The Campaign Podcast

Podcast: What will the next 70 years of commercial TV look like? This September, the UK celebrates 70 years of commercial TV since the launch of ITV on September 22 1955. A lot has changed since the very first TV ads. Not only are they now in full colour but the very definition of TV has evolved and keeps on changing with the addition of new formats and introduction of new digital competitors. In...

Media platforms, including Meta, TikTok , X, Spotify , Pinterest and others, have been advancing their own AI capabilities to improve the advertising process of creating and serving ads to an audience. So where does this leave media and creative agencies? Meta, has gone so far as to call itself a “one stop shop” for advertisers, by reportedly aiming to fully automate advertising, including the cre...

Omnicom and IPG have kept their cards close to their chests while nearing completion of the biggest acquisition in advertising history.  Set to close in the second half of this year, the merger-acquisition has now secured 15 out of the 18 regulatory approvals required, including recently with UK watchdog the CMA, in early August . Under the terms of the all-share deal, Omnicom said at th...

Campaign releases an unpublished recording from the inaugural Campaign Live conference last year. Unilever's former chief marketing officer Keith Weed and chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly are interviewed on stage by Campaign’s editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier . They discuss how to keep the peace in the infamously tense CMO and CFO relationship that they said requires "mutual respect" from bo...

It is the summer of women’s sport, or ‘simply sport’ as Campaign's deputy editor Gemma Charles put it , and records are being broken both on and off the pitch. The Women’s Euro’s, which was viewed by 16.2 million people during the final, has been touted as the most commercially successful football tournament ever — women’s or men’s — with 30,000 more ads per day than last year’s men’s tournament....

The long-term row between independent production companies and those that sit within holding companies has resurfaced in recent weeks over best practice when it comes to bidding and being selected for work.  Production craft festival Ciclope ended its sponsorship contracts with holding companies , which began an online debate between the Advertising Producers Association and the IPA on Linked...

WPP announced this month that Microsoft executive Cindy Rose will succeed outgoing chief executive Mark Read . Rose is currently chief operating officer, global enterprise, at Microsoft and will be WPP’s third CEO and the first female leader of a major agency holding company.  The announcement, which came sooner than expected, came one day after the holding company issued a shock profit warni...

Three awards have been withdrawn from Cannes Lions 2025 over fabrication of case studies and concerns around their legitimacy. In the weeks that have followed Cannes Festival of Creativity, the integrity of advertising awards has been questioned and what was once widely accepted in advertising awards, has now been exposed. DM9's “Efficient way to pay” was the most notable withdrawal as it won the...

From custom emotes to immersive live streams, this sponsored episode of The Campaign Podcast explores how Twitch is enabling brands to participate in culture firsthand versus watching it happen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As 2025's Pride Month comes to a close, Campaign reflects on how the global DEI rollback has impacted the way brands show up for LGBTQIA+ communities. Gay Times' chief executive Tag Warner said the news outlet has lost £5m in ad revenue this year due to eight of its top ten advertisers pulling their contracts, and Thinkbox's head of marketing Chris Dunne, who is also chief executive of Outvertisin...

Campaign asked this year’s A List cohort to name their favourite TV ad ahead of the upcoming 70th anniversary of commercial television. Guinness “Surfer” by AMV BBDO came out top. One trend that emerged from the choices was that many of the most popular ads were more than 25 years old. Armed with this finding, Campaign reporter Eszter Gurbicz wrote a feature exploring the industry’s love of old ad...

Campaign’s editors from around the world come together after the Lions festival for the final episode of the Campaign Cannes global podcast in partnership with Ocean Outdoor. We review the festival and talk about the work that won, the big trends that emerged, the first year of Campaign House and the best parties. Gideon Spanier (far left), the UK editor-in-chief of Campaign, hosts the podcast and...

Campaign’s editors from around the world come together at Campaign House at the Lions festival for the second episode of the Campaign Cannes global podcast in partnership with Ocean Outdoor. Gideon Spanier, the UK editor-in-chief of Campaign, hosts the podcast and is joined by Maisie McCabe, editor of Campaign UK, Nikita Mishra, editor of Campaign Asia, Chris Powell, co-editor of Campaign Canada,...

Campaign’s editors from around the world come together ahead of the Lions festival for the first episode of the Campaign Cannes global podcast in partnership with Ocean Outdoor. We preview the festival and talk about the work we want to win, the mood in the ad industry and Campaign House – our exciting new venue at Cannes.  Gideon Spanier (centre in picture), the UK editor-in-chief of Campaig...

Group M, the world's largest media buying group, has undergone a titanic course correction and "simplification", re-emerging as WPP Media . While the destination "makes sense", according to Campaign's editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier, the reorganisation is coming at a huge cost to those that work there. In February this year, The Campaign Podcast asked ' What is Group M? ' and in the three months si...

Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2025 is only a few weeks away. With the prejudging completed last week, Campaign speaks to three jurors on what they're expecting this year at Cannes and what purpose the festival serves in a year of economic turbulence. Tech editor Lucy Shelley speaks to Kate Stanners, president of the Film Lions and global chief creative officer and chair of Saatchi & Saatchi;...

VCCP London’s chief executive Andrew Peake is the special guest in the studio, joining Campaign’s creativity and culture editor Gurjit Degun, deputy editor Gemma Charles and features editor Matt Barker. Andrew explains why VCCP are moving out of their home in London’s Victoria after 23 years and heading over to Fitzrovia, prompting a conversation among the quartet around the role that offices – an...

Campaign hosted its star event Media360 in Brighton this week, gathering together leaders from UK media agencies, owners and businesses to discuss and question where media is headed in 2025. Hosted by the chief executives of Essencemediacom and Hearts & Science, Natalie Cummins and Garrett O’Rielly, the two days covered connecting with gen Z, what to do about AI and urged advertisers to support tr...

In this special episode of The Campaign Podcast , Charlotte Rawlings, deputy creativity and culture editor at Campaign, chats to four of the industry’s top creatives about some recent ads.  Rawlings is joined by Laura Rogers, executive creative director at AMV BBDO; Jonny Parker and Chris Birch, joint chief creative officers at VCCP; and Caitlin Ryan, creative partner at Dentsu Creative.&nbsp...

The darker side of agency life reveals that burnout is still an issue in advertising. Adland is infamously known for late night calls, weekend pitch prep and a culture of long working hours being the norm. Four years ago Campaign launched an investigation into the darker side of agency work and in this year’s follow up , it seems little progress has been made. This week is Mental Health Awareness...

Live experiences couldn't get more real. They provide consumers with a tangible connection to a brand. But in an era of declining third spaces , consumers need to be wowed if they are to venture out their homes to attend an event. Louisa O'Conner if the founder and managing director of experiential agency Seen Presents. She joins the podcast to discuss the change in consumer behaviour, why consume...

Women in creative leadership roles have been leaving adland. The IPA Census reported a decline in both of the last two years, down from 30% in 2022 to 25.6% in 2024. On top of this, the Census reported a widening pay gap, increasing to almost 20% in 2024. This episode welcomes Laura Jordan Bambach to the studio, founder and chief creative officer of female founded Uncharted. Alongside editor Maisi...

Last week, the greats of UK media gathered in London to celebrate the Campaign Media Awards 2025 . The coveted Commercial Team of the Year award went to LADbible while Spark Foundry’s Mondelez Team took home Agency Team of the Year . The winning Campaign of the Year was awarded to PHD and "Stream of (un)consciousness" for the British Heart Foundation. The gaming campaign worked with Twitch creator...

In February this year, the UK government published a consultation on AI, proposing a change to current copyright legislation. It would allow tech companies to use creative works including film, TV and original journalism to train AI models without permission of the creators, unless they have opted out. It was met with harsh criticism, rallying "Make it fair" campaigns and rejections from both crea...