Understanding what separates high-performing agencies

The benchmarking data offered a clear view of the key metrics shaping agency success, including  growth, hourly rates, profit, cash, and confidence for the year ahead.

A consistent theme was the widening gap between top-performing agencies and the rest. The strongest businesses are not just growing faster, they are operating with greater discipline, charging more confidently for their work and building more sustainable models.

There was a clear message that success is becoming less about scale alone, and more about how effectively agencies manage and monetise their time and expertise.

Profitability is recovering, but still under pressure

While profitability across the sector is showing signs of improvement, agencies continue to face sustained pressure from rising costs, tighter client budgets and increasing delivery expectations.

The discussion highlighted that many agencies are still underpricing their work or failing to fully understand their true cost base. As a result, revenue growth does not always translate into improved profit.

• Top tip: focus on real utilisation, not just capacity. Understanding how much of your team’s time is genuinely billable, and at what rate, is critical to protecting margin.
  

Moving from volume to value

One of the strongest themes from the session was the shift away from volume-driven growth towards value-led models.

Agencies that are clearly positioned, with a defined specialism or expertise, are better able to command premium pricing and build stronger client relationships. In contrast, those trying to be everything to everyone often face increased price sensitivity and lower margins.

• Top tip: be known for something specific or aim to specialise in 2 – 5 services. A clearly defined proposition makes it easier to sell, price and scale.

Pricing confidence remains a key opportunity

Pricing continues to be one of the biggest levers for improving profitability, yet many agencies remain hesitant to increase rates.

The data suggests that top-performing agencies are more confident in how they price their services, often moving away from time-based models towards value-based approaches.

• Top tip: review pricing regularly and do not be afraid to adjust. Small increases, applied consistently, can have a significant impact on overall profitability.

From elusive creativity to structured methodology

A particularly interesting part of the discussion focused on the industry’s historic reliance on “elusive creativity” and the shift towards more structured, repeatable ways of working.

While creativity remains at the heart of agency value, the highest-performing agencies are increasingly systemising how that creativity is delivered. This means building clear processes, frameworks and methodologies that can be applied consistently across clients and projects.

Rather than relying on unpredictable bursts of inspiration, agencies are creating environments where strong ideas can be developed more reliably, efficiently and at scale.

• Top tip: codify your approach. Turning your thinking into a clear methodology not only improves delivery, it strengthens your proposition and makes your offer easier to sell.

AI adoption is accelerating, but strategy comes first

AI was a key area of discussion, with many agencies already integrating tools into their workflows to improve efficiency and output. However, still only 15% of those surveyed are utilising AI right the way across the business. 

In addition, the session reinforced that simply adopting AI is not enough. The real opportunity lies in how it is embedded into the agency’s proposition and commercial model.

Top tip: review all your workflows. How can you make them AI-first, with human oversight? Think about how this impacts your people structure, both now and over the next three years.

Building for long-term value

A final theme centred on building agencies with long-term value in mind. This includes improving profitability, strengthening leadership, creating scalable structures and reducing reliance on individual clients or revenue streams.

The agencies performing best today are making deliberate decisions about who they work with, how they deliver services and where they invest for the future.

• Top tip: think beyond short-term revenue. Building a resilient, well-structured business will always outperform quick wins over time.

Key takeaways

• High-performing agencies focus on efficiency, not just growth
• Profitability is improving, but requires active management
• Strong positioning enables better pricing and client relationships
• Moving from creative reliance to structured methodology improves consistency and scale
• Pricing confidence is a major opportunity for many agencies
• AI should be integrated strategically to enhance value
• Long-term thinking is critical to building a sustainable agency

Take the next step

If you want to dive deeper into the data and see how your agency compares, download the full BenchPress report from The WOW Company. It is the most comprehensive view of agency performance available and offers practical insights you can apply immediately.

You can also benchmark your own business using The Wow Way to Profit™. In just a few minutes, you will get a clearer picture of your profitability, where the gaps are, and where the biggest opportunities lie to improve performance and long-term value.

News

That is exactly where the IPM’s experiential work has been focused. Through its communities, the IPM has been building a stronger foundation for the sector, bringing together different skillsets and perspectives to create positive change across promotional marketing. The experiential community in particular has been centred on common workstreams including measurement, effectiveness, best practice resources and training, all designed to help the industry speak with greater clarity and confidence.

One of the clearest examples of that work is CORE, the insight platform launched by the IPM and SpaceandPeople to help brands and agencies access better experiential data. Developed in response to the need for stronger metrics and benchmarks, CORE gives campaign teams access to live activation insights across areas such as footfall, distribution and sign up performance, helping make experiential easier to plan, optimise and defend.

An iconic venue for an industry built on experience

The choice of venue feels fitting. Located beneath one of Europe’s largest advertising screens. The Venue at Piccadilly Lights is built for immersive brand storytelling. Landsec describes it as a brand performance space at the centre of everything, while venue materials position it as a place where brands can craft campaigns with global impact and transform stories into experiences at one of the busiest and most culturally resonant locations in London.

For an event focused on the future of experiential, there could hardly be a better backdrop. It combines scale, visibility and flexibility with the kind of theatre that reflects the ambition of the industry itself.

More than an event

The IPM hopes The Experiential Expo will become a staple in the calendar for marketers, agencies and partners working in live brand experience. More than a one off event, it is intended as a platform the industry can build on year after year, evolving alongside the sector and helping accelerate its growth, recognition and long term impact.

For the IPM, that sits squarely within its wider role as the UK’s leading authority on promotional marketing, supporting the industry through standards, insight, guidance, legal support, training and community. The Expo brings those strengths into a space that feels especially timely: one where creativity, measurement, conversation and commercial relevance need to work hand in hand.

Join us at Piccadilly Lights

The Experiential Expo takes place on 24 June 2026 at The Venue at Piccadilly Lights, Piccadilly Circus, London, W1D 7ET

Further details on speakers, sessions and opportunities to get involved will be announced soon.

Interested in attending, partnering, or becoming part of the IPM’s experiential community?

IPM Member get access to exclusive tickets. Please contact jodyb@theipm.org.uk to redeem. Get in touch with the IPM team to find out more at info@theipm.org.uk.

When Collectability Meets Compliance

If you’ve been anywhere near a McDonald’s recently, you’ll have seen it: customers opening packs at tables, comparing duplicates, and working out whether they’re one card away from something bigger. It’s a familiar behaviour, but with a slightly new twist. This time, it’s CARDS; a nationwide collectable promotion built around nostalgia, brand equity and just enough gamification to keep people coming back.

On the surface, it’s simple. Buy a qualifying product, receive a pack of cards, and start collecting. Some cards deliver instant rewards, others contribute to completing sets that unlock prizes. But as with any promotion that combines purchase, chance and reward, the simplicity is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Because underneath it sits a structure that has clearly been built with the CAP Code front of mind.

The key here is that this is not a lottery. UK promotional marketing rules are very clear on that distinction. Where chance and payment are both present, you’re immediately in risky territory unless you introduce mitigating mechanics. McDonald’s leans into a well-established promotional format: a blend of instant wins and collect-to-complete sets. That hybrid approach helps ensure the campaign sits comfortably within permitted promotional frameworks rather than drifting into something that could be interpreted as an illegal lottery. It’s not new, but that’s exactly the point. Familiar mechanics are often the safest ones, both from a legal standpoint and in terms of consumer understanding.

From an ASA perspective, what matters most is clarity and expectation. Consumers need to understand what they’re getting into: how to participate, what they can realistically win, and how difficult it might be to do so. Collectable campaigns inherently manage this quite well. There’s an implicit understanding that completing a full set is challenging, particularly where rarity tiers are involved. That works in McDonald’s favour. Rather than overpromising easy wins, the campaign leans into the idea of collectability and chance in a way that feels transparent. That balance is crucial because misleading consumers about their likelihood of winning, even unintentionally, is where brands tend to run into trouble.

There’s also the broader question of gamification. Promotions like this are designed to encourage repeat behaviour, and that always raises the question of where the line sits between engagement and undue pressure. In this case, the structure helps again. The inclusion of smaller, instant-win rewards creates a sense of accessibility, while the larger prizes sit behind more complex collection mechanics. That layering reduces the risk of the campaign being seen as exploitative or overly reliant on repeated purchasing to achieve an outcome. It’s a subtle point, but an important one in the current regulatory climate where the ASA is increasingly attentive to how promotional mechanics influence consumer behaviour.

Then there’s the data piece, which is often less visible but just as important. Campaigns like this no longer operate in isolation; they tend to connect with apps, digital journeys, or redemption platforms. That opens the door to valuable first-party data, but it also brings GDPR squarely into the conversation. Any data capture needs to be transparent, proportionate and clearly linked to the purpose of the promotion. Participation shouldn’t hinge on unnecessary data collection, and consumers need to understand exactly what they’re opting into. The strongest campaigns are the ones that offer a clear value exchange; if consumers feel they’re getting something meaningful in return, engagement follows naturally, but the compliance obligations don’t go away.

Of course, the real backbone of any promotion like this lies in the terms and conditions. That’s where the campaign either stands up or falls down. Eligibility, prize descriptions, availability, redemption mechanics, deadlines; all of it needs to be watertight and aligned with what’s being communicated publicly. With a campaign at this scale, even small ambiguities can quickly escalate. The fact that McDonald’s continues to run and evolve these kinds of promotions is a good indication of how much rigour is going on behind the scenes.

What’s particularly interesting about CARDS is that it shows how compliance and creativity aren’t opposing forces. In reality, the constraints of the regulatory framework are part of what shapes the campaign into something that works. The gamification is controlled, the messaging is clear, the mechanics are familiar, and the risk is managed without stripping out the fun. That’s not easy to achieve.

Promotional marketing always sits in that tension between excitement and regulation. Push too far, and you risk falling foul of the rules; play it too cautiously, and the campaign loses its impact. What McDonald’s has done here is find a balance that feels engaging without being misleading, and commercially effective without being non-compliant. From a compliance perspective, that’s exactly where you want to be, even if most consumers never realise just how much thought has gone into keeping it that way.

What Brits Want from Promotions 3.0 Recap

Promotions are not fading into the background. They are still one of the clearest ways brands can drive action, reward loyalty and stay visible in a crowded market. But as the IPM’s latest webinar with Mando made clear, the promotions that cut through in 2026 are not simply the loudest. They are the ones built around what people actually want.

Drawing on fresh YouGov data and Mando’s own campaign performance insight, What Brits Want from Promotions 3.0 offered a timely look at how British consumers really think, feel and behave when it comes to promotions. The session moved beyond the usual question of whether promotions still work. The answer to that was clear from the outset. They do. The more useful question was why they work, what shapes participation, and how marketers can build stronger campaigns from that insight.

The headline picture was hard to ignore. Brits continue to see promotions as a positive part of the brand experience, with strong appeal and rising participation showing that this remains a highly effective part of the marketing mix. In a climate where brands are under pressure to prove value quickly, that matters.

Why people still engage

What stood out in the discussion was not just that people like promotions, but why. Brits engage because promotions still feel like a smart choice. They like getting a good deal, getting something for nothing, and feeling they have little to lose by taking part. That sense of savviness remains a powerful driver, and it gives marketers a useful lens through which to judge their own work.

If the value exchange is not obvious, consumers quickly lose interest. If the mechanic feels overcomplicated, the entry route feels too long, or the reward does not justify the effort, the campaign starts to weaken. The promotions that perform best are often the ones that make the benefit feel immediate and the path to entry feel easy.

That fed directly into one of the webinar’s most practical themes. For all the appetite for innovation, the mechanics that continue to perform strongly are still grounded in tangible value. Money off, cashback and gift with purchase remain highly appealing, while instant win and prize draws continue to hold their own. The point was not that brands should avoid trying something new. It was that consumers make a fast calculation about whether a promotion feels worth their time, and value still tends to win.

The same logic carried through into rewards. Money and offers remain the most wanted prize types, ahead of more elaborate or aspirational options. One of the more useful observations from the session was that the biggest sounding reward is not always the one that works hardest. Holidays and vehicles may carry headline appeal, but practical realities can quickly dilute that. The strongest reward is often the one that feels most relevant, easiest to enjoy and simplest to redeem.

Where promotions work harder

Another strong thread running through the webinar was communication, and more specifically, where promotions actually get noticed. Email and social media both continue to play an important role, but on-pack still stands out as one of the strongest drivers of engagement. That is an important reminder at a time when so much attention is focused on digital channels alone.

On pack does more than capture attention at the shelf. It reinforces the promotion again during consumption, giving brands another moment to prompt action. Mando’s data also showed that removing the on-pack can significantly reduce participation, underlining just how valuable that physical touchpoint remains. For promotional marketers, it was a useful reminder that owned and controllable channels still do a great deal of heavy lifting.

The webinar also made a compelling case for thinking longer term. Repeat promotions are not necessarily a sign of creative fatigue. In many cases, they are a sign that a campaign has the foundations to keep building. Once a mechanic has been developed, tested and understood, brands are in a stronger position to refine it, while consumers are more likely to recognise it and engage with confidence. Familiarity, when handled well, can become a real advantage.

That thinking also applies to loyalty. Consumers already in loyalty programmes are more likely to engage with promotions and more likely to view them as a positive reward from brands. That creates a clear opportunity for marketers to stop treating promotions and loyalty as separate tracks. Used together, they can strengthen retention, add value for members and create more meaningful reasons to stay engaged.

One of the freshest parts of the webinar was the focus on gamification. More than half of Brits now take part in gamified promotions, and Mando’s own performance data suggests that these mechanics can lift engagement and repeat entries significantly. That does not mean every campaign needs to become a game, but it does speak to the value of interaction, anticipation and enjoyment within the entry experience. When participation feels more engaging, consumers are more likely to stay with it.

The session closed on an important point. Promotions do more than create a short-term spike. They can increase trial, improve noticeability, encourage spend and shopping frequency, and support recommendation, loyalty and emotional connection too. That broader impact matters because it positions promotions not just as a tactical sales lever but as a more strategic tool within the brand mix.

Questions from the webinar

The questions at the end of the session helped shift the discussion from what Brits want from promotions to what marketers should do with that insight.

One of the strongest points raised was how brands balance short-term impact with longer-term brand building. Charlie Hills’ response was a useful reminder that it is less about choosing one over the other and more about being clear on the objective from the start. A promotion designed to drive trial can still lay the foundations for a longer relationship if brands think carefully about the experience, the reward and what will bring people back.

There was also a practical question around simplicity. Mark Lewis explained that many of the biggest issues still happen in the route to entry. A campaign can have a strong prize and good creative, but if the process feels too long or fragmented, people drop away. His advice was to keep the journey smooth, reduce unnecessary steps, and use tools like URNs where they can make participation easier while still proving purchase.

Another useful question asked what marketers should take from this year’s findings. Beccy Purvis brought it back to the fundamentals: clear value and simplicity still matter most. That means designing promotions that feel easy to enter, rewarding to take part in, and worthwhile beyond a single headline prize.

The final audience question touched on the meaning of “promotions” itself. Charlie made the point that it is more useful to think broadly. Promotions are not one narrow mechanic. They stretch from money off and cashback through to gamified experiences, loyalty-led activity and hybrid models that blend several elements together.

Taken together, the Q and A gave the webinar a useful closing note. Promotions remain highly effective, but the discussion underlined that strong results depend on smart design, clear objectives and a broad view of what promotions can do.

The takeaway

So what did the webinar tell us? Promotions remain one of the most effective and adaptable tools available to marketers, but the strongest results come when campaigns are built around real consumer behaviour rather than assumptions. Brits want promotions that feel easy, worthwhile and rewarding. For brands, that means reducing friction, choosing mechanics and rewards carefully, and designing campaigns that work harder over time.

Watch the full webinar on demand
IPM members can access and watch the full webinar on demand via the IPM Members Area.

If you are planning an upcoming promotion, whether it is UK only or running internationally, the IPM Legal Advisory Service can help you get it right from the start. Available to both members and non members, our team can sense check mechanics, strengthen Terms and Conditions, and flag the key compliance risks before you launch. Get in touch with the IPM to discuss how we can support your next campaign.

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Start with the markets, then build the mechanic

The strongest theme throughout the session was sequencing. The safest approach is to confirm where you are running, then shape the mechanic around what those markets allow and expect.

That matters because “game of chance” and “game of skill” can be treated very differently depending on the jurisdiction. Some markets push teams towards genuine skill-based entry, while others allow chance mechanics but introduce administrative steps that change your timeline.

The practical takeaway: if you start by forcing the same mechanic everywhere, you risk retrofitting compliance later. That is when budgets, timelines, and comms get squeezed.

Be precise on chance versus skill, because design details change compliance

Zoe highlighted how small creative choices can shift the regulatory profile of a campaign. If a market expects a true game of skill, the details matter, including how questions work, how ties are resolved, and how judging is organised.

This has real operational impact. Judging criteria, local language considerations, and winner contact windows all need to be defined upfront, particularly when entry volumes are hard to predict.

A useful mindset from the webinar: treat “skill” as a format you must be able to defend, not just a label you apply.

Timelines are not uniform, and filings can be the hidden blocker

A recurring theme was lead time. Some jurisdictions require pre-launch filings, permits, or documentation that is easy to underestimate if you are used to UK norms.

The session explored examples where documentation and process expectations can bring in fixed deadlines ahead of launch, and where winner selection requirements and local oversight can remove flexibility later in the campaign.

The practical takeaway: build a timeline that is market-led, not campaign-led. If you want one European launch date, you need to work backwards from the slowest moving jurisdiction.

Translation came up as a real risk point, not just a production detail. Once Terms and Conditions are submitted for translation, changing clauses later can mean rework, delays, and cost.

In practice, that means teams benefit from locking core mechanics, key terms, and local compliance requirements before translation begins. It also means aligning internal stakeholders early, because “one more tweak” after translation starts can have a disproportionate impact.

The webinar also covered how tax can affect promotions, particularly where games of chance attract different tax treatments to games of skill.

This is where early scoping pays off. If tax is triggered, who pays it can vary. That single question can affect your prize pool budget, finance approvals, and how you communicate prize receipt and any conditions to winners.

The practical takeaway: treat tax as a scoping question at the start, not a finance check at the end.

Fulfilment is part of compliance, and prize design needs local common sense

Gemma brought the delivery lens to life with a simple but powerful point: even when a prize concept looks universal, what feels desirable and workable can vary market by market.

Travel and experience prizes were a strong example. Factors like journey time, practical durations, local preferences, insurance expectations, and what is considered a complete prize in a given market all influence suitability.

The operational takeaway: the best European prize pools are designed for local reality, not just headline appeal.

Geography matters too. London remains “the core destination for experiential”, she says, spanning everything from major railway station frontage to the South Bank and Covent Garden. “Activating in London is a sign of confidence and of intent,” she adds. Manchester is the “very clear second city”, and she notes it has now crept past Birmingham for the first time, helped by strong student numbers and a reputation as a place brand can trial formats before rolling them out nationwide. Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool form the next tier, and venue-wise, shopping centres and travel hubs are “evenly split at the top”, with universities also a consistent part of the mix.

One of Nancy’s clearest signals for 2026 sits in tech and streaming, where brands are using live space to make the intangible tangible. She lists names including Samsung, Netflix, Audible, Virgin, Spotify, Adobe, Google and Disney+, and argues that “giving consumers a hands-on experience seems to be the route moving forward for tech brands”. Samsung is her headline example, “a huge campaign with 84 bookings”, spanning 57 venues in 27 cities and 297 live activations. The same instinct is driving newer names into the real world too, with OpenAI launching ChatGPT’s first large-scale brand campaign, signalling that tech brands are increasingly building familiarity through physical presence. For Nancy, it all reinforces the wider shift: “experiential is being planned less as a one-off and more as a scalable, repeatable system”.

“Some markets will require individual prize inclusion, such as spending money, travel insurance, additional nights due to flight connections, and travel time.”

So what did the webinar tell us?

Across the session, the message was clear: getting comfortable running promotions in Europe comes down to planning for difference, not hoping for uniformity. Sam set the scene by reframing Europe as a collection of jurisdictions with distinct expectations, while Zoe brought the practical reality to life, from the chance-versus-skill question and the impact of filings and lead times to the hidden cost drivers like tax and translation.

Gemma’s fulfilment lens reinforced that prize design is only as strong as its local suitability, and that details such as travel time, insurance, spending money, and market-specific inclusions can shape both compliance and consumer experience.

The result is a simple takeaway for teams scoping multi-market activity: start with where you are running, build a realistic timeline around the slowest market, lock your Terms and Conditions early, and treat fulfilment as a core part of the promotional plan, not an afterthought.

Watch the full webinar on demand
IPM members can access and watch the full webinar on demand via the IPM Members Area.

If you are planning an upcoming promotion, whether it is UK only or running internationally, the IPM Legal Advisory Service can help you get it right from the start. Available to both members and non members, our team can sense check mechanics, strengthen Terms and Conditions, and flag the key compliance risks before you launch. Get in touch with the IPM to discuss how we can support your next campaign.

News

Superman vs AI Slop

2025 told marketers to look up. Not just because DC perched an 11-foot Superman on The Shard, but because Merriam-Webster named ‘slop’ its Word of the Year, says IPM host Harry Kelf. But while TikTok Shop clocked its biggest UK sales day to date on Black Friday, promotions stayed central to winning the supermarket basket. Kantar reported that close to £3 in every £10 spent on groceries went on promotion, while the IPA Bellwether continued to show budgets shifting towards activity that feels trackable, targetable and tangible.

One of the clearest proofs of object storytelling came from Guinness. “Pint of View” put 2.5 million beer mats out as a literal lens on life, built to spark sharing, and the Guinnbrella extended the same logic further with a pocket-sized prop designed to protect your pint from the rain. Then came Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club, with hand-knitted postbox toppers and even a knitted billboard, because when everything looks instantly generated, “made by hand” signals trust, effort and character.

“Another telling signal this year was structural,” says Harry, citing The Wall Street Journal report that found LinkedIn job postings mentioning “storyteller” have doubled year-on-year into the tens of thousands across marketing and comms. But the bigger shift, he says, is how these stories are being told; “treating the audience not as a customer, but as the main character”. Boots staged its Beauty House Party for Gen Z to rekindle relevance, while partnerships kept supplying plot twists, from Babybel × Stranger Things taking over Wycombe Caves to Pringles × Super Mario turning the pack into play through limited-edition tubes and “mystery flavour” guessing.

“These stories don’t live in one channel anymore,” Harry adds, as the lines between disciplines continue to blur. Uber Eats’ King’s Cross “Do Nothing for 60 Seconds” started as a live dare and ended in-app through rewards, while Lucozade’s Ice Kick Vault used social clues from creators to pull people into a real-world treasure hunt for prizes and new product access. Selleys then turned an OOH billboard into a hands on demo for Liquid Nails glue, strapping a kayak, an arcade machine and even a mounted marlin to the frame and telling the public, “If you can take it, it’s yours.” People pulled, tugged and attacked, and nothing budged. The billboard became a battleground, and failure was the product proof.

Protein to Fibre, The Functional Era

“The good news for 2025,” Danielle Horsley (Elephants Can’t Jump) told the room, “Is that food and drink is adapting for the better.” Her clearest headline was functional foods, a market she said is projected to grow by around 8% year on year, as shoppers keep reaching for products that promise an outcome, not just a flavour. “Shoppers are choosing products that promise an outcome, not just a flavour,” she explained, and protein is the cleanest proof point. It “continues to power on” but no longer lives in shakes and gym culture. It is creeping into everyday formats, from lattes and breakfast through to pasta and convenience. M&S is the proof point she uses to show the pace. Demand has been strong enough for the retailer to double its protein ready-meals range.

Fibre, she suggests, is the next cue to follow that trajectory, with high-fibre claims up around 30% year on year in France and elsewhere in Europe, and new formats like Fibre Up turning fibre into a drinkable routine. The same “useful wins” logic shows up in how brands talk, too, from Graza labelling oils by how you cook with them, to Waitrose using recipe prompts at shelf, to Napolina demystifying chopped tomato formats. Even challenger growth fits the pattern. Heritage brands like Lurpak are being “nipped at the heels” by names like All Things Butter, Tony’s Chocolonely and Trip, winning by being clearer and more specific about the role they play in everyday life.

She also flags a renewed pull towards “local” and “seasonal” as a trust cue, pointing to British strawberries now being available all year round, with The Summer Berry Company in the Midlands using advanced growing tech, including LED lighting, to protect taste and quality while keeping supply closer to home.

Danielle’s final point is that indulgence has not disappeared, but it is changing, fast. “You can’t really talk about indulgence without talking about weight-loss drugs,” she said, pointing to around 2.5 million people in the UK now using them, with roughly a million starting in the last six months and pill formats likely widening uptake again. The impact is not simply people “treating less”, she argued, but cravings shifting, with smaller portions and smaller snacking rising, and a predicted 5% drop in the sugary indulgence market as an early directional signal. Her takeaway for marketers is clear. If indulgence is becoming more intentional, brands have to become more useful, with clearer end-benefit and usage-led communication that helps shoppers choose quickly and use products with confidence.

Where Experiential Won in 2025

Speaking from SpaceandPeople’s vantage point, Nancy Cullen puts a clear number on the scale of the market. The team books “about £10 million worth of space alone, per annum”, and their year-on-year growth reinforces the same direction of travel. Brands are still choosing live activity, she says, because it puts them “face to face with consumers” and creates the kind of “emotional connection” other channels struggle to replicate.

Her story of 2025 starts with what she calls “a big upswing in sampling”. At major UK railway stations, she says teams can be distributing up to 40,000 samples a day, spanning customer acquisition, pop-up retail and live stunts. That growth cuts across categories, from household products and pet food through to high-end beauty and wellness. Beauty is the standout in her data. Space and People “doubled the number of beauty bookings in H2”, and Nancy frames it as brands using experiential to drive footfall, build confidence quickly and sell directly from the stand, from premium players through to Maybelline, L’Oréal and Soap and Glory.

Geography matters too. London remains “the core destination for experiential”, she says, spanning everything from major railway station frontage to the South Bank and Covent Garden. “Activating in London is a sign of confidence and of intent,” she adds. Manchester is the “very clear second city”, and she notes it has now crept past Birmingham for the first time, helped by strong student numbers and a reputation as a place brand can trial formats before rolling them out nationwide. Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool form the next tier, and venue-wise, shopping centres and travel hubs are “evenly split at the top”, with universities also a consistent part of the mix.

One of Nancy’s clearest signals for 2026 sits in tech and streaming, where brands are using live space to make the intangible tangible. She lists names including Samsung, Netflix, Audible, Virgin, Spotify, Adobe, Google and Disney+, and argues that “giving consumers a hands-on experience seems to be the route moving forward for tech brands”. Samsung is her headline example, “a huge campaign with 84 bookings”, spanning 57 venues in 27 cities and 297 live activations. The same instinct is driving newer names into the real world too, with OpenAI launching ChatGPT’s first large-scale brand campaign, signalling that tech brands are increasingly building familiarity through physical presence. For Nancy, it all reinforces the wider shift: “experiential is being planned less as a one-off and more as a scalable, repeatable system”.

“One of the clearest signals for 2026 sits in tech and streaming, where brands are using live space to make the intangible feel human and hands on.”

Same Rules, Different Mood

If Danielle and Nancy mapped where promotions grew in 2025, Sam Winterbourne (IPM) closed the session by showing where tolerance tightened. His one-line summary was simple: “Same rules, very different mood.” It was not about shiny new rules, but new expectations. Promotions now sit at the crossroads of data capture, retail media, influencer content and real-world mechanics, so a single campaign can invite scrutiny from multiple angles at once. CAP’s message was clear: using AI does not outsource responsibility, and “the AI wrote it” is not a defence if a claim is misleading, exaggerated, unverifiable or simply wrong.

He also flagged how regulators are scaling enforcement. The ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system scanned 28 million ads in 2024 and is on track to reach 50 million a year by the end of 2025. In parallel, its influencer disclosure work found only around 57% of influencer ads were properly disclosed, which is progress, but still not the level of compliance regulators want to see.

The main course was always HFSS and less healthy food, which Sam called “the regulatory elephant in the room.” After the ASA’s updated guidance in December, his message was direct: “The preparation phase is over.” In Sam’s view, the real test is recognisability. If an asset is recognisable to the average consumer, the rules are likely to apply, and it is rarely just about a pack shot. Branding, colourways, mascots and taglines can pull you into scope even when the product itself is not front and centre.

He described October’s voluntary phase as polarising. Some brands moved early into brand-only territory, with legacy names like Cadbury leaning into the milk bottle and the colour purple rather than the bar itself. Others treated it as a last push before January, a “last hurrah” to maximise share while they still could. Sam’s warning was simple. A last hurrah does not disappear when January arrives. It becomes the evidence of how you chose to behave when the industry was asked to move.

“The practical test is recognisability. If an asset looks, sounds, or even feels like a less healthy product to the average consumer, the rules can bite. It is not just pack shots that trigger scope.”

That’s a Wrap!

Promotions Wrapped 2025 brought the year into focus through three practical lenses. From Guinness turning a beer mat into media you can hold, to protein moving into everyday formats and fibre starting to climb, to the proof points behind experiential’s momentum in stations, cities and scalable programmes, the common thread was clear. The work that wins now is built to be useful, tangible and accountable, and 2026 planning starts with the detail, especially with HFSS tightening from 5 January. Thank you to Danielle Horsley, Nancy Cullen and Sam Winterbourne for helping shape the landscape we are heading into, and for pinning down what changed, not just what happened. If you missed the session, or want to replay the examples and case studies, the full webinar is available now on the IPM Member Dashboard. And with 2026 around the corner, this is the perfect moment to turn 2025’s wrap into a sharper plan for the year ahead. We look forward to seeing you at our next IPM webinar.

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January 29, 2024

Breaking a Sweat in the Metaverse

Imagine stepping into a gym, but instead of the usual clunky machines and rows of weights, you find yourself in a 2×2 meter space with a headset on. Sounds like a sci-fi movie, right? Well, this could be a peak into the future of home fitness thanks to a unique collaboration between Meta Quest and Puma.

Meta Quest (formerly Facebook), and Puma have joined forces to create ‘The World’s Smallest Gym.’ Virtual fitness is the latest trend in exercise that blends the real world with virtual environments using Mixed Reality technology. Visitors to ‘The World’s Smallest Gym’ can choose from a range of immersive fitness experiences, including boxing, HIIT, Zumba, yoga, and more, all within the confines of a specially designed 2×2 meter space.

“This is a dream collaboration between two iconic brands in their fields. Mixed reality has the ability to change the way people work out, making it more accessible, more fun, and easier to stick to.”

Jonathan Deeb, CCO at BBDO Germany

Meet Your Virtual Trainer: Dennis Schröder

Meta Quest and Puma enlisted the help of none other than NBA superstar, Dennis Schröder. With Schröder by your side (virtually, of course), you’ll discover how the Meta Quest 3 headset can transform a compact space into a fitness playground. The creative elements of this campaign are orchestrated by BBDO Germany and AMV BBDO London, and the media mix includes wild postering, editorial partnerships, social media collaborations, influencer partnerships, and shareable content from training sessions.

“Fitness is some of the most important content on Meta Quest 3, and we are excited to partner with Puma, a brand that our German audience loves and trusts.”

Judith Hülshoff, Marketing Manager for Germany at Meta Quest 3

Is Virtual Fitness Here to Stay?

Virtual fitness is exciting, no doubt about it. But the million-dollar question is, can it keep us hooked in the long run? Gyms aren’t just about exercise; they’re also about the social aspect – the camaraderie, the competition, the post-workout high. Can virtual fitness provide the same sense of community? Wii Sports brought stay-at-home fitness into the gaming arena but ultimately faded into obscurity. Peloton also rose to stardom and fell due to post-pandemic challenges. As big brands like Dolce & Gabbana and Puma wade into Meta’s waters, the future of fitness is uncertain. Will we all be working out in virtual worlds? Only time will tell.

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3rd January 2023

In December 2023, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) unveiled a comprehensive five-year strategy that sets the stage for AI-assisted regulation, collective ad oversight, environmental protection, and the trajectory of ad regulation in the years to come. This six-strand approach promises to strongly influence agencies and brands engaged in promotional marketing activities. Join us as we delve deeper into the ASA’s strategic pillars and their implications for the world of promotional marketing. 

Planet and Environmental Commitment 

The ASA’s climate strategy aligns with the UK, Welsh, and Northern Irish Governments’ commitment to net zero by 2050, with a 78% reduction by 2035, and the Scottish Government’s target for 2045. They acknowledge the pivotal role advertising plays in addressing the climate crisis and view advertising as part of the solution rather than a problem. Yet as part of the ASA’s focus on the environment, marketers running promotional marketing campaigns related to eco-friendly products or sustainability will face greater scrutiny. The ASA’s Climate Change and Environment project will specifically target promotions with misleading green claims. Marketers must ensure that their promotional materials accurately represent their environmental commitments and product claims to avoid regulatory action. This is especially important in sectors critical to environmental goals, such as housing and transport. Additionally, the ASA has set ambitious objectives for its own Net Zero plan, striving to achieve net zero emissions by 2030 at the latest.

Online Advertising Regulation 

The ASA recognises that people are spending increasing amounts of time online, and businesses are dedicating more resources to online advertising than ever before. While businesses bear primary responsibility for the content of their ads, there is a growing expectation within UK society that the all parties involved in the online advertising supply chain should play a more substantial role in upholding the rules. With rapid technological advancements, such as connected TVs and generative artificial intelligence, the ASA is challenged to regulate a complex and changing landscape. Yet despite this challenge, they expect to process over three million ads through their Active Ad Monitoring system, enhancing compliance reporting, and addressing irresponsible online ads more effectively. 

“We will not necessarily wait for complaints to be made against a brand before taking action” 

Guy Parker, the CEO of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)​​. 

Awareness and Industry Collaboration 

The ASA is also looking to deepen its relationship with major online platforms such as Google, Instagram, Amazon, and Facebook to ensure their regulations apply across those advertising platforms. The emphasis on a collective approach may lead to closer cooperation between organisations in addressing issues related to promotions, particularly in areas like Less Healthy Food promotions, where major legislation is set to be enacted. To help solve cross-border issues, the ASA will engage with supranational organisations, through membership of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) and International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS).  

Operational Transformation 

The ASA’s operational transformation strategy is leveraging AI and data science to hit the three million ad target, alongside addressing the complex and growing nature of online advertising. The AI-assisted monitoring will likely result in quicker identification and removal of misleading or irresponsible online promotions however it raises questions about the ability of algorithms to contextually understand and accurately regulate nuanced advertising content. To this point, Guy Parker comments:  

“You don’t press a button for the machine to tell you whether the arguments and evidence are good enough. Judgement still must come into it. We need to be proactive in making sure we’re setting the rules in the right place in these sorts of areas”​​. 

Guy Parker, the CEO of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) 

The ASA’s 2024-2028 strategy will undoubtedly shape the landscape of promotional marketing activities in the UK. Brands and agencies must align their practices with the ASA’s evolving regulations, emphasising responsibility, transparency, and adherence to environmental commitments. Nevertheless, unanswered questions linger, particularly regarding the practical implementation of the ASA’s strategy, its implications for cross-border advertising and whether their stated targets are achievable. As technology continues to advance, the advertising industry must remain adaptable and responsive to changing ASA standards, with a shared goal of ensuring responsible and ethical promotional practices. 

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