This week, the Media Roundtable is giving you an all-access pass to one of the most talked-about sessions from this year’s Chief Audio Officer Summit: Flipping the Script: Feedback From Hosts to Brands.

Our own Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road) sat down with three powerhouse hosts: Ashley Flowers (Crime Junkie), Nick Viall (The Viall Files), and Kim Komando (The Kim Komando Show) to share what they really need from advertisers to create great ads that actually work!

“Brands, I understand you want to be safe and risk-averse... but know your audience. My audience wants to talk about dating, and there's a little bit of raunchiness and just a little bit of honesty... [an unconventional ad read] worked with that audience. It's memorable; it made them laugh. It also connected what the brand was trying to get across.”

—Nick Viall (The Viall Files)

The panel delivered a playbook of what works—and, crucially, what doesn’t—when engaging top creators. Let's dive in!

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This week on the Media Roundtable, we’re bringing you inside the opening fireside chat from the 2025 Chief Audio Officer Summit, featuring two of the most influential independent voices in media today: Steven Bartlett (Host of Diary of a CEO, Founder of FLIGHTSTORY) and Ben Shapiro (Host of The Ben Shapiro Show, Co-Founder of The Daily Wire).

In conversation with Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road), and with a stunning oceanfront sunset as their backdrop, our guests get into the real trade-offs of staying independent, even and especially in the face of nine-figure offers; the discipline behind their respective growth; and how brands can unlock outsized results when they lean into creator-led partnerships.

“Independence, in this moment, is a good marker for a lot of listeners and audiences of authenticity. People want to feel like they're not just tuning into an institution. They want to feel like they're turning into a person.”

—Ben Shapiro (Host of The Ben Shapiro Show, Co-Founder of The Daily Wire)

The fireside chat covers: Experimenting for Exponential Growth, Striking the Right Ad Load Balance, and Letting Creators Cook.

Let’s dive in.

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This week on the Media Roundtable, we’re taking you inside Podcast Movement 2025, where the industry gathered in Dallas just as breaking news hit the scene: Sounds Profitable has merged with Podcast Movement.

On this episode, host Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road) recaps the event with team members Courtney O’Connor, Julia Palermo, and James Ingrassia—plus a special guest appearance from Bryan Barletta, the founder of Sounds Profitable and newly named President of Podcast Movement. Together, they unpack what the merger means for creators, advertisers, and the future of industry events–and everything else they took away from this year’s Podcast Movement.

Bryan shares how he plans to evolve the conferences, balance creator and advertiser needs, and bring new focus to content and measurement. The team reflects on hot topics and perennial trends from the week: rising podcast consumption, the video surge, programmatic momentum, and frequency as the new buzzword. These topics are not going away–so get the scoop from those with boots on the ground.

““The [podcasting] space changes every two years. It feels like a brand new industry.”

—Bryan Barletta, founder of Sounds Profitable and President of Podcast Movement

The recap covers: the Sounds Profitable + Podcast Movement deal, why the flagship event is moving to New York, for good; what advertisers should expect next year; and our team’s takes on the evolving conversations on video, attribution, and programmatic.

Let’s get into it.

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This week on the Media Roundtable, we’re bringing you the inside story from the 2025 Chief Audio Officer Summit, where the people shaping the future of podcasting and audio advertising gathered to ask one big question: Where do we go from here?

This episode is a recording of Dan Granger’s keynote presentation of Oxford Road’s annual State of Audio Advertising report, which gave attendees the answer.

The free report is now available too–download it now for the full experience at oxfordroad.com/soaa25.

In his address, Dan touches the industry’s most pressing topics—attribution, fragmentation, and the rise of video—and calls for marketers to mobilize around standards that unlock growth. He introduces new data from Oxford Road’s “What Brands Want” survey, challenges assumptions about channel spend versus consumption, and gives Chief Audio Officers in attendance a road map for the year ahead.

“When we define the medium, we can align on metrics. And when we align on metrics, we can unlock scale.”

—Dan Granger, CEO of Oxford Road

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This week on the Media Roundtable, we’re giving you a front-row seat to the 2025 Chief Audio Officer Summit for a case study breakthrough that could change the way podcast advertisers think about YouTube—or at least how they measure it–forever.

Led by our own Giles Martin (EVP, Strategy & Insights, Oxford Road), this session marks an industry first: using passive panel data to measure the true impact of podcast simulcasts on YouTube. The pilot study, developed in partnership with Keith Friedenberg of Media IDentity Graph (MIDG), measures what marketers have only guessed at—and proves YouTube podcast ads can deliver statistically significant lift.

This episode is a companion to our groundbreaking white paper, Inside the Walled Garden: Breaking New Ground on YouTube Podcast Measurement, available NOW for free download: https://oxfordroad.com/simulcast.

The team is talking: Cracking the Simulcast Code, What YouTube Viewers Really Look Like, The Lift That Bucks the Trend, and more.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time YouTube podcast impressions have been specifically measured—and we’ve been able to put a number on what they contribute to a client’s business."

—Giles Martin

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This week’s archival pull from What’s a Podcast? The Extended Interviews features one of the voices that helped build the podcast industry as we know it: Guy Raz.

Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road) sits down with the creator of How I Built This to talk about how we built this—i.e. how podcasting went from media exile to mainstream power player—and what’s worth protecting as the lines between audio, video, and algorithm blur.

“[As a listener], you’re giving me your time—and your time is more valuable than money.”

—Guy Raz

The team is talking: The Podcast Intimacy Advantage, Video as an Add-On, Goodbye to Gatekeepers, and more.

Let’s dive in.

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"The best of everything you can really ask for."

This special edition of Media Roundtable offers a front-row seat to our third annual CAO Summit, held at the stunning Terranea Resort. Hosted by Giles Martin (EVP, Strategy, Oxford Road) and featuring guests Alia Smith (Associate Manager, Acquisition, Boll & Branch), Megan Smith (Director of Media Strategy, Tecovas), and Oxford Road’s own James Ingrassia (EVP, Client Services), the episode captured the insights, inspiration, community—and gorgeous sunsets—that defined this year’s event.

The team is talking: Hosts Know Their Audience Best, Industry-First Simulcast Measurement, Breakout Sessions FTW, and more. Let’s jump in.

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CAOs, always remember: being exclusive isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when open distribution is a growth strategy.

This week on the Media Roundtable: Special Edition, Dan Granger (CEO and Founder, Oxford Road) welcomes Christiana Brenton, Co-Founder of FlightStory Studio & CRO of FlightStory, the media company behind Diary of a CEO (the fastest-growing podcast brand in the world!). This episode is sponsored by our friends at Libsyn.

The team is talking: Decentralized Growth, Measurement Headaches, and Why Humility Wins. Let’s jump in…

“We want to be everywhere, all the time—and never reliant on one singular platform.”

—Christiana Brenton (Co-Founder & CRO, FlightStory)

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