The Campaign Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

As the "happy new years" ring out, what resolutions are those in adland setting for 2026?

Last year unleashed a relentless wave of change across the advertising and media industry, from agency mergers and closing shops to restructures, the growing prominence of social and tech platforms, and some great creative work. 

Now, in 2026, Campaign begins the year with a look at what adland’s new year resolutions should be, what the industry should give up and what is coming up in 2026. Over the next few weeks, Campaign is releasing essays on the year ahead and the top agencies to watch.

Editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier, deputy creativity and culture editor Charlotte Rawlings and deputy media editor Shauna Lewis join the episode, hosted by tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley.

Further reading:

The Year Ahead 2026: Media agencies

The Year Ahead 2026: Strategy

The Lists 2025: Top 20 film ads

The Lists 2024: Top 10 campaigns

Has 2025 been the year for independent agencies?

Traitor or faithful – what will adland remember about 2025?

Will the new Omnicom work?

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WPP, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom, Interpublic, Havas and Dentsu have hitherto been known to adland as the "big six". However, the past year has brought the announcement of a proposed merger between Omnicom and IPG, while Havas and Dentsu have become comparatively smaller.

So, the "big six" become the "big three", but is there another challenger? Accenture Song's latest results reported revenues of $20bn (£15bn) in the 12 months to August, putting it on par with Omnicom’s $16bn, Publicis’ €16bn ($19bn) and WPP’s £15bn ($20bn). The business has picked up the $42m media account for Optus in Australia and remains in the running for Jaguar Land Rover’s global integrated marketing account.

With significant changes among the biggest holding companies continuing to shift the advertising landscape, some have questioned whether it is the end of the "big six", heralding the start of a new "big four". In this week's episode of The Campaign Podcast, Campaign's editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier, UK editor Maisie McCabe and media editor Beau Jackson, examine the potential outcomes. The episode is hosted by tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley.

Further reading:

Accenture is at a crossroads for its global agency ambitions

What's next for Accenture Song? CEO Ndidi Oteh at Campaign Live

‘Song is changing Accenture’: CEO Ndidi Oteh on media, M&A and ‘Big Four’ agency rivalry

Omnicom now ‘confident’ IPG deal will close in November as EU approval nears

Yannick Bolloré on Havas’ Q3 ‘acceleration’, Dentsu’s assets and being ‘open’ to M&A

Havas ‘could be interested’ to buy or partner with some of Dentsu’s international assets

Arthur Sadoun on why Publicis is ‘winning’ and how ‘struggling’ rivals have dragged down agency valuations

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Campaign's premium content editor Nicola Merrifield is joined by the four companies that won in their category for company size in the annual Best Places to Work scheme.

On this episode of the podcast we hear from Bath-based digital agency Bind Media, which ranked first among boutique workplaces, plus adtech companies Mobsta and Blis – which came top in the small and large categories – and ad agency RPM, winning in the medium group.

The guests cover everything from staff feedback to moving office, plus their approach to managing employees' workload. 

Further reading:

Meet the winners of Campaign's Best Places to Work 2024 

Top five boutique companies

Top five small companies 

Top five medium companies

Top five large companies 

Best Places to Work: how mentally healthy workforces win

Best Places to Work: Employees pinpoint where their bosses succeed

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Campaign's editorial team takes you behind the week's biggest headlines, with the views from our news desks. Hosted by tech editor Lucy Shelley, media editor Beau Jackson and reporter Charlotte Rawlings discuss all things media and creativity.

We delve into the breaking news of Natalie Cummins leaving Zenith UK and the speculation surrounding the rival agency she'll go to next. Plus, Jackson explains the leadership shuffle that Cummins has left in her wake as Sannah Rogers and Jon Stevens, managing directors of Zenith UK, have stepped up to lead the agency following her departure.

In other breaking news, a very popular story closed the month with L'Oréal UK and Ireland switching its £220m media account to a new agency.

Covering creativity, Rawlings talks through Leo Burnett's first work for Vodafone UK after the hotly contested pitch last year.

Plus, we talk through the beginning of Pride Month with a black and white campaign from Pride in London and Jackson goes head-to-head with AI in light of adland's response to Mark Read's deepfake debacle.

Further reading:

Total Media acquired by Serviceplan Group’s Mediaplus

MediaSense to acquire PwC UK team

Ad industry bodies criticise Edinburgh OOH ban

BBH opens applications for next Barn cohort

Supercell signs up Chris Hemsworth and Christina Ricci for star-studded ads

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Ahead of this year’s Cannes Lions festival of creativity, media editor Beau Jackson and senior media reporter Shauna Lewis are joined by Michelle Sarpong of the7stars and Charlene Williams from Pearl & Dean.

Speaking of attending the festival in 2022 and 2023, Sarpong and Williams discuss personal experiences of prejudice, exploring the challenge of inclusivity at the festival and in advertising as a whole. 

Themes of tokenism, siloing and the importance of growing diverse spaces and allyship are covered with their hopes for how the festival continues to evolve, improving its access and opportunity.

Further reading:

Did Cannes live up to your hope of a more inclusive festival?

#CannesForAll returns to take two cohorts of diverse talent to Cannes Lions

Let's design Cannes for inclusion

Cannes is upping its accessibility accommodations — but there’s more to be done

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For Campaigns 21st Media 360 event, adland descended on Brighton's waterfront at The Grand Hotel for two days to learn how to take risks and reap the rewards in media and advertising.

Fresh Air, the production partner on stage at Media 360, has asked speakers and members of the audience for their hot takes and top tips from event.

This episode is hosted by Michaela Hallam and produced by Clara Kavanagh and Neil Cowling of Fresh Air. 

Guests featured include:

Maisie McCabe and Gideon Spanier from Campaign UK

Jeremy Kanter from Fever Tree,

Zoe Harris from On the Beach,

Samuel Hunt from Lloyds,

Clare Chapman from EssenceMediacomX,

Dan Daly from Halfords,

Gabriella Neudecker from Easyjet,

Neil Harrison from VirginMediaO2,

Arjoon Bose of General Mills,

Dan Geneen from The British Heart Foundation,

Alice Tendler from OVO,

Elliott Millard from Wavemaker,

Helen Saul from Shelter,

Susanne Nowak from Mondelez and

Sam McAllister, one of our key-note speakers. 

We also catch up with our two hosts of the conference, Natalie Bell from MG OMD and Enyi Nwosu from UM London. 

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In this special episode, recorded live at Campaign’s Media360 event in Brighton, the Media Week gang discuss all the highlights from this year’s show, as well as Netflix’s adtech play, Samsung’s creativity clap-back, devious deepfake scams, ROI research and social addiction. 

Hosted by Bukky from Wavemaker, Charlie from ShowHeroes and Jack from Craft Media.

Figures quoted in the MediaWeek podcast were accurate at the time of recording.

Rather than submitting a regular Media Anon (although you can still do that if you want to), we'd like to hear some of your Media Lunch stories. Submit them anonymously here: https://forms.gle/vdne4whY4zeUz1rM9

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Yesterday (22 May), Rishi Sunak announced that the UK general election will take place in six weeks, on 4 July.

Marking the upcoming elections on both sides of the Atlantic, Campaign's annual Media 360 event hosted a political debate on 21 May featuring Allison Phillips, former editor-in-chief of The Mirror, who moderated Camilla Tominey, associate editor, politics and royals at The Daily Telegraph, and Pippa Crerar, political editor at The Guardian.

The theme of this year's event was risk, and in this session the trio discussed the issues they believe will define the General Election, and consider what our political landscape is likely to look like in its aftermath. They questioned whether Trump really can win in the US again and debate the mounting threats to global security.  

Gideon Spanier, Campaign's UK editor-in-chief, introduced the panel with some poignant words on advertisers' dual responsibility: journalism is a great place to advertise because its trusted, but advertisers should also support journalism because it is a civic good.

Thank you to Newsworks for helping make this session happen.

Campaign's tech editor Lucy Shelley and senior media reporter Shauna Lewis begin the episode with the top takeaway from the event.

Further reading:

UK is trailing behind US in podcast advertising, says Goalhanger founder

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Campaign's editorial team take you through some of the biggest stories of the week with the views from their news desks.

The team discusses Asda's brand refresh and the use of humour in the supermarket category, how Shell and Havas were targeted by Brandalism in an out-of-home protest and adland's answers to Campaign's question of the week where we asked how big of a problem is brands pitching for free ideas.

Taking you through the headlines and top stories, this episode is hosted by tech editor Lucy Shelley, joined by reporter Charlotte Rawlings and deputy news editor Marianne Calnan.

Further reading:

Halfords appoints media planning and buying agency to £20m account

Assembly poaches managing partner from Group M

Group M broadens remit of Wavemaker global chief Toby Jenner

Craig Inglis re-emerges as Merlin Entertainment’s first CMO

Mother hires creative directors from Adam & Eve/DDB and Droga5

Monzo unveils debut work by Uncommon Creative Studio

East midlands appoints five agencies to roster

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