Data: 2025 budgets and priorities for UK marketers
November 26, 2024

AudienceXpress, a Comcast Company and video sales house, has revealed findings from the fifth iteration of its Streaming TV Uncovered study, (previously Advanced TV Uncovered) conducted by independent media research firm CoLab Media Consulting.
The study explored UK marketers’ spending plans and objectives for the year ahead. It reveals a positive outlook for overall marketing budgets, with optimism climbing for the second year in a row, though advertisers show higher levels of confidence than agencies.
With audience fragmentation continuing as the number of video platforms grows, and against a backdrop of declining linear TV viewership, the research suggests that UK marketers are very much aware of the potential offered by streaming. Almost all UK respondents to the survey (97 per cent) said they wanted to maintain or increase their investments on streaming platforms.
Gathering customer data and measuring effectiveness are priorities for UK marketers
With continuing uncertainty around third-party cookies and the fragmented probabilistic audience identity ecosystem, the UK marketers surveyed saw deterministic first-party data as the way forward. Almost two-thirds (60 per cent) of respondents identified gathering customer data as a top priority for 2025. This figure was much higher than in other markets surveyed (France, Germany, Italy and Spain) as the UK considers its own alternative to the GDPR.
Meanwhile, 54 per cent of UK respondents also recognised the need to retain existing customers and reduce churn; first-party data is likely to play an important part in their efforts to optimise loyalty through more targeted advertising. Customer acquisition (41 per cent) was not seen to be as important as customer retention (54 per cent); building brand health (53 per cent) and increasing revenues (48 per cent) are also being prioritised over winning new customers.
Almost one third (30 per cent) of the UK marketers interviewed said they were keen to use data clean rooms to share aggregated first-party data in 2025; the same percentage is considering the use of automated technology to drive efficiency. However, investing in campaign effectiveness measurement (33 per cent) was ranked higher, indicating a strong focus on optimising return on marketing spend in the year ahead.
Some budgets likely to shift from social and online video to FAST and AVoD
Nearly half of all UK marketers (49 per cent) want their organisations to spend more on streaming and CTV. Another 48 per cent want to maintain levels of investment in these channels.
Some 88 per cent of advertisers and 94 per cent of agencies surveyed in the UK said they expected to spend more on FAST channels or AVoD over the next year; although their opinions differed when asked where this budget would come from. Advertisers (32 per cent) were more likely to redivert spend from social media budgets than agencies (26 per cent), with the latter being more in favour of re-allocating online video budgets (35 per cent).
High-quality ad experiences, extended reach and real-time analytics make streaming desirable
The quality of the ad experience was seen as the most compelling reason to invest in streaming by UK respondents (46 per cent); ahead of audience reach (45 per cent), real-time analytics (41 per cent) and interactive ad formats (40 per cent). The findings suggest that UK marketers believe streaming’s data-driven capabilities allow it to combine quality viewing with performance.
An overcrowded space and complexity dampen enthusiasm in investment
Half (50 per cent) of advertisers in the UK said the number of streaming and CTV platforms and associated buying tools was a blocker to further investment in these channels, but only 32 per cent of agencies agreed. The difficulty of managing streaming and CTV campaigns alongside linear campaigns was also cited as an inhibitor by 42 per cent of marketers, while a perceived lack of inventory (44 per cent) and unwillingness to switch from existing channels (43 per cent) were seen as slowing further investments.
Overall, half (50 per cent) of UK marketers believe programmatic and automation will help them better navigate the complex streaming and CTV landscape.
“The research offers invaluable insights into the priorities and strategies for the growth of the streaming industry in the UK, where we are already seeing substantial investments from advertisers and media companies alike,” commented Stefanie Briec, Director, Demand Sales, UK & EMEA of AudienceXpress International. “Simplified planning and buying processes, and unified access to premium inventories have been identified as areas for improvement; nearly one third of UK marketers would further invest if there was less fragmentation in the ecosystem. It’s positive to see acknowledgement of the quality of ad experience as a driver of spending growth; likely this indicates UK marketers are becoming more aware of the brand-safe environment of streaming and the efforts made to preserve and improve the viewer experience on streaming platforms.”