Agency Dealmasters podcast

Welcome to another episode of Agency Dealmasrters, where we're excited to dive into the ins and outs of agency expansion, leadership, and personal development with our special guest, Paul O'Malley, CEO of Fox Agency North America.Prepare to be captivated as we discuss the intricacies of agency culture, the vital importance of team individuality, and the enthralling journey of self-discovery that led Paul from a high-pressure career to the world of photography and literature— and back into the agency life with a renewed perspective. We discuss: Overcoming challenges in new markets and different culturesDebating long-term career growth decisionsUnderstanding and catering to the specific needs of the US marketValue of empathy and supportive relationshipsMisconceptions about staff caring for profitability

Our guest this week is Simon Latarche. We are delighted to announce that Simon has joined Milestone Advisory and will sit alongside Miles Welch as Founding Partner. He was CFO of an entrepreneurial Digital SME for nine years, which sold to Publicis Groupe for €416M in 2013. He then went on to become CFO of Publicis.Sapient in the UK before setting up his own Corporate Advisory firm. He has significant M&A and Fundraising experience and is an expert on growing companies profitably. He was voted a Top 20 CFO in the TMT sector in 2013 by BDO and studied Financial Strategy at Said Business School.We talk about:

Sam Budd is the Founder and CEO of Buddy Media Group, an Award-winning digital-first performance marketing agency with a specialist focus on delivering Luxury, Fashion, Alcohol, Hospitality, and Student marketing programs.Sam was also one of the founding members of Social Chain, the award-winning agency founded by Steven Bartlett. We talk about:

Tim Williams is CEO at Onalytica, an influencer marketing company helping brands run influencer programs to increase brand awareness, improve reputation and drive lead generation.  They have worked with clients such as Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Accenture, Ericsson and SAP, to name a few.  We talk about:

Simon Corbett is the Founder and CEO of The Jargon Group, a digital-first international media, marketing and corporate communications business. They have over 70 retained clients, including Facebook.  The group owns a number of market-leading brands that provide public relations and media services to brands in ad:tech, cloud, mobile, big data, retail, fashion and automotive. Before Jargon, Simon spent over ten years at notable agencies, including WeberShandwick, Porter Novelli and Edelman. We talk about:

Jake Stott is the CEO of Hype Partners. Hype Partners are Supercharging Web3 Communities. In 4 years, they have grown into the leading full-service marketing agency in Web3. With a team of 90+ globally, they have worked with over 110 top-tier blockchain projects.  We discuss:

Pete Hendrick is the Managing Director at Octopus Group the Brand to Sales agency, a B2B agency making their clients famous and growing their sales. Over a 20-year career with the agency, Pete has helped build Octopus into a powerhouse B2B marketing agency with clients like Visa, BT, Siemens, Rolls Royce, and Logitech to name a few.  Octopus was recently acquired by Publicis, making the company's future even more interesting. We talk about:

Peter Reid is the Founder and CEO of MSQ Partners, a global group of diverse thinkers who blend human insight with data, technology and creativity to help businesses drive accelerated growth. They have Ten award-winning agencies who make up the groups, you may be familiar with Stein IAS, MMT Digital and TwentySix to name a few.  We talk about: 

Rob Gold is the UK CEO of the Merkle B2B group. They deliver leading-edge data-driven, tech-enabled, and idea-led B2B solutions for their clients.  Their end to end solutions cover brand building, customer acquisition, customer retention to customer loyalty. We talk about: 

Alfie Wenegieme is the Managing Director at Profit Sprout.  Alfie is a certified chartered accountant with over 13 years of commercial finance experience. He's worked with senior leaders in global PR agencies including Edelman and Weber Shandwick. His focus is on profitability for agencies through financial management and a strong strategic approach to business operations. He also counsels senior leadership teams to achieve an agency's financial objectives.  We talk about:

Adam Graham is Founder and Managing Director at Gray Matters and BD Matters, they work with agency owners and their teams to attract and win new business.  Adam was responsible for winning a game-changing piece of business for Vizeum when they won the Camelot account for £50m. He has also held business development roles at RAPP, Isobar and Havas Group before starting Gray Matters. We talk about:

Richard Hadler is CEO of alan. and author of the book 'Marketing: The Bottom Line'. alan. are a full-service B2B marketing agency for Tech, FS + Professional Services. They are reimagining the modern-day B2B marketing agency. alan. is the agency that finds ingenious solutions to complex B2B marketing problems. We talk about:

Libby Brockhoff is CoFounder /Creative Director at Odysseus Arms, an award-winning independent ad agency that provides creativity and brand innovation for the modern CMO.  Libby was named by Campaign magazine as one of the most influential advertising women in the past. Clients include The Body Shop, Facebook, YouTube, Microsoft, Capital One and Amazon to name a few.  She also co-founded Mother in 1996, one of the world's most respected, independent creative companies in the world.  This is episode 4 of "The Independent Voice' series where we spotlight independent marketing agency leaders who are leading their clients with duty and purpose while creating effective marketing for the biggest global brands around. We talk about:

Alex Bennett Grant is the Founder and CEO of We Are Pi, a Creative Innovation Consultancy founded on international Pi day.  He has won many awards including, Ad Age 40 Under 40, They have been Campaign Global Agency of The Year finalist 2021, Ad Age & Creative Pool Small Agency of The Year 2018, 2019 and 2020. This is episode 3 of "The Independent Voice' series where we spotlight independent marketing agency leaders who are leading their clients with duty and purpose while creating effective marketing for the biggest global brands around. We talk about:

Judith Niederschelp is the CEO at Demand Studio, they run a unique and global approach to planning, implementing and delivering integrated demand acceleration solutions.  Previously Judith was Managing Director at Harte Hanks and Aberdeen Group and is a guest lecturer at Warwick business school. We talk about:

Claude Auchu is the CEO at lg2, Canada's largest independent agency. Ig2 is inspiring people to reimagine how organisations can grow, shape culture and succeed in a sustainable manner. This is episode 2 of "The Independent Voice' series where we spotlight independent marketing agency leaders who are leading their clients with duty and purpose while creating effective marketing for the biggest global brands around. We talk about:

Jane Asscher is the CEO and Founding Partner of 23red, a multi-award-winning purpose-driven agency.  They develop brands and campaigns that change behaviour for the better and have a positive impact on people's lives. Their campaigns for leading businesses, charities and government have positively influenced the lives of millions of people.  This is episode 1 of 'The Independent Voice' series where we spotlight independent marketing agency leaders who are leading their clients with duty and purpose while creating effective marketing for the biggest global brands around. We talk about:

Emma Thompson is the Head of Agency Consumer Brands for Golley Slater. She has over 20 years of marketing agency experience across brand, pharmaceutical, shopper and retail. Paul Sheldon is SNR creative at consumer brands and has creatively led accounts such as Nestle and Coca-Cola for the past 8 years.  Golley Slater is a 65-year-old integrated national agency. They have over 170 sector specialists and discipline experts and have an average client tenure of 10 years with some of the best in the business including P&G, Coca-Cola, Mitsubishi, The Welsh Government and Royal Mint. We talk about:

Sarat Pediredla is the CEO of hedgehog lab, he has grown the company from 3 people in the North East of England in 2011 to around 100 people globally with a major presence in the UK & US. hedgehog lab has been named #1 globally for mobile app development with analysts Clutch and were named in the Financial Times Top 1000 Fastest-Growing European companies 2 years in a row. They have successfully raised Private Equity funding to scale their growth.  We talk about: 

This show is dedicated to the stories and the lessons of ambitious agency builders of all types by examining their history, competitive advantage and what makes them tick. Brought to you by Bridge, The growth focused podcast agency. Learn how Bridge can connect you with your target clients at https://bridgegrowth.org/ (bridgegrowth.org)

Jeremy Connell-Waite is the Global Communications Designer for IBM. He is a commercial storyteller, speechwriter and executive performance coach, helping to tell stories that matter. Jeremy serves IBM's global community of over 140,000 partners and technology consultants, he uses the art and neuroscience of Communications Thinking to build compelling narratives for their clients around hybrid-cloud, AI, blockchain and quantum computing.  We talk about:

Hedda Lidgard is the CEO at Frank Valiant, a leading creative agency that specialises in explaining complex things in simple ways.  They combine storytelling skills and a deep understanding of visual communication with their love for state-of-the-art technology. Clients include giants like Atlas Copco and AstraZeneca.  We talk about:

Michel Julliver is the Founder of The Societies Media. He has been in the media and advertising industry for over 30 years and was one of the first people to sell online advertising in France.  He also runs the Programmatic Society, a weekly video program discussing all things Marketing, Data and Advertising programmatic. We talk about: 

Nick Wood is the CEO and Creative Director of Syn, an Emmy-winning music agency founded by Nick and Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. Syn specializes in composing and producing original music, sound design and audio post-production for advertising, film and television. His music has also been featured on HBO's critically acclaimed, Sex and the City. Adverts for Amazon and Coke, as well as the Japanese national football league.  Listen to Syn New Bands 2022 Playlist here on https://music.apple.com/jp/playlist/syn-x-new-bands-playlist-2022/pl.u-gxblprJu5Nz4r4W?l=en (Apple Music) and https://open.spotify.com/playlist/54M3QmoRbexV4gbHgz8Fc6?si=37f837932d08495e&nd=1 (Spotify). We talk about:

Jem Lloyd-Williams is the UK CEO of Mindshare, a global, multi-award-winning, media agency network of 9300 people across 86 countries. Mindshare looks after some of the world's biggest advertisers, including Unilever, Ford and Nike, as well as impressive UK brands such as Carwow, and LV= insurance. Jem was the former CEO of Vizeum UK and has held several leadership positions at MediaCom. We talk about:

Adrian Talbot is the CFO at Hotwire Global. He functioned as an FD, CFO and COO for over 20 years, and has 15 years of experience leading Finance and Operations teams in Media and Professional Services for some of the biggest agencies around.  He was part of the team responsible for growing Hotwire from 150 to 300 people and has been named CFO of the year and international CFO of the year by the FDs Excellence awards. We talk about:

Dora Osinde is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Granny, an international creative agency whose mission is to elevate entertainment and lifestyle brands into pop culture icons. Clients include Netflix, Spotify, MTV, Sony Music, and Warner Brothers to name a few.  We talk about:

Yasin Alimam is the Founder of Hotpatch, one of the most disruptive and innovative businesses around today. They connect those with available workspaces with those who need it. It's WeWork meets AirBnB. We talk about all things growth, how they won their first few users, brand building, how they plan to get to critical mass, and so much more.  If you are at all interested in technology, startups, and the new world of work, then you are going to find this to be an absolutely fascinating conversation.  We talk about: 

Daniel de la Cruz is the Founder and Chief Learner at Polymensa helping agencies build their advisory boards. He has extensive experience working with agencies of all shapes and sizes across the country. Polymensa is your n̶o̶n̶-̶e̶x̶e̶c̶u̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ non-ego board of advisors for your agency. Specially designed for agencies with 20 - 50 employees and agency founders who have never worked in an agency before or at the agency board director level. We talk about: 

Daniel De La Cruz is the Founder and Chief Learner at Polymensa helping agencies build their advisory boards. He has extensive experience working with agencies of all shapes and sizes across the country. Polymensa is your n̶o̶n̶-̶e̶x̶e̶c̶u̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ non-ego board of advisors for your agency. Specially designed for agencies with 20 - 50 employees and agency founders who have never worked in an agency before or at the agency board director level.

Natalia Chaban is the Digital Performance & Technology Director at Mediacom. Campaign's media agency of the decade.  She has over 15 years of experience in advertising technology & innovation. As well as a deep understanding of digital media platforms, data platforms, digital media analytics, data warehousing and emerging digital technologies.  Learn more about our episode sponsor at https://www.accountinsight.ai/ (Account Insight.ai) We talk about: 

Jessica Bohm is the Director of Agency Business at Similarweb.  Similarweb gives agencies a true 360-degree view of all digital activity across customers, prospects, partners, and competition. Their insights help clients beat their competition and win their markets. Find out more at https://www.similarweb.com/?utm_medium=paid_partnership&utm_source=agencydealmasters&utm_campaign=smm_agc_podcast_minisite_agency_minisite_prospects_global_dec_21&utm_placement=landing-page (Similarweb.com) We discuss: 

Jessica Bohm is the Director of Agency Business at Similarweb.  Similarweb gives agencies a true 360-degree view of all digital activity across customers, prospects, partners, and competition. Their insights help clients beat their competition and win their markets. Find out more at https://www.similarweb.com/ (Similarweb.com)

Oliver Yonchev is the co-founder and COO of Flight Story. Flight Story build resilient retail investor communities around great public companies. Previously Oliver was Managing Director of Social Chain, a world-leading social media and e-commerce group. Within just 6 years the company grew from a small UK start-up to a $600m+ public company, operating across 7 locations. For almost a decade, Oliver has been at the forefront of digital marketing and creative services supporting the management teams of Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, TikTok, Twitch, Disney & Uber to name just a few. We talk about: 

Oliver is the co-founder and COO of Flight Story. Flight Story build resilient retail investor communities around great public companies. Previously Oliver was Managing Director of Social Chain, a world-leading social media and e-commerce group. Within just 6 years the company grew from a small UK start-up to a $600m+ public company, operating across 7 locations. For almost a decade, Oliver has been at the forefront of digital marketing and creative services supporting the management teams of Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, TikTok, Twitch, Disney & Uber to name just a few.

Michael Gietzen is the Group Managing Director for Identity, one of the UK's most successful event agencies. He leads a team that delivers extraordinary events for world governments and global brands.   With a team of over 100 people, they deliver events for some of the biggest brands around, such as Apple, Siemens, Leica, Harley-Davidson, New Balance, Formula E, NATO and Her Majesty's Government. Identity is now on course to turnover £150 million this year. We talk about:

Michael Gietzen is the Group Managing Director for Identity, one of the UK's most successful event agencies. He leads a team that delivers extraordinary events for world governments and global brands.   With a team of over 100 people, they deliver events for some of the biggest brands around, such as Apple, Siemens, Leica, Harley-Davidson, New Balance, Formula E, NATO and Her Majesty's Government. Identity is now on course to turnover £150 million this year.

Kevin Sugrue is currently a consultant for Similarweb, he helps Agencies to differentiate their client's brands, build attention and preference using Paid, Owned & Earned media. Kevin works across both strategy and insight; guiding more effective marketing. At IPG Mediabrands he worked with clients such as Amazon, ExxonMobil, Lego, Lockheed Martin, Spotify, Tata Communications, Unilever and UPS.  He has also worked at Dentsu, Millward Brown and Bates Worldwide. His experience includes work for No.10 Downing Street,  BBC Worldwide, Vodafone, Courvoisier Cognac, Kellogg's, Microsoft and Peugeot to name a few. We talk about:

Kevin Sugrue is currently a consultant for Similarweb, he helps Agencies to differentiate their client's brands, build attention and preference using Paid, Owned & Earned media. Kevin works across both strategy and insight; guiding more effective marketing. At IPG Mediabrands he worked with clients such as Amazon, ExxonMobil, Lego, Lockheed Martin, Spotify, Tata Communications, Unilever and UPS.  He has also worked at Dentsu, Millward Brown and Bates Worldwide. His experience includes work for No.10 Downing Street,  BBC Worldwide, Vodafone, Courvoisier Cognac, Kellogg's, Microsoft and Peugeot to name a few.

Wale Badamosi-Oyekanmi is the Founder and President of Dare.Win, the international award-winning group offering communication & consulting services to entertainment and content brands. They have recently merged with Sir Martin Sorrell's Media.Monks in 2020. Clients include Netflix, Spotify, PlayStation, Bacardi Group, Google, YouTube, BMW, Disney, Warner Bros and Zalando to list a few. We talk about:

Wale Badamosi-Oyekanmi is the Founder and President of Dare.Win, the international award-winning group offering communication & consulting services to entertainment and content brands. They have recently merged with Sir Martin Sorrell's Media.Monks. Clients include Netflix, Spotify, PlayStation, Bacardi Group, Google, YouTube, BMW, Disney, Warner Bros and Zalando to name a few.

Matt Harper is the CEO of The Marketing Practice, with their recent acquisitions, they are now one of the leading full-funnel B2B agencies in the world. He previously ran the agency's US operation prior to becoming group CEO. His goal is to develop a team that's the best in the world at B2B marketing, delivering a blend of local expertise and global scale that helps clients grow customers, pipeline and partner channels. The company has recently made two significant acquisitions, Omobono, the digital experience company for B2B brands, and Kingpin Communications, the B2B comms specialists, to make them a collective powerhouse of B2B specialists. We talk about:

Matt Harper is the CEO of the Marketing Practice, with their recent acquisitions, they are now one of the leading full-funnel B2B agencies in the world. He previously ran the agency's US operation prior to becoming group CEO. His goal is to develop a team that's the best in the world at B2B marketing, delivering a blend of local expertise and global scale that helps clients grow customers, pipeline and partner channels. The company has recently made two significant acquisitions, Omobono, the digital experience company for B2B brands, and Kingpin, the B2B comms specialists, to make them a collective powerhouse of B2B specialists.

Tiffani Bova is the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. Her book: Growth IQ has been translated into seven languages, it was named a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and one of the top 5 books in Leadership and Strategy.  She's been named as one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women in California”.  She writes for HBR, Forbes and has been featured in articles from Bloomberg, The WSJ, Economist, Hoovers and USA Today. We talk about:

Tiffani Bova is the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. Her book: Growth IQ  has been translated into seven languages, it was named a Wall Street Journal Bestseller and one of the top 5 books in Leadership and Strategy.  She's been named as one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women in California”.  She writes for HBR, Forbes and has been featured in articles from Bloomberg, The WSJ, Economist, Hoovers and USA Today.

Jonathan Leafe ran Strawberry for 27 years, a very successful Creative Marketing Agency, he then sold the agency and became a performance coach. He's since helped many Digital Agencies, Marketing Agencies and Creative Agencies fulfil their full potential. Helping them turn minus EBITDA into positive success, double their turnover and more than double their profit, as well as going from having no retainer clients to 100% on retainer. We talk about:

Jonathan Leafe ran Strawberry for 27 years, a very successful Creative Marketing Agency, he then sold the agency and became a performance coach. He's since helped many Digital Agencies, Marketing Agencies and Creative Agencies fulfill their potential. Helping them turn minus EBITDA into positive success, double their turnover and more than double their profit, as well as going from having no retainer clients to 100% on retainer.

Sophie Coyne and Megan Leppan are the co-founders of Raised by Wolves. A fascinating company at the nexus of corporate internal communications with brand advertising. Corporate comms for a long time has been stale but Megan and Sophie have big plans to change that by injecting some much-needed life into the space.  We talk about:

Sophie Coyne and Megan Leppan are the Co-founders of Raised by Wolves,  a creative communications studio focused on helping brands unsettle the ordinary in the corporate and sustainability space.

Perrine Farque, is the author of 'Inclusion', entrepreneur, keynote speaker and inclusion expert who empowers leaders to leverage diversity as their competitive advantage. Perrine was nominated as one of the TOP 50 most influential UK Tech women. She inspires and motivates leadership teams to embrace diversity and inclusion. As well as helping attract and retain top diverse talent. Perrine has worked with global leading companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and many others. We discuss:

Perrine Farque, is the author of 'Inclusion', entrepreneur, keynote speaker and inclusion expert who empowers leaders to leverage diversity as their competitive advantage. Perrine was nominated as one of the TOP 50 most influential UK Tech women. She inspires and motivates leadership teams to embrace diversity and inclusion. As well as helping attract and retain top diverse talent. Perrine has worked with global leading companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and many others.