The Media Leader Podcast

A year ago, the Alliance of Independent Agencies and the Land of Independents collaborated to launch a new initiative aimed at sharing knowledge and support for independent media agencies.
Enter the Alliance of Media Independents (AMI), which has served as a single route to the indie media agency market for suppliers and media owners.
The AMI has spent the last year expanding, now with over 30 members that represent combined billings that rival the global holding groups.
Martin Woolley and Paul Phelps are co-founders and chairs of the AMI. Woolley also works as executive chair of indie media outfit What’s Possible Group, which owns agency The Specialist Works, and Phelps is CEO of AMS Media Group.
The duo sits down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss how and why the alliance was founded, the benefits its delivered to members, their plans for expansion, and why indies might be the beneficiaries of a consolidating agency landscape.
As Woolley points out, a few years ago there were “never indie-only pitch lists”. Now? “Half the pitches in our business are indie-only. So something’s changed.”
Highlights:
3:20: Why and how was the AMI created?
13:10: Benefits of the Alliance: Media owner interest, incremental growth, resource sharing.
23:00: Competing with holdcos: Loss of trust amid trading deals, lack of transparency.
29:02: Could clients leave agencies in favour of self-serve platforms?
35:20: Why 2026 will be the year of indies.
Related articles:
Shaping the industry’ next phase: One year on as AMI
Alliance of Media Independents announces Experian as first official partner
Alliance of Media Independents adds 16 members and doubles billings
Indie agencies team up for Alliance of Media Independents
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Last month at the Future of TV Advertising Global event in London, three key brand marketers spoke about how they view the strengths of TV, particularly as they compare to other audio-visual platforms.
Richard Brooke is the global media trading and operations director at Unilever. Sorin Patilinet is the global marketing effectiveness lead at PepsiCo. Alison Keith was until recently the head of global marketing effectiveness at Kraft Heinz and, before that, the VP of global media at Coty.
The trio sat down with event producer and Media Leader contributor Justin Lebbon to discuss what brands want from the TV and where TV is now situated in their marketing strategies compared to other video platforms.
Is TV still "cool"? Does it have a narrative problem with ad buyers? Is YouTube TV? Brooke, Patilinet and Keith unpacked a media channel in flux.
Brooke also discussed why Unilever moved to increase its spend on social media platforms last year – a bold move that could well have heralded in a new era of confidence for the creator economy.
Highlights:
1:25: Reactions to TV consolidation
3:40: TV is effective, but the creator economy is the shiny new thing
8:21: The definition of “TV” is changing, but the standards of quality aren’t the same
15:19: Is ad investment consolidation in Big Tech platforms healthy?
22:56: Less adspend is going through JICs. Does independent measurement still matter?
Related articles:
Comcast Ads president: Uneven measurement standards create an ‘existential’ challenge for TV
Channel 4, ITV and Sky commercial chiefs ask advertisers to ‘turn down the toxic’
Watch: TV trends to look out for

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, yes, it’s the holiday season and we’re just days away from Christmas. But it’s also the global adspend report season. Business leaders are getting a holistic look at how the total ad market performed in the UK and around the world, and also what to expect for next year.
WPP Media’s This Year Next Year report released on 8 December, and it has become something of an annual tradition to host its author and global president of business intelligence, Kate Scott-Dawkins, on this show before the end of the year.
She returns once again to unpack this latest report, which forecast global ad revenue to grow 8.8% year on year to $1.14tn in 2025, despite persistent macroeconomic headwinds. Next year, WPP Media is predicting further 7.1% global growth, the majority of which is being captured by a handful of tech platforms.
Scott-Dawkins offers her view on the state of the global economy, downside risks for marketers, and whether AI is likely to drive growth next year.
This is the final episode of the podcast we at The Media Leader are releasing this year. Thank you to our wonderful guests and to all you listeners out there for tuning in. We’ll be taking a few weeks off the holidays but will be back up and running in the New Year.
Highlights:
1:50: Toplines: an optimistic forecast driven by platform growth
6:12: Expect more consolidation
9:33: Downside risks: tariffs, uncertain consumer spending, K-shaped recovery
14:52: Advertising is leading the global economy
17:56: Could the commerce market be upended by AI?
20:20: Why the UK ad market is still "pretty healthy"
22:33: Things to look out for in 2026: AI search, an upper-funnel correction
Related articles:
WPP Media forecasts 8.8% global ad revenue growth in 2025 but warns of ‘K-shaped economy’ risk
‘Agencies may get squeezed everywhere’: US tariffs cause ad industry angst
Uncertainty and soft guidance as holding groups struggle for growth in Europe
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Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode.
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This episode was produced in partnership with Roku.
It's been a busy past few months for Roku: in the US, it launched a new low-cost subscription service, Howdy, which aims to be supplementary to the likes of Netflix and Disney+; in the UK, Roku launched 40 FAST channels on its platform.
Last month, The Media Leader sat down with Roku’s content distribution director, Tom Price. If you haven’t listened, it’s worth your time – Price spoke about those developments, as well as how Roku works with its content partners to support their programming within the Roku platform.
But that was only part 1 of a 2-part series produced in partnership with the company, timed to coincide with The Media Leader's focus on the future of TV at our annual Future of TV Advertising Global Event, held this week.
For part 2 of the series, host Jack Benjamin is joined by Mike Shaw, the director of EMEA ad sales at Roku.
Shaw discussed Roku's commercial strategy more broadly. He chatted about where Roku sits within the wider CTV ecosystem, how it’s working with retail media partners, innovations it would like to help drive in measurement, and how the TV market is changing to become more data-led and programmatic.
Highlights:
1:37: What will define the future of TV advertising?
5:00: Growth and growing pains in CTV
9:09: How to use data for brand and performance alike
14:20: Linking CTV with retail media and driving innovation amid 'democratisation' of TV
20:38: How Roku aims to grow market share in Europe: using TV OS for incremental reach
26:36: The future of FAST and bundling amid subscription fatigue
Related articles:
How Roku is piecing a fragmented TV landscape back together — with Tom Price
Roku launches FAST channels in UK market
Howdy confirms Roku’s growing interest in subscription streaming
Roku eyes app bundling opportunity as next-gen aggregator
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Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode.
--> Discover how Trisonic can elevate your brand and expand your business by connecting with your ideal audience
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This episode was produced in partnership with The Guardian.
Each year, The Guardian’s advertising team delivers a research project cheekily called Shift Happens.
Blending survey data with first-party data, the study aims to unpack longer-term cultural trends in Britain that may well be of interest to savvy marketers.
Imogen Fox is The Guardian's chief advertising officer. She returns to the podcast to unpack the report's key takeaways and its implications for marketers.
These include five major changes consumers have made in how they spend their time throughout the week. Among them, people are waking up earlier, maximising weekends, heading to the pub early on Fridays, and taking reexamining their work-life balance priorities.
Highlights:
1:05: Shift Happens toplines
5:00: How useful are trends reports?
8:15: Lifestyle changes: joy slicing, return-to-office, weekend maximising, chatbot friends
14:52: Advice for marketers
20:40: The Guardian's plans for 2026
Related articles:
WTF happened to Friday?
The Guardian promotes its creative canvas amid US investment drive
Isn’t it time the ad industry embraces a 4-day week?
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Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode.
--> Discover how Trisonic can elevate your brand and expand your business by connecting with your ideal audience
Visit The Media Leader for the most authoritative news analysis and comment on what's happening in commercial media.
LinkedIn: The Media Leader
YouTube: The Media Leader