Insights & Trends.

We'll keep you updated on the latest innovations, trends and performance marketing-related news that really matters - we keep learning, to keep delivering better

Black Friday Is Coming: What does your advertising plan need to consider and include?

In part one of this series, we looked at how shopper behaviour is changing ahead of Black Friday. Longer sale windows, more deliberate spending, rising discount scepticism, and the growing influence of creator led and social commerce. This second part is about what to actually do with that insight from an advertising perspective. Here's what we tell our clients to focus on right now. Start With Your Offer Be super clear on what you're actually offering. Vague, unfocused ideas

7 hours ago3 min read

7 Patterns in Black Friday Shopping Behaviour Every Retail Brand Needs to Know

Black Friday isn't a one day event anymore. It's a six to eight week window where shopper attention, ad costs, and competitor activity all spike at once, and the brands that win are the ones who started planning months ago, not the week before. At SHC, we work with retail and e-commerce clients across performance media and content production, and every year we see the same pattern: the businesses that treat Black Friday as a "campaign" rather than a "season" leave money on th

Sep 163 min read

SHC Campaign Strikes Gold at Campaign Awards

At this year’s College Marketing Network Awards, our client South & City College Birmingham took home Gold in the Communications Campaign Award category. The award recognises excellence in strategic messaging and meaningful connection within the education sector. Through creative, strong audience engagement, insight-led marketing, and data-driven automation, we supported SCCB in delivering a campaign with clear, measurable impact. The Challenge L ike many education provider

Feb 232 min read

How TikTok’s CRM upgrades are transforming it from just a social platform

Over the last year, TikTok has moved beyond being just a social platform. While it remains fundamentally a social app, its newest customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities now allow it to function much more like a lead-management tool connecting paid ads with customer data. TikTok has always been a space where brands could build relationships organically, but these upgrades create a stronger bridge between engagement, lead capture, and conversion. The result is a p

Dec 9, 20254 min read

2026 Social Media Predictions: What Marketers Need to Prepare For

As 2026 approaches, social media is evolving faster than ever. From AI becoming a key marketing partner to the transformation of social platforms into search engines, discover the trends that will shape social commerce.

Nov 18, 20254 min read

Future of Paid Media in 2026

Paid media is transforming at speed and the landscape we knew is disappearing. As we move towards 2026, brands will need to rethink how they plan, create and optimise campaigns. AI, stricter privacy rules, changing platform algorithms and new consumer habits are reshaping what success looks like.

Nov 11, 20254 min read