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Life’s a peach, this week, as we soak up the sun in South Carolina to snare a man who can sniff out agency B.S. a mile away. Here to vent eloquent fire, it’s Derek Walker.  Chief instigator, janitor, secretary, and mailroom person for his tiny agency brown and browner, Derek is a stellar copywriter and a loud, proud critic (and lover) of the ad industry.  He talks to us on his “late start” in advertising, agencies flat-out refusing to hire him because he’s black, what he learned from Pizza Hut, going agency side, why you should always read the employee manual, what agencies fear most, why there’s a problem with so many DE&I roles, the confidence crisis in advertising, and a ton more.  This episode is so good it's ridiculous. In fact, we should charge you for it. But we aren't going to. Partly because we can't work out how to. And partly cos you couldn't afford what it's worth. ///// Follow Derek on Twitter and LinkedIn  Watch The Advertising Industry Is Working Scared And This Isn’t A Winning Strategy Listen to him talk about advertising, client relationships, and advice for copywriters here Check out The Boondocks  And treat yourself to some Marvel comics from the 70s and 80s Timestamps (01:51) - Quick fire questions  (03:19) - First ever job  (04:19) - His “late start” in advertising (09:54) - Jump from client side to agency side (20:26) - Why you should always read the employee manual  (26:39) - What agencies fear & the confidence crisis in advertising  (35:50) - Listener questions  (41:44) - The problem with DE&I roles & how to make them better  (57:57) - 4 pertinent posers (1:00:11) - Why more ad people should read The New Testament Derek’s book recommendations are: Damn Good Advice by George Lois  How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie  From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor by Jerry Della Femina  Anything by Stephen King  /////

We picked a card, any card, and drew the econometrics Ace and Founder of magic numbers, Dr. Grace Kite.  Grace has over 20 years of number crunching experience across all the main advertising buying categories and is dead set on helping marketers make the most of their data. Tune in as we pull a ton of topics out of a hat, including her first job at a bingo hall, her fascination with real people, why data people need people skills, explaining analytics to clients like they’re a mate in the pub, whether ROI is higher when advertisers commit more budget, strategies for marketing effectiveness in a recession, and loads more.   Open sesame your ears and let the smarts pour in.  ///// Follow Grace on Twitter and LinkedIn   Check out magic numbers  And follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn too Read all Grace’s Marketing Week articles This episode talks about these two in particular: When it comes to marketing payback, words matter just as much as numbers Advertisers need to get over their fear of commitment    Timestamps (01:48) - Quick fire questions  (03:23) - First ever job at a bingo hall (06:26) - Similarities between her insurance and marketing jobs  (09:26) - magic numbers and what they do  (14:38) - Why words matter as much as numbers in data analysis  (18:18) - Findings around annual marketing budget versus ROI  (28:41) - Listener questions (including one from Dave Wakeman) (35:20) - 4 Pertinent Posers  Grace’s book recommendations are: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson /////

This week all it took was a tasty tipple of classic TV ads to trap tenor turned top strategist, and alliteration aficionado, Tom Roach.  Currently VP of Brand Planning at Jellyfish, Tom has worked at some brilliant acronyms agencies like AMV BBDO, Leo Burnett, BBH, and adam&eveDDB, creating pitch-perfect campaigns for McDonald’s, Sainsbury’s, and the BBC to name a few.  He gets vocal on a ton of topics, including his early days as a choral scholar, his first agency job, what account people and snow ploughs have in common, The Guardian Points of View ad, why funnels getting flack is unfair, whether advertising will ever die, freedom within a framework, why media, strategy and creative shouldn’t be siloed, a dedication to Les Binet, and more.  ///// Follow Tom on Twitter and LinkedIn  Here’s his blog Make sure to read:  Most marketing is bad because it ignores the most basic data Why advertising will never die The sales funnel is wrong but it’s here to stay, so let’s fix it. And his Marketing Week column  Check out Jeremy Bullmore on Plonk and Placebos   If you enjoyed this episode, please do share and review the pod and help more marketers feel better about marketing. Tom also asks that you check out the brilliant work of Dr. Grace Kite (who’ll be on Call to Action very soon) and CTA alumni Professor Karen Nelson-Field.  Here’s your starting point:  The wrong and the real of marketing effectiveness by Dr. Grace and Tom And here’s a thread from Tom on Professor Karen’s research  Timestamps (01:59) - Quick fire questions  (04:23) - His beginnings as a choral singer (07:19) - First proper job in an agency (09:41) - Why account people are often unsung heroes  (17:51) - What makes Jellyfish different from other agencies? (20:41) - His adapted sales funnel and adopting freedom within a framework (23:29) - Why media, strategy and creative shouldn’t be siloed  (32:40) - Advertising will never die  (36:49) - Incredible value of brands  (38:20) - Listener Questions from Jonny McGrath-Smith, Nick Ellis and Will Humphrey (48:55) - 4 Pertinent Posers Tom’s book recommendation is: The Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick /////

Lots of girls and lots of boys, lots of smells and lots of noise, playing football in the park, we caught baggy trousered Marc. We’ve snared the Dean of the world’s most awarded ad school, Marc Lewis, for an hour of masterly Madness. A seriously impressive creative mind perched atop the industry’s finest pantaloons, Marc is the man at the helm of School of Communication Arts. He’s dead set on delivering the very best creative education to the very best talent, endeavouring to have at least one third of their students on scholarships.        Point your ears this way as Marc talks Tango Orange Man, getting expelled and fired, his scholarship to SCA, Ferraris, reciprocity, reopening SCA, an exclusive scoop on the future of SCA, social mobility, stopping charity shop shoplifters, unpacking diversity, inspiring creativity, self-tanning chocolate bars, gratitude, why Steve Harrison is our industry’s Plato and a whole lot more.   ///// Follow Marc on Twitter  Check out School of Communication Arts  And book a call with Marc to chat about joining or supporting the school   A Message to Anyone Considering University During Covid on ISOLATED Talks  Here’s the work of Professor Richard Wiseman Read a couple of articles written by Marc too:  Impact of Purpose-Led Advertising AdAge article is an insult to our trade   Timestamps (02:20) - Quick fire questions  (05:07) - First ever job  (06:58) - Being an outlier (and why that got him expelled and fired) (08:20) - Getting a scholarship to SCA  (13:32) - Reopening SCA in 2010 (14:40) - Reciprocity is one of the most powerful things in the world (17:45) - An exclusive on the future of SCA (23:14) - Our industry jumping on the bandwagon of diversity (30:22) - Inspiring creativity in the school (33:48) - Listener Questions from Matt Sibley and Dave Birss (34:08) - Importance of practicing gratitude  (43:26) - 4 Pertinent Posers Marc’s book recommendations are: Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud by Peter Watson  Watching the English by Kate Fox  Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath  Anything by Steve Harrison /////

Carpe Diem. Seize the day. The Cameron Day. This week we’ve snared industry legend, author, and birthday boy, Cameron Day, for a chinwag.  Creative Director, writer, and chainsaw enthusiast, Cameron has been crafting ads and shape-shifting brands for over thirty laps around the sun. Pile your paper plate high with topics including the influence of his father Guy Day (of Chiat/Day), writing his Advertising Survival Guides, hiring the quietest person in the room, patience, jargon, trying to pitch a naked lady ad, and tons more.   And the icing on the cake is a side-splitting story involving a power cut, an unfinished joke, winning the Land Rover account, too much sushi, and a fart that nearly brought down a plane. Party on.    ///// Follow Cameron on Twitter and LinkedIn  Check out his website  Here’s his interview with Luke Sullivan, David Baldwin, Thomas Kemeny and Nancy Vonk  Cameron’s Advertising Survival Guides  Chew With Your Mind Open  Spittin’ Chiclets  Timestamps (02:06) - Quick fire questions  (03:20) - First ever job  (06:32) - How his dad, Guy Day, influenced his decision to go into advertising  (15:49) - Why he’s never tried to prove himself because of his dad’s name (18:27) - His experience of big versus small agencies (21:42) - Writing his Advertising Survival Guides  (26:43) - Why it’s so hard for creatives to leave work on time (30:17) - Spittin’ Chiclets  (34:38) - Cameron’s disaster story that’ll leave you in stitches  (43:37) - Pitching a naked lady ad  (46:00) - Listener Questions (including one from Luke Sullivan) (55:46) - 4 Pertinent Posers  Cameron's book recommendations are: Junior by Thomas Kemeny  Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan  The Belief Economy by David Baldwin  Pick Me by Nancy Vonk  Well-written and red by Alfredo Marcantonio  /////

We flagged down a Big Yellow Taxi and rode it all the way to Melbourne to catch copywriter and Joni Mitchell mega-fan, Carolyn Barclay, this week.  A stubbornly strategy-first copywriter, Carolyn helps brands sound like actual humans instead of soulless robots sent from the future to bore us to death. She’s also co-founder of Kingswood & Palmerston, a creative consultancy solving marketing puzzles for B2B and making ads for ad agencies. She talks to us on selling cheap suits to men who call them straitjackets, Bob Dylan, writing great copy by studying song writing, outspending versus outsmarting, why ordering ten blogs with a side of social is rarely the right thing to do, Eaon Pritchard, making ads for ad agencies, why rappers are good copywriters, whether AI robots really will take our jobs and a shed load more.  ///// Follow Carolyn on Twitter and LinkedIn  Check out her website  And Kingswood & Palmerston  Follow K&P on Twitter and LinkedIn too  Here’s David Moore’s collection of Ads for Ad Agencies  Carolyn recommends Eaon Pritchard’s Back to Basics course  Read Carolyn’s blog “How my failed songwriting career helps me write better copy” When Writing Sings by Gary Provost  To Leave Something Behind by Sean Rowe  Ads we chat about:  …Gasp! Turns 13 Life. Be in it.  Slip! Slop! Slap!  Backbone by Young & Rubicam  TDA Advertising & Design  Timestamps (01:45) - Quick fire questions  (03:12) - First job selling cheap suits  (07:50) - First marketing job organising Avon’s Bargain Bin catalogue (13:51) - Writing great copy by studying song writing  (18:46) - Why she’s a stubbornly strategy-first copywriter (23:59) - Kingswood & Palmerston (27:57) - Ads for ad agencies (34:07) - Listener Questions from John Lyons, Louis Lucente, Kate Taylor, and David Moore (34:29) - Why rappers make great copywriters  (39:20) - Thoughts on AI copywriting (44:39) - 4 pertinent posers Carolyn’s book recommendations are: Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris   Anything by Margaret Atwood    Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell  Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison    Junior by Thomas Kemeny  /////

This week, we laid out hordes of Humbugs* to catch the Bah-rilliant Bristol-based strategist and Paul Feldwick fan, Alex Murrell.  He is currently Strategy Director at brand agency Epoch. Supplying strategic simplicity to the world’s biggest FMCG brands. Alex talks to us on tonnes of topics, including making the jump from graphic design to strategy, efficiency vs effectiveness, why an ad being expensive and ignored is a good thing, what the Superbowl and a peacock’s plumage have in common, Darwin, Derren Brown, the pitfalls of purpose, Eastern European dystopian fiction, and a whole lot more.  *The book, not the mint. But we have those too if you’d like one.    ///// Here’s Alex’s website  Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn  You’ve got to read his articles “Errors of Efficiency” and “The Pitfalls of Purpose” Here’s a baby-faced Derren Brown tricking ad-people with adverts  Ads Don’t Work That Way by Kevin Simler  And listen to our #CTAPod chinwags with the ridiculously smart Prof. Karen Nelson Field and Paul Feldwick too Timestamps (01:50) - Quick fire questions  (03:00) - First job in graphic design (10:10) - The jump from design to strategy (15:50) - Efficiency versus effectiveness  (18:50) - Signalling  (23:30) - Error 1 - Mass media is wasteful because it is untargeted  (27:34) - Error 2 – Mass media is wasteful because it is ignored  (38:22) - Error 3 - Mass media is wasteful because it is expensive  (42:06) - Listener questions on brand purpose and favourite marketing book   (47:29) - 4 pertinent posers Alex’s book recommendations are: Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick  How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp  We by Yevgeny Zamyatin  The Trial by Franz Kafka    Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy   /////

We’ve gone bar crawling in Washington DC and laid bait of Tanqueray & tonic to lure and lubricate the writer, teacher, speaker and “Revenue Architect” Dave Wakeman this week. Clients call him a “shot of adrenaline”, and his work has taken him around the world working with some of the world’s biggest brands like American Express, Google, Coca-Cola, Nike, and the Boston Red Sox. He’s also the host of the number 1 podcast in the world for folks marketing and selling sport, theatre, and experiences: The Business of Fun.    Join us for a proper session that takes us through his unique route into marketing via nightclubs, how gin taught him about customer experience and pricing (hic), leveraging Eddie Vedder, the vital choices faced when considering your strategy, The key P pricing, why discounts destroy brands, the meh metaverse and loads more. ///// Follow Dave on Twitter and LinkedIn. Check out his website, which is also a good place to see his upcoming events around the world. Here’s the amazing EB Research Partnership Dave worked with.  Two useful resources: a LinkedIn article on value-based pricing and an article on the 10 core strategy principles. Timestamps (2:30) - Quick Fire Qs  (07:45) - First ever job  (11:30) - Falling into Nightclubs (18:50) - Price (19:40) - Going from Nightclubs to Marketing (22:35) - Different challenges with different types of live experiences (26:20) - Route into and learnings on marketing  (30:10) - Gaining confidence and adding value to marketing (31:40) - Eddie Vedder Story (37:00) - Listener questions  (59:25) - 4 Pertinent Posers (59:30) - Advice to younger self (1:02:05) - Banish one thing from the industry (1:04:30) - Recommended books Dave’s book recommendations are: A New Way to Think by Roger L. Martin  Managing for Results by Peter F. Drucker  Underworld by Don DeLillo  The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles  The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway  The Confessions of the Pricing Man by Hermann Simon  /////

Health and Safety went ballistic when they got wind of this week’s guest being both a Blades fan and one of the sharpest strategic minds in media. Safety goggles on folks, it’s Rich Kirk.   Rich is currently Chief Strategy Officer at Zenith UK. Named the UK’s second-best media planner in 2021 by Campaign, Rich, like Avis, clearly tries harder, contributing to Zenith winning work from Lloyds, Halifax, Uswitch, Confused, Zoopla, and Nestle last year.  This episode covers a sharp showdown (Billy vs Byron), his early interest in how stuff got sold, the volatile and ever-changing media market, media planning’s pandemic shake-up, how on earth you quantify reach, risk, the world cup, corporate inertia, word soup, and more. Open your ears and let the smarts pour in. ///// Follow Rich on Twitter and LinkedIn Or pop into The Broadcaster at White City Listen to us talk attention metrics with Prof. Karen Nelson-Field here Timestamps (01:53) - Quick-fire questions (03:37) - First-ever job & getting into Google Ads (13:04) - The volatile media market (19:15) - How the pandemic shook up media planning (26:01) - Quantifying effective reach (36:19) - Why media planners should get excited about FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 (42:29) - The barriers to clients taking on the best strategy (49:43) - 4 pertinent posers Rich’s book recommendations are: Changing the World Is the Only Fit Work for a Grown Man by Steve Harrison    Management in 10 Words by Terry Leahy  /////

This week, we’ve laid 57 varieties of bait to snare Salad Cream sommelier and TikTok star, Rob Mayhew, for a chinwag. Currently Head of Influence at Fleishman Hillard, Rob has over 20 years’ experience working at some of London’s top agencies with big brands like McVities, Krispy Kreme, and Lacoste. His sketches send Jenny’s, Gavin’s, and Tara’s across agency land into hysterics by holding up a mirror to our decidedly dumb behaviours. Rob talks to us on a ton of topics, including being a salad cream superfan, the comedian Jessica Kirson, booking a meeting room to nap, what he loves about TikTok, how to grow on LinkedIn, his sketches as a love letter to the industry, enthusiasm, why every workplace needs a Becky and a whole lot more. Get stuck in. *Seriously Heinz. Give this man the pale, yellow, emulsified brand deal he deserves, pronto. ///// Follow Rob on TikTok, LinkedIn, and Instagram He gets his awesome jumpers from Rowing Blazers Check out comedian Jessica Kirson And hold onto your spaghetti hoops, here’s the infamous Instagram account @ohmybeiges Rob’s a big fan of Call to Action alumni Zoe Scaman and Vikki Ross. Check out the talks they kindly donated to ISOLATED Talks here: Is Sci-fi the next frontier for strategists? by Zoe Scaman on ISOLATED Talks Write Right by Vikki Ross on ISOLATED Talks Timestamps (02:44) - Quickfire questions (03:37) - An ode to Salad Cream (08:57) - First-ever job (12:00) - His role at Fleishman Hillard (15:19) - Why he loves TikTok (19:14) - TikTok versus Stand-Up (22:38) - How to win at LinkedIn (30:54) - His love letter to the industry (38:49) - Where he gets his jumpers (39:37) - Real-life Rob versus TikTok Rob (49:46) - 4 pertinent posers Rob’s book recommendations are: Eating the Big Fish by Adam Morgan   Easily Distracted by Steve Coogan   Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow   /////