New Digital Age

At the year's Cannes Lions Festival, NDA Editor Justin Pearse sat down with Kumar Amrendra, Head of Digital Marketing, Planning & Data Science, Sky and Elizabeth Brennan, Manager Advertising, Permutive.In a wide-ranging discussion, we examine the stage of the nation for brands today as they prepare for a world post cookie.

Sir Martin Sorrell discusses the changes in Cannes, brands adapting to a first-party future, and the current marketplace. Topics also include the evolution of advertising organizations, challenges faced by publishers in the open web, industry priorities, and the intersection of creativity, technology, and data in the industry.

Terence Kawaja, founder and CEO of LUMA Partners, discusses the resurgence of M&A activity in ad tech, industry trends, and the future outlook. Insights on creating parody videos for charity, challenges in the ad tech industry, and differences in entrepreneurship between the US and Europe are also explored.

In this episode of the NDA Meets podcast, New Digital Age Editor Justin Pearse sits down with Theo Theodorou, UK Managing Director at Microsoft Advertising, to discuss the topic of digital transformation.Theodorou, in his second stint at the tech giant, talks about the role of AI in the new era of digital transformation, how the technology is impacting the different stakeholders within the advertising ecosystem, and how Microsoft is empowering businesses through Copilot. Based on his more than two decades of experience, he also shares advice on how people within the industry can best navigate the rapidly changing world.

In the latest episode of the NDA Meets podcast, NDA Editor Justin Pearse is joined in the studio by Hannah Walker, Head of Mid Market UK at Reddit.Reddit has been bolstering its advertising business in recent months to make the platform more attractive and effective for brands to communicate with its highly-engaged and passionate audience.Walker, previously at Snap, discusses how she is driving that ambition for mid-market brands,the power of community,and how Reddit is countering misplaced views of Reddit and its community.And she offers tips and advice for how brands can achieve success on the platform.

In the latest It's Always Media Thursday podcast, Editor Justin Pearse and Publisher Andy Oakes are back for another irreverent take on a a week in the digital media and marketing industry.After an unusual departure into a serious discussion on European regulation, it's back to more reliable ground for IAMT including WhatsApp industry communities, Digital Leading Ladies, preparations for Cannes, and Zoe Ball.We're joined this week by special guest Mary Keane-Dawson. Mary was one of the first interviewees in our original 50 Over 50 series, recently relaunched on NDA, we discuss the industry's need to increase its focus on this sector. And how a lack of understanding of different demographics is letting down brands in their ability to properly build relationships with all consumers.

In the latest NDA Meets podcast, NDA Editor Justin Pearse sits down with Jonny Whitehead, Strategy Director at Skyrise, an audience targeting platform powered by mobile network data.The conversation is focussed on how the digital media industry is shifting into a new era of media effectiveness, driven by regulatory shift and the huge issue of signal loss, throwing up challenges to the digital ad industry's approach to digital attribution and tracking ."Moving into the third age of media effectiveness, we're embracing historical media planning and buying theory but with the added benefit of better data, a focus on ad quality, inventory and interaction," says Whitehead. There is a growing philosophical divide between people still trying to find a replacement for cookies and IDs and those who think there is massive value to be had in breaking free and finding new ways of approaching media." We also discussd how these macro shifts is leading to a renaissance in location data.

t's Always Media Thursday is back for Season Three. The new season is innovation free, returning with nothing new but Editor Justin Pearse and Publisher Andy Oakes's weekly stroll through a week in digital media and marketing. This week's discussion touches on sustainability, diversity, the launch of NDA's Trinity Lunch Scotland, the second NDA IWD lunch, the importance of lunches generally, and NDA's plans for Cannes 2024, with the launch of our venue Maison NDA for the week. And this week's special guest is the founder of Possible, the irrepressible Christian Muche, to tell us what the second Possible event in Miami has in store.NDA is media partnering with Possible again this year and we discuss this year's celebrity guests like Pitbull, the additions to the event this year, and why Possible is the industry's standout flagship event."When we bring celebrties on stage we ask them to stay twith us through the event and ask them to make sure they speak about are subjects that are directly related to marketers. It's not just the celebrity name, it's about what they add to the discussion," said Muche. "Miami is the perfect intersection of markerting, technology and. culture." 

Marty Davies is Joint CEO, Outvertising and Co-Founder of Trans+ Adland, a community group of trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people in the marketing and advertising industry, and the founder of creative consultancy Smarty Pants.Marty is a force of nature, driving change across our industry. A columnist for Campaign magazine and industry campaigner and thought leader, she led Outvertising’s call for brands to stand their ground during Pride Month 2023. Over 120 organisations signed up, including the top 10 media agencies.The conversation covers topics including redefining allayship, the dangers of agencies' LGBTQIA+ networks being exploited for creating additional value for clients rather than focussing on employees' needs, and the huge problem of 'dirty attention' in online advertising. On brands' fear of backlash: "You will get backlash and you need to be prepared for it. To be queer, to be trans in our society, is to receive backlash. If you're going to do a campaign including queer or trans people, you're sitting with us in our discomfort, so you ahve to expect some backlash as we get it every day of our lives."

Incredibly, the volume of carbon emissions generated by the digital advertising industry now exceeds the emissions associated with the aviation sector. Here, NDA editor Justin Pearse talks to David Shaw, Co-founder and CEO of Cedara, a carbon intelligence platform for marketers. Shaw argues that while sustainability is a hot topic right now, too many carbon calculator solutions are based on estimated or insufficient data that omit the impact of emissions in your supply chain. “The majority of any organisation’s media-related carbon emissions are found in the supply path,” explains Shaw. “ With brands now targeting Net Zero across their media operations, suppliers that get ahead of the curve in providing the emissions data will be in a great position.”