Welcome to The Media Leader’s live coverage of LEAD 2026, taking place today at the QEII Centre in Westminster. The Advertising Association’s centenary summit, hosted with ISBA and the IPA, brings together over 450 senior leaders from across the political, media and advertising landscape under the theme “Leadership Through Trust”.

This year will be centred around optimism and growth, with the media giant arguing the “renaissance” of brand building will bring opportunities in OOH.

Analysis: The opt-out model marks a significant step forward, however, scratching beneath the surface there are concerns the scheme doesn’t go far enough.

Dentsu UK and Channel Factory have pioneered a curated marketplace that makes brand-safe, high-quality YouTube content available for brand campaigns seeking incremental reach beyond linear and BVOD.

Tom Laranjo speaks to The Media Leader about why Serviceplan Group restructured its agencies under the House of Communications banner, and his plans for the new entity.

The board features the likes of Google, Meta, WPP, TikTok and Mail Metro Media and signals a push to address digital measurement challenges.

Podcast: The co-founders and chairs of the Alliance of Media Independents discuss their plans for expansion and why indies might be the beneficiaries of a consolidating agency landscape.

The Media Leader and the PPA Magnetic convened senior publishing leaders, agency planners and strategists at our London head office at a roundtable discussion to discuss how trusted editorial and human connections translate into outcomes.

At this year’s CES, WPP, Omnicom, Stagwell, Reddit, Disney, Havas, NBCUniversal and Yahoo unveiled new AI features aimed at making marketing easier and more efficient.

The Media Leader’s parent company Adwanted Group today announced the appointment of Nigel Clarkson as managing director, Adwanted UK.