Marketing Week

Joy is back, and this time, she’s tackling the question: how do I stay optimistic as another year fades away? ✨ In her latest column, she shares how marketers can beat end-of-year burnout by setting boundaries, focusing on what really matters, and remembering that growth doesn’t mean running faster, it means running smarter. Plus, she reminds us why a little joy (and perspective) still goes a long way in digital. 👉 Read Joy’s latest advice here: https://lnkd.in/gx7n4JAh #sponsored by IAB UK

🎄 Sainsbury's ‘The Unexpected Guest’ tops Christmas ad recognition this week Exclusive Ipsos 'Race to Christmas' data shows Sainsbury’s has surged to the most recognised festive ad among UK consumers. The latest findings for supermarket ads show: 📈 50% recognition for Sainsbury’s - up from 33% last week - after respondents identified the BFG-led ad from debranded stills 🥈 Aldi UK’s ‘pear-shaped stag do’ follows closely at 47% 🥉 Asda’s ‘A Very Merry Grinchmas’ records 45% Find out more in Grace Gollasch's story: https://lnkd.in/ehKqRbBr

🚗 New data reveals which challenger #EV brands UK drivers recognise most New YouGov research shows emerging EV brands are breaking into public consciousness far faster than expected, with Polestar and BYD leading the way. The study finds: 📊 Polestar awareness hits almost 50%, the highest among challenger EV brands 🌏 BYD follows at 20%, with JAECOO UK close behind at 17% after a “fantastic year” of visibility 💸 Price remains the top barrier (46%), followed by range, brand knowledge, peer recommendation and finance options 🎨 Among consumers already aware of these brands, design, performance and sustainability grow in importance 🏛 Reputation still matters: 58% of all drivers say it’s a key factor, rising to almost 70% among those planning to buy in the next year 📱 Younger buyers stand out: 18–34s are almost twice as likely to consider an emerging EV brand (23% vs 12% average), with TikTok playing a role in BYD’s traction 👉 Read Emily Manock's full write-up: https://lnkd.in/emsn7_wr

💼 Why “performance creatives” are suddenly in demand Two or three years ago, the term barely appeared in marketing job ads. Now, businesses from AI start-ups to global brands are hiring for performance creative roles at speed. We explore: 📌 What the role is: A hybrid sitting between creative and performance — part strategist, part analyst, part creator. 📈 Who’s hiring: Fyxer AI, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, Flo Health Inc. and UKTV are among the brands building these teams. 🧠 Why it matters: As targeting becomes more precise, creative assets need to be more varied, data-led and scalable across Meta, Google and YouTube. 👥 What skills fit: Growth marketers who are “deeply performance-minded” but also love creative craft, says Fyxer AI’s Lucy Squires. 📉 The backdrop: Brand-focused roles are shrinking, making this hybrid path a potential route for brand marketers with commercial experience. 👉 Read Molly Innes's full story: https://lnkd.in/eC5g-aaT

This week in The Marketing Week 👇  This week, we unpack Sky Sports Online and its ill-fated move to target female sports fans, take a closer look at the growth of job roles for 'performance creatives' and analyse whether Jet2.com and Jet2holidays's viral moment this summer actually had a positive impact. Plus, we analyse this year's Christmas ads, talk to B2B marketers about the challenges of solo marketing and hear from HSBC's Becky Moffat about how to build trust as a leader on the latest The Marketing Week Podcast. 📩 Subscribe for weekly updates

"Financial fluency is not about marketers becoming accountants." If I had a penny for every time I heard "learn to speak the language of finance" as advice given to marketers looking to foster a better relationship with their CFO... Trouble is, what does that mean exactly? Someone who always writes excellently on the finance/marketing relationship is Jonathan Knowles in his columns for us here at Marketing Week. This time, he has taken on the concept of "value", and how marketing and finance have different definitions of this term. While marketers see value from a consumer perspective, finance will see it from a production perspective. Read Jonathan's column (linked below) to find out more about the two definitions and how they intersect. 💡 One thing that really struck me when I was editing this one was that marketing shouldn't abandon its unique point of view when looking to "speak the language of finance". As Jonathan says: "The danger is that many marketers appear to think financial fluency means adopting finance's view of value at the expense of their own". The goal with "speaking the language of finance" is to become better-equipped to communicate marketing's contribution to the business, not to parrot finance's view of the world.

⚡ Quick wins or long-term strategy? In last year’s Marketing Week Career & Salary Survey, more than half of marketers said their business had a strategy skills gap, and 73% of CMOs said strategy wasn’t valued enough. Where do you stand? 🗣️ Have your say and take part in the 2026 Career & Salary Survey: https://lnkd.in/gUS8FMwV Peter Wright Dan Roche Martin Nance Lauren Spearman Helen Edwards Taide Guajardo Jon Evans

💪 The power of Steam and Meta survives a break-up Here’s what you need to know in tech this week: 👉 Valve corporation announces a new Steam Machine console, looking to build on Steam Deck success and challenge the dominance of Sony and Microsoft - but marketing investment may be the missing piece. 👉 Meta wins its FTC monopoly case in the US, with a judge ruling it no longer dominates the social networking market, protecting its ad business from being split up. 👉 AI ads outperform in early testing, with System1 data showing strong results versus traditional campaigns, though experts caution sample sizes are still too small to draw big conclusions. Dive in deeper: https://lnkd.in/eJnXXYVr

✈️ How Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’s accidental TikTok virality reshaped its brand Even just two seconds on TikTok this summer, and “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” would have been playing rent-free in your head, but the moment was entirely accidental. CEO Steve Heapy says the unexpected virality proved “hugely beneficial”, especially among younger audiences. The analysis shows: 📊 80bn global views across 11.8m posts, with Hold My Hand crowned TikTok’s global Song of the Summer 2025 📈 Awareness surge: Among 18–49s, awareness rose from 79% → 93%; ad awareness from 19.9% → 55.7% 💼 Commercial lift: 14.09m passengers (+750k YoY), loyalty up 62% to 8.4m, revenue at £5.34bn ⚠️ But mixed perceptions: Quality scores fell from +17.7% → +7.2%, with reputation also declining 👉 Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/efM3eyXf

"Fundamentally, great leadership is all about building trust. And I think it's also about clarity, capability and motivation." Becky Moffat, chief customer officer for retail banking and wealth at HSBC UK, shares her lessons in leadership with The Marketing Week Podcast. She highlights: 🤝 Why trust is the foundation of effective leadership 📈 How her remit has expanded from CMO to CCO, and what's changed 🏛 How HSBC's "communities of practice" team structure helps put customers first Listen to the full episode: Apple: https://lnkd.in/eAhyx86E Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eu8XjTFu YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eQQM8WZ9 This episode was recorded live at Marketing Week's Festival of Marketing with 18Sixty.