Talking Shop January 2025

Meta swaps fact checks for crowd ‘wisdom’

On 7 January, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta were ending their independent third party fact-checking programme and replacing it with a Community Notes system, apparently copying the approach X has taken since 2021.  Zuckerberg suggested that the programme was limiting free speech, stating “…we have been over-enforcing our rules, limiting legitimate political debate and censoring too much trivial content and subjecting too many people to frustrating enforcement actions”.

Community Notes is a crowd-sourced system where contributors can add context to a social post by adding fact-checks underneath. However, on X, it has been criticised as being open to manipulation and inaccuracy, with no independent oversight.

On top of the recent appointment of several right-leaning executives, this move from Meta is part of its strategy to align its values more closely with new President Trump’s  politics. Zuckerberg also announced they are moving their HQ from California to Texas to create ‘less concern about the bias of our teams”, and has closed their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes with immediate effect.

These changes raise concerns about brand safety, and whether the more limited content moderation on Facebook, Instagram and Threads will make them less suitable environments for our clients’ ads. Unlike with X, it seems no major advertisers or agencies are considering boycotts so far, probably influenced by the size and effectiveness of Meta’s ad platform. However, agencies and advertisers alike will be keeping a close eye on any further developments.

Our favourite reaction to Meta’s announcement was from Channel 4, who cheekily placed an advan outside Meta’s London HQ to highlight that their content is always fact checked.

Bauer Media moves into Out of Home

Bauer Media, owner of top radio and magazine brands such Absolute Radio, KISS and TV Choice, is to buy Out of Home contractor, Clear Channel Europe-North. This marks Bauer’s first move into Out of Home, in a clear move to compete with rival, Global Media. Global was also traditionally a radio operator, but it’s acquisition of Primesight, Outdoor Plus and Exterion Media in 2018 put it into position as joint leader of the UK OOH market, alongside JC Decaux.

Yvonne Bauer, chair of the Bauer board, and fifth generation leader of the business, said “Bringing together our two companies’ offerings will enable us to reach 350m consumers through 200 magazine brands, 150 audio brands and 110,000 OOH sites across Europe. This expands the scope of what we can offer advertisers, in turn giving them the opportunity to amplify the impact and relevance of their campaigns in an increasingly connected and digital world.”

The leadership team at Clear Channel Europe will remain in place and continue overseeing operations with its 1,400 employees. The deal is expected to close in 2025, pending regulatory approval.

From tech star to Trump sidekick

President Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk as leader of new Department of Government Efficiency has cemented Musk’s influence over US government policy. Is this something the Trump regime will come to regret as Musk courts controversy with a new headline each week? With tweets critical of the UK government, controversial hand gestures, and an appearance at a far-right conference in Germany, will he cause more negative PR than his deep-pockets can compensate for?

It certainly seems that users of Musk’s social media platform, X, continue to be turned off by his behaviour, with mobile data analyst, SensorTower, reporting that both US and worldwide daily active users decreased in January 2025, down by roughly 13% compared with the same time last year. FT analysis had previously suggested that UK X users had fallen by a third in the year to Sept 2024.

Trump: TikTok’s unlikely saviour

Trump may have secured the future votes of many US social media users (170m of them) by resurrecting TikTok a day after a Supreme Court ruling caused the platform to ‘go dark’. Trump’s previous concerns that owner ByteDance was sharing vast amounts of data on US TikTok users with the Chinese government, seems to be less of a concern for him now that has nearly 15m followers on the app himself.

TikTok’s future in the US is still uncertain in legal terms, despite Trump’s suggestion that a viable solution would be for ByteDance to enter a 50% ownership position in a joint venture with a US company. A potential US ban in the future could have implications for the app’s future in all English-speaking countries. With a substantial amount of the content consumed by UK users coming from US creators, would the platform lose popularity here when they can no longer use it to view videos from the biggest stars like MrBeast, James Charles and Charli D’Amelio?

Established platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are the expected beneficiaries of any migration away from TikTok, but we’re keeping an eye on the growth in subscribers to newer rival apps such as Triller, Lemon8 and RedNote too.

Rise of streaming ad tiers

Kantar’s latest Entertainment on Demand report shows that the adoption of ad-supported streaming tiers surged in Q4 2024, with nearly one-third (31%) of new paid subscribers choosing these more cost-effective options. This is a large increase from just one in ten a year prior.

Apple TV+ has been gaining traction among British audiences, due to hit shows like Slow Horses, Bad Sisters, and Ted Lasso. The service is now considered their most important video-on-demand (VOD) platform by 18% of streaming subscribers, marking a three-percentage-point increase compared to last year.

Netflix saw particularly strong growth, as over two-thirds (69%) of its new subscribers opted for the ad-supported plan. In its Q4 earnings report, the company revealed that ad-tier sign-ups accounted for more than 55% of new subscriptions in regions where the option was available. Notably, the UK had an even higher proportion of users choosing the ad-supported model.

Amazon Prime Video emerged as the biggest winner in Q4, capturing the largest share of new paying subscribers. Its market share spiked to 21%, a significant jump from 15% in Q4 2023.

Whilst the growing potential to reach more viewers on these platforms is a boon for advertisers, the actual numbers are still small compared to the reach of Public Service Broadcasters; for example, Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier is only in 3.8m UK households. But as linear viewing continues to decline – a report from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) forecast that linear TV viewing will have declined  to just over a quarter of viewing time by 2040 – the SVOD advertising opportunities will continue to grow in importance.

Client Spotlight

The Media Shop has been a trusted partner of UK funeral plan provider, Golden Charter, since 2019, providing media planning and buying; insight and strategy services; and wider digital support, including SEO.

New Chief Marketing Officer, Jill Hood, joined in May 2024 bringing nearly 20 years’ experience in senior financial marketing roles. As part of a wider growth strategy for Golden Charter, and to compete in a market dominated by big ad spenders like Pure Cremation and Co-op Funeralcare, Jill spearheaded a significant investment in marketing and brand development.

Within an impressive three-month turnaround from concept to launch, The Media Shop teamed up with Golden Charter’s growing marketing team, and other key partners, to deliver a dynamic, large-scale media campaign. Spanning ITV, Sky and C4 digital channels; plus BVOD, radio and digital, the campaign was designed to grow brand awareness and consideration, and drive new funeral plan sales.

Central to this effort was the creation of distinctive new advertising assets by Story Advertising, in the form of the ‘Planned by you. Sorted for them.’ campaign. The series of heart-warming scenarios tapped into the insight that a key motivator for buying a funeral plan is to reduce unnecessary emotional and financial stress on your loved ones when you’re gone.

CMO Jill Hood said: “This launch is the culmination of a lot of hard work, long hours and the occasional change of plan but what we’ve ended up with is a campaign that we’re truly excited about and which we’re confident will resonate with our target audience.”

Three months into the campaign, results are looking positive, with very significant increases in web traffic and funeral plan enquiries, accompanied by consistent growth in brand metrics, particularly Aided Brand Awareness. We’re proud to work with Golden Charter and the other marketing partners to prove that even in a market dominated by big spenders, bold ideas and smart collaboration can have a lasting impact.

Just the headlines

Meta begins testing ads on Threads

The move allows advertisers to extend their existing campaigns to a wider audience within the Meta ecosystem. Read more…

Government confirms granola and rice cakes in scope of ‘junk’ food ad ban.

The Government has detailed the final legislation for the ban on advertising of HFSS food and drink products. Read more…

UK regulators investigate Google’s dominance.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has initiated an investigation into Google’s dominance in the search advertising market, which could lead to regulatory measures to enhance market competition. Read more…

UK ad industry sees rise in public trust.

Latest results from the Advertising Association’s Trust Tracker shows a 3 percentage point rise in trust in advertising, driven by large gain amongst 18-34s. Read more…