The Drum Podcast

In his recent book, Empire of the Elite author Michael Grynbaum unearthed a a list of 178 artists, quotes and media properties that had been passed around the halls of Conde Nast in the 90s. It was William Norwich and Charles Gandee's list: As two editors of Vogue, they'd prepared it as an "unofficial test" of applicants to the austere magazine's halls of cultural power. Recently, cultural strategist Olivia Wedderburn took a stab at updating the list for 2026 - and in the processran up against some of the shift in taste, trendsetting and power that have manifested in the last 30 years. You can read the piece on her Substack, Sim City.https://simcity.substack.com/p/the-2026-cultural-literacy-test

Move over 'attention economy' - strategist Tom Gray says that the modern media world can be understood through the lens of the 'experience economy'. From immersive theater to the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium, Gray says, anyone trying to stand out in the world of real experiences needs to be paying attentoon to the best work being done throughout the world.

What connects the tradwife movement, brands making their own entertainment properties, and the marketing world's fervor for 'unhinged' ads? We're joined by GUT's Natalia Davila to pick our way through some of 2026's most fascinating trends.

Live from the judging day at London's Big Sky Studios for The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA, we're joined by the president (HSBC's Nicole German) and vice-president (Arla Foods' Patrik Hansson) of the jury for a peak behind the curtain at what judges really want and how top marketers are adapting to a world of certain uncertainty.

On The Drum Podcast, we hear a lot from the brands who buy ad space and the agencies they work with, but we rarely hear from the people doing the selling - especially at the social platforms that take a greater share of the ad pie every day. And no platform is growing faster than Reddit, which has built a multi-billion dollar ad platform in just a few years since its post-pandemic IPO. So: What's the pitch to advertisers, and what's working? Hannah Walker talks us through it all.

We dive into how sport is being rapidly reshaped in the attention economy, from fast-format football and entertainment-led fight nights to reinvented tournaments that blur the lines between sport and show business. You'll hear from guest host Richard Draycott and a panel of sports marketing experts: Lucy Bairner of Collaborate Global, Alistair Gammell of Threepipe Reply, and Christian Harrall-Baker of Two Circles.

Tom Knapman is a PhD-qualified biochemist. Last year, he was working for Sciex, whose campaign on proteomics (don't worry, we'll explain that in the episode) was a perhaps unlikely winner of a Grand Prix gong at The Drum Awards last year. This year he's jumped ship into a perhaps almost-unique role: chief science officer at a creative agency. He tells The Drum why he thinks boom times are coming for science comms.

Brand consultancies sit at the intersection of marketing, business and culture - but what does that look like in practice? We’re joined by FutureBrand's Sam Hollis to discuss the strategist’s role in shaping modern brands, the realities of agency life and why moments of industry upheaval can be an opportunity for clearer thinking.