, we conducted a quantitative survey with a total nationally representative sample of 2,000 people - including...

James is joined by Stacey Delaney, Taboola’s UK & Nordics Country Manager and Deb Harper, Partner at Mindshare Worldwide to cover ethical advertising. They discuss the role industry leaders must play in turning talk into meaningful change and why collectives and collaboration are so vital in creating action. As well as agreeing why an ethical media plan is great for business, Deb and Stacey also share some the initiatives they lead within their businesses and the progress they’re making...