Call To Action

We’ve laid the Table (Mountain) with a bountiful Binet and Field feast to snare Cape Town’s creativity champion and industry agony aunt, Gillian Rightford, this week.  Gillian is Founder of Adtherapy, a management, skills development and communication consultancy ridding the world of bad ads using her simple equation; Better skills = better relationships = better results. Previously, Gillian honed...

This week, armed with the promise of sex and drugs and How Brands Grow, we’ve waded our way through gaggles of groupies to catch ex-rock star, pitch addict and award winning creative, Nick Ellis.    A respected strategic thinker and pre-watershed sex toy advert pioneer, Nick is Creative Partner & Co-Founder of Halo, a Design Week UK Top 100 independent brand agency based in Bristol. He has ove...

This week, marking our Half Century 50th episode (not out), we’ve caught and bowled Facebook’s Head of Strategy, and cricketer, Shekhar Deshpande.   One of the world’s great strategists, Shekhar spent nearly two decades at the creative agency J Walter Thompson, across Bangalore and London, prior to joining Facebook. He’s had work awarded at Cannes, performed judging duties for the Effies, and work...

Wielding a witch’s wand, we hot-footed aboard the Hogwarts Express for a magical chat with Founder of Bodacious and strategy’s own Severus Snape, Zoe Scaman, this week.   Zoe’s love for sci-fi and strategy has sent her searching around the world for the next shiny thing, working for the likes of Droga5, Ridley Scott Creative Group, and Adidas. She’s developed a TV series for a huge fashion label,...

This week, we fired up the big screen and laid bait of a reminiscing watch of Wales’ glorious 3 – 1 Euro 2016 victory over Belgium to catch the best thing since sliced Bara-Brith; MediaCom’s Global Digital Director, Andrew Spurrier-Dawes.   Arguably Wales’ finest export since Huw Edwards, ASD has worked with stellar brands like Mars, Sky, Tesco and eBay. Described by Rory Sutherland as ‘MediaCom’s...

They say you should leave an audience wanting more, but sod that, as this week we are giving you a huge double helping of more, as it is part 2 of our chat with George Tannenbaum.    One of the most highly awarded, revered and talented copywriters and creative directors on the planet, George is a freelancer who was previously Executive Creative Director and Copy Chief at Ogilvy for over 10 years,...

We’ve pulled a network agency worm out of the Big Apple and used it as topic-bait to catch one of advertising’s biggest fish this week; the one and only George Tannenbaum. One of the most highly awarded, revered and talented copywriters and creative directors on the planet, George is a freelancer who was previously Executive Creative Director and Copy Chief at Ogilvy for over 10 years.   George ha...

This week we’ve trawled and traversed all 50 US states in a 27-foot-long hot dog to catch former male cheerleader, Assistant Tour Manager to Britney Spears, mentee of Magic Johnson & ad land’s most diverse and disruptive Diversity Officer; Doug Melville.    Another chapter of his remarkable CV tells us that as the first-ever Chief Diversity Officer of TBWA\North America, Doug has driven TBWA’s...

This week, armed with a first-aid kit and copy of Bushcraft 101 we head through the hinterlands of Gloucestershire to catch Sarah Townsend for a chinwag.    As a freelance copywriter, Sarah has over 20 years’ experience traversing the tumultuous territory of self-employment and now she’s written the book on it. Boasting over 100 5-star Amazon reviews, Survival Skills for Freelancers provides pract...

This episode is a Call to Action first as we’ve landed a supersized bumper catch; the power couple Alex Jamieson & Bob Gower. Alex was one of the co-creators and co-stars of the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me, and is also the best-selling author of 5 books, a highly-sought-after wellness expert and success mentor, and has also been interviewed by Oprah.   Bob is the amazing author o...

We’ve lurked stage left disguised as a Victorian wench to nab musical theatre fan and exceptionally talented writer gem Higgins this week.  A creative problem solver and a strong mental health advocate, gem rules ‘The Twitters’ with her unrivaled gift of creating the perfect GIF for any moment. She can also read an entire book in one bath soak (one can only imagine how wrinkly she would get if she...

We’ve lurked in the wings of the Café De Paris, Piccadilly to catch the hugely successful entrepreneur and former burlesque dancer Paulina Tenner this week.    Paulina is the founder of Grant Tree, an open culture company that pioneered an open salary scheme to help tech start-ups navigate the complex world of government funding.   She talks to us on her ‘vomit edit’ writing process for her new bo...

We’ve laid down lures of cool Friday drinks to catch the ‘Pharrell Williams’ of statistics; happiness expert Nic Marks. Nic is the CEO and Founder of Friday Pulse, helping organisations understand employee wellbeing, as well as being a leading statistician and TED speaker, and is arguably best known for his work in creating The Happy Planet Index; the first global measure of sustainable well-being...

We’ve cast a net off the coast of Adelaide this week to catch one of the globe’s greatest researchers and Sci-Fi fans, Jenni Romaniuk. Jenni is Research Professor and Associate Director (International) at that conveyor belt of marketing stars, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, where she has advised many of the world’s biggest brands. She is the author of two must-read books; Building Distinctive Brand...

An internationally acclaimed copywriter and author who is partial to some wolf nipple chips (who isn’t?), Ryan Wallman is Creative Director and Head of Copy for Wellmark, a Melbourne-based creative agency specialising in healthcare.   He has written for numerous industry publications, including Marketing Week, and is a co-author of the bestselling marketing book Eat Your Greens . More recently, Ry...

We’ve laid an intricate trap of clever beer and wine based nudges this week to catch Richard Chataway, Vice President of the BVA Nudge Unit UK, founder of the Communication Science Group (CSG) and quite simply one of the most talented behavioural science practitioners in the world.    He chats away (sorry) on a load of topics, including an early temping job at the Royal College of Obstetricians an...

We’ve masqueraded as a waiter with dreams of Hollywood this week to catch LA’s finest CX designer Matt Watkinson. Matt is co-founder and CEO of Methodical and an internationally renowned author, speaker, and consultant on customer experience and business strategy, speaking at events for the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce, American Express, and the FBI. His first book, The Ten Principles Behind Gre...

We’ve cut a cheeky round hole in the ice to catch former figure skater and strategic consultant and business leader Liana Dinghile, this week. A proud Londoner with a mix of Sicilian and Scottish heritage, Liana works with Tonic Creative Business Partners, having previously been at Siegel + Gale and Dragon Rouge. She has helped guide some of the world’s most successful organisations, working with...

This week we’ve laid bait of tempting language to snare the exceptionally talented writer and founder of the language strategy agency That Explains Things, Nick Parker.   A one-time creative director, magazine editor, keynote speaker, children’s book author, Viz cartoonist and crystallised-piss-on-door-hinges remover, Nick now helps fellow copywriters, agencies and brands like BT, PWC, Tesco and S...

This week we’ve landed in the docklands of London to catch the baby-faced assassin and CEO of NY Collective, Nicole Yershon, who ignites fires of change consulting huge brands like Ford, British Airways and Pizza Hut.   Heralded by The Drum as one of the 25 most influential women in the British digital industry over the last 25 years, she talks to us about her early career and how she went from se...

This week we’ve muscled past the marketing mafia to shakedown the Don of decision science; Phil Barden. His client-side chops cover working for T-Mobile, Unilever and Diageo, until a run-in with two Germans and a flash mob flung him headfirst into the world of neuroscience and understanding human behaviour. As MD at decision science consultancy DECODE Marketing, he’s written 'Decoded: The Science...

We’ve lurked by the theatre stage door this week to catch Charlie Russell; the West End and Broadway star of the smash hit show, The Play That Goes Wrong. Together with her long-standing friends in the Mischief Theatre company, she has appeared in a hit parade of great shows, including The Comedy About A Bank Robbery and Groan Ups, while Mischief Comedy have recently aired their first TV show on t...

This week we’ve rowed up the Thames with a wine-laced bait to catch Kerry O’Connor, Co-Founder at Tonic Creative Business Partners. Kerry has many specialities, including marketing strategy, PR, and belting out power ballads to huge crowds for charitable causes. She’s mostly worked agency-side for the likes of Ogilvy, Publicis, Imagination and Dragon Rouge, yet also has client-side chops from a st...

This week we’ve snuck up the Thames to Ogilvy’s offices to catch Shelina Janmohamed; the bestselling author of Love in a Headscarf (a memoir about growing up as a British Muslim woman), and the Vice President of Islamic Marketing at Ogilvy- The world's first bespoke consultancy for building brands with Muslim audiences. She also, somehow, still finds time to write for the Daily Telegraph, The Guar...

This week we’ve packed our plasticine and carried out a search of The Avon to pick up Bristol’s finest maker of noise, Gavin Strange. By day, Gavin is Director and Designer at the beloved Aardman Animations, the Academy Award winning studio behind Wallace & Gromit, and by night he indulges in passion projects, drenching them in fizzy, fuzzy energy as he morphs into his alter-ego Jam Factory. A...