The Campaign Podcast

WPP announced a new strategy and structure last week, on Thursday 26 February, as the company hopes to turn its fate around, while reporting its worst financial performance since the pandemic.  Campaign's editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier interviewed WPP's chief executive officer Cindy Rose on the three-phrase plan "Elevate28" which includes £500m in cost savings and transitioning the business f...

Campaign has released the A List – a compilation of over 200 industry leaders and their musings on the year gone and year ahead. In 2025, the advertising and marketing industry underwent some huge organisational shifts. With revenue declines and share price drops, job cuts, leadership changes and legacy agencies changing their names, 2026 marks a new era for the industry. In this episode, the Camp...

Media planners and buyers, like many in adland, have been tackling a period of immense change. AI, media fragmentation and budget restraints are all impacting the roles within media. At the end of January Campaign hosted Media Week Live, a conference for media planners and buyers, discussing how their roles are changing and what the future of the media agency looks like. Leaders from X, Pinte...

Following the Super Bowl LX over the weekend, David Kolbusz, chief creative officer at Orchard Creative; Helen Rhodes, chief creative officer at Grey London; and Josh Green, chief creative officer of Elvis review a selection of the ads in this week's episode of The Campaign Podcast .  Hosted by Campaign’s creativity and culture editor Gurjit Degun, the trio critique work from Instacart , Anth...

The FIFA World Cup really is bigger this year, taking place in Summer across 39 days, taking place in 16 cities across the US, Mexico and Canada. While all the on-pitch fun is happening across the Atlantic, how can brands across the pond engage UK audiences effectively and authentically? In this episode of The Campaign Podcast , Campaign welcomes guest Lizi Hamer, the global executive creative dir...

Campaign's "agencies to watch" lists the top media, creative and new shops that are likely to have an impact in the next 12 months. This episode discusses the chosen agencies, how the lists have changed from 2025, and what makes an agency worth watching, or not. While these lists are not an endorsement of each agency, they have been chosen because these shops went through big changes last year. Th...

2025 saw an incredible amount of change and pressure for the industry and its agencies – steering the ship through heavy storms has become even tougher. At Campaign's Year Ahead Breakfast Briefing in The National Gallery, editor Maisie McCabe led a discussion on leadership in a time of change, interviewing Dan Clays, CEO of Omnicom Media EMEA, Katie Mackay-Sinclair global chief brand officer at Mo...

Adland leaders announced their optimism at last week's Year Ahead Breakfast Briefing in The National Gallery, talking about the trends and strategies across creativity, technology, leadership, brands and media for 2026. Martin Beverley, co-founder and chief startegist at Ace of Hearts spoke about the importance of joy, while Netflix's head of advertising sales Ed Couchman said 2026 will be the yea...

Campaign LOVES a pitch story, and the tail end of last year was very busy with many pitches taking place or being won right up to the final week. WPP won the £1.5bn government media pitch and the expanded review for Jaguar Land Rover , as well as media for Kenvue , while Publicis Groupe picked up the creative for the consumer healthcare company. Aviva's creative account went to Saatchi & Saatchi a...

As the "happy new years" ring out, what resolutions are those in adland setting for 2026? Last year unleashed a relentless wave of change across the advertising and media industry, from agency mergers and closing shops to restructures, the growing prominence of social and tech platforms, and some great creative work.  Now, in 2026, Campaign begins the year with a look at what adland’s new yea...

From Gen Z to Boomers, age has long been a marketing shortcut – but is it still useful? Campaign’ s Lucy Shelley and Amazon Ads’ Carly Zipp unpack how brands can connect through shared interests and values instead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Does January feel like a week ago or five years? The past 12 months have brought with them a lot – a mega-deal, cyber attacks, agencies renamed, new chief executives, trends fading in and out, redundancies and, of course, AI. In the final podcast episode of the year, Campaign takes a look back over 2025 at some of the most memorable moments of the year, revisiting the top stories, reviewing who wa...

Waitrose, John Lewis, Tesco... the Christmas ads are all out and it's time for them to start selling. But what do adland's creative leaders make of the campaigns? Creativity and culture editor Gurjit Degun hosts this extra Private View episode of The Campaign Podcast, reviewing the top festive ads with David Kolbusz, chief creative officer at Orchard, Chaka Sobhani, the newly appointed global chie...

Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG on Wednesday 26 November after clearing EU regulation . On the Monday that followed (1 December) the new holding company revealed a huge restructure including 4000 job cuts to happen by the end of the year, agencies merging, new leadership announced and some networks ceasing to exist. In this episode of The Campaign Podcast , Campaign's editorial team discu...

At the start of the year, 2025 was predicted by some adland commentators to be the year for independent agencies. Omnicom was beginning to acquire IPG to make the largest holding company, redundancies occurred across some of the networks and WPP had a more-than-difficult year on top of a new chief executive. 2025 has seen the launch of many independent agencies including Ace of Hearts , Studio. On...

Christmas ads keep snowing down across TV, social, live experiences and digital channels. With the multiplicity of formats and audiences fragmenting, does TV still reign as the top channel for festive films? In this episode of The Campaign Podcast, Campaign's editorial team gather to discuss the next round of Christmas ads, including Waitrose's "The perfect gift" by Wonderhood Studios , Tesco's "T...

Where are all the mince pies? Still in Christmas advertising it seems, despite the Less Healthy Food and drink (LHF) restrictions. The voluntary period banning foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) began on 1 October this year for paid online ads and TV with a 9pm watershed, just in time for a snowstorm of Christmas advertising. As of 5 January 2026, the voluntary period ends and it wi...

Christmas has hit adland like a snowball in the face, with the festive ads coming in thick and fast, so what can be gleaned from the first phase of holiday advertising? In this episode of The Campaign Podcast , the editorial team break down the themes that emerged in the first batch of Christmas ads and the industry’s reaction to the campaigns so far. Tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley is joi...

Advertisers have been pulling investment from newsbrands and trusted journalism for years. The latest AA/Warc figures show that national and regional newsbrands, along with magazines, have suffered the steepest declines in adspend across all channels, while tech platforms continue to claim a growing share of the market. However, the figures suggest this decline will slow in 2026, and this year's M...

WPP, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom, Interpublic, Havas and Dentsu have hitherto been known to adland as the "big six". However, the past year has brought the announcement of a proposed merger between Omnicom and IPG, while Havas and Dentsu have become comparatively smaller. So, the "big six" become the "big three", but is there another challenger? Accenture Song's latest results reported revenues of $2...

This episode of The Campaign Podcast explores whether marketers are using AI to do work traditionally done by their agencies and examines what clients are – and aren’t – doing with AI. It comes as Campaign launches the Power 100, the list of the most powerful marketers in the UK. This year they were asked questions designed to tease out where they are on their AI journeys. Presented by deputy edit...

Campaign published its Faces to Watch list for 2025 last month and also canvassed the cohort on a range of topics both on and off-the-record. From hybrid-working and salary through to the rise of AI and diversity, the Faces – all of whom have worked in adland for eight years or less – gave their views freely. This episode not only dissects their thoughts but also offers the perspectives of adland...

Neurodiversity exists in between 15 and 20% of UK adults, but recent All In data counts over half of adland’s UK workforce as neurodiverse, at 55%. This week is dyslexia awareness week, and to mark the occasion this episode looks into neurodiversity in adland, and how the industry supports people with different ways of thinking, both internally and in the ads it produces.  Hosted by Campaign'...

Ndidi Oteh, the new global chief executive of Accenture Song, was interview on stage by Campaign's editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier at Campaign Live in her first UK interview. 24 days into the new job, Oteh discussed navigating change and scale, plans to expand in media buying, and how the agency arm of consulting giant Accenture compares to the big holding companies. This episode features the...

Cars, airlines, FMCG brands and banks used to be some of the most desirables clients to have for an agency. Some clients are still more desirable to agencies than others, but is it based on size, market, sector or another factor?  In this episode, Campaign's editorial team question if prestige sectors still exist and to what extent agencies actually choose their clients. Tech editor Lucy Shel...