TV Story of the Week
The month of June saw a record ad surge for ITV, who say this indicates advertisers are realising 'huge benefits of TV.' The channel had already seen a 29% increase in ad sales during the first six months of 2021 and saw a huge leap of 115% throughout June. The channel stated that they are seeing more of a shift towards companies seeing the value of the emotional messaging that TV advertising presents. 'People have realised the emotional stuff that you can communicate, which has become more important to them because of the pandemic', Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, stated.Industry Story of the Week
The media and advertising industry is set to see double-digit growth in record-breaking year for the UK ad market. Following a tumultuous year for the media industry, which only saw increase in digital and online media spend, the market is set to see a dramatic recovery. According to the AA/Warc expenditure report, every media channel is set to grow by at least double digits this year, ranging from 10% growth for direct mail and 315.6% for cinema. The UK adspend market set to race ahead of Europe following a successful vaccine rollout scheme.Environmental Story of the Week
More Brits are ditching brands over concerns, data suggests. A survey conducted by YouGov found that 21% of respondents said they have stopped buying a brand over environmental concern. More than a third (36%) said they had done this with a food and drink brand, while 33% had done so for ‘household essentials’.Lockdown Restriction Story of the Week
This week more good news for the tourism industry was announced. The UK government announced further easing of restrictions for quarantine rules. Fully vaccinated American and European travellers will no longer have to quarantine for 10 days after landing in England. The announcement is a welcome change for thousands of ex-pats living in the US, tourists and business people. Analysis conducted by Visit Britain found £86 million a day was lost in spending from overseas tourists, which equates to more than £31 billion per year.Diversity Story of the Week
Creative agency Dark Horse has created an open-source menopause policy. The creative agency has designed a policy to help everyone (not just the women going through it) better understand menopause. It aims to break stigma and provide information and tools to women and managers to better support staff who are experiencing symptoms. Dark Horses's policy comes to address the fact that 900,000 women a year in the UK leave jobs because of menopausal symptoms.