2026 marks the 10-year anniversary of a phone call that turned out to be rather important for us at Mostly Media…

Back in 2016, our MD Stu took a call from the then-unknown Lee Farrer, from a little-known brand called FreePrints, part of the US-based PlanetArt group.

“I’ve been recommended to talk to you about a small TV test for my brand, FreePrints. Interested in a chat?” Lee asked.

“Would love to. I’m sure we can help make this fly,” replied Stu.

And fly it did.

Over the following 10 years, that initial conversation has developed into a genuine partnership, with Mostly Media helping Lee and her team turn FreePrints into one of the UK market leaders in photo printing – and a true household name.

What started as a small, concept-proving DRTV test with just 6m impacts over a 2 week burst has grown through years of testing, learning and evolving.

TV was followed by Radio and OOH, and more recently, online Video, BVOD and CTV. And now the journey has reached another pretty special milestone: FreePrints sponsoring one of ITV’s flagship shows, The Only Way Is Essex – or TOWIE to those in the know.

Running throughout Q4, FreePrints will sponsor the show across linear TV on ITV2, as well as current and classic seasons available to watch on ITVX.

The opportunity was brokered by Sean Japp, Director at Mostly Media, and Chris Lucas at ITV, with the sponsorship idents set to be seen more than 85 million times, reaching over 2 million people across the UK.

There’s a nice bit of Mostly history here too.

For Chris, it’s something of a full-circle moment. He knows the FreePrints brand particularly well, having started his career at Mostly Media as a TV Planner and Buyer.

As Lee put it:

“This is great – we’ve got the gang back together.”

From one speculative phone call and a small TV test to a 10-year partnership, a household-name brand and a major ITV sponsorship.

Not bad for a chat that started with: “Interested?”

Here’s to the next 10 years.

About Mostly Media

Welcome to Mostly Media, a proudly Independent, award winning, UK Top 20 Media Independent. Since '94 we have partnered with start up's, challengers and established brands to maximise the return on their media investment.