Omar Oakes
There's always an official version.
Then there's what's actually happening.
I'm a journalist, columnist, and host with nearly two decades in newsrooms, studios and stages, now covering how business, technology, and power intersect — particularly where media and money meet.
I've interviewed FTSE 100 CEOs, launched a publication, founded my own consultancy and moderated international events. My work is regularly cited when the industry is trying to understand itself.
My beat is media and advertising. But the issues disrupting this sector — business transformation, dealing with the pace of change, AI and future of work — travel beyond it.
What I’m known for
I follow power and money through complicated systems — and write about what I find.
That usually means asking who controls the infrastructure, who sets the measurement, and whose interests are being quietly served when everyone else is arguing about something else.
I write about media and advertising because that's where I've spent 15 years. But the mechanics — how businesses narrate power, deal with accountability, and construct the version of themselves they want the world to believe — show up in every industry.
More on how I approach journalism and analyse media and advertising
The topics I return to most:
How platforms accumulate and defend market power
The gap between what business leaders say and what's actually happening
Measurement, effectiveness, and who controls the yardstick
AI: what's real, what's hype, and who benefits from the confusion
The ethics of attention, influence, and money
Writing
Columns, analysis, and reporting that follow the incentives (and don't stop where it gets uncomfortable).
Speaking & Hosting
Panel moderation, keynotes, podcast hosting: sharp, calm, and allergic to fluff.
Consultancy
For leaders whose strategy is sound but whose story isn't. Visit oomph.
Recent writing
If the UK's online advertising can't police itself, who will?
IAB Sweden kicked Meta out for profiting from scam ads. IAB UK gave it a Gold Standard. Same organisation. Same member. Same week. Different answers. One of those decisions is going to look smarter in ten years. [Read →]
How serious is Google really about its TV future?
YouTube keeps borrowing TV's language without committing to TV's obligations. That's not confusion — it's regulatory camouflage. And the whole industry is arguing about the wrong question. [Read →]
An 'exodus' in advertising? Something doesn't add up.
A widely-shared story about AI decimating agency jobs had a maths problem. Naming the actual culprits — holding company mergers, broken economics, a post-Covid correction — matters. Misdiagnose the cause and you deepen the damage. [Read →]
Selected appearances
Live interviews: Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV (Future of TV Advertising Global
Live interview: Mark Read, CEO of WPP (Media Leaders Awards)
Live interview: Phil Smith, Director General of ISBA (The Future of Media London)
Host, Freely Sundown Social (MIPCOM, Cannes)
Edinburgh TV Festival: My analysis referenced by BBC analysis editor Ros Atkins
Follow my work
I maintain a regular newsletter, Ad-verse Reactions, where I write about how advertising and media collide with power and influence.
My fortnightly column for The Media Leader, the publication I relaunched in 2022 and edited until leaving to launch oomph. in 2025.
A podcast in which I debate the future of AI and its impact on the worlds of work, media and the creative services with my sparring partner Hamish Nicklin (a former media insider turned AI solutions consultant).
Listen to the latest episode: Is AI turning the internet into a sea of slop?