Bite-sized media stories  

Brand Story of the Week

Heinz has released a new creative in time for Halloween that encourages the use of ketchup as 'fake blood'. The ad features flickering lights which slowly reveal a ketchup bottle labelled 'tomato blood' followed by the tagline 'If you have Heinz, you have a costume'.

 

Radio Story of the Week

RAJAR released their radio listening figures for Q3 on Thursday. They announced 49.5m adults (89% of the UK population) tune into radio each week, with the average listener consuming 20.4 hours per week. The increase in smart speakers has made radio more accessible with 43% of listeners tuning in to digital radio and a majority of listeners tuning in from home.  

Diversity Story of the Week

The new John Lewis Home Insurance ad has received mixed responses. The ad features a boy dancing around dressing up in his mother's clothes with a face of poorly applied makeup. According to ASA the creative received 337 complaints, some of which related to the depiction of a young boy dressing up in female clothing. However, Asad Shayk, joint Head of Strategy at Grey London, stated that the ad was a beautiful example of the joy and creativity of being young and that, 'had the boy been dressed up as a cowboy or a knight, we would be having quite a different conversation.'  

TV Story of the Week

NatWest and ITV have partnered to create a series of mini-documentaries to champion small and medium-sized businesses across the UK. The series forms part of the broadcaster's 'Backing business' initiative. The campaign features Alison Hammond visiting three companies that bank with NatWest and showcases businesses of all shapes and sizes.  

Press Story of the Week

According to the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) there was a 92% positive revenue growth in the year leading to June 2021. The report surveyed 16 UK digital publishers, including 12 B2C publishers and 4 B2B publishers. For online publishers, display advertising remains the largest revenue category with a £56.3m increase of 42.1% year-on-year at the height of the pandemic.  

Social Media Story of the Week

Following discussions last week, Facebook has officially announced an upcoming name change to 'Meta' at their annual developer conference. The name change is said to be the first step into a Facebook metaverse, which will allow people to game, work and communicate in an online world using Virtual Reality technology.