On this MadTech Podcast, Grianne Reid is joined by John Still and Laura Chase, managing director at WeAre8, to discuss the latest in media and marketing.

They examine the UK agency landscape, Roblox’s ad expansion sparking backlash from creator studios, and Google’s premium AI-only search engine. 

UK agencies employ 265,000 and turn over £35bn (The Media Leader)

Agency by Agency launched on 10 March and aims to reveal the true scale of the UK’s agency landscape, the contribution it makes to the economy and the innovation that it brings.Their analysis reveals that the 25,495 agencies active in the UK employ 265,000 people with a total turnover of £34.9bn.

Roblox’s ad expansion sparks backlash from creator studios (Digiday) 

With Roblox selling more ads and sponsorship opportunities directly to brands, in-game creator studios say that the shift is cutting into their own earnings. Since Roblox started offering programmatic ads across its in-game experiences last May, studios have been finding themselves in direct competition with Roblox. 

Google tests an AI-only version of its search engine (Reuters)

Google has launched an experimental version of its search engine which exclusively features AI-generated content instead of bringing up a list of blue links. Queries are responded to with a more comprehensive AI summary, along with links to cited webpages. The feature is available to subscribers of Google One AI Premium.