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The Drum Podcast

A weekly podcast exploring creativity in marketing, advertising, media, and the ever-changing world of brand building.

How subs and ads are transforming the New York Times

Tusar Barik, a veteran of Silicon Valley via LinkedIn, joined the New York Times as SVP of marketing at the start of 2025 - a year in which the publisher has seen remarkable growth and profit amid turbulent times for publishers. Barik joins us to tell us how the Gray Lady is continuing to innovate at the spearhead of publishing.
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How subs and ads are transforming the New York Times

Tusar Barik, a veteran of Silicon Valley via LinkedIn, joined the New York Times as SVP of marketing at the start of 2025 - a year in which the publisher has seen remarkable growth and profit amid turbulent times for publishers. Barik joins us to tell us how the Gray Lady is continuing to innovate at the spearhead of publishing.

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44 mins
23 Oct, 2025

From Exit Right: 'Superconnector' Sam Liu of Savvy

Join Mike Silver on this episode of Exit Right as he sits down with Sam Lui, the ultimate super connector and founder of Savvy. Discover Sam's incredible journey from humble beginnings in rural UK to becoming a global business leader.

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16 Oct, 2025

Daniel Gilbert of Brainlabs on building the 'media agency of the future'

In a frank conversation, Daniel Gilbert of performance agency-turned-media shop Brainlabs tells the story of a company that started in a bedroom of his parents' house and now has its sights set on becoming the biggest independent name in media. How? Well, Gilbert has some punchy opinions about the agency and media landscape right now - and thinks very few are setting up for the media world of the future...

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12 Oct, 2025

For the first time in history, most people are 'generally receptive' to ads

We chat with Hannah Walley, Kantar's head of media for UK & Ireland, about the organization's research into consumers' and marketers' perceptions of advertising. Walley tells us how we've got to a place where, for the first time, more people are receptive to advertising than aren't; why there's no overlap between marketers' favorite ad spaces and real people's favorites; and the truth behind stats about declining investment in linear TV ads.

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5 Oct, 2025

The 3 kinds of humour with Paddy Gilmore

Fresh off a panel at The Drum Live, The Drum’s humour columnist Paddy Gilmore breaks down what makes funny work funny and what makes it worth making.

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26 Sep, 2025

'Accidental marketer', Infosys CMO Sumit Virmani

Sumit Virmani has been at Infosys for over two decades. Now, he's global CMO for the tech giant. He told The Drum why a long tenure is an advantage, why attribution should still be a focus for everyone in the marketing world, how to approach the marketing mix in a world of uncertainty, and how close we really are to the golden goose of AI-enabled personalization at scale.

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33 more episodes +
18 Sep, 2025

Deloitte Digital US CMO Mark Singer: What is an agency, anyway?

A veteran of agencies himself, Mark Singer tells us why he doesn't think the term 'agency' is fit for purpose anymore, where we are in the now decade-long tug-of-war between consultancies and marketing shops, and (of course) how AI is going to change everything.

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46 mins
11 Sep, 2025

Introducing Exit Right, a new podcast from The Drum

In this Exit Right episode, Mike Silver interviews Adrian Hewlett, CEO of Sealand, on transitioning from agency life to building a sustainable brand. Discover insights on entrepreneurship, business growth, company culture, and selling to Publicis - plus lessons from successes, challenges, and global expansion strategies.

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35 mins
4 Sep, 2025

Toby Southgate, global CEO of We Are Social

As he hits six months into one of the biggest jobs in social media marketing, Toby Southgate of We Are Social sits down with The Drum to talk social's biggest year ever, the evolution of agency ownership structures, and what's coming next.

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43 mins
28 Aug, 2025

How employers are still failing parents

A recent report from Matri found that 1/4 of new mothers either never come back to work or leave work within a year of returning. Worse, the vast majority cite "unsupportive work environments" and "inflexible working conditions" in their decision to leave. We sit down with the report's author, adland veteran Sophie Maunder, and Allison Beattie, and ad exec turned fertility-rights-at-work advocate to track the scale of the problem and what needs to be done.

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38 mins
21 Aug, 2025

Mark Ritson, The Drum's newest columnist

The Drum's opinion editor John McCarthy has recently signed up the biggest name in the biz to a regular column. Here you can listen to their first pitch meeting.

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36 mins
31 Jul, 2025

Are marketers truly ready for 'personalization at scale'?

It can seem in 2025 like everyone in the ad ecosystem is chasing after the same Holy Grail: fast, rapidly delivered, personalized content at whatever scale they fancy. With the help of (yes) AI, it seems that dream is closer than ever. But is the business ready for it?

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37 mins
24 Jul, 2025

Is vibe the new value?

Marketing is getting moodier - and that’s a good thing. We’re diving into how brands are connecting through emotion, instinct, and shared energy, not just data. Think storytelling, authenticity, and values-led creative.

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40 mins
10 Jul, 2025

3 marketers tackling the continued barriers to creative access

We sit down with 3 marketers behind programs tackling marketing's dark secret: that it remains one of the most elitist and unequal industries.

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43 mins
3 Jul, 2025

The secrets of guerrilla marketing

3 experts from the worlds of guerrilla activations, social and experiential marketing open the secret cookbook for under-the-radar marketing success.

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40 mins
26 Jun, 2025

Cannes Lions 2025 wrapped: The agency view

We're joined by two agency founders, fresh off a week on the Croisette of Cannes Lions. Is it still worth the rising costs for agencies to attend?

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40 mins
19 Jun, 2025

Cannes Lions: How has it changed? (Live from Cannes)

In a special episode fronted by The Drum's global editor Cameron Clarke, two of our leading opinion columnists dissect the news out of this year's Cannes Lions festival, and ponder how the event is evolving.

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20 mins
5 Jun, 2025

Hinge CMO (and now president) on how gen Z is dating, sub growth, and bringing marketing to the center of the boardroom

CMO at dating app Hinge, took on an extra title earlier this year: President. Live from the inaugural SXSW festival in London, Jantos talks putting marketing at the center of the boardroom, a troubling loneliness epidemic for gen Z, and the future of dating.

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34 mins
29 May, 2025

David Sable, ad club of NY 'industry legend' honoree: Advertising's golden age is right now

David Sable spent decades in global roles at the likes of Y&R and Wunderman. Now vice chair at Stagwell, he's been honored as this year's Industry Legend by the Advertising Club of New York. He tells us why he thinks advertising's golden age is happening right in front of us.

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51 mins
15 May, 2025

Is UK media still too London-centric?

A recent report out of GroupM went deep into the shifting tides of UK identities. It found vast differences between regions, including a "significant divide" between the London and the UK. With media thinking still dominated by London and a couple of other cities, does it need an update? We chat with Julia Ayling and Morven Hassall.

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42 mins
8 May, 2025

Are marketers sleeping on the petfluencer opportunity?

Recent research out of the University of Strathclyde found that petfluencers outperform their human counterparts - even in non-pet related categories, and for a far lower price. We speak to the lead author of that research, Laura Lavertu, and Momentum Worldwide's Cesar Vallejo about the economics, ethics, and future of furry marketing assets.

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43 mins
1 May, 2025

Are we getting closer to standardized sustainability reporting?

Reforming voices in the ad industry have made a lot of progress in recent years - better understanding of advertising's impact on the environment, better tools to measure that impact, and plenty of new recruits to the cause - but the more radical among them would still say that it's not enough. Here, with the help of Ad Net Zero and Impact Plus, we focus on a few of the bits of progress that they're still clamoring for, including standardized reporting and more data from the programmatic world.

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41 mins
24 Apr, 2025

The new loyalty: What Gen Z really wants from brands

Analysts claim Gen Z is redefining loyalty. We delve into this, questioning if they're truly less loyal or simply loyal in a new way. Join our experts in brand loyalty, youth marketing, and social media as we unpack this crucial question for marketers seeking to connect with the next generation of consumers.

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33 mins
17 Apr, 2025

What keeps CMOs up at night?

Following major research by Team Lewis last year into the things that really bother CMOs (and what they can do about them), two senior brand-side marketers and Team Lewis' own Yvonne van Bokhoven tell us just how frightened senior marketers should be about the outlook ahead.

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37 mins
15 Apr, 2025

Bonus ep: The culture wars come for media buying

Live from a late night saloon bar at the recent WFA Global Marketer Week, The Drum's editor Cameron Clarke chatted with Ebiquity's Ruben Schreurs and veteran mediaman Nick Manning. The topic: how Elon Musk's lawsuit indicting the WFA and a new White House approach to trade are changing the media landscape.

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42 mins
10 Apr, 2025

The attention revolution w/ Karen Nelson-Field & Mike Follett

There's no-one who's been more instrumental in making the ad industries take attention seriously than Dr Karen Nelson-Field, founder of Amplified Intelligence and author of The Attention Economy, and Mike Follett, chief executive of Lumen Research. We brought the pair together to talk attention's journey into the center of marketing effectiveness thinking and why so many are finally waking up to the power of attention.

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46 mins
3 Apr, 2025

How science-informed design is redefining sensory branding

We sit down with neuroaesthetics specialist and cognitive scientist Katherine Templar Lewis and Wonder's executive creative director David Crease to unpick how scientific thinking about all five senses is pushing forward experience design.

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31 mins
27 Mar, 2025

Are adland's borders shifting again?

The ad business has long faced accusations of geocentrism, with heavy focuses in London, New York and Tokyo. That has long been shifting, with those evolving dynamics amplified by the universal-amplifier of the Covid-19 pandemic. But are borders shifting again? We hear from a top marketer in Dubai, and another who sold one of the UK's most successful independent groups from Bournemouth.

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35 mins
20 Mar, 2025

Is gamification having a new marketing moment?

Everyone wants to be Duolingo: over a hundred million active users worldwide, all hooked on its nudges and streaks and terrified of that big green bird. But where else is 'play-thinking' starting to transform the rest of the marketing industry? Jaywing's Danni Smith and UsTwo's Maz Karimian tell us.

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45 mins
13 Mar, 2025

How do the world's best creatives get to the top of the tree?

Last month, The Drum released our World Creative Rankings, a definitive list of world's most-awarded agencies, creatives and campaigns from 2024. But how does a creative climb the ranks of the many thousands of ad people around the world? We asked two people whose rankings increased the most from last year to this: LePub Milan's Cristiana Candido and FCB Chicago's Bruno Mazzotti.

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36 mins
6 Mar, 2025

Does food & drink marketing have an overconsumption problem?

With ADM Group's chief sustainability officer Tom Hunter and Green House's Tessa Corcoran, we look at how marketers are rethinking their role in a FMCG world that's copping a lot of flack for wastage and unsustainable practices.

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30 mins
27 Feb, 2025

As 'agentic AI' dawns, who owns the future?

Phase one of the mass global roll-out of generative AI is coming to an end, and phase two is coming. With the help of Jellyfish's Jack Smyth and Lindsay Hong of SmartAssets, we inventory the best AI tools right now, the smartest marketing approaches, and where we're going next: an 'agentic AI' future that just might have some world-shaking repercussions for marketing.

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43 mins
24 Feb, 2025

Netflix's Buy Now documentary: Can marketing clean its act up?

Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy is arguably the most widely-distributed piece of criticism of the marketing industry in recent times. We sit down with the doc's producer Flora Bagenal and one of its star interviewees, former Adidas brand chief Eric Liedtke.

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43 mins
17 Feb, 2025

Super Bowl LIX: The most unhinged ever?

The Super Bowl is over, but the conversation's just beginning. Off-pitch, what will we remember this year's event for most? Kendrick Lamar's barnstorming half-time show? The advent of the AI Super Bowl ad? Or seeing, for some reason, Seal as an actual Seal? We're joined by Metaforce's Allen Adamson and Gartner's Nicole Greene to discuss the biggest advertising takeaways from the Big Game.

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33 mins

Has social killed craft - or reinvigorated it?

The death of craft, like the deaths of so many things, is declared with regularity. One culprit accused of killing it: social and the wider world of digital media. Our guests look into the data and the feelings of real creatives to ask: has social really killed craft?

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27 Nov, 2025

What makes a holiday ad sound Christmassy?

We're joined by start Charlie Smith, the Grey copywriter-turned-composer behind three of this year's top Christmas ads. Smith give us a peak behind the scenes at how the ads get made - and the creative trends behind 2025's ad- and film-scores.

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Introducing Slow The F*ck Down with Emma Harris

Today we bring you a taster episode of a sibling podcast from The Drum and Glow London, Slow The F*ck Down with Emma Harris. Harris is joined by Sophie Devonshire and Victoria Fox.

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WPP's Matt McNeany on Open Pro and advertising's AI future?

WPP recently unveiled Open Pro, its AI self-serve offering. It's betting big on the move, hoping it will unlock new clients including SMEs. But can it do so without eating into its traditional agency services?

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30 Oct, 2025

Nick Manning & Brian Jacobs on why the advertising world is in trouble?

In this introductory episode, The Drum's Steven Antoniewicz interviews the co-founders of the Advertising: Who Cares? movement, Brian Jacobs and Nick Manning. Veterans of the advertising and media worlds, the duo has spent the last year sounding the alarm on major threats to the industry they love.

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Chloe & David: Communication, Pressure, and the True Meaning of High Performance

Chloë Davies & David Enwright join Emma Harris to tackle the overwhelming truth of our industry. We're getting candid about the shocking lack of real communication, the insane pressure to constantly deliver, and why we're all feeling so undervalued. We're also dissecting what "high performance" actually means, because it's certainly not about running yourself into the ground. This episode is about stopping the madness and finding clarity.

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40 mins

From Council Estate To Creative Heights With Simon Hatter

Simon Hatter is a creative and entrepreneur who rose from a council estate after losing his father at a young age, surviving an abusive stepfather, and growing up in a world hostile to being gay. It’s a powerful story of resilience, courage, and success.

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60 mins

Amina & Ndu: Marketing in a Divided World - Pressure, AI, and the Inability to Disconnect

Amina Folarin & Ndubuisi Uchea join Emma Harris to explore why the marketing industry feels more pressured and crazy than ever. We're getting honest about how the world's divisions and economic struggles are amplifying everything, making people feel unseen and unsafe. We're also tackling the relentless demands on CMOs, the double-edged sword of AI, and the constant struggle to disconnect when work is always in our pockets.

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Has social killed craft - or reinvigorated it?

The death of craft, like the deaths of so many things, is declared with regularity. One culprit accused of killing it: social and the wider world of digital media. Our guests look into the data and the feelings of real creatives to ask: has social really killed craft?

Listen

Sherilyn & Zaid: Burnout, Boundaries and the Myth of “Getting It All Done”

In this episode, Sherilyn Shackell and Zaid Al-Kasab join Emma Harris to unpack why work has always been hard and why it feels so relentless right now. From the reality of burnout and mental health to the pressure of endless to-do lists, “always-on” expectations and post-COVID hangovers, they explore what’s actually driving exhaustion in our industry. This is a raw, hopeful conversation about leadership, choice, sleep, boundaries and why slowing down isn’t weakness, it’s how you survive and perform without breaking yourself.

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6 Jan

Moneyball for Marketers

Sports marketing thrives on emotion - but it also demands precision. In this episode, we explore how programmatic out-of-home brings flexibility, real-time relevance and smarter measurement to fan-first campaigns that perform on and off the pitch.

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20 mins

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