With Christmas now less than a week away, we take a look at the top 10 Christmas ads in the UK, according to YouTube*. Not surprisingly, it is the retailers who dominate the majority of the list with tech giant Apple making an appearance in the number 10 spot. 

So without further ado, the festive ad winners of 2017 are…

1. #MozTheMonster
Advertiser: John Lewis
Creative agency: adam&eveDDB
Media agency: Manning Gottlieb OMD
No. of video views**: 9,329,476

2. Paddington & The Christmas Visitor #LoveTheBear
Advertiser: M&S
Creative agency: Grey London
Media agency: Mindshare
No. of video views**: 6,631,768

Following the news of Harvey Weinstein and the subsequent #MeToo hashtag sweeping the globe, Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is high on everyone’s agenda. With one in four women in the UK still being affected and up to 70% in some parts of the world, agency JWT created a social campaign for UN Women UK to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

#drawaline brought together a host of famous faces including Benedict Cumberbatch, Deliciously Ella and Gemma Styles, among others, asking the public to help end the silence and bring about change by physically drawing an orange line – after all, violence is a line that should never be crossed.

Digital marketers have seen many innovations and even the involvement of politics in social media in 2017, as the channel continues to evolve at lightning speed. These developments have shaped how we use social media, both as consumers and advertisers. So what does 2018 have in store?

1. Video will play a bigger role in the consumer journey

This year has seen the rise of video content. Particularly with its importance in social algorithms, this format is especially valuable to brands in terms of achieving higher reach and engagement, including retweets, likes, comments and shares. In 2017, 90% of all shared social media content has been video!

In 2018, the popularity of video content is expected to grow, and advertisers are likely to follow this trend. Video is the fastest growing format in the world and has been doubling year on year. It is predicted that by 2020, it will contribute to 80% of all online consumer internet traffic. At Social Media Week London 2017, Facebook’s Creative Strategist, Kat Hahn warned: “Not doing short video is not an option.”

Indeed, with the cramped market and every advertiser struggling to capture their audience’s attention, the first three seconds of a video are the most crucial. In 2018, brands will strive to create engaging and fast-paced video content their target markets, and it is likely that the quality will improve at a rate greater than other forms of social media.

According to the World Health Organisation, Lima is the second most polluted city in Latin America. To promote the benefits of natural gas to mitigate this situation, McCann Lima has created an innovative OOH campaign for Peruvian gas company CALIDDA that gives a voice to the country’s capital, so that the city could “express” how difficult it has become for it to breathe.

The project collected actual air pollution to communicate the hazards of car pollution and the benefits of natural gas. By attaching a device to a prominent outdoor ad location in one of Lima’s busiest traffic locations, CO2 pollution was collected by the unit from the atmosphere. The unit stored the gas and then processed it into a powder which acted as an ink and was manipulated to slowly write a message on the billboard.

Students are often defined in narrow inaccurate terms as an homogeneous group. The reality is that they are varied and changeable – and that includes age. 

Today’s students are students of life and they are way ahead of previous generations. They are more self-conscious than ever – or rather ‘selfie-aware’. No longer the mischief makers of old not giving a damn what people think of them, these days most feel everything they do is being scrutinised and that they are constantly being watched, due to a mix of media pressure and the always-on social media world we all now live in. Whatever mischief you make, even behind closed doors, can find its way online in seconds. This means students are a lot better behaved than they once were and are far more concerned about their ongoing social image. 

This also means that before students will let brands in, they have to win over their trust and natural scepticism. Gone are the happy-go-lucky naive students of the past. What’s more, with many leaving uni with serious debt, they are struggling more than ever to make ends meet and so are also looking for real value.  

Omnicom Media Group has been named ‘Media Group of the Year’ at the inaugural Festival of Media North America Awards 2017 after an impressive performance across the board at last night’s award ceremony.

PHD Worldwide was crowned ‘Agency Network of the Year’ and Touché! PHD Canada ‘Agency of the Year’ in addition to walking away with the coveted ‘Campaign of the Year’ title for Canadian Safe School Networks’ ‘Bully Ads’.

The winners were announced during a themed awards ceremony on November 30 at the Metropolitan West in New York City. 

Check out the full list of winners and highly commended entries below: