This Week’s Influencer: Hala Shares How to Make Ads Work; ORBIT’s Latest Take Flips Q1 Planning Script; Podscribe Cracks Incrementality; & More

What happens when a podcasting powerhouse is also an elite marketer?

Find out in a creator spotlight episode of Media Roundtable: Special Edition.

This week, Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) welcomes The Podcast Princess herself, Hala Taha (CEO & Founder, YAP Media, host of Young and Profiting). We’re some of the biggest Hala supporters here at Oxford Road because she’s one of the few creators who cares as much as we do about making the ads work. (Check out her Ad Infinitum episode with our very own Stew Redwine).

Hala has consistently delivered great reads and results for clients for years, and ORBIT has the receipts. Young and Profiting was #4 on our OG Podcast list, and it’s #2 in this month’s Self-Improvement ranking. But hearing how Hala approaches the ads, that performance is not surprising.

Dan and Hala put on a masterclass in creator marketing, talking: The Power of Demonstration, Letting Creators Cook, and Getting in the Weeds. Let’s dig in.

“It’s not about the channel. It’s not about audio, YouTube, social; it doesn’t matter. What you’re picking is the creator.” – Hala Taha (CEO & Founder, YAP Media, host of Young and Profiting)

Your Monthly ORBIT Report – Jan 2026

Mental Health Tops the Self-Help Genre

Q1 is a resolution gold rush. That’s why we used ORBIT (Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool) to analyze the top-performing self-improvement podcasts to see where January ad dollars actually convert. Turns out, the conventional playbook is backwards, as seen by our top performers: #3 On Purpose with Jay Shetty, #2 Young and Profiting with Hala Taha, and #1 The Anxiety Coaches Podcast.

While most brands pile into fitness shows every January, ORBIT shows that mental health content delivers the real returns. A few key takeaways:

• Fitness Is a Gamble, Mental Health Is a Plan: Health & Fitness shows are 8x more volatile than Mental Health shows, with wild swings between wins and misses. The play here is to treat Mental Health shows as your foundation, then layer in fitness content with strict performance metrics before committing serious budget.

• The Category That Doesn’t Quit: Advertisers dump budget into gym and nutrition shows in January, expecting quick returns. But the sustainable performance is happening in mental resilience and personal development content. Mental Health audiences don’t disappear when resolutions fail. They double down. If you’re treating Q1 like a one-month sprint, you’re walking away from valuable conversions.

For the complete January ORBIT Rankings and methodology, check out the full report HERE

The Classifieds

Every Day is a Great Day When You’re Always On Vacation

Network: RedCircle Technologies / Monthly Downloads: 20k

With podcasts premiering on Netflix and brand campaign dollars fueling much of the industry’s chatter, the small, niche, performance-based podcasts are continuing to hold strong for our clients. This week, we have two such selections to share with you, starting with the very specific genre of Places and Travel.
Carlye Wisel is the intrepid host of Very Amusing, a podcast about everything and anything theme park related. Wisel built her following as a journalist for publications such as Vanity Fair, TIME, and National Geographic. Her main focus is Disney and Universal parks, catering perfectly to Disney Adults: a strong demographic of enthusiastic consumers fueled by nostalgia. Since premiering, the show has gained sizable traction with multiple performance-based advertisers, especially those looking to reach female Millennial homeowners. Put on your Mickey ears, ride the Jungle Cruise, and arrive at your own Magic Kingdom via the link below.

Get The Deal

It’s-a Me! A Podcast!

Network: Audioboom / Monthly Downloads: 25k

Video game content dominates YouTube and Twitch due to its visual appeal and variety of content. In podcasts, gaming is a varied genre, but the really efficient offerings are centered around key topics. Kit Ellis and Krista Yang previously worked at Nintendo, eventually becoming the co-creators of Nintendo Minute.
Since going solo and creating this podcast, the twosome have found success in regaling fans with inside knowledge of working at the hallowed company, giving their two cents on unfolding gaming news, and interviewing guests who have also worked in the industry. The show caters to both listeners and viewers, with the audio providing a cosy atmosphere and its video feed allowing fans to engage with all the amazing visuals the industry has to offer. The show has traditionally done best with tech-based offerings, especially B2C clients, for either a male or female-skewed audience. Hit that X button while you speed down Rainbow Road to the link below.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

AI, Social, Creators Oh My!

eMarketer’s 2026 outlook shows creators, AI search, and social strategy converging. The key data shows that daily AI search users doubled from 14% to 29% in 2025. 61% of agencies are optimizing for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Top creators now operate like independent networks. Only 74% trust influencer ads vs. 87% for general advertising. This is about credibility. Trust is shifting away from platforms and toward people, with audiences increasingly looking to creators for expertise and judgment. As a result, top creators are becoming powerful distribution partners for brands. For marketers, the opportunity is to align with voices that have already earned their audiences’ trust.

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It’s Not Just a Bill, It’s a Movement

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced a “Creator Bill of Rights” in Congress, partnering with Creators 4 Mental Health founder Shira Lazar. The seven-point proposal targets fair treatment, transparent revenue-sharing, cross-platform guardrails, and protections against algorithmic deranking and generative AI for the 10 million Americans working in a platform-based economy. This follows prior creator advocacy efforts and bipartisan creator outreach from both the Biden and Trump administrations. Congressional attention signals that the creator economy has crossed over from niche to mainstream distribution. The focus on AI and algorithmic de-ranking is notable as platforms exert more control over discovery. Whether or not this becomes law, this creates legitimacy for the industry as it confers on creators as a communications channel.

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Podscribe Says No More PSAs Needed for Incrementality Tests

Podscribe shipped 65+ product updates in 2025. Their 2026 priorities: expanded international device graphs, radio/CTV/social measurement beyond podcasts, SmartServe evolution with automatic holdout group incrementality (no PSA ads required), contextual targeting, AI-driven auto-optimization, and AI Assist for automated campaign insights and competitive intelligence. If Podscribe delivers on half of this roadmap, it’s a meaningful step forward for audio measurement. Eliminating the need for PSA ads in control groups would simplify incrementality testing. We dare to dream of a future where audio measurement doesn’t rely on that kind of workaround.

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#SaveTheLiveReads

A Fantastical Tool that Matches the Setting with Babbel

Get ready for peak podcast magic with this week’s stellar live read from the gang at All Fantasy Everything, who’s talking Babbel! The ad is both chill and somehow actually makes learning a new language sound… easy? The hosts get straight to the good stuff, speaking a language in real life with real people, not sitting in a corner conjugating verbs like it’s a pop quiz. They bring their classic energy, calling out how Babbel’s bite-sized lessons are the perfect low-stress, high results combo in just 10–15 minutes: no panic, no pressure, just results.
It’s all delivered with that signature best friend flair, making listeners feel more like they’re a part of the conversation than a casual listener. It doesn’t feel like an ad. It feels like a friend hyping you up to try something cool that actually works. With 14 languages, real human-designed lessons (not that weird AI stuff), and a massive 55% off deal, this read doesn’t just sell Babbel, it makes you wanna open the app right now!

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