The Media Leader Podcast

At The Future of TV Advertising Global event this week in London, there was an air of anxiety over the future of TV and whether the medium can stave off threats from Big Tech to reduce its prominence on media plans.Editor-in-chief Omar Oakes breaks down takeaways from the event alongside reporters Ella Sagar and Jack Benjamin. The trio discuss the challenges facing the TV ad market, how Netflix and Disney+ have faired in their first year after instituting ad tiers, and why broadcasters are making a stronger effort to sell themselves to advertisers.Oakes also asks Sagar and Benjamin about X losing over a million UK users in under six months, major job cuts at Spotify, out-of-home regaining pre-pandemic form, and the latest flurry of global adspend reports.Highlights1:05: Anxiety around proving TV's worth3:00: Key talks: ITV CEO Carolyn McCall, analyst Ian Whitaker, Disney ads chief Rita Ferro, Netflix VP of ads Peter Naylor.21:35: The most interesting things Jack and Ella heard at the conference28:53: Peter Field's barnstorming talk on why TV investment should not just continue, but increase34:47: Why X has lost so many UK users36:13: Job cuts at Spotify37:56: ITV restructuring its audience analytics and data science team39:07: Comparing GroupM, IPG and Dentsu global adspend reports41:55: Out-of-home is back to pre-pandemic revenuesOr, if you just fancy hearing an American try to do a Winston Churchill impression, skip to the 25-minute mark....---Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

Each December, GroupM, the investment arm of WPP, releases its annual This Year Next Year report. The report highlights an all-encompassing view of the global ad market, summarizing both the past year, and looking forward to what we can expect from the next year and over the next five years.This year’s report estimated global ad revenue growth to be 5.8% to total $889bn. GroupM anticipates next year will see a slight deceleration to 5.3%.Kate Scott-Dawkins, the author of the report and GroupM’s global president of business intelligence, highlighted that, following years of volatility during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, she expects a normalization of growth over the next five years at a 5.6% compound annual growth rate.Scott-Dawkins spoke with host Jack Benjamin about the latest expectations for the global ad market. The pair discussed key takeaways from the This Year Next Year report, the state of the UK ad market, the year in retail media, TV’s transition away from linear, how the sluggish Chinese economy has both helped and hurt the global ad market, and digital’s overall dominance."It seems a little bit funny to still be talking about the pandemic, but we're still working through the financial movements and implications that happened as a result of that," she said.A full write-up of the This Year Next Year report can be found on themedialeader.co.uk.---Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

Host Jack Benjamin is joined by reporter Ella Sagar and The Guardian’s director of clients, marketing, and research James Fleetham to discuss takeaways from The Guardian's upfronts and how publishers are looking to highlight the importance of trust as misinformation on social media platforms runs rampant."We've become a rarer commodity," said Fleetham. "If there's less stuff you can trust out there, the places that you can trust become more important. That's common sense to me."Fleetham is a member of The Media Leader's Future 100 Club.The trio also touches on media coverage of Cop28, Meta allegedly knowingly collecting data of underage users, Google selling ads on questionable sites against their own policy, and the latest intrigue over The Telegraph sale.---Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

Renowned advertising effectiveness expert Peter Field joins editor-in-chief Omar Oakes for this interview.Field discusses why he will be telling our upcoming Future of TV Advertising Global conference that "TV is still at the heart of effectiveness".He will use the latest effectiveness evidence from the UK and Australia to explain why TV remains such a powerful medium, despite the well reported challenges that it faces.Field also admits to the mistakes he's made in his career, why he's so excited about the recent wave of attention research in the industry, and why trust in media has become so important to consumers as to impact their advertising responses.Some choice quotes from Field's interview:"The three certainties in marketing are death, taxes, and people taking potshots TV.... it just starts to look a little bit like a relentless kind of attempt to take TV down. The fact of the matter is, and I will show this at the conference, is that TV plays, if anything, a strengthening role in effectiveness.""Any sensible marketer would be crazy to walk away from TV, even with younger viewers, even with those difficult 16 to 35 [demographics]. There is no sane case for walking away from TV."---This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

The Media Leader PodcastHost Ella Sagar is joined by editor-in-chief Omar Oakes and columnist Nick Manning to discuss takeaways and announcements from the ITV Palooza, the UK's biggest commercial broadcaster's annual upfront.The trio also talks about Manning's latest column about impact and effectiveness, and how a brand can grow through mass reach and a targeted approach.The proliferating options with channels and technology led Manning to say: "If I were a media planner right now, I would be thinking this is the moment."In the quick hits, they cover the biggest media news stories of the week including OpenAI's CEO, The Telegraph sale being put on hold, Meta's change in fortunes, major advertisers leaving X, whether Nigel Farage is worth a reported £1.5m for ITV's I'm A Celebrity and Amazon's deals with social media platforms.---Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

What has made gaming so hard for marketers to crack?According to Rob Gay, the CEO of gaming adtech company Venatus, agencies and brands still need to get better educated about the burgeoning medium.Gay spoke with Jack Benjamin at our The Future of Gaming event in London last month about the different options brands have to speak to gamers, including in-game advertising, next-to-the-game advertising, and around-the-game advertising.He would rather 'start small and do gaming advertising right' and then build up to larger budgets, as opposed to starting with a big, risky activation that could sour brands off of gaming altogether if it fails."If it doesn't work, we're all burnt. If one gaming advertising company burns them in mobile or burns them in console, they're burnt for gaming. [...] We need brands to trust the environment they're going into."A write-up of the key takeaways from Gay and the rest of the Future of Gaming delegates can be read online on The Media Leader.---This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

On Halloween, industry wellbeing charity Nabs released the results of its All Ears consultation. The report found that more than one-third of industry professionals feel unable to discuss mental wellness in the workplace, that stress and burnout are normalised, and that those with a minority ethnic background are significantly less likely than those with a white ethnic background to see a future for themselves in media.Nabs CEO Sue Todd and Assembly managing partner James Appleby join Jack Benjamin to examine tangible steps agencies and industry leaders can take to better the working lives of their staff.Appleby, who also works to lead Nabs’ Fast Forward training programme, explains the challenges and positives of the pitch process, and how to handle both acute and chronic mental health challenges.“Everyone’s got the same expectations of work and wishes of work," said Sue Todd. "People want clear boundaries between work and home. People want safe spaces to have conversations. People feel the same sorts of pressures.”---This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

Host Jack Benjamin is joined by reporter Ella Sagar and Outvertising and Purpose Union's Cass Naylor to discuss fears of AI's ability to spread disinformation, Journalism Matters week takeaways, and the strength of the ad market as we approach the holiday season.The trio also digs into whether recent box office figures are sustainable, the IAB's first ever brand-building campaign, and whether CEOs are entering their 'supervillain era' in mandating returns to the office.Commenting on takeaways from last week's AI summit, Naylor said: "The most important things that came out of Bletchley were A) an identification of the problem and a mutual agreement of what the problem is among the people that matter — America, China, and the EU — all of whom are taking different speeds in their approach to this; and B) proposals for the industry to institute various forms of self-regulation, which I think is the only way we're going to keep ahead of this."Show highlights:1:30: The risk of AI-generated misinformation8:31: The dangers and possibilities of tailored GPTs15:13: Big Tech’s ‘existential threat’ to news publishers17:45: The strength of the ad market heading into Christmas season20:44: Growth of the holiday season and favourite Christmas ads28:59: Rapid fire questions29:33: IAB’s “chief digital cheerleader” brand-building campaign31:17: Is the UK’s recent box office success sustainable post-Barbenheimer?34:51: Clear Channel’s earnings and upfronts36:15: Support for the media in the king’s speech39:05: Return-to-office mandates – are CEOs entering a supervillain era?41:54: Why is Cass passionate about media? ---Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderX: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

Is the metaverse dead? Was it ever alive to begin with?At last month's The Future of Gaming event in London, host Jack Benjamin took the stage alongside Shay Thompson to chat about her views on the gaming market.Thompson is a presenter and broadcaster covering gaming, and among the most respected journalists in the UK on the subject. She has collaborated with the likes of Bafta, McLaren, Xbox, Activision, and Ubisoft, and she currently appears on the BBC Sounds podcast Press X to Continue.In the fireside chat, the pair ran the gamut of gaming topics, talking about everything from this year’s biggest releases and how The New York Times has become a major gaming company to why Shay thinks the metaverse is “dead in the water”.A write-up of the debate over the metaverse can be read online on The Media Leader.---This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderTwitter: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader

Host Jack Benjamin is joined by editor-in-chief Omar Oakes and columnist Nicola Kemp to discuss NABS' All Ears consultation results, hybrid working pressures, and the latest AA/WARC figures, which found that TV experienced a summer recession.The trio also digs into the latest earnings results for Meta and Amazon, and gives one word for what they think about Boris Johnson's new gig as a presenter for GB News."There is a really big 'say-do gap, particularly in media," warns Kemp. "It's really important that we have leaders sharing thought leadership articles on mental health... but is it having an impact on the lived experiences of employees? This All Earns research suggests that no, it isn't."Addressing that say-do gap is so vital, because otherwise, leaders look not just out of touch, but they're in danger of gaslighting their own employees with their words."Read Kemp's latest column: "Don't blame women for working flexibly"Show highlights:1:49: Mental health in the workplace, the say-do gap.4:23: Hybrid work and its impact on mental health.9:38: Hybrid work model's impact on mental health and communication.15:05: Workplace flexibility and gender equality.19:39: Why the UK TV advertising market has had a tough summer + Paramount's decision to scrap My5 as a separate BVOD service30:04: Rugby World Cup: why is sports broadcasting not innovating?35:15: Quick-fire round: Meta, Amazon and retail media, Boris Johnson on GB News.---Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media. LinkedIn: The Media LeaderThreads: @TheMediaLeaderX: @TheMediaLeader YouTube: The Media Leader