The Campaign Podcast

Advertising awards have drawn greater scrutiny in recent years, with agencies under pressure and increased AI usage leading to falsified case studies. This year Cannes Lions introduced new rules and regulations to combat misleading entries.

In this episode, Campaign's editorial team discusses this year’s awards season, analysed in Campaign’s latest feature The Creative Score, ranking the big UK and global winners and understanding what makes award-winning work. Plus, editor Maisie McCabe digs into why one of D&AD's recent black Pencil winners raised questions.

McCabe is joined by authors of The Creative Score: Jamie Rossouw, data analyst at Campaign, and Ellie Lewis, data journalist. The episode is hosted by tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley.

Further listening:
Podcast: How will Cannes be different this year amid greater awards scrutiny?
Podcast: Is Cannes Lions 2025 a watershed moment for awards?

Further reading:
The Creative Score UK: Top 20 agencies
The Creative Score Global: Top 20 agencies
The Creative Score Global: Top holding companies
The Creative Score Global: Top 20 brands
The Creative Score Global: Top 20 campaigns
Cannes Lions to ban agencies that submit ‘wilfully false’ campaigns
Don’t hate the player, hate the game
How do you solve a problem like… awards

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The big three holding companies – Publicis Groupe, Omnicom and WPP – have reported their Q3 results, and each are on different journeys. WPP is working on its turnaround Elevate28 plan, Omnicom is nearing one year since its acquisition of IPG, and Publicis points to its "record new-business" run, winning accounts without a pitch.

This episode features journalists from Campaign UK and US discussing how the last three months have gone for big three, what each of the CEOs have said on their results, and the recent fight over two of the biggest media accounts, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. As was well-reported, Publicis stole Pepsi from Omnicom, which in turn won Coca-Cola’s North America account, which WPP declined to take part in, though it retained Coca-Cola’s international business.

Emmy Liederman, managing editor at Campaign US, joins the episode to discuss her rare interview with Omnicom chief executive John Wren. Gideon Spanier, UK editor-in-chief, provides his analysis of the holding company earnings calls and Ellie Lewis, data editor Campaign UK, provides the headline figures of the results. The episode is hosted by tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley.

Further reading:
Podcast: Does Publicis' PepsiCo coup mean pitching is changing?
Cindy Rose criticises 'pitch-less CEO handshake' deals
Is John Wren right to say 'everybody’s replaceable'?
Arthur Sadoun on winning without pitching and why the new ‘big three’ is driving ‘profound’ change
The key charts behind WPP’s Q3 2026 results
The key charts behind Omnicom’s Q3 2026 results
The key charts behind Publicis Groupe’s Q3 2026 results
Q2 results: Is Cindy Rose’s Elevate28 plan working?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week Campaign published its Power 100 for 2026, a list of the top 100 most influential marketers in the UK.

The list was accompanied with a shoot to capture the brand leaders, as well as a feature digging into where they are investing their ad spend. This episode features Campaign’s senior art director Paul Frost going behind-the-scenes of the shoot and using the idea of "quiet power" to capture the Power 100.

Campaign’s deputy editor Gemma Charles and features editor Antonia Garrett Peel also join the episode to discuss how the marketers navigating the rise in influencers and balancing it with traditional media.

The episode is hosted by tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley.

Further reading:
Campaign Power 100 2026: the full list
Power 100 2026: the age of influence
Campaign Power 100 2026: Hall of Fame line-up

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week was the 40th anniversary of the Media Week Awards, and we celebrated the ceremony in London with almost 1000 people in the room.

This episode features the co-chairs of judges, Karen Eccles, former managing UK and Ireland at Sky Media, and Marcus Orme, founder and chief executive of Medialab Group. Joined by Campaign's deputy media editor Shauna Lewis and host, tech and multimedia editor, Lucy Shelley, they discuss their experience of the roadshow judging days and how they came to decide the winners.

They discuss the in-person presentations and the judging of the top three awards: Media Agency of the Year, which went to PHD, Independent Media Agency of the Year which went to Medialab Group and Sales Team of the Year which went to ITV Commercial.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are entering Christmas in adland which means soon some of the biggest ads of the year will drop across our TV screens, phones, billboards and more.

Both highly anticipated and highly speculated, this episode of The Campaign Podcast goes through what Campaign knows so far about the ads, from Lucy Punch and James Norton featuring in the M&S ad to McDonald's not creating a hero film for the second year, as well as looking back at previous years to predict what trends might appear in this year’s crop of xmas ads.

Hosted by Campaign's tech and multimedia editor Lucy Shelley, Campaign's creative team join the episode: creativity and culture editor Gurjit Degun, deputy creativity and culture editor Charlotte Rawlings and senior reporter Eszter Gurbicz.

Further reading:
Coca-Cola hires Ajaz Ahmed start-up for Christmas campaign
Is the World Cup a bigger opportunity for brands than Christmas?
Oxfam appoints creative agency for 2026 Christmas campaign
The Lists 2025: Top 20 film ads
Peta “Happy Christmassacre” by Grey London
Sainsbury's set to make it three Christmas ads in a row for the BFG
Shelter awards Christmas campaign to Meanwhile following pitch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.