Podcasts about CTV

Nick Constantino and Brian Jungles dive into the surprising resurgence of direct mail marketing. From data-driven targeting to fraud-free impressions, they unpack why this “unsexy” channel is outperforming digital in today's AI-saturated landscape. Learn how tactile media is reclaiming its place in full-funnel strategies and why marketers should rethink their approach to brand and lead generation.✅ Key Takeaways:• Direct mail offers 100% deliverability and high-value targeting using PII and layered data.• Digital ad fraud is rampant—up to 50% of traffic can be fake or wasted.• Direct mail impressions are tactile, memorable, and often live in homes for weeks.• Integrated campaigns (mail + digital + CTV + retargeting) outperform siloed efforts.• Unique offers and strong creative are essential—don't reuse billboard/web ads.• Measurement tools like QR codes, call tracking, and A/B testing are now standard.• Success requires repetition—one-off mailers don't work.

In this episode of The Podcast Advertising Playbook, David "DK" Krulewich joins host Heather Osgood to talk about the value of programmatic ads, and how AI powered ad tech can help maximize both reach and revenue. David Krulewich is the CEO of Mission Media, a company dedicated to driving influence through independent voices. Leveraging the power of audio, CTV, podcasting, and social media, Mission Media connects brands with consumers in the most impactful ways - reaching audiences at meaningful touchpoints through a marketplace of over 100 independent influencers. By harnessing AI-driven contextual targeting, Mission Media enables advertisers to align their messaging with the right content, ensuring powerful brand storytelling and measurable marketing success. In this episode, you will hear: Key differences in host-read ads and programmatic ads Why creators and advertisers should include programmatic in their campaigns How to leverage your back catalog to increase inventory and monetization potential How to drive impact and influence using the latest in programmatic technology Factors that impact overall yield and CPMs through targeting If you're a creator looking for new ways to monetize, or an advertiser looking to add programmatic ad reads to your strategy, this one is for you.

Send us a textMost contractors don't have a marketing problem—they have a systems problem. We sat down with Skip Wilson, CEO of Draft Media Partners and a veteran of iHeart's digital era, to break down how to replace tactic-hopping with a durable plan that compounds. We start with the core: define a real audience, clarify the action you want (calls, forms, financing inquiries), craft messages people actually care about, and then build a channel mix that won't collapse when a platform changes the rules.We get practical fast. If “family-owned” is your headline, you're blending in. Instead, choose a USP that's provable and valuable: same-day installs, weekend hours without overtime, or flexible financing. From there, we map a resilient stack that aligns operations with demand: a CRM that can handle volume, automated nurturing to recover no-shows and slow deciders, strong search visibility, and brand-building through video and audio with precise household targeting. One standout tactic: retarget website visitors with oversized direct mail that lands days after they browse—perfect for bigger, non-urgent purchases like tankless water heaters, where timing and recall close the gap.Measurement is the unlock. We walk through shifting from cost per lead to customer acquisition cost and show how matchbacks connect exposure on CTV, radio, and social to actual new customers. No advanced stack? Use call tracking and a simple monthly CAC baseline to create a meaningful “pass/fail” view. Month one is an educated guess; month two should be optimization, not reinvention. When leads dip, pull pre-planned levers—adjust the audience, rotate offers, move budget up or down the funnel, or trigger targeted mail and outbound—rather than scrambling for “what's new.”If you're ready to stop chasing the most expensive leads in your market and start building a brand people search by name, this conversation is your blueprint. Listen, take notes, and then tell us: what's your current CAC target, and which lever will you pull next? If the show helped, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a contractor who needs steadier growth.If you enjoyed this chat From the Yellow Chair, consider joining our newsletter, "Let's Sip Some Lemonade," where you can receive exclusive interviews, our bank of helpful downloadables, and updates on upcoming content. Please consider following and drop a review below if you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to check out our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram. From the Yellow Chair is powered by Lemon Seed, a marketing strategy and branding company for the trades. Lemon Seed specializes in rebrands, creating unique, comprehensive, organized marketing plans, social media, and graphic design. Learn more at www.LemonSeedMarketing.com Interested in being a guest on our show? Fill out this form! We'll see you next time, Lemon Heads!

In this episode of Next in Media, Mike Shields sits down with Michael Komasinski, CEO of Criteo, to unpack how one of ad tech's best-known companies has reinvented itself for a privacy-first world. Once synonymous with retargeting, Criteo has successfully evolved into a powerhouse in retail media, supporting more than 230 retailers and $160 billion in GMV.Michael shares how the company's early investments in addressability technology and diversification under Megan Clarkin laid the foundation for long-term resilience. He also discusses the industry's next big shifts from the end of “easy money” in retail media to the rise of agentic workflows, AI-powered ad optimization, and Criteo's surprising new partnership with Google. Key Highlights:

In this episode of the AdTechGod Pod, host AdTechGod speaks with Dan Callahan and Alexander Groysman from Spectrum Reach about the evolving landscape of television advertising. They discuss their backgrounds, the collaboration between product and revenue teams, the impact of technology and AI on the industry, and the importance of networking. The conversation highlights the balance between traditional and streaming TV, the significance of quality content in advertising, and the role of data in targeting audiences effectively. Takeaways Spectrum Reach is innovating in the ad tech space. Collaboration between product and revenue teams is essential. AI and machine learning are transforming advertising solutions. Streaming complements traditional TV advertising. Quality content is more important than quantity in advertising. Networking is crucial for success in the industry. First-party data is a key differentiator for Spectrum Reach. Educating advertisers about streaming is necessary. The industry is evolving rapidly with new technologies. Building relationships can lead to successful partnerships. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Spectrum Reach and Guests 01:06 Backgrounds of Dan Callahan and Alexander Groysman 03:11 Collaboration Between Product and Revenue Teams 04:31 Evolution of Technology in the Industry 06:30 Impact of Streaming on Advertising 08:10 Targeting Audiences: Connected vs Traditional TV 10:08 Hype vs Reality in Ad Tech 13:23 AI and Innovations in Advertising Solutions 17:25 Leveraging Data for Effective Advertising 19:34 The Importance of Networking in the Industry Mastercard, Roku, Spotify, and Amazon Push Forward in Ads, and this week's Refresh dives into a wave of product updates and partnerships shaping advertising and media. Mastercard is making a bold move into commerce media, Roku and AppsFlyer are enhancing CTV measurement, Spotify expands its ad exchange reach with new DSP integrations, and Amazon rolls out new devices designed for its upgraded Alexa+ experience. Each update underscores how scale, data access, and measurement are driving the next phase of advertising innovation. 5 Key Highlights: Mastercard Commerce Media Launch: Mastercard formally enters the ads business with onsite and offsite media offerings, leveraging transaction insights from 500M cardholders and 159B annual transactions to create scale-driven opportunities for advertisers. Roku & AppsFlyer Partnership: The integration expands into a two-way API connection for stronger cross-channel measurement, giving advertisers tools to validate CTV's performance impact on mobile and social behaviors. Spotify's Ad Tech Expansion: Spotify Ad Exchange now integrates with Amazon DSP and Yahoo DSP, boosting inventory accessibility and enabling richer data-driven targeting, while programmatic adoption is already up 142% year-to-date. Amazon Alexa+ Devices: Four new Echo devices debut with chips and sensors tailored for conversational AI, positioning Alexa+ as a more personalized assistant woven into daily routines, from smart home control to wellness nudges. Commerce Media Growth Trend: Mastercard's move highlights how vertical-specific media networks (financial, travel, retail) are proliferating, with offsite inventory and data governance emerging as key factors for advertiser adoption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are We Done Now?, the third award-winning feature film from actor/writer/director Ben Immanuel, will be released on VOD on September 30th and make U.S. Premiere at the SOHO International Film Festival, which runs Oct 7-14 in New York City. The film won the Audience Award for "Most Popular Canadian Feature Film" at its Canadian Premiere at the Available Light Film Festival. Shot between 2020 and 2024, Immanuel brings to the screen a profoundly relatable story following Pamela, a therapist (played by Gabrielle Miller of Corner Gas and Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey), and her diverse young clients as they participate in a (fictionalized) documentary exploring the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on their mental health. Through this experience, they—and the filmmaker—gain unexpected self-insight, leading to a deeper understanding of their identities and roles in our transformed world. As a writer/director/producer, Ben has helmed 2 award-winning, theatrically released feature films: Down River (9 wins and 12 nominations) and Moving Malcolm (4 wins and 1 nomination).  Gabrielle Miller is one of Canada's most celebrated performers. A professional actor for over two decades, she is widely recognized for her lead roles on two of Canada's most successful series: the runaway hit CTV series Corner Gas (6 seasons), which inspired a feature film in 2014, as well as an animated series, and the critically acclaimed series Robson Arms (3 seasons). Along with her recurring role on Call Me Fitz, opposite Jason Priestley, Gabrielle has also recurred on Hallmark's Good Witch, and guest-starred on CBS's Person of Interest, ABC's Once Upon a Time, and Showtime's popular series Lost Girl.    Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod. (Please Subscribe)

Spectrum Reach shows how having the right data can drive performance, brand safety and advertiser confidence.

Shawn Kanungo, a globally recognized innovation strategist and disruption expert, bestselling author, and a wildly popular keynote speaker who was named in Forbes as the “Best Virtual Keynote Speaker I've Ever Seen,” joins me on this episode. Shawn previously spent 12 years at Deloitte, working closely with leaders to better plan for the opportunities associated with disruptive innovation. Shawn is a partner with Queen & Rook, where he advises leading organizations and executives on disruptive trends. His work and interviews have been featured in various media outlets, including Forbes, The Globe & Mail, The Guardian, CBC, and CTV.

Eli Ben-Sasson announces StarkNet's Bitcoin initiative: native BTC staking, 100M STRK token allocation for lending, and why zero-knowledge proofs are essential for Bitcoin to achieve Satoshi's original vision of peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkNet and Zcash, announces StarkNet's major Bitcoin news: native Bitcoin staking on StarkNet. Starknet has 100 million STRK tokens allocated for competitive Bitcoin lending rates and Bitcoin yield strategies. Eli explains why zero-knowledge proofs are the scalability solution Bitcoin needs, how StarkNet enables self-custodial Bitcoin DeFi, and why OP_CAT could be the nine lines of code that save Bitcoin from becoming just another store-of-value asset for the wealthy. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com # Notes: • Bitcoin staking now live on StarkNet • 100M STRK tokens for Bitcoin lending incentives • 500M+ STRK already staked in protocol • 21-day unstaking period for Bitcoin • $1M research fund for OP_CAT development • ZK-STARKs verify million transactions for one cost • RS7 launching Bitcoin yield strategies 00:00 Start 01:46 Bitcoin staking is now live 03:08 What is Bitcoin Staking? 06:07 History of Zero Knowledge Proofs 08:00 ZK & scaling 09:05 How scaling would work 10:57 Covenants (OPCAT, CTV) 11:55 STRK token 14:12 PoW vs PoS 16:09 Practical benefits from staking 20:26 Staking curve & rates 21:57 100M STRK tokens 24:14 Why start with lending? 25:29 Re7 Capital 28:31 Re7 function 36:08 Consensus for covenants -

The era of easy targeting and attribution in healthcare marketing is over. With disappearing cookies, stricter platform restrictions, and growing consumer expectations, health systems are being forced to rethink how they segment audiences, measure ROI, and test emerging channels. In this episode, hosts Chris Boyer and Reed Smith explore: Segmentation in a Privacy-First World – Why CDPs, not CRMs alone, are becoming the foundation for first-party and cohort-based targeting, and how to balance richer signals with regulatory risk. Measurement in the Age of Proxies – How marketers can use matchbacks, lift studies, and proxy metrics (like click-to-directions or portal logins) to prove ROI when platforms restrict attribution. Consumer Readiness for New Media – The growing role of CTV, podcasts, and AI-powered campaign tools — and why testing budgets and structured measurement are essential. In our expert interview segment, Laurin Engle Bobo and Craig Blake from Amsive share insights from the field, including how they help health systems adapt segmentation strategies, measure ROI with imperfect data, and invest in emerging media without falling for hype. Why this matters today: Healthcare marketers can no longer rely on “easy” targeting and reporting. Success will depend on how quickly they adapt to privacy-first segmentation, faster but defensible ROI proof, and disciplined experimentation in new media channels. Mentions from the Show: Amsive blog Craig Blake on LinkedIn Laurin Engle Bobo on LinkedIn Reed Smith on LinkedIn Chris Boyer on LinkedIn Chris Boyer website Chris Boyer on BlueSky Reed Smith on BlueSky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Science communicator and bat expert Dan Riskin talks to Andrew Carter every Wednesday at 8:20.

Tom Mulcair can be heard every weekday morning at 7:40 on The Andrew Carter Morning Show.

Dr. Mitch Shulman can be heard every weekday morning at 7:50 on The Andrew Carter Morning Show.

Tom Mulcair can be heard every weekday morning at 7:40 on The Andrew Carter Morning Show.

Dr. Mitch Shulman can be heard every weekday morning at 7:50 on The Andrew Carter Morning Show.

Bruce Sellery is a business journalist, TV host, author and speaker. He joined Ken Connors to discuss minimum wage rates across Canada and are they enough.

Money is being put ahead of lives according the husband of a woman who died when the CTV building pancaked in the Christchurch earthquake. The government is moving to a new risk based approach to earthquake strengthening, saying it will save building owners more than $8.2 billion across New Zealand. Under the rules a building like the CTV building would not automatically be deemed earhquake prone. Professor Mann Alkaisi who's wife died in that building, spoke to Lisa Owen.

Lianne Phillipson is a registered nutritionist, author and host of Eat This. She spoke to Ken Connors about the green Mediterranean diet.

Tom Mulcair can be heard every weekday morning at 7:40 on The Andrew Carter Morning Show.

Dr. Mitch Shulman can be heard every weekday morning at 7:50 on The Andrew Carter Morning Show.

Streaming has overtaken traditional TV, but most nonprofits still struggle to access connected TV (CTV) inventory at a sustainable cost. AdGood, a 501(c)(3) led by CEO Chris Johns, is changing that by securing donated, unused CTV inventory from major publishers and making it available exclusively to nonprofits, at roughly a 70% discount to market rates.The result: organizations can reach the biggest screen in the home with precise targeting and measurable outcomes—often at a price similar to social ads.In a recent Charity Charge Show conversation, Johns unpacked how AdGood works, why CTV belongs in a nonprofit media mix, and what's next, including the new AdGood Nonprofit Media Fund to cover media costs for organizations with little to no budget.About Charity Charge:Charity Charge is a financial technology company serving the nonprofit sector. From the Charity Charge Nonprofit Credit Card to bookkeeping, gift card disbursements, and state compliance, we help mission-driven organizations streamline operations and stay financially strong. Learn more at charitycharge.com.

According to research from Gartner, buyer uncertainty leads to a 30% reduction in a buyer's ability to make a purchase decision at all. So, how can you create a buying experience that builds confidence, drives engagement, and ultimately improves win rates? Riley Rogers: Hi, and welcome to the Win-Win podcast. I’m your host, Riley Rogers. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Annabel Hosking, Global Sales Enablement Manager at LexiNexis Risk Solutions. Thank you so much for joining us, Annabel. Just to kick us off, I’d love if you could tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role. Annabel Hosking: Hi everyone. I currently work as a global sales network manager at LexisNexis Risk Solutions within the data services brand, so I’m very fortunate to work across. Four different brands that will work within the data space. And within my role, I lead the sales enablement team. We’re a global team. We’re a small team, small but mighty, and we work across methodology enablement. So all about our sales methodology, how we go to market, how our customers. Experiences. And I also work across all of our onboarding as well as all of our tech stack as well. So my role is really varied. I’m very lucky I get to work with some really great people across the world. And yeah, it was never a dull moment, I’ll say. RR: Isn’t that always the case? Small scrappy teams. Wearing a lot of hats and it’s always exciting. We’re super excited to have you here because I know you have experience spanning a lot of core parts of enablement, so I think there’s a lot to dig into there. Could you walk us through, because I think everybody’s story is different, maybe your professional journey and then how that background led you to enablement, and then how it’s kind of shaped your approach to enablement today. AH: Absolutely. I have what I like to think of as, and it comes from a podcast I’ve been listening to recently, it’s called Squiggly Careers, and I feel like my career was like a very squiggly career of how I ended up in enablement, because I did not at school think, oh, I’m gonna become a. Sales enabler whatsoever. But my background is very much actually in content management and platform management and communication. And how I moved into enablement was I was actually hired in my current company and one of the brands, the beginning of the pandemic. To essentially deliver enablement content. So I worked on delivery of content, content management, delivery of our Highspot system as well. And that was how I started to move into the enablement realm. And I will say it was completely unknown to me originally. I. Wasn’t even clear that I was doing sales enablement per se, but at least a good 18 months in my role here. I thought I was just delivering content and it wasn’t until working with vendors like Highspot where. That term enablement started to come out and it started to change, I suppose, how I delivered my content and it’s really come into its own where now I’m very fortunate where I’m have on my team who does phenomenal content and through my experience. It’s really understanding who my audience is, understanding how they like to consume their enablement, but also how can we consistently stay, um, ahead of what the trends are and how people like to change, how they like to consume, what they’re seeing A meeting was held by our team on Monday with the client team for the Zephyr project to review the status of the forthcoming Q3 launch campaign. The campaign, originally built as a omnichannel activation across CTV, paid social and programmatic display, is now subject to substantial midstream revisions—following newly surfaced client directives. The feedback introduce a material shift in strategic framing under a compressed delivery window. There will be a pivot as Zephyr deprioritizing the performance-tracking narrative to favor of a broader “everyday wellness and inclusivity” story which will require an immidiate reframe of our messaging, architecture and associated visuals. To addressed the revised scope, I've assigned immediate follow-ups actions across the team. Visual art will lead conversations with post-production around stock content intergration. Ad sales will recalibrating the media plan in light of the repositioned messaging and will coordinate with DSPs to avoid penalties related on insertion order delays. Copy desk is to be tasked with stripping all unsubstantiated medical claims from copy, implementing the new CTA and managing a parallel review with legal. We conduct a daily internal stand-up each morning through end of week to identify blockers. The next client check-in is scheduled for July 3rd, where we preview asset revisions and confirm compliance milestones. Final go/no-go is slated for July 7th at 17:00 PDT. We are proceeding with all mitigations in parallel, and escalated any dependency delays as they surface. day to day, because that has vastly changed as well in the last six years. So. Thankfully my background and being adaptable, working globally, working with a lot of different people has really helped shape that. Because you know, I always say if there’s one thing, so my career of, you know, working in content management and working with platforms, working in technology. It has really shaped who I am today because it’s all really embedded in those user Jo Journeys user stories, and that translates into what I hope is a good enablement experience. RR: Well, amazing. I love the phrase squiggly career. I think I am certainly going to have to steal that one, and I think it’s such a good way to describe how so many folks end up at enablement. You start in one place and you bring all of that knowledge that you acquire in that early discipline. Into enablement programming that’s more effective for it. And thinking about, you know, your background in content management and creating content and all of that fun stuff, I’d be curious to know how they kind of come together. So you recently spoke at Spark EA and highlighted the importance of the buying experience, so. What are you seeing as some of those biggest challenges in engaging today’s buyers and how are you addressing them? Maybe through content, maybe through enablement? What does that look like to you? AH: I mean, I think the buying experience today in 2025 is unlike anything we have seen. Ever. It is a completely different world for both salespeople and for buyers as well. And what I’m seeing is, you know, buyers are not only overwhelmed with information, they’re also inundated with it. There is so much content out there for a buyer to consume and not just through their sales individual. This is content that they can easily go and either get themselves or with things like AI and Copilot, they can have. Harness and surface to them. So that makes the role of the seller that much harder because we don’t always know what the buyer is viewing and whether it’s of value to them, and that means that their time, the buyer’s time is so precious. We are seeing that, you know, buyers, and I mentioned this when I was at Spark, there are so many people now involved in the buying decision. We’ve moved, I think it was from about three people a few years ago. We’re now at. Six to 10 people. And if you think about it, those are all new personas that sellers have to understand, have to get to know, potentially map out, connect with. And what’s really unfortunate is we’re also seeing that for a lot of sellers, our buyers are actually taking. Long to make a decision that they kind of get to a point of no decision. We’re at this decision fatigue. We’re a information fatigue, we’re a decision fatigue. And I think on the whole, our buyers are they tired. And I can talk as a buyer, myself as a customer, it’s really exhausting. And so what we try to encourage where I am in data services is sales have to differentiate themselves. If you wanna get in front of buyers nowadays, you have to think what are you bringing to the table that’s different from them? That’s a unique experience, that’s an experience that makes ’em feel important, makes ’em feel, listened to, makes them feel like they really can understand why we are doing business together. And that starts in how we as enablement get that content to our salespeople. If we are not able to identify the value that we are bringing as brands into that conversation, it becomes really hard for sales to know how to articulate that to the buyers as well. And so. As enablement, we are that bridge between the, a lot of other functions and the sales teams and the commercial teams of making sure that value identification is really clear. So by the time it reaches the buyer, they absolutely know why they’re having that conversation. They absolutely know what the value of that conversation is going to be. And that really does start with how are you getting that information into the hands of your salespeople? How are you making that content? Really accessible, really palatable as well. I think traditional enablement, we defer to a lot of very wordy, very long documents, which from experience, no salesperson really wants to read or look at or go through. So just as we’re seeing the buyers experience evolve, the enablement experience has to evolve as well in order to stay ahead of that and to give them the best experience to our salespeople. RR: I think you’re absolutely right on all of that. It is only getting more difficult, and as things change externally, you need to adapt internally. And so kind of thinking about how you’re making that change, and to your point, how you’re distributing materials in a way that is usable and usable for a sales audience that maybe isn’t gonna read 10 pages of written content. What would you say then is kind of the unique value for an enablement platform when it comes to helping sellers? Create and deliver these impactful and differentiated buying experiences that you’re looking for? AH: Oh, huge value, absolutely huge value. The power of enablement comes in the ability to be able to streamline that messaging. But in order to do so, we do need a channel to do that, you know, and that can’t exist. In ad hoc documents that you just hold on someone’s computer. Our journey with Highspot started many, many years ago. I think it was about sort five or six years ago, very early days for Highspot even themselves. And we set out with a mission statement, which was that Highspot would be a single source of truth holding up UpToDate relevant sales content. And I am happy to say that five years later we still maintain that mission statement. The platform has got bigger. There’s more people, there’s more content, as I’m sure you can imagine, but we have stuck to our statement that it is a single source of truth. It is up to date, it is valid information that sales are getting, but that all comes from having a channel with a witch to push that through to the sales audience. It just makes your role as an enabler that much easier, you know, day to day. As you know, we spoke about at the top of the call is no one day looks the same for enablement. It will always be different. There’ll be different priorities. There’ll be different go to market, there’ll be different initiatives. But if you know that at least you have somewhere that you can reliably put information in front of sales and then see how it’s being used, how it’s being impacted, how the seller is using it, how the buyer’s consuming it. Your role as enablement starts to become just a little bit easier. And so I would say for anyone who’s within the enablement sphere and looking at their tech stack, having a solid CMS is really gonna be a, a strong cornerstone of that. RR: I love the perspective on an enablement platform as kind of a source of consistency. Almost everything is changing. Your day in enablement is different. Buyers are behaving differently. Reps need to do different things to engage ’em, but at least you have one place that is reliable. But I will say, I know that. Strong buying experiences aren’t necessarily contingent just on technology. They also require a lot of hard work internally. And as one of the things that you, I’ve seen you mention on LinkedIn is that a core foundation of LexisNexis Risk Solution Services is ensuring that customers really recognize the value that you provide. And that kind of starts internally. With sales and leadership alignment. So I’m curious, how are you aligning those internal stakeholders so that way your teams are set up for success when they’re shaping those buyer experiences externally AH: with immense difficulty, I’ll say, and I think any enabler that sits here and says that it’s an easy job is lying through their team. It is, I think, one of the hardest, the hardest roles. Of enablement is getting everybody aligned, getting everyone to agree, and especially I work, as I say, across a lot of businesses. You know, I have four MDs, I have four heads of sales, I have a lot of sales leadership and a lot of sellers, and I’m sure that’s the case for a lot of people working in large enterprise organizations, stakeholders. Can be difficult to align, especially when you have a lot of different priorities and a lot going on. But what I would say is, is really identify what is the core value that you as a company or you as a business, as a brand can all agree on. Our MD has this thing, he says that all of our kickoffs, which is, you know, value is not on the lips of the seller, but is in the eyes of the customer. And that mission statement as it were. Has sort of brought all the stakeholders together to agree that even if there’s misalignment or disagreement on how we do things, we can all agree that we want to give the best experience for our customer and the best value to our customer. And so for enablement, it’s then saying, okay, so we have this mission statement, we have this belief that we want to be customer centric. We want to be value focused. What does that actually mean? For each internal stakeholder, what’s important for them? What are the metrics that they’re looking at day to day, month to month, quarter to quarter, and how is what we are doing with an enablement? How is it actually starting to impact that? Where is their focus? What are they going after? And the only way you are really gonna get those answers is by talking to your stakeholders. If you’re an enablement and you’re not a people person, it’s probably gonna be quite a tough job because a lot of our job is just talking. It’s talking with people, talking, you know, at people, sometimes listening to people, taking in information. I would say spend time with your stakeholders. You are there to listen first and foremost. You can’t solve every single problem that they come up with, and you shouldn’t try to. But if you can really understand what their world looks like and what’s really important to them, and what are the behaviors, what are the metrics that are gonna move the dial for your stakeholders? You’ll eventually start to map out, which is what we did. But actually a lot of them start to align. And even though they might be saying different things, the reality is that for a lot of sales leadership, they want similar things. You know, they want to have better pipeline hygiene, they wanna have higher wind rate. They wanna see, you know, large opportunity amounts more in the qualifying, the identify stage, that early sales stages, they wanna increase, you know, the ramping of new starters. We start to get these similar uniform metrics and so then we as enablement can start to work that into our strategy. Although we as enablement can really start to build what we are working on to align with our internal stakeholders and start to deliver for them. RR: I really appreciate that you had some really tactical and helpful tips in there, but also that you led with, this is not easy. That’s the big part, is there’s so many kind of lofty initiatives that you are like, how do I even tackle this? And it sounds so overwhelming. So I appreciate the acknowledgement there. Kind of wanna shift gears a little bit maybe towards some of the capabilities that you’re using and finding some success with. So one of the things that we’ve heard is that digital rooms have been a lever for kind of creating those differentiated buying experiences. So what are some of your best practices for creating effective digital rooms and then maybe getting your teams to leverage them. AH: Mm, absolutely. We have a brand who is using digital rooms really fantastically, and they’re teaching our other brands how they’ve used them. So, you know, I, I wholeheartedly agree they can make such a difference in the buying experience and if you’re not using them, you should a hundred percent be looking into where you can use them. So I would say when you are looking to start with a digital room is really understand. Why are you doing this? Like what’s the purpose of actually taking the time and the effort to work probably with your product marketing team or with your marketing teams as a whole to put together something that looks really professional. Looks on brand, but is also really easy for sales to go in and start to customize. I would recommend not having sales do it fully themselves. They have very busy day jobs, and I think if you’re gonna say to any sales person, okay, over to you to go and create this, you might run. Some adoption issues, however, working, you know, this is where your cross-functional working really becomes essential, is working with the individuals who can make good content, who can deliver good, uh, visuals, good framework for the salespeople to literally just be able to, within their sales cycle, adopt this, lift it, and send it to the customer. Because then we start to see, okay, where are we actually starting seeing the customer impact? Has it changed how the customer engages with the content? Are they revisiting? And so what we’ve seen is we’re actually looking at, you know, we see a much higher engagement rate when we have the customers viewing content through a digital room as opposed to simply. Static content, and we can see that obviously with the Highspot metrics, which you know, are a real gold dust when it comes to that. We can also see that, you know, we have repeat visits, so something that we wanted to drive was customers coming back and revisiting the content rather than just clicking in, seeing it once and then never viewing it again, was actually having that revisit of them continually coming back to their individual microsite, if you will. You know, we spoken a lot about a differentiated. Differentiated buying experience. And that can be challenging for salespeople because unless you are fortunate enough to only have you know four or five accounts, the likelihood is your book of business is probably quite vast. And so the expectation that you are consistently offering a differentiated variance for every single customer is just not sustainable. And so using these digital rooms, you are able to. Have, you know, a differentiated experience that is scalable. That it makes a buyer feel like it’s a really individualized experience when the reality is for sales, it’s probably quite an easy thing for them to put together, but it does take some uplift front end with your other teams and your cross departmental functions. RR: Yeah. I wanna double click it as something you said there, which was, if you’re asking reps to build it themselves, you’re probably not gonna see much in the way of adoption. I, I kind of wanna. Speak about that idea of what you can do to drive adoption more broadly. Because looking at the data, you’ve achieved a really impressive 82% recurring usage rate in Highspot. So in addition to that kind of approach to digital rooms, how are you driving adoption more broadly across your revenue teams, whether that’s internal reps, partners, whomever, what are you thinking about that’s helping you? Get people in the platform and keep them there. AH: Yeah. That’s been, you know, a metric we’re very proud of. And it’s been something where, you know, going back to what I said earlier, which is Highspot was set out to be the single source of truth. As soon as we turned on Highspot, for lack of a better word, we pretty much turned off every single other site. So there was nowhere else. For sales to go to get this information apart from this one platform. And I’ve seen this done various ways. I’ve seen people where they have, you know, duplicates and, oh, we’re doing a slow migration. We’re gonna keep SharePoint for a while, and then we’ll have Highspot as well. And you know, there’s no right answer to this, but ultimately, if you are looking to put out a message that this is your single source of truth, this is where you need to go to speak to sales. Our adoption has come because we really drove that and we continue to drive that. If you want content in front of sales, if you want success stories in front of sales, whatever it might be, it has to live in Highspot because there just simply isn’t anywhere else to go. And this is for a couple of reasons. The main one being that, you know, the actual management of the content is far easier. And if you think about the trickle down effect, the user needs the best experience possible. And so if they have all of this disjointed experience of going to multiple places to find multiple pieces of content that look different, that sound different, they’re not getting the best experience and they’re probably not gonna come back to Highspot. So for us, it’s really making sure I’m maintaining. The consistency in the user experience, and that comes from feedback as well. So we will regularly have feedback forums with our salespeople, with our sales leadership, and we’re very open within our team to hearing, listen, this is actually getting quite complicated to navigate. I dunno how to find content. And so then we as a team, as an enablement team, go, okay, what do we need to do to make it easier? How do we start to surface more content directly in front of our users? Because if they’re not having a good experience, then we are not doing our role as enablement. And you know, you don’t have to, if you do have a large sales team, you don’t have to have that verbatim feedback. You can use things like the search reports in Highspot to see, you know, what are people searching, what are the terms they’re looking for and the pieces of content, how can you start to surface that in front of them in a much easier way? Putting it on the homepage, putting it into their specific areas, really thinking about how you. Manage, maintain and govern that content to give your users a really solid experience. And that’s what we’ve done and it’s reflected, as I say, in the adoption and in the revisit rates as well. RR: I really like that you called out that search results report because I think that’s such a great way to kind of get a pulse on your people without having to go dig around and have a bunch of conversations. So thinking in addition to that, how do you leverage data and insights in the platform to help you inform and improve the programs you’re leading? AH: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I have actually had to learn to, I suppose, step away from data slightly. Um, so that’s been feedback I’ve had as I’ve moved more into a, I suppose a leadership role is actually the data can’t always tell the whole story, although my heart and enablement goes, yes, it can, it can. But yeah, the. The, the scorecards that we have in high spots. So really for us, you know, looking at things like that play scorecard, we deliver a lot of sales plays. They’re the best way to get our enablement in front of people. They’re enjoyed and they’re liked by sales. But I can see very clearly what is the percentage of my audience that is viewing this play? How long are they spending? You know, what are the outcomes of the, you know, the business impact? At what point in the sales cycle as well? If there’s external content in there, for example, the marketing collateral, are they deploying this collateral and is it actually having any impact on the customer? Those sorts of insights. You just do not get anywhere else within any other content platform that we have. And so when it’s come to say, onboarding our marketing team or our product team into contributing content, being able to give them this insight helps them understand that the work they’re doing on building the content, maintaining the content is actually worth something because we can directly see the correlation with business outcome, which has always been one of our biggest challenges. Beyond that, our company does a lot with actually pulling the data out of Highspot. So we make use of the Highspot data lake, and we’ve actually pulled that into our own BI platform where we’ve started to look at things around, you know, how many channels and how much activity per opportunity are we seeing within sales. Something at the moment that we’d really drive on. Going back to that differentiated experience for the buyer is looking at a multi-channel approach when it comes to how we prospect and how we outreach. And that really started from using information that came from Highspot, looking at information that comes from Salesforce and going, okay, how many channels do people currently use when they’re outreaching? We’re only maybe seeing a couple, you know, one or two channels. But we know in today’s buying world that it’s gonna take between six to eight. Channels to get through to a buyer and to actually have a meeting. So what can we do to start to move the dial and start to build our programs across driving that? And so that’s how we use data and enablement is actually saying, what are we seeing today? What are the outcomes we want to see in the next quarter? What do we need to do in order to get there? There’s always a lot of talk on LinkedIn. I always see it about, you know, you need to be data driven and enablement. If you’re not offering insight, if you’re not offering analytics, you’re not doing your job. And that can be kind of hard to hear when actually, I think there’s almost too much data sometimes, and it can be quite complicated to understand. And this is why I, I personally really like how it is viewed in Highspot because the scorecards make it very accessible, very easy to consume, but also it doesn’t matter whether you’re an enabler, a seller, or a senior leader, you can be presented a scorecard and you can very quickly see what you need to get out of that and what your conclusions you’re drawing from it. RR: Yeah, I think it’s that. The difficulty of democratizing data into meaningful, actionable insights is sometimes impossible. You have so much at your disposal, and so making it useful is sometimes a challenge, so I love hearing that. You’re finding a way to use it well and inform your programs well. So we’ve heard a little bit about engaging buyers driving adoption. Tracking your impact and seeing how it’s kind of helping you do the things that you need to. So just one last question for you to close this out. For other enablement leaders looking to improve the buyer experience in today’s very digital first world, what is the biggest advice you would give ’em? AH: Oh, that’s a great question. I would say if you are in a position where you’re fortunate enough to be the buyer, think about how you want to experience that life cycle. You know, as someone who is a buyer day to day, as well as an enabler. You know, I always ask myself through, when we do our methodology onboarding, I will go and speak to the sales people about actually what it’s like from a buyer’s experience today, and that really helps. Give them that insight into what is sometimes a little bit of an elusive world that we know the buyer’s world, the buyer’s experience. So I would say for other enablers is how do you like to speak to your vendors? How often you know, what makes them stand out? What makes them noisy in your inbox, you know? When do you get those emails or outreach that you think, wow, I really wanna continue a conversation with that person. What did that person do? How can you bring that into your go to market? How can you bring that into your sales team if you’re an enabler who is perhaps not in the buying cycle? I would say. Spend time with your salespeople, really understanding the customer experience, and there are many ways that we can do this. Nowadays with technology, obviously everybody’s got call recording software, so we have a lot of our sales calls recorded. If you as an enabler are not digging in and really understanding what’s happening in those customer conversations, it’s going to be harder for yourself to be able to really get into the world of salespeople. So I would say, you know, you really need to experience. What the customer is going through. And that can be simply by having a look at those calls. Where were they successful? Where was there a positive outcome? Where did the buyer enjoy it? But then also where did the buyer sometimes mention things that were pains to them or where they would like to see improvements? What were the questions? That is where we really need our enablers to be on the front foot of really digging into the customer experience and almost spend as much time as you know with your customers, as you do with your salespeople, to really get that insight. RR: I think that’s fantastic advice to close on, is to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes, understand what they’re going through, and know for yourself what good looks like to you and drive that in your own business. So thank you again, Anabel. This has been a wonderful conversation full of all sorts of good insights that I really can’t wait to share with our community. I appreciate you joining us so much. AH: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me as well. Fantastic questions. RR: Amazing. Well, to our listeners, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win-Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement successful Highspot.

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Jordan Rost, head of Ad Marketing for Roku & Jeff Bustos, SVP retail media analytics at Merkle. Jeff is a repeat guest on the CPG Guys and we have had great conversations on the role of retail media in our industry. This episode is focused on retail media including new capabilities, our guests' partnerships and the overall state of retail media research and learnings.Follow Jordan Rost on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanrost/Follow Roku on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/roku/Follow Roku online at: https://advertising.roku.com/ Follow Jeff Bustos on Linked in at : https://www.linkedin.com/in/bustosjeffrey/ Follow Merkle on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/merkle/ Follow Merkle online at: https://www.merkle.com/Here's what we discussed :  1. Jordan, give us the latest - Roku was on this podcast  a year ago, what's changed, what's new and how is the world of CTV doing?2. Jeff, Roku and Dentsu recently revealed research on shoppable TV advertising and whether it drives success for CPG. Tell us if content commerce integration drives engagement for brands or not?3. Jordan, you now have a partnership with Amazon. Tell us all about it and how advertisers can benefit from this partnership including any measurement?4. Jeff, as an expert of retail media measurement, how are you advising all including Roku to innovate metrics and deliver for CPG brands?5. Jordan and Jeff, are these ads mostly generic or personalized and how are consumers responding to it?6. Jordan, what role does content provide in engagement and attribution - how do you work with brands in ensuring there is ROI?7. Jeff, we know price sensitivity is impacting CPG today. How can brands reach the value-driven shopper?8. Jordan, if a brand hasn't used CTV before, what's the best way to give it a try? CPG Guys Website: http://CPGguys.comFMCG Guys Website: http://FMCGguys.comRhea Raj's Website: http://rhearaj.comLara Raj in Katseye: https://www.katseye.world/DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.  CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast.

On the latest episode of The Big Impression, Nestlé's Antonia Farquhar talks about striking unexpected partnerships, like KitKat with Formula One, to keep the 90-year-old chocolate brand fresh. It's part of a larger strategy to connect with new audiences through live cultural moments.  Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.Damian Fowler (00:00):I'm Damian Fowler.Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):And I'm Ilyse Liffreing.Damian Fowler (00:02):And welcome to this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (00:09):Today we're spotlighting one of the most ambitious shifts happening in brand marketing, Nestle's global push to redefine performance in a world where reach, relevance and streaming. Now go hand in hand.Damian Fowler (00:21):Our guest is Antonia Farquhar, global head of Media and partnerships at Nestle. Antonia has been at the forefront of Nestle's pivot towards connected TV and long-term brand building across categories, continents, and campaigns.Ilyse Liffreing (00:35):From Formula One to Gen Z coffee drinkers, she's helping Nestle rethink what media performance really means in a CTV first world and how brands can use new tools and data to close the loop between awareness and action.Damian Fowler (00:50):Let's get into it.Ilyse Liffreing (00:52):Antonia. So I understand that you guys are sponsoring Kit Kat's Formula One. I'm very curious to learn more about that.Antonia Farquhar (01:03):Yeah, one of the reasons that the Kit Kat team put that sponsorship together was to really, they've got an existing brand strategy, have a break, have a Kit Kat, right?Damian Fowler (01:14):Everybody loves that.Antonia Farquhar (01:14):Which is decades and decades old. I think it's way over 75 years old, that consistency of brand message is there and it's really part of the foundations of that brand. But the break is more important than ever in a busy world that we all live in today. And so it was really putting the brand at the heart of also everybody needs a break. How can we capitalize on that? And F1 has gone from being very much, I think known as a petrol head sports, to really bringing in different audiences, so younger, more diverse across the genders and it's global and Kit Kat is a major global brand of ours. So it was an excellent opportunity to really bring together the brand and I guess wouldn't have been an expected place. And then to capitalize on that, on giving people a better break as well.Ilyse Liffreing (02:08):Can you give me a little bit of background about why sports and why Formula One?Antonia Farquhar (02:15):I think for me, sports is one of the last truly appointment of view. Live viewing. You do not want to miss the race. You do not want to miss the final, you do not. There's so many of those moments now where it is also, people are talking about it, who won, how's the lineup, where is it? Et cetera. So it's part of cultural conversations and really the opportunity for our brands is to connect into what's happening, making sure we are injecting our brands with freshness and bringing in that new conversations. And I think sponsorship like the F1, and we also did Coffee Mate and the Super Bowl early this year, again, to really capitalize on where's the real excitement happening and how do we inject our brands in a distinct way. Obviously being true to their brand codes to new and different audiences,Damian Fowler (03:13):A thought a 30,000 foot view, you look across the landscaping like, well, these are the moments where we need to show upAntonia Farquhar (03:20):For sure. I mean, one of the role within the team is to really inspire and provoke and drive that distinctiveness for our brands. We are privileged to have a lot of huge global brands, but we're also over 150 years old as a company. So it's how do you inject that freshness? How do you stand out in a increasingly fragmented media landscape? So I think this is where we want brands to really lean in and as I said, it is holding on what is your brand territory? Where is that strategic foundations that hold true and need to be consistent, but how do you punch and become a little bit more maybe unexpected? Unexpected places is clearly one of the themes that I'm seeing in the industry lately that it drives that attention.Damian Fowler (04:20):When you talk about unexpected places. Could you say a bit more about that?Antonia Farquhar (04:26):I mean, we all know we are living in a very attention. Yeah, the second you wake up the phones, the amount of apps on your phones, it's increasingly hard and I think it'll continue to get harder to really drive connectivity to brands with people. And so I think doing something a little bit different and perhaps wouldn't, it's not predictable for that brand to be in that particular place or speaking in a different environment. I think that's an opportunity going forward. And I think when you look at a lot of the award-winning work globally this year, that's one theme that I really see coming through and I kind of love it. It's bringing a bit of fresh, it's bringing an edge, and I think it's pushing people and brand experiences to a different level to where they were before. SoIlyse Liffreing (05:18):Yeah,Antonia Farquhar (05:19):I'm enjoyingIlyse Liffreing (05:19):It and it's fun.Antonia Farquhar (05:20):Exactly. It's fun. And I feel like it's almost, there's different areas where different brands have different tone of voice, and so it's working out really what is that? And then perhaps tapping into a community really engaged in a particular community and how can you link your brand and derive some insights from that behavior to speak in that way.Ilyse Liffreing (05:45):Certainly. Now, I know you were talking about using sports to tap into that audience around appointment tv. Are there other channels that you guys are particularly leaned into at this time? Are there ones that you're experimenting with? How is that going?Antonia Farquhar (06:03):Yeah, so I think the more you know about marketing science, and I'm quite a nerd when it comes to marketing science, but the more channels you are in, the higher your effectiveness of course. So again, it's about how do we do fewer, bigger, better campaigns.(06:21):And media activations to really get that consistent cut through. But in terms of channels, when you look at where the growth is at the moment, retail, digital media is growing at an increasingly fast rate year on year. But connected TV is another one that I am really excited to discover the future of that particular medium. I mean, even in the last few years, the amount of ads that we serve on connected TV devices is more than doubled. The adoption rate is huge and it's from where you'd expect the more advanced markets where most of the streaming services for the US and the uk, but also in markets like India, the Philippines, Australia, the viewing habits are really shifting. I think COVID drove that acceleration and we all spent a lot more time at home and people probably spent money on better TVs because there wasn't as much to do outside. And so yeah, that's one I'm excited about.Ilyse Liffreing (07:29):And I would imagine for a brand like Nestle that the intersection of CTV and retail media and e-commerce is really exciting now that you can practically shop through your TV too.Antonia Farquhar (07:43):Yes. Yeah, it is. I think it's a great opportunity. I love the fact that that medium is back in the living room but advanced and it's now how do you make sure you are able to do a brand building experience and build an emotional connection, but also give people the prompt to buy perhaps through a QR code or through the retailer websites. And obviously the audiences piece is super attractive as well when you're really trying to nudge people to close the sale. So yeah, I think it's very exciting. It's amazing.Damian Fowler (08:23):I was interested in what you said just then about fewer, bigger, better, which is easy to say, but perhaps not easy to execute. What kind of mindset shifts were needed to get your teams to rally behind that concept and how does it kind of show up?Antonia Farquhar (08:41):Yeah, fewer, bigger, better is a phrase I feel like I say every single day in the office. We started on a journey a few years ago and it's all about the focus. So focusing on the brands, ensuring they're well fed with the right amount of investment because we know that's one of the key factors of marketing effectiveness. But so from where do we invest, how many briefs, et cetera, but actually also through to our agency partners as well. So we've done a big transformation across lots of parts of the globe to really consolidate our agency model, which has been a mindset shift to your point around if we scale and standardize, then we free up more time and brainpower to really create outstanding media activations and planning. And so we are in the transformation area of that at the moment. But yeah, it's bringing a lot of great benefits, good talent, better work, and a more we can scale faster. We are a huge organization. We operate in 188 markets, and so therefore scaling information and driving that best practice is going to go so much faster through the consolidation.Ilyse Liffreing (10:13):When it comes to CTV, are there specific brands that Nestle owns that kind of fit that target audience a little better?Antonia Farquhar (10:24):I think it's a great question. I think it fits a lot of our brands, but to your point, it depends on where that behavior is happening. Often it can be younger audiences, but we are seeing it growing to really, really broad audiences as well. And especially the move we've had in the industry from really subscription to the ad model piece allows that larger access as well. What I also am interested in this space is the type of content as well. So there's obviously a huge diversity in terms of super high production and Netflix style content all the way through to the UGC or that type of content as well. So again, going back to the point earlier about different audiences and their interests, to me that brings a really thoughtful opportunity about are there different types of content that makes sense for different brands, to your point, versus doing a one size fits all. So I think that's super interesting as we see the, well, the more and more content that comes out and the consumption increase as well.Damian Fowler (11:37):And what's also interesting I guess, is the global differences. I mean, I know the APAC market is very mobile first and different markets, more mature markets like the US CTV is strong. I wonder from your perspective, where do you see the big growth opportunities around the world from a media perspective?Antonia Farquhar (12:02):Like you say in Asia, we see huge growth of shopping online. It's seamless and you can really go from discovering a product to buying it within 10 seconds. And so that is challenging some of the norms about the amount of time but that people need. So yeah, again, it depends on the category and the purchase cycle there, but I think that's a great opportunity. Things like WhatsApp I think will be increasingly utilized by brands as a way, a more seamless way of connecting with shoppers as well. But I think social retail media and connected TV are the three areas that we really focus on, but then the important ask within that is how do we do it in a way that is quality, culturally relevant with the right context, so we are able to cut through in an effective way.Damian Fowler (13:07):So you're working closely with different agencies in each of those distinct markets.Antonia Farquhar (13:12):Yeah, exactly. To find the right opportunity and what are the local opportunities there too. AreDamian Fowler (13:20):There any surprises from your point of view? And I just want to say I grew up in York and it was the home of Roundtree Macintosh, which where Kit Kat started. And then over the years we've seen Kit Kat show up in different places, like in Japan, I think there's a version with green tea or green. So that's an interesting kind of wayIlyse Liffreing (13:41):A lot to collect them from around the world.Damian Fowler (13:43):And I think it is remarkable how the brand sort of KitKat brand has scaled across the world, but it's still kind true to that chocolate bar that I knew in York when I used to wake up. You could smell the cocoa. So are you kind of thinking about things like that?Antonia Farquhar (14:02):I think for me and with the brand team, it's about staying true to those foundations. Have a break, have a kick at, and that core bar that you grew up smelling,(14:16):But how can you flex into those local regions and opportunities, flavors tastes? And I think that's exciting opportunity. And obviously Japan, in fact, yesterday someone was saying about how they flew to Japan to buy the different types of KitKats. Clearly a lot of people get excited about that, but we also have factories all over the world. So it allows us to diversify and able to deliver to some of the nature, some of the local taste preferences. But for me it's about staying core to that brand really, because the foundation behind the piece. But yeah, you can also have fun with it with different flavor rotations too. Yeah.Ilyse Liffreing (15:04):Is there any advice that you would give marketers looking to make the same shift as you guys are doing from short term return on investment to long-term brand building?Damian Fowler (15:16):Fewer, bigger, better, right? Fewer, bigger better. Is that what you say?Antonia Farquhar (15:19):A rally cry. I'm going to have it on a T-shirt. Exactly. But no, you should sell those too. Exactly. So I think it's about focus, right? And it's about really focusing on where are the areas of the greatest opportunity. I'm also a big believer in having data points at hand. So whenever we are challenged around some of the decisions that we are aiming to drive across the business, having that the audience has actually grown by 50, 60, 70 or whatever percent, and it's no longer just teams, it's a very broad audience and our products are super broad and it allows us to connect with people daily, weekly. Again, it's that consistent piece that I think is really attractive there.Damian Fowler (16:12):What are you obsessed with figuring out right now?Antonia Farquhar (16:16):So many, many things at the moment. I just thinking about the conversation that we were having about quality of media and connected tv, I would love more understanding on the impact of ad loads. As I said, it does vary hugely across the different providers from six minutes an hour to, I dunno, probably 35 minutes an hour. And again, I'm a big believer and you get what you pay for. So if it is a higher cost, then the effectiveness is hopefully and likely higher. But again, proving the house I think would be really interesting as well and what effect, what it has on the effectiveness of that.Ilyse Liffreing (16:59):Yeah. So what would you say is missing from the CTV marketplace as it stands today?Antonia Farquhar (17:04):I would love more unification to manage, this is a very technical media answer, but to manage reach and frequency more consistently. I think that's been a bit of a downfall of the growth of things like BVO and CTV was that ability to effectively manage and not feel like you're wasting or annoying people with too many ads. So the unification of that across many devices would be my dream to be able to do. And it was never possible to unlock on linear TV for very obvious reasons, but as we are in a much more digitized world, it does feel possible. I'm not sure we'll get there. But yeah, any unification that a lot of the DSPs offer to me, they're incredibly valuable to ensure we're being more efficient and effective with our investment.Ilyse Liffreing (17:59):Very cool. Now I actually do have a follow up to what you said before about effective reach and cost. Do you feel like there, do you feel like most marketers still have the mindset that they want to buy in at the cheapest they can, no matter the effectiveness?Antonia Farquhar (18:21):Or is that changing? Do you think it's changing? I think it is changing. I do. I'm a believer that the more great effective research and the more case studies and that sort of part you read, it's not about that to me. These are soft metrics in terms of did the campaign deliver what you signed for on your media plan? But really we are here to drive business and brands and whether it's cross between equity and sales and category growth. So to me, you have to come back to, is it driving business results, making sure you're able to measure and manage those effectively because yeah, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it and you can't go back and say, well, we reached this many people, but did they convert? Did they do anything? Did they feel differently about your brands? These are the questions I'm really interested to answer.Damian Fowler (19:15):I guess final question, what's one of your favorite Nestle ad campaigns? Past or present?Antonia Farquhar (19:21):This is a tough question to answer because as my role is global, the brands are equal. I have to say some of my favorite, or I think it's timeless, is the George Clooney and espresso pieces as well. The art direction there I always think is beautiful. And I'm a big Nespresso fan, I have to say from a personal perspective. And also in Australia and New Zealand and Asia, there's a brand called Milo, and that is all about sport being a great way of bringing together people to learn and play and have fun. And they've done some fantastic ads throughout the time, really showing that resilience and the grit as well that it comes to what sport can teach you to do. So that's some of my favorite ads that we've done.Damian Fowler (20:29):And that's it for this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (20:31):This show is produced by Molten Hart. Our theme is by love and caliber, and our associate producer isAntonia Farquhar (20:37):Sydney Cairns.Damian Fowler (20:38):And remember,Antonia Farquhar (20:39):Yeah, fewer, bigger, better is a phrase I feel like I say every single day.Damian Fowler (20:43):I'm DamianAntonia Farquhar (20:44):And I'm Ilyse,Damian Fowler (20:45):And we'll see you next time.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Roku Canada's Video on Demand Evolution Study reveals how Canadian streamers embrace ad-supported streaming, FAST channels, and interactive ads—shifting reach to connected TV while boosting addressability to 90%. Head of Revenue for Roku Canada, Ivan Pehar, joins Marc to unpack the sixth annual Video on Demand Evolution Study and what it means for advertisers, broadcasters, and viewers. The big shift: Canadians are increasingly comfortable with ad-supported content, with weekly viewing time for programming with ads jumping from ~7 hours to 10+ hours year over year. Nearly 90% of Canadian streamers are now addressable, opening modern targeting, measurement, and interactivity on the biggest screen in the home. Choice is massive—but so is decision friction. Viewers spend an average of ~12 minutes (and up to 31 minutes; under-35s as high as 46) searching for something to watch. Roku is tackling this with home-screen recommendations and brand-supported discovery moments that save time and feel helpful rather than intrusive. FAST channels mirror the simplicity of broadcast—turn it on and you know what you'll get—while live sports, news, and themed channels keep “lean-back” viewing alive in a streaming world. For advertisers, the message is clear: linear and connected TV work best together. With precise targeting and interactive formats (think “press OK” overlays that send offers to your phone), campaigns can move beyond awareness into action—without breaking the viewing flow. Privacy remains user-controlled; opting out is always available. Enjoyed this conversation about where TV is heading? Subscribe for more industry interviews, drop your thoughts in the comments, and share how you're using CTV or FAST in your mix. Roku Canada, Video on Demand Evolution Study, Canadian streamers, ad-supported streaming, FAST channels, connected TV advertising, CTV targeting, interactive TV ads, home screen recommendations, addressable audience 90%, search friction 12 minutes, weekly viewing with ads 10 hours, linear and streaming strategy, brand-supported discovery, privacy opt out Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Acrobatic Arts' earliest days filming in Mandy Yip's living room to producing documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada, Rachel Bower has spent her career behind the lens capturing movement, passion, and human stories.In this episode, Rachel shares her journey from competitive baton twirling to professional videography, and the crucial role she played in building the Acrobatic Arts app.She offers insider tips on filming dance and acro, from planning and camera setups to capturing clean audio, managing media, and creating trust with dancers on set. Whether you're a dance teacher filming audition reels or a creative interested in visual storytelling, Rachel's wisdom and warmth will inspire you. About Rachel Bower Choosing subjects of deep personal interest and connection Rachel Bower has worked on documentaries in the Middle East, Africa, Ukraine, Romania, and North America. She has worked as a director, camera operator, and editor for the Outdoor Life Network, CBC and CTV. Rachel had directed and written 20 episodes for CBC's documentary series Land and Sea. She has produced, directed and written six episodes for the documentary series Our Community on AMI (Accessible Media Inc.). Rachel produced a series DISRUPT that showcases artists with disabilities. The series was recently renewed for a second season.Her independent documentaries have been screened at film festivals around the world. IN THE SAME BOAT and THE SINGING LUMBERJACK won best documentary at the Silver Wave Film Festival. MEET MAURICE CROSBY won best musical score at the British Documentary Film Festival. I AM SKYLAR won 6 short best documentary awards at various film festivals around the world. She created, developed, wrote and directed ACROSS AND DOWN for CBC's Passionate Eye, which won two Leo Awards for best short documentary and best sound. She produced, wrote and directed THE NOODLE GROUP for CBC's short docs, which is streaming on CBC Gem. Rachel was one of 25 crew members from across Canada to receive a scholarship to the Women in the Director's Chair program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She was one of four directors chosen from Atlantic Canada to participate in the Director/Composer Mentorship Program though the Atlantic Canada Film Festival Association, the Guild of Canadian Film Composers and Symphony Nova Scotia. Rachel won a National Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) Dave Rogers Award for Best Short Feature and a Maritime Philanthropy Award Outstanding Special Event. Rachel Bower Productions: http://www.rachelbowerproductions.com If you'd like more amazing content more tips and ideas check out our Acrobatic Arts Channel on YouTube. Subscribe Now! Connect with Acrobatic Arts on your favourite social media platform: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acrobaticarts/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Acroarts Twitter: https://twitter.com/acrobatic_arts/ Learn more and register for our programs at AcrobaticArts.com

In this episode of the Ad Tech Godpod, host AdTechGod speaks with Hillary Slattery, Senior Director of Product Management at IAB Tech Lab. They discuss Hillary's career journey, the differences between IAB and IAB Tech Lab, the rise of programmatic advertising in CTV, challenges in transparency and data sharing, innovations in live event advertising, the role of curation, and the impact of AI on the advertising industry. Hillary emphasizes the importance of transparency, the need for standards in advertising, and her motivation as a female leader in a technical role. Takeaways Hillary Slattery has a diverse background in ad tech. IAB and IAB Tech Lab serve different but complementary roles. Programmatic advertising in CTV is a growing trend. Transparency in data sharing is a significant challenge. Curation is becoming increasingly important in advertising. AI is reshaping the advertising landscape. Hillary values her role as a female technical lead. The conversations in ad tech are always evolving and interesting. There are legitimate reasons for the lack of transparency from sellers. Hillary is motivated by the impact of her work and the people she collaborates with. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Hillary Slattery and Her Journey 02:36 Understanding IAB and IAB Tech Lab 05:21 Programmatic Advertising and CTV Trends 07:57 Challenges in Transparency and Data Sharing 10:58 Innovations in Live Event Advertising 13:41 The Role of Curation in Advertising 16:38 AI's Impact on the Advertising Industry 19:18 Motivation and Leadership in Ad Tech TikTok's Fate, Rembrandt's Big Bet, and CTV's Transparency Leap This week's episode of The Refresh covers three major developments shaping advertising and adtech: the long-awaited resolution of the TikTok U.S. drama, a notable merger between Rembrandt and Spaceback, and Index Exchange's groundbreaking integration with Grace Note. Host Kate unpacks the details, implications, and what these shifts mean for advertisers, creators, and platforms heading into 2025. 5 Key Highlights: TikTok's U.S. operations are set to spin into a new company with majority American ownership (80%), including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and Silver Lake, while ByteDance retains 20%. A new TikTok U.S. app is reportedly in testing, requiring users to migrate accounts, raising concerns about logins, content transfers, and algorithm performance. Rembrandt acquired Spaceback, adding scale with 3,000+ advertisers and expanding its AI-driven creative offerings to blend product placements with organic content. The merger reflects broader industry trends: AI-driven “intelligent creative,” creative functions shifting into buying platforms, and the blending of context with content. Index Exchange and Grace Note launched the first integration enabling show-level targeting and reporting in CTV, addressing long-standing transparency challenges for advertisers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guests: Children Ruin Everything star Aaron Abrams, Clare Blackwood of The Beaverton and Second City After finishing in last place just a year ago, the Blue Jays clinched a post-season berth with their 8-5 win over the Kansas City Royals Sunday, becoming the first American League team to do so. In honour of the return of playoff baseball to Toronto for the first time (actual Toronto, as in a home game) since 2022, we have gathered a panel of some of the city's best, brightest and professionally funniest Blue Jays fans to talk about the clinch, the awful week leading up to it, the replay debacles in Tampa and KC and so much more. Aaron Abrams, the star of Children Ruin Everything on CTV and Netflix, joins the roundtable discussion along with distinguished Second City alumna Clare Blackwood of The Beaverton podcast. You're gonna love it!

Newly minted Liberal Leader Mark Carney ran on an ambitious platform. He promised quick and bold action. But six months into his tenure as prime minister, what have Canadians witnessed? This week on “It's Political” we'll get a variety of viewpoints on how Carney is dealing with Trump, the economy, the environment, among other issues. Then, the Toronto Star's Ottawa bureau will discuss the challenges this government faces in passing its agenda. Who will be Carney's dance partner? And how does the NDP's search for a new leader, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's review play into those considerations? Host Althia Raj is joined by politics reporters Ryan Tumilty and Raisa Patel, and the Star's deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief Alex Ballingall.  Also featured on this episode: Mark Warner, Principal at MAAW Law; economist Don Drummond, the Stauffer-Dunning fellow at Queen's University and a fellow-in-residence at C.D. Howe; and Anna Johnston, a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. This episode of “It's Political” was produced by Kevin Sexton and Althia Raj. Matt Hearn is our sound engineer. Our theme music is by Isaac Joel. Some of the audio clips this week were sourced from CPAC, CBC, CTV and BBC.

Connected TV is no longer just a buzzword in the ad world — it's where the industry is being reinvented. Audiences aren't just watching differently; they're shopping, engaging, and co-viewing in ways that open new creative doors for brands. And sitting at the intersection of entertainment and advertising is Roku, a company that's helping marketers meet these shifts head-on.In this episode of The Big Impression, Roku's VP of advertising, marketing & measurement, Sarah Harms, explains why the company is uniquely positioned as a publisher and an operating system. Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.Damian Fowler (00:00):I'm Damian Fowler.Ilyse Liffreing (00:01):And I'm Ilyse Liffreing.Damian Fowler (00:02):And welcome to this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (00:09):Today we're talking about how streaming and connected TV are transforming not just how we watch, but how brands connect with audiences.Damian Fowler (00:17):Our guest is Sarah Harms vice president of advertising, marketing and measurement at Roku. She leads the strategy behind Roku's advertising business, helping brands tap into streaming's growing audience while building smarter measurement tools along the way.Ilyse Liffreing (00:32):Before Roku, Sarah built her expertise across both the buy and sell sides of the industry with leadership roles at Microsoft XR and wpp giving her a unique perspective on how ad tech data and storytelling all come together on Connected tv.Damian Fowler (00:49):We'll talk about how Roku's helping brands of all scientists meet new viewer behaviors, build more effective campaigns, and push the creative boundaries of what's possible on CTV.Ilyse Liffreing (01:00):So let's get into it.Damian Fowler (01:03):So Sarah Roku is in a pretty unique spot right now, right? Between entertainment and ads with this latest brand or measurement move, what got it started? Was there an insight or audience need that really stood out to you?Sarah Harms (01:17):Yeah, so in my role I run ad marketing and measurement. So much of my job is us as a marketer, so marketing roku's, advertising proposition, but also in support of our marketers. And so that makes my job very fun. And so a lot of this conversation today, I'm going to go back and forth between my job as a marketer, but also my job in B2B advertising of driving marketers results on our platform. Something that's really fun about Roku is that we're a publisher, but we're also the largest operating system in the us. We see consumers come through our front door to get to the content they know and love and care about. And so that gives us a really rich canvas for supporting some of our marketers initiatives. And so for example, the Super Bowl was very fun for us, whether it was using our platform to drive traffic to Tuby or to build really fun brand experiences on our canvases.(02:13):So we had, when Sally met Hellman's and we had Hellman's and Roku City and we had the Super Bowl ad and a really lovely zone destination to drive shopping and drive purchases of Hellman's mayonnaise, which you really wouldn't expect from a television advertising experience. And so I think that was a fun one from us in supportive marketers. And then a whole part of my job is making sure our advertisers really know about the Roku experience. And so while it's B2B, it would be silly not to address them in a B2C capacity because our marketers could also be customers, the need to understand the value of the Roku experience even if they don't have a televisionDamian Fowler (02:53):From ro. Once you realize your customers could be businesses, consumers, or both, how did that shift your strategy? Did it change the way you approach things?Sarah Harms (03:01):I think it's just strategic use of our resources and a strategic use of our messaging. We certainly think the Roku experience as an operating system is delightful and easy and intuitive. We talk about how your mother-in-law can set it up herself as the example we always use. And so we certainly want our advertising customers to know that too because it really is a beautiful, elegant experience for advertising as well, for watching content.Ilyse Liffreing (03:28):So you've got such a big range of advertisers from big Fortune five hundreds to D two C brands to B2B. How do you build campaigns or measurements that flex for either of them but still stay true to your own approach?Sarah Harms (03:44):Great. So I'll address that as a speaking to the advertising community part of my job, we certainly are on a journey to evolve our strategy to be more flexible and meet our customers where they want us to be, whether it being in their buying platforms of choice or providing optionality to a D two C customer by giving them a very lightweight, intuitive self-service platform like Roku Ads Manager. And so I think a lot of it from a measurement standpoint is doing some education. I think some of the questions were ground around CTV is still somewhat new, but I don't know if it's new, but it's certainly new in the eyes of performance. And so it's a lot of education about how we can enable customers to drive true outcomes using connected television. And so whether it's ad manager or unique measurement integrations, shoppable formats, we really try to address all of thatIlyse Liffreing (04:36):Now. Streaming's completely changed how people watch from binging to co-viewing and basically everything in between. How do cultural or data trends help shape what you're doing on the platform?Sarah Harms (04:48):Yeah, I mean it's been so interesting to see it change even since the pandemic. I think for a long time CTV was synonymous with SVOD or subscription video on demand. We're very much seen that is not the case anymore. A majority of our households are using some form of A VOD, we're advertising video on demand. And so that trend coupled with live sports coming into CTV and streaming, it's really just driven a whole new slew of opportunities for advertising. And so off the back of that, that's more addressable, more accountable television because it is connected television. And so that's been fun from a education standpoint, it's been fun from a how do we enable our platform to address that and also how do we educate our customers from a measurement standpoint.Damian Fowler (05:37):So what's the ad experience like on Roku? You mentioned CTV and it sounds like there's a pretty wide mix of formats. Can you break that down a little more?Sarah Harms (05:46):I'd love to because I think that's again, where my role as a B2B marketer, it's of course helpful to inform our clients about our experiences then they might not have a Roku device or television. And so we think about our business in really two core buckets. We have the Roku experiences, which is our beautiful ui, so native home screen units, they're customized, they're elegant, and we have some of our more kind of viral experiences like Roku City, which is fun and delightful. We're now doing brand integrations there. But then on the other side, we're also a very scaled publisher. So the Roku channel continues to climb Nielsen's Gauge in terms of total TV content time. And so that is allowing us to be a very kind of open interoperable, performant publisher as well with standard video that's available programmatically. It's available with unique measurement integrations, and that's really our ecosystem being an interoperable partner in the space.Ilyse Liffreing (06:43):Roku City is that fun, animated screensaver, very purple that a lot of people see on their TVs. Can you tell us a little bit about it and the kinds of brands you're partnering with there?Sarah Harms (06:54):Yeah, so this has just been something really fun that's taken off. So Roku City is our interactive screensaver and people love it. I don't know if you see it every day, but it's cute, it's fun, it grabs your attention. We see that it's tweeted about every 12 minutes, so it is a viral experience and so much so that really our advertisers challenged us to think about it differently. And so now we have really a variety of advertisers coming into Roku City. So I gave the Hellman's example. We had Taylor Swift in Roku City. And so it's really just a fun, unique, totally differentiated advertising experience, but we tie it all to the rest of our assets.Damian Fowler (07:36):I heard somebody say this morning, performance media is kind of the baseline. Now with that in mind, how do you think about measuring engagement across all these different touch points that we've been talking about?Sarah Harms (07:46):Yeah, I mean, so much of my job on the measurement side of the house is education. And I think the challenge is that performance is in the eye of the beholder and CTV is still bought via a very different group of personas from a legacy television buyer all the way to someone that had been in social API partners and dipping their toe into CTV. And so performance is required, but it's really a matter of educating them on what that means to them and supporting them in their efforts. But what's great about CTV is its big beautiful television, but with all the addressability and accountability of digital.Damian Fowler (08:23):And on that point though, what is it that linear TV buyers still don't quite get about CTV?Sarah Harms (08:29):I think it's the ecosystem aspect of it all. I think television in the past was measured by a couple companies with a couple KPIs or just reach. And so I think this is where CTV has really unlocked really turnkey, always on easy to optimize measurement. That's very exciting.Ilyse Liffreing (08:48):So one thing we like to do on the show is pull our takeaways from the big campaigns. Are there any KPIs or success stories from the campaigns running on Roku that stand out to you?Sarah Harms (09:00):Yeah, so I think what's been fun is we see that we have opportunities for really kind of all verticals. Obviously Roku is born out of the media and entertainment industry, but we've expanded there. And so we really do have kind of a playbook for each vertical, but auto specifically comes to mind, which is a really exciting one. You don't really think of performance and auto on tv, but we've built kind of beautiful experiences like showrooms where you can configure cars, sign up for test drives. And so I think we've really changed the narrative there in terms of driving actions for that vertical all in a very big, beautiful, elegant canvas.Damian Fowler (09:37):Are there any other kind of surprises from your takeaways in terms of like, oh, that's popping. I never expected that.Sarah Harms (09:44):So for me, I don't carry a wallet. My phone is my wallet. And I think if you told me that five years ago, I would've never believed you. Similarly, I don't think anyone thought they'd be shopping with their television. That happens every day on our platform, and I think it's because of clients testing with us, but also it comes back to us as an operating system. And really our remote, it's a few buttons. It's really easy. We have a direct relationship with our customers from a billing perspective. And so the same way Apple Pay is just so easy now you can shop from your tv, which again seems insane, but maybe we'll be here in a couple years and we'll see so much direct shopping from televisions.Ilyse Liffreing (10:23):What about the interest from B2B brands? It just feels like that sector is really exploding across all categories, but CTV particularly.Sarah Harms (10:33):Yeah, I mean so much of my job as a B2B marketer is a lot of education and a lot of really, so much of our reframing away from being a walled garden to more of an open collaborative partner. And so much of it is doing, we talked in the press about our change away from doing a big new front event. We did more kind of small customized dinners instead just to make sure there is a very direct touch point, but also specifically cater to each client's needs. And so I think that's been more of our approach of making sure we do pointed conversations to address the nuances and needs of each customer.Ilyse Liffreing (11:12):And how was that new approach for you this year? I know a lot of brands are doing things a bit differently at the fronts. How did it go on your side?Sarah Harms (11:21):I think for us it's knowing the value of us as the operating system and having great content, but not being these content giants that have millions and millions and millions of dollars to spend on content. And so they should do a big show for us. We drive traffic to the big show. And so I think it was more about, yes, of course, talking about our amazing content and brand integrations there, but also acknowledging the integrations that each customer wanted, the platforms each customer wanted, and what we're doing for each of them in a really kind of catered way versus such a one to many message.Damian Fowler (11:57):You mentioned content earlier. Are you seeing any particular trends now? Anything that's really driving interest from certain categories or marketers?Sarah Harms (12:06):So we have our Roku originals, and we do very well in kind of holiday and home as you can expect, but I think this year in Cannes, you won't be in a meeting like this without talking about sports. And so we have sports rights, yes, but again, the value of the operating system, we've built sports zones to help make sport discoverable and findable. I always use the example of my husband's great Uncle Joe, diehard Yankees fan, can't find a Yankees game because it might be on four different places in five days. And so how can Roku as an operating system help in that regard? And so I think Roku is invested a ton in our infrastructure of driving curation of sports, but also we're very invested in what we call challenger sports, so National women's soccer league volleyball, stuff like that where they have really these die hard fan bases and they just want to find it. We're the destination to help them.Damian Fowler (13:01):We keep hearing it's not just about mass reach anymore, it's really about how well the audience, and the better you understand them, the better this whole thing works for both the platform and the advertiser. How do you see that playing out right now?Sarah Harms (13:13):Yeah, and they're loyal. They're diehard. They're big spenders sometimes. And so you want to kind of associate with yourself with such a kind of amazing, loyal fan base that's just so passionate about the sport.Ilyse Liffreing (13:26):So we have some quick questions for you now. So first of all, you've led both creative and analytical teams. What is one timeless truth about great advertising that cuts across both sides?Sarah Harms (13:41):First of all, it's a very fun aspect of my job having both kind of the marketing team and the measurement and analytics team. Two very different personas, but brilliant in their own ways. And so much of my focus since being here is making sure they're working together versus kind of two ships in the night with their own functions because we certainly have such amazing data, so we should use that to speak to the marketplace in a smart way. And so I think that's been really fun. I think they're getting to know the other side of the house and the creative thinkers versus the analytical thinkers like me pushing them to work together has been very fun. And I think with that in mind, a data informed approach is key. And so that's what really drew me to Roku was that opportunity of just this amazing data set that we have that we can use to optimize, but also to tell our story in a more elegant way.Damian Fowler (14:33):Now since you joined Roku, is there a favorite data point or piece of feedback that's really stuck with you?Sarah Harms (14:38):Yeah, well, I think what's interesting about my job is I should have been informing people like myself about the value of Roku. Before the process started of being recruited, I had a pretty antiquated view, the Roku advertising offering. So that's something that in getting here and in going through that process I learned so much more. I think my favorite might be that any given month, we see a user come through our front door about 25 days a month. And so that is an advertising opportunity to message our amazing footprint. But we see that on average an individual app is seven, maybe eight times a month. And so if you think about that, the reach potential, but also just the consumer habit of using our devices and seeing the messaging from our brands, I think is so compelling and something that really we're massive as it relates to our OS and footprint. And so we've designed these beautiful experiences to really account for that.Ilyse Liffreing (15:36):Now, Roku really helped pioneer the modern CTV ad experience. Is there a moment that's made you step back and think, wow, look how far the medium and your team really has come?Sarah Harms (15:49):I think the fact that the Super Bowl was really such a success story for streaming, I think we never thought the Super Bowl would be at that level, but it was streamed and it really streamable and really without a hitch, I think we've seen some live streaming events and there were some issues. I thought it was very well done. We were happy to support it. We drove some amazing traffic to Tubi. And so I just think 10 years ago, we never thought that would be the case. And so that's just been a fun thing to think about that and the Olympics and the Olympic zone that we built, just really elegant experiences and just changing television has been fun.Damian Fowler (16:32):And that's it for this edition of The Big Impression.Ilyse Liffreing (16:35):This show is produced by Molten Hart. Our theme is by Love and Caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns.Damian Fowler (16:41):And remember,Sarah Harms (16:43):A data informed approach is key. And so that's what really drew me to Roku.Damian Fowler (16:47):I'm Damian, and I'm we'll see you next time.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Magnite CPO Adam Soroca and Streamr CEO and co-founder Jonathan Moffie join the pod to discuss the leading SSP buying the CTV creative automation platform. Adam and Jonathan break down the thinking behind the deal, how it came together, and what other startup founders can learn from Streamr's example. Joe posits that performance TV is the big thesis in adtech and asks the guys what Magnite needs to do to deliver on its promise.

Joe Hirsch the CEO of Swivel and former CEO of SpringServe, shares his journey through the ad tech industry, discussing his experiences with affiliate marketing, ad serving, and the evolution of ad operations. He emphasizes the importance of operational efficiency and the role of AI in optimizing ad campaigns, while also addressing the future of AdOps and the integration of technology in the advertising space. Takeaways Joe Hirsch has a long history in ad tech, starting from affiliate marketing. He co-founded multiple companies, including Spring Serve, which was acquired by Magnite. Swivel aims to automate repetitive tasks in ad operations to improve efficiency. The ad server business model requires scaling operations without increasing labor costs. Swivel integrates AI to replicate and scale human decision-making in ad operations. AI is not meant to replace humans but to augment their capabilities. The future of AdOps will see agents as primary users of ad platforms. Precision in ad operations is crucial to avoid costly mistakes. AdOps professionals should embrace AI technologies to enhance their skills. The ad tech industry is evolving rapidly, with AI playing a significant role. Chapters 00:00Introduction to Joe Hirsch and His Journey 04:48Transitioning from Spring Serve to Swivel 10:58Understanding Swivel's Operational Efficiency 16:07The Future of AdOps and AI Integration The Refresh News: September 15:Google's AdTech Filing, Magnite's AI Bet, and YouTube's NFL Debut This episode of The Refresh covers three major stories shaping advertising this week: Google's eyebrow-raising statements in its AdTech antitrust remedies filing, Magnite's acquisition of creative production platform Streamer AI, and YouTube's first-ever exclusive NFL broadcast. Host Kate breaks down the implications of each development for advertisers, publishers, and platforms in the evolving digital ecosystem. Google's court filing revealed open web display ads purchased through AdWords dropped to 11% in January 2025, down from 40% in 2019, sparking concerns over the open web's decline. Google defended itself by attributing ad spend shifts to CTV and retail media, while critics highlighted its dominance in directing referral traffic through AI-driven search changes. Magnite announced the acquisition of Streamer AI to help small and mid-sized businesses overcome creative production hurdles in connected TV advertising. The CTV market is expanding rapidly, with Nielsen reporting 75% of TV viewing is ad-supported and eMarketer projecting $33B in CTV ad spend for 2025, though measurement challenges remain. YouTube's first free exclusive NFL broadcast drew 17.3M viewers globally, surpassing Amazon's 2024 averages but raising questions about sustaining viewership once games move behind a paywall. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Candice confronts the shocking murder of Charlie Kirk and the disturbing reaction from the political Left and the media establishment. Over the weekend, Utah Governor Spencer Cox and President Donald Trump both confirmed that the suspected assassin, Tyler Robinson, had been radicalized by leftist ideology online. Authorities revealed Robinson had spoken openly of his hatred for Kirk and even confessed on Discord shortly after the killing. But instead of mourning a generation's conservative leader, Canada's left-wing media rushed to smear Kirk in death as they had in life. CBC, CTV, the Globe and Mail, and freelance activists like Rachel Gilmore downplayed the assassination and even suggested Kirk “reaped what he sowed.” CBC's so-called “hate experts” went further, spreading lies about Kirk's record while branding his supporters “far-right.” Candice argues this wasn't just an attack on Charlie Kirk — it was an attack on free speech, democracy, and the very foundation of Western society. Meanwhile, Liberals in Ottawa blocked Conservative MPs from holding a moment of silence in Kirk's honour, even as thousands of ordinary Canadians held vigils across Alberta and artists like Morgan Wallen paid tribute on stage. This is political violence fuelled by years of conditioning, where the media paints conservatives as “fascists,” “extremists,” and “domestic terrorists,” creating the toxic environment that enables real violence. Candice exposes how the establishment continues to smear conservatives while excusing their own side's extremism, and why Canadians must push back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pour l'épisode de cette semaine, je reçois Arthur Querou, le CEO de Vibe.Vibe est une plateforme qui permet aux entreprises — de la PME locale jusqu'aux grandes marques — de lancer simplement et efficacement des campagnes publicitaires sur la TV en streaming (CTV), avec un niveau de ciblage et de performance comparable à celui de Facebook Ads.Au cours de cet épisode, nous sommes revenus sur le parcours entrepreneurial d'Arthur : son premier site revendu à 15 ans, la création de MotionLead (pionnier des formats publicitaires mobiles interactifs, passé par Y Combinator), la revente d'une première société à Adicteev, puis KMTX avant de lancer Vibe.Nous avons parlé de :la genèse de Vibe et la décision de vendre leur activité précédente pour financer le lancement,la vision de construire une plateforme product-led, self-service, adressant les SMB américaines,le rôle du ciblage publicitaire avancé et de la création automatisée via Vibe Studio,les enjeux de croissance rapide (100M$ d'ARR, +20% par mois) et de structuration d'équipe entre France et US,la différence entre la publicité TV traditionnelle et la CTV mesurable, ainsi que les opportunités de retargeting.Arthur partage également ses ressources favorites, comme Hacker News, les playbooks de Quantum Light (Family Office du CEO de Revolut), ou encore le podcast 20VC de Harry Stebbings.Vous pouvez suivre Arthur sur Twitter et sur LinkedIn.Bonne écoute !Mentionnés pendant l'épisode :Hacker NewsQuantum Light Playbooks20VC avec Harry StebbingsPour soutenir SaaS Connection en 1 minute⏱ (et 2 secondes) :Abonnez-vous à SaaS Connection sur votre plateforme préférée pour ne rater aucun épisode

This week in the business of podcasting: the industry mourns Todd Cochrane, what's happening at IAB Podcast Upfront, what Amazon's Wondery downscaling means for creative value, and how creatives are using CTV deals to increase sponsorship rates.Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.

This week in the business of podcasting: the industry mourns Todd Cochrane, what's happening at IAB Podcast Upfront, what Amazon's Wondery downscaling means for creative value, and how creatives are using CTV deals to increase sponsorship rates.Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.

In today's MadTech Daily, we cover Netflix and Amazon teaming up to boost CTV ads, UK ad-funded SVOD reach tripling, and Meta adding more features to Community Notes.

In this episode, Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi talk with Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of Integral Ad Science (IAS), about the latest shifts in digital advertising. They explore how the industry is moving from simple verification toward performance, why metrics like attention and carbon are getting more attention, what AI is doing behind the scenes, and how retail media and streaming are changing the game. Along the way, they dig into trust, complexity, and what brands really care most about today. Takeaways IAS has moved beyond verification, focusing on performance and transparency.  Attention and carbon are part of the metrics mix, not replacements for existing standards.  AI powers classification and validation at scale, speeding up processing and accuracy.  Retail media and CTV are rapidly growing areas with unique challenges.  Brands still prioritize simple goals: reach consumers, protect reputation, and drive outcomes. Chapters01:00 Open Web vs. Walled Gardens04:40 From Verification to Optimization07:30 Carbon as a Metric09:00 Attention Metrics12:00 Cutting through the Complexity12:40 AI in Practice16:15 Startups, Scale, and Data19:00 Retail Media's Rise21:00 Trust and Perception Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's MadTech Daily, we cover Netflix and Amazon teaming up to boost CTV ads, UK ad-funded SVOD reach tripling, and Meta adding alerts to Community Notes fact checks.

In this episode I'm talking with Julie Green, author of the memoir Motherness, a powerful exploration of generational autism, parenthood, and radical acceptance. Julie, who was late-diagnosed herself and is raising an autistic child, takes us inside her journey of self-discovery and diagnosis, and we talk about the emotional complexities of coming to understand our own neurodivergence while parenting neurodivergent kids. We explore the healing power of writing, the importance of storytelling and compassion, and the challenges many families like ours face along the way. Julie's memoir is a testament to these shared experiences, and this conversation is a deeply honest look at what it means to parent—and to live—with radical acceptance. About Julie Green Julie Green is the author of Motherness, a memoir about generational autism, parenthood, and radical acceptance, released by ECW Press in September 2025. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, HuffPost, Parents, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Today's Parent, and more. She has been featured on CTV, BBC Radio, Global News, Sirius XM, and other media outlets, and was a finalist for the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2024. Through her platform The Autistic Mom, Julie shares her lived experience as a late-diagnosed autistic woman raising an autistic child. Things you'll learn from this episode  How Julie's decade-long journey to understanding her neurodivergence was shaped by limited representation for autistic women Why writing became an essential tool for Julie to process her experiences and emotions How receiving a formal diagnosis brought relief and clarity to her life story Why Julie's memoir Motherness shines a light on the complexities of parenting an autistic child while navigating her own identity How practicing self-compassion and protecting her child's privacy are central to Julie's storytelling Why community, connection, and embracing one's identity remain vital for neurodivergent individuals and families Resources mentioned Motherness virtual book launch on September 23 (free registration via EventBrite) Julie Green's website Motherness: A Memoir of Generational Autism, Parenthood, and Radical Acceptance by Julie Green Julie's Substack, The Autistic Mom The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman's Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home by Katherine May Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May Katherine May and the Electricity of Every Living Thing (Tilt Parenting podcast) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today in the business of podcasting: creators are leveraging their CTV channels for higher-value sponsorships, Washington State's new digital ad sales tax isn't fully formed yet, NYT is shutting down their Audio app and moving everything over to News, Brazil's podcasting "sleeping giant" is no longer asleep, and AdImpact's predictions for 2026 midterm election ad spend. Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.

Today in the business of podcasting: creators are leveraging their CTV channels for higher-value sponsorships, Washington State's new digital ad sales tax isn't fully formed yet, NYT is shutting down their Audio app and moving everything over to News, Brazil's podcasting "sleeping giant" is no longer asleep, and AdImpact's predictions for 2026 midterm election ad spend. Find links to every article covered by heading to the Download section of SoundsProfitable.com, or by clicking here to go directly to today's installment.

I invited Laura Desmond, CEO of Smartly, to make sense of what feels like the biggest shake-up in marketing since the mobile era. She has led through every cycle I can remember, from the early internet to the rise of social, and she sees AI changing the rules faster than any previous wave. Across our conversation we unpack how AI is rewriting creative work, buying, and measurement, while forcing brands to rebuild trust with clear rules on data, models, and creator rights. Here's the thing. Attention is shorter, and the thumb moves fast. Most people give an ad about two seconds, and video is taking over the feed. Laura expects video to account for three quarters of digital ads by 2026, which tracks with what I am seeing across every platform. Smartly is betting on that shift with tools that turn Shorts or TikToks into personalized CTV spots, and bring CTV signal back into social. The goal is simple to say and hard to pull off. Show every person something that feels made for them, then learn from the response and improve the next piece of creative in near real time. We also talk about why the ground is moving under search. A growing number of people, especially younger users, skip the front page of Google and ask an AI assistant instead. That changes how discovery works, how queries appear, and where ad products live. Laura thinks we are heading toward campaigns that cut across search, social, retail media, and CTV as one flowing video-first effort, with creative and media stitched together by software rather than teams tossing files over the wall. Results matter, and Laura shared two proof points I kept coming back to. Smartly's platform has been validated by PwC for a 13 percent ROI lift across clients. The same study confirmed time savings that add up to 42 minutes a day for hands-on users. That reclaimed time funds the work that actually moves the needle, like faster A/B tests, sharper creative decisions, and better budget moves across channels. We also dig into conversational ads. In a recent test with Boots, Smartly's format delivered roughly four times the return on investment versus business as usual, which speaks to how fast query-style interactions are shaping expectations. Trust sits in the middle of all this. Laura is clear that responsible AI is table stakes. Brands need controls to tune or override generated assets, clarity on data sources and model choice, and a stance on creator rights before any content goes live. Her view of AI is creative first. Automate the tedious parts. Keep people in charge of taste, tone, and brand. Use the feedback loop to learn faster, not to replace the team. We close on where this all leads. Expect brand experiences that blur physical and digital without losing the human spark. Stadiums full, stores buzzing, and at the same time richer virtual touchpoints, snackable video, and one-to-one conversations that feel helpful rather than creepy. If this is your world, Laura is hosting Smartly's ADVANCE on September 17 in Brooklyn, and it looks set to be a real working session for marketers who want results, not theater. You can find details here: https://bit.ly/4fRgWEE. Tune in if you want a candid, practical map for where creative, media, and AI are heading next, and how to measure what matters while keeping your brand worthy of trust. ********* Visit the Sponsor of Tech Talks Network: Land your first job  in tech in 6 months as a Software QA Engineering Bootcamp with Careerist https://crst.co/OGCLA

“As a credit union, you can compete on an incredibly, if not the most influential video medium that's out there, in television.” - James KaranasiosThank you for tuning in to The CUInsight Network, with your host, Robbie Young, Vice President of Strategic Growth at CUInsight. In The CUInsight Network, we take a deeper dive with the thought leaders who support the credit union community. We discuss issues and challenges facing credit unions and identify best practices to learn and grow together.My guest on today's show is James Karanasios, National Account Manager at TriAD CTV®. James shares his unique journey into the credit union industry, starting out with a passion for music and eventually finding his way into the world of data, identity resolution, and connected TV advertising. Hear how Triad CTV®'s mission is to be "audience first" - helping credit unions leverage the power of connected TV and streaming advertising to reach and engage their target communities.In our conversation, we discuss the educational aspect of Triad's work—helping credit union marketers understand how streaming TV is changing and how to maximize its impact. James highlights the importance of keeping the creative personal and authentic to truly connect with the intended audience.James also looks ahead and shares Triad CTV®'s focus on continuing to provide credit unions with a roadmap for implementing successful CTV programs, as well as creating more opportunities for credit unions to share best practices with one another. The goal is to empower credit unions of all sizes to take advantage of this powerful medium and effectively tell their community-focused stories.As we wrap up, James talks about his love of buying guitars and pedals, his desire to travel to Rome, and lists some albums everyone should listen to. Enjoy my conversation with James Karanasios!Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com.Connect with James:James Karanasios, National Account Manager at TriAD CTV®triadctv.com James: LinkedInTriAD CTV®: LinkedInWant to hear more from James and TriAD? Click here.Article mentioned: “Trust, TV, and Gen Z: The new rules of credit union marketing”

In this episode of the Marketecture Podcast, hosts Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi discuss the recent Google search remedies and their implications for the market. They delve into the antitrust issues surrounding Google, the upcoming ad tech trial, and the complexities of Epsilon's SSP. The conversation also touches on Perplexity's struggles in advertising, OpenAI's strategic acquisition, and emerging trends in ad tech and AI. Additionally, they explore insights from the CTV landscape, including Roku's growth and the NFL Red Zone's new commercial strategy, concluding with a discussion on Paramount's potential acquisition of The Free Press. Takeaways Chapters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Ad TechGod Pod, host AdTechGod speaks with Sharon Taylor, Chief Revenue Officer at Triton Digital, about podcasting and audio advertising. They discuss Sharon's journey into the audio space, the growth and trends of podcasting in different regions, and the role of Triton in monetizing podcasts. The conversation also touches on the challenges of attribution and measurement in audio advertising, the importance of understanding podcast metrics, and the cultural shifts driving the appeal of podcasting among younger audiences. Sharon emphasizes the intimate nature of podcasting and its potential for advertisers to engage with a captive audience. Takeaways Podcasting is an intimate medium that engages listeners deeply. The growth of podcasting varies by region, with the US leading. Canada's podcasting market is growing but is more collaborative than competitive. The barrier to entry for podcasting is low, allowing diverse voices. Video is becoming increasingly important in the podcasting space. Triton Digital supports both large publishers and independent podcasters. Programmatic advertising in podcasting is still developing. Attribution and measurement in audio advertising are complex but improving. Podcasters should provide multiple metrics to advertisers for clarity. Podcasting offers a calming alternative to the noise of social media. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Audio Space 01:38 Sharon's Journey in Audio 03:39 Podcasting Trends in Different Regions 05:26 The Growth of Podcasting 08:15 Maturity and Future of Podcasting 10:05 Triton's Role in Podcast Monetization 12:03 Evolution of Programmatic Advertising in Podcasting 14:45 Attribution and Measurement in Audio Advertising 17:30 Understanding Podcast Metrics 21:02 Cultural Shifts and Podcasting's Appeal 23:59 The Therapeutic Nature of Podcasting Pause Ads, AI Browsers, and Programmatic Transparency: This Week in Advertising The Refresh News: September 2: Pause Ads, AI Browsers, and Programmatic Transparency: This Week in Advertising In this episode of The Refresh, Kait covers three big developments in advertising and adtech. Magnite is rolling out pause ads programmatically across major streaming providers, Anthropic has launched a cautious pilot of its AI-powered Chrome extension Claude, and the ANA has released its Q2 2025 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark report, highlighting both progress and persistent challenges in ad spend efficiency. 5 Key Highlights: Magnite is enabling programmatic buying of pause ads across platforms like DirecTV, Dish, and Fubo, with access through Clearline and DSPs such as Curve AI, Mountain, and Yahoo. Pause ads are proving popular with both advertisers and consumers, with studies showing over 50% of viewers take action after seeing one. Concerns remain that programmatic scale could dilute the contextual creativity that makes pause ads engaging. Anthropic is piloting a Chrome extension for its Claude AI, focused on browsing assistance while implementing strong safeguards against risks like prompt injection attacks. The ANA's Q2 2025 report shows programmatic waste rising to $26.8B, but also notes improvements: private marketplace deals now represent 88% of transactions, CTV programmatic spend has increased, and MFA spending has dropped sharply to 0.8%. Would you like me to also create a short LinkedIn post version of this recap, optimized for reach and engagement? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the biggest discrepancy by device with regards to where we spend our time versus how many ad dollars are aimed there, why social players want to take a page from YouTube's CTV playbook, and why sub OTT's unusual path to advertising has created major misalignments. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Principal Forecasting Writer, Ethan Cramer-Flood, and Senior Analyst, Minda Smiley. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.   Reports mentioned in this episode:  US Social Ad Spending vs. Time Spent 2025 US Time Spent vs. Ad Spending 2025   To learn more about our research and get access to PRO+ go to EMARKETER.com   Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/ For sponsorship opportunities contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com    For a transcript of this episode click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-behind-numbers-ad-dollars-attention-mismatch-the-big-screen-ad-spend-gap-youtube-ctv-edge   © 2025 EMARKETER   Got an ecommerce challenge? Awin has you covered. With Awin's affiliate platform, brands of all sizes can unlock endless marketing opportunities, reach consumers everywhere, and choose partners that fit their goals. Control costs, customize programs, and drive real results. Learn more at awin.com/emarketer.

The BanterThe Guys reconcile salumi and salami and talk about a high-end chocolate scandal.The ConversationThe Restaurant Guys are eager to speak with Natalie MacLean, renowned wine and food writer, to talk about pairing wines with summer foods, especially vegetables. She offers insightful advice on choosing wines for weddings and other gatherings.The Inside TrackThe Guys talk with Natalie about the beauty of toasts.“ I love making toasts because I think it just seals the celebration like the bow on the present. It's a symbol of unity. That's what toasting was in the old days. People would literally clink their glasses to make sure the wine spilled a little bit into each other's cup. Well, and they were also making sure they weren't poisoning each other. But that's another issue,” Natalie MacLean on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2007 BioNatalie is a wine writer and educator. She is the wine expert on CTV's The Social,  CTV News, and Breakfast Television.Natalie's first book Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass and her second book Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines were both selected as one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year. Her third book Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much has become a National Bestseller.She was named the World's Best Drinks Writer at the World Food Media Awards, and has won four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards  and the M.F.K. Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing from Les Dames d'Escoffier International.InfoNatalie's site (find her books here)https://www.nataliemaclean.com/The Martini Expo!Presented by the award-winning publication The Mix with Robert Simonson https://martiniexpo.com/Sept 12 & 13, 2025 @ Industry City in BrooklynJoin us for martini experiences with acclaimed guests (see martiniexpo.com)Restaurant Guys Regulars get a 10% discount. Subscribe at https://www.restaurantguyspodcast.com/ Our Sponsors The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Centerhttps://www.theheldrich.com/ Magyar Bankhttps://www.magbank.com/ Withum Accountinghttps://www.withum.com/ Our Places Stage Left Steakhttps://www.stageleft.com/ Catherine Lombardi Restauranthttps://www.catherinelombardi.com/ Stage Left Wineshophttps://www.stageleftwineshop.com/ To hear more about food, wine and the finer things in life:https://www.instagram.com/restaurantguyspodcast/https://www.facebook.com/restaurantguysReach Out to The Guys!TheGuys@restaurantguyspodcast.com**Become a Restaurant Guys Regular and get two bonus episodes per month, bonus content and Regulars Only events.**Click Below!https://www.buzzsprout.com/2401692/subscribe

"Corner Gas" is a sitcom that aired from 2004 to 2009 on CTV. The premise centers around Brent Leroy (played by show creator Brent Butt), who runs the town's gas station. Known for its dry humor and character-driven storytelling, the show avoids traditional sitcom laugh tracks and instead leans on witty dialogue and understated situational comedy rooted in Canadian small-town life. Reception for Corner Gas was overwhelmingly positive and became one of the highest-rated Canadian television comedies ever. Critics praised its relatable humor, and strong ensemble cast. Even after its finale, Corner Gas remains a beloved cultural touchstone, often cited as the Canadian equivalent of Seinfeld in its ability to find humor in everyday, “about nothing” situations. Will the S1E1 boys enjoy this comedy from the north? Listen as they deep dive the show's pilot episode, "Ruby Reborn". Starring: Brent Butt, Gabrielle Miller, Fred Ewanuick, Eric Peterson, Janet Wright, Lorne Cardinal, Tara Spencer-Nairn, & Nancy Robertson www.S1E1POD.com Instagram & X (Twitter): @S1E1POD