The Drum Podcast

Marketing has never had more tools, data or ways to create. But are they helping you make better marketing, or simply more of it? We're joined by James Lawton-Hill of APS Group, Greg James of Havas Media Network North America and Yvonne van Bokhoven of TEAM LEWIS to challenge the habits marketers should leave behind. From AI-generated content and vanity metrics to the pursuit of scale over tru...

Since Daniel Hulme sold his AI company to WPP for a rumored $100m, he's been the holding company's chief AI officer - alongside a number of other roles including entrepreneur-in-residence at UCL, where he got his PhD in AI. Recorded live at Semrush's Spotlight conference in London, he joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about the technology's present and near-future. Hosted on...

This week we're spotlighting Mark Ritson's AI marketing clinic. In 'Peak season meets AI: what marketers need to know', run in partnership with SAP Engagement Cloud, host Sam Anderson puts marketers' own questions to Ritson on the trading period that makes or breaks the year. On the examination table: why loyalty programmes keep collapsing into discounts, what synthetic data is doing for smaller B...

Guinness World Records has quietly become a marketing machine, running roughly 1,300 brand activations a year for companies chasing attention through record-breaking stunts. We're joined by Marco Frigatti, Senior Vice President of Guinness World Records for Business, who started out as an adjudicator - measuring, counting and witnessing everything from the largest yoga class to a rather unfortunat...

We're joined by Simon Baker, a branded content pioneer and now managing director of publisher-agency TCO. As brands loudly tout a 'golden age of branded entertainment', Baker helps us figure out what that might mean - and who it would be good for. Guest: Simon Baker, MD, TCO Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For years, marketers have debated whether brands are better served by full-service agencies or specialist expertise. But as AI reshapes how agencies work, perhaps that's no longer the right question. In this bonus episode of The Drum Podcast, Richard Draycott is joined by Nick Beck (Founder & CEO, Tug), Heather Connearn (Managing Director, Space & Time) and Jennifer Maclennan (Group Managi...

The Edinburgh festivals and their fringes add up to the biggest arts festival in the world - a yearly event that's only outsold by the World Cup and Olympics. As it launches, we talk to Jonathan Grant, an ad creative, comic, talent manager and now author. We talk about Grant's book, Reading the Room: The Inside Story of Stand-Up in the 21st Century; comedy's role in the media ecosystem; and what's...

Live from the floor of SXSW London, we're joined by Ramin Beheshti, the co-founder and CEO of Caliber, the 'new media' publisher behind social-first news brands like The News Movement. Like so many modern publishers, Caliber's commercial core contains more than news - including a marketing agency. But as publishers turn to all sorts of alternative revenue sources, is it still possible to make mone...

Legendary copywriter and creative director - Ogilvy APAC's long-serving chief creative officer - has entered his experienced-statesman era as an adman. His new book, Cowards Don't Go to Heaven, distills a life of creative understanding into a coffee-table book of handwritten (and illustrated) aphorisms and invective. He tells The Drum Podcast why a little anger is necessary for creative growth, ho...

Wesley ter Haar is the co-founder of global agency Monks, and now its chief AI officer. In a candid conversation filmed at this year's SXSW London about AI, he talks about the honest responsibilities, hopes and fears of an industry grappling with its future Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Consumers don't follow funnels, and perhaps they never did. In this episode, Nick Handley (Connective3), Victoria Peopall (Epsilon) and Hannah McNally (Jaywing) unpack how commerce media is challenging long-held marketing assumptions. They discuss the rise of social commerce, the limits of attribution, why incrementality matters more than ever and what AI could mean for the future of shopping. If...

Live from SXSW London 2026, the event's second annual outing, we sit down with Cecilia Morelli to chart how the event's adapting to the UK while maintaining its Texan core. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone is talking about AI, but how do you turn the hype into real business impact? In this episode, Dora Moldovan (Tomorrow Group), Greg Roekens (Prose on Pixels) and Adam Hay (Croud) share their experiences of implementing AI inside agencies today. You'll learn why simply layering AI onto existing workflows isn't enough, how leadership and culture shape successful adoption, and what it takes t...

A recent report mapped the growth rates and revenues of some 25,000 agencies across the UK - as well as flows of both private and public funding into those agencies. With its authors at Agency by Agency, we dig into what the report found and why it exists - a crucial knowledge gap regarding agencyland's smaller players. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Fifa World Cup looms, we're joined by experts in sponshorship and talent partnership - Gartner's Nicole Greene and Outreach's Joe Hockley, respectively - to map the upcoming 'most commercial World Cup ever'. As creators' stars continue to rise and budget scrutiny reaches sponsorships, what makes the big-ticket activations still worth it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

In his recent book, Empire of the Elite author Michael Grynbaum unearthed a a list of 178 artists, quotes and media properties that had been passed around the halls of Conde Nast in the 90s. It was William Norwich and Charles Gandee's list: As two editors of Vogue, they'd prepared it as an "unofficial test" of applicants to the austere magazine's halls of cultural power. Recently, cultural strateg...

Move over 'attention economy' - strategist Tom Gray says that the modern media world can be understood through the lens of the 'experience economy'. From immersive theater to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium, Gray says, anyone trying to stand out in the world of real experiences needs to be paying attentoon to the best work being done throughout the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...

What connects the tradwife movement, brands making their own entertainment properties, and the marketing world's fervor for 'unhinged' ads? We're joined by GUT's Natalia Davila to pick our way through some of 2026's most fascinating trends. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Live from the judging day at London's Big Sky Studios for The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA, we're joined by the president (HSBC's Nicole German) and vice-president (Arla Foods' Patrik Hansson) of the jury for a peak behind the curtain at what judges really want and how top marketers are adapting to a world of certain uncertainty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined by music journalist, manager and promoter Sean Adams to discuss one of the month's nosiest marketing spats: The argument whether social tactics to build a "narrative" around a musical artist through 'user generated content' generated by a paid-for agency amount to tricking both algorithms and real people into becoming a fan. As popular social media accounts across the globe declare re...

On The Drum Podcast, we hear a lot from the brands who buy ad space and the agencies they work with, but we rarely hear from the people doing the selling - especially at the social platforms that take a greater share of the ad pie every day. And no platform is growing faster than Reddit, which has built a multi-billion dollar ad platform in just a few years since its post-pandemic IPO. So: What's...

We dive into how sport is being rapidly reshaped in the attention economy, from fast-format football and entertainment-led fight nights to reinvented tournaments that blur the lines between sport and show business. You'll hear from guest host Richard Draycott and a panel of sports marketing experts: Lucy Bairner of Collaborate Global, Alistair Gammell of Threepipe Reply, and Christian Harrall-Bake...

Tom Knapman is a PhD-qualified biochemist. Last year, he was working for Sciex, whose campaign on proteomics (don't worry, we'll explain that in the episode) was a perhaps unlikely winner of a Grand Prix gong at The Drum Awards last year. This year he's jumped ship into a perhaps almost-unique role: chief science officer at a creative agency. He tells The Drum why he thinks boom times are coming f...

Brand consultancies sit at the intersection of marketing, business and culture - but what does that look like in practice? We’re joined by FutureBrand's Sam Hollis to discuss the strategist’s role in shaping modern brands, the realities of agency life and why moments of industry upheaval can be an opportunity for clearer thinking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Drum's inaugural Commerce Media Awards will take place soon in Miami. As the gold rush moves into its second phase, we're joined by leading commentator Andrew Lipsman to chart how we got here, where there's still money to be made, and where Lipsman's looking to next for the follow-up opportunity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.