The IAB UK Podcast

The UK digital advertising market reached £21.2 billion in the first half of the year, but the biggest story isn't just how much was spent, it's where that investment is going and what it says about the future of advertising.

In this episode of the IAB UK Podcast, James Chandler is joined by Adam Edelshain, VP of Client Services at Media Sense, and IAB UK's Elizabeth Lane, Head of Insights, to unpack the latest IAB UK Digital Adspend report. Together they explore the trends shaping today's market, from the continued rise of retail media and the rapid growth of TV+, to the increasing dominance of programmatic advertising and why digital investment continues to grow despite ongoing economic pressures.

The conversation also looks ahead to what a £50 billion UK digital advertising market could look like by 2027, how AI is changing not only the way campaigns are created and optimised but also the way people discover and choose products, and why the boundaries between channels are becoming increasingly blurred. If you want to understand where digital advertising is heading next, this episode offers an insightful look beyond the headline figures.

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AI isn't just making advertising smarter—it's making it simpler.

In this episode of the IAB UK Ad Tech Podcast, Alex is joined by Tom Laband, CEO & Co-founder of Adsquare, and Luc Benyon, Head of Marketing, to explore how AI is transforming audience intelligence, campaign planning and media activation. From conversational interfaces that replace complex workflows to AI-powered audience modelling built around the IAB Audience Taxonomy, they discuss how technology is helping advertisers spend less time navigating platforms and more time making informed decisions.

Plus, the team rounds up the latest developments in ad tech, including AMP 3.0, Amazon's latest AI announcements, conversational advertising and what the rise of agentic technologies could mean for the future of programmatic advertising.

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After a decade of ranking the world’s Best Cities, Time Out welcomed Intrepid Travel as the franchise’s first commercial partner. What made it the right match, and what can other brands learn from their approach?

James Chandler is joined by Hazel McGuire, Chief Marketing Officer at Intrepid Travel, and Gareth Thomas, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Time Out, to explore how the collaboration came together and what each organisation brings to the relationship.

From choosing partners with shared values to protecting editorial independence, they discuss the decisions behind the partnership, the role of personal relationships and how to build lasting commercial value.

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What does digital advertising’s £175 billion contribution to the UK economy look like beyond the headlines?

James Chandler is joined by Sinead Coogan Jobes, Head of Policy & Public Affairs at IAB UK, and Neil Ross, Partner and Head of Practice for Tech, Media and Telecoms at Public First, to explore the Powering Growth report.

From helping small businesses find customers to supporting growth across the UK’s regions, they discuss how digital advertising creates economic value and the barriers preventing businesses from making the most of it. They also examine AI’s role in the industry’s evolution and how creator marketing, retail media and TV+ could open up new opportunities.

Looking ahead to 2035, the conversation explores the report’s possible growth paths and what government and industry should prioritise to realise digital advertising’s potential.

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AI is changing the way advertisers discover, package and optimise inventory, but what does that actually mean for buyers, publishers and the wider ad tech ecosystem?

In this episode of the IAB UK Ad Tech Podcast, Pat is joined by Alexandra Balashoiu, Chief Product Officer at OneTag, to unpack the next evolution of programmatic curation. Together they explore how AI is helping move curation beyond simple inventory packaging and towards outcome-driven decisioning, where real-time signals, media quality and advertiser objectives work together to deliver better campaign performance. 

Plus, Pat, Joe & Alex round up the latest ad tech news, discussing Amazon DSP's adoption of VAST 4, the growing importance of creative identifiers, and the role creators are playing in helping AI companies build trust with audiences. 

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AI is reshaping every corner of advertising, but what does that mean for the publishers whose content underpins the open web?

In this episode of the IAB UK Ad Tech Podcast, Pat is joined by Damon Reeve, CEO of Ozone, to explore how AI is changing the ad tech landscape and the role publishers will play in its next chapter.

Together they discuss the industry's biggest AI conversations, Ozone's approach to innovation, and why ensuring publishers remain at the heart of the ecosystem is essential as advertising continues to evolve. The conversation explores how technology can unlock new opportunities while protecting the value of trusted, premium content, and why collaboration across the industry will be critical in building an AI-powered future that benefits everyone.

Plus, Alex and Joe round up the latest developments from across the ad tech industry.

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Personas have long been a cornerstone of marketing, but AI is fundamentally changing how they're built, understood and activated.

In this episode of the IAB UK Ad Tech Podcast, Pat is joined by Joe Mountford, Director Of Insights at Crimtan, to explore how AI is redefining audience modelling. Together they discuss the evolution from traditional survey-based personas to AI-powered audience intelligence built on real-time behavioural signals, omnichannel data and statistical modelling. 

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In the inaugural episode of the New Ad Tech Podcast, the team explores the technology and industry developments moving digital advertising forward.

Cadi Jones, SVP, EMEA at Index Exchange, joins the podcast to unpack containerisation, sell-side decisioning and Index Cloud. She explains how bringing custom algorithms and optimisation closer to supply can reduce latency, unlock greater scale and improve cost and carbon efficiency. Cadi also considers why this represents a structural change for programmatic advertising, potentially as significant as the arrival of header bidding, and shares the curiosity, scepticism and human judgement needed to navigate an increasingly AI-powered industry.

Plus, the team discusses some of the recent headlines capturing the attention of the ad tech world, including the release of IAB Tech Lab's AAMP 2.3 and TIME's new plan to show ad to robots.

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In this special season finale, we look back on Season 19 of the IAB UK Podcast, from conversations on agentic AI, retail media and creator marketing to trust, audio innovation, measurement and cruise media.

We also revisit some of the season’s standout moments, including recording live from SXSW London and going behind the scenes at Spotify and Snapchat. Plus, we look ahead to Season 20, launching later this year from IAB UK’s brand-new in-house studio, where episodes will be available to watch as well as listen to.

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In the second episode of the IAB UK Podcast’s summer sports two-parter, we look at how brands can win the moments that matter during one of the biggest cultural events in the world: the World Cup.

Host James Chandler is joined by Andy Baker, Head of Strategy at Footballco, JT Tesfamariam, Content Sales Lead at YouTube, and Emma Newman, Chief Revenue Officer at PubMatic, to explore what it takes for advertisers to stay relevant across a tournament where attention can shift quickly and the conversation extends far beyond the match itself.

With the World Cup expanding to 48 teams, a new round of 32, 104 matches and a longer tournament window, the opportunity for brands is bigger, but so is the competition for attention. This episode looks at how advertisers can balance long-term planning with real-time responsiveness, and why the moments around the game, from creator content and watch-alongs to memes, highlights and cultural conversation, are becoming just as important as the live action.

Together, the guests discuss how younger audiences are engaging with sport through creators and digital personalities, how non-sponsor brands can still show up meaningfully, and how digital media is opening up new ways to tap into major sporting moments without relying solely on official sponsorship.

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