Mobile display ads in the UK are only marginally clicked on more frequently than display ads. It shows a 0.11% click-through rate (CTR) for mobile display ads in 2014, compared to 0.09% for digital display ads such as banners and video ads, according to the eMarketer report "UK Mobile Ad Effectiveness 2014: Questions on Mobile's March to the Top." The UK is leading the way in global mobile ad spend, and is one of the top three countries investing in mobile Internet ad spending according to a separate recent report from eMarketer.

Molson Coors, the North American brewer, is reviewing its below-the-line account across the UK, believed to be worth approximately GBP5 million. Pitches will take place in February. The company owns brands including Cobra, Carling and Coors Light. In September the brewer retained ZenithOptimedia, the Publicis Groupe agency, to handle its GBP15 million media planning and buying account following a six-month global review of the business.

A talent shortage is set to hit the creative and digital industries next year, Hyper Island has suggested, with "experience design" to be the most strongly affected. The creative business school based the claims on research carried out with over 30 top industry leaders in the creative and digital industries, including Christopher Lee Ball, UX director and UK head of UX at DigitasLBi and Roz Thomas, associate experience planning director at Dare.

The Premier League is to introduce regular Friday night live matches and make more football available on television than ever as it attempts to top its current GBP3bn broadcasting rights deal. For the next TV rights deal, running from August 2016, the Premier League is to make 168 live matches available per season -- 14 more than the current 154 - - divided into five packages of 28 matches and two packages of 14 matches. One of the packages will include up to 10 live games per season on a Friday night.

JCDecaux, the outdoor advertising company, has signed a 15-year global deal with Vodafone to help the telecommunications business improve network coverage. The outdoor media owner will fit small cells into its street furniture in consultation with local authorities and planning regulations. Vodafone will install and manage the telecommunications equipment. The cells will be deployed in more than 100,000 pieces of street furniture across the UK, Europe, South Africa, India, Australia and Qatar.

The average Brit will spend around 15 hours over the Christmas period watching TV shows on their mobile device, research by Vodafone has found. Carried out in December, the study into the behaviour of 4,340 UK residents found that 40 percent expect to watch between one and three hours of content on their mobile device each day over the Christmas period. According to the research, "24" is the show most likely to be watched over the Christmas period. "An Idiot Abroad" and "Mad Men" also made the "want-to-watch" list.

The UK marketing and media industry is feeling confident about the state of the economy moving into 2015, according to a study of 3,000 business owners from Regus. The annual Business Confidence Index (BCI) report revealed a 10-point rise in confidence within the marketing and media sector (131 to 141 index points) when compared with last year. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of UK media companies reported a rise in revenues in the past year, while 61 percent saw profits grow.

The UK has suffered a nine percent drop in social media use among adults in the last 12 months, according to an Ofcom study. In the online survey of 9,065 consumers from nine countries; France, Germany, Italy, the U.S., Japan, Australia, Spain and China, the UK saw the greatest decline of social media among adults. In the 12 months following September 2013, UK adults accessing social media at least once a week dropped from 65 percent to 56 percent. The U.S., on the other hand, saw a less severe drop of 56 percent to 54 percent.

Britons are turning away from 'traditional' social networking in the millions, according to Ofcom data, as messaging apps such as Snapchat and WhatsApp grab a bigger share of consumer attention. It is understood that Ofcom believes the rise of messaging apps that most people would not classify as social networks is a major factor. The shift is not necessarily bad news for Facebook. This week is was revealed that Instagram has more than 300 million active users worldwide.

Channel 4 is planning to hijack the final of ITV's "The X Factor" with a music video featuring a singer with a prosthetic limb. The Lady Gaga-style promo stars singer and model Viktoria Modesta, a lower leg amputee, wearing a variety of prosthetics including an illuminated "bionic" limb and a knee-high black spike. Channel 4 said it was a riposte to "painfully dull and manufactured" pop stars -- likely to be seen as a reference to the Simon Cowell talent show -- and offered an alternative to a world of "homogenised pop."