Our most popular podcast episodes of 2025
2025 in Review
The Media Leader Podcast hit its stride in 2025, playing host to leaders from across the media industry discussing the big challenges and opportunities facing media owners, media agencies and advertisers alike.
Guests this year included agency executives like Hearts & Science CEO Garrett O’Reilly, MG OMD CEO (now OMD Europe CEO) Natalie Bell, Jungle Creations CEO Melissa Chapman, and Publicis Connected Media UK CEO Niel Bornman.
Brand marketers joined in, like Specsavers’ media lead Ian Maybank and Isba’s outgoing and incoming directors-general Phil Smith and Simon Michaelides.
An oscillating TV market offered ample discussion opportunities with the likes of Paramount international ad sales president Lee Sears, Channel 4’s commercial leaders Rak Patel and Sam Hicks, and Sky Media’s Pippa Scaife and Dan Cohen.
And other media channel leaders explored their own pain points and growth shoots, be they in publishing (PPA CEO Sajeeda Merali; Prospect editor Alan Rusbridger), cinema (DCM CEO Karen Stacey), or gaming (SuperAwesome CEO Kate O’Loughlin).
Amidst that veritable who’s who of industry leaders, the following five podcasts were our most-downloaded episodes of the year:
5. How The Guardian is expanding its commercial footprint — with Imogen Fox
At the start of the year, The Guardian promoted its chief advertising officer, Imogen Fox, to a new global role as part of an effort to drive commercial growth not only in the UK, but also in markets like the US and Australia, where the news outlet has seen a substantial influx of new readers.
In a special partner episode, Fox discussed her new remit and revealed how The Guardian is innovating its ad offering to give advertisers new opportunities to access the outlet’s “scale, influence and integrity”.
The Guardian is currently undergoing an investment drive in the US market and in audio-visual content production. The Media Leader caught up with US MD Steve Sachs ahead of the publisher’s upfront event in October to discuss why he’s optimistic about The Guardian‘s growth prospects in America.
The Media Leader also welcomed Fox back on the podcast earlier this month to discuss The Guardian‘s latest Shift Happens report, how the rhythm of consumers’ week has changed, and what it means for marketers.
4. Why OOH is in rude health — with JCDecaux’s Chris Collins and Dallas Wiles
JCDecaux reported strong fiscal year 2024 earnings, with 9.7% global organic growth and 18.4% organic growth in the UK — growth figures typically associated with tech giants rather than “traditional” media owners.
JCDecaux’s UK co-CEOs Chris Collins and Dallas Wiles joined the podcast to discuss what is driving such strong growth in OOH investment and why JCDecaux made 2025 its largest-ever year for screen deployment across the UK.
Collins and Wiles were jointly winners of The Media Leader Awards’ Grand Prix this year in recognition of JCDecaux’s strong results and positive workplace culture.
The company also took home the Grand Prix at the Adwanted Media Research Awards (AMRAs) in March.
3. Why aren’t brands investing in high-attention media? With Peter Field, Heather Dansie and Mike Follett
The Media Leader hosted its first live podcast recording at our Future of Media Manchester event in September, and it proved to be punchy.
Fresh off presenting new research demonstrating that high-attention media campaigns deliver significantly better business outcomes compared with low-attention campaigns, effectiveness expert Peter Field, Newsworks head of insight Heather Dansie, and Lumen Research CEO Mike Follett discussed why ad investment has nevertheless shifted away from high-attention media over the last decade, and what can be done to turn the tide and improve media effectiveness.
Follett in particular made a strong impression by telling media planners to “do your fucking jobs“, drawing criticism from agency leaders. But his warning that planners risk being replaced by algorithms is no less perceptive.
2. Rethinking agency remuneration in 2025 — with Mediasense’s Ryan Kangisser
Last November, a report from global advisory Mediasense found that an overwhelming majority of advertisers — three-quarters — are looking to make changes to their agency compensation model in the next three years.
A similar number of survey respondents indicated that they are seeking to better align agency compensation to business performance, however it may be defined by the brand.
This is “unprecedented”, according to Mediasense chief strategy officer Ryan Kangisser, who unpacked whether current agency remuneration models are fit for purpose, and what a new outcomes-based model could look like as a replacement.
Kangisser subsequently came back on the podcast last month to discuss how brands are reorganising their media teams as media expertise becomes less siloed.
1. How Lantern will bring outcome measurement to TV — with Sameer Modha and Matt Hill
“Outcomes” was the word of this month’s Future of TV Advertising Global conference — and for good reason.
Advertisers are increasingly desiring measurement solutions that demonstrate the direct relationship between marketing investment and business results. This has benefited tech platforms, which offer always-on outcomes measurement, while putting legacy media owners in a bind.
To combat this, last September ITV, Sky and Channel 4 jointly announced Lantern, a new measurement panel aimed at tracking both short- and long-term impacts of TV advertising on sales.
The initiative, which is set to launch to the full market next year and which will serve as the measurement solution for the forthcoming UK Universal Ads marketplace, aims to provide TV with “the measurement it deserves”.
Sameer Modha, measurement innovation lead for commercial at ITV, and Matt Hill, director of insight and measurement at Sky Media, have helped spearhead the project. They spoke about Lantern’s purpose, goals and timeline.
The pair also discussed how Lantern will help attract new-to-TV advertisers, how the project is “fundamentally different” to Isba’s cross-media measurement initiative Origin and why the majority of media buying is now spent on outcomes, not eyeballs.
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