The Digiday Podcast

Digiday

The Digiday Podcast is a weekly show on the big stories and issues that matter to brands, agencies and publishers as they transition to the digital age.

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503 episodes
Updated July 28

Episodes503

Newest first

March 17 · 39 min
After WPP reckoning: The case for and against principal media
A decade after the ANA’s bombshell report, the WPP debacle has forced a new standard of clarity in media buying. This week, Digiday executive editor of news Seb Joseph and Michael Burgi, senior editor of media buying and planning, join the Digiday Podcast to discuss why agencies are leaning into principal trading, and why some brands are finally reining them in.
March 10 · 36 min
TikTok after the legal fight: Why it’s coming for Meta’s ad dollars
Since its legal woes have been resolved, and the U.S. app was spun out earlier this year, TikTok has taken a muted approach to business. Digiday senior platform reporter Krystal Scanlon joins this episode of the Digiday Podcast to discuss why what looks like business as usual on the surface is more likened to hushed plight for more ad dollars, creators and users.
March 3 · 41 min
OpenAI's ad push begins, and The Knot is co-piloting
Ads in ChatGPT have entered their trial run period. Instead of agency partners, it's brands like The Knot Worldwide that find themselves at the helms of OpenAI's ad push. Marketers like The Knot's CMO Jenny Lewis are navigating everything from performance metrics to infrastructure.
February 24 · 40 min
Why some creators are now back auditing their brand deals
Hootsuite’s partnership with ICE sparked controversy earlier this year, leading creators to take a closer look at the companies they work with. On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Tameka Bazile shares why she ended her deal with Hootsuite, how it prompted her to audit other brand partnerships, and what creators can learn about balancing ethics, audience expectations, and income.
February 17 · 39 min
ChatGPT enters the ad game. Now what?
The other shoe has finally dropped. After months of speculation, OpenAI officially began to test ads in ChatGPT in the U.S. Meanwhile, marketers are still trying to read the tea leaves around OpenAI's ad team, data insights and more as chatbot competition intensifies. Digiday's senior platforms reporter Krystan Scanlon joins the Digiday Podcast to make sense of it all.
February 10 · 41 min
Digiday ranks the best and worst Super Bowl ads of 2026
Anthropic took a jab at OpenAI's ad product launch and T-Mobile and Coinbase used The Backstreet Boys top play up millennial nostalgia. Now that the dust has settled around the 60-plus Super Bowl ad spots rolled out this year, Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy are joined by Sunny Bonnell, co-founder and CEO of global brand strategy and design agency Motto, to reflect on the best and worst commercials from Super Bowl 2026.
February 3 · 41 min
Inside NBCUniversal’s test to use AI agents to sell ads against a live NFL game
Traditional TV — let alone a live NFL playoff game — might be the last ad inventory type you’d think to test trying out AI agents against. And yet that’s exactly what NBCUniversal did last month. The media conglomerate ran a test with ad agency RPA, marketing analytics firm Newton Research and Comcast-owned ad tech firm FreeWheel to have AI agents participate in buying an ad against a live NFL playoff game. But did it work? “It works. It is a functioning technical proof-of-concept that accurately represents what the buyer wants to buy and what the seller has to sell,” said Ryan McConville, chief product officer and evp of ad products and solutions at NBCUniversal on the latest Digiday Podcast. Despite the successful test, NBCU isn’t about to outsource its entire ad sales process to AI agents anytime soon. “We are a ways away from having this fully productionalized where multiple agencies are using this day in and day out to replace current workflows,” he said. That said, NBCU is now a lot closer to what McConville calls”premium automation,” as he explained in the episode.
January 27 · 44 min
Creators vs. influencers: Inside the divide
Is there a difference between a creator and an influencer. If so, what’s the difference and why does it matter to marketers? On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Digiday staffers debate the topic.
January 20 · 1 hr
The top AI platforms for publishers, ranked
Two years after OpenAI signed its first content licensing deal with Axel Springer, the field of AI platforms doing business with publishers has expanded exponentially. Especially just in the past year. But then the publishers have to evaluate those options. Fortunately Digiday senior media editor Jessica Davies and senior media reporter Sara Guaglione have done a lot of that legwork in drafting a scorecard of the major AI platforms based on interviews with publishers. They joined the show to review the rankings and share the reasoning behind why platforms from Meta to Microsoft, Anthropic to OpenAI may rate higher or lower than you’d expect. Check out Jess and Sara’s written scorecard here: https://digiday.com/media/publishers-scorecard-for-big-techs-ai-licensing-deals/
January 13 · 32 min
CES 2026: Agentic AI hype vs. media buyers' pragmatism
This year's CES was all about agentic AI and little else. Digiday executive editor Joseph was boots-on-the-ground for this year's show in Las Vegas. He joins this episode of the Digiday Podcast to make sense of this year's event, and what it means as 2026 gets underway.
January 6 · 48 min
'The year where the dust settles': Digiday editors share 2026 predictions
This week's episode takes a look at how 2025's cliffhangers—everything from Netflix's planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to the ripple effects of the Omnicom-IPG merger—and how it all could play out in 2026. Digiday managing editor Sara Jerde and executive editor of news Seb Joseph join hosts Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy to try and read the 2026 tea leaves.
Dec 23, 2025 · 41 min
‘A year of loose ends’: Digiday editors share top takeaways from 2025
This year was filled with major developments, from Netflix’s planned WBD deal to Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG to the introduction of AI-only video feeds. But there were also developments that didn’t really happen, like the U.S. spinoff of TikTok and Google’s third-party cookie deprecation. Digiday editors Sara Jerde and Seb Joseph joined hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to recap the year that was (and wasn’t).
Dec 16, 2025 · 51 min
The Disney-OpenAI deal and generative AI copyright concerns
This week’s episode recaps Disney’s deal to open up its character library to OpenAI and Google’s reported plan to roll out ads in its Gemini chatbot. Then Davis Wright Tremaine partner Rob Driscoll joins the show to delve into the copyright concerns and potential trademark issues surrounding brands’ use of generative AI tools (16:40).
Dec 9, 2025 · 58 min
The case against AI agents for programmatic ad buying
This week’s episode unpacks two major developments in the media and entertainment industries. Digiday’s executive editor of news Seb Joseph joins to analyze Netflix’s plan to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business (3:43) as well as Meta’s foray into signing content licensing deals with publishers for its AI chatbot (25:37). Then this week’s featured segment is a live recording from last week’s Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, in which Attention Arc’s Christopher Francia makes the case for why programmatic ad buying shouldn’t be outsourced to AI agents (34:50).
Dec 2, 2025 · 48 min
Can a new CEO and massive AI bet turn WPP's sinking ship around?
On this week's episode, the smoke is clearing in the Omnicom-IPG merger with a clearer look at how its media, tech and creative will operate going forward coming into focus. Plus, another ripple in OpenAI's author lawsuit begins to surface. Then (16:30), Digiday's senior marketing reporter Sam Bradley joins the show to discuss WPP's turbulent 2025, and what it'll take to turn things around in 2026.
Nov 25, 2025 · 50 min
How Black Friday could 'fast track' OpenAI's ad plan
This week’s episode recaps the who’s who of Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition bids, the end to Meta’s antitrust case, the Omnicom-IPG deal’s final hurdle and why Adobe acquired Semrush. Then (13:40), Digiday’s platforms reporter Krystal Scanlon joins the show to discuss how OpenAI could seriously pursue an ad business.
Nov 18, 2025 · 56 min
The ‘is a hot dog a sandwich’ problem in AI advertising
This week’s episode recaps Paramount raising new ad arbitrage questions, Amazon and Google unveiling new ad agents and IAB Tech Lab introducing its Agentic RTB Framework. Then Digiday’s executive editor of news Seb Joseph and senior ad tech reporter Ronan Shields join the show to outline how, with the introduction of Ad Context Protocol and ARTF, the ad industry is laying the pipes for programmatic advertising’s intersection with AI agents.
Nov 4, 2025 · 52 min
How to build an AI-generated focus group
This week’s episode recaps the YouTube TV-Disney distribution standoff (5:50), Netflix’s interest in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery (14:50) and the rising revenue Google and Meta are reaping from their respective short-form video platforms (20:00). Then Tracy Yaverbaun, gm of The Times and Sunday Times, joins the show to talk about the British news publisher’s work with Electric Twin to create a synthetic audience research panel based on The Times’ human reader panel (27:20).
Oct 28, 2025 · 55 min
How Kalen Allen navigates brand safety and cultural polarization in the creator economy
On this week's episode, digital creator and actor Kalen Allen talks navigating brand safety and the so-called culture wars in the creator economy (24:50). Plus, what WPP Open Pro launch says about the agency AI arms race, Reddit’s Perplexity lawsuit and the future AI framework, and the latest on the Warner Bros. Discovery possible sale.
Oct 21, 2025 · 55 min
How brand-creator deal dynamics need to evolve
This week's episode pours one out for Google's Privacy Sandbox as the saga comes to an end and takes a look at the rise of agentic AI while Pinterest tries to curb its AI slop. Then (21:24), David Huntzinger, an agent at talent management firm Night, joins the show to make sense of how the creator economy is positioning itself as a media channel.