Next in Media

Mike Shields
  • 4.8 (43)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Biweekly

Everything we know about the media, marketing and advertising business is being completely upended thanks to technology and data. We're talking with some of the top industry leaders as they steer their companies through constant change.

  1. 6d ago

    Spy Ninjas President Shelly Soriano on How the Company is Trying to Build the WWE of YouTube

    Spy Ninjas President Shelly Soriano breaks down how the YouTube-native serialized franchise scaled to 47 million subscribers and expanded beyond digital video into live entertainment, licensing, and retail.She reveals why keeping production values intentionally accessible maintains viewer trust, how a $25 million investment fuels their expansion, and why traditional entertainment talent must adapt to platform-native storytelling. Key Highlights🤼 Borrowing WWE's formula—big characters mixed with unscripted improv; gives digital shows a proven blueprint for keeping fans hooked long-term.🪆 Fancy Hollywood cameras can actually hurt engagement on YouTube; keeping video production simple makes creators feel relatable and lets kids play along at home.🎪 Turning online fans into real-world visitors at physical venues like theme parks builds a profitable business that platform algorithms can't touch.📱 Simply copy-pasting the same video to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube doesn't work; each platform has its own audience and requires tailored content.📊 When platforms tweak how they count views, creators have to show advertisers the difference between passive scroll-by views and real, intentional watch time.🎯 Kids and parents respond much better to brands when products are built into the storyline or video challenge instead of sitting in standard ad breaks. Resources & Next Steps🔗 Shelly Soriano on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction1:56 Spy Ninjas’ franchise model, audience, and scale2:38 Soriano’s digital-business background and the company’s revenue mix6:14 Brand partnerships for children and family audiences8:18 Authenticity over expensive production10:42 YouTube’s rise, platform-specific strategy, and short-form opportunity13:01 Spy Ninjas HQ: the Las Vegas live entertainment business14:10 Algorithm stability and changing definitions of YouTube views16:27 The $25 million investment and plans for expansion17:40 The need for specialized creator-economy talent19:53 Improving advertising infrastructure for creator media21:11 The Creative Class: training the next generation of digital-entertainment workers

  2. Sep 22

    How Addressable TV Drives Real Business ROI

    IQVIA Digital’s Justin Rosen reveals how addressable TV and CTV targeting are evolving beyond basic reach to demand high-fidelity data, rigorous privacy compliance, and proven closed-loop measurement.From identity resolution to the trap of the AI doom loop, discover how top media professionals connect upper-funnel audience quality directly to real-world business results. Key Highlights🎯 Basic CTV targeting is now standard; the real edge comes down to data precision, scale, and accuracy.🔒 Privacy can't be a post-campaign checklist—it has to start upfront with anonymized datasets and double-blind matching.⚠️ AI speeds up media buying operations, but if your underlying audience data is bad, automation just speeds up your failure.🤝 Addressable TV pays off quickest for brands sitting on strong first-party data who can directly link ad views to offline conversions.📊 Outcome measurement is taking over as the true test of ROI, even if traditional panel ratings stay around to settle the bills.🏛️ Clean rooms make cross-platform tracking possible across walled gardens by analyzing campaign performance without physically moving sensitive consumer data. Resources & Next Steps🔗 Justin Rosen on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction2:46 TV targeting becomes standard, while data quality becomes the differentiator5:28 Shared goals across advertisers: accurate targeting and real outcomes6:39 Pharmaceutical targeting: privacy compliance as the starting point8:43 Fierce Pharma discussion: meaningful signals and the link to outcomes10:56 AI can accelerate workflows, but cannot correct weak data13:27 Addressable-TV growth depends on first-party data, simplicity, and trust15:00 Nielsen’s continuing role and the rise of outcome-based measurement16:35 Holistic cross-platform measurement and publisher transparency18:06 Data clean rooms enable privacy-safe collaboration across walled gardens19:50 Identity resolution is a foundational element of marketing accuracy20:51 Measurement everywhere: flexibility across client identity systems

  3. Sep 15

    How Betches Built a TV-Quality Show In-House

    Betches senior video producers Tess Tregellas and Madeline Mahoney reveal how they transformed a viral social media premise into their flagship scripted comedy series Sisters. They outline the operational mechanics of building an in-house creator studio, maintaining a sponsor-free first season to protect brand voice, and driving multi-platform distribution completely organically. Key Highlights🎬 Short-form skits let you test creator chemistry and prove audience interest before committing big budgets to long-form shows.🔒 Keeping your first season sponsor-free protects your characters and tone, making the show much more attractive to advertisers later.⚡ A lean in-house crew skips Hollywood's endless development cycles, letting you film polished episodes in just a few days.📐 Frame horizontal shots with vertical cutdowns in mind to get free organic reach across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.🎭 Casting guest stars with dedicated niche followings sneaks your show right into brand-new algorithmic communities.🤝 Sponsor deals actually work when brands trust your sarcastic, natural voice instead of forcing corporate ad scripts.📲 Turning audio podcasts into video vodcasts fits how people actually watch content—streaming YouTube on their living room TV. Resources & Next Steps🔗 Tess Tregellas on LinkedIn🔗 Madeline Mahoney on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction1:22 Introduction to Betches and the interview guests2:18 Roles at Betches and the company’s video-first transformation5:57 From a real-life coincidence to a scripted sister comedy7:17 Short-form, premium long-form, and production quality09:24 Why Betches produced the show in-house12:15 Sponsor-free first season and a more natural future brand opportunity15:10 Writing for one-minute clips and learning platform behavior17:49 Betches’ in-house talent model and external creator network19:18 Branded content works when partners trust the Betches voice20:30 Season two and a potential streaming adaptation21:27 Advice for brands and publishers entering bigger video formats

  4. Sep 9

    WTF Happened to The Trade Desk?

    As The Trade Desk confronts negative growth guidance, executive turnover, and a 15% workforce reduction, media analysts Brian Wieser and Luke Stillman dissect the structural missteps behind the company's valuation drop.They reveal how an insistence on open-web transparency manifestos lost ground to buyer demands for price, convenience, and direct supply path performance. Key Highlights🎯 Marketers care about price, performance, and convenience—not speeches about saving the open web.👁️ Founder vision works early on, but ignoring market feedback once you're big creates massive blind spots.🧩 Buyers are sick of bloated tech stacks and want a simpler, direct path to ad inventory.📺 Connected TV won't fetch crazy software margins when brands manage it like standard TV budgets.🤝 Going straight to brand clients burns bridges with the agencies that built your business.💸 Taking a 20% cut of ad spend works in boom times, but buyers won't tolerate high fees in a slowdown. Resources & Next Steps🔗 Brian Wieser on LinkedIn🔗 Luke Stillman on LinkedIn🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction2:04 Analysis of recent earnings, market valuation drops, and the 15% workforce reduction.3:06 Marketers prioritize performance, pricing, and convenience over open-web transparency debates.5:02 Jeff Green's persistent founder mindset versus changing organizational market dynamics.09:34 AdTech tech stack collapse and the industry-wide push toward supply path optimization.11:49 Sustainability challenges regarding total platform take rates exceeding 20%.13:50 Leveraging newly hired executive talent to challenge internal consensus.18:38 Missed capital allocation and acquisition opportunities during peak equity valuation.

  5. Sep 1

    How NBAT2 is Building Gateway Content for Gen Z

    Traditional sports broadcasts are evolving into multi-platform cultural ecosystems driven by social media, gaming metaverses, and athlete creators. NBA Take-Two Media CEO Andrew Perlmutter explains how media brands can build participatory off-court entertainment that converts casual viewers into lifelong fans. Key Highlights 🏀 Live sports remain one of the few shared cultural anchors, using basketball as a natural entry point into fashion, music, and lifestyle programming. 🎮 Video games like NBA 2K function as interactive virtual spaces where fans build real connections by playing directly against actual NBA stars. 📱 Content strategy requires building custom video formats tailored specifically to how people consume media on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. ⚡ Younger fans demand hands-on participation over passive watching, preferring interactive features like call-in hotlines and fan-driven video game simulations. 🎙️ Digital media brands must maintain a strong, distinct point of view to avoid getting doused in a sea of generic content. 📺 Live game broadcasts are adapting to second-screen habits through alternate commentary casts and player-specific camera views. 👟 Successful brand partnerships weave products naturally into entertaining social storylines rather than forcing scripted endorsements or rigid ad reads. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Andrew Perlmutter on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 2:22 NBA 2K as a metaverse-like participatory experience 5:30 Sports as an expanding cultural gateway 7:19 NBA R&D and accessible basketball-pop-culture formats 9:05 Joakim Noah’s Nomad and athletes becoming creators 11:08 Building shows for platforms, brand voices, and talent 14:19 Gen Z: preserving live-sports drama while enabling participation 17:00 Co-creation, fan experiments, and new sports entry points 18:57 Native brand partnerships in basketball-adjacent culture

  6. Aug 25

    "The Frustration is Real" - The NFL Unloads on Nielsen

    Rushed methodology changes implemented mid-season by Nielsen have severely shaken the NFL's confidence in standard television ratings. NFL Chief Data Officer Paul Ballew explains how media fragmentation is forcing leagues and networks to demand radical transparency or switch to new transactional metrics. Key Highlights 📉 Changing ratings math in the middle of ad sales season destroys trust and throws billions in ad deals into chaos. 🤝 Traditional demographic panels aren't dead, but they are useless unless paired with hard transactional data. 📱 Streaming platforms are far more likely to ditch legacy ratings than traditional TV networks. 👥 Broken co-viewing math leaves huge money on the table for blockbuster events like the Super Bowl. ⚖️ Old-school measurement giants are trapped in the innovator's dilemma, trying to overhaul the engine while driving the car down the highway. 💳 TV ad buying will eventually trade on verified subscriber counts and device IDs instead of estimated viewer headcounts. 🔄 When measurement firms constantly issue "whoops" restatements, sports leagues have to publish their own audience numbers to save face. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Paul Ballew on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:50 Grading Nielsen's Progress: Mixed Results 3:57 Three Core Problems Holding Nielsen Back 5:34 The Currency Wars: More Noise Than Change? 9:01 CreatorTV Sponsor Segment 10:07 Why the NFL Cares Beyond Top-Line Numbers 11:40 The Integrated Weighting Problem and Its Impact on Sports 13:33 The NFL's Collaborative Approach and Its Limits 15:54 Panels vs. Big Data: The Right Balance 17:54 The NFL's Own Data Capabilities and the Transactional Data Argument 20:04 Nielsen's Cultural Challenge and the Innovator's Dilemma 22:06 The NFL's Measurement Wish List 26:38 Could TV Measurement Move Beyond Viewership as a Currency?

  7. Aug 18

    Why Social Video Is Beating Connected TV

    As US video ad spend reaches $82 billion, media buyers are demanding granular audience targeting capabilities alongside bottom-funnel performance metrics. IAB Vice President Chris Bruderle breaks down the shifting dynamics between CTV and social video, the rise of multimodal contextual AI, and why live sports platforms must prove direct ROI to capture long-tail budgets. Key Highlights 🎯 Targeting Outweighs Raw Performance: Hitting sales numbers isn't enough anymore—media buyers want to know exactly which audiences drove those conversions before committing budgets. 📱 Why Social Beats TV for Small Businesses: Social platforms are pulling away from CTV by giving smaller advertisers easy self-serve AI tools and direct in-app checkout. 🌐 The Open Web Isn't Dead: Web video is still a $20 billion market because publishers are using native video to keep audiences engaged as search traffic drops. 📊 A View Isn't Equal Everywhere: Real measurement normalizes cross-platform data under one framework without pretending a TikTok scroll carries the same weight as a living room CTV impression. 🛡️ Ad Fraud Is a Transparency Problem: Buyers aren't panicking about sudden fraud spikes; they're anxious because publishers still won't clearly disclose where programmatic ads actually run. 🤖 Smart AI Beats Blunt Keyword Blocking: Multimodal AI actually understands video context, saving brand-safe news and pop culture content from being needlessly blocked. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Chris Bruderle on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 4:15 The Overall Health of the Video Ad Market 6:21 Is the Open Web Dead? Websites Still Matter 7:05 Measuring Video Across Platforms: Unified but Differentiated 9:03 Social Video Overtakes CTV: Why SMBs Prefer Social 10:49 In-Stream vs. Out-Stream: Clearing Up Confusion 13:43 Ad Fraud and Trust in Programmatic Video 16:01 Contextual Advertising: AI-Powered Classification as a Solution 17:42 Agentic AI: Back-End Efficiency vs. Autonomous Spending 19:29 Shoppable Formats in Video: CTV Must Catch Up 20:58 TV Branding vs. Performance: Navigating the Full Funnel 23:06 Advice for Streamers: Live Sports and the SMB Challenge

  8. Aug 6

    Connect YouTube Ad Buys to CTV Campaigns

    Traditional media buying breaks down when attitudinal audience data gets lost between upstream research and downstream media activation. Bright Mountain's Andy Davidson and Deep Focus's Kyle Krueger unpack how synthetic personas, unified YouTube-to-CTV strategies, and responsible creator management keep ad campaigns aligned and effective. Key Highlights 🔄 Audience research usually gets mangled like a game of telephone once an agency hands off a campaign brief to platforms and creators. 📺 TV networks ingest data much faster now, letting buyers target real-time viewer interests instead of relying on six-month-old demographic reports. 📲 Independent agencies view YouTube as equal to traditional TV because it gives mid-sized brands better targeting, lower costs, and clearer ROI tracking. 🤖 Synthetic audience models allow planners to vet creator selections and test campaign ideas before spending actual media dollars. 🏝️ Travel creators who expose "hidden gems" without ground rules drive over-tourism and trigger serious backlash from local residents. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Andy Davidson on LinkedIn 🔗 Kyle Krueger on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:28 Introduction to Bright Mountain and Deep Focus 2:46 YouTube Ecosystem Challenges and Creator Studios 4:04 Data-Driven Audience Targeting and Platform Selection 7:11 Caribbean Tourism Client Case Study 8:01 Creator Selection and Audience Validation 9:12 Synthetic Audience Techniques and Data Ecosystem 11:17 YouTube's Journey Toward TV Legitimacy 12:49 Creator Control and Brand Messaging Challenges

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4.8
out of 5
43 Ratings

About

Everything we know about the media, marketing and advertising business is being completely upended thanks to technology and data. We're talking with some of the top industry leaders as they steer their companies through constant change.

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Shields
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    314
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 Next in Media
  • Show Website
    Next in Media

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