The Media Leader Podcast

Are social platforms good media to receive accurate news and information?Ramin Beheshti, founder and CEO of The News Movement, thinks so.Reporter Jack Benjamin discussed with Beheshti The News Movement's content and business strategy, how it looks to make money through diverse revenue streams, and whether short-form video is inherently a good medium for news presentation.More and more people, especially young people, continue to go to social media platforms with the explicit intention of using them for their news consumption. That is especially true of the highly popular short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram, but these come with concerns about misinformation and disinformation.Founded in 2021, The News Movement is a social-first news outlet seeking to address such a concern. The company produces short- and long-form video news content on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and more. They have now racked up nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok and 45,000 followers on Instagram.The company was co-founded by Sir William Lewis, who is leaving his position as CEO to lead up The Washington Post, as well as former BBC editorial director Kamal Ahmed and Ramin Beheshti.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

How hard is it for a traditional broadcaster to build a streaming service?“It’s a really easy thing to say, it’s quite a hard thing to deliver," ITV CEO Dame Carolyn McCall told editor-in-chief Omar Oakes at The Future of TV Advertising Global in London earlier this month.McCall reflected on the launch of ITVX, ITV's ad-supported streaming service, one year after its launch, and discussed what's next for the broadcaster as it seeks a more global footprint.ITVX now has 40 million registered users and has racked up 2.5 billion streams.A full write-up of McCall's interview can also be read on The Media Leader.---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 a year 2023 has been. The media industry has seen the expansion of generative AI, rising interest rates impacting businesses and in some cases media investment, a tough and transitioning market for TV, the 50th anniversary of commercial radio coinciding with a burgeoning podcast market, years of "efficiency" at major tech companies, a succession plan for Rupert Murdoch, and of course, Elon Musk dominating headlines for his tumultuous ownership of Twitter.In a special year-end episode of the podcast, host Jack Benjamin is joined by editor-in-chief Omar Oakes, reporter Ella Sagar, and guest Cass Naylor to debate the question: what was the biggest story in media this year?Highlights:1:55: Omar's biggest story: AI goes mainstream10:45: Ella's biggest story: Commercial radio's Brucey bump12:37: Out-of-home and cinema's post-pandemic comeback22:51: Jack's biggest story: 'Contentification' — how social video is changing other mediums30:07: TV's big streaming transition32:25: Cass's biggest story: 'Enshittification' of the internet---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

With more people turning to the likes of Instagram and TikTok for their entertainment, advertisers, including and especially luxury brands, have begun using influencers to help spread their brand messaging and sell their products in more ostensibly authentic ways.Working directly with such talent can be both a big creative boon, and a headache for brands and advertisers. Influencers are regularly flagged by the Advertising Standards Authority for breaking existing codes of conduct. That is why some more recently are turning to AI influencers, which are growing followings. One Spanish agency, The Clueless, recently used AI tools to create Aitana, a 25-year-old pink-haired "woman" from Barcelona who, according to the agency, looks real enough that an unnamed human celebrity slid into her DMs to ask her out. Aitana reportedly has netted the agency $11,000 in monthly revenue and has over 170,000 followers on Instagram.Scott Guthrie, director general of the Influencer Marketing Trade Body, joins Jack Benjamin to talk through the opportunities and risks of developing and employing AI influencers, and also touches on the importance of professionalising the influencer market to create a sustainable growth outlook for the industry.Drawing a distinction between influencers and other talent used in marketing, Guthrie said: "Influencers live and die by their community."---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

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