Ad Age Ad Lib

Ad Age Ad Lib

Ad Age

Ad Lib features unscripted conversations with some of the biggest personalities in media and marketing, speaking off the cuff with Ad Age editors and reporters. The goal here is to do away with spin and jargon, and get to know some of the more influential and innovative people in this space — and understand the humans behind the titles. 

Why Rick Astley is never gonna give up snacks or drums

Why Rick Astley is never gonna give up snacks or drums

The 80s pop star takes a break from shooting a Frito-Lay commercial to discuss the music industry, becoming a meme, and what he's been up to during the pandemic.

Dec 16, 2020 • 39:31

How The Lincoln Project’s endless stream of viral ads were actually made (in record time)

How The Lincoln Project’s endless stream of viral ads were actually made (in record time)

Ben Howe of Howe Creative, one of The Lincoln Project’s key video collaborators, on the making of ‘Mourning in America’—and what it takes to go viral

Dec 11, 2020 • 41:00

Behind Hendrick's Gin's quirky ad approach

Behind Hendrick's Gin's quirky ad approach

On this week's episode of Ad Lib, E.J. Schultz is joined by Harvey Purchese, senior VP of marketing at liquor marketer William Grant & Sons. We get behind Hendrick's quirky ad approach, which has included stunts like the "Hendrick’s High Wheel,” a decidedly old-fashioned exercise bike. It's part of the brand’s Luddite marketing shtick, which has included the Horatio, a “somewhat smart” speaker and the Hendrick’s Streaming Service, which consists of videos of actual streams—yes, running water.

Dec 3, 2020 • 29:51

Behind Calm's unexpected Election Night win

Behind Calm's unexpected Election Night win

In this week's episode Ad Age's Jeanine Poggi is joined by Katie Shill, senior director of brand marketing at Calm. The meditation app won election night with its sponsorship of CNN’s “Key Race” alerts, encouraging viewers to take a break and find a moment of calm. Shill discusses how the sponsorship came together, results of the buy and how the meditation company plans to sustain the momentum moving into 2021.

Nov 24, 2020 • 28:49

How Activision Blizzard found success amid a global pandemic

How Activision Blizzard found success amid a global pandemic

On this week's episode of Ad Age Ad Lib, senior editor Jeanine Poggi speaks with Brandon Snow, senior VP, chief revenue officer, esports, Activision Blizzard. Pandemic lockdowns were a boon for esports, with viewers flocking to gaming as other live sports and entertainment were shut down. Activision Blizzard was one of the benefactors of the pandemic, garnering impressive momentum around its leagues, including the inaugural season of the Call of Duty league.

Nov 19, 2020 • 32:37

How streaming news channels made their mark in the 2020 election

How streaming news channels made their mark in the 2020 election

On this week's episode of Ad Age Ad Lib, senior editor Jeanine Poggi speaks with Christy Tanner, executive VP and general manager of CBS News Digital, and Elaine Quijano, anchor, CBSN, about the state of the streaming news marketplace.

Nov 12, 2020 • 22:18

How to not miss the mark in multicultural marketing

How to not miss the mark in multicultural marketing

Senior editor Jeanine Poggi and agency reporter Lindsay Rittenhouse, speak with industry leaders Jill Kelly, U.S. chief marketing officer, GroupM, Kimberly Paige, exec VP and chief marketing officer, BET Networks, Soon Mee Kim, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and executive VP at Omnicom Public Relations Group, and Tiffany Edwards, global head of diversity and inclusion, Droga5, on how to move multicultural marketing beyond a check box.

Nov 4, 2020 • 43:38

The state of the CMO

The state of the CMO

Lisa Mann, a former CPG marketer who recently joined an executive search firm, joins to discuss CMO hiring trends and look at how the role is changing—in some cases for the worse.

Oct 1, 2020 • 31:05

How a microbe from Yellowstone could shake up the food industry

How a microbe from Yellowstone could shake up the food industry

When Karuna Rawal got a call from a recruiter about a marketing gig at a startup using a microbe to make protein-packed, animal-free food, she was intrigued. The lifelong vegetarian joined the company, now called Nature's Fynd, as its chief marketing officer and first marketing hire. Now, she and her Chicago-based team are just starting to get the company's name out in the world while preparing to launch its first products next year.

Sep 24, 2020 • 28:38

LinkedIn’s head of global sales on the early pandemic ad panic

LinkedIn’s head of global sales on the early pandemic ad panic

Ad Age spoke with Penry Price, LinkedIn’s VP of global sales, to understand how the site managed through the crises that have hit all industries. The pandemic affected digital advertising as sectors like travel pulled back on spending while other industries pulled ads temporarily to make them more appropriate for the national mood.

Sep 10, 2020 • 33:01

Omnicom Media Group CEO on how covid has changed the ad landscape

Omnicom Media Group CEO on how covid has changed the ad landscape

In a time period when there seems to be little cause for optimism, Ad Age spoke with Omnicom Media Group CEO Scott Hagedorn on where he sees bright spots starting to emerge within his agency and the industry overall.

Aug 27, 2020 • 0:26

Marketing a Mexican import

Marketing a Mexican import

Oscar Martinez, Senior Brand Director of Tecate, joins the pod to talk about the brand’s marketing overhaul, which includes a move away from boxing and into music. We break down the brew’s “Mexico is in US” campaign that emphasizes the brand’s border-town heritage while seeking to appeal to drinkers who are unapologetically Mexican-American.

Aug 20, 2020 • 38:01

Main Street One CEO Curtis Hougland on the launch of a senior political influencer network

Main Street One CEO Curtis Hougland on the launch of a senior political influencer network

Curtis Hougland, the founder and CEO of communications and strategy shop Main Street One, explains the social and political science behind voter/consumer persuasion, and why the time is right for campaigns and brands to leverage older (55+) influencers.

Aug 14, 2020 • 32:23

Defeating D.C. Council's ad and personal information tax

Defeating D.C. Council's ad and personal information tax

4A's Executive VP of Government Relations Alison Pepper discusses how she and other industry organizations fought a 3 percent tax on advertising services and the sale of “personal information" proposed by The Washington, D.C. City Council as part of a plan to combat a growing budget deficit, and won. She says the fight isn't over though.

Aug 6, 2020 • 0:27

Moving from CMO to CEO

Moving from CMO to CEO

Pernod Ricard North America CEO Ann Mukherjee describes why the liquor marketer will resume social media spending after pausing it in July. The longtime marketer also describes what it’s like moving into the CEO job, and she explains her leadership style, which involves bringing your personal experiences to the job.

Jul 30, 2020 • 32:42

Marketing the (delayed) Olympics

Marketing the (delayed) Olympics

Christopher Carroll, director of digital engagement and marketing for the International Olympic Committee, joins the pod to talk about how the IOC is going about plugging the Tokyo games, which were delayed by a year due to the pandemic.

Jul 23, 2020 • 33:08

The latest ad law news

The latest ad law news

Ad lawyer Linda Goldstein joins to discuss what brands need to know about sponsorship contract changes during COVID-19, new ‘Made in the USA,’ ad regulations and what to expect at the FTC if Democrats take over. Plus, she explains how ad lawyers can co-exist with creatives.

Jul 16, 2020 • 35:54

Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson

The author of “Black on Madison Avenue” talks about what it was like getting a job in advertising 40 years ago and how much the industry has failed to change since that time.

Jul 10, 2020 • 50:32

Taking Latin-inspired creative to the mainstream

Taking Latin-inspired creative to the mainstream

Former LatinWorks chief creative Sergio Alcocer joins to talk about his 3-year-old cultural marketing shop Rest of the World and give his take on how brands and agencies should respond to new calls for diversity. He weighs in on other topics, like his love of jazz music and how he would rebrand the Catholic Church.

Jul 2, 2020 • 40:06

Publicis CMO Justin Billingsley on the Power of One and what his client-side past brings to his new role

Publicis CMO Justin Billingsley on the Power of One and what his client-side past brings to his new role

Justin Billingsley has one hell of a Lego set. Publicis Groupe’s first global chief marketing officer used the famed building blocks in an analogy during the Ad Age Ad Lib podcast to explain how the holding company’s Power of One works for clients. Billingsley said that for client Mercedes-Benz the company constructed a shop, Publicis Emil, composed of 650 people in 39 countries customized specifically to the automaker’s needs.

Jun 25, 2020 • 42:01

Behind the AP’s new marketing push

Behind the AP’s new marketing push

Julie Tucker, global marketing director for the Associated Press, on the news wire service’s new marketing and what separates it from the ‘Truth’ campaign she oversaw at The New York Times. We also discuss newsroom diversity and how the AP is preparing for the 2020 election. Plus, Tucker explains why she left agency life behind.

Jun 18, 2020 • 39:04

There’s no mistaking Leeann Leahy

There’s no mistaking Leeann Leahy

Portland Maine’s Via agency CEO talks about the moral renaissance, directing a commercial with Jim Perdue via iPhone, her Catholic school education and the disco ball in her home.

Jun 11, 2020 • 38:31

Auto marketing during the pandemic

Auto marketing during the pandemic

Allyson Witherspoon, VP of marketing communications and media at Nissan North America, on how the automaker responded in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak and what it is doing now to restore buyer confidence. She also weighs in on online car-buying and why she thinks it’s here to stay. Plus, she shares management tips she learned while working in Japan.

Jun 4, 2020 • 0:34

The pandemic paradox

The pandemic paradox

Anush Prabhu, chief strategy officer at Mediacom, talks about the new—and often contrasting—behaviors that have come about since COVID, and how smart marketers should navigate them as the world opens up.

May 28, 2020 • 37:25

Marketing cannabis during the pandemic

Marketing cannabis during the pandemic

Greg Butler, chief commercial officer at Cresco Labs, explains how the cannabis firm has pivoted during COVID-19, which has forced the firm to rely more on digital and less on retail and experiential activations that had been critical components of cannabis marketing. The former Molson Coors marketer also discusses Cresco’s strategy on taking a brand portfolio approach with each offering geared for a specific set of consumers.

May 22, 2020 • 43:29

Finding creative inspiration in a pandemic

Finding creative inspiration in a pandemic

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’ Chief Creative Officer Margaret Johnson explains how the agency has created more than 30 campaigns for 80 percent of its clients remotely--and how working from home has opened up new avenues of inspiration.

May 15, 2020 • 0:38

Behind the e-commerce surge

Behind the e-commerce surge

Longtime agency exec Sarah Hofstetter joins to talk about her new role as president of e-commerce analytics firm Profitero, which serves more than 4,000 clients. We discuss the coronavirus-induced e-commerce surge and whether or not it’s sustainable. She also talks about her career journey and why she took this job after previous stints at 360i and Comscore. And, Sarah shares some personal tips on how to stay calm during the pandemic.

May 5, 2020 • 32:36

Brian Braiker, former editor, Ad Age

Brian Braiker, former editor, Ad Age

Today's podcast guest is, well, me. After three wonderful, challenging, intense, stressful and exhilarating years, I’m sad to say I’m parting ways with this iconic institution. Friday was my last day. Working with the Ad Age newsroom in both good times and weird has been an honor. In a conversation with my colleagues Judy Pollack and Alfred Maskeroni, we take a look back on my time. Thank you for listening.

Apr 20, 2020 • 48:16

Jason DeLand, founding partner, Anomaly

Jason DeLand, founding partner, Anomaly

Ad Age is working from home, just like you. As the coronavirus has become the new reality for all of us, Jason DeLand has some thoughts about the likely lasting implications of the pandemic on all aspects of life and business, from brand behavior to consumer behavior, the environment, the cannabis industry and more. There will be no "returning" to life as it was, he says. Rather this is an opportunity to bounce forward. This conversation is a recording of a live video broadcast that was streamed

Apr 8, 2020 • 38:31

Nick Kokonas, author and restaurateur

Nick Kokonas, author and restaurateur

The U.S. restaurant industry is in a grim predicament, particularly high-end, dine-in restaurants that can't be open as the coronavirus pandemic grinds on. Chicago-based restaurant executive Nick Kokonas has helped prepared his restaurants as well as others to navigate the situation in creative ways. The moves include a shift to carryout, something that until now was unheard of for high-end eateries like his.

Apr 2, 2020 • 0:26

Mira Kaddoura, founder and ECD, Red &. Co.

Mira Kaddoura, founder and ECD, Red &. Co.

Mira Kaddoura grew up in Beirut, where she witnessed war firsthand. With a striking head of frizzy red hair, Kaddoura learned early on how to live life as someone who stands out: The themes of inclusion, representation and the other have all colored her work. Kaddoura joins the podcast to discuss the Red & Co. ethos. The agency has partnered with Google on an initiative to teach girls to code and developed global brand strategy for Netflix and created the “Make Room” campaign to boost representa

Mar 13, 2020 • 0:34

Debra Lee, former Chairman and CEO, BET

Debra Lee, former Chairman and CEO, BET

When Debra Lee stepped down as Chairman and CEO of BET in May of 2018, she put a cap on a 32-year run at the network. Today, we talk about her legacy—among other things, she took programming in a new direction, pivoting away from music videos and into original fare. We discuss life after BET and the media landscape today compared to three decades ago, including a look at the streaming wars. Lee also sits on a number of corporate boards and is a champion of diversity and inclusion, herself having

Mar 5, 2020 • 0:46

Taylor Lorenz, New York Times reporter

Taylor Lorenz, New York Times reporter

Taylor Lorenz covers internet culture and trends for the Gray Lady--memes, yes, but also influencers, TikTok, YouTubers and more. She has a knack for identifying zeitgeisty moments just before they break through to mainstream consciousness. Her recent headlines include a look at the Bloomberg campaign’s meme strategy, a visit to the so-called Hype House group home for LA Tok Tok influencers and more. She may be the reason you've heard the expression OK Boomer, quite possibly leveled directly at

Feb 27, 2020 • 0:37

Bill Koenigsberg, founder and CEO, Horizon Media

Bill Koenigsberg, founder and CEO, Horizon Media

The founder of the world’s largest privately held media company joins us to look back on a career that flourished along with the rise of the modern media agency era. We talk about the explosion of data that digital has brought with it, and why he has chosen to rent rather than own data. We look at the streaming wars and talk about Horizon's loss of Disney as a client last year, plus where the company is growing today. Plus, a discussion of culture, talent, the pros and cons of remaining defiantl

Feb 20, 2020 • 42:17

Louisa Wong, COO, Carat

Louisa Wong, COO, Carat

For the first decade of her career, Louisa Wong worked at pioneering digital media outlets in the U.K., starting with CNET and then Skye. Today, as the chief operating officer at Carat, Dentsu Aegis Network’s flagship media agency, Wong applies that background in media as she navigates at the intersection of tech and disruption. Here, we discuss addressable TV, data as the new currency, privacy and regulation, life in a post-cookie world, the coronavirus and more.

Feb 14, 2020 • 0:36

Martin Sorrell, S4 Capital

Martin Sorrell, S4 Capital

Today’s guest needs no introduction. And yet, over the past 21 months, the financial wizard who built WPP into the world’s largest advertising holding company has been busy reintroducing himself as the executive chairman of S4 capital. Days before his 75th birthday, we discuss everything from what motivates him today, why the holding company model he helped create is an “albatross,” what the game plan is for S4 and why he bristles at the old criticism that he is not a creative person.

Feb 6, 2020 • 57:23

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein,  founders of Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, founders of Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, founders of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, worked on four Super Bowl brands this year, including Pepsi, Cheetos, Doritos and SodaStream. The team who created the infamous “Got, Milk?” slogan is taking their advertising expertise to the MasterClass platform where they will lead a series of classes, including one on Super Bowl advertising. In the podcast, the duo discuss some of their Big Game top hits, such as the E-Trade monkey and the Budweiser lizards. They al

Jan 30, 2020 • 40:00

Amy Astley, editor-in-chief, Architectural Digest

Amy Astley, editor-in-chief, Architectural Digest

In 2016 Astley, a Condé Nast lifer, inherited a stodgy brand and was tasked with brining a fresh voice and new vision to it. Architectural Digest, which turns 100 this month, had hardly any digital presence to speak of: No video footprint, fewer than a million followers on Instagram. Today it is coming up on 5 million Instagram followers and has more than 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Astley joins the podcast today to talk about modernizing the mag without losing touch with its DNA. And th

Jan 21, 2020 • 35:03

Mark Read, CEO/executive director, WPP

Mark Read, CEO/executive director, WPP

In a wide-ranging conversation on all things WPP, Read discusses his early moves, including merging agency brands VML with Y&R and JWT with Wunderman. In the past 18 months, WPP has shared more than 40 assets in a bid to become more streamlined. Read, the chief executive of the world's largest advertising holding company, talks about creativity, and examines what’s holding WPP back in North America, the companies data play, his response to his feisty predecessor’s potshots and more.

Jan 13, 2020 • 45:01

Wyclef Jean

Wyclef Jean

The founding Fugee has in recent years become a fixture at CES and at Cannes Lions, where he will be the president of the music jury this year. Here, he describes what brands can better understand about working with music and musicians. We talk about his childhood in Haiti, where he lived until he was 9 before emigrating to Brooklyn. He also shares a bit about his relationships with two very different mentors: Quincy Jones and, uh, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Jan 6, 2020 • 57:08

David Droga (Repeat)

David Droga (Repeat)

The industry’s collective mind was blown when David Droga announced in April that his namesake agency, Droga5, would be acquired by Accenture Interactive. The consultants are coming for the creatives, the narrative went. Not so fast, says Droga. In this conversation, recorded in July, he discusses the three-year journey toward acquisition—and what comes next.

Dec 26, 2019 • 0:27

Andrew Robertson, CEO, BBDO Worldwide

Andrew Robertson, CEO, BBDO Worldwide

Andrew Robertson is by all accounts the longest-running agency CEO working today. And he's got a track record to back it up:  Renowned for its creativity, you've seen BBDO Worldwide’s imprint on work for Ford, for which it is the lead agency, Snickers, Macy's, M&Ms, Sandy Hook Promise, Avocados from Mexico and more. It's been named network of the year at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes seven times in the last 12 years, including in 2017 and 2018. We discuss BBDO, the work, par

Dec 16, 2019 • 0:35

Terence Kawaja, CEO, Luma Partners

Terence Kawaja, CEO, Luma Partners

In a conversation that ranges from the upcoming streaming wars to the ongoing direct-to-consumer trend to a look ahead at next month’s CES, Terence Kawaja gives a general sense of the state of things from his vantage point of an investment banker obsessed with digital media and marketing. Oh, he is also, pretty funny. For an investment banker.

Dec 5, 2019 • 0:42

David-Michel Davies, CEO, the Webby Awards

David-Michel Davies, CEO, the Webby Awards

Now in their 24th year, the Webbys are currently accepting submissions for what’s been called the Oscars of the internet. Joining the podcast today is David-Michel Davies, the CEO of the Webbys, presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. We discuss the trends he’s been watching in the online space and what it even means to be a website in 2020. We also unpack the deeply critical viral speech comedian Sacha Baron Cohen made at the Anti-Defamation League last wee

Nov 27, 2019 • 0:39

Live from Ad Age: Next

Live from Ad Age: Next

Last week in New York, Ad Age brought together executives from some of the best media brands in the world to explore the industry’s challenges and, more interesting, opportunities. This podcast is a live recording of a conversation with three media execs about what they’ve learned from leaning into the subscription model. Joining us on stage were Pam Wasserstein, president of Vox Media, Scott Havens, global head of digital and media distribution for Bloomberg Media Group and Nina Lassam, executi

Nov 21, 2019 • 35:47

David Angelo, co-founder, David & Goliath

David Angelo, co-founder, David & Goliath

David & Goliath founder David Angelo looks back at a three decade career that started as a junior art director at DDB New York, followed by stints at Chiat/Day and Cliff Freeman & Partners. We talk about what prompted him to hang his own shingle 20 years ago and how the industry has changed in the past three decades. David & Goliath, a creative independent shop, was bought in 2017 by Innocean, the agency created by Hyundai. He talks about life after acquisition, life in LA and his cause célèbre:

Nov 11, 2019 • 36:01

Jarrod Dicker, vp commercial technology and development, Washington Post

Jarrod Dicker, vp commercial technology and development, Washington Post

In a space where the word “innovation” gets tossed around a lot, Jarrod Dicker seems to actually be building a better mousetrap. Dicker’s remit is to make advertising, subscriptions and technology better at the Bezos-owned media giant. He’ll discuss how media companies can no longer rely solely on advertiser and subscriber revenue alone, plus we get into his early career as a music blogger and Deadhead.

Nov 1, 2019 • 48:22

Paul Woolmington, CEO, Canvas

Paul Woolmington, CEO, Canvas

A three-time entrepreneur, Paul Woolmington is the founding CEO of media agency Canvas Worldwide and a keen observer of the marketing landscape. He is a former vet of holding companies IPG and WPP, founded and ran Media Kitchen, an MDC Partners agency, and he can rock a jaunty cravat. Paul joins us for a wide ranging conversation on just about everything in the media space—from the holding company existential crisis to the recent Disney media agency review and even to the rebate mishegoss of the

Oct 24, 2019 • 0:44

Jessica Pels, editor-in-chief, Cosmopolitan

Jessica Pels, editor-in-chief, Cosmopolitan

In October of last year, at just 32 Jessica Pels was named the youngest-ever editor in chief at Cosmopolitan. Now exactly one year into the gig, web traffic is through the roof, even as single issue print sales continue to decline (just as they do everywhere else). We dig into her web-driven, data-centric approach to content strategy as we discuss where she’s taking the storied glossy.

Oct 17, 2019 • 36:35

Barak Moffit, Universal Music Group

Barak Moffit, Universal Music Group

A producer, composer and technologist, Barak Moffat heads UMG's content and strategy. UMG's massive catalog includes 40 percent of all of the world's music. He discusses that, and what it means to be creating new commercial opportunities for audio visual content across all of UMG’s labels. Essentially tasked with charting the company's next chapters, he also discusses the rise of voice and smart sneakers, and how UMG thinks about both data and metadata.

Oct 10, 2019 • 35:46

Morgan Spurlock, filmmaker, and David Littlejohn, founder of Humanaut

Morgan Spurlock, filmmaker, and David Littlejohn, founder of Humanaut

It’s been 15 years since “Super Size Me” came out. Today Spurlock is back with a sequel. With “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken” Spurlock asks whether fast food has gotten any healthier in the intervening years. As the title suggests he focuses on industrial chicken farming—going so far as to open his own chicken farm to raise birds for a chicken sandwich shop. Along the way, Spurlock teamed up with David Littlejohn, founder and chief creative officer of the small agency Humanaut, to learn about th

Oct 3, 2019 • 0:42

Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of MDC Partners

Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of MDC Partners

Mark Penn, the president and managing partner of Stagwell Group, raised industry eyebrows six months ago when he plonked $100 million into the flailing agency holding company MDC Partners—and became its CEO in the process. Six months in, we take a look at what the polarizing pollster has been up to (both in the agency world and the political sphere), what he’s learned and where he’s taking the holding company.

Sep 26, 2019 • 35:17

Jen Wong, COO, reddit

Jen Wong, COO, reddit

Reddit is on a roll. The self-styled “front page of the internet” is on target to double its ad revenue in the U.S. from $100 million in 2019 to $200 million in 2021, according to eMarketer. This growth is the result of tightening moderation on the platform and building out its advertising business. To discuss Reddit’s evolution, strengths and next steps, chief operating officer Jen Wong joins the “Ad Lib” podcast—and questions host Brian Braiker’s faith in humanity.

Sep 19, 2019 • 0:36

Andrew Essex, co-founder and CEO, Plan A

Andrew Essex, co-founder and CEO, Plan A

What do you do after writing a book called “The End of Advertising?” If you’re Andrew Essex, you co-found an advertising company. But Plan A, he says, is built on a different model than the traditional holding company. A former journalist and the co-founding CEO of Droga5, Essex brings with him an impressive pedigree. We get into that background, where the industry is going, consultancies, the breakdown of the traditional models and what’s next for Plan A.

Sep 12, 2019 • 23:18

Ad lawyer Jeffrey Greenbaum, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

Ad lawyer Jeffrey Greenbaum, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

With a trade war brewing, there's a lot more focus on products Made in the USA—but don't believe everything you see. There are some cases of marketers blurring the lines when it comes to products actually made here, and the FTC rules enforcing truthful “Made in USA” claims lack teeth. But that could be changing.

Sep 6, 2019 • 22:52

Why Ryan Kutscher joined the circus

Why Ryan Kutscher joined the circus

Ryan Kutscher may have been a noted chef if he didn’t decide to go into advertising. Today he is chief creative officer and founder of Circus Maximus, a New York shop which has won its fair share of Ad Age Small Agency awards over the years. In this Ad Lib podcast, he talks about everything from his early days at Crispin Porter & Bogusky and the creation of “Whopper Freakout” to where he and his agency fit into today’s project-led world.

Aug 23, 2019 • 46:30

Kai Devereaux Lawson, advocate, agitator and associate operations director at Essence

Kai Devereaux Lawson, advocate, agitator and associate operations director at Essence

An associate operations director at the GroupM shop Essence by day, Lawson writes and podcasts extensively and candidly about diversity and inclusion issues on the side—on the Mixed Company podcast and her own blog. In an industry where young black women are too often unseen and unheard, she’s making a point of speaking up.

Aug 16, 2019 • 40:27

David Droga, founder & creative chairman, Droga5

David Droga, founder & creative chairman, Droga5

The industry’s collective mind was blown when David Droga announced in April that his namesake agency, Droga5, would be acquired by Accenture Interactive. The consultants are coming for the creatives, the narrative went. Not so fast, says Droga. Here, he discusses the three-year journey toward acquisition—and what comes next.

Aug 8, 2019 • 26:34

Lindsey Slaby, founder, Sunday Dinner

Lindsey Slaby, founder, Sunday Dinner

Lindsey Slaby is a one woman three ring circus: In one ring is her brand consultancy, Sunday Dinner, which coaches clients through various stages of organizational transformation. The second ring is networking on steroids, be it on her invite-only Slack channel or through the invite-only brainstorming dinners that gave Sunday Dinner its name. The third ring is, well, just any old conversation with her, like this one, which can ricochet into myriad directions at any moment.

Aug 1, 2019 • 0:41

Laurent Ezekiel, chief marketing and growth officer, WPP

Laurent Ezekiel, chief marketing and growth officer, WPP

Laurent Ezekiel has his work cut out for him: The Publicis vet joined WPP in May to serve as its first CMO and growth officer. It’s a new position at the world’s largest advertising holding company, which was the worst performing agency holding company in 2018. He discusses how WPP aims to dig out of its hole and explains what his new boss, WPP CEO Mark Read, means when he talks about becoming a “creative transformation company.”

Jul 25, 2019 • 0:35

David Fischer, CEO and publisher, Highsnobiety

David Fischer, CEO and publisher, Highsnobiety

David Fischer started Highsnobiety in 2005 as personal blog dedicated to his passion for sneaker culture and fashion. Today it is a multi-pronged media brand, a magazine that prints twice a year and a creative agency. With 500 million social media impressions, and nine million unique visitors a month, Highsnobiety is about to enter a new phase: The company is partnering with Prada this month for a limited edition product launch this month as it rolls out its new commerce business.

Jul 18, 2019 • 0:38

Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman, McCann Worldgroup

Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman, McCann Worldgroup

In an industry with no shortage of Negative Nancies, Rob Reilly is a perpetual, evangelical optimist. But he wasn’t always: He once had an employer require him to take a year’s worth of classes to learn how to be more respectful of others. Reilly credits that work—among other things—with why he’s having such a good run now: The Global Creative Chairman for McCann Worldgroup since 2014, Reilly and his team picked up network of the year for the first time in the agency’s history.

Jul 11, 2019 • 44:55

Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman

Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman

According to a global survey of more than 25,000 respondents, consumer trust in brands is down across the board — and expectations of social responsibility from brands is up. That is the core takeaway from the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, released last week. Richard Edelman joins the podcast to discuss this crisis of brand trust and opportunities for companies. We talk about what his clients increasingly want from him as he evolves his own business—the largest PR firm in the wor

Jul 3, 2019 • 0:34

Bradley Johnson, director of data analytics, Ad Age Datacenter

Bradley Johnson, director of data analytics, Ad Age Datacenter

If you want to see what’s driving ad spending, just look for the net gains. Bradley Johnson joins us to break down the most interesting findings in our annual Leading National Advertisers report, out this week (hint, FANG has developed a big bite). We also dive into Datacenter’s 2019 agency rankings to draw some big and small conclusions about the state of the industry in 2019.

Jun 28, 2019 • 32:07

Nick Kelly, Anheuser-Busch

Nick Kelly, Anheuser-Busch

What happens when Big Football meets Big Beer? Until now active pro athletes could not appear in beer ads during games. The head of sports marketing for Anheuser-Busch discusses what a rules change means for Bud Light, and dishes on the brewer’s overall sports marketing strategy.

Jun 21, 2019 • 26:40

Avi Dan, CEO, Avidan Strategies

Avi Dan, CEO, Avidan Strategies

An advertising vet who started his own search consultancy in 2007 Avi Dan brings with him close to 4 decades of experience. As the rest of the agency world packs for Cannes, he breaks down how the festival has changed over the years, and who he thinks win big. We take a 30,000 foot view of the entire landscape, from consultancies in the agency space, the in-housing trend, data and creativity, and more. Avi also gets a little personal and describes his life growing up in Tel Aviv and his stint in

Jun 13, 2019 • 45:45

Linda Yaccarino & Josh Feldman, NBCUniversal

Linda Yaccarino & Josh Feldman, NBCUniversal

Depending on whom you ask, this is either the worst time to be in TV, or the most exciting. Count Linda Yaccarino and Josh Feldman among the hopeful. The two share the company’s moves to modernize measurement across the industry, and NBC’s plans to launch an ad supported streaming over the top service next year--to do battle with the Netflixes and Hulus of the world. They also explain why Cannes is going through something of a renaissance.

Jun 7, 2019 • 54:41

Bhavana Smith, chief client officer

Bhavana Smith, chief client officer

Usually when you hear about consultancies in the marketing and advertising space these days, it’s in the context of them luring talent away from agencies or making full blown acquisitions. But last year when MediaCom was looking to hire a new chief client officer, it went right into the lion’s den. In hiring Bhavana Smith, a six-and-a-half year Accenture vet, the WPP media network is seeking to burnish its digital transformation capabilities—and take a page from the consultancy playbook.

May 30, 2019 • 28:58

Rishad Tobaccoawala, chief growth officer, Publicis

Rishad Tobaccoawala, chief growth officer, Publicis

Rishad Tobaccowala, who has logged nearly four decades at Publicis, joins the podcast to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. In a conversation that kicks off by unpacking Publicis’s recent announcement that it will be acquiring data marketing juggernaut Epsilon, Rishad breaks down the industry from his own unique vantage point as someone who has spent time in creative, digital and media. We discuss how the holding company model is being forced to evolve and what it means to be a brand in

May 24, 2019 • 44:53

DDB’s Keith Reinhard: ‘Betty Crocker was my first pin-up girl’

DDB’s Keith Reinhard: ‘Betty Crocker was my first pin-up girl’

In this week’s Ad Age Ad Lib podcast, we interview the chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, who tells us about his legendary 65-year history in advertising, including  why he pointed a cannon--literally--at Leo Burnett’s offices and the inside story of the “Big Bang” merger that created Omnicom (and why he had to keep changing rooms at The Palace Hotel.) Reinhard also discusses his admiration for Bill Bernbach, who he calls “the Picasso of the business," and tells us where he sees the ad industry

May 17, 2019 • 38:28

Peter McGuinness, CMO of Chobani

Peter McGuinness, CMO of Chobani

Peter McGuinness wasn’t always a yogurt guy. Before joining Greek yogurt brand Chobani in 2013, he had a career in ad agencies. On this episode of the podcast, he discusses making the transition to the brand side, and the fresh self-awareness that brought him. He describes working for a brand with purpose and how Chobani is grappling with the current dip in U.S. yogurt sales as more alternatives come to market.

May 9, 2019 • 0:36

Alex Magnin, Giphy head of revenue

Alex Magnin, Giphy head of revenue

People are conducting more than a billion searches for GIFs on messaging apps a day. At the heart of their results is, usually, Giphy, a shareable online database of those short looping soundless videos. Giphy’s Alex Magnin who claims to net in the ballpark of 10 percent of the search traffic of Google, joins the podcast today to discuss all things GIF and messaging, what it looks like from an advertising and branded content perspective, plus what the most popular GIF search terms are. (Hint: Th

May 3, 2019 • 32:42

Shelly Lazarus, chairman emeritus, Ogilvy

Shelly Lazarus, chairman emeritus, Ogilvy

Our conversation with Shelly Lazarus, Ogilvy’s chairman emeritus, covered a lot of ground—from what it was like to be a woman ad exec in the 1970s to today’s #MeToo movement to where holding companies are going in the future.

Apr 25, 2019 • 0:48

Jeff Goodby, Chairman and co-founder, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Jeff Goodby, Chairman and co-founder, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners are on a roll. The agency nabbed the number two spot on the Ad Age A-List, released this week. Its founders, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, will be in Cannes this summer to pick up the prestigious Lion of St. Mark, rewarding a career filled with creative triumphs, including, most famously, the “Got Milk?” campaign. Goodby joins the podcast to discuss career highs and lows, his philosophy of openness, his favorite David Ogilvy story, his next chapter and more.

Apr 18, 2019 • 31:20

Ad Block: Tiffany R. Warren, chief diversity officer and SVP at Omnicom, founder and president of the diversity advocacy organization AdColor

Ad Block: Tiffany R. Warren, chief diversity officer and SVP at Omnicom, founder and president of the diversity advocacy organization AdColor

Tiffany R. Warren talks about the skin care tradition handed down through her family and the ways she’s improved upon it. “In a way, when I take care of my skin, it’s a connection to my grandmother,” she says. She also weighs in on her ideal breakfast, what to do with your privilege and the enduring legacy of New Edition.

Apr 10, 2019 • 35:04

Alicia Hatch, CMO, Deloitte Digital

Alicia Hatch, CMO, Deloitte Digital

Deloitte Digital is one of the world’s 10 biggest agency companies: In 2017 Ad Age ranked Deloitte Digital as the world’s second-largest digital network, behind rival Accenture Interactive. Hatch joins me today to explain what, exactly, it is Deloitte Digital does. “We exist to make old companies new again,” she says. She explains what that means, how data and tech like AI come into play and discuss her early career on a disease control project during an outbreak in West Africa.

Apr 4, 2019 • 38:02

Ad Block: Deutsch North American CCO Pete Favat on woodworking

Ad Block: Deutsch North American CCO Pete Favat on woodworking

Pete Favat talks about building useful things from scrap and renovating his home on “This Old House.” The C-suite leaves less time to get his hands dirty on the job, he says. “You’re using your brain, which is good, but there’s no physical gratification at all. We weren’t put on this earth to just bang keys on a keyboard.” So he creates on his own time, putting together whatever strikes his fancy: a dog sled, a chandelier, a garden.

Apr 3, 2019 • 29:43

Nicolas Bidon, CEO, Xaxis

Nicolas Bidon, CEO, Xaxis

When Nicolas Bidon talks about his business, he talks about becoming an “outcome” media company. As part of WPP and GroupM, Xaxis is a billion-dollar business — arguably the world's largest global programmatic media and technology platform — boasting some 3000 clients across 47 markets. The evolution to an outcome-based focus, Bidon says, represents a shift away from fairly crude metrics like CPMs to more real, specific business goals—with an assist from emerging tech like artificial intelligenc

Mar 28, 2019 • 39:25

Ad Block: Joan CCO Jaime Robinson on knitting

Ad Block: Joan CCO Jaime Robinson on knitting

Joan Creative CCO Jaime Robinson keeps both a spinning wheel and a loom in her closet so she can spin yarn and knit blankets and sweaters, “like the lady in Rumpelstiltskin.” She also reveals her favorite Joan and goes deep on the allure of “Russian Doll” and her childhood memories of the Sears Wish Book.

Mar 27, 2019 • 0:34

Bryan Yasko, president, Johannes Leonardo

Bryan Yasko, president, Johannes Leonardo

It’s been a busy couple months for Johannes Leonardo. In February the shop announced that it would buy a "significant" portion of itself back from WPP. Then, weeks later, another tantalizing bit of news: Volkswagen named JL its lead agency. Bryan Yasko joins the podcast to discuss these developments, plus working with Adidas, the broader trend toward project work and why he doesn’t like holding companies.

Mar 21, 2019 • 0:23

Marketer’s Brief

Marketer’s Brief

Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, is overseeing a 10-year, $2 billion investment on zero-emissions vehicle technology and awareness. The group's marketing director, Richard Steinberg, discusses what it is doing to help nudge the EV sector into the mainstream, including how charging stations might create branding opportunities.

Mar 19, 2019 • 0:30

Sebastian Tomich, global head of advertising, New York Times

Sebastian Tomich, global head of advertising, New York Times

In a digital media landscape littered with layoffs, mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy, the New York Times remains a bright spot. Last week, the Times reported adding more than a quarter million new digital-only subscriptions in its fourth quarter earnings call. The publisher’s success invites the question: what does a subscription-first model mean for the paper’s ads business? Tomich joins the podcast to answer that — and more. We get into the runaway success of “The Daily” podcast, and how i

Mar 14, 2019 • 43:18

Marketer's Brief

Marketer's Brief

In a 20-year marketing career with Anheuser-Busch, Bob Lachky oversaw some of the most memorable ad campaigns in beer, including “Whassup,” the Budweiser Frogs and Real Men of Genius. Lachky, now a consultant, joins us to talk about the brewing marketing war between his old company and MillerCoors over corn syrup, as well as why Lachky thinks the beer industry has lost its way.

Mar 12, 2019 • 27:52

Ryan Ford, Chief Creative Officer and EVP, Cashmere

Ryan Ford, Chief Creative Officer and EVP, Cashmere

The brand wizards behind Snoop Dogg’s career, Cashmere has done work on “Black Panther,” “Get Out,” “Atlanta” and more. Beyond entertainment, it also counts as clients BMW, Jack in the Box, Adidas, and Diageo among others. Cashmere’s Ryan Ford joins us to break down what it means to be a multicultural agency in 2019, the current state of the influencer landscape, and what brands get right — and wrong — when it comes to tapping into the culture.

Mar 7, 2019 • 43:37

Marketer's Brief

Marketer's Brief

Iconic brands are struggling to remain relevant in today's food industry. More evidence came with Kraft Heinz’s recent $15 billion asset write-down. We examine the fallout and why Kraft’s fall could be good for ad agencies.

Mar 4, 2019 • 0:24

Ben Lerer, CEO, Group Nine Media

Ben Lerer, CEO, Group Nine Media

Group Nine Media was formed in 2016 with a $100 million investment from Discovery and today rolls up four media brands: Thrillist, NowThis, the Dodo and Seeker. The rationale for consolidation, according to CEO Ben Lerer: Bigger is better. By combining the brands under one holding company, he says, he has gained a seat at the table with advertisers. He joins us today to discuss those conversations and his relationship with platforms like YouTube and Facebook. He also addresses the rumors that Gr

Feb 28, 2019 • 51:46

Bob Pittman, CEO, iHeartMedia

Bob Pittman, CEO, iHeartMedia

If you wrote iHeartMedia off as DOA last year, you may have made the call too soon. Last month the radio giant gained court approval for a plan that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy. Its CEO, Bob Pittman, joined the company in 2010 as an investor when it was still called Clear Channel. His mandate: completely transform the company. A quick glance at a few recent stats suggest how far he’s come: The multiplatform player boasts more than 120 million registered users, is the number one all-

Feb 21, 2019 • 43:06

Tim Cadogan, CEO, OpenX

Tim Cadogan, CEO, OpenX

Independent ad exchange OpenX raised eyebrows in the programmatic realm last month when it announced a five-year agreement totaling more than $110 million with Google to use its cloud computing services. The news came just a month after the supply-side platform laid off some 100 employees as it prepared for the deal and continues to push into the video arena. Tim Cadogan, CEO of OpenX, joins the podcast to discuss the arrangement and how the programmatic landscape looks in 2019.

Feb 14, 2019 • 38:47

Marla Kaplowitz, president and CEO, 4A's

Marla Kaplowitz, president and CEO, 4A's

In a time where there is no shortage of gloom and doom in the agency landscape, the job falls to Marla Kaplowitz to be its biggest booster. Kaplowitz joins this episode of Ad Lib to field questions about the agency talent crunch, consultancy creep, brands bringing advertising capabilities in-house and, of course, that little FBI investigation into agency media-buying practices launched last fall.

Feb 7, 2019 • 31:32

Laura Hutfless, FlyteVu Agency

Laura Hutfless, FlyteVu Agency

With its first Super Bowl ad, Bumble set out to empower women both in front of and behind the camera. On this special Super Bowl edition of the Ad Lib podcast, Laura Hutfless, partner at FlyteVu Agency, which worked on the ad, discusses how the social networking app pulled together a Big Game commercial in six weeks with a team composed almost entirely of women.

Jan 31, 2019 • 0:28

Azania Andrews, Michelob Ultra

Azania Andrews, Michelob Ultra

Michelob Ultra will air two commercials in Super Bowl LIII – one featuring robots and the other making a direct appeal to female football viewers. Azania Andrews, VP marketing, at the Anheuser-Busch brewer, joins this special Super Bowl edition of the Ad Lib podcast to discuss just what goes into creating an ad for the Big Game and how Michelob is trying to change how women are portrayed on marketers’ biggest stage.

Jan 29, 2019 • 30:46

Erika Nardini, CEO, Barstool Sports

Erika Nardini, CEO, Barstool Sports

A publisher of podcasts, radio shows and online articles about sports and sports culture, Barstool Sports has a robust commerce and pay-per-view events business to feed its rabidly dedicated fanbase, known as Stoolies. It is, to hear CEO Erika Nardini tell it, the publisher model of the future. All of this despite — or perhaps because of — a habit of courting controversy. The company has repeatedly been taken to task for language and behavior that ranges from juvenile to full-blown misogynistic.

Jan 24, 2019 • 40:30

Keith Grossman, Bloomberg Media global chief revenue officer

Keith Grossman, Bloomberg Media global chief revenue officer

Bloomberg Media has been experimenting across the board lately — from its consultancy play to an aggressive over-the-top streaming strategy to TicToc, a video partnership with Twitter. Joining us on the podcast is chief global revenue officer Keith Grossman, who breaks down why these are both the best of times and the worst of times to be in digital media -- and why there's never been a better moment to be a media brand that knows what it stands for.

Jan 17, 2019 • 0:41

Meg Goldthwaite, CMO, NPR

Meg Goldthwaite, CMO, NPR

Twenty-one percent of the population now owns at least one smart speaker. A full 14 million people in the U.S. got their first smart speaker device in 2018 — meaning voice as a topic of fascination is not going away any time soon. From the floor of the Las Vegas Convention center this week, NPR CMO Meg Goldthwaite joins us to discuss the revolution in voice, and what it means for marketers and consumers alike.

Jan 10, 2019 • 0:29

Shannon Simpson Jones and Yadira Harrison, co-founders, Verb

Shannon Simpson Jones and Yadira Harrison, co-founders, Verb

Launched in January, Verb is a hybrid shop that claims to have a new approach to the agency space. Verb boasts both traditional agency chops and consultancy offerings for both brands and other agencies — with a specialty in experiential marketing. It is the brain child of Shannon Simpson Jones and Yadira Harrison, both former VPs of the Civic Entertainment Group. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in the experiential, and the gap between brand expectations and reality. Both executives w

Dec 20, 2018 • 33:03

Ben Wiener, CEO, Wongdoody

Ben Wiener, CEO, Wongdoody

The Seattle-based creative shop Wongdoody (yes, that’s its real name) celebrated its 25th anniversary this year — and as it did so, it was acquired by Indian tech giant Infosys, once known for offshoring jobs. It is, says CEO Ben Wiener, a great time for an agency like Wongdoody. As the big advertising holding companies continue to fumble, Wongdoody is seeing double digit growth, he says. It is winning new business and expanding globally. A Wongdoody lifer, Wiener started at the company as an in

Dec 13, 2018 • 0:31

Edward Felsenthal, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Time magazine

Edward Felsenthal, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Time magazine

Days after Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne closed on their purchase of Time, the new owners gave its editor, Edward Felsenthal, the additional title of CEO. Felsenthal joins Ad Lib to discuss his role in the negotiation process with the Benioffs – and where he plans to take things under the new ownership. Time is on something of a roll: it won an Emmy in 2017, a National Magazine Award in 2018 and will see nearly 2 billion video streams this year. And, despite declining pri

Dec 6, 2018 • 38:32

Julio Bruno, CEO of Time Out Group

Julio Bruno, CEO of Time Out Group

In 2015, when Julio Bruno took over as the chief executive at Time Out, it was taking on heavy losses. An executive who had held senior positions at Diageo and TripAdvisor, Bruno saw an opportunity. Now, three years on, as Time Out celebrates its 50th anniversary, Bruno has not only begun to turn the publisher around and make it digitally relevant, but he’s taken it public, leaned into an ecommerce strategy and is building a chain of physical market places.

Nov 29, 2018 • 32:54

Karina Wilsher, Anomaly’s next global CEO

Karina Wilsher, Anomaly’s next global CEO

After 14 years at Anomaly, founding partner Karina Wilsher will be assuming the global CEO title at the agency. Currently the global COO, Wilsher has long been groomed for the new role and will assume the chief executive position in January. True to its name, Anomaly is an outlier in its space, a non-traditional agency that was founded with a commitment to intellectual property and creating products. Wilsher joins me today to discuss the news and what it means for her and for Anomaly. We discuss

Nov 20, 2018 • 28:27

Aaron Walton, co-founder, Walton Isaacson

Aaron Walton, co-founder, Walton Isaacson

The co-founder of 14-year-old agency Walton Isaacson first went to work for the brand side in 1983 — Pepsi specifically. As it happens Pepsi at the time was working with a singer by the name of Michael Jackson. Walton’s job would take him on tour with Jackson. Now, some 35 years after that first incredible gig, Walton is not only still in the business of telling brand stories, he’s still at culture’s cutting edge. It was Walton Isaacson client Lexus that teamed up with Marvel for the Black Panth

Nov 15, 2018 • 0:46

Lizzie Widhelm, Pandora svp of ad innovation

Lizzie Widhelm, Pandora svp of ad innovation

In September, satellite radio company Sirius XM offered to plunk down $3.5 billion to acquire streaming music service Pandora. Joining us today is Pandora svp of ad innovation Lizzie Widhelm to break down what the Sirius offer means to Pandora — and vice versa. Sirius has more than 36 million subscribers in North America, Pandora has 70 million monthly listeners — fewer than 6 million of whom pay for the service. We discuss the state of advertising in the streaming space, the future of audio and

Nov 8, 2018 • 34:40

Rich Antoniello, CEO of Complex Media

Rich Antoniello, CEO of Complex Media

This weekend some 60,000 sneakerheads, hip hop aficionados, jocks, gamers, design nerds and foodies will descend on Long Beach, California, for the fourth annual ComplexCon. The consumer-facing pop culture bonanza is the physical expression of media brand Complex, which CEO Rich Antoniello has been driving for the past 17 years. Rich — who is outspoken on just about any topic you can throw at him — joins us today for a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from media’s pivot to revenue d

Nov 1, 2018 • 0:43

Troy Ruhanen, president and CEO, TBWA Worldwide

Troy Ruhanen, president and CEO, TBWA Worldwide

An Aussie giant of a former Rugby player, Troy Ruhanen joined TBWA as president and CEO four years ago. Today he joins us on the Ad Lib podcast to spill some tea on his competitors — including WPP and Publicis — and give us some insight into clients including Apple, McDonald’s and Nissan. We discuss what their pain points are, what his agency’s big wins over the last four years have been, and growing up blue collar in Brisbane.

Oct 25, 2018 • 35:24

Frances Webster, co-founder and CEO, Walrus

Frances Webster, co-founder and CEO, Walrus

Launched in 2005 in the ashes of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Walrus is a fiercely independent shop that’s worked with such clients as Amazon, HBO, and Staples. Frances Webster — who co-founded Walrus with her husband, Chief Creative Officer Deacon Webster — has been outspoken about the need to train more women for agency leadership roles. She discusses the decision to offer media and buying services, reconciling programmatic with creative, and her clients’ biggest pain points as marketers gear up f

Oct 18, 2018 • 23:57

Andrew McKechnie, chief creative officer at Verizon

Andrew McKechnie, chief creative officer at Verizon

For the past 18 months, Andrew McKechnie has been building Verizon’s in-house agency, 140. It’s no easy task. Networks, unlike the smartphones that run on them, are tough to make especially sexy. Still, he comes by the gig honestly. McKechnie had most recently served as global group creative director at Apple, after holding creative director titles at agencies including DDB, Y&R and JWT. Andrew joins us to discuss the pros and cons of moving from adland to the brand side, the tension between cre

Oct 11, 2018 • 0:38

Jon Steinberg, Cheddar founder

Jon Steinberg, Cheddar founder

After a five-year stint at BuzzFeed and a brief run as the CEO of DailyMail.com the last thing you would probably think to do is start a TV network. From scratch. Yet that’s precisely what Jon Steinberg did. The former President and COO of BuzzFeed launched Cheddar Inc in 2016, a new media company with the initial goal of becoming the CNBC for millennials. Two and half years in, Cheddar is a bona fide media concern, a live and on demand video news network that broadcasts weekdays from the floor

Oct 4, 2018 • 32:57

Refinery29’s Philippe von Borries and Piera Gelardi

Refinery29’s Philippe von Borries and Piera Gelardi

As two of the four co-founders of media and entertainment company Refinery29, Philippe von Borries and Piera Gelardi have used a pro-women, taboo-shattering ethos to build a behemoth catering to the interests and cravings of young women that reaches an audience of upwards of half a billion globally across platforms. It is an audience that brands love (and to hear Refinery's founders tell it, an audience that loves brands back). The couple joins the podcast today as their 29Rooms event packs up i

Sep 27, 2018 • 0:37

Nick Brien, CEO Americas of Dentsu Aegis Network

Nick Brien, CEO Americas of Dentsu Aegis Network

“We’re not in the advertisement business. We’re in the engagement business,” says Nick Brien, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Americas. The advertising company was formed in 2013 to manage parent company Dentsu’s operations outside of Japan. Dentsu now generates more than half of its revenue — 59 percent last year — from outside its home market. Yet Dentsu and Dentsu Aegis Network are less known and less understood in the U.S. than the big holding companies WPP, Omnicom, Publicis and IPG. Dentsu, an

Sep 20, 2018 • 35:15

Studio 71 co-founder Reza Izad

Studio 71 co-founder Reza Izad

Chances are, even if you are an avid consumer of short form streaming videos, you’ve never heard of Studio 71. But you’ve seen their work — or at least your kids have. From Canadian YouTube superstar Lilly Singh to vlogger Roman Atwood to Good Mythical Morning with Rhett and Link — Studio 71 is the media agency behind videos that generate a reported 9.5 billion views across platforms every month. The company, co-founded by Reza Izad, helps creators make money and grow their offering for advertis

Sep 13, 2018 • 37:09

Wondery founder and CEO Hernan Lopez

Wondery founder and CEO Hernan Lopez

When Hernan Lopez left his post as president and CEO of Fox International Channels in 2016 to launch a podcast company people asked him a straightforward question: Are you nuts? But he saw parallels between the nascent medium of podcasting and the cable industry of the early 2000s. The company he started is called Wondery, and today it produces premium podcast fare like Dirty John and Business Wars. Wondery’s newest show is called Dr. Death. It was released just this Tuesday and is already toppi

Sep 6, 2018 • 0:29

Sub Rosa founder Michael Ventura gets empathic

Sub Rosa founder Michael Ventura gets empathic

Michael Ventura wrote the book on empathy. Literally. The founder of the New York strategy and design consultancy Sub Rosa is a multi-hyphenate. When he’s not advising a portfolio of Fortune 500 clients and progressive start-ups, he is running an experiential shopping venture called Calliope with his wife, running an art gallery and event space, publishing a newsletter called La Petite Mort — the french expression for orgasm — and running an eastern and indigenous medicine and healing practice.

Aug 30, 2018 • 32:10

How Terry Young, CEO of Sparks & Honey, is mapping culture

How Terry Young, CEO of Sparks & Honey, is mapping culture

When Terry Young founded the agency Sparks & Honey in 2012, it was billed as a “next-generation” agency that really gets culture. Last month the Omnicom shop announced that it was — you guessed it — repositioning as a technology-led cultural consultancy. If it sounds like yet another agency scrambling to maintain relevance with buzzwords, Young says it’s an outward reflection of what they’ve been up to internally for years. He joins us on the Ad Lib podcast to talk about how the agency maps cult

Aug 23, 2018 • 0:30

USA Today Network CRO Kevin Gentzel

USA Today Network CRO Kevin Gentzel

A zen koan for 2018: How, as a media company today, does one build both scale and trust? It might be easy to cultivate one, but it often comes at the expense of the other. The USA Today Network has managed to do both. With 109 local papers scattered throughout the country, the newspaper company has certainly cobbled together scale. And the journalists on the ground are putting the lie to the idea of “fake news,” picking up three Pulitzers for the network this year alone. Still, news is a tough b

Aug 16, 2018 • 38:57

Arnold Worldwide CEO Kiran Smith

Arnold Worldwide CEO Kiran Smith

On the first day of her job as CEO, Kiran Smith broke her left foot. What could easily be interpreted as a bad omen turned out to be a blessing in a cast: Smith says the boot she’s had to wear these past five weeks have endeared her to new staffers and broken the ice with clients. She could use all the help she can get: In its second quarter earnings release last month, parent company Vivendi blamed weak organic results of its agency network Havas on “the impact of Arnold’s underperformance.” A

Aug 9, 2018 • 25:47

Carla Serrano,  CEO of Publicis New York and Chief Strategy Officer of PublicisCommunications

Carla Serrano,  CEO of Publicis New York and Chief Strategy Officer of PublicisCommunications

Publicis Groupe has had quite a year. In June of 2017 Maurice Levy stepped down as the holding company’s CEO, handing the reins over to Arthur Sadoun. That same month, the company made waves at Cannes for saying it would abstain from sending work to awards shows for a full year in order to devote resources to an internal tech platform called Marcel. Still, Publicis missed its revenue targets in second-quarter earnings reported last month -- despite winning some major accounts in the first half 2

Aug 3, 2018 • 24:57

Bill Holiber, President & CEO of US News

Bill Holiber, President & CEO of US News

For a publication with “news” in its title US News doesn’t focus much on what’s happening in the papers these days. Formerly known as US News and World Report, the publisher is perhaps best known to the average reader for its annual college rankings. But it is actually something of a digital pioneer. The media brand ditched its print magazine in 2010 to go all digital and shifted its focus to pure service. While its core business is still advertising-based it does a monster business in lead gene

Jul 18, 2018 • 32:20

Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business

Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business

The Fox Business anchor joined the "Ad Lib" podcast before her news-making interview with President Trump last week. Here, Bartiromo discusses her evolution from a CNBC pioneer—where she was the first reporter to broadcast from the stock exchange floor—to a somewhat more ideological Fox Business headliner. We discuss her "Money Honey" nickname and industry sexism, the future of cable news and the demographics of her audience.

Jul 10, 2018 • 0:46

Mark DiMassimo, CEO of DiMassimo Goldstein

Mark DiMassimo, CEO of DiMassimo Goldstein

With 22 years heading up an independent agency under his belt, DiMassimo Goldstein’s Mark DiMassimo believes traditional advertising’s days are numbered. Of course, he would say that. A long-ago JWT creative who logged years at holding companies, DiMassimo says he saw the light when he realized agencies fundamentally failed to meet clients needs. Proud to never have been to Cannes over the span of his entire career, DiMassimo discusses using advertising to fight the opioid epidemic and why, for

Jul 5, 2018 • 33:09

The Trade Desk’s Brian Stempeck

The Trade Desk’s Brian Stempeck

At a time when ad tech is besieged by brand safety concerns, transparency issues and industry-wide consolidation, the Trade Desk has been having a solid run. The demand side programmatic ad buying platform — have we lost you yet? — generated $85.7 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2018, a 61 percent jump from the same period last year. Today we are joined by Brian Stempeck, chief client officer for the Trade Desk and rhythm guitarist for the company band, whose job is, in part, to t

Jun 28, 2018 • 32:36

Michael Wolff

Michael Wolff

Michael Wolff has some thoughts about conflict. A consummate media insider for decades, the journalist-provocateur-entrepreneur shot into the public consciousness in January with the publication of his sensational peek inside the Donald Trump White House, “Fire and Fury.” He, along with the rest of the advertising and media ecosystem, is in Cannes for the International Festival of Creativity. In a panel with adman Jeff Goodby, Wolff riffed on Trump’s psyche. On this episode of Ad Lib, recorded e

Jun 20, 2018 • 23:00

Shingy, digital prophet, Oath

Shingy, digital prophet, Oath

You may not have heard of David Shing, but you probably know about Shingy. The self-styled “digital prophet” at Oath – the Verizon-owned juggernaut that comprises AOL, Yahoo, the Huffington Post and some 50 media and b-to-b brands – is in Cannes on a mission that seems counterintuitive to what a digital prophet ought to be all about. He wants people to dial down their anxiety-inducing reliance on their phones. On this pop-up Cannes-themed edition of the Ad Lib podcast, we caught up with Shingy,

Jun 18, 2018 • 25:20

Havas Creative North American Chairman and CEO, Paul Marobella 

Havas Creative North American Chairman and CEO, Paul Marobella 

In a challenging time with so much gloom and doom out there, Paul Marobella remains a consummate optimist. The North American Chairman and CEO of Havas creative says the current climate reminds him of the mid-1990s, “when digital was going to change everything.” Marobella joins the Ad Lib podcast today to discuss the advantages of being owned by Vivendi as opposed to a traditional advertising holding company, creating a culture of creativity and what he’s looking forward to in Cannes.

Jun 14, 2018 • 34:01

Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar

Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar

An expansive marketer in an era of the incredible shrinking CMO, Rajamannar joins the Ad Lib podcast to discuss what he calls the CMO existential crisis. We talk about marketing at scale in a time when people hate ads and have the power to block them, the surprising durability of the 20-year-old “Priceless” campaign and increasing gender diversity at his company’s ranks. We also talk about a recent Mastercard campaign that received a bit of social media backlash for promising to donate meals to

Jun 7, 2018 • 0:48

Ken Auletta, 'Frenemies' author

Ken Auletta, 'Frenemies' author

You're going to be hearing Ken Auletta's name a lot this month. Auletta, who has been writing the Annals of Communication column for The New Yorker since 1992, is the author of a new book about the industry's current existential crisis. "Frenemies" comes out June 5. He'll also be at Cannes at the end of the month interviewing Martin Sorrell on stage. This, however, is our moment to turn the tables on Auletta and interview him for the Ad Lib podcast. We discuss privacy, Sir Martin, platforms, pub

Jun 5, 2018 • 0:36

Andrew Swinand, Leo Burnett North America CEO

Andrew Swinand, Leo Burnett North America CEO

When Andrew Swinand was tapped to be Leo Burnett’s North America CEO last January, he had a daunting remit. Burnett had long been a flagship Chicago agency, but after losing McDonald’s in September 2016 — and a few other accounts — the legendary creative shop had lost some of its luster. Swinand, who had most recently been at sister Publicis shop Starcom Mediavest, brought in a history of data and analytics to the role of burnishing Burnett. He joins us today to discuss all things Leo Burnett an

May 31, 2018 • 0:29

Terri & Sandy’s Terri and Sandy

Terri & Sandy’s Terri and Sandy

Terri Meyer and Sandy Greenberg are the co-founders of the New York independent shop Terri & Sandy. Both refugees from the big holding company world — Meyer and Greenberg had worked together as a creative team at both J. Walter Thompson and FCB — the two bring a big sensibility toward small agency life. On this episode of Ad Lib we discuss life as a small agency, building—and maintaining—agency culture, and how to get on the radar of big marketers. (Side note: it’s not too late to buy your ticke

May 24, 2018 • 35:20

Upfront and personal: The week’s big TV takeaways

Upfront and personal: The week’s big TV takeaways

The major broadcast networks wound down the 2018 upfront week Friday. Top-line takeaways: In 2019, look forward to more reboots, shorter ad slots and lots of live sports. If the scripted programming leaves a little to be desired there’s still a staggering amount of money on the table: Roughly $10 billion in advertising for the broadcast networks and an additional $10 billion for cable. Ad Age media reporters Jeanine Poggi and Anthony Crupi break it all down in a spirited special upfront edition

May 18, 2018 • 42:47

Ogilvy Worldwide CEO John Seifert

Ogilvy Worldwide CEO John Seifert

Earlier this year, John Seifert announced that Ogilvy would be undergoing a “refounding,” which he dubbed the shop’s “Next Chapter.” A 39-year veteran of the legendary agency, Seifert joins us to talk about what that entails. “Times are tough” he says in his surprisingly candid fashion. Not just at Ogilvy, but across the board — including for the agency’s clients. We discuss the encroachment of the consultancies into the advertising space. We’ll hear his take on his former boss, Martin Sorrell,

May 17, 2018 • 0:43

Tim Leake, RPA

Tim Leake, RPA

With giant clients like Honda and Farmer’s insurance, independent, LA-based agency RPA punches above its weight. Tim Leake’s mandate, when he joined the shop in 2014, was to nurture a culture of growth and innovation within the agency as it scaled. Having come most recently from Hyper Island, the Swedish school and consultancy, Leake brought with him a zest for business transformation that wasn’t yet quite all the rage it is. Now RPA’s chief marketing officer, Leake discusses the agency take on

May 10, 2018 • 38:53

Bonnie Kintzer, Trusted Media Brands

Bonnie Kintzer, Trusted Media Brands

When Bonnie Kintzer became president and CEO of Trusted Media Brands in 2014, it was still called the Reader’s Digest Association. Job number one became bolstering the brand, reviving it financially after a series of bad investments and changing just about everything in the way it operates — starting with the name. In addition to Reader’s Digest, the company also publishes Taste of Home, Family Handyman and a number of other titles. Kintzer joins the Ad Lib podcast to explain how Reader’s Digest

May 3, 2018 • 37:38

Hanya Yanagihara, novelist and T Magazine editor

Hanya Yanagihara, novelist and T Magazine editor

For almost exactly a year now, Hanya Yanagihara has been molding T Magazine, the New York Times’ lifestyle and culture magazine, in her image. A recent refresh brought in a new logo and typeface, but the full bleed art, smart cultural journalism and yes the ads — so many ads — are still going strong. Hanya is also the author of the critically acclaimed 2015 novel A Little Life. Here, she discusses her tenure as T Magazine’s editor one year in, fiction writing versus non-fiction editing, where th

Apr 26, 2018 • 40:44

Intermarkets’ Erik Requidan 

Intermarkets’ Erik Requidan 

Under the hood of the Drudge Report, and other conservative sites like it — including Political Insider, Smith & Wesson Forum and MRC Newscasters — is its advertising marketing firm Intermarkets. And under the hood of Intermarkets is Erik Requidan, vice president of programmatic strategy. In an era when the advertising community likes to talk about inclusivity and embracing divergent viewpoints, Requidan says he feels like the odd man out. He joins us on the Ad Lib podcast today to make the case

Apr 19, 2018 • 38:54

Intel’s Alyson Griffin

Intel’s Alyson Griffin

Last year Intel, the PC maker best known to the wider world for its “Intel Inside” tagline, decided to pivot from being a PC-centric to a data-centric company. It invested heavily in artificial intelligence, the internet of things, drones, autonomous cars and more. Those data-centric businesses made up 47 percent of revenues in fiscal 2017, underscoring the diminished importance of the PC to its business. “We need to make sure the future tech buyers of the world understand we’re not just a chip

Apr 13, 2018 • 33:35

Patch CEO Warren St. John

Patch CEO Warren St. John

Hyperlocal news has had a rough, ahem, patch in recent years. Undone by Craigslist and Facebook and Google, among others, local news sites have struggled to stay afloat. The end of 2017 alone saw the shuttering of both Gothamist and DNAInfo.  Patch CEO and executive editor Warren St. John joins Ad Lib this week to tell us what’s going on at Patch. Among his many accomplishments as a writer and reporter for the New York Times and others, St. John also happens to be the guy who popularized the ter

Apr 5, 2018 • 0:40

Forbes’ Randall Lane

Forbes’ Randall Lane

Synonymous with powerful, rich and usually white male entrepreneurs, Forbes is, like many media companies, being forced to evolve. Randall Lane took over as editor of the 101-year-old publisher in December of 2017, after Lewis D’Vorkin went on to run the LA Times newsroom — leaving behind a large pair of wingtips. Under D’Vorkin, Forbes grew its army of contributors in a bid for scale and led the native advertising charge with its Brand Voice program. Lane joins Ad Lib today to help us get a han

Mar 29, 2018 • 0:31

Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finoccio

Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finoccio

March Madness is well underway and if you’re a sports fan of a certain age, chances are you’re tracking your decimated bracket on Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio joins us on this episode of Ad Lib to discuss its distributed approach to publishing, what makes Bleacher Report connect with younger audiences in an oversaturated sports market — and how it’s been working with Turner Broadcasting, which acquired Bleacher Report in 2012 for a reported $175 to $200 million.

Mar 22, 2018 • 0:33

Hearst’s Troy Young

Hearst’s Troy Young

It’s been five years since Troy Young came to Hearst to build out the magazine company’s digital division. Today as the global president of digital for a media empire that includes Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Elle, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country – the list goes on – Young is redefining what it means to be in a 130-year-old publisher with its roots in print.

Mar 15, 2018 • 33:02

360i’s Sarah Hofstetter

360i’s Sarah Hofstetter

In this episode of Ad Lib, Sarah Hofstetter, the global CEO of full-service digital-first agency 360i, discusses the agency's new Amazon practice, the future of voice, the best kosher restaurants in Cannes and more. (She also admits to a few regrets about a certain Oreo Super Bowl tweet.)

Mar 8, 2018 • 34:51

Po.et CEO Jarrod Dicker

Po.et CEO Jarrod Dicker

Last month, a subset of the media world snapped to attention when Jarrod Dicker left the Post, where he built out a lot of pioneering proprietary tech for the company, to become the CEO of something called Po.et, which bills itself as "an open, universal, and immutable ledger for managing the ownership and licensing of the world's creative works." It runs on blockchain, and today Dicker will explain what it is -- and how he hopes to upend the media business model as we know it.

Mar 1, 2018 • 41:05

Pop-Up Magazine’s Chas Edwards

Pop-Up Magazine’s Chas Edwards

Chas Edwards is a co-founder and publisher of both Pop-Up magazine—a roving circus that brings magazine journalism to life in staged events—and the print publication it spawned, California Sunday Magazine. Taken together, the two represent a new kind of media company. Edwards breaks down of what it all is, how its evolved and how its unique business model is helping the publisher thrive.

Feb 22, 2018 • 25:06

Aardman’s Heather Wright

Aardman’s Heather Wright

You may know Aardman Animation as the creative force behind Wallace and Gromit, “Shaun the Sheep” and “Chicken Run.” This weekend its seventh feature film, “Early Man” comes to our shores. But the recognizably Aardman characters the studio is well known–and beloved–for, only comprise 5 percent of its branded content output. Heather Wright fills us in on the other 95 percent. An executive producer and head of partner content at the studio, Wright works with brands on storytelling in a wide array

Feb 14, 2018 • 30:47

HP’s Antonio Lucio

HP’s Antonio Lucio

There’s a lot of talk in the marketing and advertising industries about diversity — but not a ton of walking. Antonio Lucio is one of the walkers. Lucio talks about his diversity drive on today’s podcast and also breaks down his view of the state of marketing in 2018. Along the way, he shares a little of his own personal journey, how his childhood in Spain and Puerto Rico shaped who he is today, and why a diagnosis of depression changed him.

Feb 7, 2018 • 0:40

Hungry Man Productions, Bryan Buckley

Hungry Man Productions, Bryan Buckley

Bryan Buckley has nearly 60 Super Bowl credits to his name, directing spots for a bevy of brands ranging from Monster.com and Cash4Gold to Coca-Cola and Bud Light. In this podcast, Buckley discusses what it’s like working with high-profile celebrities like Alec Baldwin and Martin Scorcese, the Super Bowl ad he wishes he made and his most recent Super Bowl efforts for Febreze.

Feb 1, 2018 • 0:53

Avocados From Mexico’s Kevin Hamilton

Avocados From Mexico’s Kevin Hamilton

Kevin Hamilton has experienced first-hand the pressure to pull off a Super Bowl ad. As the senior director of marketing at Avocados From Mexico, Hamilton is charged with promoting the produce on TV’s biggest stage. In this podcast, we explore the continued importance of TV advertising, the gender gap in Super Bowl ads and how he decides what’s funny.

Jan 31, 2018 • 0:37

Capitol Music Group’s Brian Nolan

Capitol Music Group’s Brian Nolan

Brian Nolan has a music fan’s dream job. As the senior vice president of Capitol Records’ in-house division focused on brand partnerships and licensing, Nolan is tasked with bringing new or under-exposed music to potentially huge audiences. In this podcast we touch on his work with artists ranging from Sam Smith to Migos to Halsey. We also explore how the music industry has adjusted to and evolved with the rise of streaming—and how he decides what to surface for advertisers, movies and TV shows.

Jan 26, 2018 • 0:35

Havas’ Harry Bernstein

Havas’ Harry Bernstein

If you’ve spent any time in agency circles, you haven’t seen a lot of people who look or talk like Harry. Tall, bearded, often tie-died and bolo tied, Bernstein, who goes by Harry Bee, is as apt to talk about clean living and guided meditation as he is trap music and Adidas collabs. In September, Havas acquired The 88, the social media and digital shop he founded in 2010, and brought him on as chief creative officer of the New York office. We talk today about his non-traditional approach to adve

Jan 19, 2018 • 34:20

Fresh Digital Group’s Doug Robinson

Fresh Digital Group’s Doug Robinson

Recent research has found that smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home will be in 55 percent of all U.S. households by 2022. That’s a lot of skills. To help us break down what this all means — for consumers, marketers, content providers, non-profits and more — we’re joined by Doug Robinson, CEO of Fresh Digital Group. Robinson’s team has built some 400 skills for clients ranging from ESPN to BMW and UNICEF to Toys R Us among many others. Robinson breaks down how consumers are using th

Jan 12, 2018 • 35:37

Quartz’s Jay Lauf

Quartz’s Jay Lauf

In a note at the end of 2017, Quartz publisher Jay Lauf gave his thanks to readers and advertisers, making it a point of pride that the commercial team at Quartz had been “very deliberate” about never putting its inventory on open exchanges. Sounds a bit in-the-weeds, but in a year where brand safety was top of mind for publishers and brands alike, Quartz’s five-year resistance to go the programmatic route seems downright prescient today. We discuss this perspective, as well as what it means to

Jan 4, 2018 • 0:42

Rafat Ali

Rafat Ali

The co-founder and CEO of the travel media company Skift, Ali is a digital media veteran. We talk about his childhood in India and what made him want to get into media. He takes us on a tour through internet 1.0 with stops at Inside.com and PaidContent, the first company he founded. And we arrive at the here and now, where Ali is an advocate for niche media brands and the pivot to quality.

Dec 29, 2017 • 32:56

Dave Morgan

Dave Morgan

The Simulmedia CEO helps us make sense of the Disney-Fox deal, breaks down the state (and future) of addressable TV, explains the agency “existential” crisis -- and more.

Dec 18, 2017 • 40:40

Wendy Clark and Ari Weiss

Wendy Clark and Ari Weiss

It’s been just under two years since DDB brought Wendy Clark — a former top marketer at Coca Cola — on board as its North American CEO. And it’s been just under one year since she brought on Ari Weiss as the Omnicom network’s first chief creative officer. Together the two discuss creativity, talent and the highs and lows of 2017 for DDB specifically and the industry at large.

Dec 8, 2017 • 0:55

Adam Moss

Adam Moss

The New York Magazine editor is Ad Age’s Editor of the Year — and the title he’s edited since 2004 is the Magazine of the Year. Today he sits down with Ad Age editor Brian Braiker to discuss his time at New York, how the media landscape has changed in the past 20 years, the future of magazines in general, Harvey Weinstein, Rolling Stone and more.

Dec 3, 2017 • 41:37

Michael Rothman

Michael Rothman

The CEO and co-founder of Fatherly, a New York City-based media start-up that caters to millennial dads, is himself not a father. Rather Rothman, whose last gig was as Thrillist’s first business-side hire, is a digital media vet. On this episode of Ad Lib, he discusses building a media business on the back of curated content and newsletters — and ultimately scaling up original content, going deep on Facebook and expanding into events. He also shares the details of a certain X-rated patent he att

Nov 22, 2017 • 43:44

Michael Kuntz

Michael Kuntz

The senior vice president of digital revenue at USA Today Network sits down with Ad Age editor Brian Braiker to discuss Gannett’s local play, working with Facebook Instant Articles and Google AMP, USA Today’s push into VR, Kuntz’s time at Gawker and the general perils of print.

Nov 10, 2017 • 43:59

Kay Hsu

Kay Hsu

As the global Instagram lead at Facebook Creative Shop, Kay is tasked with getting brands to adopt the Instagram Stories format. She discusses the challenges and opportunities brands see with the proliferation of ad formats – and the rise of ephemeral formats specifically. She also talks about her own career path from a legislative assistant in Canada, through stints in fashion, Hong Kong and agency life before landing at Facebook.

Oct 27, 2017 • 38:51

Neil Vogel

Neil Vogel

Since 2014, Neil Vogel has led the transition of About.com into Dotdash. Under his stewardship, the IAC-owned company has gone from an all-things-to-all-people approach to a publisher of discrete, focused verticals including Verywell (health), the Spruce (home), Lifewire (tech), the Balance (personal finance), Tripsavvy (travel) and Thought Co. (life hacking). We discuss the challenges and opportunities of that transformation – but first he talks about the life-changing experience, early in his

Oct 20, 2017 • 34:23

Jonah Disend

Jonah Disend

Jonah Disend is CEO and founder of Redscout, a branding a product development company with clients like Gatorade and Domino’s that he founded in his New York apartment in 2000. We talk about how his love of theater informs what he does, how the advertising industry has not especially embraced the LGBT community -- and a certain bar mitzvah that he threw his company when it turned 13, four years ago.

Oct 12, 2017 • 32:16

Where Creativity Meets Strategy

Where Creativity Meets Strategy

Alain Sylvain is the founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs, an innovation and brand design consultancy. We talk about his background and the lack of diversity in media and marketing, his failures and his side hustles, which include launching a headphone brand and producing documentaries.

Oct 6, 2017 • 28:57

Pop Vox 

Pop Vox 

As chairman and CEO of Vox Media, Jim Bankoff oversees eight vertices including The Verge, SB Nation and Vox.com. We discuss what’s next for Vox and his past life as a Web 1.0 executive at AOL before and during part of the fall.

Sep 22, 2017 • 46:36

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