Global advertising is proving more resilient than the headlines suggest — even as the Middle East conflict and rising oil prices rattle energy markets, consumer confidence and supply chains. In episode 92 of the WPP Media Intelligence podcast, Kate Scott-Dawkins, Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah break down what the oil disruption really means for ad budgets, why the ad market floor is holding, and what brands should do right now.

Plus: two landmark court rulings find Meta and YouTube liable for platform harm, Netflix makes its live sports debut with MLB opening night and draws 18 million viewers to its BTS concert, micro dramas emerge as a serious global media format, and the US ad market closes 2025 with a surprising 14.7% growth figure.

Key Topics Discussed

• Middle East conflict & oil disruption: Why global ad growth may hold despite the macro shock — and which sectors face the biggest risk
• Scenario planning for advertisers: Bull, base and bear case outlooks for 2025–2026 ad budgets
• Meta & YouTube legal verdicts: Platform liability, child safety rulings and what it means for brand advertisers
• Netflix live sports & live events: MLB opening night broadcast, the BTS concert hitting 18M viewers and top 10 in 80 countries, subscription price increases and the live events strategy
• Micro dramas: How short-form vertical video storytelling is going global and what the ad revenue model looks like
• US ad market 2025 results: 14.7% growth, digital advertising up 15.6%, digital newspapers up 10.4%
• 2026 US ad forecast: 7.4% growth projected, local TV under pressure in a midterm election year, out-of-home boosted by the World Cup

Chapters

00:00 - Middle East conflict and global ad market impact

15:57 - Meta and YouTube platform liability verdicts explained

20:47 - Netflix live sports, BTS and subscription price increases

25:39 - Micro dramas: the short form format going global

31:04 - US ad market 2025 results and 2026 forecast

34:20 - What to watch next week

Oil is surging and the headlines say brace for impact — but the relationship between energy prices and advertising spend is more nuanced than it looks. In this episode of the Media Intelligence Podcast, WPP Media's Kate Scott-Dawkins, Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah break down what rising oil prices actually mean for advertising budgets, media planning and brand strategy across five key markets: the US, Canada, the UK, Europe and Australia.

The team unpacks why an oil shock today works as a macro stress multiplier rather than a direct spending killer — and what that means for marketing investment decisions in 2026.

Then it's into eCommerce, where US online retail crossed $1.23 trillion in 2025 and the UK hit nearly 29% of all retail sales online — and what the rise of global retail media networks means for brands and advertisers navigating this shift.

Topics covered: oil price impact on CPI and consumer spending, inflation risk by market, retail media growth, OpenAI's commerce strategy, Amazon's advertising ecosystem, and the global eCommerce players reshaping media investment.

00:00 Introduction

01:50 Oil prices and the macro stress multiplier

02:37 Market by market: US, Canada, Europe and Australia

14:30 China: EVs, exports and the labour market shift

17:17 eCommerce: where retail growth is actually happening

20:06 Retail media, agentic commerce and the $1B+ club

26:26 Amazon's content and commerce ecosystem

📊 Read the WPP Media Advertising Intelligence Framework — the full analysis of how AI is reshaping advertiser capabilities, competitive positioning and partner selection: https://www.wppmedia.com/thought-leadership/research-business-intelligence/advertising-intelligence-framework-first-edition?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ep91

Women's Sports Are Booming — But Is Your Brand Keeping Up?

This week on the WPP Media Intelligence Podcast, hosts Kate Scott-Dawkins, Jeff Foster, and Nidhi Shah are joined by special guest Denise Ocasio, Executive Director and Head of Investment at WPP Media, to unpack three of the biggest conversations shaping media and advertising right now.

First, they dive deep into women's sports — still on a record-breaking trajectory despite a quieter 2025 calendar. Denise shares why authentic storytelling, the creator economy, and smarter holistic video strategy are the keys to unlocking this still-undervalued media asset.

Then, as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East ripple through energy markets and newsrooms, the team examines what it means for advertisers — from out-of-home disruption in MENA to cable news preemptions in the US — and how brands navigate uncertainty without pulling back.

Finally, they break down the 2025 Top 50 Global Ad Sellers leaderboard — who climbed, who slipped, and what the rise of commerce media players like Uber, Netflix, and Reliance Industries signals about where the industry is headed.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro & episode overview
• 00:41 – Welcome: Denise Ocasio, Head of Investment, WPP Media
• 01:45 – Women's sports viewership trends: 2025 in review
• 03:13 – The power of athlete storytelling (Caitlin Clark effect)
• 04:31 – Brand authenticity in women's sports sponsorship
• 06:11 – Navigating fragmented video: reach vs. engagement
• 07:25 – The creator economy as the "new Hollywood"
• 08:27 – Are athletes exhausted by content creation demands?
• 10:51 – Sports rights fragmentation & the future of leagues
• 12:00 – AI, new platforms, and where sports media is headed
• 15:52 – Geopolitical tensions: economic and advertising impacts
• 17:31 – Energy prices, inflation, and central bank pressures
• 20:06 – MENA advertising: OOH, news demand, and cautious messaging
• 21:37 – US market signals: EVs, gas prices, cable news preemptions
• 24:08 – Versant Q4 earnings: $6.7B revenue, 9% ad decline
• 25:52 – 2025 Top 50 Global Ad Sellers leaderboard breakdown
• 29:05 – New entrants: Uber, Netflix, Reddit, Reliance, Globo
• 30:34 – Who fell: legacy TV broadcasters and newspapers
• 32:36 – Commerce media's growing dominance (9 of top 50)
• 34:10 – International Women's Day: female CEO & board representation
• 35:10 – What the team is watching next week

The ad market is starting to look like a three-body problem: streaming growth, linear decline, and event-driven spikes (sports + politics) — all colliding as deal rumors swirl around Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

Kate Scott-Dawkins hosts Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah (WPP Media Business Intelligence) to break down Paramount and WBD earnings: Paramount+ up 17% with 78.9M subs, Pluto TV down 16% on monetization headwinds, and WBD streaming ad revenue up 20% (just over $1B) with 131.6M global streaming subscribers — plus the aftershock of losing NBA rights and the looming NFL renewal.

They also scan Europe’s pressure points (TF1, Atresmedia) as broadcasters raise streaming ad minutes and broaden advertiser access, then look at TelevisaUnivision (U.S. ad softness, tentpole demand, political and World Cup tailwinds).

Finally: Mercado Libre’s +67% ad growth and why shifting tariffs and de minimis rules are complicating 2026 planning.

00:00-Deal rumor backdrop, tariffs uncertainty, what’s on the docket
01:13-Paramount earnings: DTC growth, Pluto monetization slump, ad declines
07:07-Sports and NFL renewal: why local reach still matters
08:06-Warner Bros. Discovery: streaming ads +20%, subs 131.6M, NBA loss fallout
13:08-Europe: Atresmedia & TF1 declines, streaming monetization and ad-load strategy
16:30-TelevisaUnivision: US down, Mexico steadier, political + World Cup tailwinds
19:17-Mercado Libre +67% ads, retail media momentum, tariffs and de minimis “whack-a-mole”
23:37-Next week’s earnings and podcast recommendations

Post-recording update: WBD’s board deemed Paramount Skydance’s sweetened offer “superior” to the $83B Netflix deal; Netflix will not match and has withdrawn.

Advertising Intelligence Framework: https://www.wppmedia.com/thought-leadership/research-business-intelligence/advertising-intelligence-framework-first-edition?utm_source=media_intelligence&utm_medium=podcast

Ad revenue is still holding up in key quarters—even as some US economic signals flash stress and platform reporting gets a bit murkier. Kate Scott-Dawkins joins Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah to break down fresh earnings signals (Roku, Walmart/eBay, Pinterest, travel platforms, Reddit), then brings in WPP Media search experts Katelyn Taylor and Teddie Cowell for a fast-moving conversation on how “search” is expanding beyond the box into AI discovery, answer engines, and agentic commerce.

Topics include: Roku platform growth and OS advantage, retail media’s continued surge (Walmart’s $6.4B ads and eBay near $2B), AI shopping assistants and order value lift, Pinterest monetization and international user mix, travel advertising divergence (Booking/Expedia vs Tripadvisor) under AI-driven traffic shifts, Reddit’s ad growth and changes to user reporting, why AI search isn’t a zero-sum threat to traditional search, “total search” (paid + organic + social + commerce), EEAT/source-worthiness and third-party signals (PR/UGC/reviews), the human vs machine content tension during the agentic transition, and the five pillars of the Advertising Intelligence Framework (inputs, processing, distribution, monetization, content/media).

00:00 — Opening: ad signals, “search is everywhere,” what it means for advertisers
00:25 — Agenda: earnings highlights + Advertising Intelligence Framework
01:00 — Roku earnings + TV OS advantage
02:39 — Retail media: eBay/Walmart ad growth + AI/agentic commerce
04:29 — Pinterest earnings: growth, user mix, monetization trends
05:39 — Travel platforms: Booking/Expedia vs TripAdvisor; AI’s impact on traffic
07:54 — Reddit earnings + AI citations; debate on logged-in metrics
12:00 — Deep dive: the future of search (paid + organic + new AI entrants)
18:52 — Myths/realities: AI search vs traditional search; Google’s role
20:47 — Becoming “source-worthy”: EEAT, PR/UGC, content for humans vs AI parsing
29:45 — Advertising Intelligence Framework: 5 pillars, companies scored, why it matters
38:49 — Wrap: what they’re watching + outro/contact info

Advertising Intelligence Framework: https://www.wppmedia.com/thought-leadership/research-business-intelligence/advertising-intelligence-framework-first-edition?utm_source=media_intelligence&utm_medium=podcast

The Super Bowl isn’t just football—it’s the biggest advertising marketplace in American TV. Kate Scott-Dawkins (live from Levi’s Stadium) joins Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah to break down Super Bowl commercials, the cost of Super Bowl ads, and why brands still pay for the last truly mass, shared TV moment.

They also unpack a major earnings week—Amazon, Alphabet (Google/YouTube), Uber, Disney, and Fox—and the theme cutting across everything: AI investment and rising capex, plus what it means for retail media, streaming ads, and sports rights economics.

Topics include: Super Bowl ad “hacks” (prediction markets and skywriting), the “AI Super Bowl” creative playbook, Amazon advertising and Prime Video, Google search growth and retail ad spend, Uber’s $2B ads run-rate and AV data partnerships, Disney’s shifting profit mix, Fox/Tubi growth, and why sports rights keep squeezing margins.

0:00 – Intro: inside Levi’s Stadium vs the “advertising Super Bowl” at home
01:22 – Watching the game + what commercial breaks feel like in-stadium
02:34 – Prediction markets ad ban: Kalshi skywriting and “hacking” the Super Bowl
04:00 – San Francisco OOH: why every billboard says “AI”
04:39 – Super Bowl creative takeaways: Gemini, Alexa, celebrities
05:53 – Halftime show moments and cultural impact
07:05 – Early ratings chatter + why this reach is hard to replicate
08:17 – The reach math: what it would cost to match Super Bowl scale elsewhere
09:23 – Retail/commerce media: Walmart’s milestone and resilient growth
10:31 – Amazon results: ads, Prime Video, and audience scale
11:31 – AI capex surge: 2025 vs 2026 spending acceleration
12:07 – Alphabet/Google: $400B year, search growth, YouTube signals, CapEx jump
16:13 – Uber: $2B ads run-rate, AV strategy, Nvidia partnership, expansion
20:01 – Disney: earnings, streaming economics, and CEO succession signals
25:18 – Fox: sports rights pressure, Tubi growth, and ad category strength
29:44 – Europe: AI adoption in marketing/sales and budget implications
32:25 – Wrap-up + what to watch next (Snap note)

Meta’s ad engine keeps accelerating—even as legal and regulatory pressure builds. Kate Scott-Dawkins is joined by Jeff Foster and Nidhi Shah to break down a packed earnings week and the theme they see everywhere right now: concentration and consolidation—of ad spend, audience attention, and especially AI investment.

They unpack Meta’s surprisingly strong growth and a striking geographic disclosure (why Singapore suddenly shows up as a top billing market), Microsoft’s mixed ad signals across Search and LinkedIn (including rapid growth in paid video ads), and what Comcast/NBCU’s results say about the economics of streaming—where sports can lift subscribers and advertisers, but also widen losses. Plus: what luxury earnings reveal about an uneven recovery (China stabilizing, other markets shifting) and why jewelry looks more resilient than other categories.

We explore:

• Meta earnings: strong growth, the “billing address vs. user geography” disconnect, and why Singapore stood out.
• AI capex arms race: Meta’s major 2026 investment plans vs. Microsoft’s narrative challenge linking AI to ad growth.
• Microsoft ads + LinkedIn: Search/news resilience, marketing solutions, and the surge in paid video ads.
• Comcast/NBCU: mostly flat ad trends, tough comps, and the coming change as Versant assets roll out of reporting.
• Peacock: subscriber lift, NBA-driven advertiser gains, and what bigger sports bets mean for profitability.
• Luxury: uneven normalization, China’s importance, broader growth pockets, and LVMH’s lower ad/promo spend.

Chapters: 00:00 – Intro: Super Bowl, Olympics, and the week’s earnings theme
02:23 – Meta: growth stays strong
03:30 – Meta disclosure: why Singapore appears as a top billing market
06:22 – AI capex: Meta’s 2026 ramp and monetization paths (ads + subs)
07:17 – Market reaction: why Meta and Microsoft were read differently
10:30 – Meta headwinds: lawsuits and platform pressure vs. advertiser momentum
12:08 – Comcast/NBCU: Q4 ads, tough comps, and scale questions
14:01 – Peacock: subs, ad growth, NBA impact, and widening losses
15:58 – Microsoft: Search/news ads, LinkedIn momentum, and video growth
19:20 – Advertiser takeaways: efficiency, AI, and consolidation
21:17 – Luxury: uneven recovery, jewelry strength, and ad spend trends
24:13 – Tech preview: Apple/Samsung notes and what to watch next
26:45 – Closing

Netflix says ads are booming—but are viewers actually watching more? Kate Scott-Dawkins and Jeff Foster dig into Netflix’s latest earnings: ~$3B in projected ad revenue for 2026, 325M paid memberships, and a surprisingly modest lift in hours watched. We unpack what that gap could mean for advertisers, why big IP (including Warner Bros. Discovery/WBD) suddenly looks even more valuable, and where Netflix may go next on content and sports.

Plus: what P&G’s results suggest about a more disciplined year for CPG ad spend, the latest on TikTok’s new U.S. ownership structure (and the still-open questions around the algorithm), and OpenAI/ChatGPT testing ads—with an early focus on transparency and user control.

We explore:
Netflix’s 2026 ad revenue guidance (~$3B) and what it takes to scale a young ad business.
Why 96B hours watched in 2H 2025 only grew ~2%—and the “attention per member” problem.
Content strategy and competition: ~$18B implied 2026 content spend, sports optionality, and the pull of major franchise libraries (WBD).
P&G earnings and why the company isn’t planning a big media ramp—what that signals for CPG budgets in 2026.
TikTok’s U.S. divestment outcome: who owns what, what likely stays the same for advertisers, and how pressure is rising on social platforms globally.
OpenAI begins testing ads: early guardrails, what “AI-native” advertising could look like, and why this launch matters.

Chapters:
00:00 – Intro: Netflix, P&G, TikTok U.S. deal, OpenAI ads
00:42 – Netflix: ad revenue forecast to double to ~$3B in 2026
01:51 – Netflix: 325M paid memberships (first update in a year)
02:20 – Engagement: 96B hours watched in 2H 2025 and what it implies
04:29 – Content + sports: 2026 spend plans and rights questions
07:30 – The hardware challenge: Netflix vs OS-controlled platforms
08:38 – P&G: growth, pricing, category performance, and ad spend tone
12:32 – TikTok: new U.S. ownership structure and open algorithm questions
16:12 – Social pressure: under-16 bans, lawsuits, and brand risk
20:29 – OpenAI/ChatGPT: testing ads, transparency, and what’s next
25:27 – Weekend recommendations: AI reads/listens
28:41 – Next week preview: key earnings to watch
29:00 – Closing + contact