In January, an anonymous group of senior leaders at creative, media and adtech agencies released a memo warning that the industry is failing in its moral and civic duties to society.

The memo argued that without an interruption to the status quo, advertising will “be a critical enabler to tech platforms that stoke hatred and division, facilitate hate groups to monetise their content at a time of increasing division in this country and many others, support the social license of the fossil fuel industry and provide broader greenwashing and social-washing services to industries that are under public scrutiny, and roll over in the face of anti-DEI rhetoric and desert those individuals, teams and communities that our industry has made commitments to.”

It also argued that British business interests are losing independence to US political interests, that working groups have failed to drive internal change, and that the presence of Big Tech companies at industry-wide events and initiatives has stymied attempts at progress.

The memo caused a stir, particularly given its timing just days ahead of the annual LEAD conference convened much of media and advertising's top brass to discuss the importance of trust.

Its authors were criticised for remaining anonymous, but they nevertheless succeeded in sparking a conversation and renewed interest in key ethical issues that have arguably been suppressed since Trump’s re-election as US president in late 2024.

Ned Younger is the director of Inside Track, the non-profit that was responsible for convening these anonymous individuals and facilitating their production of the memo.

He sat down with The Media Leader earlier this month to discuss his takeaways from the group, and whether he thinks they will drive real change in the advertising industry.

Highlights:

2:04: What is Inside Track and how did it convene this anonymous group?

6:41: Main concerns expressed by the group

10:27: Future direction, calls to action, and the need for better forums of conversation

15:16: Why remain anonymous?

22:58: The risk of insufficient progress

Related articles:

Anonymous group of senior ad industry leaders warns of industry-wide moral failing

Government plans new powers to tackle online harms: ‘No platform gets a free pass’

Meta admits revenue from fraud and scam ads ‘might’ have accounted for 3-4% of total revenue

The crisis in advertising: things we can do today

Act Climate Labs launches blueprint to phase out fossil fuel advertising

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Late last month, a group of six magazine publishers – Bauer, Future, Hearst UK, Hello!, Immediate and Time Out – launched Atria, a single marketplace through which advertisers can engage with the combined reach of those publishers’ brands, equivalent to about 33m consumers.

The effort is powered by publisher-owned first-party data. It is hosted by audience platform Permutive.

Cath Waller is the managing director of advertising at Immediate Media. She is also the chair of PPA Magnetic, part of the Professional Publishers Association, the trade body for publishers.

A leading voice behind the Atria effort, Waller sat down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss the marketplace's launch and where it might be headed next.

The pair also discussed the current state of magazine publishing, and the headwinds and tailwinds facing Immediate.

Highlights:

2:43: The launch of Atria: how it works and how it came together

10:12: "The industry is where it is": Magazine media is disinvested and publishers are under pressure

15:25: The value of trusted editorial and a cleaner supply chain

20:41: Future-facing goals

26:59: How to handle AI? Embracing innovation as AI search reduces traffic

Related articles:

Why quality pays: the power of trusted editorial in media planning – PPA Magnetic and The Media Leader

CMOs on what makes publisher partnerships work: ‘Great partners push back’

PPA asks CMA to require greater transparency of Google’s AI search features

The Fishbowl: Cath Waller, Immediate Media

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At the end of January, The Media Leader held its first ever Audio In Focus Week. The audio landscape is evolving at a breakneck pace – with growing digital audio audiences, and audio businesses moving into video production. So, we decided to dedicate an entire week’s worth of our coverage to exploring the innovations, strategies and voices shaping the media channel.

The week was launched in partnership with Octave Audio, the digital audio marketplace owned by News Broadcasting.

During the week, host Jack Benjamin sat down with Octave’s managing director Russell Pedrick, as well as News Broadcasting commercial director Dave Wilcox, at in News' London Bridge studio to discuss how the company’s audio offering has developed over the past year.

Octave came under the full ownership of News UK last summer, after News bought out Bauer’s share. Bauer went on to launch its own digital audio marketplace, AudioXi.

Pedrick was appointed MD in April ahead of the relaunch of Octave, and he’s since worked to expand the service to encompasses visual inventory as well, as News Broadcasting products talkSport, Times Radio, Virgin Radio and Talk Radio transform from radio and podcast shows to visual shows commonly watched online and on TV screens.

Pedrick and Wilcox discussed audio's transition to video, Octave’s new AI product, and why they believe digital audio is undervalued in the current market. Hint: it involves needing better measurement standards.

Highlights:

5:03: Octave's strategic priorities

7:31: Octave AI: balancing generative AI creative with desire for the human element

12:04: Audio and video are merging, creating new commercial opportunities

18:53: Embracing an omnichannel approach and a platform-led audience strategy

24:04: Does podcasting need its own JIC?

27:24: World Cup opportunity and why digital audio is undervalued

Related articles:

Octave MD reflects on how ‘audio is becoming a bit of a bolt on’ in podcasting

Predictions for audio in 2026 from industry experts

Why the 2026 World Cup should be the ultimate multi-channel showcase

Rajar Q4 2025: Top Takeaways

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This month, advertising industry trade bodies the IPA, Isba and the Advertising Association are spending a great deal of combined energy highlighting the issue of trust.

That includes at the annual LEAD conference, which takes place this Thursday, and in a report released last week by the IPA that found trust-building ad campaigns improve business outcomes.

Trust is what drives consumers to purchase goods and services from one brand over another; to give their attention to one media channel over another. And in a world of AI slop, misinformation, and falling trust in traditional institutions — a world in which trust is increasingly at a premium — it’s no surprise that the issue has been a core topic among executives in recent months, particularly those leading media channels like publishing and audio.

Matt Bourn is the communications director at the Advertising Association. James Best is chair of the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Credos, the Advertising Association’s think tank.

On February 3rd, the duo are releasing a new book, published by Kogan Page, titled Trusted Advertising – How to harness the value of trust in your brand.

Bourn and Best joined The Media Leader to discuss takeaways the book, whether advertisers are sufficiently valuing trusted media channels, and what they can do to better build trust in their brands.

Highlights:

7:37: How the dynamics of trust have changed in the 21st century

15:27: Understanding the public's trust in the advertising industry and trust in individual ads

22:40: The business case for trust

28:18: The tricky phenomenon of trust in influencers

34:01: The AI issue: More slop, but also more monitoring

36:56: What makes a trusted advertising campaign? Media choice, creative, measuring trust as a KPI

Related articles:

Trust-building ad campaigns improve business outcomes, IPA research finds

Bauer Media Advertising MD Simon Kilby: We’re in a world that needs to start supporting trusted environments

Why quality pays: the power of trusted editorial in media planning – PPA Magnetic and The Media Leader

Does trust matter in media?

Trust is essential to the future of media. But how can advertisers measure it?

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It's nearly the end of January, and from a macroeconomic perspective, it’s been an absolutely wild month.

The US threatened to invade Greenland and institute tariffs on European countries mobilising to resist that effort. In Davos last week, Trump appeared to walk back some of those threats, but it’s safe to say uncertainty is and will continue to be at very high levels.

Uncertainty raises questions for the media industry, which sits at the centre of global business activity.

Earlier this month, The Media Leader convened its annual Year Ahead event in London. The invite-only event is always a great way to kick off the year.

This year, Tom Standage, The Economist’s deputy editor, gave a fantastic run-down of some of those macro factors to look out for, and we separately interviewed him afterward to ask a couple follow up questions.

In addition to Tom, The Media Leader's content director James Longhurst and senior reporter Jack Benjamin to the stage both to recap some of the key themes from last year, and also raise key questions to industry leaders on their plans for 2026.

The duo wanted to involve the audience, so they also asked Mail Metro Media’s commercial chief Dominic Williams, Thinkbox CEO Lindsey Clay, Bauer Media Advertising MD Simon Kilby, and World Media Group CEO Jamie Credland to share their predictions for the year ahead, too.

Highlights:

2:02: Key themes from 2025 in media: Consolidation, getting "easier to buy", AI search

5:30: Stories to watch in 2026: European-American business relations, trust, ROI on AI

9:30: Dominic Williams: The World Cup opportunity

11:12: Lindsey Clay: A return to brand building

13:39: Simon Kilby: Valuing trusted media amid AI slop and harmful images

16:05: Jamie Credland: Quality journalism in an age of AI

Related articles:

2026 will be the year of…

The Economist: A look at the political economy

Inside the Grok CSAM scandal and how brands have faced ‘weaponised political pressure’ to spend with X

World Media Group members on how AI will reshape the media industry in 2026

Nine AI tool announcements from CES 2026

A year ago, the Alliance of Independent Agencies and the Land of Independents collaborated to launch a new initiative aimed at sharing knowledge and support for independent media agencies.

Enter the Alliance of Media Independents (AMI), which has served as a single route to the indie media agency market for suppliers and media owners.

The AMI has spent the last year expanding, now with over 30 members that represent combined billings that rival the global holding groups.

Martin Woolley and Paul Phelps are co-founders and chairs of the AMI. Woolley also works as executive chair of indie media outfit What’s Possible Group, which owns agency The Specialist Works, and Phelps is CEO of AMS Media Group.

The duo sits down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss how and why the alliance was founded, the benefits its delivered to members, their plans for expansion, and why indies might be the beneficiaries of a consolidating agency landscape.

As Woolley points out, a few years ago there were “never indie-only pitch lists”. Now? “Half the pitches in our business are indie-only. So something’s changed.”

Highlights:

3:20: Why and how was the AMI created?

13:10: Benefits of the Alliance: Media owner interest, incremental growth, resource sharing.

23:00: Competing with holdcos: Loss of trust amid trading deals, lack of transparency.

29:02: Could clients leave agencies in favour of self-serve platforms?

35:20: Why 2026 will be the year of indies.

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Alliance of Media Independents announces Experian as first official partner

Alliance of Media Independents adds 16 members and doubles billings

Indie agencies team up for Alliance of Media Independents

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Last month at the Future of TV Advertising Global event in London, three key brand marketers spoke about how they view the strengths of TV, particularly as they compare to other audio-visual platforms.

Richard Brooke is the global media trading and operations director at Unilever. Sorin Patilinet is the global marketing effectiveness lead at PepsiCo. Alison Keith was until recently the head of global marketing effectiveness at Kraft Heinz and, before that, the VP of global media at Coty.

The trio sat down with event producer and Media Leader contributor Justin Lebbon to discuss what brands want from the TV and where TV is now situated in their marketing strategies compared to other video platforms.

Is TV still "cool"? Does it have a narrative problem with ad buyers? Is YouTube TV? Brooke, Patilinet and Keith unpacked a media channel in flux.

Brooke also discussed why Unilever moved to increase its spend on social media platforms last year – a bold move that could well have heralded in a new era of confidence for the creator economy.

Highlights:

1:25: Reactions to TV consolidation

3:40: TV is effective, but the creator economy is the shiny new thing

8:21: The definition of “TV” is changing, but the standards of quality aren’t the same

15:19: Is ad investment consolidation in Big Tech platforms healthy?

22:56: Less adspend is going through JICs. Does independent measurement still matter?

Related articles:

Comcast Ads president: Uneven measurement standards create an ‘existential’ challenge for TV

Channel 4, ITV and Sky commercial chiefs ask advertisers to ‘turn down the toxic’

Watch: TV trends to look out for

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, yes, it’s the holiday season and we’re just days away from Christmas. But it’s also the global adspend report season. Business leaders are getting a holistic look at how the total ad market performed in the UK and around the world, and also what to expect for next year.

WPP Media’s This Year Next Year report released on 8 December, and it has become something of an annual tradition to host its author and global president of business intelligence, Kate Scott-Dawkins, on this show before the end of the year.

She returns once again to unpack this latest report, which forecast global ad revenue to grow 8.8% year on year to $1.14tn in 2025, despite persistent macroeconomic headwinds. Next year, WPP Media is predicting further 7.1% global growth, the majority of which is being captured by a handful of tech platforms.

Scott-Dawkins offers her view on the state of the global economy, downside risks for marketers, and whether AI is likely to drive growth next year.

This is the final episode of the podcast we at The Media Leader are releasing this year. Thank you to our wonderful guests and to all you listeners out there for tuning in. We’ll be taking a few weeks off the holidays but will be back up and running in the New Year.

Highlights:

1:50: Toplines: an optimistic forecast driven by platform growth

6:12: Expect more consolidation

9:33: Downside risks: tariffs, uncertain consumer spending, K-shaped recovery

14:52: Advertising is leading the global economy

17:56: Could the commerce market be upended by AI?

20:20: Why the UK ad market is still "pretty healthy"

22:33: Things to look out for in 2026: AI search, an upper-funnel correction

Related articles:

WPP Media forecasts 8.8% global ad revenue growth in 2025 but warns of ‘K-shaped economy’ risk

‘Agencies may get squeezed everywhere’: US tariffs cause ad industry angst

Uncertainty and soft guidance as holding groups struggle for growth in Europe

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