Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman, McCann Worldgroup

After 14 years at Anomaly, founding partner Karina Wilsher will be assuming the global CEO title at the agency. Currently the global COO, Wilsher has long been groomed for the new role and will assume the chief executive position in January. True to its name, Anomaly is an outlier in its space, a non-traditional agency that was founded with a commitment to intellectual property and creating products. Wilsher joins me today to discuss the news and what it means for her and for Anomaly. We discuss its most famous product, the legal cannabis pen Dosist, the breaking down of the holding company model, Brexit — which the London-based Wilsher describes as a “shit show.” We get into the struggles of Anomaly’s parent company MDC Partners, evolving consumer behaviors and what 2019 looks like for Anomaly.

20 Marras 201828min

The co-founder of 14-year-old agency Walton Isaacson first went to work for the brand side in 1983 — Pepsi specifically. As it happens Pepsi at the time was working with a singer by the name of Michael Jackson. Walton’s job would take him on tour with Jackson. Now, some 35 years after that first incredible gig, Walton is not only still in the business of telling brand stories, he’s still at culture’s cutting edge. It was Walton Isaacson client Lexus that teamed up with Marvel for the Black Panther ads that ran during this year’s Super Bowl. More recently the agency added the New York Police Department to its roster, where the mandate is to help the department integrate its ranks.

15 Marras 201846min

In September, satellite radio company Sirius XM offered to plunk down $3.5 billion to acquire streaming music service Pandora. Joining us today is Pandora svp of ad innovation Lizzie Widhelm to break down what the Sirius offer means to Pandora — and vice versa. Sirius has more than 36 million subscribers in North America, Pandora has 70 million monthly listeners — fewer than 6 million of whom pay for the service. We discuss the state of advertising in the streaming space, the future of audio and why she’s bullish on podcasts. We also discuss why she thinks she didn’t experience noticeable gender discrimination until she reached senior leadership positions. Oh, and we get into what her favorite TV show was growing up.

8 Marras 201834min

This weekend some 60,000 sneakerheads, hip hop aficionados, jocks, gamers, design nerds and foodies will descend on Long Beach, California, for the fourth annual ComplexCon. The consumer-facing pop culture bonanza is the physical expression of media brand Complex, which CEO Rich Antoniello has been driving for the past 17 years. Rich — who is outspoken on just about any topic you can throw at him — joins us today for a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from media’s pivot to revenue diversification (after it’s failed pivot to video) and how Complex’s joint acquisition by Hearst and Verizon in 2016 has been playing out for the brand. We talk about why he’s bullish on over-the-top streaming platforms and how his own background as an agency and print guy left him perfectly unprepared to be a modern media CEO.

1 Marras 201843min

An Aussie giant of a former Rugby player, Troy Ruhanen joined TBWA as president and CEO four years ago. Today he joins us on the Ad Lib podcast to spill some tea on his competitors — including WPP and Publicis — and give us some insight into clients including Apple, McDonald’s and Nissan. We discuss what their pain points are, what his agency’s big wins over the last four years have been, and growing up blue collar in Brisbane.

25 Loka 201835min

Launched in 2005 in the ashes of Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Walrus is a fiercely independent shop that’s worked with such clients as Amazon, HBO, and Staples. Frances Webster — who co-founded Walrus with her husband, Chief Creative Officer Deacon Webster — has been outspoken about the need to train more women for agency leadership roles. She discusses the decision to offer media and buying services, reconciling programmatic with creative, and her clients’ biggest pain points as marketers gear up for the ANA conference next week.

18 Loka 201823min

For the past 18 months, Andrew McKechnie has been building Verizon’s in-house agency, 140. It’s no easy task. Networks, unlike the smartphones that run on them, are tough to make especially sexy. Still, he comes by the gig honestly. McKechnie had most recently served as global group creative director at Apple, after holding creative director titles at agencies including DDB, Y&R and JWT. Andrew joins us to discuss the pros and cons of moving from adland to the brand side, the tension between creativity and technology, and the challenges specific to Verizon.

11 Loka 201838min

After a five-year stint at BuzzFeed and a brief run as the CEO of DailyMail.com the last thing you would probably think to do is start a TV network. From scratch. Yet that’s precisely what Jon Steinberg did. The former President and COO of BuzzFeed launched Cheddar Inc in 2016, a new media company with the initial goal of becoming the CNBC for millennials. Two and half years in, Cheddar is a bona fide media concern, a live and on demand video news network that broadcasts weekdays from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ Marketsite, and the Flatiron Building in New York alone. Steinberg joins us to discuss the Cheddar business model, skinny bundles, the future of over-the-top streaming video and where he goes from here.

4 Loka 201832min