(Image: Shutterstock/CatwalkPhotos)
I’ve written a new piece for The Drum – with thanks to John McCarthy – on why I believe the procurement-led pitch process is creaking, opening further opportunity for indie agencies who can be judged on abilities outside of a scorecard which, with the growth of Ai tools, look increasingly less insightful.
Note. Mostly Media once lost points on a procurement spreadsheet because we don’t charge for planning, the sheet wanted a number in the box and we didn’t have one!
I look forward to a world where more brands seek more conversations with more independent media agencies whose experience, care and trust can make a real difference and thanks to the rise of Pimento and Alliance of Media Independents (Martin Woolley and Paul Phelps especially) even the buying power has leveled out.
You can read the full article here.
Credit: Alex Pilkington, Director of Growth
(Image: Shutterstock/Fer Gregory)
2026 has been a pretty good year for cinema.
Not a bad turnaround for an industry plenty of people were writing off after Covid.
UK and Ireland box-office revenue reached £902.8m by the end of August – 23% ahead of 2025 and now running ahead of 2019’s pace.
August alone was up 67% year on year, helping make this the highest-grossing summer on record.
With that in mind, I consulted the respected source of my Letterboxd reviews for my top five releases of 2026 so far:
And firmly at the other end:
The End of Oak Street – 1★
A record-breaking year already for cinema – can’t wait for the second half to fully kick in.
Credit: Jonny Owen, Media Account Manager
Friday marked the 19th annual Mostly Media Charity Golf Day at the brilliant Cumberwell Park, our biggest ever, in aid of Alzheimer’s Society’s Society.
This one meant more than most. Sadly, we lost our dad to this cruel disease earlier this year. And looking around the room on Friday, it was clear just how many other families have been touched by it too.
So to raise a record £12,000 for Alzheimer’s Society was pretty special. Now, before you think… ‘another corporate golf day’, how boring… ours is a little different. Yes, we still have the obligatory middle-aged men in questionable golfing attire (looking at you Chris Wallace ). BUT this year we had more women playing in the main event than ever before, something we’re absolutely chuffed about and want to see grow every year.
And then there’s Pimm’s & Pro… 30 non-golfers + Pimm’s + golf clubs + a driving range + some increasingly nervous golf pros. What could possibly go wrong?
LIV Golf might call it growing the game.
We think people just like the craic.
Add those 30 to the 90 golfers in the main competition and we had 120 people getting involved and supporting an incredible cause.
Then came the legendary Mostly Media prize table. Thanks to the ridiculous generosity of friends and supporters of the agency, we estimate this year’s prizes were worth more than £10,000.
Special thanks to Christopher Ward for donating our star prize, a beautiful Sealander watch, which raised nearly £2,000 on its own. It was won by Phil Peachey, who judging by the photo below was absolutely devastated about it.
But the result that actually matters: £12,000 raised for Alzheimer’s Society – our biggest ever total.
And after 19 years of running this slightly chaotic golf day, we’ve now raised more than £60,000 for differing charities. That makes us incredibly proud.
Thank you to every single person who played, drank Pimm’s, donated a prize, bought a ticket, sponsored, helped organise or simply supported the day. And thank you to everyone who has supported it over the last 19 years. Next year is number 20 – we’d better make it an even bigger one.
Credit: Stu Smith, MD
When premium snack brand Forest Feast decided to make its first serious above-the-line investment in the UK market, the stakes were high, with expectations for brand-building and retail sales during the most competitive period of the year. Working with Mostly Media, Forest Feast set out to prove that a focused, data-led £200,000 budget could deliver results across brand awareness, retail footfall and online sales during the six-week Christmas 2025 window.
The Challenge
Forest Feast needed the campaign to work hard on every front. The objectives were ambitious for the budget: build brand awareness and reinforce the brand’s position as category leader in Chocolate Dipped Fruits and Nuts across five distinct regions – London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – while simultaneously driving footfall to key retail partners including Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco and Dunnes. On top of that, there was a secondary objective to drive traffic and sales through the Forest Feast website, and to do all of this within strict HFSS advertising compliance. With no prior above-the-line activity to build on, there was no room for wasted spend.
Mostly Media’s Approach
The strategy rested on three pillars: reach the right audience, extract maximum value from every pound spent, and build frequency through a coherent multi-channel mix. TGI data showed the target audience – ABC1 adults aged 25–54 –over-indexed heavily on BVoD, streaming an average of 27 hours a week, which shaped a channel architecture anchored by Channel 4 Streaming and Amazon Prime CTV, supported by YouTube, Meta, out-of-home and programmatic display.
A defining move was securing a 100% matched value deal with Channel 4, doubling the effective media weight of every pound spent on the platform. Mid-campaign, budget was reallocated toward lower-cost, non-skippable YouTube formats after they proved far more cost-efficient — delivering a CPV of just £0.008, well below the £0.02–0.03 benchmark. Out-of-home activity was concentrated in two-week bursts around key stores, while programmatic and Meta campaigns used store-proximity targeting to convert awareness into footfall. Every placement was planned around HFSS restrictions, including post-21:00 delivery for BVoD.
The Results
The campaign delivered 23.7 million total impressions and reached an estimated 60.98% of the target audience, against a total investment of £200,758.
Why The Campaign Worked
Every channel decision can be traced back to hard audience data rather than assumption. The Channel 4 value deal maximised reach without inflating cost, and the willingness to shift budget mid-flight toward better-performing formats meant the plan kept improving in real time rather than running on autopilot. Layering awareness-building formats like BVoD and YouTube with engagement-focused paid social media and store-proximity targeting meant the campaign worked the full funnel, not just the top of it.
Summing It Up
Forest Feast’s first major above-the-line campaign didn’t just meet its objectives, it exceeded every one of them, from brand awareness through to hard sales growth. It’s a clear demonstration that with sharp audience targeting, strong media partnerships and a willingness to optimise as data comes in, even a modest budget can deliver category-leading results.
2026 marks the 10-year anniversary of a phone call that turned out to be rather important for us at Mostly Media…
Back in 2016, our MD Stuart Smith took a call from the then-unknown Lee Farrer from a little-known brand called FreePrints, part of the US-based PlanetArt group.
“I’ve been recommended to talk to you about a small TV test for my brand, FreePrints. Interested in a chat?” Lee asked.
“Would love to. I’m sure we can help make this fly,” replied Stu.
And fly it did.
Over the following 10 years, that initial conversation has developed into a genuine partnership, with Mostly Media helping Lee and her team turn FreePrints into one of the UK market leaders in photo printing – and a true household name.
What started as a small, concept-proving DRTV test with just 6 million impacts over a 2 week burst has grown through years of testing, learning and evolving.
TV was followed by Radio and OOH, and more recently, online Video, BVOD and CTV. And now the journey has reached another pretty special milestone: FreePrints sponsoring one of ITV‘s flagship shows The Only Way Is Essex – or TOWIE to those in the know.
Running throughout Q4, FreePrints will sponsor the show across linear TV on ITV2, as well as current and classic seasons available to watch on ITVX.
The opportunity was brokered by Sean Japp, Director at Mostly Media, and Chris Lucas at ITV, with the sponsorship idents set to be seen more than 85 million times, reaching over 2 million people across the UK.
There’s a nice bit of Mostly history here too.
For Chris, it’s something of a full-circle moment. He knows the FreePrints brand particularly well, having started his career at Mostly Media as a TV Planner and Buyer.
As Lee put it:
“This is great – we’ve got the gang back together.”
From one speculative phone call and a small TV test to a 10-year partnership, a household-name brand and a major ITV sponsorship.
Not bad for a chat that started with: “Interested?”
Here’s to the next 10 years.
Last Friday evening James Budden and myself were lucky enough to be invited by our client Commsave Credit Union to their 35th Anniversary Gala Dinner.
The evening was a great celebration of all that Commsave have achieved in becoming one of the top credit unions in the UK, helping to serve over 40,000 members. The evening was a massive success and everyone looked like they had a great time, including us!
We were also successful in winning a Northants cricket shirt signed by David Willey in the charity silent auction. To be honest I was hoping for a bit more enthusiasm from our MD Stuart Smith when we presented him with it on Monday morning, but he seemed pleased-ish with our purchase.
Credit: Ian Young, Digital Account Director