Do agencies need a 'Madison Avenue Makeover'? Interview with author Michael Farmer

“You’ve got to do a different job on pricing.”

That is the core theme of the new book Madison Avenue Makeover, according to its author Michael Farmer.

Farmer, a former consultant, is also the author of Madison Avenue Manslaughter, which the Financial Times called a “damning critique of the modern advertising industry”.

His latest book, a sequel, addresses attempts by Huge CEO Mat Baxter to transform the IPG agency and restore its dynamism. But as reporter Ahmed Elkady writes in his review, the raison d’etre of Madison Avenue Makeover is to serve as the industry’s guide for what another paradigm of agency relationships could look like.

Farmer previously spoke to editor Omar Oakes in a 2022 interview in which he discussed whether the industry had made progress since Manslaughter‘s release in 2015. Now, in a new interview with The Media Leader, the strategy consultant returns to explore the themes and key takeaways of his sequel.

Elkady sat down with Farmer to speak in detail about its development and key lessons for the industry. A partial transcript of the conversation has previously been published, and now you can listen to the audio in full.

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This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.

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