Marketing over Milkshakes

What does the future of shopping, media and affiliate marketing look like in an AI-driven world?

In this episode of Marketing Over Milkshakes, we’re joined by Stuart Miles (Founder of Pocket-lint & Squirrel) to explore the evolution of affiliate commerce, publisher monetisation, and AI in media.

With 20+ years at the heart of tech, Stuart shares insights on zero-click search, automation, and why trust, storytelling and real relationships remain the most valuable assets in digital publishing.

How do you get fired from your own company before building a £200M IPO business? In this episode of Marketing Over Milkshakes, Martin Higginson shares the journey from launching Britain’s biggest-selling BMX magazine to scaling MonsterMob Group to a £200M valuation and now leading Huddled Group plc, tackling surplus retail and logistics arbitrage.

The UK leisure travel and holiday rental market has transformed over the last decade, driven by digital demand and staycation trends. In this episode of Marketing Over Milkshakes, James Shaw shares insight from Sykes Holiday Cottages and Forge Holiday Group on building modern travel brands, using data-led marketing and AI to reduce CPA by 40%.

Scaling a subscription business with perishable products and tight margins is one of performance marketing’s hardest challenges. In this episode of Marketing Over Milkshakes, James Newman explains how Freddie's Flowers built a disciplined growth engine, reducing flower waste from ~40% to under 5% while scaling through LTV modelling, blended CPA targets, creative testing and forecasting.

In this episode of Marketing Over Milkshakes, we sit down with Adam Ross, CEO of Awin, one of the world’s largest affiliate marketing networks, powering partnerships for brands like Nike, Samsung, Etsy, Vodafone and thousands more.

Adam shares a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how affiliate marketing has evolved from early paid-search arbitrage into a multi-channel, AI-ready performance ecosystem - and what brands, agencies, and creators need to do to stay ahead.