Blue Tiger Engage January 2026
BT Engage: January Newsletter
Welcome to Blue Tigers monthly newsletter Engage, bringing you all the latest news, trends and updates from across the media landscape. In this month’s edition we look at the major news stories capturing the headlines as we enter 2026.
UK Advertising spend grew 11.4% in Q3 2025, and 10.1% over the whole of 2025
UK advertising spend rose by 11.4% to £12.5bn in Q3 2025 and 10.1% over 2025 as a whole according to the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure report as strong growth sets up adspend to exceed £50bn for the first time this year.
The UK’s ad spend from July to September 2025 show double digit growth in advertising spend at a time of otherwise muted economic growth; according to the ONS, GDP grew just 1% in Q3.
Despite a challenging economic backdrop marred by subdued household incomes, a softening labour market and ongoing geopolitical turmoil, the latest AA/WARC data suggest an enduring resilience across the UK’s advertising market,” explained James McDonald, Director of Data, Intelligence & Forecasting, WARC.
“Strong double-digit growth in 2025 reflects a continued focus on performance, reach and association with culturally relevant moments, from major sporting events to unmissable live concerts.”
For FY 2025, AA/WARC predicts growth of 10.1% to £46.9bn, the fifth consecutive year of market expansion.
The report predicts adspend growth of 7.5% over the course of 2026, exceeding £50bn for the first time. The wider economic backdrop is muted, however, reflecting as real household income growth slows. Domestic and international political uncertainty will continue to weigh on the UK’s overall economic outlook.
HFSS advertising ban comes into force
HFSS advertising restrictions are now in effect across the UK, limiting TV and online marketing and accelerating change in brand strategy.
As of 5 January 2026, advertising restrictions of HFSS (High in Fat, Salt or Sugar) products came into force across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This marks a major regulatory milestone in the drive to tackle unhealthy diets, especially among children and young people.
The restrictions will prohibit the advertising of HFSS products on television between 5:30am and 9pm, with a total ban online. This includes digital marketing, paid online ads and paid influencer marketing which are significant channels for many brands.
These new restrictions could be seen as an expansion of previous legislation. In 2007, advertising restrictions prevented marketing on children’s broadcast tv, and in 2017 restrictions broadened to online and out of home media where under 16s make up more than 25% of the audience and prohibited targeted advertising across children’s media.
So, what does this mean for businesses?
The advertising restrictions were originally due to take effect in October 2025, alongside voluntary industry compliance that began earlier last year. However, the formal legal implementation was moved to January 2026 to allow time to clarify the treatment of brand advertising in secondary legislation. During this interim period, advertisers and broadcasters largely complied as if the rules were already in force.
Consequently, several large businesses opted to comply early, removing HFSS advertising from their campaigns. The impact of which has come under scrutiny due to the minor changes made to advertising; while HFSS product advertising is restricted, brand-level advertising remains out of scope, allowing companies to market through more general brand-building activities. This trend is likely to continue as companies move their advertising spend more towards brand building.
Additionally, outdoor advertising spend by food companies increased by 28% between 2021 and 2025, a channel not covered by the advertising restrictions, which followed the government’s announcement in July 2020 of the forthcoming ban on TV and online advertising.
If you have any questions or think you’re potentially impacted by the new legislation, don’t hesitate to get in touch. dan@bluetigermarketing.co.uk
Sky Media launches AI-powered creative toolkit to onboard smaller businesses to TV
Sky Media has launched an AI-powered “creative advertising toolkit” to make it easier for SMEs to create TV ads in the same way they generate ads for online platforms.
The toolkit provides access to Waymark, an AI creative studio that helps brands “instantly” generate “TV-ready” ads.
Users can feed the tool content and assets derived from their brand’s website. Waymark then generates a 10-second, 15-second, or 30-second ad spot based on those assets, complete with scripts and tailored options for different audiences or locations.
A spokesperson for Sky Media claims the tool “dramatically reduces the cost, time and complexity of TV ad creation”.
The move follows the launches of similar generative AI creative tools by Channel 4 and ITV in recent months. However, ITV’s business development director Jason Spencer recently told The Media Leader that strong direct demand from SMEs for its tool has yet to surface.
Now, with three comparable tools in the market across the UK’s largest commercial broadcasters, each will focus on honing a distinct go-to-market strategy to onboard smaller businesses to TV.
In the meantime, the trio have collaborated on a forthcoming SME marketplace, aimed at making ad planning and buying simple for SMEs, and a new measurement solution, Lantern, which will deliver short- and long-term outcomes measurement for the medium.
“TV has always set the standard for attention and trust, but the creative process can feel like a barrier for many smaller businesses,” said Sky Media’s investment director, Steven McHenry. “Our new AI-powered toolkit removes that barrier. It allows brands that are new to TV to create cost-effective ads, test and refine them, and launch campaigns with real confidence and impact.”
YouTube criticised after pulling out of UK TV audience measurement
YouTube has been criticised by the TV and advertising industry after suspending its participation in a key measurement system that compares viewership on the social media site with other streamers such as Netflix and TV broadcasters.
YouTube’s owner, Google, has sent “cease and desist” letters to Barb, which publishes audience figures that are used as the UK industry standard, and Kantar Media, its research partner in the service.
The decision came months after YouTube started to allow viewership of 200 of its channels on TV sets to be included in viewer measurements alongside broadcasters including the BBC, Sky, ITV and Channel 4.
Google sent the legal letters blocking access to data to attribute viewing sessions to specific content creators citing a breach of its terms of service, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.
“It does seem odd that YouTube has spent so much effort trying to convince advertisers that they are TV, and so gain the benefits of that reputation, but the moment there’s some TV-like scrutiny they go legal to avoid it,” said Lindsey Clay, the chief executive of Thinkbox, the TV body owned by ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and UKTV.
“If they want to be treated like TV they need to be transparent,” she added.
YouTube makes almost $2bn (£1.5bn) in advertising revenues from content viewed in the UK, according to eMarketer.
The move by YouTube – and rival Netflix – to be measured in the same way as traditional TV companies was seen as an attempt to attract more advertisers to its platform after it was announced last February.
Simon Michaelides, the director general of ISBA, the body that represents UK advertisers, said: “Barb plays a significant role in the UK’s measurement ecosystem, enhanced by its collaboration with YouTube. It is therefore disappointing that this service has been halted.
“Cross-media measurement is inherently complex and brings challenges that we acknowledge. But we would hope for the benefit of advertisers that a resolution can be found.”
Barb figures for December showed that the number of people watching YouTube in the UK on TVs, smartphones and tablets overtook the BBC’s combined channels for the first time.
The figures are only based on a minimum of three minutes of viewing, which plays to the strengths of the vast amount of short-form YouTube content, with most broadcasters focusing on 15-minute viewing as being more representative of audiences watching longer shows.
Last year, YouTube said TVs had overtaken mobile phones and desktop computers as the main device for viewing the company’s content in the US.
YouTube overtook ITV last year to become the UK’s second-most watched media service, behind the BBC.
Google has said it does not believe the measurement service is representative of YouTube viewership, but the legal cease and desist requests relate to a breach of terms of service relating to its creator content.
“YouTube has a long track record of providing access to third parties for research and reporting, and all third parties must respect the necessary terms of service and policies when using our application programming interfaces,” said a spokesperson for YouTube.
“While the vast majority of our partners, companies and creators adhere to these guidelines, we will take action when these terms are violated, as was the case here.”
YouTube’s UK viewership is also measured by companies including Ipsos/Iris, while advertising metrics are measured by firms including Nielsen, ISBA’s Origin and AudienceProject.
“We can confirm that the measurement service is paused per Barb’s recent announcement,” said a spokesperson for Kantar. “We will not be commenting on confidential client discussions further at this time.”
For further information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Blue Tiger Marketing, we’re here to help you navigate the changing landscape effectively, leveraging new opportunities while mitigating potential risks.
dan@bluetigermarketing.co.uk
Sources:
bbc.co.uk, ITV.com, The Media Leader, Tech Crunch, The Media Leader, Video Week, Adexchanger, The Drum, Marketing Week, Campaign
