The Media Leader Podcast

The Media Leader
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Marketing
  • Updated twice weekly

The Media Leader is the leading source of analysis, data, opinion and trends in commercial media and advertising. Hosted by senior reporter Jack Benjamin, we speak to senior industry leaders and rising stars about the key challenges media faces as part of our mission to stand up for courage, inclusion and excellence in media. Find out more at uk.themedialeader.com and subscribe to our daily newsletter.

  1. 4 days ago

    How AI, China and media consolidation is keeping the global ad market 'buoyant' - with WPP Media's Kate Scott-Dawkins

    Last week, WPP Media released its mid-year global advertising forecast report. As Kate Scott-Dawkins, WPP Media’s global president of business intelligence and author of the report said, the growth picture for advertising is "quite buoyant", even in the midst of severe geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. As the global advertising community descends upon sunny Cannes this week, including us at The Media Leader, deals will be cut, rose will be drunk, parties will be had. But ahead of the pomp and circumstance, The Media Leader wanted to take a close look at where the industry stands after a deeply unstable H1. Host Jack Benjamin caught up with Scott-Dawkins last week to unpack the strong growth picture despite that instability, and look ahead to the end of the year and beyond. The duo discussed the rise of China, the decline traditional ad sellsers, and why AI is driving substantial growth in the ad industry. Highlights: 1:39: Unstable global business market, buoyant global ad market 6:01: AI's 'Manifest Destiny' and 'Gold Rush' moment 9:31: Is platform-driven media consolidation good for advertisers? How big is too big? 12:58: Impact of social media ban and potential tech regulation 16:13: What happens if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed? 19:32: How AI is impacting the labour market, and what it means for consumer spending 24:58: The rise of China and the bifurcation of marketing stacks Related articles: WPP Media upgrades growth forecast despite macro headwinds Strait of Hormuz disruption threatens $94bn of global ad investment over next 18 months

    33 min

  2. 15 Jun

    Why brands need less channel planning and more ecosystem design — with Arena Media's Hamid Habib

    Last week on the show, The Media Leader spoke with Thinkbox’s Elliott Millard about how brands can reconsider their cultural impact, and this week, we wanted to continue that conversation with an agency that bills itself as sitting right at the centre of culture. Hamid Habib is the managing director of Arena Media within Havas Village. Habib and Arena Media pride themselves on working on inventive campaigns that embed brands within culture and communities. Habib discusses what it means to work for a “cultural media agency”, how he has moved his clients away from channel planning and toward ecosystem design, and the overarching cultural changes he thinks every brand should be aware of. He and host Jack Benjamin also talk about why brands are underinvesting in gaming, and how AI is changing the role agencies play for their clients. Highlights: 4:55: Arena Media's unique client proposition and why brands "grow when they move with culture". 11:24: Less channel planning, more ecosystem design: Why the brand and performance dichotomy is not fit-for-purpose. 18:00: Important cultural shifts this year: Bifurcation of media behaviours across generations, AI changing customer journeys 26:32: Brands need a BANG: Breadth, authenticity, newness, granularity 31:33: Zig when others zag: Why Reddit, gaming are underinvested channels 45:06: Are agencies still relevant as automated planning, buying and creative becomes common? Related articles: How marketers should reconsider culture and short-term strategies — with Thinkbox’s Elliott Millard Is there still room for human creativity in the AI era? Charlie Hugill: Why the future of media is real, human and experiential PlayNet launches to connect gaming with online behaviour

    59 min

  3. 8 Jun

    How marketers should reconsider culture and short-term strategies — with Thinkbox's Elliott Millard

    Ask marketers what they hope to accomplish and, as part of the effort to drive sales outcomes, these days, many will say they want their brand to contribute to and sit within culture But that begs the question: how do you define culture? There is a sense that culture is youth-driven and based on social currency – are you up to date on the latest trend? On what people are talking about right now? Are you speaking their language? But a new study presented at a Thinkbox event last week found that marketers might just be thinking about culture in too narrow a way, and a change in framing might cause them to rethink their media investment. Elliott Millard is the chief strategy officer at Thinkbox. He sits down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss how brands are advertising through macroeconomic adversity, and how they should reconsider how to best make a cultural impact through their advertising.  Highlights: 3:36: Adversity facing advertisers: Are CMOs actually embracing brand advertising again? 10:32: Brands aren't doing short-termism the right way 15:54: The media channels that are the biggest drivers of culture 22:02: The cultural half-lives of online trends 28:14: The power of predictability and the ability to plan reactivity 38:07: Brand dynamics as a network effect Related articles: Brands could double their media investment and still generate a profitable return, claims WPP Media report The cultural moments that will matter to media in 2026 Go woke, go broke? Brands on the front line of the culture war

    43 min

  4. 1 Jun

    What the OOH industry needs to do to double its market share - with WOO's Tom Goddard

    This week, from the 3rd to the 5th of June, the World Out of Home Organisation (WOO) is hosting its Annual Congress here in London. The event is expected to draw more than 700 attendees from over 37 countries, and The Media Leader is an official media partner of the conference, occurring during our inaugural OOH Week in Focus. Ahead of the conference, host Jack Benjamin sat down with the World Out of Home Organisation president Tom Goddard to discuss the state of the global OOH industry. The pair spoke about how OOH is working to become easier to buy, how it is improving measurement standards, and whether the media channel is telling the right story about itself to advertisers. Highlights: 4:16: The World Out of Home Organisation's recent goals and priorities 8:28: OOH's digital transformation and consolidation in ownership 12:25: Investment in data and measurement and the need for connectivity and automation 17:25: Regulatory headwinds and tailwinds 21:34: Making outdoor creative again with trust as the North Star 26:55: OOH as a sustainable medium 32:17: How to double OOH's market share: make transactions 'frictionless', collaborate more Related articles: OOH reports highest-ever annual revenue in 2025 The reinvention of OOH is accelerating Why measurable doesn’t always mean meaningful in marketing Is out-of-home under threat from global regulations? DOOH: The creative imperative

    41 min

  5. 25 May

    Why the United Nations is asking advertisers to protect the open web

    Last month, the United Nations in partnership with the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) launched an issue brief warning the integrity of the global information ecosystem is at a "crisis point". As Charlotte Scaddan, senior advisor on information integrity at the UN, explained: "Without swift action and guardrails, AI risks accelerating the breakdown of information ecosystem integrity." But advertisers, the UN believes, are uniquely situated to demand greater transparency and guardrails from AI companies as the likes of OpenAI turn to ad-supported business models to fund their exorbitant costs. At our Future of Brands conference last month, Scaddan and CAN co-founder Harriet Kingaby joined host and senior reporter Jack Benjamin to unpack the report and make a direct appeal to advertisers to "make information integrity a condition of AI uptake." Highlights: 1:35: Toplines from the Strengthening Information Integrity: Advertising, Artificial Intelligence and the Global Information Crisis issue brief 4:41: The power of advertisers in the global information ecosystem 7:14: Why advertisers should care about media quality 9:55: Concrete steps advertisers should take when working with tech platforms Related articles: UN and CAN warn of AI-driven global information integrity crisis Social media platforms linked to human trafficking, UN report finds UK to get ChatGPT ads imminently as OpenAI expands pilot to other territories Takeaways from the Future of Brands 2026: AI, culture and measurement take centre stage ‘Are we monetising addiction?’ Ad industry faces reckoning following social media addiction lawsuit verdict Meta admits revenue from fraud and scam ads ‘might’ have accounted for 3-4% of total revenue

    17 min
  6. Believe It or Not Ep. 6: Will AI end enterprise software businesses as we know them?

    21 May

    Believe It or Not Ep. 6: Will AI end enterprise software businesses as we know them?

    In a new mini-series, former Media Leader editor-in-chief Omar Oakes is joined by former Dentsu International CEO, now AI strategist Hamish Nicklin to argue over the nuances of AI development and its use in the creative industries. In the series' final episode, the duo debate for and against the prompt: "Goodbye Salesforce and Adobe because AI will end enterprise software." Taking the “for” side of the argument is Nicklin, while Oakes represents the “against” side, posing sceptical questions. Nicklin argues that the ability of people to build their own software through vibe coding will undercut SaaS business models, which are becoming too expensive to compete. Highlights: 1:05: Recent developments in AI: BuzzFeed's sale, Americans hate AI 6:26: SaaSmageddon: Why AI is disrupting software businesses, with valuations collapsing 20:17: Claude Cowork and its plug-ins 33:32: How realistic is replacing everything with vibe coding? The ease of building personal software and how IT might change 51:31: Second-order effects: What about safety and security? What about fixing bad code? 55:07: Verdicts

    1hr 4min

  7. 18 May

    How brands can win authority in LLMs - with Havas, Heineken and Publicis

    With the advent and adoption of AI search, consumers’ online research and discovery behaviours are shifting. How can brands win authority in this new space? Last month at our annual Future of Brands conference, industry leaders convened in London to unpack the challenges facing brand marketers in a rapidly changing media ecosystem. One such nascent problem for marketers and their agencies: how brands are showing up in large-language models (or LLMs). Laura Kell is chief data and product officer at Havas Media Network. Marcos Angelides is MD of L’Oreal Lab and head of AI operations at Publicis Media. Olya Dyachuk is global media and data director at Heineken. The trio sat down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss early efforts in generative engine optimisation, how AI search is forcing agencies to reconsider team organisation, the importance of benchmarking how your brand shows up in LLMs, and what marketers need from AI companies as the likes of OpenAI embrace advertising. Highlights: 2:05: Where brands and agencies are in their GEO journey: Benchmarking and auditing, testing and learning 11:58: Does GEO require bringing search, social and PR teams together? How agencies should reorganise 15:29: The value of LLMs for audience insights 17:17: The consumer trust issue when manipulating LLM results or placing ads in chatbots 24:17: Brands' relationships with AI companies like OpenAI vis-à-vis Google Related articles: Takeaways from the Future of Brands 2026: AI, culture and measurement take centre stage AI optimisation: The new channel brands can’t afford to overlook Havas Media Network launches ‘generative engine optimisation’ tool Agency groups’ AI platforms, explained

    33 min
  8. Believe It or Not Ep. 5: Is AI sycophancy bad for business?

    14 May

    Believe It or Not Ep. 5: Is AI sycophancy bad for business?

    In a new mini-series, former Media Leader editor-in-chief Omar Oakes is joined by former Dentsu International CEO, now AI strategist Hamish Nicklin to argue over the nuances of AI development and its use in the creative industries. In episode four, the duo debate for and against the prompt: “AI sycophancy will run wild, and it will be bad for business." Taking the “for” side of the argument is Oakes, while Nicklin represents the “against” side, posing sceptical questions. While both Oakes and Nicklin agree AI sycophancy is an active problem for business leaders, Nicklin suggests that thoughtful prompting can help ameliorate concerns that chatbots are misleading you to try and keep you happy. These include giving the AI explicit permission to reject ideas and asking chatbots to give feedback as though it is for a third party as opposed to the user. As Nicklin argues, subordinates can be sycophantic, too, and "sniffing out the b******t" is already a core skill for business leaders. But Oakes asks: what happens when you "don't know what you don't know"? Highlights: 2:12: Recent developments in AI: AI-generated music on Deezer, Los Angeles's AI art museum 6:01: What is AI sycophancy and does it mean bad ideas aren't getting killed? 16:52: Four tips for combatting AI sycophancy and making a chatbot a "critical friend" 34:44: How to "sniff out the b******t" when you don't know what you don't know 45:38: Second-order effects: commercial damage of wrong decisions; impact on psychology, communication standards; AI education 1:00:58: Verdicts

    1hr 4min
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About

The Media Leader is the leading source of analysis, data, opinion and trends in commercial media and advertising. Hosted by senior reporter Jack Benjamin, we speak to senior industry leaders and rising stars about the key challenges media faces as part of our mission to stand up for courage, inclusion and excellence in media. Find out more at uk.themedialeader.com and subscribe to our daily newsletter.

Information

  • Creator
    The Media Leader
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    236
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Adwanted UK
  • Show Website
    The Media Leader Podcast

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