Remember When Brands Ignored Blogs? Here We Go Again.
Emily Bryson, Digital Account Director
Cast your mind back to the early 2000s. Blogs were everywhere, brands had no idea what to do with them, and the industry collectively shrugged. Then came sponsored posts, affiliate deals, and an influencer economy worth billions. The ones who figured it out early won. The ones who waited spent years playing catch-up.
Substack feels like that moment again. And the UK is just beginning to take notice.
For years it’s been discussed over here the way Americans talk about cricket: vaguely aware it exists, not entirely sure what the fuss is about, quietly assuming it probably isn’t for us. The numbers suggest otherwise.
UK minutes spent with Substack content hit 45.8 million in July 2025, up 286% year-on-year (Press Gazette). Globally, it was the only site in the entire top 50 English-language online newsbrands to grow visits year-on-year. Every other major publisher was flat or declining. That’s not a blip. That’s a structural shift in how audiences are consuming written content.
Audiences are reacting against algorithmically flattened feeds, clickbait headlines, and the creeping sense that everything they read was generated rather than written. Substack’s proposition is simple: a direct, trusted relationship between a writer and their subscribers. Readers aren’t scrolling past it. They asked for it to land in their inbox. That’s a level of intent most digital channels can only dream of.
Sound familiar? We’ve been here before. The platform is different but the hunger is the same: people want a genuine voice, a real perspective, and content that feels like it was made for them rather than served by an algorithm.
Here’s my honest take: brands are underestimating this. Only 5% of brand marketers and 13% of agency marketers currently use Substack as a creator channel, and less than 1% cite it as their top ROI platform (eMarketer). Given where the audience numbers are, that gap isn’t careful planning. It’s the industry simply not paying attention yet.
In December 2025, Substack launched a beta allowing selected writers to insert paid sponsorships into their newsletters (AdWeek). Strictly opt-in, creator-controlled, and deliberately un-programmatic. No bid auction, no cookie-matching, no automated targeting. Think host-read podcast ad meets quality press partnership, except the audience is logged-in, consented, and self-selected into exactly the content surrounding your message.
This isn’t a performance channel. But for brands where trust is central to the sale, financial services, premium consumer, B2B tech, health, it deserves a place in your planning conversations.
The proof is already there. Denim brand Still Here partnered with five Substack creators for the launch of its Everyday Jean, giving each writer full creative control. With an open rate above 75%, the jeans sold out on launch day, with 80 to 90% of click-throughs coming directly from Substack newsletters (US Chamber of Commerce). That’s the power of a trusted voice in a niche community. Now apply that same thinking to a category where trust is the whole game. A financial wellbeing brand, a personal finance Substack, an engaged and opted-in audience. No programmatic waste, no brand safety concerns. Just a writer your audience already believes in, recommending your product. That’s influence most media plans currently can’t replicate.
If you’re a sceptical CMO, here’s where to start: pick one newsletter that speaks directly to your audience, brief it like a content partnership rather than a media buy, and measure it on engagement and brand sentiment rather than last-click conversions. The test budget doesn’t need to be significant. The learning will be.
We ignored blogs. We were late to YouTube. We took years to take podcasts seriously. Substack is the next chapter and it is being written right now. The brands that show up early will shape how it works. The ones that don’t will spend the next decade reading about it.
