Justin Pearse, Editor-in-Chief, New Digital Age, sits down with Victoria Bickle, UK Managing Director at LADbible Group, to discuss her move from agency life, how LADbible stays culturally relevant, and how AI is shaping the future of social-first storytelling.
How has the move been from agency side to LADbible?
It has been brilliant, but also hard work. After 23 years in agencies, moving to a media owner has been a steep learning curve. I have been here around eight months now and still feel like there is so much more to learn.
In an agency, by week two you are usually making decisions and moving fast. Here, I am still asking questions and learning every day, and I really like that.
When you reach a certain level in agency life, you often become focused on pitching, HR and P&Ls. My craft has always been strategy and planning, and at LADbible I have been able to get back into the work itself, back into the craft, which has been really refreshing.
What has surprised you most about being on the media owner side?
Definitely the client relationship. I always had great client relationships in agency life, but clients open up to us in a different way here. They talk much more deeply about their challenges, their business pressures and their wider products. We are in the thick of their world, not just their marketing.
Another surprise is how often clients ask for our point of view on the wider market. They might be working with one holding group, but they will ask about what is going on elsewhere too.
It has made me realise how important that triangle between client, agency and media owner really is.
What do you think makes LADbible stand out from other publishers?
There are three differentials. The first is trust. We have built trust with our audience, our clients and the talent we work with. We now have over 500 million followers globally and reach around two-thirds of 18 to 34-year-olds every month. That scale comes from the trust we have earned over the years.
The second is that we see ourselves as the “best mate of the internet”. A best mate makes you laugh, can have a serious conversation with you, makes you think, and encourages you to take action.
We do all of that. We do not talk at our audiences, we talk with them, on a peer-to-peer level. We are a familiar and trusted voice in their feeds.
The third is cultural relevance. We make sure brands are placed at the heart of culture, helping them entertain, educate and engage audiences in meaningful ways. We build formats that engineer cultural moments on social media and we are constantly responding to new and emerging trends.
How are brands approaching attention and engagement today?
For younger audiences, attention is everything, but you cannot win it by making something that feels like an advert. Content has to feel authentic and conversational. We always start with the audience, not the brand, and build content that is relatable, digestible and shareable.
We also educate our clients to think about strong hooks, storytelling and social-first formats. Young audiences expect high quality, platform-specific content that feels broadcast ready.
They also want to participate in stories, not just watch them, so we encourage brands to embrace the comment section rather than fear it. Our recent “Living in the Comments” podcast with KFC is a great example of that.
We are increasingly being invited into the process much earlier, sometimes even at the same time as the agencies. That allows us to help shape briefs in ways that will actually resonate with younger audiences. We have to encourage marketers to be brave and to create space for conversation.
We use two major insight tools to support this. Mission Control is our proprietary real-time data platform that tracks what is working across our channels. Alongside that, LADNation is our panel of 55,000 young people who we speak to regularly. We test ideas, attitudes and behaviours with them constantly. It means we are always learning directly from our audience.
AI is transforming every part of media. How is LADbible approaching it?
We are seeing AI in action every day. Our belief is that AI should never replace, it should enhance.
We are using AI to improve creative production, translation, dubbing and lip syncing, as well as to automate workflows through our in-house system called EMMA. That saves thousands of hours a year and gives our teams more time to focus on creativity.
We are also integrating AI into our Mission Control data platform to create smarter reporting dashboards for clients. And we are working with brands to help them understand how to use AI responsibly. We tell them to be transparent, to make sure there is purpose behind using AI, and to think about enhancement rather than replacement.
What are you most excited about for the months ahead?
We are already planning for 2026, which we think will be a landmark year for us. The World Cup will be one of the biggest cultural moments of our time, and we believe the battle for engagement will be won or lost on social. We are also expanding our long-term brand partnerships, launching new FAST channels, and growing internationally with the launch of Betches UK.
We never stand still. LADbible is about redefining what social-first entertainment looks like on a global scale, and I think that is what makes it such an exciting place to be right now.
