The Good, The Bad & The Unexpected: How Two Rival Agencies Merged to Reshape Podcasting

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.

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.

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.”

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 1 Password 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

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!

If you’ve read this far, thank you!

The Influencer is a production from the team at Oxford Road.
If you like our sometimes sassy, mostly informed POVs on the wonderful world of audio advertising, you should see what we do for our clients.

Interested in seeing how we could help your business?
Contact us at influencer@oxfordroad.com!

Thank you to the team that puts The Influencer together each week:

Ezra Fox – Media Roundtable & Ad Infinitum recap
Kristen Larson – Classifieds
Neal Lucey – In Case You Missed It
Hannah Lloyd – Save The Live Reads

Editors:
Kyle Jelinek
Kristen Larson
Haley Wiese
Bianca Gorodinsky

Protecting Human Connection: Audio’s ROI, AI Slop, & Netflix Moves

How will the industry shift with 200k AI episodes? Or with Netflix’s $400M podcast push? How do audio and video podcasts actually stack up for attention? Find out on a new Media Roundtable: Industry Edition, sponsored by our friends at ALLCITY Network.

Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) breaks down the biggest stories and their potential impacts on the industry with fellow audiophiles:

• James Cridland (Editor, Podnews & Podcast Business Journal)
• Spencer Semonson (Media Supervisor, Oxford Road)
• Todd Elbrink (Director of Strategy & Performance, Oxford Road)
• Tucker Peleuses (VP of Strategy & Insights, Oxford Road)

The team is talking: Cheap TV, Video vs. Audio Attention, and Wading Past AI Slop. Let’s dig in.

“How do we make sure that we don’t get run over, for those of us that really care about the human connection piece?”

– Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road)

Netflix’s $8M Question – Netflix is offering 50+ podcasts to leave YouTube for $8M. If Netflix thinks podcasts are just cheaper TV, this move makes sense. But most podcasters don’t think about themselves that way. They build audience connection in a wildly powerful and efficient way. Leaving open platforms for closed ones diminishes that power. Todd’s hot take: Podcasters looking for a fast payday should take the exit and leave the others to grow their audiences.

Attention Increases ROI – A new study found that video podcasts cost 77% more to produce than audio, but audio beats video for completion rates (66% vs 61%). Audio’s an incredibly efficient way to grab and hold attention. That said, adding a video component actually increases plays for the audio version. The TLDR for CAOs: audio and video both help your campaigns. Measurement’s going to be harder, but it’s worth it. And in the meantime, keep asking for better measurement tools to anyone who’ll listen.

Protecting Human Connection – Ashley Carman’s Podcast Business Summit encapsulated the fight for the soul of podcasting. Inception Point boasts +200k AI episodes (all without QC). Netflix hopes to entice shows to take the sure money, and creators want to stay in control and help build brands (their own and their partners). While there’s money to be made in all directions, trying to protect the heart of podcasting, the authentic human connection, is only possible from some paths. CAOs: Uncertainty creates opportunity–for your shows that work, start conversations that can deepen your partnerships. If you value the connection between your creators and their audiences, continue to invest in them, and they’ll continue to invest in you.

Want more insights from the forces shaping the industry? Tune in to the full episode by clicking the link below.