The Meaningful Media Podcast Havas Media Network

People love podcasts! Listeners doubled in four years from over 200m in 2019 to more than 460m in June 2023, and global listeners are set to blow past half a billion by 2024*.
 
As brands head into this audio space with its channel-specific challenges, they need effective support; to tackle brand safety; and to lock in listeners through meaningful audio media experiences. Trailblazer Dave Byrne, Director, Global Advertising Platform Integrity at Spotify and an expert in brand safety and brand suitability joins our host Ben Downing, Global Managing Director, Ethical Media & Strategic Partnerships, Havas Media Network to get to the heart of effective strategies for brands to create meaningful audio moments which connect, in the right audio context, to engage with listeners.  
Key challenges in the audio brand safety arena discussed during the conversation include: tone of voice, ‘Is somebody saying something as a joke or are they saying something as a legitimate, harmful thing? The evolution of language, an innocuous term today could be a term used to spread misinformation next week; and the nuances of language from one country to the next, with different meanings for the same term or word.
Dave and Ben delved deep into the entire media experience: “As much as we talk about content and brand safety, where we've had to focus on in audio is more about the context versus content,”  said Dave. Some advertisers have negative keyword lists which don’t reflect the broader context of what is being said, rather than focusing on individual keywords or individual pieces of content within the media.
“The concept of brand safety, or sometimes we use the term brand suitability, has become so central. This idea of media experience, because it's not only about content, it's about the context and the connection the audience has from those two things. The connections forged by that context and content,” added Ben.
Bubbling to the service was the notion that brand suitability and effectiveness are often the same conversation. "I have seen multiple, multiple times that when brands get brand suitability right engagement metrics soon follow,” underlined Dave.
On reach Dave added: “Just because you've got a million eyes looking at your ad doesn't mean you're appearing in the right environment, that those million ads, a million eyes are going to make an action, are going to change things. There’s definitely something to be said about bringing it sometimes back to basics of what is good media to buy. I can't tell you how many times in audio medium people are “Oh, we want to be here on this playlist". We ask what kind of audience do you want to capture? And actually that audience is in all these other places. It’s about not sacrificing revenue, profitability, engagement for the sake of other metrics that may be assigned.”
For all marketers involved in, or heading into, the burgeoning audio space this is a conversation not to be missed! Enjoy! 
 
* Source: DemandSage  
Useful inks
GARM
Spotify Advertising
 
🎧 We’d love to hear your thoughts about meaningful media. Drop us a line! podcast@havasmg.com.  
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“There are exciting shifts in B2B marketing which is going through a renaissance right now,” underlines Melissa Furze, Vice President, Customer Science and B2B Institute, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, during this fascinating conversation with podcast host Ben Downing as together they examine the shape of meaningful media experiences in the evolving B2B advertising space.
 
With over 65 million companies on their platform, LinkedIn “sits at a pretty unique space when it comes to understanding what's happening in the professional world”, explains Melissa who leads a multi-disciplined team which includes marketing strategists, researchers, content solutions, engineers, and analysts.
 
While there are differences in terms of B2C and B2B marketing, notably that B2B buying decisions involve high consideration purchases with typically longer sales cycles and often larger buying committees compared to the individual consumer’s buying decision, during this episode we learn there is definitely a shift towards more emotional, human-centered and ‘story full’ advertising in B2B. At LinkedIn, for example, they have new ad formats called Thought Leader Ads where brands have the opportunity to tell their stories through the voices of employees and their experiences by sponsoring a post from individual employees and executives.
 
B2B advertising is seeing a shift around creativity. Recent research from LinkedIn found 50% of B2B marketing leaders say creativity is their biggest priority. While B2B marketers are understanding the importance of storytelling. In their recent B2B marketing benchmark report LinkedIn found that “43% of B2B marketing leaders actually say that storytelling will be one of the most important future skills for their marketing team.”  
 
Press play on this episode to learn how CMOs and their marketing teams are building impactful media experiences in the B2B advertising space to connect and build meaningful emotional connections.  
 
Useful inks
Further information on the LinkedIn CMO Scorecard mentioned in the episode: https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/b2b-institute/cmo-scorecard
LinkedIn Collective: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/linkedin-collective/
Good News Network cited by Melissa during her Fast Five: GoodNewsNetwork.org 
 
Enjoy! 
 
⭐ We’d love to hear your thoughts about meaningful media. Drop us a line! podcast@havasmg.com.  
  
Like, share, subscribe and connect with us on our socials!  
⭐ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/havasmedianetwork/  
⭐ LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/havas-media  
  
 

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Fan communities – from gaming and sports to music and festivals – offer unprecedented opportunities for brands to plug into the power of passion – the lifeblood of fandoms.
 
In this dynamic episode, host Ben Downing sat down with special guests Twitch streamer Vanessa Lopez and Kevin Paskins, Pan EMEA Sales Director, Twitch to explore how creators
and fans interact to build communities, and how to create unique media experiences on live-streaming platform Twitch. Providing valuable guidance for brands, this conversation delves into how creators, brands and platforms coalesce to build meaningful relationships with fandoms.
 
“That’s the great thing about Twitch, it’s like watching TV but talking to each other. Like watching a movie with a friend, you’re talking about the movie with the friend in real time,” says Vanessa
referring to the social interaction and the live conversations with her community, conversations which pour into real life moments too.
 
“Fandom is about entertainment,”  underlines Kevin who shares that, on average, there are 7.6 fandoms per person, citing Twitch’s recent Anatomy of Hype report, with ‘happiness’ and ‘connection’ key drivers.
This episode is one of a series recorded during the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity at the Havas Café. Have a listen to our other episodes too: The Newsroom: Disrupted and Social Shopping & The Era of Creative Commerce!
 
Enjoy!
 
We’d love to hear your thoughts about meaningful media. Drop us a line! podcast@havasmg.com.
Reach out on our socials: LinkedIn and Instagram.
Executive Producer: Lindsey Partos


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In the first episode in our new The Meaningful Media Leader series, Sarah Mansfield, Vice-President Global Media, Unilever & Vice-President, Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) discusses her professional journey in media, shares vital perspectives on the media industry today and outlines valuable insights for the road ahead with our host Ben Downing.
 
From the benefits and ‘watch-outs’ of generative AI to driving transparency in cross-media measurement through a collective initiative at ISBA, this broad conversation between Sarah and Ben strikes at the heart ofexplores key areas impacting the media ecosystem, the leadership role of ISBA as one single voice representing advertisers in the UK and delves into the path forward for the industry.
 
“If we work together as an industry we can solve big problems…How we collectively solve big hairy challenges is a partnership with stakeholders; we are better solving them as a collective,” says Sarah during her discussion with Ben.
 
Enjoy the episode and do keep an ear out for future episodes with further media luminaries in this thought-provoking series!
 
We’d love to hear your thoughts about meaningful media. Drop us a line! podcast@havasmg.com.
 
Reach out on our socials: LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Between constrained advertising models and dwindling consumer attention, the media landscape continues to experience disruption compounded by the evolution of new storytelling formats to engage audiences and expand coverage areas.
 
In the second installment of our three-part series of episodes recorded at the Havas Café during the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, host Ben Downing sat down with news and media heavy hitters Ros Atkins, Analysis Editor, BBC News; Carmella Boykin, TikTok producer, The Washington Post; and Joi-Marie McKenzie, Editor-in-Chief, Life division, Business Insider to get an inside look into the world’s newsrooms and to discuss their take on the highs and lows of media experiences today.
 
Topics covered during this riveting conversation include: the primordial role of storytelling and why voice remains critical; building trust with readers and the deep value of meaningful engagement; why and how journalists’ own branding helps people to connect to storytelling; the potency of facts as the star of the show; the pivotal part played by production teams to build work that connects; and the advent of ‘bad faith’ checks to closely examine content which could be taken out of context.
 
“The reality is our focus in on good storytelling. Worrying about algorithms is almost secondary,” said Joi-Marie McKenzie, Editor-in-Chief, Life division, Business Insider, during the conversation.
Enjoy!
We’d love to hear your thoughts about meaningful media. Drop us a line! podcast@havasmg.com.
 
Reach out on our socials: LinkedIn and Instagram

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Valued at USD584.91billion in 2021, social commerce is enjoying seismic growth and presenting the fastest growing e-commerce opportunity for brands today. Fundamental to this growth are creators, who provide the right content, in the right context to connect with the right shoppers. But what are the key ingredients to creating engaging, meaningful media experiences? How can brands and creators work hand in hand to build meaningful shopping experiences and successful customer journeys? How can social commerce unlock incremental revenue for brands?
In the first installment of our three-part series of episodes recorded at the Havas Café during the 2023 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, host Ben Downing is joined by Sandie Hawkins, General Manager of US eCommerce at TikTok, and Hina, a TikTok creator with 1.7 million followers, to address these questions and explore how brands can meaningfully engage with TikTok creators to build trust with their target audiences and connect them with products that they’ll love.
“Creators are brands in and of themselves,” shares Hina during the conversation. “If I’m lending you my brand, I want to speak in my voice, not your voice. I want to speak about your product, in my voice.”
 
Enjoy!
We’d love to hear your thoughts about meaningful media. Drop us a line! podcast@havasmg.com.
Reach out on our socials: LinkedIn and Instagram.
 

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