The Campaign Podcast

What links McDonald's "Iconic needs no explanation" by Leo Burnett, KFC's gravy take over of the BFI and Kellogg's "See you in the morning" also by Leo Burnett? These three ads are the latest in a line of out-of-home posters that zoom in on products, alter or remove logos and have minimal text. Tesco , Heinz and B&Q have also created similar ads. While this might be a trend, it certainly isn't new...

Campaign's Agency of the Year Awards took place last week celebrating the best shops in adland across creative, media, independent, customer engagement, start-up and more. This episode chats to three of the big winners: Mother, who took home Creative Agency of the Year , MG OMD which won Media Agency and Rapp which celebrated five awards with three golds: Performance Marketing Agency , New Busines...

Principal-based media buying, which includes inventory media and proprietary media, has become a key practice for large agency groups, but it remains opaque, with finance trails and pricing structures largely in the dark.  In March this year, ISBA updated its media services framework calling out media agencies for lack of transparency and "non-compliance", which it said has been leading to "t...

Campaign has released its biggest project of the year, reviewing and marking the top 92 agencies in the UK for Campaign's 2025 School Reports , in partnership with Nielsen. In this episode, Campaign's editorial team reveals its overall impression on the reports, what they divulge about the health of the industry by analysing the billings across media and creative and how diversity has been impacte...

"There is an unofficial reason why pre-testing is so popular, and that's that clients work in very complex organisations with lots of stakeholders," says Martin Beverley, former chief strategy officer at Adam & Eve/DDB . Beverley joins the Campaign team on the podcast to discuss the efficacy of pre-testing and its contentiousness in adland: some say data can stifle creativity while others argue it...

"Unprecedented","furlough" and "bubbles" are a few of the words that are reminiscent of 2020. On 23rd March five years ago, the UK prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK was entering a lockdown as a result of the spread of Coronavirus.  Now in 2025, the way in which we work has been upturned and a "new normal" is being established. As for the advertising industry, has it changed f...

Holding company solutions are on the rise, particularly for large clients whose spend is in the £100 millions.  Publicis Flame is the latest to ignite, created after Santander appointed Publicis Groupe to its global creative and media business. Ongoing pitches include Natwest which is also looking for a single holding company to take on its media and creative business. Holding companies have...

One would think that the answer to "what is Group M?" would be a short one, but after many changes, mergers, shuffles and dissolutions at WPP's media arm in the last 12 months, the answer is not so. Group M is the largest media buying group in the world and in this episode, Campaign's journalists discuss what the company was when it began in the early 2000s, what has happened in the last 12 months...

The advertising industry accounts for 3% to 4% of global emissions, twice that of the aviation industry, found research from the IAB. Is it truly making an effort to reduce its impact on the environment? In this episode, Campaign speaks to Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association, on its Ad Net Zero program, the power adland holds in making positive change and whether tech...

In this bonus episode of The Campaign Podcast, Charlotte Rawlings, deputy creativity and culture editor at Campaign, is joined by Maisie McCabe, Campaign’s UK editor, to discuss the ads that aired throughout the 59th Super Bowl on 10 February.  Rawlings and McCabe are joined by Lynsey Atkin, outgoing chief creative officer at McCann London; Noel Bunting, CCO at Publicis London; and David Kolb...

When a new boss steps in to lead an agency, they must weigh up how much they change the business and how much the business changes them. Conrad Persons, president of Grey London, who joins the podcast team in this latest epsiode, says: "'That’s how we do things round here' is one of the most abominable phrases in business." Persons is joined by Campaign's deputy editor, Gemma Charles, and premium...

As we approach Covid's five year anniversary, much has changed about the world of work and where we do it. After WPP's chief executive Mark Read announced that the holding company will be mandating four days a week, adland has had plenty to say on the approach to hybrid working. A petition was started by WPP employees to revoke the order and has almost reached 20,000 signatures. (It is open for an...

Sneezing, coughing and catching a cold from the other side of the Atlantic might be this year's theme for UK advertisers. In this episode of The Campaign Podcast, host and tech editor Lucy Shelley is joined by deputy editor Gemma Charles, features editor Matt Barker and culture and creativity editor Alessandra Scotto di Santolo. The team discusses brands' reaction to Trump's re-election, afte...

"It's time to ditch the 'R' word," said Nik Wheatley last year in an article on Campaign that exposed the regional divide that exists in adland, and the danger of categorising everywhere outside of London as the 'regions'. It was revealed that £250m in billings has been lost from the North West to London in recent years, due to agencies relocations and advertisers bulling their business from north...

At Campaign's Year Ahead Breakfast Briefing this Tuesday 14 January, industry leaders took to the stage to give their predictions, concerns and excitement for 2025. This bonus episode includes the final panel of the event, moderated by deputy creativity and culture editor Charlotte Rawlings, with Chaka Sobhani, president and global chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide, Iain Tait, co-founder of...

After dominating news headlines throughout December, and likely well into 2025, it is all still possible for the Omnicom-IPG merger to fall through, repeating history from 2013 when Omnicom failed to merge with Publicis Groupe. Campaign's editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier sat down in a global exclusive interview with John Wren, CEO of Omnicom, and Philippe Krakowsky, CEO of IPG , after they announced...

How is adland going to change this year? To get listeners ready for the year ahead, Campaign's editorial team give a taste of adland's predictions for the next 12 months, including which resolutions to give up and which take on in 2025. Tech editor Lucy Shelley hosts the episode alongside editor Maisie McCabe, culture and creativity editor Alessandra Scotto di Santolo and deputy media editor Shaun...

"A lukewarm snog" might be how one Campaign journalist describes 2024, but how would you? In the final episode of the year for The Campaign Podcast, the editorial team gathers one last time to recap the year and answer a very important, hard-hitting question: would you snog, marry or avoid 2024? From the Post Office scandal and dartsman Luke Littler, to the Jaguar rebrand and a year of elections,...

Maisie McCabe, editor of Campaign UK and David Droga, founder of Droga5 and chief executive of Accenture Song, sat together on stage at Ciclope last month to discuss creativity, the evolving landscape of advertising and how to build meaningful connections between brands and audiences in the digital age. "Creative to the bone," said Droga describing himself and how he feels holding a CEO role. He e...

2024 had big expectations when it came to artificial intelligence, but did the year live up to the hype... was it a year of "AI in action" as the IAB predicted or AI inaction? Campaign's editorial team gathers in the studio in an episode hosted by Maisie McCabe, UK editor, while tech editor Lucy Shelley (and usual host) swaps over to be in the hot seat. Also joined by features editor Matt Barker a...

During the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Channel 4 set themselves the target of subtitling all the ads during the channel's coverage , beginning at a current level of 25%. After a huge effort, the broadcaster managed to achieve 60% . In this episode, Channel 4's customer and commercial leader Amy Jenkins discusses how brands can do more to make ads accessible, the positive business impact this has...

In this bonus episode, Charlotte Rawlings, senior creativity reporter at Campaign, is joined by Maisie McCabe, Campaign’s UK editor, to discuss this year’s Christmas ads with some of the industry’s top creatives. This Private View includes Chaka Sobhani, president and chief creative officer international at DDB Worldwide, and David Kolbusz, chief creative officer at Orchard. They chat all things f...

DING, DING, DING! Adland's agencies have entered the ring. In this episode, Campaign's editors of creativity, media and tech battle it out to determine which discipline should be the lead agency for clients. The team discuss how client relationships have changed over the years, how different budgets might change which discipline would lead and whether there should be a lead agency at all. Taking u...

Campaign’s editorial team take to the studio clad in Christmas jumpers and novelty antlers to chat about this year’s crop of festive ads.  A wave of ads have dropped over the last few weeks, including the likes of John Lewis, Waitrose, McDonald’s, M&S, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Tesco and Sainsbury’s. In this episode, the team discusses some standout work as well as other spots that didn’t quite hit...

The jury is out and the 2024 awards season is drawing to a close – with adland celebrating the best work of the year at the Campaigns Big Awards 2024 last week. In this episode, tech editor Lucy Shelley catches up with co-chairs of judges Charlene Chandrasekaran, executive creative director at TheOr, and Nicholas Hulley, chief creative officer at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. Alongside Campaign's UK e...