Netflix: heavy is the head that sells the ads

The streamer’s first UK upfront wasn’t just a sales pitch. It was a coronation.

Sep 30 • Omar Oakes

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Strategy was never in short supply. Courage was.

A new report says strategic thinking is advertising's biggest talent gap. That's always been true, but now AI is making it more expensive to ignore.

Sep 22 • Omar Oakes

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Ad agency pitch theatre: not a sport, but a beauty contest

Ad agencies love to talk about pitching like it's sport: winners, losers, league tables. Last week's PepsiCo/Coca-Cola global media account scramble…

Sep 8 • Omar Oakes

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August 2026

What Sony found when it stopped trusting WPP

Extraordinary court filings allege WPP retained 76% of Sony’s rebate funds in China. But the real story is what the case reveals about the industry’s…

Aug 18 • Omar Oakes

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July 2026

Netflix: not becoming YouTube, but definitely YouTube-ish

Podcasts, a maybe-free tier, and a stock market that isn't convinced: what Netflix's earnings call actually revealed.

Jul 17 • Omar Oakes

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Supernova: Can ethical social media survive the Attention Economy?

Interview: Dominic O'Meara has built a social network that rewards charities and kindness. But has it come too late?

Jul 14 • Omar Oakes

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Why we need The Static in our industry

Our industry didn't just walk away from printed products; it walked away from committing to ideas and words worth printing. What an opportunity!

Jul 2 • Omar Oakes

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June 2026

Who cares about content?

Six uncomfortable truths from a panel that tried to answer that question.

Jun 30 • Omar Oakes

You can't regulate what you can't live without

Facebook, Instagram and YouTube have made themselves too embedded to ban and too profitable to fear real regulation.

Jun 16 • Omar Oakes

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May 2026

Where is the outcry over Publicis buying LiveRamp?

Publicis just bought the switchboard that its rivals depend on. The silence that followed tells you everything about where advertising has ended up.

May 19 • Omar Oakes

Why one in four WPP shareholders aren't convinced

The case for giving Cindy Rose a pay raise — rejected by a quarter of WPP shareholders — matters because of the divisions we now see within and between…

May 12 • Omar Oakes

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Reactions to 'Advertising has reached self-delusion' (and my response)

A few thoughts on the reaction to last week’s piece.

May 11 • Omar Oakes

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