The Drum Podcast

This week we're spotlighting Mark Ritson's AI marketing clinic. In 'Peak season meets AI: what marketers need to know', run in partnership with SAP Engagement Cloud, host Sam Anderson puts marketers' own questions to Ritson on the trading period that makes or breaks the year. On the examination table: why loyalty programmes keep collapsing into discounts, what synthetic data is doing for smaller B2B brands, whether we've reached the end of the John Lewis cycle, and why - 20 years on from search - the old rules still apply. Guest: Mark Ritson, Founder, Mini MBA. In partnership with SAP Engagement Cloud.

Guinness World Records has quietly become a marketing machine, running roughly 1,300 brand activations a year for companies chasing attention through record-breaking stunts. We're joined by Marco Frigatti, Senior Vice President of Guinness World Records for Business, who started out as an adjudicator - measuring, counting and witnessing everything from the largest yoga class to a rather unfortunate fish-gutting attempt. We talk about how the record book became a brand-marketing engine, why record-breaking works so well for launches, destination marketing and employee engagement, and how Guinness World Records has 'democratised' record-breaking so anyone can have a go.

We're joined by Simon Baker, a branded content pioneer and now managing director of publisher-agency TCO. As brands loudly tout a 'golden age of branded entertainment', Baker helps us figure out what that might mean - and who it would be good for.Guest: Simon Baker, MD, TCO

For years, marketers have debated whether brands are better served by full-service agencies or specialist expertise. But as AI reshapes how agencies work, perhaps that's no longer the right question.In this bonus episode of The Drum Podcast, Richard Draycott is joined by Nick Beck (Founder & CEO, Tug), Heather Connearn (Managing Director, Space & Time) and Jennifer Maclennan (Group Managing Director, Fifth Ring) to explore how AI is changing agency models from the inside out. They discuss why strategy and judgement matter more than ever, how client expectations are evolving, whether independent agencies have an agility advantage, and why brand, PR and trusted expertise may become even more valuable in an AI-driven world. If you're rethinking what clients really need from agency partners today, this is a conversation worth hearing.

The Edinburgh festivals and their fringes add up to the biggest arts festival in the world - a yearly event that's only outsold by the World Cup and Olympics. As it launches, we talk to Jonathan Grant, an ad creative, comic, talent manager and now author. We talk about Grant's book, Reading the Room: The Inside Story of Stand-Up in the 21st Century; comedy's role in the media ecosystem; and what's been gained and lost in comedy's commercialization.

Live from the floor of SXSW London, we're joined by Ramin Beheshti, the co-founder and CEO of Caliber, the 'new media' publisher behind social-first news brands like The News Movement. Like so many modern publishers, Caliber's commercial core contains more than news - including a marketing agency. But as publishers turn to all sorts of alternative revenue sources, is it still possible to make money from news alone?

Legendary copywriter and creative director - Ogilvy APAC's long-serving chief creative officer - has entered his experienced-statesman era as an adman. His new book, Cowards Don't Go to Heaven, distills a life of creative understanding into a coffee-table book of handwritten (and illustrated) aphorisms and invective. He tells The Drum Podcast why a little anger is necessary for creative growth, how being "openly Christian" has shaped his creative practice, and how he went from failing his O-Level in English to being one of the most-awarded copywriters in the world.

Wesley ter Haar is the co-founder of global agency Monks, and now its chief AI officer. In a candid conversation filmed at this year's SXSW London about AI, he talks about the honest responsibilities, hopes and fears of an industry grappling with its future

Consumers don't follow funnels, and perhaps they never did. In this episode, Nick Handley (Connective3), Victoria Peopall (Epsilon) and Hannah McNally (Jaywing) unpack how commerce media is challenging long-held marketing assumptions. They discuss the rise of social commerce, the limits of attribution, why incrementality matters more than ever and what AI could mean for the future of shopping.If you're trying to understand how measurement, media planning and consumer behaviour are changing in the commerce era, this conversation is essential listening.