From January 2026, restrictions on advertising products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) removed a significant slice of inventory for food and drink brands — a watershed limiting these ads across TV and online between 5:30am and 9pm. For much of FMCG, the question is no longer simply where to reach audiences, but where it is still possible to reach them with relevance at all.
A compliant route back to relevance
Residential DOOH sits outside the restricted broadcast and online channels, giving FMCG brands a compliant, brand-safe environment to reach affluent households — in the building, close to where food and shopping decisions are made. For categories squeezed out of their traditional channels, it reopens a route to the everyday relevance those channels used to provide.
Meeting indecision at the right moment
Mealtimes have quietly become a daily friction point. Research suggests UK consumers spend around 43 minutes a week deliberating over what to eat, with dinner the hardest decision of all for 57% of people. A timely, well-placed message in the lobby — caught on the way out to shop, or home to cook — meets that “dinner fatigue” head-on, at precisely the point a brand can still tip the decision.
When the rules change, relevance moves closer to home — quite literally.
Frequency that rebuilds presence
Residents encounter several messages a day on Abode screens as they commute, shop and unwind — a natural cadence that rebuilds the everyday presence HFSS rules stripped from other media. Combined with an affluent, premium-living audience and a trusted, low-clutter setting, it gives food and drink brands a way to stay visible, and stay relevant, in a tightening landscape.
For FMCG marketers planning around the new restrictions, the opportunity is to think beyond the channels that have closed — and toward the one place the audience always returns to: home.