Call To Action

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 @ohmybeigesRob’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 TalksTimestamps (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 posersRob’s book recommendations are: Eating the Big Fish by Adam Morgan   Easily Distracted by Steve Coogan   Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow   /////

This week, we’ve masqueraded as a cartoon tiger and talked our way into Kellogg to catch truly gr-r-reat marketer, Keerti Nair, for a chinwag. Hell-bent on bridging the gap between commerce and creativity, she’s Marketing Effectiveness and Digital Transformation Lead at Kellogg and has cut her teeth in the industry over 16 years, 4 continents and 2 recessions. She talks to us on going from engineering to marketing, selling Coca Cola products door-to-door, relentless learning, why selling tea bags wouldn’t work in Sudan (and other lessons from a career spanning four continents!), tips to take advantage of the golden age of media planning, KFC, tacos, why we should be proud to be marketers and tons more. You’d be a fool not to snap, crackle and pop it in your ears, pronto.   ///// Follow Keerti on Twitter Here’s KFC’s FCK campaign And check out Keerti’s side of the debate around consumer habits & demands since the start of the pandemic Listen Up by Andy Nairn on ISOLATED TalksTimestamps (01:55) - Quick fire questions (04:26) - First ever job(06:54) - Going from engineering to marketing (14:31) - Being a relentless learner (17:19) - Experiences & learnings from working across 4 continents (25:58) - The unsexy boring bits of marketing (retail, promotion, distribution, pricing) (30:50) - How you can take advantage of the golden age of media planning (39:37) - Who is doing purpose well? And who’s lying? (44:17) - What she looks for in an agency partner (47:39) - Campaigns she wishes she’d done (49:41) - Go-to recipe (53:38) - 4 pertinent posersKeerti’s book recommendations are: You’re Not Listening by Kate Murphy  Go Luck Yourself by Andy Nairn /////

This week, armed with duty-free’s finest Yo Ho Ho’s and a bottle of rum, we’re in the Big Apple to rub shoulders with the pirates at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York and catch their Chief Creative Officer, Amy Ferguson, for a chinwag.Amy describes herself as a chronic exaggerator. Yet, her reputation as a creative renegade and rule rewriter needs none of that. She’s got the pencils, Lions, Clios and pieces of eight to prove it.So, listen up landlubbers as Amy chats to us on a treasure trove of topics including her favourite pirate, melting things, leaning into humour in recent Mountain Dew ads with Charlie Day, the trick to get punters to forgive the giant logo at the end of your ad, cracking TikTok, hacking the Super Bowl, why pitches are bananas, why agencies should hire more mums, and more. Follow Amy on Instagram Here’s an old blog we wrote on Allstate’s Mayhem ads   This is the second Call to Action episode dedicated to Captain Rob Schwartz, George Tannenbaum got there first here in a cracking 2-parter (Part 1 and Part 2)  Ads to watch: MTN DEW - A Really Short Ad   MTN DEW - Blatant Product Placement (NBA Execution)  MTN DEW - Major Millions (Super Bowl 2021)  Nissan - Thrill Driver (Super Bowl 2022)  MTN DEW – The Shining (Super Bowl 2020)  Timestamps (01:55) - Quickfire questions  (03:14) - First-ever job  (07:45) - Young Bloods experience (14:42) - Mountain Dew campaign with Charlie Day (26:36) - What goes into making a great Super Bowl ad?  (33:59) - Her “do good work, have fun, go home” philosophy(38:54) - Being a working mum of 3  (41:47) - Favourite classic TBWA ads (44:00) - How she makes sure work at TBWA\Chiat\Day stays true to the creative standard they’ve set   (46:07) - 4 pertinent posersAmy’s book recommendations are: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead   Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan   Advertising Today by Warren Berger 

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 posersRoom 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 & tensionHere are his books:Hey Whipple, Squeeze ThisThirty Rooms to Hide InLuke’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 agencyHere's the Togs or Undies ad we mentionAnd this episode is dedicated to Alexei DomorevAndrey’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. /////