Bauer Media Launches Two New Podcasts as Platform Tops 10M Monthly Listeners
Bauer Media announced at Radiocentre’s Tuning In North conference that it is adding two original podcasts to its roster. "re:working," hosted by Tim Campbell MBE, launches May 11 and focuses on careers, business and personal development. "The Prenup," hosted by Molly Rainford and Tyler West, debuts June 11 and explores modern relationships. The company highlighted that its audioXi platform now reaches over 10 million podcast listeners each month and connects with 61 million weekly listeners across Europe.
IAS LAUNCHES IAS TOTAL TV SOLUTIONS GIVING MARKETERS ‘LINEAR-LIKE’ TRANSPARENCY FOR CONNECTED TV
Integral Ad Science (IAS) unveiled IAS Total TV, a suite that brings linear‑TV‑style transparency to the fragmented Connected TV (CTV) ecosystem. The platform delivers real‑time, show‑level insights across major streaming services such as Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Prime Video, while...
Oprah Inks Amazon Deal for Her Podcast, Book Club and Original TV Show
Oprah Winfrey has signed an exclusive multiyear agreement with Amazon’s Wondery network to bring her podcast, Oprah’s Book Club, Favorite Things franchise, and the 25‑season back catalog of The Oprah Winfrey Show to Amazon platforms. The deal expands The Oprah...
Townsquare and Columbus’ NABCO Ignite Digital Ad Partnership
Townsquare Media’s Ignite division announced a digital‑advertising partnership with North American Broadcasting Company (NABCO) in Columbus, Ohio, marking its latest addition to the Ignite Media Partnerships program launched in 2024. The deal grants NABCO white‑label access to Townsquare’s proprietary programmatic...
TikTok Campaign Shows How Brands Turn Reach Into Real Traffic
A TikTok campaign for pet‑care franchise Camp Bow Wow, run with Scorpion, proved that native, lo‑fi creative paired with interest‑based targeting can drive measurable traffic at scale. The effort generated 23,000 landing‑page views at $2.01 each, over 50,000 clicks at...
Even PayPal Ads Has Its Own ID Now
PayPal announced the PayPal Ads ID, an omnichannel identifier built on its and Venmo’s credit‑card‑linked customer base. Unlike cookie‑based graphs, the ID is free for any data or ad‑tech vendor that maintains a commercial relationship with PayPal Ads and can...
Albertsons Media Collective Brings Retail Signals to YouTube with Google’s Commerce Media Suite.
Google’s Commerce Media Suite now integrates Albertsons Media Collective’s first‑party shopper data into YouTube and Display & Video 360. The partnership lets brands reach high‑intent Albertsons customers across YouTube and premium publisher inventory while receiving SKU‑level sales attribution. Early adopters such as Keurig Dr Pepper...
The One Person Who Is Not Looking Forward To New 'Little House'
Netflix announced an eight‑episode revival of "Little House on the Prairie," slated for a July 9, 2026 premiere. Former broadcast journalist Megyn Kelly quickly posted a hostile comment on X, threatening to "ruin" the project if it was “woke‑ified.” The remark...
Celsius Unites Sports, Music and Culture Ahead of Soccer-Centric Summer
Celsius launched a new ad campaign featuring soccer stars, DJ Diplo and creator Marlon Garcia, promoting its limited‑time Electric Vibe flavor with the tagline “Live. Fit. Goal.” The 30‑second spot, “The Surge,” will run across TV, digital and out‑of‑home channels...
ITV's Tense and "Gripping" British Spy Thriller with a Stacked Cast Is on TV Tonight
ITV launches the spy thriller *Secret Service* on ITV1 at 9 pm tonight, with all five episodes already streaming on ITVX. The series stars Gemma Arterton as senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, who uncovers a Russian‑linked British politician, and features a cast...
Netflix’s Running Point Scores Several Integrated Brand Partnerships in Season 2
Netflix’s comedy series Running Point has secured multiple integrated brand partnerships for its Season 2 launch. The basketball‑focused show weaves sponsors such as State Farm, DoorDash, Lexus, Ally Bank, Sephora and Google Search into its storyline and visual design. Netflix VP...
Stagwell Builds TV Ad Platform with FreeWheel
Stagwell has teamed with Comcast-owned FreeWheel to create a unified TV advertising infrastructure that spans connected TV, linear broadcast and live sports. The deal integrates FreeWheel’s Curation Hub and Buyer Cloud into Stagwell’s media acquisition layer, powering the new Stagwell...
3,000 Images, Zero Dialogue: How This Studio Made AI Films Without Sacrificing the Creative Soul
Purga Films and Gut produced three AI‑generated short films—mafia, Western, and samurai—using roughly 3,000 AI‑created images each and no spoken dialogue, substituting Lorem Ipsum placeholder text. Completed in three months, the project showcases how AI can deliver cinematic visuals while...
One Year Ago, Unilever CEO Swore to Hire ‘20x More Influencers.’ Did It Deliver on That Promise?
A year after CEO Fernando Fernandez pledged to hire 20 times more influencers, Unilever has expanded its creator network from roughly 10,000 to 300,000, exceeding the target by a factor of 30. The company now works with 17,000 influencers in India...
NFL Goes Hollywood: Inside Its Plan to Conquer Streaming and Movies
The NFL is teaming with Skydance Sports to create a dedicated content studio that will produce its first scripted streaming series, "The Land," and a slate of feature films, including a John Madden biopic and a Christmas‑day story about the New...
Customers Want Personalized Marketing. Why Can’t Most Brands Deliver? By Adobe
Adobe’s 2025‑2026 AI and Digital Trends reports reveal a gap: while 71% of consumers expect personalized, seamless experiences, fewer than half of brands consistently deliver. The root cause is fragmented customer data that hinders real‑time insight sharing across channels. Adobe...
Jack Daniel’s Appoints 22feet as Its Creative Agency of Record for India
Jack Daniel’s has appointed 22feet, an Omnicom India agency, as its creative agency of record for the Indian market. The integrated mandate spans brand strategy, digital, social, packaging, experiential and retail communications for the entire Jack Daniel’s portfolio, including its...
Cult Beauty Pulls Adverts From GB News Following Social Media Pressure
Cult Beauty, the THG‑owned online beauty retailer, has removed its advertising from the UK news channel GB News after a social‑media backlash driven by activist group Stop Funding Hate. The campaign urged the retailer to stop funding a channel described as...
VaynerX Launches Tamara Group, Betting Production-Led Is the New Agency Model
Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerX unveiled Tamara Group at the POSSIBLE conference in Miami on April 27, debuting a production‑led agency model. The new firm launches with roughly 100 employees and early clients Ulta Beauty, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, and Method. Tamara...
Celebs Go Dating's New Series – with MAFS and CBB Favourites – Confirms Return Date
Celebs Go Dating announced that its fifteenth season will debut on E4 on Monday, 4 May 2024. Long‑time hosts Anna Williamson and Paul C Brunson return to run the celebrity matchmaking agency, joined by familiar agents Tom Read Wilson and Dr Tara Suwinyattichaiporn....
My Op-Ed Was Flagged as AI. It Wasn’t.
A senior PR director’s op‑ed was rejected after an AI‑detection tool flagged it as machine‑generated, even though the piece was crafted collaboratively in real time. The incident highlights a growing tension between editors’ demand for authentic, human‑written content and the...
Brands Can Now Deploy Their Own Agents Inside Publisher Chatbots
Dappier unveiled Sponsored Conversations, a new ad format that inserts brand‑specific AI agents into publisher chatbots. The agents engage users in real time, pulling from the site’s own content and, for brands like Miku, driving qualified leads with roughly 50 %...
AI and the Vertical Drama Industry
Thom Woodley of Hudson Vertical told Chris Pfaff at Streaming Media Connect 2026 that AI is already being leveraged for testing and piloting microdramas, but its impact on storytelling remains uncertain. He emphasized that the vertical drama business is driven...
OOH Offers Big Return on Investment for Luxury Brands
Out‑of‑home (OOH) advertising delivers a striking 12.8× return on investment for luxury brands—roughly $16 in revenue for every $1 spent—according to Independent Marketing Sciences. Across 24 media channels, luxury’s overall average ROI is 4.7×, making OOH the top‑performing channel. The...
Report: YouTube Leads Cross-Generational Attention in US
Precisify’s new 13‑44 audience panel reveals YouTube dominates attention across both Gen Z and Millennial cohorts in the United States, reaching 83% of Gen Z and 78% of Millennials. While TikTok and Disney+ are stronger among Gen Z, and Netflix and Facebook hold...
NAB 2026: NVIDIA?s Not-So-Secret AI Agents
At NAB 2026 NVIDIA showcased its AI Agent Control Plane, a framework that lets multiple autonomous agents collaborate on media‑creation tasks while staying within enterprise‑grade guardrails. The demo highlighted NemoClaw, an open‑source privacy layer for OpenClaw agents that enforces policy‑based data...
2026 Michener–Deacon Fellowship Awarded to Jordan Michael Smith
The Walrus announced that journalist Jordan Michael Smith has received the 2026 Michener–Deacon Fellowship for Investigative Journalism to produce a four‑month investigation titled “The Hague Mothers.” The project will probe a loophole in the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects...
Cumulus’ Bob Walker Releases AI Media Planning Guide for Radio
Cumulus Media Operations President Bob Walker released an AI media‑planning guide aimed at local advertisers and radio sales teams. The playbook outlines five best‑practice prompts for large language models such as ChatGPT, emphasizing precise questioning, source verification, and platform awareness....
Tilt the Clock: Control Your Time, Control Your Sales
The article argues that a salesperson’s success hinges on maximizing "time spent selling" rather than mastering new pitches. It recommends structuring the day around "money hours"—typically mid‑morning to late afternoon—while pushing administrative tasks to the periphery. By time‑blocking, delegating low‑value...
Engage Listeners Throughout the Commercial
Jeffrey Hedquist argues that modern radio commercials must fight audience distraction by weaving constant audio variation throughout the spot. He advises creators to manipulate pace, tone, volume, accents, and effects, treating a single voice like a multi‑character storyteller. Adding layered...
Week of April 13 Cable News Ratings: Cable News Networks See Drops
In the week of April 13, 2026, all three major cable news networks saw declines in primetime and total‑day audiences compared with the prior week. Fox News, despite an 11% drop in primetime total viewers and a 21% dip in the...
What the Broadcast Industry Was Talking About at the 2026 NAB Show
The 2026 NAB Show highlighted the rise of software-defined broadcasting, with vendors showcasing the Media eXchange Layer (MXL) and teasing Time Addressable Media Store (TAMS) developments. Attendees noted a growing focus on vertical video formats as Disney and Netflix expand...
The News Never Fits: Introducing the Finance Magnates Daily News Recap
Finance Magnates has launched the Daily News Recap, a concise audio briefing released each weekday afternoon. The 5‑10 minute podcast curates the most relevant stories across forex, CFDs, prop trading, crypto, payments and fintech, filtering out noise. Hosted by the...
The End Of SEO? How AI Is Reshaping Brand Discovery On The Web
AI-powered generative search engines are displacing traditional SEO, ushering in a new discipline dubbed Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) or Answer Engine Optimisation. Brands now compete to be recalled by large language models rather than ranked on keyword lists, as AI...
WNBA Teams Expand Media Playbooks with Spotify, Victory+ and CBS Deals
WNBA franchises are shifting toward media‑centric business models, highlighted by three new partnerships. The New York Liberty teamed with Spotify to produce original audio and podcast content, embedding the team in fans’ daily routines. The Minnesota Lynx signed a distribution...
BBH Wins Global Brief to Raise Profile of Hitachi Brand
Hitachi has tapped global agency BBH to spearhead a new worldwide brand campaign titled “Inspire the next,” set to launch later this year. The initiative aims to elevate awareness of Hitachi’s three core business pillars—Digital Systems & Services, Green Energy...
Guide to eBay Video Ads Promoted Listings
eBay has launched video ads for Promoted Listings using its priority strategy, currently in beta. Sellers can attach a 5‑60 second video that autoplays in eligible placements, with no change to cost‑per‑click pricing. The new format adds video‑specific metrics such...
Goodway Group and Optable Partner to Feed AI Agents Cleaner Data
Optable has partnered with Goodway Group to layer Anthropic Claude‑powered AI agents on its data clean‑room platform, unifying first‑party, third‑party and campaign data. The rollout currently reaches about 70 of Goodway’s 350 employees, primarily in media planning and analytics, to...
‘Widow’s Bay,’ and 6 More Things to Watch on TV This Week
Apple TV+ launches the thriller‑comedy "Widow’s Bay" on April 27, debuting three episodes before moving to a weekly rollout through mid‑June. The series stars Matthew Rhys as a mayor trying to revitalize a cursed island, mixing suspense with dark humor. Prime...
SkyShowtime & Polsat Team Up For Polish Remake Of ‘High Potential’ Starring Agnieszka Dygant
SkyShowtime and Poland’s broadcaster Polsat are teaming up to produce a Polish remake of the French crime‑comedy hit HPI, titled *Genialna M.* starring Agnieszka Dygant as a high‑IQ police‑station cleaner. The partnership marks the first joint original series between the two companies...
The Future of Marketing
The marketing landscape is rapidly evolving as artificial intelligence reshapes ad creation, while brands increasingly turn to live sports and influencer video to capture high‑value audiences. Consumer habits are moving beyond traditional search, prompting marketers to diversify spend across streaming...
News UK Turns The Times’ First-Party Data Into Synthetic Audiences for Advertisers
News UK has launched "Times ExplorAItion," a synthetic‑audience tool that converts The Times' first‑party subscriber data into AI‑generated audience models for advertisers. Powered by Electric Twin, the platform creates privacy‑safe, persona‑level segments that can be surveyed and tested in seconds,...
Media Buying Briefing: Agencies Turn Creators Into Test Labs for Campaigns and Product Innovation
Agencies such as Horizon Media are turning creators into live test labs, using them to pressure‑test and even shape campaign concepts and product features. SharkNinja’s partnership with Blue Hour Studios exemplifies this approach, where creator feedback informs launch strategy and...
Marketers Join OpenAI’s Ad Pilot, Nudged by FOMO
OpenAI launched a paid‑ads pilot inside ChatGPT in early February, attracting brands such as Williams‑Sonoma, Target, The Knot Worldwide, DSW and BEHR. Within six weeks the program generated an estimated $100 million annualized revenue, while ad prices fell from $60 to...
Consumer Brands Take the Leap Into Influencer Marketing
Consumer brands are moving influencer marketing from a side project to a core media channel. Vaseline’s "Vaseline Verified" effort teamed with 450 creators, racking up hundreds of millions of views and a sales lift, while the Dettol #HandWashChallenge in India...
Streaming Services Give TV Adverts a New Lease of Life
Streaming giants Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video have introduced ad‑supported subscription tiers, reviving TV‑style advertising on their platforms. While linear TV remains pressured, TV ads still account for 85% of video ad viewership, and ad‑supported streaming revenue is accelerating,...
Marketers Tackle Risks and Opportunities on Social Media
Social media remains essential for advertisers, but recent moderation rollbacks at Meta and X have heightened brand‑safety risks. Marketers are feeling pressure from geopolitical instability and inflation to prove return on ad spend, prompting a shift toward tighter campaign execution....
Instagram Tests 'Instants' For Disappearing Photo Sharing
Meta is piloting a new standalone app called Instants in Italy and Spain. The app lets users capture unfiltered photos or videos that vanish after a single view within a 24‑hour window, with only basic text overlays available. Instants integrates...
The Monthly Interview: Johanna Jaskowska
Johanna Jaskowska, a digital artist known for viral Instagram AR filters, is now exploring artificial intelligence in fashion, beauty, and art. Speaking at the Offf festival in Barcelona, she argued that AI is often mis‑marketed as a plug‑and‑play solution that...
New Research Shows Men Still Outnumber Women as Experts in Science News
Recent research of Australian print and online science news (2018‑2022) shows men still dominate expert quotations, appearing in 76% of articles despite a rise in female journalists. Female sources increased from 20% to 45% of quotes, yet the gender gap...