Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Media Monitor
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix Backs Out of Warner Bros Bid, WPP’s AI Pivot, and the Shift Toward Performance Marketing | 04 Mar 2026 | 00:21:21 | |
Netflix has stepped away from its bid for Warner Bros, clearing the path for Ellison and raising questions about consolidation in streaming, valuation logic, and what this means for consumers and advertisers. In this episode, Kelly and Sean revisit the streaming saga and discuss how further consolidation could affect subscription pricing, content availability, theatrical releases, and advertiser strategy. They also examine WPP CEO Cindy Rose’s announcement that the company is “no longer a holdco,” introducing the multi-year Elevate 28 strategy. With a focus on AI integration, structural realignment, and outcomes-based models, the move signals a broader shift in how agency groups define value. But what does an outcomes-driven future mean for brand creativity, performance measurement, and platform power? The conversation expands to The Trade Desk’s earnings reaction, the tension between revenue growth and market expectations, and what’s happening inside the DSP ecosystem. Sean closes with a “data delight” examining the long-term shift from brand to performance marketing. The data shows performance spend rising significantly faster than digital alone—suggesting a deeper strategic shift in advertiser behavior. Key topics include:
00:00 Introduction and Headline Grab Bag For access to the data discussed in this episode or to learn more about Guideline’s market insights, contact press@guideline.ai. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 6: Why Podcast Advertising Is Growing Faster Than the Rest of Media | 25 Feb 2026 | 00:21:03 | |
Podcasting isn’t just a format — it’s becoming a major force in advertising. Digital audio has grown more than 2.5x faster than the overall media market since the pandemic, and podcasts now account for nearly 30% of digital audio ad revenue. Even more striking: 77% of incremental digital audio growth is coming specifically from podcasts. In this episode of Media Monitor, Kelly and Sean unpack what’s driving that momentum. They discuss: • Why consumers listen to podcasts (and what that means for advertisers) They also explore how 400,000 new podcasts per quarter are entering the market — and why consumers are still tuning in. If you work in media, advertising, audio, or streaming, this episode explains not just where podcasting is today — but why it may be one of the most resilient formats in the industry.
00:00 Podcast rhythm and listener shoutouts If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 5: What the January Jobs Report Reveals About Marketing and Agency Hiring | 18 Feb 2026 | 00:18:45 | |
The January jobs report came in stronger than expected, with 130,000 jobs added — nearly double what economists predicted. But a closer look reveals that most of that growth came from healthcare, raising questions about what the numbers actually signal for other industries. In this episode, Kelly and Sean dig into what the latest labor data means for advertising and marketing. They examine whether agency hiring is keeping pace with broader economic growth, explore correlations between ad spend and job postings, and discuss what forward booking data might reveal about where the industry is headed. They also tackle the bigger question looming over the labor market: how much of today’s hiring slowdown is cyclical… and how much could be tied to AI? From job revisions and offshoring to creative automation and “AI DR” culture pushback, this episode connects economic data to real-world industry implications. Key topics include: Why the January jobs report surprised economists Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and shared government roots If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 4: Publicis Q4 Performance, Olympic Ad Growth, and the Super Bowl Attention Battle | 11 Feb 2026 | 00:23:16 | |
Publicis closed out 2025 with strong fourth-quarter earnings, the Winter Olympics officially kicked off with unprecedented levels of coverage, and Super Bowl weekend arrived with a familiar twist: counterprogramming aimed at siphoning attention away from the halftime show. In this episode, Kelly and Sean switch up the format with a rapid-fire review of the biggest media headlines shaping the industry right now. The conversation unpacks what Publicis’ results do—and don’t—say about the health of advertising overall, why Olympic ad revenue growth can’t be separated from the explosion in programming hours and distribution, and how alternative Super Bowl programming fits into a long history of attention battles. Along the way, they connect these stories back to broader themes around media fragmentation, monetization, and how advertisers navigate moments of peak cultural focus. Key topics include: Publicis’ Q4 earnings and what they signal for agency holding companies Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Media Monitor If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 3: TikTok Uninstalls Are Rising and What It Means for Advertisers | 04 Feb 2026 | 00:17:56 | |
TikTok saw a sharp increase in app uninstalls in late January, and that trend could have real implications for advertisers. In this episode, Kelly and Sean break down what’s driving the spike, how different age groups are responding, and why this matters for media budgets. They revisit the last major period of TikTok uncertainty, when ad dollars were pulled and reallocated to other platforms, and compare it to what’s happening now. The conversation covers audience behavior shifts, advertiser risk tolerance, and where budgets are most likely to move if instability continues. Key topics include:
Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Media Monitor 01:42 Hosts Reconnect at Company Summit 02:30 TikTok's Uninstall Surge and Its Impact 04:19 Focus Groups on TikTok Usage 06:46 Historical Context of TikTok's Challenges 11:41 Advertisers' Response to TikTok Instability 15:15 Engagement and Closing Remarks If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 2: ChatGPT Ads Explained, What They Mean for Digital Advertising | 28 Jan 2026 | 00:31:41 | |
Advertising often reveals where the economy is heading before the headlines do. In this episode of Media Monitor, we break down one of the biggest advertising developments in years: OpenAI officially testing ads inside ChatGPT. We explore what this move means for advertisers, media companies, and brands trying to understand where digital budgets are shifting. Using real advertising data, we compare ChatGPT’s ad rollout to past platform launches and unpack realistic growth scenarios. Topics covered include:
Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Media Monitor 00:43 Weekly Market Breakdown 02:19 OpenAI's Ad Announcement 03:23 Analyzing the Impact of Ads on ChatGPT 06:08 Scenario Analysis: TikTok's Explosive Growth 19:46 Scenario Analysis: Meta's Steady Growth 26:10 Scenario Analysis: Hulu's First Mover Advantage 30:44 Conclusion and Future Insights If you work in advertising, media, or marketing, this episode offers a clear-eyed look at what ChatGPT ads could mean today and where the opportunity may land over the next several years. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 1: Why Svedka Is Betting on AI, Nostalgia, and a Super Bowl Ad | 21 Jan 2026 | 00:15:19 | |
Why would a vodka brand spend close to $9 million on a Super Bowl ad at a time when alcohol sales are slowing and advertising budgets are under pressure? In this episode, Kelly Sweeney and Sean Wright break down Svedka Vodka’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial and what it reveals about where advertising, culture, and brand strategy are heading. The conversation looks at why Svedka is leaning into AI-assisted creative, early-2010s internet nostalgia, and influencer-driven activation—while many brands are pulling back. Sean also walks through the real math behind Super Bowl advertising, explaining what return on ad spend actually looks like at that scale and why brands often treat the Super Bowl as a cultural signal rather than a direct sales play. This episode covers:
They also discuss broader Super Bowl advertising trends, the decline of liquor ads, rising NFL unit rates, and why brands continue to place massive bets on the biggest stage in media—even when the numbers don’t pencil out cleanly. If you’re interested in brand strategy, advertising economics, or how culture drives marketing decisions, this episode offers a clear, grounded look at what’s actually happening behind the scenes. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Podcast Theme Music Track | 22 Dec 2025 | 00:02:37 | |
This music Track will be officialy used by Media Monitor for all his content. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 8: Out-of-Home Advertising Trends: Why the U.S. Lags Global Markets | 11 Mar 2026 | 00:16:32 | |
Kelly and Sean examine global trends in out-of-home advertising, why the U.S. market trails international growth, and which industries are driving recent spending increases. Kelly and Sean begin the episode with a light conversation about long-running broadcast partnerships after a Western Australia news anchor duo set a Guinness World Record for more than 40 years and 10,000 broadcasts together. The discussion then shifts to the topic of out-of-home advertising and why the format continues to generate mixed reactions among U.S. marketers despite strong growth in many international markets. Using Guideline data, Sean explains how the U.S. market compares globally and why the share of out-of-home spending is significantly lower than in countries such as China and the United Kingdom. While the U.S. represents roughly 70% of total advertising spend in Guideline’s dataset, it accounts for only about 40% of out-of-home spending—suggesting the channel is more mature and widely adopted internationally. Kelly and Sean also explore structural reasons behind the difference, including geography, population density, transportation habits, and the pace of digital billboard adoption. Although out-of-home represents a smaller portion of the U.S. media mix, the format is still projected to grow in the coming year. The growth is being driven primarily by digital placements and by industries that benefit from location-based targeting. Key topics include:
Sean also highlights emerging spend patterns from industries such as insurance and legal sports betting, which increasingly rely on geographic targeting and regulatory considerations when placing out-of-home campaigns. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 9: Programmatic Advertising Benchmarks: DSP Trends, CTV Growth, and What’s Changing in 2026 | 18 Mar 2026 | 00:17:30 | |
Kelly and Sean break down Guideline’s new quarterly programmatic benchmark report, explain how DSPs fit into the media buying ecosystem, and share the latest trends in programmatic, CTV, and streaming. Programmatic advertising plays a growing role in digital media buying, but it is still one of the more misunderstood parts of the industry. In this episode, Kelly and Sean use Guideline’s newly announced quarterly programmatic benchmark report as a starting point for a practical discussion on what programmatic actually is, how DSPs work, and what the latest benchmark data suggests about the market. They begin by defining programmatic at a high level: automated buying and selling of digital media, often built around audience targeting, pricing efficiency, and near real-time optimization. From there, Sean explains why this episode focuses specifically on DSPs, or demand-side platforms, which are the tools buyers use to purchase programmatic inventory. The conversation then turns to the benchmark findings. Sean shares that programmatic saw very strong growth through 2024, though the pace slowed through 2025 as the market matured and economic pressure weighed on ad spend. They discuss how much of that activity is tied to streaming and connected TV, and why the growth pattern looks different now that most large streaming platforms already offer ad-supported products. They also look at category-level movement, with telecom, insurance, and quick-service restaurants increasing programmatic spend, while categories such as alcohol, toys, and games have pulled back. Kelly and Sean then walk through the current split between programmatic and direct buying, why programmatic has remained near 30% of market activity, and why Sean expects that share to move higher in 2026. The episode closes with a closer look at buying methods inside the programmatic ecosystem, including private marketplaces, programmatic guaranteed, and the open marketplace, along with a request for listener feedback on where the programmatic series should go next.
00:00 Spotify reviews and why the episode topic matters If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 10: TV vs Streaming in 2025: Cord Cutting, Live Sports Growth, and What’s Next for 2026 | 25 Mar 2026 | 00:20:23 | |
Six years after COVID reshaped media consumption, the TV industry is still adjusting to the changes that followed. In this episode, Kelly and Sean walk through how the balance between linear TV and streaming flipped, what has happened since, and what the data suggests for the year ahead.
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Meta & YouTube Lawsuit: Will Social Media Finally Face Consequences? | 08 Apr 2026 | 00:13:50 | |
A recent jury verdict against Meta and Google has reignited a long-running debate: are social media platforms simply hosting content, or are they designed in ways that can cause harm? In this episode, Kelly and Sean break down the case, the broader legal context, and what it could mean for the advertising industry. The ruling found that platform design—features like endless scroll and autoplay—played a role in addictive behavior and worsening mental health for a young user. It’s part of a growing wave of over 2,000 similar cases targeting how these platforms operate, not just the content they host. But here’s the key question: will anything actually change? Looking back over the past decade, both Meta and YouTube have faced repeated controversies—from data privacy issues to concerns about youth safety. Despite this, advertising spend has continued to grow. Sean shares data showing that across dozens of major scandals, platform revenue and ad spend not only held steady—they increased. So why does advertising remain resilient? The answer comes down to scale, targeting, and efficiency. These platforms still offer unmatched reach and performance, making them difficult for advertisers to replace. That said, this moment may still be different. The volume of legal cases, combined with growing public scrutiny, suggests potential pressure ahead. Kelly and Sean outline two key indicators to watch:
They also touch on how evolving AI-driven ad tools may impact pricing and performance, adding another layer to watch. The episode closes with a simple takeaway: history suggests stability—but the scale of what’s happening now makes this worth monitoring closely.
00:00 Intro & spring break check-in If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 11: How Oil, LNG, and Unemployment Impact Ad Spend (What to Watch in 2026) | 01 Apr 2026 | 00:21:07 | |
Economic headlines are everywhere—but how do they actually impact advertising? In this episode, Kelly and Sean unpack three key indicators—oil prices, liquid natural gas (LNG), and unemployment—and explain how each one connects to ad spend, media planning, and category performance. They start with oil, often treated as a leading economic signal. While rising oil prices affect everything from transportation to manufacturing, the impact on advertising isn’t immediate. Sean explains why ad spend typically lags behind economic shifts, sometimes by several months, due to the long cycle of campaign planning and execution. From there, the discussion moves into which industries are most sensitive to oil-related changes. Travel, restaurants, personal care, and automotive brands tend to react faster than others, making them useful signals when tracking broader market shifts. The conversation then shifts to LNG, which is closely tied to oil production but behaves differently in terms of global supply and pricing. While LNG volatility can influence certain sectors, its impact on advertising tends to be more indirect and limited to specific categories like insurance, restaurants, and alcohol. Finally, Kelly and Sean focus on unemployment—highlighting it as the most important metric to watch. Unlike oil or gas, unemployment reflects broader economic health and has a much stronger and more immediate relationship with advertising budgets. Even small increases can trigger meaningful changes across multiple industries. They close by discussing what to expect in the coming months, including how major events like the World Cup may temporarily mask underlying trends in ad spend.
00:00 Intro and NYC client presentations If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Media Headlines Breakdown: OpenAI Lawsuit, iHeart & SiriusXM, Social Media Bans, and Amsterdam Ads | 06 May 2026 | 00:20:47 | |
In this episode, Kelly and Sean step back from deep dives and return to a broader format—reviewing several major headlines shaping the media and advertising landscape right now.
Key Topics Covered If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Sports Advertising Trends 2026: Streaming Growth, NFL, NBA, and Olympics Insights | 29 Apr 2026 | 00:21:14 | |
Kelly and Sean break down how advertising is evolving across major sports—from the Olympics to the NFL and NBA—and why streaming continues to reshape how brands reach audiences.
In this episode, Kelly and Sean take a closer look at how advertising is shifting across the sports landscape in early 2026, using recent data and real-world examples to unpack what’s changing and why. They begin with a lighter moment on sports viewing habits before moving into a structured breakdown of major events and leagues, including the Olympics, NFL, NBA, and NHL. From there, the conversation focuses on one consistent theme: streaming is expanding quickly, while traditional TV remains steady but slower-growing. The Olympics serve as a strong example, with streaming now accounting for a significantly larger share of ad revenue compared to prior years. At the same time, linear TV still plays a meaningful role, showing that audience behavior is evolving rather than fully shifting. Kelly and Sean also discuss how advertisers are adapting their buying strategies. One standout approach is multi-sport programmatic buying, where brands target audiences across a range of sports content instead of focusing on a single league. This method offers flexibility and efficiency while still capturing engaged viewers. The episode closes with a look at which industries are increasing investment in sports—such as tech and pharma—and which are showing more caution, along with a brief outlook on what upcoming global events may mean for the market. Key Topics Covered
Want deeper insights into sports and advertising trends? Reach out at press@guideline.ai to learn more. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Programmatic Advertising Part 2: SSP Trends, CTV Growth, and What Q1 Data Shows | 22 Apr 2026 | 00:19:00 | |
In part two of their programmatic advertising series, Kelly and Sean shift from the demand side to the supply side, breaking down what SSPs are, how they function, and what the latest Q1 data says about where programmatic is heading. They begin with a practical explanation of the supply-side platform: the technology publishers use to make ad inventory available to buyers in the programmatic marketplace. If DSPs help advertisers buy, SSPs help publishers sell. From there, the conversation moves into one of the more striking shifts in the market — the growing role of programmatic in connected TV. Sean explains how streaming inventory has moved away from direct sales and toward a more automated buying model. Just a few years ago, only a minority of CTV dollars flowed programmatically. Today, many platforms are approaching a much more balanced split, and some are already heavily programmatic. Kelly and Sean then zoom out to the broader Q1 picture. They discuss how programmatic growth has moderated from the very high levels seen a year ago, why that slowdown makes sense, and what factors are contributing to it — from market maturity to slower expansion in ad-supported streaming inventory. The episode also touches on category-level changes, with pharmaceuticals standing out as a notable growth area, and closes with a look at the biggest DSP players globally, including DV360, Trade Desk, and Amazon.
00:00 Intro and spring break recap If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Retail Media Networks Explained: Why Amazon, Walmart & Uber Are Winning Ad Dollars | 15 Apr 2026 | 00:21:09 | |
Retail media networks have quietly become one of the most important forces in advertising. In this episode, Kelly and Sean break down what retail media actually is, why it’s growing, and where it may be heading next. At its core, a retail media network allows retailers to sell advertising using their own customer data—whether that’s on their website, app, or even in-store screens. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are leading the way, using shopper behavior to deliver highly targeted ads. But the real story is in the growth. Retail media accounted for roughly 15% of total U.S. media growth last year, making it one of the most impactful drivers in the industry. So why is it working? Two major factors:
From an advertiser perspective, that combination is hard to ignore. The episode also explores how the space is evolving:
At the same time, signs of maturity are starting to appear:
So where does growth come from next? Sean outlines three emerging directions:
The takeaway: retail media isn’t slowing—but it is changing.
00:00 Intro & Trader Joe’s story If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Auto Advertising Slows While Pharma Faces a Major Shift | 12 May 2026 | 00:21:04 | |
This week, Kelly and Sean take a category-focused approach, diving into two major sectors shaping the advertising market: automotive and pharmaceutical advertising.
Additional topics include:
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Upfronts, Streaming & Why TV Advertising Is Starting to Look Like Cable Again | 20 May 2026 | 00:16:59 | |
What are the TV Upfronts, and why do they still matter in the streaming era? In this episode, Kelly and Sean break down how television advertising, streaming platforms, and digital media buying continue to evolve in 2026. From traditional TV Upfronts to modern NewFronts, they explain why streaming services are increasingly adopting strategies that resemble the cable television model many thought had disappeared. The conversation covers the economics behind streaming advertising, why advertisers still reserve inventory months in advance, how connected TV (CTV) changed media buying, and why consumers may now be paying for “cable with extra steps.” Kelly and Sean also discuss:
If you work in advertising, media, streaming, digital strategy, or marketing analytics, this episode offers a practical breakdown of where the industry is heading next. Key Topics Covered
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Why Publicis Bought LiveRamp — Identity Data, AI & the Future of Advertising | 27 May 2026 | 00:21:31 | |
Publicis just made one of the biggest advertising acquisitions in years — purchasing identity platform LiveRamp in a $2.54 billion all-cash deal.
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| NFL Advertising Hits Record Highs: What’s Driving Nearly $6 Billion in Revenue? | 03 Jun 2026 | 00:27:00 | |
The NFL continues to dominate live sports advertising. In this episode, Kelly and Sean break down Guideline’s latest NFL Advertising Report, examining the trends, categories, teams, and schedule changes shaping one of the most valuable advertising properties in the world. The NFL generated nearly $6 billion in advertising revenue last season, marking another record year of growth. Kelly and Sean discuss what is fueling that growth, how playoff matchups impact revenue, why certain teams consistently attract advertiser dollars, and what the league's newest scheduling changes could mean for advertisers in the upcoming season. The conversation also explores:
Whether you're an advertiser, marketer, media planner, sports executive, or simply interested in the business behind professional sports, this episode provides a data-backed look at how the NFL continues to drive massive audience attention and advertising investment. Key Topics Covered
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| AI, IPOs & Advertising: What Happens When AI Giants Go Public? | 10 Jun 2026 | 00:27:20 | |
AI continues to dominate headlines—but is the advertising industry becoming more cautious? In this episode of Media Monitor, Kelly and Sean examine a series of major developments shaping the future of artificial intelligence and advertising. From Anthropic’s IPO plans and OpenAI’s advertising strategy to the surprising shift in AI conversations at Cannes Lions, the discussion explores how the industry’s perspective on AI may be evolving. The conversation covers:
As AI companies move toward public markets and face increasing pressure to generate revenue, advertisers, agencies, and marketers will need to understand how these platforms evolve—and what role advertising will play in their future. Key Topics Covered
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| How The New York Times Is Winning in Advertising (While Everyone Else Struggles) | 17 Jun 2026 | 00:14:56 | |
Most media companies are fighting declining advertising revenue. The New York Times is moving in the opposite direction. In this episode of Media Monitor, Kelly and Sean launch a new deep-dive series by examining one of the most successful media businesses today. Using Guideline's advertising intelligence alongside The New York Times' public financial reporting, they break down where the company's advertising growth is really coming from—and why it continues to outperform much of the industry. Topics include:
Whether you're a marketer, publisher, agency leader, or media executive, this episode offers a practical look inside one of the industry's strongest advertising businesses. Key Takeaways
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| NBA Finals, Fox + Roku & World Cup Ads: The Biggest Media Stories This Week | 24 Jun 2026 | 00:20:44 | |
Sports, streaming, and advertising continue to reshape the media landscape—and this week delivered plenty to discuss.
Articles referenced in the episode: https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/future-of-tv-briefing-fox-finds-its-programmatic-identify-in-roku/ https://www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/the-3-biggest-questions-from-fox-and-rokus-22-billion-deal/ If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Why Meta Wants Prediction Markets | The $50M Advertising Opportunity Nobody Saw Coming | 01 Jul 2026 | 00:21:05 | |
Prediction markets are rapidly moving from niche platforms into the mainstream—and advertisers are following.
Articles referenced in this episode: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/technology/meta-prediction-markets-app.html If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Why Brands Pay Millions for World Cup Sponsorships | The Hidden Value of Sports MarketingWhy Brands Pay Millions for World Cup Sponsorships | The Hidden Value of Sports Marketing | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:23:01 | |
Why are brands willing to spend millions sponsoring global sporting events? In this episode of Media Monitor, Kelly Sweeney and Sean Wright examine the economics behind sports sponsorships during the FIFA Club World Cup and explain why sponsorship continues to outperform many traditional brand marketing investments. They discuss why companies are paying premium prices for World Cup advertising, how sponsorship drives brand awareness in an increasingly crowded media environment, and why marketers continue shifting budgets toward high-profile live events. The conversation also covers:
Whether you work in advertising, media buying, sponsorship, or brand strategy, this episode offers valuable perspective on where marketing investment is heading. In this episode:
Articles Refrenced in this episode: If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| What Advertisers Should Buy Now—and What Can Wait in Q4 | 29 Jul 2026 | 00:25:18 | |
When should advertisers lock in Q4 media—and where could waiting actually pay off? In Episode 28 of Media Monitor, Kelly Sweeney and Sean Wright use Guideline’s forward-booking, ad spend, and pricing data to look ahead at the Q4 advertising market and assess where demand is building, where prices are rising, and where buyers may still have room to wait. Sean frames the discussion as a media version of buy, sell, or hold. Retail media is one area where the data points toward buying earlier. After six consecutive quarters of price growth, demand remains strong heading toward the holiday period, when retailers face some of their heaviest advertising activity of the year. Programmatic CTV is showing similar pressure, with demand and pricing moving higher. Direct-buy CTV, however, tells a somewhat different story, with flatter conditions and some indications that buyers could find opportunities later. Traditional television presents another contrast. Scatter pricing is declining, spend is softening heading into Q4, and—with the exception of major properties such as the NFL—advertisers may have more flexibility around when they commit. Then there’s social. Spend continues to grow while pricing has been declining, creating a different buying dynamic in a channel where inventory is far less constrained. Kelly and Sean also discuss digital out-of-home, the potential effect of U.S. midterm election spending on local media and CTV inventory, and what these shifts could mean for planners building Q4 media strategies now. Before getting into the data, they cover several media and technology headlines, including OpenAI’s agreement with Yelp, the decline in referral traffic as AI increasingly answers searches directly, machine-readable web content, Google’s regulatory pressure in Europe—and Jimothy, the unusually round raccoon that somehow made its way into the conversation. In this episode: • What Guideline’s forward-booking data indicates about Q4 advertising Media Monitor breaks down what’s happening across media and advertising and explains what the data may mean for brands, agencies, publishers, and the wider industry.
Referenced articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/style/jimothy-raccoon-seattle-videos.html If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Media Monitor's Conversations at Cannes: Metrics that Matter with Preeti | 28 Jul 2026 | 00:11:24 | |
AI is giving marketers faster access to data and insights. But having more data doesn’t automatically lead to better decisions. In this episode of Media Monitor's Conversations at Cannes, Guideline Chief Product Officer Steve Silvers sits down with Preeti Croke of Analytic Partners to discuss how AI is changing marketing measurement, why ROI requires more context than a single number, and what happens when marketing, finance, and analytics aren’t working from the same definition of success. Preeti shares how Analytic Partners is using AI through tools such as Ask Genome to make insights more accessible and decisioning AI to support scenario planning in an increasingly uncertain market. The conversation then turns to a bigger measurement challenge: despite the amount of data available to marketers, marketing investment can still be perceived as less data-driven than other business decisions. The issue may not be a lack of data. It may be a lack of shared language. Steve and Preeti discuss why CMOs, CFOs, finance teams, and analytics leaders need to agree on the business outcomes they are trying to influence before deciding which metrics matter. They also discuss why measurement should account for far more than advertising alone, from competitive conditions and pricing to broader economic and market forces. In this conversation: • How Analytic Partners is applying AI to marketing intelligence Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes is a special summer series featuring conversations with media and advertising leaders about the ideas shaping the future of the industry. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Why Advertising Growth Is Slowing Despite a Huge Year for Media | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:23:46 | |
The first half of 2026 delivered the Olympics, a resurgent NBA Finals, the FIFA World Cup, and continued growth across streaming and digital media. Yet advertising spend grew just 4% year over year—well below the roughly 10% growth Guideline has historically seen in comparable event-heavy years. In this episode of Media Monitor, Kelly Sweeney and Sean Wright break down what Guideline’s data says about the first half of 2026, where advertising dollars are moving, which categories are gaining or cutting spend, and why major tentpole events haven’t been enough to produce a stronger market. They examine continued weakness among automakers, growth from AI and SaaS advertisers, social media’s strong first half, CTV’s continued gains, the shift of World Cup dollars from linear television toward streaming, and the surprising resilience of out-of-home advertising. Sean also looks ahead to the second half of 2026, including the effects of softer consumer spending, inflationary pressure, political advertising, and the early testing of AI search as a new advertising channel. Plus: why advertisers may be able to use AI to move faster, while consumer behavior still moves at the “speed of human.” What You’ll Hear
Chapters: 00:00 Welcome and Banter 00:20 Lighting Nerd Out 01:51 Film Lighting Origins 03:40 Family Pool Drama 04:15 Elle TV Recommendation 05:49 First Half Ad Market 08:27 Upfronts Quiet Signal 09:27 Category Winners Losers 12:08 Media Mix Shifts 15:02 Out of Home Surge 17:02 Second Half Outlook 19:36 AI Search Ad Tests 22:28 Speed of Human Wrap 23:35 Closing and Subscribe If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| 3 Common Threads That Kept Coming Up | Conversations at Cannes | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:21:30 | |
Welcome to the first episode of Media Monitor: Conversations in Cannes — a special mini-series featuring industry leaders sharing their predictions for the future of media, advertising, AI, data, and marketing. Recorded during Cannes Lions, these conversations brought together executives from across the advertising ecosystem to discuss where the industry is headed next. Before releasing those interviews, Kelly Sweeney and Sean Wright step back to identify the biggest themes that consistently emerged across every conversation. Three major ideas stood out. 🤖 AI is becoming a human-led tool. The conversation around AI has matured. Rather than replacing marketers and creative teams, industry leaders are focused on using AI to help people work faster, think better, and execute more efficiently while keeping human creativity at the center. 🎯 The Addressable Audience The ability to reach the right people, at the right time, with the right message has become one of the industry's biggest competitive advantages. Better audience intelligence, first-party data, and smarter targeting are reshaping how brands build meaningful customer relationships. 📊 Metrics That Matter The industry is moving beyond tracking KPIs simply because they exist. Today's marketing leaders are asking a more important question: Which metrics actually predict business growth? The conversations repeatedly emphasized measuring outcomes that create meaningful results instead of chasing vanity metrics. Throughout the episode, Kelly and Sean share highlights from conversations with leaders across media, advertising, retail media, analytics, and technology, including executives from Rumble, Albertsons Media Collective, WPP, Analytic Partners, Prisma, and more. If you work in advertising, media, analytics, brand marketing, or digital strategy, this episode offers a preview of the biggest ideas you'll hear throughout the Media Monitor: Conversations in Cannes series.
Questions or feedback? 📩 press@guideline.ai If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Media Monitor’s Conversation at Cannes| Why AI Still Needs a System of Record| Drew Kane | 31 Jul 2026 | 00:14:51 | |
AI may be reshaping media planning and buying, but not every business problem requires an AI solution. In this episode of Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes, Guideline Chief Product Officer Steve Silvers speaks with Drew Kane, Chief Product Officer for Prisma at Mediaocean, about media workflow automation, agentic buying, and why trusted systems of record become even more valuable as machines make more decisions. The conversation begins with Prisma’s role as a financial, contractual, and workflow system supporting the media industry from planning through payment. Drew explains how Mediaocean’s wider portfolio—including Prisma, Innovid, and Protected Media—helps agencies and advertisers manage creative workflows, buying, verification, and financial accountability. Steve and Drew then discuss the new integration between Guideline’s MediaTools and Prisma. While information has moved between the two platforms for years, the new API integration reduces manual work and helps keep planning and execution data synchronised. Objectives and budgets can flow more directly from MediaTools into Prisma, with actualised results moving back through the workflow. The result is less friction, fewer manual errors, and more time for teams to focus on business outcomes. Their discussion then turns to AI. At Cannes, many companies are trying to apply AI to nearly every workflow. Drew argues for a more disciplined approach: begin with the business outcome, then choose the appropriate technology. Sometimes that means an AI agent. Sometimes it means an MCP-enabled workflow. And sometimes a deterministic API is still the better answer. Steve and Drew also examine the emerging world of buyer and seller agents, where systems could identify inventory, exchange campaign requirements, and accelerate media transactions. But as the number and speed of automated decisions increase, so does the need for governance. Someone still has to track what was approved, where the money went, what changed, and whether the advertiser received the expected value. That is where systems of record become essential. In this conversation: • What Prisma does across the media planning-to-payment workflow Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes is a special series featuring leaders across advertising, media, measurement, and technology discussing the ideas shaping the future of the industry. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Media Monitor’s Conversation at Cannes| AI Won't Replace Human Creativity| Jonathan Anastas (Rumble) | 31 Jul 2026 | 00:11:20 | |
Jonathan Anastas, Chief Marketing Officer, at Rumble, joins Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes to discuss why AI won't replace human creativity—but instead make it even more valuable.
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Ep 29: YouTube, AI Search & the Ad Inventory Gap in Women’s Sports | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:24:30 | |
YouTube, AI search, data centers, and women’s sports may look like separate stories. Together, they reveal how quickly media distribution and advertising access are changing.
Digital publishers are reporting weaker referral traffic as AI-generated search summaries answer more questions without sending users to the original source. Sean compares those reports with Guideline’s UK advertising data and considers why major publishers with strong brands and original reporting may be holding up better than smaller sites built around search traffic.
In this episode:
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Media Monitor’s Conversation at Cannes| The Agentic Future of Media Buying with WPP’s Devon DeBlasio | 09 Aug 2026 | 00:18:18 | |
AI agents may automate more of media buying, but WPP’s Devon DeBlasio believes people still need to remain at the helm.
A central question runs through the discussion: The conversation then turns to audience strategy. With large pools of historical performance data and increasingly capable models, agencies may be able to create more tailored growth audiences instead of relying as heavily on standardized audience segments. Steve and Devon also look at a newer question for marketers: What happens when the entity you need to influence is an AI agent? Consumers are increasingly asking systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for product recommendations. That creates a new brand challenge around how a company appears inside AI-generated responses, which signals shape those recommendations, and how marketers might influence brand perception in an agentic environment. The discussion closes with data literacy. Natural-language interfaces may make sophisticated analytics accessible to more marketers, but easier access to data does not remove the need for consistent measurement, shared definitions, sound governance, and human judgment. In this episode:
Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes is a special summer series featuring conversations with leaders across media, advertising, data, and technology.
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| Media Monitor’s Conversation at Cannes| Is Advertising Losing Sight of What Actually Works? | 09 Aug 2026 | 00:23:18 | |
Advertising has more data, targeting, platforms and measurement than ever. Yet one question keeps surfacing: Are those capabilities actually helping marketers build stronger businesses?
From there, the conversation turns toward effectiveness. Years of increasingly granular attribution and performance measurement have encouraged marketers to optimize around clicks, CPMs, conversions and other immediately measurable outcomes. Justin argues that this can create a short-term feedback loop in which marketers optimize what is easiest to measure rather than what creates future demand. Advertising, in his view, should help businesses and categories grow. Steve and Justin close by discussing a possible shift back toward fundamentals—better marketing education, stronger measurement, quality media, demand generation and creative work that connects with people. The tools have changed. The fundamental business question has not: What is the advertising supposed to accomplish?
Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes is a special summer series featuring conversations with leaders across media and advertising.
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||
| What Ad Spend Concentration Can Tell Us About What Comes Next |E30 | 12 Aug 2026 | 00:15:51 | |
Advertising spend can be growing while the market underneath it is becoming more fragile. In this episode of Media Monitor, Kelly Sweeney gives Sean Wright a new goal: create an index important enough to have his name attached to it. Sean may already have a starting point. Inspired by a discussion of market concentration and monopoly measurement, Sean applies similar mathematical thinking to Guideline’s advertising data to ask a different question: How much of advertising growth is being driven by only a small number of categories? Guideline tracks 89 advertising subcategories. Rather than looking only at the headline growth rate for the market, Sean examines how widely that growth is distributed. If many categories are contributing, the market appears more balanced. If one or two categories account for a disproportionate share of incremental spending, the headline number may hide more risk than it reveals. Sean explains that early analysis suggests the concentration of advertising growth may be strongly associated with what happens in the market roughly 11 to 12 months later. That creates potential applications for agencies, publishers, advertisers, and anyone trying to assess the health of advertising demand. The current picture provides an interesting example: advertising growth is concentrated among relatively few categories, while spending declines are spread across a broader group. For Sean, that combination suggests more risk beneath the headline growth number than the topline figure alone would indicate. Kelly and Sean discuss how a concentration index could help agencies think about negotiations, publishers assess revenue exposure, and industry leaders get a faster read on market conditions without having to interpret dozens of category trends individually. The conversation also introduces the idea of publishing the new indicator as a recurring Guideline market measure—with the final name still very much up for debate. And, naturally, Jimothy the raccoon makes another appearance. In this episode: • How market concentration can reveal risk that topline ad growth misses Media Monitor breaks down what’s happening across media and advertising and explains what the data actually means. If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations on advertising, media strategy, and cultural marketing moments. And if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a quick rating or review helps more people discover the show. | |||