The Media Leader Podcast

This month, Stagwell announced it would transform its agency brand Assembly into Stagwell Media, a new global agency that will combine Assembly’s “performance heritage and ecosystem expertise” with an integrated model powered by Stagwell’s agentic operating system, The Machine. The move comes amid a wider trend among agency groups that has seen them consolidate agency brands and use AI to automate more and more of the media planning and buying process. Slavi Samardzija is the global chair of media and commerce at Stagwell. Before joining Stagwell last year, Samardzija also spent more than a decade as global CEO of Omnicom’s Annalect, where he spearheaded the creation of its AI-driven marketing platform, Omni. He joined host Jack Benjamin to discuss the creation of Stagwell Media, how The Machine is being used by its media practitioners, and the degree to which agency groups are building comparable AI-driven products. Highlights 3:52: The launch and positioning of Stagwell Media 16:56: Are agencies' AI platforms distinct from one another? 23:08: Could automation lead to a regression to the mean? 30:00: Opacity, margins, and principal media Related articles Stagwell transforms Assembly into global agency Stagwell Media Mark Penn: ‘We’re it in terms of a fourth alternative’ Why your media plan might look the same as everyone else’s

Arcade, the management firm behind The Sidemen, is repositioning itself as a creator-first entertainment company, with ambitions to turn Europe's biggest online personalities into media brands. Following a significant rebrand last month, an expanded roster of creators and its first upfront in London, Arcade is looking to build commercial opportunities around what CEO Matt Elek calls "primetime" creators - "the top 1% of the 1%". The Sidemen, the British YouTube collective whose main channel has 23m subscribers, remain central to the business's story as it looks to continue building commercial opportunities beyond traditional talent management. Elek, formerly EMEA CEO of Vice, was appointed CEO in July. He joins host Charli West on The Media Leader Podcast to discuss Arcade's next chapter, what brands stand to gain from investing in major creators, and what the company's evolution says about the creator economy's move towards the mainstream. Elek argues companies like Arcade are helping bring “the rigour of traditional media” to the growing creator economy – even amid questions around the veracity of measurement and strength of viewership compared to TV, which he views as in “terminal” decline. Highlights: 2:02: Arcade's new positioning and widening creator roster 6:15: Why young people — and brands — are turning to YouTube and its "primetime" creators 12:43: Bringing "the rigour of traditional media" to the creator economy 15:08: Measurement consistencies and inconsistencies 19:00: Different opportunities for advertisers 23:56: Approach to brand safety 29:08: Why the future of the creator economy is a "hits business" Related articles: ‘We are platform agnostic’: The company betting on creators as media businesses Don’t boost the BBC. Regulate the algorithm Will YouTube’s new definition of a ‘view’ undermine its effort to tap into TV budgets?

Former IPA president and WPP Media veteran Josh Krichefski is one year into his work at independent media agency PMG. Speaking on The Media Leader Podcast soon after he joined, Krichefski set out three goals for his first year: improving brand awareness of the agency, winning more enterprise clients, and growing EMEA revenue for a business that is largely US-based. How has he done? Krichefski catches up with host Jack Benjamin to review his own performance and discuss the state of the global agency market. Key to PMG's differentiation, Krichefski says, is the number of engineers it employs on staff, as well as its wholly transparent relationship with advertisers. Krichefski is slated to speak at this year’s Future of Media London conference in November. He spoke to The Media Leader at PMG’s London offices. Highlights: 1:26: Krichefski's first year: Imposter syndrome, getting close to client work, and hitting KPIs 10:34: What differentiates PMG from other challenger agencies 18:53: Are holding groups undermining trust by 'black box' bundling and proprietary media? 24:10: PMG's EMEA growth strategy 27:53: Maintaining a People First agenda Related articles: Josh Krichefski on why PMG is going big at this year’s Cannes Lions Why Josh Krichefski joined an indie challenger Rinse and repeat? How the new agency business model will accelerate client in-housing

This week, The Media Leader is running a week in focus centred on talent and leadership. For years, industry leaders have warned media and marketing is facing a talent crisis. Mental health struggles and burn out was common especially during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, and rounds of consolidation and layoffs have taken a toll on everyone from senior leaders to junior hires. Rachel Forde and Marco Bertozzi are co-founders of TheZoo.London, a talent solutions agency that operates a consultant collective and executive search function for individuals with strong experience in the industry seeking to offer their services in an independent or fractional capacity. Both Forde and Bertozzi are veterans of the media industry themselves, with Forde previously working as CEO of Spark Foundry and later UM, and Bertozzi a former EMEA president at Whalar, former EMEA sales VP at Spotify, and former global CEO of performance marketing at Starcom. The pair returned to The Media Leader Podcast to speak with host Jack Benjamin about how agency consolidation and AI has impacted talent this year and offer advice to leaders navigating job loss and uncertainty. While they argued it's not "all doom and gloom" in the media industry right now, they acknowledged pickings are slim for junior talent while senior talent "are not being treated well by companies, by headhunters, by processes on LinkedIn." Highlights: 5:21: Why Forde and Bertozzi founded TheZoo.London and how they manage self-employment 8:37: Agency restrctures, 'deep cuts', and AI efficiencies 14:03: Advice for senior leaders versus junior staff 21:26: How changing agency remuneration models will impact talent 28:24: Is the industry socialising enough? Advice for networking and meeting face-to-face 'with no agenda' 36:41: Takeaways from interviews with senior industry leaders Related articles: Strategic thinking is biggest skills gap in marketing, WFA-Mediasense report finds The media industry needs to open doors, not just talk about inspiring talent Why is marketing and media’s talent problem following us into the AI era? Why talent needs mentors, not machines

Earlier this month at our Future of Media Manchester event, The Media Leader 's content director, James Longhurst, sat down with four leading sports journalists to peek behind the scenes of covering this year's biggest shared cultural moment: the 2026 World Cup. John Cross is the chief football writer for the Mirror . Nikhita Chulani is the executive producer for Sport at The Guardian . Dean Scoggins is head of sport at The Sun . And Henry Williams is a sports presenter at the Daily Mail . As they explained, with the World Cup being truly "24-7" this year, publishers embraced a multi-platform, multimedia strategy in which volume was less important than engagement with audiences, be it on publisher websites or third-party platforms. The group spoke about the tournament's controveries, celebrations and disappointments, and how journalism can bring a global community together around one moment. Highlights: 3:16: Reminisces on this year's tournament 10:12: How to cover a 24-7 World Cup across all channels, digital and print 16:46: The mindset shift required to embrace platforms and move from volume to engagement 22:12: What worked this year and the importance of community Related articles: Culture is everywhere. So why is it rarely planned for? Why mass cultural moments still matter (and the World Cup proved it) ‘The division between church and state isn’t sustainable’: Journalists weigh-up life as a creator The scoop that stopped FIFA’s secret World Cup selloff News brands: The beating heart of the FIFA World Cup Open goals: how The Guardian brought the World Cup to life

This week on The Media Leader we will be taking a deep dive into the future of media planning and strategy. So, what better way to start than with unpacking a new planning paradigm. This summer, independent media agency Craft Media London launched a new planning “Cookbook”. Titled Anti-Ultra-Processed Planning , the book argues that “planning has become fast food; mass-produced, pre-packaged and dangerously addictive”. Agencies, it continues, are increasingly outsourcing strategic thinking to automated platforms, producing similar plans and dull work. It is time, the book reads, to stop microwaving briefs and start cooking again. Sally Weavers and Jen Jones are co-founders of Craft Media London and co-authors of Anti-Ultra-Processed Planning . They joined host Jack Benjamin to discuss its arguments and takeaways, and why they believe good planning has become harder and harder to come by. Highlights: 7:05: What is anti-ultra-processed planning? 11:34: How to incentivise better planning practices 18:20: People not audiences 23:14: Notice over reach: the importance of attention 29:37: How brands can 'get out of the middle lane' and become more distinctive 40:29: Planning through culture, not channels 46:15: Measuring what matters and moving beyond social media Related articles: Beyond the black box: The case for anti-ultra-processed planning Media for planners who give a shit Templatisation and automation: Is planning losing its edge?

One of the fastest moving parts of the marketing industry is GEO, or generative engine optimisation. As AI search proliferates on Google, on ChatGPT, on Claude, brands are wanting to influence how results related to them are shown to users. For Google and ChatGPT, that could include through paid advertising, but the organic effort is seemingly just as important, much in the same way that search engine optimisation (SEO) has been. GEO presents a unique challenge, however. There is currently a relative lack of data flowing from AI companies to brands and agencies; it’s not always clear why and how a large language model decides to reference or pull in information about brands; meanwhile, AI search has led to a decline in clickthrough rates not only to publishers, but also to brand websites, vastly changing the online consumer journey and making it harder to prove exactly how GEO is working. Amy Banks was recently promoted at Havas Media Network UK to become head of both SEO and GEO. She spoke to host Jack Benjamin about how she’s developing strategies in GEO for clients and whether or not consumers can really trust what they see in AI search if marketing teams are constantly trying to influence it. Highlights: 4:02: The evolution of GEO and why data is a limiting factor 9:00: Who is winning the AI search market? 19:25: How GEO is linking with paid search, social and PR 21:38: The impact of declining referral traffic to brand websites 24:47: Does GEO undermine consumer trust in AI search? Related articles: AI search is reducing traffic to brand websites — but not sales Who owns GEO? That’s the wrong question GEO is an e-bike, not a spaceship

Publishers are not sitting idle as AI companies scrape their websites and cite their content in response to queries without permission. As their business models are turned upside down by sharply declining referral traffic from search, they are fighting back. That starts with understanding precisely how AI companies are scraping their content. In February, a coalition of leading UK news publishers founded the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights, or SPUR, an effort to develop and formalize a way for AI companies to make use of journalism in a way that protects publishers’ intellectual property. Dubbed “NATO for news” by FT CEO Jon Slade, the coalition has since rapidly expanded beyond its original founding members, and in June it released what’s known as a draft telemetry standard, an effort aimed at providing the technical foundation and shared language necessary to understand how AI systems use publisher content. With this knowledge, publishers can then start to create informed licensing deals with AI companies. Alex Springer is the technical lead at the SPUR Coalition. He spoke with The Media Leader about SPUR’s work, and whether publishers have finally developed the leverage needed to get AI companies to pay fair value for the work they’ve been allegedly stealing. Highlights: 4:10: Redefining publisher value in the AI era 11:11: The SPUR Coalition: Goals, technical developments, and building co-equal relationships with AI companies 20:01: Can the long tail of the web be protected from AI copyright theft? 26:41: Is the publishing industry being incentivised to improve quality? 35:22: SPUR's draft telemetry standard: what it is and how it works 43:04: What a new marketplace between publishers and AI companies could look like 51:44: Government interventions and development timeline Related articles: Telemetry: the key to solving AI’s valuation and measurement crisis ‘The first tremors in an earthquake’: Digital publisher revenues decline 4.6% amid falling referral traffic How publishers are fighting to protect their copyright from AI companies

Every year, The Media Leader and its parent Adwanted UK celebrate the best of UK media research at the Adwanted Media Research Awards (AMRAs). Robust media research is an important industry resource. It helps inform and steer conversation and our understanding of marketing best practice – as well as the incentives that often get in the way of implementing it. This year’s awards include 6 new categories and 22 in total, covering every element of media research. One notable new award is the Denise Turner Award for Best Use of Joint Industry Data in a Research Project, in honour of the late media researcher and friend of The Media Leader , who died last autumn. This year’s awards will be open for entry beginning Tuesday the 1st of September, with an early bird deadline on Wednesday the 7th of October and a standard deadline on Wednesday the 14th of October. Ahead of the opening, host Jack Benjamin sat down with this year’s judging panel co-chairs Dan Flynn and Graeme Griffiths. Flynn and Griffiths are joint directors of media research for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). They jointly succeeded Turner in the role in February of this year. Apart from leading the development of the IPA’s TouchPoints research and other industry benchmark surveys like the IPA Agency Census, they also represent the IPA on all of the major joint-industry currencies. The pair spoke recently about what makes for exceptional media research, why research isn’t always put into practice, and what innovations JICs can and should be driving to better meet the needs of advertisers. Highlights: 7:33: Judging the AMRAs: What makes for good media research? 10:23: Why doesn't research always lead to impact and behavioural change? 19:50: New AMRA awards and Denise Turner's legacy 24:49: How JICs need to evolve to meet advertiser demands 30:06: The Barb-YouTube relationship and agency demand for new JICs for platforms and podcasting 35:22: Is Origin the way to cross-media measurement nirvana? 42:29: The future of media research: AI, synthetic data, and in-housing research Related articles: AMRAs add six categories including Denise Turner award Measurement can’t be an afterthought — with IPA’s Denise Turner A round-up of some of the best research of the year Podcasting needs its own JIC – Jack Davenport, Goalhanger CEO Will YouTube’s new definition of a ‘view’ undermine its effort to tap into TV budgets?

Within the publishing market, one segment that has seen turbulence over the past few years has been freesheets. As the pandemic disrupted commuting, trains and tubes added Wi-Fi, and hybrid working became the norm, the number of people reading the paper on their daily commute dropped. This had downstream effects on some of the UK’s oldest papers. The Evening Standard became The Standard , moving from a daily to a weekly paper and emphasizing its website. Metro , which remains the UK’s highest-circulation paper, has seen several restructures and moved in and out of profitability as it has also worked to invest in its digital and social products. Now, facing declining clickthrough rates to websites because of Google’s changes to search, these news outlets are having to adapt again. As freesheets, they are entirely reliant on advertising as a business model, putting them at the coal face of changes in reader behaviour both offline and on. Deborah Arthurs is editor-in-chief of Metro. Jo Mazenko is commercial director of Metro . Last month, host Jack Benjamin joined them at Mail Metro Media’s offices in Kensington to discuss how the title has had to adapt to the changing publishing market. " Metro was born around the commute, but the day doesn't stop when you get off the train," said Mazenko. "It's about finding new ways to connect to people [and] keep the conversation going throughout the day." Highlights: 7:25: Metro' s up-and-down journey since the pandemic and changed distribution strategy 15:13: How editorial and commercial can work together while maintaining church and state 21:17: Managing the road to Google Zero by prioritising quality over quantity 26:10: Selling print in 2026 and moving into live events 33:49: The importance of habit formation 38:01: How commuting has changed Related articles: ‘Fresh team, fresh approach’: Mail Metro Media on becoming a ‘modern broadcast publisher’ Fewer ads drive more attention on websites, finds Lumen and Mail Metro Media ‘The first tremors in an earthquake’: Digital publisher revenues decline 4.6% amid falling referral traffic

To mark the 10th anniversary of AudioTrack, the UK's commercial audio delivery service owned and operated by Adwanted. The Media Leader Podcast joined the AudioTrack team for a deep dive into audio creative. In this bumper episode, host Charli West brings together five industry experts across three conversations. First, producer-director Pam Myers (Rojek) and radio data analyst Jason Brownley (ColorText) share their favourite audio campaigns, from Carpetways' regional cult following to the Compare the Market Meerkats, and make the case for authenticity, long-term consistency, and Byron Sharp's conception of distinctiveness. They also unpack the Ehrenberg-Bass 95% rule and what it means for how brands should think about the role of audio at every stage of the buyer journey. Next, Silke Zedcher, VP of Global Commercial Partnerships at AudioStack, traces a decade of change in how consumers experience audio, from single-platform broadcast to the always-on, personalised audio environments that smart speakers, streaming and podcast ecosystems now make possible. She argues that AI-powered dynamic creative is the technology that finally allows audio to fulfil its potential as a data-driven, omni-channel format. Finally, freelance audio producer and director Nick Angel and Matt Hopper, founder and CEO of Trisonic, offer a frank assessment of where AI genuinely helps in the creative process . And where it doesn't. From voice cloning concerns to the EU AI Act's disclosure proposals, they make the case that audio advertising remains a craft, and that no amount of automation changes the fundamental question: does it bear repetition? This episode was produced in partnership with AudioTrack.

The UK TV market is in a state of precarity and change. Sky is acquiring ITV’s Media and Entertainment business, the BBC is facing declining license fee payers, and director-general Matt Brittin has suggested reviving a Project Kangaroo-like “sovereign” streaming platform involving iPlayer and Channel 4. Meanwhile, all the broadcasters are keen to “meet audiences where they are,” which is increasingly on third-party, American-owned, walled garden tech platforms. Broadcasters are embracing social video, but concerns around the sustainability of the commercial model on platforms are persistent. Niamh Burns is the media policy lead at Enders Analysis. She recently co-authored a report on the major UK broadcasters, how they are dealing with headwinds in the TV ad market, and how they are embracing third-party platforms in search of audience growth. She recently sat down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss all things TV. When asked whether she believes the commercial opportunity on social platforms is enough to fund broadcaster's premium content production, Burns plainly stated: "At the moment, the answer is no across all the platforms." Highlights: 3:33: Will Sky's acquisition of ITV's Media & Entertainment business get the green light? 7:00: "A now or never moment" for the BBC: Charter review, license fee changes, a new "sovereign" streaming platform 17:07: Broadcaster strategies on social media platforms: From marketing to distribution via a black box 25:36: The commercial logic of embracing platform distribution 29:39: Handling different measurement standards 32:40: Government green paper and due prominence for broadcasters Related articles: Is Sky’s acquisition of ITV necessary to compete with global platforms? What the CMA should actually be asking about Sky and ITV Five items in Andy Burnham’s media in-tray How the BBC’s digital distribution strategy is evolving

Netflix is in the midst of a commercial expansion. In May, the streaming giant announced its ad tier would be coming to 15 new markets, including 9 in Europe. The streaming giant has invested in developing its own tech stack and acted aggressively to grow its programmatic business. The company is also expanding its live sport portfolio, and is dabbling in video podcasting and gaming, all leading to new potential commercial opportunities in the near future. Damien Bernet is Netflix’s EMEA ads VP. He spoke with host Jack Benjamin in his native France at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity last month about how Netflix is rolling out its ad tier expansion in Europe and new innovations aimed at automating programmatic buying. Since the pair's conversation, Netflix announced its Q2 2026 earnings report . Revenue grew 13% year-on-year to $12.6bn, with Netflix's ads business on track to double year-on-year to $3bn by the end of the year. Media analysis firm Madison & Wall has estimated Netflix's ad revenue now comprises 7% of its total revenue in the US, a small but "increasingly meaningful" driver of growth, and that Netflix will crack the top 30 global ad sellers this year, putting its ads business on par with the likes of RTL. Despite this, investors appear spooked by reports of declining engagement, with shares of the company down more than 20% year-to-date. A report by The Wall Street Journal this summer raised concerns of worsening viewership metrics, and Netflix has moved to reduce the cadence of its What We Watched report, reducing transparency into engagement figures. Highlights: 4:20: Netflix's ad tier expansion in Europe and its late-mover advantage 10:32: New innovations: Brand partnerships, reach and frequency, outcomes 15:53: Moving from programmatic to fully automated programmatic and scaling ad personalisation 21:25: Commercial opportunities in podcasting, live sport 29:01: Goals for H2 Related articles: ‘From arts to arts and science’: Netflix becomes ‘programmatic-native’ as it expands ad tier into 15 new territories Netflix embraces publishers in ‘fit for TV’ push Exploring the TF1 / Netflix win–win partnership Goalhanger reaches milestone as Netflix continues to test the podcast waters Amazon, Netflix and Google will control half of CTV advertising market by 2030, says Omdia

Is YouTube TV? It’s a question that pretty much everyone in this industry has an opinion on. YouTube, surely, would benefit from receiving TV budgets from advertisers. And, after all, more people are watching YouTube on TV sets. At the same time, YouTube isn’t exactly leaning into TV measurement standards. It’s been in a back-and-forth here in the UK with TV measurement company Barb, most recently sending it a cease-and-desist over Barb’s effort to measure TV set viewing of a specific subset of YouTube channels. Before the measurement initiative was shut down, it had revealed that much of YouTube viewing on TV sets was clearly being done by very small children , with viewership in the UK relatively light and limited to shows like Peppa Pig and Bluey. Of course, whether YouTube should be considered TV is just one question for YouTube, which has been wrapped up in social media bans for under-16s and has been found by a US jury to have designed its platform to be harmfully addictive. For brands, though, one of the biggest challenges they have with their YouTube strategy and managing its fragmented nature – there’s long-form, there’s TV set viewing, there’s Shorts, and there are creators working across it all, many of whom marketers may have no idea who they are, even as they’re microcelebrities within their own community. Kim Larson is the global managing director and head of YouTube creators. She sat down with host Jack Benjamin in Cannes last month to discuss the platform, how it works with creators, and how the latest news of bans and concerns around measurement might impact the business. Highlights: 3:20: Reaction to social media bans for under-16s and how it might impact young creators. 5:32: Is YouTube TV? 'Absolutely' - even if measurement standards are under question. 8:09: Why YouTube is the best for creators wanting to earn a living. 11:20: Ad disclosure standards. 12:43: How advertisers can deal with YouTube's own fragmentation of long and short form. 15:00: Professionalisation of the creator economy Related articles: Google hands cease-and-desist letter over YouTube measurement Barb’s first 7 weeks of YouTube channel data reveals over-indexing of child audiences What YouTube sees that you don’t: The future of media is a system, not a bunch of channels YouTube isn’t social media. So why is it being banned?

This episode was produced in partnership with News UK . News UK’s The Sun is one of many titles to embrace video in recent months. According to the publisher, its videos have driven 60m views and a 110% increase in returning viewers. Its movement into video has also helped secure new sponsors, including Allwyn, DAZN, Betfair, Cardfactory and 32Red. Owen Griffiths is the commercial revenue director of The Sun . At the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity last month, The Media Leader' s content director James Longhurst sat down with him to discuss The Sun ’s video strategy, what makes the publisher’s output unique, and how the World Cup is driving growth this year. Highlights: 1:25: Takeaways for publishers from Cannes: Positioning journalists as creators 2:15: Expanding video for editorial and commercial purposes 6:00: The Sun 's first "video-first" and AI-powered World Cup 7:29: Is AI a threat to publishers, or an opportunity? 8:37: How do journalists feel about becoming creators? 9:54: H2 plans: New video experience in beta, expanding membership, growing in the US Related articles: ‘Place as many bets as possible’: Behind The Sun’s hybrid paywall strategy ‘The division between church and state isn’t sustainable’: Journalists weigh-up life as a creator Why do publishers struggle to find their social voice?

The New York Times is something of a rarity in contemporary news publishing: a legacy giant that is seeing double-digit revenue growth and consistent readership growth. It's no surprise, then, that many commercial leaders at other publishers here in the UK have pointed to the Gray Lady as having developed a model they want to emulate. So to kick off our publishing week in focus here at The Media Leader , it was a pleasure to sit down with Tom Armstrong, The New York Times ’s VP of global advertising. Host Jack Benjamin spoke with Armstrong in sunny Cannes about how NYT ’s “solar system” strategy of surrounding its reporting with verticals like cooking and games has driven commercial opportunity, the publisher’s strategy for international expansion, and how NYT is embracing multimedia journalism. Highlights: 1:19: What's driving NYT 's growth: Portfolio transformation, subscription-first strategy 4:59: Is NYT not just a news company anymore? 6:52: International growth strategy 8:23: Why it's important for publishers to be sought out by name in the new era of AI search 12:07: Pivoting to video (again) - opportunities and pitfalls Related articles: ‘We are a destination’: NYT’s global ads chief talks the Gray Lady’s international ambitions New York Times publisher warns journalism faces its ‘Napster moment’ ‘The division between church and state isn’t sustainable’: Journalists weigh-up life as a creator Publishers advised to be ‘niche at scale’ amid the winding road to Google Zero

This episode was produced in partnership with Channel 4. At Cannes this year, The Media Leader sat down with several members of Channel 4's commercial leadership team to discuss how the TV company is looking to drive new commercial growth now that Universal Ads is live in the UK and Channel 4 is integrated with a new slew of demand-side platforms. On an previous episode of the podcast, host Jack Benjamin spoke with commercial chief Rak Patel about the latest news, and in this episode, he sits down with members of his sales team to discuss their commercial strategy in greater depth. David Amodio is head of sales at Channel 4, and Jay Kassam is head of business operations and revenue innovation at Channel 4. The trio talked sales strategy, how the broadcaster is making progress with mid-market advertisers, and how they are applying learnings from their time with tech platforms to the TV market. Highlights: 2:31: Channel 4's evolved leadership team 5:24: Taking a 'platform mindset' to the TV market 9:20: What an 'advertiser-first, agency-led' strategy entails as Channel 4 embraces the mid-market 17:11: Channel 4's new CEO and hopes for H2 2026 Related articles: Universal Ads is live in the UK. Now what? With Channel 4’s Rak Patel Universal Ads goes live in UK, providing TV with ‘easy button’ Leading Questions with Rak Patel – Channel 4 Sales Meet the Media Owner: Channel 4 adopts a platform mindset --- Thanks to our production partners, Trisonic, for editing this episode. Discover how Trisonic can elevate your brand and expand your business by connecting with your ideal audience.

Meta is growing at a remarkable rate. Already one of the world’s biggest global advertising businesses, the tech giant’s revenue grew 33% year-on-year to $56.3bn in Q1 alone. But while its dominance over the ad industry has crystallised, so has scrutiny into its business practices – and advertisers’ role in funding online harms through its platforms. Separate court cases in the US this year found that Meta has designed harmfully addictive platforms , and that it has misled users about platform safety and facilitated child sexual exploitation. A report from Reuters last November found that Meta knowingly earned 10% of its global turnover in 2024 from fraud and scam ads. At the LEAD conference in London this year, a spokesperson for Meta disputed the figure, but acknowledged that revenue from fraud and scam ads “might” have accounted for 3-4% of turnover – still equivalent to between $5bn and $7bn. And now there are concerns over the privacy implications of its line of smart glasses, which the company has positioned as the future of consumer electronics. Wired reported in June that Meta had quietly added facial recognition code into the product , before removing it after the publication of the reporting. All this comes as Meta has increasingly launched tools aimed at automating creative and media decisioning for advertisers, calling into question the role of agencies in a future dominated by tech platforms, their data, and their AI tools. It’s a lot to unpack. At Cannes this year, The Media Lead er put questions on all these topics and more to Meta’s EMEA vice president, Derya Matras. In the interview, Matras notably claimed that Meta has invested $30bn into addressing issues of ad fraud, scams and "other integrity issues". She said, "it's not like we knowingly have bad ads" and that Meta is "incentivised to take action on this" because it is "not good for us." But, since recording the interview, an investigation by the BBC found that Instagram has been running paid ads in India that promote child sexual abuse material on the messaging app Telegram. When one of the ads was reported to Meta by the BBC, Meta reportedly initially responded that the ad did not violate its community guidelines. Meta later told the BBC it had disabled several of the ads and suspended the accounts posting them. A spokesperson for Meta told The Media Leader: “Meta has a zero tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing CSAM, including in ads. We use advanced AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5bn users and try to evade our detection. That is why our expert teams are constantly working to improve our defenses, develop new technology to root out predators, block links to violating websites, and share intelligence with other companies so they can take action too." A full transcript of the conversation is available on The Media Leader , edited for length and clarity. Highlights: 3:27: Reaction to social media bans for under-16s, criticism of failure to address online harms and addictive design 11:58: Advertisers want more transparency of where their ads show up on platforms 13:29: Why is Meta knowingly earning billions from fraud and scam ads? 17:15: Meta is automating creative and media decisioning. Should agencies be concerned? 27:04: Are smart glasses still the future of commercial technology? What about privacy implications? 30:21: Meta's growth depends on providing good user experience. Is it getting worse? Related articles: Molly Russell charity CEO: Social media’s user safety efforts have been ‘performative’ ‘Right diagnosis, wrong prescription’? Adland torn as Starmer announces under-16s social media ban ‘Are we monetising addiction?’ Ad industry faces reckoning following social media addiction lawsuit verdict Snap is betting on smart glasses. Should brands?

This episode was produced in partnership with Channel 4 . For the second year in a row, the UK's commercial TV companies made a splash at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. After unveiling Universal Ads — the broadcasters' marketplace for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — last year, Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and Comcast officially launched the product on Tuesday. And on Monday, Channel 4 announced it had partnered with 5 demand-side platforms to make advertising with Channel 4 more accessible to advertisers. During the week, in partnership with Channel 4, host Jack Benjamin sat down with Channel 4's commercial chief, Rak Patel, as well as members of its commercial leadership team, Jay Kassam and David Amodio, in separate interviews. He asked Patel, Kassam and Amodio about the latest news, the state of the UK TV industry, and how Channel 4 is balancing the need to reduce enough friction to make TV easy to buy, while retaining enough friction to make it a trustworthy medium for advertisers. The Media Leader will be releasing the episodes in two parts, the first with Patel and the second with both Kassam and Amodio. "You can be easy to buy, but retain your superpower," Patel said. "Broadcast is an oasis... The tech giants are a data warehouse, we are a dream factory." Highlights: 1:43: Changes at Channel 4 over the past year 8:46: Taking a platform mindset to future-proof Channel 4 12:38: 'Turn down the toxic' hasn't happened yet. What will move the dial? 14:12: Universal Ads is live. What it means for broadcasters, what the UK has learned from the US, and how the product will evolve 20:21: What is the go-to-market strategy for reaching SMEs? 25:30: 'The wind of change' Related articles: Universal Ads goes live in UK, providing TV with ‘easy button’ Leading Questions with Rak Patel – Channel 4 Sales Meet the Media Owner: Channel 4 adopts a platform mindset

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