Next month, Global CEO Stephen Miron will officially step back from his role after 16 years at the helm of one of Britain's largest media enterprises.

When Miron joined Global as CEO in 2008, it was a £200m business with only one national radio brand. In March, he’ll leave an almost £1bn business, with numerous national radio brands, a digital ad exchange, dedicated listening app and substantial OOH footprint.

Miron will still be involved at Global as chairman, replacing former ITV and Granada CEO Lord Charles Allen, who himself will become a senior non-executive director. Former STV CEO Simon Pitts is succeeding Miron as Global’s CEO.

In an interview with The Media Leader in October, Global’s chief commercial officer Mike Gordon said: “We’re very lucky because Stephen’s not leaving the business. We have Stephen and we have Simon – it’s great to have somebody join the business with the experience that Simon’s got. No-one has a monopoly on a great idea.”

Miron sat down last autumn with The Media Leader columnist and former editor-in-chief Omar Oakes for a conversation at our Future of Media London event to reflect on his career and legacy.

“You have to know when to exit stage left,” Miron said. “It’s been the most amazing journey for 16 years, but I also think the business needs different thinking in the next 15 years.”

Highlights:

3:13: Looking back on Global's beginnings and Miron's early career path

13:54: Lessons from Associated Newspapers

18:50: Working with Ashley Tabor-King to identify growth in radio and OOH

31:02: Defining Global's unique culture and identifying and inspiring talent

Related articles:

‘Disrupt yourself before someone disrupts you’: Stephen Miron on 16 years of Global

Global commercial chief Mike Gordon: Radio has ‘grown up and adapted’

STV’s Simon Pitts to succeed Stephen Miron as Global CEO

‘A tough act to follow’: Industry reacts to Stephen Miron’s departure from Global

---

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

Are audience-targeting practices too simple in an era of big data? Advertisers and their agencies tend to use demographics to target people across media channels, but perhaps that model is outdated.

Natalie Bell is CEO of MG OMD. The Omnicom media agency is coming out with new research on how community-based targeting might be a new model worth considering and she joined host Jack Benjamin to preview early findings.

As a trustee of Nabs and member of Wacl, Bell also spoke to concerns around a rollback in DEI initiatives across the media industry, led by the US market.

She discussed the ethical conundrums of striving for responsible marketing in what feels like a new era, where progress is at risk of being rolled back, and what leaders should be doing to fight for what’s right for their employees and their clients.

Highlights:

5:40: Why brands should reconsider targeting practices to focus on communities

13:17: Learnings from working on the government account during the Covid-19 era

18:50: Media agency brands aren't dead

23:38: How agency leaders are reacting to a "sunsetting" of DEI and ESG initiatives

Related articles:

ESG has become a key differentiator for the investment community

Let’s harness the power of community for mental wellness

Podcast: Why social media is all about community now – with Reddit’s Paul Peterman

---

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

At a Thinkbox event in September, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 announced Lantern, a new measurement panel aimed at tracking the short-term impact of TV advertising on sales.

The goal for the initiative, which is aiming to fully launch in 2026 following a period of testing and requests for proposals, is to help provide TV with “the measurement it deserves” in an era when brands have increasingly demanded more outcomes-based measurement solutions, rather than simply measuring audiences.

Sameer Modha is measurement innovation lead for commercial at ITV and sits on the commercial board of UKOM. Matt Hill is director of insight and measurement at Sky Media and formerly director of research and planning at TV marketing trade body Thinkbox.

Both have had a strong hand in the early development of Lantern. They joined The Media Leader Podcast to discuss the project – its purpose, goals and timeline – as well as how TV measurement efforts need to adapt more broadly to address the needs of advertisers.

Modha and Hill also spoke about how Lantern will help attract new-to-TV advertisers, how the project is "fundamentally different" from Isba's cross-media measurement initiative Origin and why the majority of media buying is now spent on outcomes, not eyeballs.

"In the end, buying outcomes rather than buying eyeballs has won in the market," said Modha. "We can either sit on our hands and just ignore that or say no, no – actually, we've got a fantastic ad product and it is great at doing those things, but we haven't surfaced that in a way that can play a part in those finance conversations."

Highlights:

4:44: The when, how and why of Lantern

13:10: Targeting new-to-TV brands and the problem with attribution

19:54: The challenge of cross-industry collaboration

24:37: Lantern's launch timeline

39:16: Has brand advertising become passé in an era of outcomes-based measurement?

50:21: What the future of TV measurement looks like

Related articles:

ITV, Sky, C4 reveal Lantern audience measurement launch

Lantern joint measurement panel could be live ‘by 2026’

Thinkbox research lead Matt Hill to join Sky Media

---

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

On 7 January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to its platforms’ content moderation policies that, he admitted, will mean the company is “going to catch less bad stuff” across Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Among the raft of changes, Meta announced it was halting its third-party fact-checking programme in the US and replacing it with a Community Notes feature. It also updated its hateful conduct policy to now allow users to call women “household objects” or refer to transgender or non-binary individuals as “it”, among numerous other dehumanising examples.

The story has dominated conversation around the industry throughout the early weeks of the year, with media agencies looking to reconcile potential concerns around brand safety and their own DEI commitments with the importance of Meta platforms on the media plan.

In an op-ed for The Media Leader, Sonnie Spenser, Outvertising’s communications co-director and Fresh Pies’ digital marketing manager, pleaded with the UK media industry to disavow Meta’s content moderation changes and consider an “exit strategy” to cut adspend from the tech giant.

They joined senior reporter Jack Benjamin on the podcast to elaborate on the ethical and business cases for reapportioning spend away from Meta. They also discussed the raw impact Meta’s policy changes have had on the LGBTQ+ community in the UK, whether brands truly care about brand safety and what the media industry can do to support minority members of staff amid a business culture shift away from DEI.

Spenser said: "Hate is slowly becoming normalised and we need to do something about it."

Highlights:

2:22: Content moderation changes and cozying up to Donald Trump

8:04: Should advertisers reduce spend on Meta? Considering ethical and business arguments

16:55: Do brands actually care about brand safety?

26:10: Threads' ad proposition

35:13: A cultural paradigm shift

Related articles:

We need an exit plan for Meta and we need it now

‘Too big to fail’? Industry reacts to Meta content moderation changes

Mental health vs Meta’s wealth: What will it take to hold a tech giant to account?

Playing defence in politics and in tech: Nick Clegg leaves Meta

---

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

In November, a report from global advisory MediaSense found that an overwhelming majority of advertisers — three-quarters — are looking to make changes to their agency compensation model in the next three years.

A similar number of survey respondents indicated that they are seeking to better align agency compensation to business performance, however it may be defined by the brand.

According to Ryan Kangisser, chief strategy officer at MediaSense and co-author of the report, it is “unprecedented” for so many brands to want to change their compensation models at once.

Last year, Kangisser spoke on The Media Leader Podcast about how advertisers do not find the current agency model to be fit for current and future needs.

Now, he returns to discuss whether the agency remuneration model is fit for purpose and what a new outcomes-based approach could look like as a replacement in the near future.

"At the heart of this is the need for speed and agility," Kangisser said.

Highlights:

2:14: Overwhelming desire to change remuneration models

7:00: Moving to outcome-based compensation — are brands and agencies on board?

13:23: Have agencies moved to future-proof their business? "From attention to intention"

19:24: Misaligned incentives between brands and agencies

21:26: The impact of AI on fees and the future of talent and working practice

Related articles:

Three-quarters of advertisers want to change their agency compensation model

Why agencies must move from a buffet model to à la carte service

Marketers cut spend in main media as cautious approach continues

MediaSense reveals ‘biggest blocker’ to business transformation

MediaSense appoints Jamie Posnanski as global CEO

---

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

The new year always brings with it the inclination to not just future-gaze, but to consider how to future-proof.

One media agency that has always billed itself as a future-forward organisation is Omnicom’s Hearts & Science and UK CEO Garrett O'Reilly joined Jack Benjamin to discuss the shop's growth strategy.

O'Reilly discussed the challenges in scaling the business while remaining future-forward and what big client wins like Jaguar and Allwyn have meant for the agency. He also shared initial reactions to the Omnicom-Interpublic merger and the recently announced rollbacks in DEI and WFH policies across media.

Specifically, O'Reilly reaffirmed the need to remain steadfast in responsible marketing efforts, seeing it as a core pillar of creating a future-facing media proposition.

"There's so many different fronts to fight [responsible marketing] on and we have to fight on all of them — whether it's environmental, or DEI, or responsible trading, or respecting audiences' privacy — they're all important. We can't neglect any of them."

Highlights:

2:31: Breaking down Hearts & Science's growth plan

10:48: Challenges facing agencies needing to innovate

14:11: Early-year adjustments: reaction to Omnicom-Interpublic merger, changes in WFH policies and Meta content moderation

19:52: Category entry points as a key strategic focus

24:57: The future of agencies and the need to reaffirm responsible marketing commitments

Related articles:

Omnicom and Interpublic merger set to reshape global ad industry

Hearts & Science launches programme to nurture media owner rising stars

Simon Carr: 100 years of doing it wrong — and how to do it right

Outvertising: We need an exit plan for Meta and we need it now

---

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

What’s really behind that view? Are all views created equal? What truly keeps our attention? Are consumer habits really changing that much?

As marketers increasingly shift towards outcomes-based assessments of their ad effectiveness, behavioural research is likely to become more relevant to understanding how video ads can cut through to audiences in what has become a highly competitive environment for attention.

At the inaugural Future of Video event in December, senior reporter Jack Benjamin interviewed four experts on how views are and should be measured, and what behavioural research tells us is happening in our minds when we watch video ads, be they on short-form platforms, in cinemas or on TV.

The panel features Jenny Fernandez, TikTok’s head of research and insights; Michael Tull, Digital Cinema Media’s head of strategy and insight; Lea Karam, consulting director at Total Media’s behavioural science consultancy Behave; and Juliane Beard, director of research at market research company Mindlab.

Highlights:

2:24: What is a view? How do TikTok, cinema and behavioural researchers define a view?

12:04: How to stand out

21:45: Passive versus active video consumption and the generation gap in viewing

27:13: Have attention spans shortened?

38:44: Trends to keep an eye on as the TikTok generation ages

Related articles:

Should broadcasters be embracing YouTube?

Wicked and Moana 2 help 2024 box office surpass £1bn for second straight year

8 out of 10 brands’ TikTok videos aren’t working — here’s how to fix it

Isba’s Phil Smith: Advertisers should take a bigger stake in Origin

---

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

On the surface, the global ad industry appears to be in rude health. GroupM upwardly revised its This Year Next Year global ad revenue forecast for 2024 and expects it to surpass $1tn for the first time – and that’s excluding US political advertising, which itself totalled $15.1bn.

In the UK, despite uncertainty regarding the country's political and economic future, the ad market grew 8.3%, with further 7% growth now expected for 2025.

But, of course, there are numerous unpredictabilities next year, such as around how a new Donald Trump administration could impact global trade or pursue Big Tech regulation. Meanwhile, most ad growth is being driven by just five companies: Google, Meta, Amazon, ByteDance and Alibaba — suggesting a consolidation of ad revenue into fewer, bigger hands.

Kate Scott-Dawkins is GroupM's global president of business intelligence and author of the This Year Next Year report.

In conversation with Jack Benjamin, Scott-Dawkins explained that advertisers have grown accustomed to managing uncertainty over the past five years and that growth drivers such as retail media and streaming TV, as well as an influx of new AI-based startups, are likely to provide a boost to future ad spending.

"The uncertainty that advertisers are dealing with has existed and will continue to exist into next year," she said. "The advertising economy is going to continue despite that."

Scott-Dawkins will be presenting further details from This Year Next Year at The Media Leader's Future of TV Advertising Global conference in London next week.

Highlights:

2:24: Toplines: positive growth despite uncertainty

8:13: Big Tech's domination of ad revenue growth – is it healthy?

12:26: Why the UK is outperforming expectations

16:43: Volatility in the Chinese market

20:26: Opportunities and knock-on effects as sport becomes more important for TV

23:36: The importance of supporting publishing as it loses market share

27:02: Tech brands to watch as they spend on marketing to promote AI

Related articles:

Global ad industry to grow 9.5% this year as revenue flows to tech giants

OOH tops £1bn in ad revenue in 2024 so far

UK TV exports fall 2% despite strong US demand

Explained: how we should treat GroupM, IPG and Zenith adspend forecasts

---

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