Call To Action

This week we led Lucky Saint’s Head of Brand, Emily Laws, not into temptation but into Call To Action's recording studio. With marketing chops spanning a decade in brand management, PR, and brand activation, Emily is currently breaking rules and honouring traditions at the helm of the UK’s Number 1 Dedicated Alcohol-Free Beer. We get in a round of tantalising topics, including her first jobs selli...

This week, ​​in a world where most businesses blend together like a briefcase filled with slightly smaller briefcases, we’re seeking out the business leaders who are standing out in their sector, and doing things very much their own way. Mind Your Business is the sponsored spin-off of Call to Action® that gives inspiring, unusual or simply very likeable businesses a chance to share their story. It...

This week, ​​in a world where most businesses blend together like a briefcase filled with slightly smaller briefcases, we’re seeking out the business leaders who are standing out in their sector, and doing things very much their own way. Mind Your Business is the sponsored spin-off of Call to Action® that gives inspiring, unusual or simply very likeable businesses a chance to share their story. It...

This week, ​​in a world where most businesses blend together like a briefcase filled with slightly smaller briefcases, we’re seeking out the business leaders who are standing out in their sector, and doing things very much their own way. Mind Your Business is the sponsored spin-off of Call to Action® that gives inspiring, unusual or simply very likeable businesses a chance to share their story. It...

This week we travelled home and away to catch Tourism Australia’s Chief Marketing Officer, Susan Coghill.  Using the power of creativity to build brands, drive business, and shape culture, Susan is a proper marketer tasked with tempting tourists to the land of kangaroos and Kylie.  And we were lucky, lucky, lucky enough to talk to her on a ton of topics, including her first job at a retirement hom...

This week, we followed the HERDmeister to find and catch behavioural science buff, Mark Earls.  Dubbed by DO Lectures as “Britain’s answer to Malcolm Gladwell…without the hair”, Mark is a prolific thinker, recovering account planner and best-selling writer.  We shoot the breeze on the intimidatingly smart Paul Feldwick , being public enemy no. 1 in the eyes of market research, why we’re not indivi...

This week, we rattled the trunk of a large tree to dislodge and catch Matt Herbert and Connor Archbold.  A pair of possum* players turning brand tracking upside down, Matt and Connor are co-founders of Ritson-backed startup, Tracksuit. The duo are dead set on making it easier and cheaper for marketers to track their brand health, demonstrate return on marketing spend, and answer the all important...

This week, we caught something Contagious. Luckily for us, it’s their Co-Founder Paul Kemp-Robertson. A chap with serious smarts for global marketing communications, Paul is the brain behind Contagious. Part editorial, part consultancy, part research, they get their kicks helping brands and agencies be more creative, get smarter, and deliver better work.  Paul spreads his smarts across a tonnes of...

This week, we pushed a creative fledgling out of the agency nest to lure and catch author of ad land’s how-to guide, Junior, to teach them to fly. Long overdue, it’s Thomas Kemeny.  Junior is a book that should be instantly useful for people starting out. Unlike most marketing books, Thomas packs it with proper, practical advice on navigating hallways, not ballsing up presentations, and the virtue...

This week, we cast a spell of double double toil and trouble and caught the pair from Burst Your Bubble; it’s Andrew Tenzer and Ian Murray.  The duo behind a treasure trove of award-winning research on the culture of marketing, Andrew and Ian have recently launched a radical new consultancy powered by the art and science of perspective-taking.  There’s no eye of newt or toe of frog in this cauldro...

This week, we opened spoof copywriting dojo Cobra K-AI to sweep the leg of the scammer-scammer, Dave Harland. Copywriter and messabouter with massive fingers. Dave helps businesses and brands speak to people with more personality, via the medium of the alphabet. His favourite part of it all is “getting paid to be silly”. Tune in for an exclusive on his brand-new copywriting agency. Plus we chat ab...

Following eyewitness reports of stolen genius, we hurtled down the highway to catch ad land’s own Bonnie and Clyde; it’s Rosie and Faris Yakob.  Together they form Genius Steals, a nomadic creative consultancy helping brands, agencies, and rebels find the awesome at the intersection of new communication ideas, new product concepts, and new ways of thinking.  They give us the low down on life on th...

We had to drag Giles away from Chick King to catch Spurs royalty and exceptionally talented business brain Chris Paouros this week.  Broadcasting from the bench to the boardroom, Chris spends her time solving hugely complex, often highly emotive problems that are rooted in everything from corporations to communities.  She talks to us on her first job in a video shop, making covered buttons, what w...

This week we’re leading the frontline charge against agencies not advertising themselves by catching and conscribing long-serving ad man, David Moore.  A creative director and copywriter living in the land of beef and corn, he’s written ads for dog wormers, mainframe computer channel extenders, and $1000 dollar steaks. He even named the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the world.  Lauded on Link...

Wi-re-du doo doo push pineapple shake the tree as we catch the messaging expert helping brands sing with a hula melody. This week, it’s Diane Wiredu (doo doo*).  Founder of Lion Words, Diane is laser focused on customer research and brand strategy. She’s a top writer getting SaaS and B2B companies to simplify their message, attract more perfect-fit customers and get better results from their marke...

This week, we said pspspsps to tempt and catch the c̶a̶t̶ man behind US Ad Agency of the Year, Mischief, Greg Hahn. Dubbed a “legend who deserved to be a legend” by George Tannenbaum , Greg has produced creative work that works for decades, winning pretty much every award in the ad land arsenal in the process. But, more importantly than that, he’s one of our most important industry voices, talking...

When life gives you Lemon, make lemonade. So, this week, we catch and squeeze a glass full of tasty topics from creative super brain, Orlando Wood. Chief Innovation Officer at System 1 group and author of Lemon and Look Out, Orlando is dead set on delving deep into the links between advertising, psychology, and the creative arts. He talks to us on interviewing unsuspecting passengers on the Eurost...

This week, we tracked a trail from Tilehurst to Tinseltown to catch one of Reading’s finest exports, Matt Watkinson, where he was, and remains, in LA. An internationally renowned author, speaker to a whole host of brands, and consultant on all things CX, product and business, Matt’s latest tome, Mastering Uncertainty, explores and advises how to turn this inherent source of anxiety into an advanta...

This week, we opened wide and said 'aaaah-nd welcome back' as we once again caught Better Brand Health author, Jenni Romaniuk. Research Professor and Associate Director at that conveyer belt of marketing minds, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Jenni has advised many of the world’s biggest brands and authored what’s now a trilogy of true industry bibles. 3 years and 1 new book better, we snared Jenni...

This week, we thought Phuket and sailed the Thai seas to catch marketer and problem solver, Lisl MacDonald. With over 30 years of experience in the business, Lisl cut her teeth in London with BT, Virgin, and Ogilvy, before her sense of adventure and curiosity took her to Asia to set up her own consultancy. Obsessed with interrogating ideas, she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and chairs j...

The Lannisters send their regards this week as we catch Game of Thrones and After Life actor, Tim Plester, for a right royal chinwag.  All-round stellar chap (off-screen anyway), Tim is best known for selling drugs to Ricky Gervais in Netflix’s After Life and slitting Cat Stark’s throat in Game of Thrones. But alongside his film and TV exploits, Tim has made documentaries capturing the weird-and-e...

This week Glover’s in the air(waves), everywhere I look around, as we catch Joe from The Marketing Meetup for a positively lovely chinwag.   The kind of guy who gives marketing a good name, Joe Glover is the smile behind a growing community of marketers that’s currently 25,000 strong. At weekly events, his community hears from Oscar nominees, disabled rights champions, and marketing heroes such as...

This week, we took one giant leap to catch aspiring astronaut turned account manager, Faizan Ali.   Currently Account Director at VMLY&R, Faizan is a loud and proud advocate for account managers worldwide. Having cut his teeth at Saatchi, JWT, and Hogarth Worldwide, he shares stellar advice on LinkedIn on how to calm storms, massage egos and help sell the work.  Tune in for an out-of-this-worl...

This week, we used a puff of smoke to catch pricing magician Blair Enns performing his favourite trick; making RFPs disappear.   Founder of Win Without Pitching and Author of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto and Pricing Creativity, Blair is dead set on getting creative businesses to price their work properly, single-handedly saving those who sell ideas for a living from giving them away for nada...

This week, we put pedal to the metal and found a new top gear, a Walter Geer III.     Sport-bike racer, track and field All-American, and seriously impressive fella, Walter is Chief Experience Design Officer at VMLY&R HEALTH, bridging tech, storytelling, design, and user experience to create innovative design solutions to health.  Walter hits top speed talking on a ton of tantalising topics li...