Media Buying Briefing: Linda Boff on the power of independent agencies, and the need for financial discipline

Anyone in the marketing or agency world knows Linda Boff. The longtime CMO for GE in its heyday, Boff is somewhat of a marketing guru, having worked with multiple agencies over her years.

Today she’s the CEO of independent marketing services group Said Differently, which is private-equity owned and operates a bit differently than your usual agency. For one, it’s fully remote and runs on only about 25 full-time staffers, with a network of about 2,000 people available on a freelance basis for whatever it is the client needs. Most of the work is project-based, and Boff proudly declared no client — which includes UNICEF, designer Marc Jacobs, Honeywell and Brookfield, and a roster of some 25 B2C and B2B clients — has never not returned for a second project. 

This is a member-exclusive article from Digiday. Continue reading it on digiday.com and subscribe to continue reading content like this.

,Read More

The Telegraph’s next podcast play: video, events and paid memberships

Fresh off its acquisition by Axel Springer, The Telegraph is pushing its podcast ambitions beyond audio, building repeatable franchises that can span video, live events and paid membership.

The goal is to deepen direct relationships with audiences at a time when publishers can no longer rely on search and social platforms to reliably bring them in.

The Telegraph adopted a video-first approach to its podcast strategy after seeing viewership and video engagement grow this year. The U.K. news publisher’s podcast audience has grown 161% year over year, according to a company spokesperson. Weekly average YouTube views are 2.4 million for its three daily news podcast shows, including “The Daily T,” “Ukraine: The Latest,” and “Iran: The Latest.”

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More