Call To Action

Fix up, Look Sharp* because this week we’ve lured Lincolnshire lad and the Rascal of professional services marketing, Lee Grunnell, for a chinwag. A top marketing director and fellow Ritson fanboy, Lee is obsessed with applying the latest thinking from marketing leaders like Binet, Field, and Sharp to professional services. He talks to us on picking brussels sprouts, the Grunnéll vs Grunnell debate, why advertising is like Voldemort, how marketing in law firms isn’t as different as you’d think, and tons more. Plus, he’s got practical pointers for adopting a two-speed strategy, getting buy-in from skeptical partners, and applying the work of Ritson, Sharp, and Wiemer Snijder's banana to professional services. *A copy of How Brands Grow is compulsory ///// Follow Lee on Twitter See his smarts on Medium Read his article On Bananas (or Why Professional Services isn’t as Different as You Think) And check this out to see how we somehow got 30-odd partners in a law firm to agree on an advertising campaign Timestamps (01:55) - Quickfire questions (03:52) - First-ever job (11:16) - Getting into business development and marketing at EY (18:00) - Do professional services have a problem with advertising? (23:54) - Why marketing in professional services isn’t as different as you think (38:38) - Applying the laws of How Brands Grow in his career (45:31) - Tips for adopting a 2-speed strategy (Listen up Mini MBAers🔥) (48:37) - How to get buy-in from skeptical partners in professional services (56:13) - 4 pertinent posers Lee’s book recommendations are: That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph  Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel  /////

This week, we whizzed back to the 90s and stuck out our thumb on the side of the information superhighway, hoping to catch a ride with award-winning creative and digital pioneer, Laura Jordan Bambach.  Currently President and Chief Creative Officer at Grey London, Laura is a total ad land powerhouse, dishing out truly creative work for some of the world’s biggest brands.  Topics covered in this episode somehow span; zombies, Nine Inch Nails, industrial quantities of chicken breast, fixing tractors, the “Geekgirl” hyperzine, the early days of the net, how we can prevent agencies from becoming the least creative places on earth, an infinite robotic knitting machine, a deep dive into service stations, and why her mum has a pixelated clitoris hung on the wall. Dial-up the World Wide Web and listen. Bee-bee-bee-dsshhhh. ///// You can find Laura on Twitter   Check out She Says    Find out more about Grey   Laura will be speaking very soon at TBD Conference    Spot the #SheepMask in the Macmillan Infi-Knit campaign     Read Laura’s article on “Preventing agencies from becoming the least creative places on earth”     And here’s some of the ground-breaking art from Linda Dement       Timestamps (02:00) - Quick fire questions  (04:41) - First ever job  (11:20) - Getting into digital art and the early days of the web   (18:17) - Starting her own agency and living in an art commune (25:37) - Have we relied too much on tech at the expense of creativity?  (31:12) - Preventing agencies from becoming the least creative places on earth (36:00) - Listener questions (including one from Nick Ellis) (44:02) - 4 pertinent posers    Laura’s book recommendations are: Mr. Eternity by Elizabeth Meyers and Roy Williams  Hard Boiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami   Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami  /////

This week, we laid bait of lofty vision statements and years of intricate tax dodging, to lure one of Britain’s most-awarded copywriters from the shadows. Locked and loaded to lob a few volleys at brand purpose, he’s Nick Asbury.   A brilliant writer and a thoroughly good bloke to boot, Nick crafts witty and charming words for branding and design.  Pile your plate high as Nick talks to us on how a poem about the England football team got him in real trouble, differentiating between writing for design versus writing for ads, Paul Newman’s salad dressing, using wit (properly), a Friends NFT, why the Innocent imitators in packaging copy need to cut it out, and his plans to dismantle brand purpose. You won’t be disappointed.  ///// Check out Nick’s Substack  Especially his blog Start with why, end with wire fraud     Follow him on Twitter   He’s one half of Asbury & Asbury   Alongside, Sue Asbury, whose ace paintings you should check out here   Read The Nations Prayer poem that got him in real trouble    Buy the Perpetual Disappointments Diary   Here’s Realtime Notes   Clive James on Desert Island Discs  And the brilliant Ends Fri Friends ad  Timestamps (02:05) - Quickfire questions  (05:22) - First-ever job  (13:31) - Writing for design versus writing for advertising  (18:50) - A Smile in the Mind  (22:05) - Use of wit in advertising and design  (27:05) - Brand purpose (🔥) (54:54) - Listener questions from Paul Bailey and Andrew Spurrier Dawes (1:02:26) - 4 pertinent posers Room for more? In this episode, we plugged a choice cut of Call to Action episodes for you to get your chops around.  Andrew Spurrier Dawes  Thomas Kolster   Steve Harrison   Paul Feldwick   Nick’s book recommendations are: Nonzero by Robert Wright   A Smile in the Mind by Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart, Greg Quinton & Nick Asbury   In Pursuit of the Common Good by Paul Newman & A.E. Hotchner   The Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick   /////

We stuck a fake shark fin on our back and lurked in the waters off Adelaide to catch the attention of one of the industry’s most respected researchers, Prof. Karen Nelson-Field, this week. Hell-bent on fighting the broken media ecosystem as founder and CEO at Amplified Intelligence, Karen is also an author and alumni of the world-renowned Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. When she’s not binge-watching Home & Away (yes, she’s still a fan), Karen’s research into the measurement of attention has made her a global authority on media effectiveness. Tune in to a show packed like sardines in a tin, as Karen talks on her 10 years at Ehrenberg-Bass, skateboarding cats, myth-busting Facebook likes, going viral, seeing dead people patterns, why attention is an important metric, how to measure it and more. And strap in as Karen finally answers the red-hot question of whether our attention spans really are becoming shorter than a goldfi- Oh, look, some links…  ///// Follow Karen on LinkedIn  And on Twitter  Here’s her website And, Karen kindly dedicates this episode to the bullshit-detecting bulldog himself, Bob Hoffman Grab yourself her books: Viral Marketing: The Science of Sharing  The Attention Economy and How Media Works  Karen’s book recommendations are:  Play Bigger by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead & Kevin Maney That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph  /////

Let’s get ready to rumble! Grab your ringside seat for the first episode in a new special heavyweight series; They Might Be Right. It’s the boisterous brother of Call To Action that breaks up bundles in the pithy playground of Twitter. Named in honour of Bill Bernbach’s famed jacket pocket card, we invite our challengers into the octagon of debate for a verbal slugfest, whilst being mindful and welcoming to the opinions of others. This week’s motion is ‘Loyalty programmes; a complete waste of time?’ And our challengers are: Jake Sanders. The man whose tweet started this particular brawl, and not content with only being a great marketer, Jake is also a Grammy-nominated musician and host of his own out-of-this-world marketing-sci-fi podcast show, Outbound. Derek Walker. A truly great copywriter who makes writing an art form, Derek runs the successful advertising agency brown & browner. Lee Woodard. One of the best Digital and Marketing consultants around, Lee is Founder of Nomi Digital and the Co-Founder of Privacy Experience Agency. It’s a judge's decision and YOU are the judge. Vote for the winner (or a split decision). ///// Here’s the Twitter spat that kicked it all off. Follow Jake, Derek, and Lee on Twitter. /////

We’ve sailed on the waters of the U.S coast to catch the Moby Dick of advertising this week; the one and only Luke Sullivan. A man whose book ‘Hey Whipple, Squeeze This’ is so iconic it’s coined by many as the creative bible, Luke is one of the most talented blokes in the business, having spent 33 years in adland at shops like Fallon and The Martin Agency. Join us for a raucous and riotous voyage across topics including the importance of mentors, the soon-to-be-released and updated 6th edition of his book, the state of global creative education, how do you create and define a good idea, and the value of advertising awards. That’s not to mention finding out what he fervently sees as the bane of the advertising industry… ///// Follow Luke on LinkedIn And on Twitter Here’s his website And Luke’s video on conflict & tension Here are his books: Hey Whipple, Squeeze This Thirty Rooms to Hide In Luke’s book recommendations are:  Junior: Writing Your Way Ahead in Advertising by Thomas Kemeny Chew With Your Mind Open by Cameron Day  The Belief Economy by David Baldwin  Darling You Can’t Have Both by Janet Kestin & Nancy Vonk. /////

We’ve commandeered a (now) irate New Zealander’s fishing trawler to poach the strategy and risk expert Andrey Ivanov for a right royal chit chat this week. A podcast host in his own right, Andrey fronts the popular and educational Business Games podcast, where he applies game theory to help leaders overcome uncertainty. Go press play and unleash a huge catch of informative piranhas, including why Andrey thinks business people should consider stand-up comedy, why poker is a good analogy for life, game theory, economics, how to make good decisions, and more. /////   Follow Andrey on LinkedIn And his podcast show on Twitter Andrey has a request if you have time; to complete his survey over on Business Games Check out Greenlamp marketing agency Here's the Togs or Undies ad we mention And this episode is dedicated to Alexei Domorev Andrey’s book recommendations are:  The Art of Strategy by Dixit, Avinash K., Nalebuff, Barry J.  The Rule of Benedict by Benedict   The Expanse Series by Corey, S. A.   /////

This week, all it took was a blue tick and the gall of a Gary Vee groupie to lure our latest guest from the shadows. It’s a man with a brilliant marketing brain and alarmingly dirty mind, John Lyons.  John has shed loads of experience in marketing strategy, campaigns and promotions for agencies, start-ups, and huge brands. And he’s currently living the miniature brick-building dream as Senior Loyalty Proposition Manager at a certain Danish toy company. Listen to John chat rant on his all-access pass to the Houses of Parliament, what being an architect taught him as a marketer, tactics, strategy, and why one is not better than the other, promotions, loyalty, the Batwing, James Blunt and tons more. Plus, he doth tip his Twitter famous hat to Jerry Daykin, gem Higgins, Mark Ritson and Tom Goodwin.  ///// Find John on LinkedIn  Follow the #AdventuresofHat on Twitter  John’s book recommendations are: Eat Your Greens by Wiemer Snidjers  The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson /////

We’ve sent out our largest trawler into the (Quiet) Storm and landed ourselves a bumper super catch this week as we snare ad land power couple Rania and Trevor Robinson OBE. Rania and Trevor are the CEO and ECD respectively of Quiet Storm; a creative marriage of ad agency and production company. Rania has worked magic on accounts and strategy for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Haribo, Mercedes, Google and Coca Cola, whilst Trevor is the creative force of nature behind some of the most talked about advertising of our era, including You’ve Been Tangoed and Haribo’s Kids Voices adverts.  Tune in for an epic and topical tale that takes us through working as a court illustration artist, the benefits of working in a small independent agency, how to direct a great TV advert, How the Haribo ads were created, their Create Not Hate initiative, balancing running an agency together with life as a married couple and a net full of more nuggets.  ///// Follow Rania and Trevor on LinkedIn  And Rania on Twitter   Here is their agency, Quiet Storm    And their recently rejuvenated Create Not Hate initiative that you can get involved with and support.  Trevor’s book recommendations are: The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger  Auto Da Fé, Elias Canetti.  And Rania's book recommendations are: Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman.  The Chimp Paradox, Professor Steve Peters  /////

We’ve lurked in the long grass by the canal and nabbed consultant, mentor, and music-geek Jess Gregson for a chinwag as she visits her houseboat this week. An optimistic, pragmatic, and friendly soul from Sheffield, Jess is the founder of Extra Brain, where she uses her experience to help business leaders come unstuck. She is also the founder of Open to everyone. Closed to racism, an initiative getting businesses to take a stand against racism, and also hosts themed social listening party #Sunday7social every other Sunday on Isolated Talks radio. Tune in to hear Jess talk about her first job working with Unilever as a client, her priceless experience of both agency and client-side, why she set up her new business Extra Brain, common business problems and themes that go across all sectors, the highs and lows of living on a boat and tonnes more. ///// Follow Jess on LinkedIn and Twitter  Read more on her new consultancy business, Extra Brain Get involved with Open to everyone. Closed to racism  Check out the #Sunday7Social hashtag on Twitter and get listening to her bi-weekly Sunday radio show on Isolated Talks. Jess’s book recommendations are:  Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman  Just Kids & M Train by Patti Smith  /////