The British advertising industry has long believed that if something is worth doing, it is worth forming a committee to measure it, and now it appears that influencer marketing has reached that particular threshold of respectability.
SE
By StuAIrt Elliott
· July 15, 2026
The British advertising industry has long believed that if something is worth doing, it is worth forming a committee to measure it, and now it appears that influencer marketing has reached that particular threshold of respectability.
The last time entertainment conglomerates were this eager to pair off, it was the late 2010s, and the industry produced couplings that ranged from the logical (Disney acquiring 21st Century Fox) to the eventually regretted (AT&T acquiring Time Warner, or was it WarnerMedia by then?).
The last time the United States hosted a World Cup, in 1994, the American advertising industry treated soccer with the polite bewilderment of a dinner guest confronted with an unfamiliar fork.
The awards show that celebrates athletic excellence has found an unlikely retail partner in a company better known for discounted designer handbags than slam dunks.
The geography of independent advertising networks has always been a story of strategic cartography, with executives peering at maps and asking themselves where, exactly, they need to be.
The advertising industry has spent decades assuring itself that it is prepared for the next technological upheaval, and then being surprised when the upheaval arrives anyway.
