Unilever looks beyond ‘lazy marketing’ | WARC | The Feed

Pinterest is entering CTV ad targeting by making its high-intent user data available for programmatic streaming campaigns for the first time, a move the company frames as the first step in a broader off-platform audience strategy.

Without sufficient reach, even the strongest creative cannot drive brand growth, so argues Thomas Honoré (CEO, Audience Project), who calls incremental audience expansion the true foundation of advertising effectiveness.

Hugues Rey, Havas Belgium CEO, argues that as agentic AI takes over programmatic buying, premium broadcasters that make their inventory agent-readable stand to capture significant algorithmic budgets.

Paramount is merging the ad tech stacks behind Paramount+ and Pluto TV this summer, while launching a new performance product and expanding dynamic ad insertion to live sports ahead of upfront season.

The European Commission has cleared RTL Group's acquisition of Sky Deutschland, due to complete on 1 June 2026. The deal unites RTL's entertainment brands with Sky's premium sports rights, creating a 12.3 million-subscriber group across the DACH region.

A Lloyds Bank marketing lead shares how connected TV with postcode targeting outperformed email and direct mail in driving app downloads among pension customers, and boosted direct mail performance when used in combination.

Media industry analyst Marion Ranchet argues that TV streaming apps are turning to short-form vertical video to fix a discovery problem social platforms already solved, causing broadcasters and streamers to face real pressure and rethink how they surface their content.

Mark Frain warns that the industry risks losing a further $200m in ad revenue over the next two years without urgent action on outcomes measurement and simpler buying tools. He is calling for industry-wide collaboration to close the gap with digital platforms and reverse the budget decline.

RTL AdAlliance explains how it aggregates premium TV and video inventory across Europe's fragmented markets, offering global advertisers a single entry point to reach over 400 million monthly viewers.

Ampere Analysis executive Richard Broughton breaks down the wave of TV industry partnerships and M&A deals, using the TF1/Netflix tie-up as a model where streamers act as distribution partners while broadcasters retain control over content and ad relationships.

New Dentsu research suggests advertisers are underusing video for brand building, finding that connected TV performs on a par with linear TV and that even short digital video formats can drive sales growth over multiple years.

Ian Whittaker argues media strategy is about capital allocation, not TV vs YouTube. YouTube offers scale efficiency, while broadcasters provide trusted, high-attention environments; brands must balance both to maximise long-term returns.

ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Marco Giordani plans growth by tracking “total reach” across TV, streaming, partners and social platforms, aiming to match tech giants while keeping TV central for large-scale brand campaigns.

Nielsen has delayed its monthly "Gauge" viewing report after streaming clients pushed back against new measurement data that showed a dip in streaming audiences. The company will hold off on methodology changes until the autumn, aiming to avoid disruption across its increasingly diverse client base.

Two competing Australian broadcasters, Nine and Seven, have joined forces on a programmatic partnership aimed at cutting supply chain waste and directing more advertising spend toward actual media delivery.

Marketing strategist Paul Evans argues that holding groups like WPP and Publicis are making a positioning mistake by dropping the word "agency", precisely as AI gives the term a powerful new meaning.

egta and fellow TV trade groups have formally called on the EU to extend its Digital Markets Act to major CTV operating systems, citing concerns over their growing influence on content distribution and audience access.

FIFA has agreed a deal giving YouTube a prominent role in the 2026 World Cup, including broadcasters like the BBC to stream the opening ten minutes of every match on the platform. Industry analysts see this as a first step toward YouTube potentially bidding for full live rights in future tournaments.

The advertising industry is scaling AI integration fast, and despite measurement tools evolving, supply-chain opacity and cloud non-disclosure mean the industry still lacks a full picture of its carbon impact, The Media Leader has found following an investigation.

In a referendum on Sunday, Swiss voters rejected a proposal to slash public funding for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG), a vote of confidence in the public sector broadcaster.

Women’s Sport Trust’s CEO says women’s sport is delivering record broadcast audiences, wider viewer reach and growing sponsorship value. She argues that media owners, broadcasters and brands should build on that momentum through long-term investment.

Sweden's advertising industry body IAB Sweden has expelled Meta over insufficient action against fraudulent ads, with major Nordic publishers backing the decision. Advertisers are being warned about brand-safety risks on Meta's platforms.

NBCU's chief product officer says the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics marked a major step forward in programmatic and AI-driven ad buying for live sports. The broadcaster worked with seven buy-side platforms and used AI to manage 10,000 ad placements at a time.

Senior research director Maria Rua Aguete shares that the TV business has moved past the streaming wars and entered a new phase defined by partnerships between local broadcasters and global streaming platforms.

Media analyst Marion Ranchet notes that Europe does not follow the same viewing, trust or ad patterns as the US. Drawing on RTL AdAlliance’s multi-year data, she says European media strategy should be built on local behaviour.