Enterprise chief confidence in economic system at lowest degree since 2016
Enterprise leaders’ optimism across the UK economic system is at its lowest degree since July 2016, in keeping with Institute of Administrators (IOD) knowledge.
The IoD Administrators’ Financial Confidence Index, which measures enterprise chief optimism in prospects for the UK economic system, fell to its lowest degree because it was launched in 2016 final month, recording a rating of -72. This surpasses the earlier file low of -69 recorded in April 2020, throughout which the pandemic was wreaking havoc on the UK economic system.
The extent of confidence within the UK economic system additionally dropped considerably from June, when the index recorded a rating of -53.
The IoD additionally data enterprise chief confidence in their very own organisations, which plummeted to -9 in July 2025, from 3 in June. That is the second-lowest studying of this indicator since its introduction.
Enterprise chief confidence in their very own organisations additionally fell to -9 in July 2025, from 3 in June. That is the second-lowest studying of this indicator since its introduction in July 2016.
Greater than 4 in 5 (85%) enterprise leaders agree authorities coverage to this point will probably be unsuccessful in driving up financial development, with two-thirds (66%) indicating they consider it is going to be very unsuccessful.
Supply: Institute of Administrators
Social media influences how Gen Z buys, makes and eats meals
Gen Z are twice as probably to make use of social media to get recipe concepts than cookbooks.
Virtually three-quarters (72%) of Gen Z shoppers report utilizing social channels for concepts on what to prepare dinner, properly forward of extra conventional sources, corresponding to household and buddies (45%), on-line recipe pages (40%), or cookbooks (32%).
This presents a transparent alternative for manufacturers within the sector, with younger shoppers participating with many creators within the house. Round two-thirds (64%) of Gen Z shoppers observe meals creators, whereas 40% observe skilled cooks and 36% observe meals manufacturers.
Social media is a robust discovery channel for Gen Z round meals, however the knowledge suggests many are additionally utilizing social as a purchase order vacation spot. Greater than two in 5 (42%) younger adults have bought meals substances on social channels, the analysis finds.
The info suggests, in whole, Gen Z shoppers spend almost 200 hours per 12 months participating with meals content material on-line, from recipe reels and tutorials to grocery store hauls.
Supply: Publicis Commerce
Cannes Lions winners highlight inclusivity
In a 12 months when many predicted that manufacturers would retreat from showcasing variety in promoting, 72% (23 out of 32) of 2025 Cannes Lions Grand Prix winners embedded inclusivity as a core inventive technique, in keeping with analysis from Inventive Equals.
That is up considerably from 12% in 2024, and suggests a relationship between inventive effectiveness, as awarded at one of many well-known occasions within the trade, and inclusivity. Additional correlations between inclusivity and effectiveness had been additionally discovered, for instance, each single one of many Grand Prix campaigns that centred round inclusivity drove measurable enterprise and model outcomes, in comparison with simply 41% of total Grand Prix winners.
Practically all the inclusive campaigns (22 out of 23) created constructive neighborhood or social change, versus 69% of all Grand Prix winners.
“In a 12 months marked by international uncertainty and cultural pressure, inclusion didn’t simply survive, it smashed each single metric,” says Inventive Equals lead analyst Naveen Sonné.
Supply: Inventive Equals
Ladies’s Euros 2025 drove extra on-line gross sales than Males’s Euros 2024
The Ladies’s Euros this 12 months drove extra on-line retail gross sales development in comparison with the Males’s Euros final 12 months, finds analysis.
The sports activities and outside, trend and footwear, and kids’s sectors all noticed greater income, extra orders, and elevated common order worth (AOV) in the course of the fortnight main as much as the ultimate.
Kids’s retail noticed the largest uplift, with income up 54%, orders up 15%, and AOV leaping 34% 12 months on 12 months. In the meantime, the style and footwear class grew its income by 1 / 4 (26%).
The info, which comes from Visualsoft, additionally suggests spikes round key matches. Income within the sports activities and outside sector surged by 30% the day earlier than the semi-final, whereas youngsters’s income jumped by 45% two days earlier than. Trend and footwear constantly peaked one to 2 days earlier than matches, with a 14% uplift simply forward of the quarter last.
Related purchasing behaviour was seen in the course of the 2024 Males’s Euros, however the spending spikes had been constantly decrease. This means the industrial energy that the ladies’s sport has.
Supply: Visualsoft
Manufacturers allocate budgets ‘tactically’ amid unsure occasions
As advertisers sought extra short-term options in the course of the US administration’s commerce negotiations, budgets for search and on-line show elevated in Q1.
UK promoting spend climbed 8% to a complete of £10.6bn within the first three months of 2025, in keeping with the most recent AA and WARC expenditure report – 1.4 proportion factors forward of the April forecast. Progress was pushed primarily by an improved consequence for search, together with retail media (12.3%) and features for on-line show (10.1%), together with social media (14.7%).
Cinema skilled a 19.2% development supported by huge finances releases, together with Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy and Captain America: Courageous New World. Equally, on-line radio (16.4%) additionally continued its streak of double-digit development, benefiting from tech-fuelled shifts in audio habits.
Whole TV fell 2.1%, but video-on-demand (VOD) elevated 5.4%. Final quarter, AA and WARC expanded the VOD element of TV to incorporate broadcaster video on demand (BVOD), ad-supported subscription video on demand (SVOD) corresponding to Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video, advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST).
Junk mail (3.6%) and OOH (1%) registered development, whereas on-line labeled (-7.6%), nationwide newsbrands (-8.2%), journal manufacturers (-11.1%) and regional newsbrands (-6.8%) all declined.
Supply: AA and WARC
