Cath Waller, MD, Advertising, Immediate, shares the successes of the last 12 months and hints at what’s ahead.

Looking back on the past year, what have been some of the standout moments or achievements for your business?

Continuing to grow our paid digital subscriber base to over 780,000, and 1.25m subscribers overall, which is a fantastic achievement as we further evolve our market-leading digital products and bring joy to our consumers.

Launching the BBC Gardeners’ World 241 app with strong consumer uptake and around 100,000 installations, proving the power of providing our unique tools and services across multiple platforms and sectors. We also introduced sponsorship and native ads into our paid apps this year, providing advertisers with access to our most valuable and engaged audiences.

We launched our new look Good Food test kitchen at the start of the year, with more space to create and film content. Since it launched the team has produced over 1,000 videos, hosted over 30 events, shot 25 commercial shoots, and significantly cut food waste.

I’m so proud that we continued to lead the way in sustainability across the whole media sector. In partnership with the GoodNet, we were the first publisher to launch a tool – IMClear – enabling clients to plan and understand the impact of their campaigns against all their ESG goals, including sustainability.

We were once again acknowledged by the industry for our progress on sustainability, winning the Best Practice in Sustainability award across all media owners, at the coveted Campaign Net Zero Awards, where Gardeners’ World’s Make A Metre Matter campaign also won a sector award.

Which commercial partnerships or collaborations from this year have been particularly exciting or impactful?

We’ve delivered so many groundbreaking creative partnerships this year. Our Ristorante partnership with the Radio Times was the first sponsorship of our RT Book Club, a fully integrated 360 editorial partnership across all channels, with Ristorante at the heart.

Also on RT, our True Crimes partnership with Sky Netflix was groundbreaking, where our RT editor went missing and readers had to discover ‘Where’s Shem?!’

We repainted our Good Food kitchen in partnership with Crown Paints, and created some engaging content, highlighting the link between good food and the home setting.

We also worked with the likes of Aldi and Hellmans, to name a few, on innovative, social sponsorships and native video, fronted by our Good Food talent.

As you plan for the year ahead, what priorities or opportunities are at the top of your agenda?

I’m truly excited about the recent launch of Good Health by Good Food and how we help to tackle the UK’s health misinformation crisis, working closely with our ad partners in this space in the New Year and beyond. We’ve also just re-launched our Olive brand across all platforms, with a luxe print and digital product, and a vastly extended editorial focus on travel – a key priority sector for us next year.

To build on our success in podcasts, driven by History Extra, we are launching a huge new Good Food podcast, presented by the legendary Joanna Page and Matt Horne of Gavin and Stacey fame, alongside some fantastic guests. We’re excited about the opportunities this provides to food brands, especially considering the less healthy food restrictions. We’ve also got some other new podcasts in the pipeline across our other content verticals, so watch this space for more in the new year…

To top off an exciting year of new launches and opportunities, we have also just launched Flourish (@flourishliving on TikTok), our social first new gardening brand that’s engaging a whole new generation of lovers of outdoor spaces of all shapes and kinds.

We’re also expanding our Make A Metre Matter campaign into 2026 and offering client partners the opportunity to be part of this important, award-winning initiative.

And on a more personal note, what are you most looking forward to during the festive season?

Aside from the usual icy Christmas lake swims, mainly having some rest – it’s been quite a year!