Indie Agencies on Audio, Podcasting’s Liquid Content Era, & More

Indie Agencies on Audio, Podcasting’s Liquid Content Era, & More

December 16, 2025

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How the experts predict digital ad spend will pan out in 2026 by Ronan Shields

‘Tis the season for year-end forecasts and Digiday has collected several together. Madison & Wall anticipate U.S. ad spend to grow 6.6% next year, not counting political ad spend. They also say programmatic spend followed stronger-than-expected performance this year, reflecting a moderation in growth instead of an outright downturn. Media consultancy Ebiquity finds 48% of surveyed marketers expect to increase their media spend next year, with digital video and CTV being the areas they most expect to increase budgets. 

 

Audio spend is rising fast. Are indie agencies behind the shift? by Chris Brooklier

Brands like 1-800 Contacts are focusing podcasts and streaming audio campaigns in their 2026 media strategy (a tough order to fill, given 1-800 Contacts already made the perfect ad back in 2012). And those media strategies are hinging on indie agencies. The smaller, media agile entities are showing up more and more on the radar of big names in the industry. SiriusXM Media’ SVP of Sales Steven Kritzman told The Current there’s been a “significant” increase in indie-driven ad spend with “a lot of runway.”

 

Podcasting 2026: Welcome to the Era of Liquid Content by Steven Goldstein 

Longtime readers of Goldstein’s blog will recognize several of podcasting’s “eras.” There’s the MeUndies era, where podcasting’s humble beginnings were defined by early direct-to-consumer brands taking a risk on host-read ads. Last we heard of the eras, we were in the “what’s a podcast” phase with audio and video duking it out. In this newest post, he argues podcasting is now in its fourth era with “liquid content.” Podcasts aren’t a specific format anymore, they’re a form, a kind of storytelling. Liquid content that can adapt to context while maintaining meaning.


As for the rest of the news…