New Digital Age

A Cannes conversation about how the festival shifted from creative hub to tech-platform spectacle. A deep look at platform dominance, hyperscaler CapEx and why algorithmic media buying is reshaping ad markets. Discussion of AI’s role, automated media products, and the growing push for radical transparency. Thoughts on geographic strategy, talent stratification and which verticals face existential pressure.

In the latest of our exclusive interviews from this year’s Cannes Festival, NDA’s editor-in-chief Justin Pearse meets Lori Goode, Chief Marketing Officer at Index Exchange. With more than 20 years in digital advertising, Goode has held senior leadership roles at Amazon Ads, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Microsoft. Beyond Index, Lori is an active industry leader, serving on the Leadership Group for Ad Net Zero, the board of BRIDGE, and the Executive Achievements Committee for She Runs It.

Benjamin Masse, Chief Product Officer at Triton Digital and president of AgenticAdvertising.org, leads work on fair standards for agentic AI. He discusses defining agentic versus other AI types. He describes real-world agent deployments in planning and buying. He outlines cross-functional leadership and open governance to ensure transparency and prevent collusion.

In our latest interview from this year's Cannes Festival, New Digital Age's editor-in-chief Justin Pearse meets social media influencer and entrepreneur Brandon B.Brandon is the Founder and CEO of Studio B, an independent creative studio. As one of Europe’s most-watched digital creators, he has built a global audience of more than 28 million followers and generated over 18 billion views across his content. Through Studio B, he helps leading brands including Google, Netflix, Disney, Adobe, LEGO, and O2 create creator-led content, branded entertainment, and social-first campaigns designed to earn attention and drive cultural relevance.

Brian O'Kelley, adtech founder and CEO of Scope3, shares his take on AI and the future of media buying. He separates agentic AI hype from reality. He outlines hurdles for agentic systems, the untapped value of publishers, and why creativity and wisdom will retain premium value.

Terence Kawaja, LUMA Partners CEO and adtech dealmaker with 30+ years in media finance, shares takes from Cannes. He talks about AI noise and the need to rationalize lumiscapes. He discusses AI’s effect on agency workflows and which solutions will drive real effectiveness. He covers retail media growth, ad spend concentration among tech giants, and the push for industry standards to avoid fragmentation.

With MAD//Fest just weeks away, in this episode of the NDA podcast Editor in chief Justin Pearse and publisher Andy Oakes are joined by MAD//Fest co-founder Dan Brain for a wide-ranging chat covering this year's event, the state of the industry, and why we all need a human touch.This year's MAD//Fest, for which NDA is a long-time partner, theme is "the human touch", a deliberate counterweight, Brain explains, to an industry currently obsessed with AI. As the pendulum swings from hype to widespread implementation, MAD//Fest's line-up is focussing on human creativity, craft and connection rather than chasing the robots.The trio also dig into how AI is changing perceptions in content, PR and marketing. Press releases obviously ChatGPT createdd are increasingly ignored, and we discuss a growing sense that audiences can spot, and instinctively devalue, anything that looks AI-generated. On the speaker front, Brain reveals Louis Theroux will appear at MAD//Fest for the first time, off the back of his Netflix Manosphere documentary, to explore the role brands play in funding online content. He's joined by comedian Munya Chawawa, plus the CMOs of Burger King and McDonald's.Brain discusses the sheer scale of pulling MAD//Fest together: coordinating 560-plus speakers, navigating the quirks of the Truman Brewery as a venue, and the year-round sales and rebooking effort behind a three-day show. Looking ahead, MAD North will expand beyond Manchester into Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow, with Amsterdam mooted as a possible future market.And we discover they Dan Brain's spirit animal is a seal.

In the latest episode of the NDA podcast, Retail Media Age Editor sits down with Meredith O'Brien, Group Agency Director at MiQ, and Paul McGee, Head of Video at Goodstuff, to unpack exactly how programmatic advertising can meet the challenges posed by rapidly-shifting consumer behaviour.O'Brien and McGee dive into the complexity of the current media landscape, how advertiser outcomes are defined, and the challenges of solving for fragmentation, while also exploring the so-called 'collapse' of the funnel and how the advent of AI has upended the traditional customer journey.They then take a close look at a case study that shows how brands - not solely well-resourced, major brands but also smaller, nimble emerging brands - can reach consumers and resonate amidst this fast-moving landscape. Working with Goodstuff and MiQ, challenger men's grooming brand Dr Squatch managed to successfully land its message with its target young, male, urban demographic via YouTube and CTV.O'Brien and McGee also reveal how commerce data allowed them to understand exactly who the campaign resonated with and to link the upper-funnel messaging of the video campaign to retail sales.The conversation is a brilliantly detailed 'under the hood' look at exactly how an effective online video and CTV campaign is built and executed and how it can translate into measurable results for brands.Pulling back to look at the bigger picture, MiQ's Meredith O'Brien also explores the challenges of linking channels such as CTV to tangible ROI, how performance metrics can be brought into an awareness-focused ad medium, and how an openness to experimentation and innovation helps advertisers to stand out.

In the latest episode of the NDA Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Justin Pearse and Retail Media Age Editor Rebecca Sentance are joined by Lydia Oakes, MD of Bluestripe Communications, for a wide-ranging discussion on how B2B PR is evolving in an era shaped by AI, fragmented media and growing pressure to prove performance.The episode opens with Rebecca sharing some of the latest developments from the retail media sector, including new editorial initiatives at Retail Media Age focused on highlighting emerging talent and agency perspectives across the industry. The discussion also focuses on retail media’s biggest current challenges, from buying complexity and performance pressures to the growing importance of brand building.Drawing on more than two decades in communications, Lydia discusses the dramatic transformation of the trade media landscape, from the heyday of print publishing to today’s fast-moving digital environment, where algorithm-driven discovery have made it harder than ever for brands to stand out. Despite the technological change, the conversation makes clear that the fundamentals of strong communications remain rooted in expertise, relationships and genuinely-useful storytelling.The episode also examines the growing role of AI in PR workflows, from media monitoring and discoverability analysis through to understanding how brands appear in large language models such as Claude and Perplexity. But Lydia argues that while AI can support efficiency and measurement, it cannot replicate the experience, judgement and credibility of an expert spokesperson or communicator.

In the latest episode of the NDA Podcast, Justin Pearse, Editor-in-Chief of New Digital Age (NDA), is joined by Andy Oakes, Publisher of NDA, dialling in from a Miami hotel bathroom after three days at Possible, and Rebecca Sentance, Editor of Retail Media Age.And we take a deep dive into the impact of AI on publishers with Ezoic's John Cole.The conversation kicks off with a debrief from Possible Miami and a discussion the of the chaging purpose of different industry events for attendees hoping to drive ROI from the often not insigifcant investment needed.This week's special guest is John Cole, Chief Customer Officer at Ezoic. With over 25 years of industry experience, Cole provides a sobering yet optimistic look at the "world-documented battle" publishers face today. Key discussion points include:The Impact of LLMs: How Google’s "no-click searches" and AI-driven content are fundamentally altering organic traffic patterns.The Shift to Unique Value: Why "commoditised content" is a losing game and how publishers must pivot toward unique, high-value newsletters and web apps to survive.AI as a Solution: Using AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) not just for content, but as a tool to disentangle complex "Frankenstein" tech stacks and provide clear, actionable data for business growth.