Bonded Bitesize - Your Midweek Roundup

McDonald’s has launched its advertising business.

McDonald’s announced during the company’s investor day that they are expanding their franchise to take over the advertising space. Like other giants such as Walmart and Amazon who have found success through creating their own media networks.

A trial in August showed consumers advertisements from other brands on MacDonald’s drive-thru displays. Whilst this is the beginning, McDonald’s have established that their reach of 14,000 locations within the US, demonstrates a commerce market opportunity to grow without “a disruption to customer experience” as stated by Morgan Flatley, McDonald’s global chief marketing officer and executive vice president of new business ventures. Therefore, advertisers should harness the opportunity to tap into McDonald’s ad space.

Instagram’s chief, Adam Mosseri, shares video series explaining the algorithm and top tips.

Mosseri aims to clarify the concerns over content and algorithmic influence. He explains the patterns involving the algorithms’ decisions when surfacing content, references relevancy, frequency and projected engagement of a post.

Mosseri also details four principles that can drive direction within Instagrams’ algorithm:

Originality

Recency

Breaking Content

Model Size

Overall, the approach to these insights is the same; scale your creative, experiment and post!

Radio Plus is newly launched by Global – does this pose a threat to advertisers?

Global as the UK’s 2026 leading commercial radio broadcaster has offered a subscription service to its listeners for £9.99, the catch? No ads. This represents an “exciting new choice for listeners” as stated by Ashley Tabor-King CBE, Global’s founder. This service can be accessed through Global Player and across other devices like smart speakers. Although the benefits are attractive for consumers, this change may cause advertisers to feel threatened.

Before advertisers are quick to worry, this launch seems to be adding another layer to the listening experience rather than shifting Global’s commercial model. As, Harry Packsahw, head of AV at Havas Media Network, explains that “By requiring subscribers to listen through Global Player, Radio Plus could drive more users to the platform and generate additional audience signals, strengthening targeting and measurement across Global’s standard, ad-supported digital inventory.”

So, this new change is something advertisers need to include when formulating a strategy with radio.

Netflix has expanded their ad-supported plan to more EMEA markets.

This expansion will take place on March 1st 2027, establishing the company’s business within Europe more significantly. Their another subscription option provides a cheaper streaming plan to its viewers which includes small commercial ad breaks when watching. This allows Netflix to compete with other giants such as Disney + and HBO Max who already include ad breaks within their content.

This plan originally launched by Netflix back in November 2022, in selected countries. But now, Amy Reinhard, the company’s President of Advertising, spoke in London stating, “We’ve got cutting-edge tech. We’ve got great entertainment. We’ve got the most engaged and attentive audience anywhere.” Which this expansion adds to Netflix’s dominance, a step for advertisers to consider in the new year.

Meta launches their new AI assisted accessories at their annual Connect 2026 event.

Meta launches their three newest updates. Muse as an AI agent which expands the metaverse of AI technology, Zuckerberg details that Muse includes “advanced data protections via Meta Secure VM, a private data process that powers Muse, which not even Meta can access.” With Muse also being in collaboration with Walmart, Sephora, WayFair, Gap and others, plus Meta has developed a Muse Charm accessory for users.

The next update includes Meta’s AI glasses; and the immediate public concerns over privacy. To which Zuckerberg has explained that Meta is releasing private processing for the glasses that “will offer more protection” for users. As well as announcing “audio-only” capturing glasses which removes the video element of the glasses, that relieves consumers.

Lastly, along with Andrew Boswrth, Reality Labs Chief, Zuckerberg shared the new-generation’s VR glasses, which are “5x lighter than” the current model and will include Muse AI bot. They explain how this new model is more functional and user friendly from their sensors and displays to clips that attaches to your pockets that adds to the experience.

Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup