Find partners
Biz & Tech Podcasts — Collaboration Platform
Menu
Submit Podcast
Next in Media

Next in Media

Hosted by Mike Shields

BusinessMarketingNews
WebsiteRSS feed

Episodes

307

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN

About the show

Everything we know about the media, marketing and advertising business is being completely upended thanks to technology and data. We're talking with some of the top industry leaders as they steer their companies through constant change.

Listen to episodes

60 recent
August 6, 202615 min

Connect YouTube Ad Buys to CTV Campaigns

Traditional media buying breaks down when attitudinal audience data gets lost between upstream research and downstream media activation. Bright Mountain's Andy Davidson and Deep Focus's Kyle Krueger unpack how synthetic personas, unified YouTube-to-CTV strategies, and responsible creator management keep ad campaigns aligned and effective. Key Highlights 🔄 Audience research usually gets mangled like a game of telephone once an agency hands off a campaign brief to platforms and creators. 📺 TV networks ingest data much faster now, letting buyers target real-time viewer interests instead of relying on six-month-old demographic reports. 📲 Independent agencies view YouTube as equal to traditional TV because it gives mid-sized brands better targeting, lower costs, and clearer ROI tracking. 🤖 Synthetic audience models allow planners to vet creator selections and test campaign ideas before spending actual media dollars. 🏝️ Travel creators who expose "hidden gems" without ground rules drive over-tourism and trigger serious backlash from local residents. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Andy Davidson on LinkedIn 🔗 Kyle Krueger on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:28 Introduction to Bright Mountain and Deep Focus 2:46 YouTube Ecosystem Challenges and Creator Studios 4:04 Data-Driven Audience Targeting and Platform Selection 7:11 Caribbean Tourism Client Case Study 8:01 Creator Selection and Audience Validation 9:12 Synthetic Audience Techniques and Data Ecosystem 11:17 YouTube's Journey Toward TV Legitimacy 12:49 Creator Control and Brand Messaging Challenges

August 4, 202623 min

Ace Hardware Retail Media Launch & Strategy

Ace Hardware's RedVest Media is rewriting the retail advertising playbook by turning a late market entry into a strategic advantage across its 5,200 store footprint. Head of Retail Media Molly Hjelm joins Mike Shields to explain why friction-free Pacvue integration, closed-loop endemic attribution, and re-embracing physical stores outperform legacy off-platform tactics. Key Highlights ⏰ The Late-Mover Edge: Launching a network today means skipping years of clunky tech builds and plugging straight into mature e-commerce and delivery setups. 🤝 Meet Advertisers Where They Work: Brands hate learning new dashboards; plugging into existing buying platforms like Pacvue removes friction and gets campaigns funded faster. 🏢 Co-Ops Require Local Buy-In: You can't force thousands of independent store owners into a corporate playbook—you have to prove the model boosts local store revenue first. 📈 Big-Ticket Items Drive Market-Wide Sales: High-priced hardware like grills won't hit impulse CPG conversion rates, but they pull in massive overall revenue across entire markets. 📊 Standard Measurement Builds Instant Trust: Using accredited third-party platforms like CitrusAd gives brands reliable metrics, whereas legacy tools like Marketing Mix Modeling fail in retail media. 🏷️ Physical Aisles Drive the Real Volume: E-commerce gets the attention, but most transactions happen in physical stores, making in-store signage essential for moving product. 🛑 Off-Platform Expansion Kills Retail Context: Dumping shopper data across the open web strips away the store context, breaking closed-loop attribution and frustrating endemic brands. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Molly Hjelm on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:10 Ace Hardware's Late Entry and Co-op Structure 3:16 Late Mover Advantages and Strategic Timing 6:42 Building from Experience and Vendor Insights 7:37 Pacvue Partnership and Portfolio Launch Strategy 8:44 Industry Experience and Channel Differences 10:20 Hardware Category Unique Characteristics 12:43 Non-Endemic Opportunities and Audience Targeting 14:35 In-Store Media Strategy and Heritage 16:20 Industry Standardization and Measurement Challenges 18:05 Consolidation Perspectives and Scale Requirements 21:46 Creator Content Integration and Social Amplification

July 30, 202615 min

Collectively's Natalie SIlverstein on How to Optimize Creator Video Content

Collective CIO Natalie Silverstein joins Next In Media to explore how creators are evolving into full-fledged media networks and what it takes for brands to scale authentic partnerships in a hyper-fragmented landscape. Natalie, also breaks down real-time crisis agility, strategies for training AI language models on video content, and how to combat the algorithmic reach recession with targeted paid media. Key Highlights 📺 YouTube Creator Networks: Creators aren't just making one-off sponsored videos anymore—they're running multi-show media networks with their own IP. 🤝 Scale Without Losing the Soul: Pulling off massive creator runs like L’Oréal’s (think thousands of activations) doesn't mean producing generic slop. ⚡ Real-Time Crisis Agility: Social platforms run on outrage, and minor issues turn into viral fires fast. 🤖 Targeting the AI Audience: LLMs are becoming a key target audience, and they love structured content. Writing scripts and captions with clear, direct Q&As helps AI models pick up your video as an authoritative answer. 📐 Matching ROI to the Surface: You can't measure all creator content the same way. 🏢 Creator Marketing Goes Core: Major ad holding companies buying up influencer agencies isn't a fluke; it's proof that creator strategy is now table stakes for every serious media plan, not a side experiment. 🧠 The Limits of Tech: AI can overhaul campaign data and software tools, but it can't read a room. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Natalie Silverstein on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 2:03 YouTube's Creator-Centric Strategy and Content Evolution 3:12 Scaling Creator Marketing 6:27 ROI Measurement and Performance Optimization in Creator Marketing 8:08 Optimizing Creator Content for Large Language Models 11:26 Industry Consolidation 13:27 Creator Reach Recession

July 28, 202613 min

How Smart Agencies Really Use AI

Recorded live at Cannes, Wpromote CEO Andrea Bendzick exposes why agile independent agencies are eating traditional holding companies' lunch while everyone else scrambles to build overpriced tech platforms. She maps out how mixing performance marketing, smart M&A, and hard revenue-backed brand metrics gives modern agencies an unbeatable edge. Key Highlights ⚖️ Independent agencies sit in a sweet spot where they're big enough to handle massive brands but agile enough to pivot while legacy holding companies stay stuck. 🛠️ Wasting capital building proprietary AI platforms is a trap when you can simply own your measurement and partner up for execution. 🧠 AI belongs in the trenches clearing out manual grunt work and sorting platform data so your senior talent has space for real strategy. 🚀 Building brand credibility from scratch takes way too long to win client trust, making smart agency acquisitions the fastest route to scale. 📺 Traditional TV commercials are dying off because creators need to be actual co-producers across streaming and social, not just hired actors. 🤖 Autonomous AI agents need strict human guardrails on day one instead of being left alone to manage ad spend. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Andrea Bendzick on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:32 Independent Agency Advantages in a Disrupted Market 4:43 Giant Spoon Acquisition and Brand Strategy Integration 6:05 Creator Television and Advertising Innovation 9:30 Agentic AI Implementation and Organizational Transformation 10:52 Care Index and Scientific Brand Measurement 12:39 Future of Agency Compensation Models

July 23, 202611 min

Cadent's Doug Rozen on How to Unify Your TV, CTV, and YouTube Strategy

Cadent President Doug Rozen unpacks the hidden organizational silos and ad frequency nightmares plaguing modern video advertising at Cannes. Discover why shifting from audience persistence to contextual TV and total video planning is the ultimate fix for bruised brand performance. Key Highlights 📺 Internal agency silos are ruining the viewer experience by slamming consumers with the same ad over and over. 🎯 Unifying linear, CTV, and digital into one video plan stops brands from bidding against themselves and burning cash. 🧠 Contextual targeting beats creepy digital tracking by matching ads to real moments and content themes. 🔍 Stop treating YouTube like a side project—it’s actually the strongest contextual TV platform on the market. 🔄 Top media agencies build plans around format (like video or audio) rather than getting stuck in individual channel silos. 📊 Cross-platform measurement only works when you tie specific KPIs to specific funnel stages—there’s no magic single metric. 📈 Market volatility isn’t a temporary glitch anymore; the best planners accept uncertainty as the new baseline. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Doug Rozen on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:24 The Frequency Problem Across Video Platforms 2:29 Total Video Strategy: One Plan, One Audience, One Time 3:48 Contextual TV vs Connected TV Philosophy 4:44 Strategic Value of Content Context and Predictive Outcomes 5:48 Unifying YouTube with Traditional TV Strategy 7:15 Contextual Targeting: Old Concepts Made New 8:10 Agency Organization and Format-Based Planning 9:08 Measurement Across the Total Video Funnel 9:51 Current Marketplace Assessment: Managing Uncertainty

July 21, 202616 min

Inside Spotify’s Ad Exchange Takeover

Spotify is shifting from a traditional audio platform into a powerful multi-format ad engine driven by advanced data targeting and transparent, value-exchange sponsorship models. Through innovative automated tools and natural language API plugins, the streaming giant is eliminating traditional production barriers so brands of all sizes can easily deploy high-ROAS campaign creative. Key Highlights 📺 The Pivot to Video: Platforms can't survive on audio alone anymore; they have to mix in music videos, video podcasts, and live events to keep modern fans hooked. 🤝 The Win-Win Ad Model: Giving users a visual takeover with fewer commercial breaks builds real goodwill while driving up actual returns for brands. 🔌 Prompt-to-Purchase Ads: Hooking AI models like Claude straight into the ad API means anyone can script and launch a campaign from a command line without needing an agency. 🔓 Killing the Paperwork: Ditching manual insertion orders for instant programmatic buying opens the door for thousands of smaller advertisers who used to be priced out. 📊 Free Measurement Built-In: Native brand lift data and conversion APIs remove the expensive barriers that usually stop brands from tracking true performance. 🧠 Tracking Daily Habits: Tapping into billions of real-time signals—like skips, listening history, and playlist creation—gives brands a direct line to what users actually like. 🎤 Fixing the Audio Bottleneck: Free text-to-speech AI tools solve the old problem of audio ads being too slow and expensive to make, letting brands spend more budget on runtime. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Per Sandell on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:31 Spotify's Focus on Fandom and Multi-Format Experience ‎ 3:12 Playlist Sponsorship Strategy and Value Exchange ‎ 5:40 Creator AdSpot Innovation in Television Advertising ‎ 6:57 Spotify Ad Exchange Development and Access Expansion ‎ 8:47 Measurement Solutions and First-Party Data Integration ‎ 10:29 Generative AI Adoption and Data Utilization ‎ 12:04 Command Line Integration and Natural Language Processing ‎ 12:57 ROI Pressure and Measurement Evolution‎ 14:01 Audio Advertising's Unique Value and Attribution Challenges ‎ 15:21 Future of Audio Advertising and ROI Potential ‎

July 16, 202624 min

Why Creators Actually Need Brands (And Not The Reverse)

Recorded live at Cannes, this episode explores the shift from surface-level ad efficiency to true business effectiveness in a hyper-fragmented media landscape. VaynerX's Jon Morgenstern delivers a masterclass on navigating the creator economy, leveraging YouTube's cross-screen dominance, and using common-sense attribution to cut wasteful ad spend without harming the bottom line. Key Highlights 🤝 Economically speaking, creators need brands far more than brands need creators to fund their operations, despite the cultural relevance they offer in return. 📺 YouTube has officially evolved past platform debate, shifting into an undisputed, ubiquitous streaming giant that requires agencies to bridge the gap between CTV and social budget buckets. 🚀 Top-tier creators function effectively as independent mini media companies, but they succeed through platform coexistence rather than attempting to directly compete with tech giants like Meta or Amazon. 📉 The industry is facing a critical pivot away from legacy efficiency metrics like programmatic cost-per-view toward outcome-driven, actual business effectiveness. 🗳️ Organic social media acts as a true meritocracy where superior content wins naturally, serving as a brutal reminder that you cannot simply buy your way out of poor engagement. 📊 Cross-platform measurement remains highly probabilistic due to fragmented view definitions across TikTok, Reels, and YouTube, challenging the industry's desire for a master deterministic plan. 🛍️ Scaling creator integration effectively requires leveraging platform-native tools like TikTok Shop ecosystems rather than relying entirely on traditional legacy talent agencies. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Jon Morgenstern on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:11 Live Recording Setup and Upfront Market Overview 2:45 Upfront Deals and New Market Dynamics 4:31 YouTube's Evolution Beyond Platform Categorization 5:29 Creator Studios as Media Companies 6:41 VaynerX's Unique Position in Creator Economy 7:50 Short-Form vs Long-Form Content Measurement 8:57 Organic Content as True Meritocracy 10:58 YouTube Integration with Traditional TV Metrics 13:01 Scaling Creator Campaigns and Programmatic Approaches 14:38 Creator Economy's Capacity for Ad Dollars 16:11 Economic Reality Check for Creators 17:36 Attribution and Common Sense Marketing 20:01 Questioning Always-On Media Spend

July 14, 202614 min

Inside the Ad Tech Alternative Saving Brands Millions

Relying solely on programmatic CTV auctions locks brands out of premium live sports and high-value cultural moments while racking up heavy middleware fees. This deep dive reveals how direct-to-ad-server tech and large language models are restructuring streaming media execution to protect brand safety, automate delivery, and enforce flawless frequency capping. Key Highlights 🏎️ The streaming landscape has finally solidified clear operational guardrails for PMPs, direct deals, and programmatic guaranteed executions. 🚫 Brands relying exclusively on open programmatic bidding frameworks are entirely locked out of premium live sports and cultural finale inventory. 🚀 Parallel ad-server execution platforms bypass traditional DSP/SSP tech stacks to unlock automated direct buying without extortionate transaction fees. 📉 Moving execution closer to the publisher's native ad server slashes ad operations complexity from thousands of line items down to a handful of weekly adjustments. 🧠 The future of smart ad matching lies in feeding first-party data clean rooms into large language models to algorithmically pair impressions with optimal brands. ⚖️ Advanced streaming networks require a hybrid architecture that seamlessly balances highly targeted identity-driven deals alongside broad reach-and-frequency buys. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Leo O'Connor on LinkedIn 🔗 Philip Inghelbrecht on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 1:25 Market Stabilization and Transactional Norms ‎ 3:05 Premium Content Gap in Programmatic Buying ‎ 4:32 Upstream Technology Solution ‎ 5:42 Content Experience and Buying Model Optimization ‎ 6:52 Implementation Results and Operational Efficiency ‎ 7:29 First-Party Data Evolution and Identity Solutions ‎ 9:22 Hybrid Approach to Brand Data and Identity ‎ 10:09 Collective Audience Moments vs. Individual Targeting ‎ 12:18 Frequency Capping Challenges and Solutions

July 9, 202620 min

Stop Buying Video in Silos: A New Playbook for Brands

YouTube has officially outgrown traditional media taxonomies to become a unique, multi-surface ecosystem spanning streaming, social, and commerce. This week, Tinuiti's Sean Odlum explains how brands can leverage first-party CRM data and the Ads Data Hub, to bypass mobile-heavy biases and measure true impact across every screen. Key Highlights 🇨🇭 YouTube operates as a media "Swiss army knife" that spans streaming, social, and commerce, making it a standalone category that defies traditional television or digital video silos. 🛑 Advertisers must overcome the "cold start" planning problem by fusing brand CRM data with platform signals rather than using wasteful, brute-force ad spending across millions of creators. 🛋️ The massive migration of viewers to connected TV screens introduces a "lean back" posture that dries up traditional click-through data and forces agencies to build view-through attribution models. 🔑 Marketers frequently fall victim to the "looking for keys under the lamplight" bias by over-indexing on easily measured mobile formats while failing to capture deeply engaged CTV exposures. 📧 Privacy-compliant clean rooms like YouTube's Ads Data Hub allow brands to unlock deterministic measurement by using hashed emails as a durable identity signal to link exposures to actual conversions. 🚘 YouTube's content structure makes it uniquely optimized for highly considered, research-driven purchases rather than the impulse buying loops that dominate short-form entertainment apps. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Sean Odlum on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 1:38 Sean's Role and Tinuiti's Product-Focused Approach 3:38 YouTube as Its Own Category and Platform Approach 4:55 YouTube Intelligence Suite: Planning and Cold Start Solutions 6:26 Measurement Challenges and Connected TV Migration 7:35 Ads Data Hub 10:57 Demand Generation Campaigns and Mobile Bias 13:45 YouTube vs TikTok Shop: Commerce Potential and Use Cases 16:26 Short-Form vs Long-Form Content Strategy 18:06 Measurement Wish List: Inter-Walled Garden Operability

July 7, 202612 min

Inside The Global Rebrand Of Sam's Club Connect

The traditional retail media playbook is undergoing a massive transformation as platforms shift away from transactional clicks toward holistic, real-world shopping experiences. This week, Sam's Club VP and GM Harvey Ma, breaks down how their membership data and cross-enterprise synergy with Walmart are setting a new standard for full-funnel brand measurement. Key Highlights 💳 Every single purchase is tracked. Because members have to scan their ID at the register, the app, or the gas pump, brands get direct, 1-to-1 attribution without having to guess or make assumptions. 🤝 It's a long-term relationship, not a one-time buy. Looking at how people use services like travel, pharmacy, and auto care gives a much clearer picture of future shopping intent than a single grocery receipt. 🌐 Built once, scaled everywhere. Putting different ad platforms under one global roof makes things consistent, simplifies the buying process, and cuts down transactional friction for brands. 🏎️ Ads are leaving the store. Brands are moving beyond traditional retail spaces by using live events—like racing sponsorships—to reach people out in the real world and prove the ads actually work. 👃 Hooking all five senses. Warehouse shopping is inherently physical, so the strategy centers on taste, touch, and smell to build actual emotional connections instead of just chasing digital clicks. 📊 Optimizing on the fly. Tools like Omni Impact track the entire shopping journey to see which channels are pulling their weight, allowing brands to adjust their media mix in real time. Resources & Next Steps 🔗 Harvey Ma on LinkedIn 🎧 Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 1:57 Launching the Sam’s Club Connect rebrand and its core philosophies. 2:28 Integrating Sam's Club, Walmart, and International Connect into one global ad ecosystem. 3:05 How mandatory membership scans unlock 100% accurate, closed-loop attribution. 3:42 Moving from one-off transactions to multi-service, long-term relationships. 4:09 Creating sensory, real-world retail experiences that go beyond digital clicks. 4:50 The "Race to the Club" IndyCar partnership with Andretti Global. 6:20 Using digital scan-and-sample tablets to pipe instant store reviews to web pages. 7:40 Unifying data, tech, and marketplace under a singular enterprise growth platform. 8:54 Why the world's biggest brands have completely destroyed traditional buying silos.

Is this your show?

Claim this listing to keep it up to date, reach guests who want to pitch you, and manage bookings with Guestify.

Claim this listing

More Business podcasts

One moment, please...

BusinessInvesting

One moment, please...

Business

Swallow Your Pride Podcast

BusinessCareersInterviews guests

One moment, please...

Business

One moment, please...

Business
MACRA

MACRA

MACRA Website

Business