Podcasts about Digiday

Once valued in the billions, digital media giants like BuzzFeed and Vox Media are now selling assets and restructuring as the old traffic-driven publishing model breaks down. On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Digiday senior media editor Jessica Davies and senior media reporter Sara Guaglione joins hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to unpack what the fall of billion-dollar valuations says about the future of digital media.

Today in the business of podcasting:Triton Digital's latest Podcast Report reveals that digital audio in the US has reached a market value equivalent to Brazil's entire digital ad industry, highlighting the growing scale of US podcast and streaming audiences.Global has launched a new premium video advertising format on YouTube, giving brands access to connected TV-style placements alongside the broadcaster's content, including the news podcast Up to Speed.Captivate has enabled HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) support for private podcast feeds, improving playback reliability and compatibility for subscription and members-only audio content.A new Digiday report examines the rise of agentic advertising, with survey data showing a majority of advertisers already integrating or building agentic AI capabilities into their ad workflows.Industry analysis explores how podcasting's trust advantage and audience engagement position it as an effective channel as advertisers evaluate where to place budgets in an AI-driven media landscape.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Triton Digital's latest Podcast Report reveals that digital audio in the US has reached a market value equivalent to Brazil's entire digital ad industry, highlighting the growing scale of US podcast and streaming audiences.Global has launched a new premium video advertising format on YouTube, giving brands access to connected TV-style placements alongside the broadcaster's content, including the news podcast Up to Speed.Captivate has enabled HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) support for private podcast feeds, improving playback reliability and compatibility for subscription and members-only audio content.A new Digiday report examines the rise of agentic advertising, with survey data showing a majority of advertisers already integrating or building agentic AI capabilities into their ad workflows.Industry analysis explores how podcasting's trust advantage and audience engagement position it as an effective channel as advertisers evaluate where to place budgets in an AI-driven media landscape.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Paddy Smith is Chief Creative Officer at Born Social, where he oversees the creative output for the agency. He's spent his time at Born building a 60+ strong department spanning Creative, Design and Production, developing some of the brightest creative minds in the industry. He's pitched, won and delivered best in class creative across iconic brands like Guinness, Smirnoff, Mars, Uber and Ford, helping them transform into social-first brands. Paddy's work has collected creative awards from The One Show, The Creative Circle, The Webbys, Shortys, Marketing Week, Digiday and Campaign Awards and sat on juries with The Shorty Awards and Creative Review. Paddy has also written and hosted multiple industry events on varied creative subjects spanning brand design, generative AI, influencers, social-first brand building and modern craft, as well as writing thought pieces on creativity for the likes of The Drum, Adweek, Future London Academy and Creative Review.

In this episode, Digiday senior marketing reporter Sam Bradley joins Digiday Podcast co-hosts Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy to break down Netflix's massive ad business glow up, and how the streaming giant is rewriting the streaming ad business playbook.

The AI ad race is heating up. OpenAI is staffing up and cutting deals to win brand budgets from Meta and Google. On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Digiday senior platforms reporter Krystal Scanlon joins hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to breakdown the ad business playbook.

In the past few days, MrBeast, the YouTube titan Jimmy Donaldson, has been at the center of swirling drama and business maneuvering that could shape his empire's next chapter. Fast Company reports a stark drop in his video views over four consecutive uploads, plummeting from 119 million to just 56 million, sparking debates on whether YouTube's algorithm is faltering or audience fatigue is setting in amid his high-stakes content grind. This view decline, analyzed in a fresh YouTube breakdown video, underscores potential long-term challenges for his dominance, as creators question if the platform itself is dying.Backlash from the streaming world has intensified over his latest "Streamer Games" event, with podcasts like Punching Down detailing how big names such as Nmplol and Sodapoppin were snubbed from invites, fueling accusations of cliquishness and "punching down" in the influencer scene. Adding fuel, another video exposé reveals MrBeast facing major heat from streamers for pressuring his network to donate to his Team Water charity drive during a live show; he quickly owned the misstep, apologizing and taking full accountability, which might bolster his image as a self-correcting philanthropist.On the business front, Digiday discloses that Beast Industries, his sprawling operation, is rejecting eight-figure brand deals unless they perfectly align with his brand, a bold flex from CEO Jeff Housenbold as they expand the MrBeast monolith into new territories. Meanwhile, Influencity's blog hails the "MrBeast Effect" as 2026's hottest marketing play, with brands eyeing partnerships for his stunt philanthropy to boost visibility without his massive budget.No major public appearances or fresh social media posts popped in the last 24 hours, but this mix of controversy and strategic growth hints at a pivotal biographical pivot for the giver-turned-mogul.Thanks for listening, please subscribe to never miss an update on MrBeast and search the term Biography Flash for more great Biographies. This has been a Quiet Please production.This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

Today in the business of podcasting:Register for Audio Primes: The People Who Listen to Podcasts.The Podcast Show London 2026 will take place May 20 and 21 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, with Global and iHeartPodcasts returning as headline partners. Global's presence will spotlight its newly launched Global Studios division, focused on premium podcast and digital content creation.Samba TV has published its first Netflix Podcast Ranker, revealing that 13% of U.S. Netflix households watched at least one minute of a podcast in Q1 2026. The Breakfast Club led all shows with over 40% of total views, followed by Bridgerton: The Official Podcast at 16%.Amplifi Media founder and CEO Steven Goldstein argues that the podcast industry has been optimizing for downloads, a distribution metric that does not reliably measure actual listening or audience engagement.Digiday's Michael Bürgi reports on how media buyers responded to this year's NewFronts, where improved measurement capabilities were the standout positive trend. Heading into upfront negotiations, buyers are demanding flexibility in long-term commitments, while automotive and spirits budgets face slight downward pressure.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Register for Audio Primes: The People Who Listen to Podcasts.The Podcast Show London 2026 will take place May 20 and 21 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, with Global and iHeartPodcasts returning as headline partners. Global's presence will spotlight its newly launched Global Studios division, focused on premium podcast and digital content creation.Samba TV has published its first Netflix Podcast Ranker, revealing that 13% of U.S. Netflix households watched at least one minute of a podcast in Q1 2026. The Breakfast Club led all shows with over 40% of total views, followed by Bridgerton: The Official Podcast at 16%.Amplifi Media founder and CEO Steven Goldstein argues that the podcast industry has been optimizing for downloads, a distribution metric that does not reliably measure actual listening or audience engagement.Digiday's Michael Bürgi reports on how media buyers responded to this year's NewFronts, where improved measurement capabilities were the standout positive trend. Heading into upfront negotiations, buyers are demanding flexibility in long-term commitments, while automotive and spirits budgets face slight downward pressure.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Kristina Monllos is a senior reporter for Marketing Brew. She has spent over a decade covering the advertising business for publications like Digiday and Adweek. Her reporting has also appeared in publications like Rolling Stone, New York Magazine's Vulture and Elle, among others. She is also a filmmaker.

Today's episode dives into one of the most pressing topics in marketing and leadership today: the impact of AI on the creative and marketing professions, and why storytelling is more essential than ever. Host Sara Payne is joined by Joe Lazer, Chief Marketing Officer at Pepper and author of the new book, Super Skill: Why Storytelling is the Superpower of the AI Age. Joe's work has been featured in outlets including Fast Company, Forbes, Adweek, and Digiday, and he brings firsthand experience navigating the seismic shifts in content creation caused by generative AI.In this lively and insightful conversation, Sara and Joe tackle head-on the anxieties marketing leaders feel about AI. From the moment ChatGPT launched, writers, marketers, and creatives everywhere asked if their jobs would soon disappear. But Joe flips that narrative on its head. Drawing on neuroscience, evolutionary history, and today's marketing trends, he argues that the uniquely human skill of storytelling is not just irreplaceable but actually more valuable than ever in an AI-powered world.The episode explores why trust and authenticity are emerging as the most scarce and important resources as AI-generated “slop” floods the web, and why people increasingly connect with brands through real, vulnerable stories told by actual humans. Joe lays out the case for building a “creator culture” within organizations, where brand's people, not just their logos, are the new engines of marketing excellence.Thank you for being part of the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence. The future of healthcare (and marketing!) depends on it.Key Takeaways:Storytelling Is a Superpower in the Age of AI: When AI drives the cost of mediocre content to zero, only truly human, deeply authentic stories will break through. Speaker A explains that the value of real storytelling will rise not fall as AI-generated content proliferates. Storytelling's roots in human experience, emotion, and connection simply can't be faked by algorithms, and this advantage is backed by neuroscience and evolutionary biology.Trust is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage: As AI blurs the line between truth and fiction online, trust not just content becomes the real scarce commodity. Sharing authentic stories, especially those rooted in vulnerability, remains the fastest way humans build trust. Speaker A notes that storytelling triggers biologically-embedded mechanisms, such as the release of oxytocin, that foster empathy and genuine human connection.The Age of Institutional Brand-Building is Over. Welcome to the Creator Economy: Authority is rapidly shifting from institutions to identifiable individuals. The most engaging content now comes from real people, executives or employees whose stories mirror the values and challenges of their audiences. Social algorithms heavily favor posts from individuals over faceless organizations, driving engagement and conversions exponentially higher.Vulnerability is Powerful Even (and Especially) on Professional Platforms: The “dinner party from hell” experience on LinkedIn, saturated with self-congratulatory “success” stories, only highlights what most brands and professionals get wrong. The real connection (and effective leadership) comes from embracing vulnerable, honest storytelling about hardship, growth, failures, and real life. This not only opens the door for others to reciprocate but forges genuine relationships and opportunities for help and collaboration.Storytelling is a Habit And It's Everyone's Job: Speaker A insists storytelling shouldn't be considered a niche or “soft” marketing skill, but a daily discipline and core competency for everyone, from the boardroom to the front lines. He encourages companies to actively nurture storytelling talent, train staff across roles, and build creator rosters. Building the daily habit of sharing stories offline and online hones the muscle of communication, empathy, and innovation, driving leadership and marketing excellence in the rapidly-evolving, AI-laden landscape.If today's conversation resonated with you, we encourage you to check out Joe's new book, Super Skill: Why Storytelling is the Superpower of the AI Age. Thank you for listening to the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence. See you next time!Mentioned in this episode:Health Marketing Collective is Powered by InprelaThe Health Marketing Collective is powered by Inprela: a communications firm built for health brands determined to lead, not follow. We partner with marketing innovators who aren't just chasing attention—they're building movements. Connect with the audiences shaping the future of care and lead the conversations that move your market. Ready to rise above the noise? Visit inprela.com. Let's create something that moves the market.Inprela Communications

A decade after the ANA's bombshell report, the WPP debacle has forced a new standard of clarity in media buying. This week, Digiday executive editor of news Seb Joseph and Michael Burgi, senior editor of media buying and planning, join the Digiday Podcast to discuss why agencies are leaning into principal trading, and why some brands are finally reining them in.

S4 Capital has announced a revolutionary new pricing model that will transform how agencies charge for their services: instead of billable hours, they’re moving to… subscriptions. Fixed monthly fees. Annual contracts that auto-renew. All costs absorbed into the price rather than passed through as variables. You know, retainers. The pricing model most independent agencies have used for decades. In this episode (somewhat abbreviated due to Gini’s technical difficulties), Chip and Gini dissect the holding company’s “brilliant innovation” with the appropriate level of sarcasm, then pivot to the more interesting question buried in the announcement: how should agencies price around AI? The conversation moves from eye-rolling at repackaged retainer models to wrestling with legitimate uncertainty about how AI costs will evolve and what that means for agency pricing strategies. Chip points out that we only know what AI costs today, and it’s likely those costs will rise as platforms realize they’re replacing expensive labor and can charge accordingly. This creates a pricing puzzle—do you transparently pass through AI costs, absorb them into your general cost of doing business, or find some middle ground? Gini shares how she’s handling questions from college students about whether jobs will exist when they graduate, explaining that the work itself is shifting from doing to orchestrating, from creating to editing and refining AI outputs. The discussion highlights the difference between cosmetic changes (calling retainers “subscriptions”) and substantive challenges (figuring out sustainable pricing as AI capabilities and costs both increase). They land on the principle that AI costs should be factored into your total cost of doing business rather than line-itemized separately, giving you flexibility to adapt as the landscape shifts without locking yourself into specific cost structures that may not hold. The subtext throughout is that holding companies remain out of touch with how most agencies actually operate, still discovering “innovations” that the rest of the industry implemented years ago. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “We only know what AI costs us today. As AI becomes more and more of a labor replacement, the vendors understand that the value that they’re creating for you is going up. Just as you want to charge your clients more because you’re providing more value, they want to charge you more because they’re providing you more value.” Gini Dietrich: “The job that I had when I graduated from college is not the job that you’ll have when you graduate from college. Those things are going to be done by AI. What you are going to be doing is sort of orchestrating your orchestra of AI bots.” Chip Griffin: “AI has come a long way in the last year. It doesn’t mean that everything that it does should be immediately blasted out to the universe. Sometimes the tone isn’t quite right, or maybe it misses the point slightly because you didn’t give it enough information to begin with.” Gini Dietrich: “Just like you would absorb an employee’s salary into your hourly rates or retainers or however you’re doing your pricing, that same thing. The AI needs to be absorbed into that.” Resources ‘The billable hour does not allow for any meaningful innovation': S4 Capital builds subscription model for the AI age (Digiday article) Related Structuring retainers for long-term profitability Understanding pricing models for your agency's services 9 ways to price your agency's services Choosing the right pricing model for your agency's services View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, I think I wanna subscribe to your wisdom. I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, you know, pay you retainer or anything like that. I wanna subscribe. Gini Dietrich: Oh okay, sure. $1 million a week. Chip Griffin: $1 million a week? I don’t know. Yes. I mean, even, even for you, that might be, that might be a little bit much. Gini Dietrich: It’ll be worth it. I promise. I promise. I’ll give you some benchmarks. It’ll be, it’ll be worth it. Chip Griffin: Oh, some benchmarks. Oh, well, I mean, as long as there are some benchmarks. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: That’s really, you gimme some pretty charts to show that. Absolutely. That you’re achieving those benchmarks, I assume. Gini Dietrich: Yes, absolutely. I’ll, yes, 100%. Chip Griffin: Yeah. Okay. Well, that, that should solve it. That’s, that’s good for me. If it’s good for you and so, you know. Let’s do it. Gini Dietrich: Amazing. Yay. That was easy. Chip Griffin: Yay. Gini Dietrich: No, I don’t have to work anymore. Chip Griffin: We’re gonna talk about pricing today. We’re gonna talk about how you charge for your services and it seems like we’ve talked about this a lot, but, but now we have a brilliant new idea being foisted upon us from holding company land. Gini Dietrich: Brilliant is sarcastic, by the way. Chip Griffin: Where all of the ideas come from. I mean. Holding company mind. I think every, every good idea and innovation in the agency world has come from a holding company, hasn’t it? Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I think, I think you’re right. Yep. Yes. Chip Griffin: And it’s always, it’s always very original thinking that we can expect from the holding companies. Gini Dietrich: Uhhuh. Yes. Chip Griffin: So that’s what we have to discuss today. We have the proclamation from none other, none other than S4 Capital. S4 Capital, for those of you who don’t know, is I think, didn’t they originally describe themselves as like the non holding company holding company or something like that? Gini Dietrich: They did, yes. Chip Griffin: They tried to pretend Gini Dietrich: they did Chip Griffin: That they’re not really a holding company. Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Chip Griffin: They’re still a holding company folks. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: And so what we are being told is that we should move away from the billable hour to a subscription model. Ugh. Now this wild innovation is something that has never been considered before, so I’m glad they’ve brought this to the table. Certainly we’ve never heard of retainers in the agency world. Gini Dietrich: No. Never. Mm-hmm. Nope. Chip Griffin: So this must be different than a retainer, correct? Gini Dietrich: Um, nope. Chip Griffin: No. Gini Dietrich: I mean, when I dug into it, it’s, it’s essentially a retainer. Essentially. Chip Griffin: So the brand new. Innovative idea from holding company land? Mm-hmm. Is that, that we should have retainers and not billable hours? Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I think the difference that they’re trying to expound, expel, expound upon, expand upon is that, it’s renewable every year, so you don’t have contracts. It’s the same amount every month. Retainer. Mm-hmm. And there was one other piece. Hang on. I, I wrote it down. One year terms, it renews every month. It’s, it’s not a fixed checklist. So eventually you get more output over time, especially if you’re allowed to use AI. And it allows you to absorb costs. So instead of you doing a pass through on expenses, it just absorbs it into that and you, you still pass it through, but it absorbs it instead of doing it one off because procurement doesn’t like variable pass through costs. Chip Griffin: Mm-hmm. Gini Dietrich: So those were the big things in the subscription model versus the hourly bill hourly model. Chip Griffin: Gosh, I, I mean, I, I really hate to break it to them, but that’s how I’ve run every one of my agency businesses for a quarter of a century. Gini Dietrich: For years. Yeah. Chip Griffin: I mean, I consider myself a relatively innovative guy, but I, I don’t, I don’t claim to have invented that, so I’m, I’m not gonna sue them for doing this. Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: Because I came up with it first. I certainly didn’t, but I think, I think if they did a little bit of research, they would find this is actually a pretty common way Yes. To do business if you are not a holding company. Gini Dietrich: Correct. Yes. Chip Griffin: I think this is one of those circumstances where the holding companies have got their blinders on Uhhuh. They’ve, they, they drink their own Kool-Aid. They focus only on the way that they do things. And yes, holding companies do a lot of dumb stuff, particularly on the advertising side. They, they like to use billable hours. They like to do pass through expenses with dramatic markups. They like to take kickbacks from publishers and websites in order to place advertising there. Mm-hmm. They do all sorts of stuff. Mm-hmm. That I think is a really bad idea. Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Chip Griffin: So I guess maybe we should be encouraged by the fact that they’re going to act in a way that’s a little bit more normal. I don’t think it’s gonna help them. I think all of the struggling that we’ve seen holding companies go through in recent years is only gonna continue because the holding company model is a bad model. Yeah. It is a broken model. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Chip Griffin: And you, you can only put so much makeup on it and try to make it look good. It’s just not gonna happen. Gini Dietrich: It’s, I mean, I read it and my first instinct was, I think I even said to you, oh, so it’s a retainer. And then I, I dug deeper and I read the comments and I read the article and like I dug deeper and I was like, yeah, this is not, it’s not anything that, to your point, that those of us who have run, been running agencies for years, granted not gigantic ones, but those of us who have been doing it, that’s, that’s how I do it. I have annual contracts that renew, unless you send me a letter saying we’re done. We have a monthly retainer, we have a, you know, we, there is work that compounds over time because we get smarter about your business and yeah, we’re using AI for certain things and there is some heavy lifting up front to get things started. So yeah, it compounds over time. Like all of those things are, are true. It’s called a retainer. Chip Griffin: Yeah, and look, I, I mean, I would have more respect if they said, you know, look, in order to, to meet. Where the clients are at in today’s environment, we’re simply going to rename retainers as subscriptions. I, I could respect that. And, there is a case to be made that for a swath of clients, at least, they are more receptive to the word subscription than the word retainer, especially if they’re in tech. So if that’s what this was, that would be fine. But to pretend that it is a brand new way of doing things Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Chip Griffin: Is just laughable. Yeah. Now I do think in reading the Digiday piece that there, there is an interesting tangent that is not fully encapsulated in this thinking, but it, it opens a door that I think is worth discussing and is worth thinking about for agency owners. Agency leaders at, at every level we’re talking, holding companies or a, you know, a solo shop, and that is how you price around AI. Mm-hmm. And I think that there is currently a strong mindset that if you can do it with AI, this is from the client side, that if you can do it with AI, it ought to be cheaper. There’s a strong feeling from the agency side that if we do it with AI, we should still charge the exact same amount because it’s the value that we’re creating. As usual, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Gini Dietrich: Sure. Mm-hmm. Chip Griffin: I think one of the real challenges, and it’s highlighted in the Digiday piece, is that we only know what AI costs us today. Gini Dietrich: Correct. Chip Griffin: So we need to be really careful as we’re thinking about pricing. We need to keep a close eye on it because as I’ve said before on, on this show and elsewhere, I think it is likely that the cost of AI will go up over time. Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Chip Griffin: That, that we’re, right now, we are in this adoption phase where typically things are underpriced to get people hooked essentially on it. Mm-hmm. So we’ve all seen what we can do with AI, but as AI becomes more and more of a labor replacement, the vendors understand that the value that they’re creating for you is going up. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: And so just as you want to charge your clients more, because you’re providing more value, they want to charge you more because they’re providing you more value. Gini Dietrich: Yep, yep. Chip Griffin: On top of that, the cost of actually doing all of this continues to go up. And yes, they’re becoming more efficient in some of the models and that sort of thing so that they can balance the quality and the cost. But, but nevertheless, it’s likely that over time the cost is gonna continue to rise. So if they’re gonna have a smaller margin, they’re gonna make up for it by fixing that margin, by charging you more. Yep. So regardless of how you get there, you are going to be charge, be paying more for AI in five years than you are today. Gini Dietrich: Absolutely. Chip Griffin: So, so you do need to be thinking about how you are structuring AI and in particular the Digiday piece put out there, the, the thought of are you transparent about what the AI costs are or do you just consider that part of your cost of doing business? And I, I think this is, there is a lot of room for meaty conversations in the, the coming months and years trying to figure out how to tackle this most appropriately. Gini Dietrich: It’s funny you say that because I’ve been doing a lot of speaking virtually to juniors and seniors in colleges, in college classes. And one of the question that continues to come up is, and I think it’s really interesting that they’re talking about this at school, which is smart, but it continues to come up, is, is there a job for me when I graduate from college? And my answer has been the job that I had when I graduated from college is not the job that you’ll have when you graduate from college. Like, you’re not gonna stand at the copier and make clipbooks, you’re not going to open Bacon’s books and make media lists. You’re probably not gonna make media lists at all. You’re not gonna make clipbooks at all. You’re not going to, you probably, you may not even be pitching media. Like those things are, are going to be done by AI. What you are going to be doing is sort of orchestrating your, or conducting your orchestra of AI bots, so you have to understand how to prompt accurately, how to give it the right kinds of input so that you get the right output. How to edit its work, you know, those are the kinds of things that you have to understand. And so when you think about, to your point, what this is going to cost, it may not cost the same as a full-time employee. It may not cost the same as five full-time employees, but it’s going to cost you something, and that has to be… Just like you would absorb an employee’s salary into your, your however hourly rates or retainers or however you’re doing your pricing, that same thing. The AI needs to be absorbed into that. Chip Griffin: Yeah, and I think, I think ultimately, I mean, first of all, I would agree with you on the, the first jobs thing. If I think back to my first job, in an agency as a junior account executive, I can’t think of more than 5% of my job that I did back then that, that today Yeah. Can still be done. And, and some of it’s because of AI’s not just, you know, technology has Sure. Has improved. I mean, nobody’s standing there at the photocopier. That’s nothing to do with AI. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Chip Griffin: But, you know, good luck finding a photocopier most of the time, even if you need one. And so, you know, those are the, the kinds of things technology has, has completely replaced a lot of what we did. And AI is just accelerating that even further. So certainly those kinds of jobs are not there. And, and I think that it’s fair to say that, that a college graduate going to work for the first time in an agency is, is really going in from a functional level at a, at about a level above where, where you and I started back in the day. And so fundamentally that means the skill sets are different, right? Because when you, when you’re that level up, you are doing more editing than creating, you are doing more guiding than doing. It doesn’t mean that you’ve gone, you know, completely all the way to being just a manager. You know, not people aren’t just gonna jump right in and just be managers. Let’s be realistic here. You do. But the, the kinds of things that you’re doing require a different skillset than what we needed going in. Because we weren’t doing a lot of editing of other people’s work. We weren’t doing a lot of guiding and checking and, and all of that kind of stuff. We had someone else who was doing that to our work. Now, now you have to know how to do that effectively and to your point. And it’s, it’s not just about the prompting. It’s understanding what you’re getting back and then how to re-prompt, how to tweak, how to get the most out of it, how to make sure that it actually makes sense, whatever’s come back. Because I mean, AI has come a long way in the last year. It doesn’t mean that everything that it does should be immediately blasted out to the universe. And that’s not just because of factual stuff. It may be just sometimes the tone isn’t quite right, or, or maybe it misses the point slightly because you didn’t give it enough information to begin with, and so you need to be able to look at it and have that level of judgment to understand when you need to apply human editing or when you need to ask the, the AI to take another stab at it or to do whatever you need to do to get the quality that the client is expecting. And I think, but it, it needs to be priced into your, your total cost of doing business, single invoice, not separate line items for all of this. Because I think to you, as soon as you start getting into, to separate line items for it, you put yourself in a difficult position to adapt as needed. And the reality is that none of us really knows what the, the innards of an agency in 24 or 36 months is gonna look like. We all have pretty good guesses, right? I mean, but, but the reality is we just don’t know for sure. And so we can’t put ourselves in a box by specifying here’s what it costs or say, Hey, we’re just gonna pass through these costs for the markup or those kinds of things. It needs to be factored into your cost of doing business. And on that note, I think we’ve provided some good food for thought and hopefully you’ll be able to think about pricing in perhaps a way that is a little more. I don’t know, rational, thoughtful, and more usable than what the holding companies are currently thinking or maybe have ever thought. But any case, I’m Chip Griffin for myself and Gini Dietrich. This has been another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, and it depends.

Since its legal woes have been resolved, and the U.S. app was spun out earlier this year, TikTok has taken a muted approach to business. Digiday senior platform reporter Krystal Scanlon joins this episode of the Digiday Podcast to discuss why what looks like business as usual on the surface is more likened to hushed plight for more ad dollars, creators and users.

Today in the business of podcasting:Digiday examines long-form creator content's push onto television screens, highlighting Spotter's New York upfront event and moves by Audiochuck and Universal's UCP to develop podcast IP for TV — with brands still needing convincing to shift ad budgets to match audience engagement.RSS.com co-founder Alberto Betella argues the real issue with AI in podcasting is opacity, not the tools themselves, launching an AI disclosure checkbox in RSS.com's episode uploader and the interactive resource shouldidisclose.ai to help podcasters navigate transparency.Cumulus Media filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, with a restructuring deal that would eliminate approximately $600 million in debt by transferring ownership to lenders while CEO Mary Berner says operations and staffing will remain unaffected.Ashley Carman reports that Netflix's exclusive podcast deals include clip restrictions on third-party platforms like YouTube, with early data showing Spittin' Chiclets and 3 & Out with John Middlekauff both seeing significant year-over-year drops in subscriber growth since moving to Netflix.Variety looks at how true crime podcasts are monetizing parasocial listener relationships, with major brands like Hyundai now sponsoring legacy shows like My Favorite Murder as the genre's audience reach extends well beyond its true crime podcast roots.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Digiday examines long-form creator content's push onto television screens, highlighting Spotter's New York upfront event and moves by Audiochuck and Universal's UCP to develop podcast IP for TV — with brands still needing convincing to shift ad budgets to match audience engagement.RSS.com co-founder Alberto Betella argues the real issue with AI in podcasting is opacity, not the tools themselves, launching an AI disclosure checkbox in RSS.com's episode uploader and the interactive resource shouldidisclose.ai to help podcasters navigate transparency.Cumulus Media filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, with a restructuring deal that would eliminate approximately $600 million in debt by transferring ownership to lenders while CEO Mary Berner says operations and staffing will remain unaffected.Ashley Carman reports that Netflix's exclusive podcast deals include clip restrictions on third-party platforms like YouTube, with early data showing Spittin' Chiclets and 3 & Out with John Middlekauff both seeing significant year-over-year drops in subscriber growth since moving to Netflix.Variety looks at how true crime podcasts are monetizing parasocial listener relationships, with major brands like Hyundai now sponsoring legacy shows like My Favorite Murder as the genre's audience reach extends well beyond its true crime podcast roots.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

CHIEF SWAG OFFICER IS LIVE ON BSW!   It's a huge week for the brand. Shop all of our swag on BSW here! Use the code CHIEFSWAG10 on Chiefswagofficer.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------   I sat down with the CEO and Co-founder of Wondersauce in this episode to talk about branding. John is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and CEO with over 15 years of experience crafting award-winning strategies, digital experiences, and campaigns for renowned brands such as Golf.com, Nike, L'Oréal, Scott's, Sixpenny, NYC's Brookfield Place, Chandon, and Grubhub, among others. Inspired by his generation growing up with the Internet, Sampogna was among the first in his field to embrace social media as a creative tool for growth, earning recognition on Business Insider's list of "30 Most Creative People in Advertising Under 30." His insights have been featured in various media outlets, including Glossy, Adweek, CNBC, Marketing Brew, Ad Age, Yahoo, and Digiday. He has also appeared on globally ranked podcasts, as a judge for prominent industry awards, and on stages like the Brand Innovators Summit at the US Open. Today, he leads a team of over 100 technologists, creatives, strategists, and producers as the Co-Founder and CEO of Wondersauce, a business acceleration agency that partners with brands poised for change to achieve their next stage of growth. Under his leadership, Wondersauce has earned a spot on Inc. Magazine's Inc. 5000 list of America's Fastest-Growing Companies, built a roster of premier Fortune 500 clients and innovative startups, and was officially acquired by Project Worldwide, an advertising holding company.   Follow Alexa on Instagram here and TikTok here. Find out more about John and Wondersauce here.

Today in the business of podcasting: Digiday looks at how much of podcasting's audience exclusively consumes video, Ambies 2026 winners, podcasts finally overtake AM/FM radio in daily spoken word share of ear from Edison Research, and CMOs share their stressors when it comes to spend. Click here for the website version of today's newsletter with every link mentioned in the podcast.

Today in the business of podcasting: Digiday looks at how much of podcasting's audience exclusively consumes video, Ambies 2026 winners, podcasts finally overtake AM/FM radio in daily spoken word share of ear from Edison Research, and CMOs share their stressors when it comes to spend. Click here for the website version of today's newsletter with every link mentioned in the podcast.

The other shoe has finally dropped. After months of speculation, OpenAI officially began to test ads in ChatGPT in the U.S. Meanwhile, marketers are still trying to read the tea leaves around OpenAI's ad team, data insights and more as chatbot competition intensifies. Digiday's senior platforms reporter Krystan Scanlon joins the Digiday Podcast to make sense of it all.

Anthropic took a jab at OpenAI's ad product launch and T-Mobile and Coinbase used The Backstreet Boys top play up millennial nostalgia. Now that the dust has settled around the 60-plus Super Bowl ad spots rolled out this year, Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy are joined by Sunny Bonnell, co-founder and CEO of global brand strategy and design agency Motto, to reflect on the best and worst commercials from Super Bowl 2026.

The Friday Five for January 30, 2026 Meta Announces Premium Subscriptions TikTok USDS Troubles & New Competitors FY 2026 Appropriations Bills 2025 Tax Season & H.R. 7006 CMS 2027 MA and Part D Advance Notice   Get Connected:

Is there a difference between a creator and an influencer. If so, what's the difference and why does it matter to marketers? On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Digiday staffers debate the topic.

Elizabeth Pigg is the Chief Communications Officer of That's it., makers of the No. 1 Fruit Bar in America. She joined the company in 2020 as Vice President of Marketing and was later promoted to Chief Marketing Officer, where she led efforts to strengthen its digital presence, eCommerce, and influencer marketing. In 2024, she pivoted her role to Chief Communications Officer, returning to her roots in brand storytelling and media strategy after nearly two decades as a senior leader at Edelman.At Edelman, Elizabeth led digital communications and marketing for several brands, most notably Ben & Jerry's, helping the brand stay culturally relevant while driving impact. Her experience spans public relations, social media, and integrated marketing strategy. She currently serves as Marketing Chair of the FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) Advisory Council, has contributed to Forbes, and is a jury member for the Digiday, Effie, and Shorty Awards.Originally from Chicago and now based in Los Angeles, Elizabeth is also a classically trained violist and vocalist, a voiceover artist, and serves on the Board of Directors for Angels Nest, supporting youth aging out of foster care.

This year's CES was all about agentic AI and little else. Digiday executive editor Joseph was boots-on-the-ground for this year's show in Las Vegas. He joins this episode of the Digiday Podcast to make sense of this year's event, and what it means as 2026 gets underway.

This week, Joe and Robert break down the latest signals in the economy, media, and marketing, from stabilizing job data and corporate tax incentives to AI's growing influence on content, platforms, and creative work. They also dig into where responsibility lies in an AI-saturated world and which organizations are adapting well…or getting it wrong. Key Topics Discussed Economic Update: Jobs and Stability Joe and Robert open the show with a look at recent U.S. economic data. After months of uncertainty, layoffs appear to have slowed, and job numbers are showing signs of stabilization. While not a return to boom times, the data suggests the labor market may be finding its footing heading into 2026. Corporate Tax Incentives and 2026 Profits The conversation turns to tax policy and its impact on business. Joe and Robert discuss how the permanent reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, along with other incentives, is setting mid-sized and enterprise companies up for significantly higher profits in 2026. They explore what this means for cash flow, reinvestment, and corporate behavior moving forward. Instagram, AI, and the Burden on Creators Next up, Joe and Robert analyze comments from Adam Mosseri and Instagram around AI-generated content. Mosseri makes it clear that Instagram does not intend to fully police AI content, instead emphasizing the importance of human creativity and authenticity. Joe and Robert question whether platforms are abdicating responsibility and placing the full burden on brands and creators to stand out in an increasingly cluttered, AI-driven feed. Final News: Uber's Co-Creation Ad Strategy In final news, the guys highlight Uber and its growing advertising business. Uber's co-creation media tactics are viewed as a smart, forward-thinking approach to revenue generation. Joe and Robert agree that too many enterprises still underestimate marketing's role as a direct revenue driver, not just a cost center. Marketing Winners and Losers Marketing Winner (Robert) Equinox Robert praises Equinox for its ad campaign that pokes fun at AI-generated content, using humor and human insight to cut through the noise and reinforce brand identity. Marketing Loser (Joe) Nebula Awards Joe calls out the Nebula Awards for their new rules banning any use of generative AI in the creative process. While intended to protect writers, Joe argues the decision is short-sighted, unenforceable, and misunderstands how creative tools evolve. Rants and Raves Robert's Rant: Robert takes aim at Digiday and what he sees as an overly cozy fascination with Accenture, questioning the value and objectivity of that coverage. Joe's Commentary: Joe closes with thoughts on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting winding down operations. He clarifies that PBS itself is not shutting down, but explains how the loss of federal funding disproportionately impacts rural and small-market stations, potentially reshaping public media into a more urban-centric system. Subscribe and Follow: Follow Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose on LinkedIn for insights, hot takes, and weekly updates from the world of content and marketing.  ------- This week's sponsor: Did you know that most businesses only use 20% of their data? That's like reading a book with most of the pages torn out. Point is, you miss a lot. Unless you use HubSpot. Their customer platform gives you access to the data you need to grow your business. The insights trapped in emails, call logs, and transcripts.  All that unstructured data that makes all the difference. Because when you know more, you grow more. Visit https://www.hubspot.com/ to hear how HubSpot can help you grow better. ------- Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/ Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at http://www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/ Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/. Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/  Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/ ------- This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork

This week's episode takes a look at how 2025's cliffhangers—everything from Netflix's planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to the ripple effects of the Omnicom-IPG merger—and how it all could play out in 2026. Digiday managing editor Sara Jerde and executive editor of news Seb Joseph join hosts Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy to try and read the 2026 tea leaves.

This year was filled with major developments, from Netflix's planned WBD deal to Omnicom's acquisition of IPG to the introduction of AI-only video feeds. But there were also developments that didn't really happen, like the U.S. spinoff of TikTok and Google's third-party cookie deprecation. Digiday editors Sara Jerde and Seb Joseph joined hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to recap the year that was (and wasn't).

Evan Horowitz is the co-founder and CEO of Movers+Shakers, a creative agency with numerous industry accolades and awards from Ad Age, Adweek, Fast Company, Digiday, Cannes Lions, among others. Movers+Shakers revolutionizes social media marketing, specializing in connecting brands with culture and generating unprecedented brand love among Gen Z and Millennials. With over 250 billion views, their campaigns include TikTok's most viral content, the first TikTok-native reality show, and iconic brand collaborations like e.l.f. x Chipotle.Evan's 20-year career includes roles at Fortune 500 companies like Samsung and Macy's. He's coached leaders, grown multimillion-dollar business units, and made strides in social justice campaigns. Evan holds an MBA from Harvard and a BS in Engineering from Stanford. A respected thought leader, he's spoken at numerous events hosted by WWD, Glossy, Advertising Week, and ANA and is often quoted in the industry's most coveted publications. 

This week's episode unpacks two major developments in the media and entertainment industries. Digiday's executive editor of news Seb Joseph joins to analyze Netflix's plan to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming business (3:43) as well as Meta's foray into signing content licensing deals with publishers for its AI chatbot (25:37). Then this week's featured segment is a live recording from last week's Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, in which Attention Arc's Christopher Francia makes the case for why programmatic ad buying shouldn't be outsourced to AI agents (34:50).

Our latest guest is Maya Ackerman — AI‑creativity researcher, professor, and author of Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us (Wiley), as well as founder of WaveAI and LyricStudio (View recent colab with NVidia).Maya's perspective is not just insightful — it's a necessary reality check for anyone building AI today. She challenges the comforting narrative that AI is a neutral tool or a natural evolution of creativity. Instead, she exposes a truth many in tech avoid: AI is being deployed in ways that actively diminish human creativity, and businesses are incentivized to accelerate that trend.Her research shows how overly aligned, correctness-first models flatten imagination and suppress the divergent thinking that defines human originality. But she also shows what's possible when AI is designed differently — improvisational systems that spark new directions, expand a creator's mental palette, and reinforce human authorship rather than absorbing it.This episode matters because Maya names what the industry refuses to admit. The problem is not “AI getting too powerful,” it's AI being used to replace instead of elevate. Businesses are applying it as a cost-cutting mechanism, not a creative amplifier. And unless product leaders intervene, the damage to creativity — and to the people who rely on it for their livelihoods — will become irreversible.Listen to the Episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YoutubeWe're engineering a global creative regression and pretending we aren't.Generative AI could radically expand human imagination, but the systems we deploy today overwhelmingly suppress it. The literature is unequivocal:* AI boosts creative output only when tools are intentionally designed for exploration, not correctness.* When aligned toward predictability, AI drives conformity and sameness.* The rise of “AI slop” is not an insult — it's the logical outcome of misaligned incentives.* New evidence shows that AI-assisted outputs become more similar as more people use the same tools, reducing collective creativity even when individual outputs look “better.”* Homogenization is measurable at scale: marketing, design, and written content generated with AI converge toward the same tone and syntax, lowering engagement and cultural diversity.* Repeated reliance on AI weakens human originality over time — users begin outsourcing ideation, losing confidence and capacity for divergent thought.Resources:* The Impact of AI on Creativity: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395275000_The_Impact_of_AI_on_Creativity_Enhancing_Human_Potential_or_Challenging_Creative_Expression* Generative AI and Creativity (Meta-Analysis): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.17241* AI Slop Overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop* Generative AI Enhances Individual Creativity but Reduces Collective Novelty:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11244532/* Generative AI Homogenizes Marketing Content:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/5367123.pdf?abstractid=5367123* Human Creativity in the Age of LLMs (decline in divergent thinking):https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.03703 BOTTOM LINE: If your product optimizes for correctness, brand safety, and throughput before originality, you are actively contributing to the global collapse of creative quality. AI must be designed to spark—not sanitize—human imagination.Thanks for reading Design of AI: Strategies for Product Teams & Agencies! This post is public so feel free to share it.Award-winning creative talent is disappearing at scale, and the trend is accelerating.The global creative workforce is shrinking faster than at any time in modern history. Companies claim AI is “enhancing creativity,” yet most restructuring reveals the opposite: AI is being deployed primarily to cut labor costs. In general, layoff announcements top 1.1 million this year, the most since 2020 pandemic.What's happening now:* Omnicom announced 4,000 job cuts and shut multiple agencies — Reuters reporting: https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/omnicom-cut-4000-jobs-shut-several-agencies-after-ipg-takeover-ft-reports-2025-12-01/* WPP, Publicis, and IPG executed multi-round layoffs across design, writing, strategy, and production.* Digiday interviews confirm AI is used mainly to eliminate junior and mid-level creative roles: https://digiday.com/marketing/confessions-of-an-agency-founder-and-chief-creative-officer-on-ais-threat-to-junior-creatives/The most important read on the future & destruction of agencies comes from Zoe Scaman. She always brings a powerful and necessary mirror to the shitshow that is modern corporate world. Read it here:Freelancers and independent creatives are being hit even harder:* UK survey: 21% of creative freelancers already lost work because of AI; many report sharply lower pay — https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2025/03/report-finds-creative-freelancers-hit-by-loss-of-work-late-pay-and-rise-of-ai/* Illustrators, motion designers, and concept artists report declining commissions as clients adopt Midjourney-style pipelines.* Voice actors face shrinking bookings due to synthetic voice models.* Stock photography, stock audio, and digital concepting have been heavily cannibalized by tools like Midjourney, Runway, and Suno.The research into AI shows even deeper risks:* The Rise of Generative AI in Creative Agencies — confirms agencies deploy AI for margin protection rather than creative innovation: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1976153/FULLTEXT03.pdf* IFOW/Sussex study shows AI exposure correlates with lower job quality and salary stagnation for creatives: https://www.ifow.org/news-articles/marley-bartlett-research-poster---ai-job-quality-and-the-creative-industriesBOTTOM LINE: Creative roles are vanishing because AI is being optimized for efficiency rather than imagination. If we want creative industries to survive, AI must expand human originality — not replace the people who produce it.:** Creative roles are vanishing because AI is being deployed for efficiency rather than imagination. If we want a future with vibrant creative industries, AI must be designed to amplify human originality — not replace it.Please participate in our year-end surveyWe are studying how AI is restructuring careers, skills, and expectations across product, design, engineering, research, and strategy.Your responses influence:* the direction of Design of AI in 2025,* what questions we investigate through research,* what frameworks we build to help leaders adapt—and protect—their teams.Take the survey: https://tally.so/r/Y5D2Q5Understand your cognitive style so you know how to best leverage AI to boost youThe Creative AI Academy has developed as an assessment tool to help you understand your creative style. We all tackle problems differently and come up with novel solutions using different methods. Take the ThinkPrint assessment to get a blueprint of how you ideate, judge, refine, and decide. Knowing this will help you know in which ways AI can boost —rather than undermine— your originality. For me it was powerful to see my thinking style mirrored back at me. It gave structure to what enhances and undermines my creativity, meaning I better understand what role (if any) AI should play in expanding my creative capabilities. Thank you to Angella Tapé for demonstrating this tool and presenting the perfect next evolution of Dr. Ackerman's lessons about needing AI to be a creative partner, not cannibalizer. BOTTOM LINE: Without cognitive self-awareness, you're not “partnering” with AI—you're surrendering your creative identity to it. Take the ThinkPrint assessment and redesign your workflow around human-led, AI-supported thinking.We are trading away human intellect for productivity—and the safety evidence is damning.The research is now impossible to ignore: AI makes us faster, but it makes us worse thinkers.A major multi-university study (Harvard, MIT, Wharton) found that users with AI assistance worked more quickly but were “more likely to be confidently wrong.”Source: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4573321This pattern shows up across cognitive science:* Stanford and DeepMind researchers found that relying on AI “reduced participants' memory for the material and their ability to reconstruct reasoning steps.”Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01832* EPFL showed that routine LLM use “led to measurable declines in writing ability and originality over time.”Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.00612* University of Toronto researchers warn that repeated LLM use “narrows human originality, shifting users from creators to evaluators of machine output.”Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.03703In other words: we are outsourcing the exact cognitive muscles that make human thinking valuable — creativity, reasoning, comprehension — and replacing them with pattern-matching convenience.And while we weaken ourselves, the companies building the systems shaping our cognition are failing at even the most basic safety expectations.The AI Safety Index (Winter 2025) reported:“No major AI developer demonstrated adequate preparedness for catastrophic risks. Most scored poorly on transparency, accountability, and external evaluability.”Source: https://futureoflife.org/ai-safety-index-winter-2025/A companion academic review by Oxford, Cambridge, and Georgetown concluded:“Safety commitments across leading LLM developers are inconsistent, largely self-regulated, and often unverifiable.”Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.16982We are weakening human cognition while trusting companies that cannot prove they are safe. There is no version of this trajectory that ends well without deliberate intervention.Resources:* The Hidden Wisdom of Knowing in the AI Era: * A Critical Survey of LLM Development Initiatives: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.16982* Future of Life AI Safety Index (Winter 2025): https://futureoflife.org/ai-safety-index-winter-2025/* Supporting Safety Documentation (PDF): https://cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmxvk/revamp/79776912203edccc44f84d26abed846b9b23cb06.pdfBOTTOM LINE: Tools that reduce effort but not capability are not accelerators—they are cognitive liabilities. Product leaders must design for mental strength, not dependency.Schools are producing prompt operators, not original thinkers.Education systems are bolting AI onto decades-old learning models without rethinking what learning is. Instead of cultivating reasoning, imagination, and embodied intelligence, schools are teaching children to rely on AI systems they cannot critique.Resources:* UNESCO: AI & the Future of Education: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/ai-and-future-education-disruptions-dilemmas-and-directions* Beyond Fairness in Computer Vision: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/wc2kmxvk/revamp/79776912203edccc44f84d26abed846b9b23cb06.pdf* AI Skills for Students: https://trswarriors.com/ai-education-preparing-students-future/BOTTOM LINE: If we do not redesign education, we will create a generation of humans who can operate AI but cannot outthink, challenge, or transcend it.Featured AI Thinker: Luiza JarovskyLuiza Jarovsky is one of the most essential voices in AI governance today. At a time when global AI companies are actively pushing to loosen regulation—or bypass it entirely—Luiza's work provides a critical counterbalance rooted in human rights, safety, law, and long-term societal impact.Why her work matters now:* She exposes the structural risks of deregulated AI adoption across governments and corporations.* She documents how weak or performative governance puts vulnerable communities at disproportionate risk.* She offers practical frameworks for ethical, enforceable AI oversight.Follow her work:BOTTOM LINE: If you build or deploy AI and you are not following Luiza's work, you are missing the governance lens that will define which companies survive the coming regulatory wave.Recommended Reality ChecksTwo critical signals from the field this week:* Ethan Mollick on the accelerating automation of creative workflowshttps://x.com/emollick/status/1996418841426227516AI is quietly outperforming human creative processes in categories many believed were “safe.” The speed of improvement is outpacing organizational awareness.* Jeffrey Lee Funk on markets losing patience with empty AI narrativeshttps://x.com/jeffreyleefunk/status/1996612615850676703Investors are separating real AI value from hype. Companies promising transformation without measurable impact are being punished.BOTTOM LINE: The creative and product landscape is shifting beneath our feet. Those who don't adapt—intellectually, strategically, and operationally—will lose relevance.Final Reflection — Legacy Is a Product DecisionEverything in this newsletter points to a single, unavoidable truth:AI does not define our future. The product decisions we make do.We can build tools that:* expand human originality,* strengthen cognitive resilience,* elevate creative careers,* and produce a generation capable of thinking beyond the machine.Or we can build tools that:* replace the creative class,* hollow out human judgment,* weaken educational outcomes,* and leave society dependent on systems controlled by a handful of companies.As product leaders—designers, strategists, researchers, technologists—we decide which future gets built.Legacy isn't abstract. It's the cumulative effect of every interface we design, every shortcut we greenlight, every metric we reward, and every model we deploy.If you want to build AI that strengthens humanity instead of diminishing it, reach out. Let's design for human outcomes, not machine efficiency.arpy@ph1.ca This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit designofai.substack.com

On this week's episode, the smoke is clearing in the Omnicom-IPG merger with a clearer look at how its media, tech and creative will operate going forward coming into focus. Plus, another ripple in OpenAI's author lawsuit begins to surface. Then (16:30), Digiday's senior marketing reporter Sam Bradley joins the show to discuss WPP's turbulent 2025, and what it'll take to turn things around in 2026.

This week's episode recaps the who's who of Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition bids, the end to Meta's antitrust case, the Omnicom-IPG deal's final hurdle and why Adobe acquired Semrush. Then (13:40), Digiday's platforms reporter Krystal Scanlon joins the show to discuss how OpenAI could seriously pursue an ad business.

What's shakin'? I went all in today with someone who truly understands the evolution of digital marketing — John Sampogna, co-founder and CEO of Wonder Sauce, a creative agency behind some of the most innovative brand stories out there. John's worked with massive names like Samsung, Brookfield, and Subway, and been featured in outlets like CNBC, Yahoo, and Digiday — but what really stood out in this convo was his honesty about what makes modern marketing work. We dug deep into the difference between branding and marketing, how companies get lost chasing performance metrics, and why storytelling and authenticity still reign supreme. John also dropped major insight on how AI is transforming the creative world — not replacing creators, but enhancing them. We even got into how his team uses AI responsibly to make campaigns smarter, faster, and more human. This one is for every entrepreneur, marketer, and creator trying to navigate the new digital frontier. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by “hustle culture” in marketing or wondered how to stand out in a noisy world, this episode is your playbook.We Meet: John Sampogna, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of WondersauceConnect:Connect with Rick: https://linktr.ee/mrrickjordanConnect with John: www.wondersauce.comSubscribe & Review to ALL IN with Rick Jordan on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RickJordanALLINAbout John: John Sampogna is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Wondersauce, an agency specializing in brand storytelling, paid media, e-commerce, and digital experiences. With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing and advertising, Sampogna has created and led work for a wide range of clients from innovative startups to household names such as Samsung, Scott's, Brookfield, Golf.com, and Subway, amongst many others. Featured early in his career in Business Insider's “30 Most Creative People In Advertising Under 30”, Sampgona's insights have been featured in numerous media outlets, including Glossy, Adweek, CNBC, Medium, Yahoo, and Digiday. Today, he manages a team of over 100 creatives, strategists, producers, and technologists at Wondersauce, and is well-regarded industry-wide for his innovative approach toward digital marketing and brand storytelling.

This week's episode unpacks OpenAI's launch of the Sora app and what it reveals about the company's push into advertising (2:39). We also dive into Meta's plan to use AI chatbot data for ad targeting (12:59), and Paramount's acquisition of The Free Press, with founder Bari Weiss set to lead CBS News as editor-in-chief (16:14). Then, Digiday's Seb Joseph and Ronan Shields join the show to discuss The Trade Desk's growing challenges (21:50).

On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, senior reporter Melissa Daniels is joined by executive editor Anna Hensel. First they discuss Affirm's new rollout with Apple Pay to provide its buy now, pay later services in store (1:09). Then they unpack the trend of paper coupons making a comeback in some retail environments, with Kroger announcing it has been bringing back paper coupons to help appeal to value-mined shoppers or those who aren't comfortable with more digital savings programs (9:49). Then, on this week's featured segment (18:19), Hensel is joined by Digiday's senior marketing reporter Kimeko McCoy to talk about the rise of retail media. Retailers are in search of more ways to grow revenue, and they are enticed by the size of Amazon's business. So, more of them are looking to build their bonafide media networks. Hensel and Kimeko discuss what is fueling the rise of retail media, what the big challenges are that brands and agencies are facing as they try to sift through what retail media networks make sense for their particular business, and what it will take for more retail media networks to succeed.

This week's episode goes inside the search wars. More people are starting their online search with AI-powered chatbots and publishers are feeling the effects. To breakdown what AI search means for publishers (15:22), Digiday staffers Jessica Davies, senior media editor and Sara Guaglione, senior media reporter, join the show. Also on this episode: Google won't have to sell Chrome after all (1:27), Apple plans its own AI-powered search engine (8:15) and publishers call to include Gemini in Google investigation (12:42).

This week's episode recaps what ended up being a messy summer, from corporate changeovers and AI existentialism to fresh competition for Google and a return to the TV bundle for streaming. Oh, and tariffs; we can't forget tariffs. As stated, the season was kind of a mess, and Digiday managing editor Sara Jerde joined the show to help make sense of the events that transpired and what they portend for the rest of 2025. Related stories: WPP has its next CEO – but what do clients make of the heir apparent? The coalition of the willing (and unable): publishers rally to wall off AI's free ride Google readies its last stand in latest antitrust trial The next browser wars are here — and AI wants the ad dollars too How tariffs have upended the back-to-school season

Leslie Morgan builds the infrastructure behind today's most influential creators, IP, and media  ventures, turning creative chaos into scalable, monetizable ecosystems. With 16 years of experience at the intersection of media, technology, and culture, Leslie is the founder of Every Problem Solved, a consultancy focused on content strategy, operations, format development, and  growth for digital-first businesses. She partners with creators, Fortune 500 brands, and media companies  to develop high-impact content, drive operational clarity, and scale revenue across platforms. Most recently, she served as Head of Digital for Mo Willems' Hidden Pigeon Company, a joint venture  with Stampede Ventures and RedBird Capital. Previously, as VP of Lifestyle Programming at Endemol Shine Beyond, Leslie generated $2 million+ in  revenue, oversaw all lifestyle and branded programming, and launched ICON, a global digital venture  with Michelle Phan. ICON hit 50 million monthly views across five countries within six months. As a consultant, Leslie has worked with top-tier clients including Hank and John Green's  Complexly (Interim COO), Spy Ninja Network (doubled team size and scaled six YouTube  channels), Lightricks (Facetune, Videoleap), The Chosen, and Canvas Media Studios, advising across  strategy, operations, and monetization. In 2025, Leslie produced the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai, a first-of-its-kind global event  funded by the UAE government. She programmed 40+ sessions, worked with 100+ creators, and  delivered a flawless three-day experience for 15,000+ attendees—showcasing her ability to lead  complex, high-visibility events that merge culture, tech, and influence. She serves on the VidCon Advisory Board, hosted VidCon's main stage in 2023, and is a frequent  contributor to Ad Age and Digiday, offering insights on creator-led innovation and the future of digital  media. She lives in Long Beach, CA with her husband and daughter.

This week's episode recaps xAI's lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI (3:58), retail media's recent boom that could be a bubble (11:11), and publishers' push to usage-based pricing in their AI deals (15:23). Then (18:50) Digiday editors Seb Joseph and Michael Bürgi join the show to discuss how generative AI technologies could spur agencies to lose client relationships or push brands to rely on agencies even more for AI access. Related articles: Why generative AI doesn't fit into a standard in-housing playbook – yet As AI alters cost of creative, indie agencies review how they charge clients WTF is AI ‘grounding' licensing, and why do publishers say it matters over training deals?

This week's episode recaps Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal superintelligence memo, the reported price Amazon is paying to license The New York Times's content and a check-in on the TV and streaming advertising upfront as negotiations wrap up. Then (18:51), Digiday senior media reporter Sara Guaglione and executive editor of news Seb Joseph join the show to share their reporting on a recent meeting between IAB Tech Lab, more than 80 publishers and AI giants including Google and Meta to discuss how publishers can respond to AI companies scraping their sites.

This week's episode recaps what CBS's cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert says about the media business and takes a look at OpenAI's agentic AI offering. Then (24:20) Albert Thompson, head of digital innovation at ad agency Walton Isaacson, joins the show in a live recording from Digiday's CTV Advertising Strategies event to break down why the CTV ad industry needs to prioritize more native ad formats.

Creator Brandon Edelman stops by the Digiday Podcast to talk about his pivot to full-time content creation, how he strikes brand deals and life after TikTok (22:00). Also on this episode, Digiday platforms reporter Krytsal Scanlon joins co-hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to talk about Linda Yaccarino's exit from X, what WPP's new CEO means for the holding company's growth and how AI is shaping the next era of the browser wars.

Today in the business of podcasting: Google is now indexing Instagram, Ausha's Jennfer Han talks about a recent BBC Studios case study, Digiday looks at the creator industrial complex, and IAB Tech Lab is working on an intiative to monetize LLMs scraping content and give control back to publishers. Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.

Today in the business of podcasting: Google is now indexing Instagram, Ausha's Jennfer Han talks about a recent BBC Studios case study, Digiday looks at the creator industrial complex, and IAB Tech Lab is working on an intiative to monetize LLMs scraping content and give control back to publishers. Find links to every article discussed by heading to the Download's section of SoundsProfitable.com, or clicking here to head straight to the post for today's episode.

Amid the AI hype, increasingly fragmented media marketplace and economic headwinds, marketers this year came to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity looking for answers. For Carly Carson, PMG's head of integrated media, this year's festival served as a temperature check for an industry in flux. As the book closes on another Cannes Lions, Carson has pocketed three takeaways: AI still needs a human infusion, Garbage in, garbage out and Ad dollars need to keep up with changing consumption habits.

Between panels and parties, creators like former bachelorette Rachel Lindsay are looking to get face time with ad execs, brand marketers and partners like Spotify. However, rather than coming to the Croisette to strike deals, they're playing a long game. Joined by Roman Wasenmüller, head of podcast business at Spotify, and Digiday Podcast co-host Kimeko McCoy, Lindsay pulls back the curtain on the creator at Cannes experience, monetization strategy and more.

A few years ago, Twitter Beach was one of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity places to be. Nowadays, the beach and Twitter execs are harder to find. Instead of the flashy fireside chats and branded lounges, X's execs are found behind closed doors, quietly courting marketers and media buyers against a backdrop of lawsuits, Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM)'s disbanding and political crosshairs. It's a clear sign that the platform's role in the ad ecosystem– and culture overall–has dramatically shifted. In this episode of the podcast, platforms reporter Krystal Scanlon joins host Kimeko McCoy about Twitter, now X, and what its retreat from the Cannes beachfront says about its relationship with advertisers, as well as TikTok's head in the sand mentality around the ban.

If there was any doubt that everything is an ad network, this year's Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity proves otherwise. To Peggy McCann, chief media officer at GSD&M ad agency, all signs point to one thing: retail media networks aren't going anywhere anytime soon. It's a tall order, but perhaps fits within the expectations of Cannes' pageantry. For media planners like McCann, the question is: is the Cannes flash enough to attract ad spend?

On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Patricia Corsi, chief growth officer at Kimberly-Clark, joins hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to kick off Cannes Lions 2025. Corsi shares her approach to Cannes and how she's sifting through AI hype chatter to get to the real talk of Cannes. This episode marks the start of Digiday's daily podcast coverage from Cannes. Tune in every day this week for fresh conversations with marketers, media execs and creatives on the ground.