Author: Sam Bradley

The media budgets of U.K. advertisers are set to rise over 7% in the first quarter of 2026, despite worries over supply-chain disruption and low consumer confidence.

It’s a sign advertisers aren’t acting to pull or pause media investment in the face of slow economic growth prospects, increased tariffs on goods exported to the United States, or the rise in energy prices prompted by the recent war between the U.S. and Iran.

“The trend, I would say, has been more positive than you would expect based on what’s in the news,” said Chris Woodward, executive director at Brandtech shop Oliver.

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In 2020, Carson Roney was a college basketball and volleyball player recording dances on a fairly new app called TikTok. Six years later, Roney has 5 million followers on TikTok, nearly 700,000 followers on Instagram, and deals with brands including the NBA, Gatorade and Abercrombie.

Roney and her manager, Erin Convey from Wasserman, credit that growth to her ability to bridge genres. She may be a scholar athlete, but she’s also passionate about beauty and lifestyle, an increasingly common connection cropping up in sports that allows both creators and brands to diversify. It’s no longer just sports or the more traditionally sports-adjacent brands hiring creator athletes — now brands like e.l.f. cosmetics are sponsoring the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Roney sits at that still-developing, but rather lucrative, intersection.

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