This Week’s Influencer: Celebrating One Year Post-Merger: The W’s, L’s, and Everything Else, Spotify and Netflix Team Up, AI Podcasts? & More…

To make an industry better, you can’t be afraid to shake things up.

We’re celebrating one whole year since two competitors, Oxford Road and Veritone One, joined forces to become the world’s largest podcast and creator-based video agency.

Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) gathered leaders from across the new organization to talk about wins, hard-fought lessons, and tips for anyone looking to create chaos for the better. It’s part victory lap, part therapy, and part masterclass. Joining are some of  our fearless leaders who led the charge during this formative year:

• Bart Roselli (EVP of Media, Oxford Road)
• Courtney O’Connor (Director, Podcast Media, Oxford Road)
• Hilary Shafer (SVP of Podcast & Influencer, Oxford Road)
• Kyle Jelinek (VP of Client Services, Oxford Road) and
• Miranda Romano (SVP of Media, Oxford Road

The team’s talking: Slow and Steady, Spider-Man Wisdom, Staying Humble, and more. Let’s dig in.

“ You need to come in and you need to be ready to listen, you need to be ready to observe, and ready to admit where maybe we were wrong in the past and that there’s a better path forward. With that, I think anything’s possible.” – Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road)

Not Fast and Furious: Big ideas spark the fire, but optimism, effort, and humility fuel it. In an industry that moves at the speed of sound, it’s hard to merge two companies without burning out. This is why it was crucial for our leaders and team to thoroughly and critically examine our processes, without missing a beat. It’s also okay to adjust your timing if you don’t get it right the first time. As Hillary puts it: “When I think back to initial timelines and goals we set, I have to chuckle… It’s not that mountains haven’t been moved. They just took longer because there were many more details.”

“With Great Power”: Bart took his inspiration from a famous Spider-Man quote: “This is not just about creating leverage. It’s, ‘how do we make the industry better?’” If Oxford Road had tried to just grow without a bigger mission of improving the industry, we wouldn’t have smashed our employee (and client) retention goals. For anyone facing significant challenges, it helps to remember your ‘why’.

Values > Tactics: How do you move through differences? Focus on that common goal, and welcome the chance to improve with your top competitor. ”It’s been fascinating just to see, “Oh, you know what? We didn’t think of that, and you guys did that a hell of a lot better,” and vice versa. When the goal is to be better, you put your ego aside to find new solutions. Turns out if you approach improvement with humility, you can do almost anything, including unlocking 30% gains for Oxford Road clients year over year.

Want more insights from a year of growth? Check out the full episode below:

The Classifieds

The Codex For Understanding Your Brain Finally Revealed

Network: The Paragon Collective / Monthly Downloads: 30k

These days, everyone has a life hack for the simplest inconveniences, but most of the time, they just create stress instead of helping. But what if there was a podcast that was based on working with your brain, not against it? What if I also told you it only takes 40 minutes of your time? Welcome to your new favorite show, centered around optimizing your brain, Do You F*cking Mind? In this Paragon show, Host Alexis Fernandez-Preiksa uses her Master’s Degree in Neuroscience to explain why we sometimes struggle with the basics, and why changing ingrained habits isn’t as easy as we’d like it to be. Alexis focuses on everything from self-love to maximizing your brain’s efficiency, and how to get your mind into any type of mentality. This show would be a good fit for clients seeking a female-skewing audience that is health-conscious, as well as for those looking to attract lifelong learners. To maximize your Q4 media plans, please click the link below if you don’t mind.

Get The Deal

This Digital News Desk Keeps You Informed Without A Banner

Network: Meidas Touch / Monthly Downloads: 200k

The news landscape has been changing a lot these past few years, with people moving away from traditional media and turning to digital content to stay informed. Digital journalism has also provided a career pivot for those affected by layoffs or restructuring. Take our first classified as an example. After being laid off from MSNBC, Katie Phang found herself without a news desk. Thankfully, Meidas Touch came along, providing her with a desk and a mic to help Phang reconnect with her loyal audience. The new, shorter format enables audiences to explore issues in a way that traditional news often struggles to, while the shorter, topic-based conversation allows viewers to engage with the stories that appeal to them most. If you’ve found success with political shows or want to target news audiences outside of traditional settings, this would be a great Q4 test. BREAKING NEWS: Click that link below to get in on this opportunity now!

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Spotify Hits Play with Netflix Deal

Netflix will distribute select Spotify video podcasts, including The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Rewatchables, starting in 2026. The move expands Netflix’s experiments with talk-driven formats and gives Spotify new reach for shows that need broader exposure. The partnership highlights the growing overlap between streaming audio and video. This makes us wonder how Spotify’s push into video is going. Look beyond that, and you’ll find a good reason for the partnership. Netflix expands its content offerings, and Spotify increases its reach.

Read More

More Podcasts than Ever

Active podcasts have reached record highs in 2025, signaling continued growth in creator participation and advertiser interest. More shows create more ad inventory and lower barriers for brands entering the space. Thumbs up for more supply! However, creating a podcast and building an audience are not the same. Most listening still happens within the top 200 or so podcasts, and longevity pays off for those willing to grind it out.

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A Lane for AI Podcasts?

A recent Amplifi Media experiment asked college students to critique AI-generated podcasts from Inception Point AI. The AI Podcasts that fared better were instructional-based. However, students still noted a lack of warmth and spontaneity as a drawback… go figure. The appeal of instructional podcasts becomes clear when considering how often people rely on AI tools for utility. As a mentor to one of our strategists once said, “Insights only feel obvious after you’ve read them.”

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#SaveTheLiveReads

No More Password Experimentation

This #STLR comes to us from Cal Newport and his podcast, Deep Questions. This read is a total win—it’s smart, hilarious, and sneakily educational. Right out of the gate, Cal reels you in with a laugh-out-loud throwback to old-school IT setups (lab coats and mainframes, anyone?), setting the stage for a refreshingly fun take on cybersecurity. But just when you think it’s all fun and jokes, the message lands: today’s digital workplaces are messy, vulnerable, and packed with unseen risks. That’s where 1Password comes in. Instead of rattling off monotonous features, Cal walks us through the chaos of modern SaaS sprawl with personality and clarity, making the case for 1Password’s Trail Code like he’s solving a mystery, not securing his network. The storytelling is top-notch, the value proposition is crystal clear, and the delivery makes you want to laugh and sign up at the same time. Bottom line? Cybersecurity doesn’t have to be boring—and you can be reminded of that in the link below.

Listen Here

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OXFORd In The News

The Future of Podcast Advertising Lies In Collaboration

The best conversations don’t just “happen,” they’re curated. At this year’s CAO event, Oxford Road had a blast helping bring together creators, brands, and the thought leaders driving podcast advertising forward. We especially loved how our planning enabled a standout session with Nick Viall (The Viall Files, Libsyn), Ashley Flowers (Crime Junkie, Audiochuck), and Kim Komando (The Kim Komando Show, WestStar MultiMedia Entertainment) to share how to get the most authentic reads from the hosts they sponsor. By structuring and facilitating the dialogue, Oxford Road played a role in surfacing the insights that we know will push the industry ahead. When passionate minds meet, the ideas get louder, and that’s the kind of collaboration we’re all about. Thank you to Libsyn for their support!

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