The Media Leader Podcast

This week, from the 3rd to the 5th of June, the World Out of Home Organisation (WOO) is hosting its Annual Congress here in London. The event is expected to draw more than 700 attendees from over 37 countries, and The Media Leader is an official media partner of the conference, occurring during our inaugural OOH Week in Focus. Ahead of the conference, host Jack Benjamin sat down with the World Out of Home Organisation president Tom Goddard to discuss the state of the global OOH industry. The pair spoke about how OOH is working to become easier to buy, how it is improving measurement standards, and whether the media channel is telling the right story about itself to advertisers. Highlights: 4:16: The World Out of Home Organisation's recent goals and priorities 8:28: OOH's digital transformation and consolidation in ownership 12:25: Investment in data and measurement and the need for connectivity and automation 17:25: Regulatory headwinds and tailwinds 21:34: Making outdoor creative again with trust as the North Star 26:55: OOH as a sustainable medium 32:17: How to double OOH's market share: make transactions 'frictionless', collaborate more Related articles: OOH reports highest-ever annual revenue in 2025 The reinvention of OOH is accelerating Why measurable doesn’t always mean meaningful in marketing Is out-of-home under threat from global regulations? DOOH: The creative imperative

Last month, the United Nations in partnership with the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) launched an issue brief warning the integrity of the global information ecosystem is at a "crisis point". As Charlotte Scaddan, senior advisor on information integrity at the UN, explained: "Without swift action and guardrails, AI risks accelerating the breakdown of information ecosystem integrity." But advertisers, the UN believes, are uniquely situated to demand greater transparency and guardrails from AI companies as the likes of OpenAI turn to ad-supported business models to fund their exorbitant costs. At our Future of Brands conference last month, Scaddan and CAN co-founder Harriet Kingaby joined host and senior reporter Jack Benjamin to unpack the report and make a direct appeal to advertisers to "make information integrity a condition of AI uptake." Highlights: 1:35: Toplines from the Strengthening Information Integrity: Advertising, Artificial Intelligence and the Global Information Crisis issue brief 4:41: The power of advertisers in the global information ecosystem 7:14: Why advertisers should care about media quality 9:55: Concrete steps advertisers should take when working with tech platforms Related articles: UN and CAN warn of AI-driven global information integrity crisis Social media platforms linked to human trafficking, UN report finds UK to get ChatGPT ads imminently as OpenAI expands pilot to other territories Takeaways from the Future of Brands 2026: AI, culture and measurement take centre stage ‘Are we monetising addiction?’ Ad industry faces reckoning following social media addiction lawsuit verdict Meta admits revenue from fraud and scam ads ‘might’ have accounted for 3-4% of total revenue

In a new mini-series, former Media Leader editor-in-chief Omar Oakes is joined by former Dentsu International CEO, now AI strategist Hamish Nicklin to argue over the nuances of AI development and its use in the creative industries. In the series' final episode, the duo debate for and against the prompt: "Goodbye Salesforce and Adobe because AI will end enterprise software." Taking the “for” side of the argument is Nicklin, while Oakes represents the “against” side, posing sceptical questions. Nicklin argues that the ability of people to build their own software through vibe coding will undercut SaaS business models, which are becoming too expensive to compete. Highlights: 1:05: Recent developments in AI: BuzzFeed's sale, Americans hate AI 6:26: SaaSmageddon: Why AI is disrupting software businesses, with valuations collapsing 20:17: Claude Cowork and its plug-ins 33:32: How realistic is replacing everything with vibe coding? The ease of building personal software and how IT might change 51:31: Second-order effects: What about safety and security? What about fixing bad code? 55:07: Verdicts

With the advent and adoption of AI search, consumers’ online research and discovery behaviours are shifting. How can brands win authority in this new space? Last month at our annual Future of Brands conference, industry leaders convened in London to unpack the challenges facing brand marketers in a rapidly changing media ecosystem. One such nascent problem for marketers and their agencies: how brands are showing up in large-language models (or LLMs). Laura Kell is chief data and product officer at Havas Media Network. Marcos Angelides is MD of L’Oreal Lab and head of AI operations at Publicis Media. Olya Dyachuk is global media and data director at Heineken. The trio sat down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss early efforts in generative engine optimisation, how AI search is forcing agencies to reconsider team organisation, the importance of benchmarking how your brand shows up in LLMs, and what marketers need from AI companies as the likes of OpenAI embrace advertising. Highlights: 2:05: Where brands and agencies are in their GEO journey: Benchmarking and auditing, testing and learning 11:58: Does GEO require bringing search, social and PR teams together? How agencies should reorganise 15:29: The value of LLMs for audience insights 17:17: The consumer trust issue when manipulating LLM results or placing ads in chatbots 24:17: Brands' relationships with AI companies like OpenAI vis-à-vis Google Related articles: Takeaways from the Future of Brands 2026: AI, culture and measurement take centre stage AI optimisation: The new channel brands can’t afford to overlook Havas Media Network launches ‘generative engine optimisation’ tool Agency groups’ AI platforms, explained

In a new mini-series, former Media Leader editor-in-chief Omar Oakes is joined by former Dentsu International CEO, now AI strategist Hamish Nicklin to argue over the nuances of AI development and its use in the creative industries. In episode four, the duo debate for and against the prompt: “AI sycophancy will run wild, and it will be bad for business." Taking the “for” side of the argument is Oakes, while Nicklin represents the “against” side, posing sceptical questions. While both Oakes and Nicklin agree AI sycophancy is an active problem for business leaders, Nicklin suggests that thoughtful prompting can help ameliorate concerns that chatbots are misleading you to try and keep you happy. These include giving the AI explicit permission to reject ideas and asking chatbots to give feedback as though it is for a third party as opposed to the user. As Nicklin argues, subordinates can be sycophantic, too, and "sniffing out the bullshit" is already a core skill for business leaders. But Oakes asks: what happens when you "don't know what you don't know"? Highlights: 2:12: Recent developments in AI: AI-generated music on Deezer, Los Angeles's AI art museum 6:01: What is AI sycophancy and does it mean bad ideas aren't getting killed? 16:52: Four tips for combatting AI sycophancy and making a chatbot a "critical friend" 34:44: How to "sniff out the bullshit" when you don't know what you don't know 45:38: Second-order effects: commercial damage of wrong decisions; impact on psychology, communication standards; AI education 1:00:58: Verdicts