The Media Leader Podcast

Every year, The Media Leader and its parent Adwanted UK celebrate the best of UK media research at the Adwanted Media Research Awards (AMRAs).
Robust media research is an important industry resource. It helps inform and steer conversation and our understanding of marketing best practice – as well as the incentives that often get in the way of implementing it.
This year’s awards include 6 new categories and 22 in total, covering every element of media research. One notable new award is the Denise Turner Award for Best Use of Joint Industry Data in a Research Project, in honour of the late media researcher and friend of The Media Leader, who died last autumn.
This year’s awards will be open for entry beginning Tuesday the 1st of September, with an early bird deadline on Wednesday the 7th of October and a standard deadline on Wednesday the 14th of October.
Ahead of the opening, host Jack Benjamin sat down with this year’s judging panel co-chairs Dan Flynn and Graeme Griffiths.
Flynn and Griffiths are joint directors of media research for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). They jointly succeeded Turner in the role in February of this year.
Apart from leading the development of the IPA’s TouchPoints research and other industry benchmark surveys like the IPA Agency Census, they also represent the IPA on all of the major joint-industry currencies.
The pair spoke recently about what makes for exceptional media research, why research isn’t always put into practice, and what innovations JICs can and should be driving to better meet the needs of advertisers.
Highlights:
7:33: Judging the AMRAs: What makes for good media research?
10:23: Why doesn't research always lead to impact and behavioural change?
19:50: New AMRA awards and Denise Turner's legacy
24:49: How JICs need to evolve to meet advertiser demands
30:06: The Barb-YouTube relationship and agency demand for new JICs for platforms and podcasting
35:22: Is Origin the way to cross-media measurement nirvana?
42:29: The future of media research: AI, synthetic data, and in-housing research
Related articles:
AMRAs add six categories including Denise Turner award
Measurement can’t be an afterthought — with IPA’s Denise Turner
A round-up of some of the best research of the year
Podcasting needs its own JIC – Jack Davenport, Goalhanger CEO
Will YouTube’s new definition of a ‘view’ undermine its effort to tap into TV budgets?

Within the publishing market, one segment that has seen turbulence over the past few years has been freesheets. As the pandemic disrupted commuting, trains and tubes added Wi-Fi, and hybrid working became the norm, the number of people reading the paper on their daily commute dropped.
This had downstream effects on some of the UK’s oldest papers. The Evening Standard became The Standard, moving from a daily to a weekly paper and emphasizing its website. Metro, which remains the UK’s highest-circulation paper, has seen several restructures and moved in and out of profitability as it has also worked to invest in its digital and social products.
Now, facing declining clickthrough rates to websites because of Google’s changes to search, these news outlets are having to adapt again. As freesheets, they are entirely reliant on advertising as a business model, putting them at the coal face of changes in reader behaviour both offline and on.
Deborah Arthurs is editor-in-chief of Metro. Jo Mazenko is commercial director of Metro.
Last month, host Jack Benjamin joined them at Mail Metro Media’s offices in Kensington to discuss how the title has had to adapt to the changing publishing market.
"Metro was born around the commute, but the day doesn't stop when you get off the train," said Mazenko. "It's about finding new ways to connect to people [and] keep the conversation going throughout the day."
Highlights:
7:25: Metro's up-and-down journey since the pandemic and changed distribution strategy
15:13: How editorial and commercial can work together while maintaining church and state
21:17: Managing the road to Google Zero by prioritising quality over quantity
26:10: Selling print in 2026 and moving into live events
33:49: The importance of habit formation
38:01: How commuting has changed
Related articles:
‘Fresh team, fresh approach’: Mail Metro Media on becoming a ‘modern broadcast publisher’
Fewer ads drive more attention on websites, finds Lumen and Mail Metro Media
‘The first tremors in an earthquake’: Digital publisher revenues decline 4.6% amid falling referral traffic

To mark the 10th anniversary of AudioTrack, the UK's commercial audio delivery service owned and operated by Adwanted. The Media Leader Podcast joined the AudioTrack team for a deep dive into audio creative. In this bumper episode, host Charli West brings together five industry experts across three conversations.
First, producer-director Pam Myers (Rojek) and radio data analyst Jason Brownley (ColorText) share their favourite audio campaigns, from Carpetways' regional cult following to the Compare the Market Meerkats, and make the case for authenticity, long-term consistency, and Byron Sharp's conception of distinctiveness. They also unpack the Ehrenberg-Bass 95% rule and what it means for how brands should think about the role of audio at every stage of the buyer journey.
Next, Silke Zedcher, VP of Global Commercial Partnerships at AudioStack, traces a decade of change in how consumers experience audio, from single-platform broadcast to the always-on, personalised audio environments that smart speakers, streaming and podcast ecosystems now make possible. She argues that AI-powered dynamic creative is the technology that finally allows audio to fulfil its potential as a data-driven, omni-channel format.
Finally, freelance audio producer and director Nick Angel and Matt Hopper, founder and CEO of Trisonic, offer a frank assessment of where AI genuinely helps in the creative process . And where it doesn't. From voice cloning concerns to the EU AI Act's disclosure proposals, they make the case that audio advertising remains a craft, and that no amount of automation changes the fundamental question: does it bear repetition?
This episode was produced in partnership with AudioTrack.

The UK TV market is in a state of precarity and change. Sky is acquiring ITV’s Media and Entertainment business, the BBC is facing declining license fee payers, and director-general Matt Brittin has suggested reviving a Project Kangaroo-like “sovereign” streaming platform involving iPlayer and Channel 4.
Meanwhile, all the broadcasters are keen to “meet audiences where they are,” which is increasingly on third-party, American-owned, walled garden tech platforms. Broadcasters are embracing social video, but concerns around the sustainability of the commercial model on platforms are persistent.
Niamh Burns is the media policy lead at Enders Analysis. She recently co-authored a report on the major UK broadcasters, how they are dealing with headwinds in the TV ad market, and how they are embracing third-party platforms in search of audience growth.
She recently sat down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss all things TV.
When asked whether she believes the commercial opportunity on social platforms is enough to fund broadcaster's premium content production, Burns plainly stated: "At the moment, the answer is no across all the platforms."
Highlights:
3:33: Will Sky's acquisition of ITV's Media & Entertainment business get the green light?
7:00: "A now or never moment" for the BBC: Charter review, license fee changes, a new "sovereign" streaming platform
17:07: Broadcaster strategies on social media platforms: From marketing to distribution via a black box
25:36: The commercial logic of embracing platform distribution
29:39: Handling different measurement standards
32:40: Government green paper and due prominence for broadcasters
Related articles:
Is Sky’s acquisition of ITV necessary to compete with global platforms?
What the CMA should actually be asking about Sky and ITV
Five items in Andy Burnham’s media in-tray
How the BBC’s digital distribution strategy is evolving

Netflix is in the midst of a commercial expansion. In May, the streaming giant announced its ad tier would be coming to 15 new markets, including 9 in Europe.
The streaming giant has invested in developing its own tech stack and acted aggressively to grow its programmatic business. The company is also expanding its live sport portfolio, and is dabbling in video podcasting and gaming, all leading to new potential commercial opportunities in the near future.
Damien Bernet is Netflix’s EMEA ads VP. He spoke with host Jack Benjamin in his native France at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity last month about how Netflix is rolling out its ad tier expansion in Europe and new innovations aimed at automating programmatic buying.
Since the pair's conversation, Netflix announced its Q2 2026 earnings report. Revenue grew 13% year-on-year to $12.6bn, with Netflix's ads business on track to double year-on-year to $3bn by the end of the year.
Media analysis firm Madison & Wall has estimated Netflix's ad revenue now comprises 7% of its total revenue in the US, a small but "increasingly meaningful" driver of growth, and that Netflix will crack the top 30 global ad sellers this year, putting its ads business on par with the likes of RTL.
Despite this, investors appear spooked by reports of declining engagement, with shares of the company down more than 20% year-to-date. A report by The Wall Street Journal this summer raised concerns of worsening viewership metrics, and Netflix has moved to reduce the cadence of its What We Watched report, reducing transparency into engagement figures.
Highlights:
4:20: Netflix's ad tier expansion in Europe and its late-mover advantage
10:32: New innovations: Brand partnerships, reach and frequency, outcomes
15:53: Moving from programmatic to fully automated programmatic and scaling ad personalisation
21:25: Commercial opportunities in podcasting, live sport
29:01: Goals for H2
Related articles:
‘From arts to arts and science’: Netflix becomes ‘programmatic-native’ as it expands ad tier into 15 new territories
Netflix embraces publishers in ‘fit for TV’ push
Exploring the TF1 / Netflix win–win partnership
Goalhanger reaches milestone as Netflix continues to test the podcast waters
Amazon, Netflix and Google will control half of CTV advertising market by 2030, says Omdia