MCA / Murphy Cobb - Innovation Interviews

We first talk to John Dean, Creative Director of MullenLowe and find out why MullenLowe outperformed all the other agencies, to be head and shoulders above any other for 2020. Also we ask John about his view of whether agencies are gearing up properly for the digital world.  Next we have Tom Ward from Sandstorm Films. We chat about how when commercials moved from film to digital, it took a long time for agencies and production companies to adopt. Is new tech like Unreal Engine the same? It's widely used by feature films and TV productions, how is this new tech going to change the shape of commercial production and will agencies move any quicker?

This week we speak to Jamie Tutton, one of the owners of the successful animatics production house, Runningman. We'll find out how animatics are useful beyond their core uses with TV and what questions are worth asking when investing in research materials.   Next we speak to one of our guests from last year. Yanina Barry from Remote Filming spoke to us at the beginning of lockdown on developing remote production technology. So after several months, we catch up with her and see how it's going. SPOTLIGHT ON: MCA's most recent addition Sam Angell, who joins us as an Account Director and shares some of his background and previous experience.

MCA hosted a fantastic session with three passionate players in our industry. Thank you to Darren Richardson from WPP, Steffen Gentis from BBDO Germany and Simon Morris from Comcast Tech Solutions. We discussed everything from in-housing to the latest creative technologies, e-commerce and remote shooting.  Have a listen and learn what the movers and shakers in our industry are doing to bring us productively into 2021. 

Kicking off our podcasts for 2021, we are joined by Richard May from the data driven creative technology company Spirable. He takes us through the benefits of Spirable and how embracing the relationship between data and creative has led to meaningful impact on consumer engament. Next we have the founder of SNK Studios Seb Juviler, who tells us how they adapted during the pandemic. What the key focuses were during 2020 that set them apart from other studios and what their plans are for this year. Lastly we speak to Adam Collins, the former Director of Global Advertising at Nike and who has reinvented himself as a Success Coach. Firstly he takes us through his time at Nike and some of the innovations that they follow to keep up with the ever-changing landscape. Then he talks to us about the challenges his clients have in his role as a coach, most notably during lockdown, working from home and preparing mentally for career changes

On this week's podcast we're joined by Jenny Williams, an ex-marketer, who is now one of the UK's accredited Master Coaches. She sheds some light on her career change, the challenges faced by industry executives, especially over the last 8 months.   Next we talk to Analia Tiscornia from Red Creek Productions in Buenos Aires, how the pandemic has affected Latin American production and navigating the sporadic changes to Covid-19 protocols. 

On this week's podcast we speak to Sheridan Thomas Executive Producer at Great Guns, one of the world's most creative advertising production companies. He is also joined by their new MD for North America Oliver Fusilier to discuss technology, including Unreal Engine, & remote viewing plus their post Covid 19  plans for the business.   Next we have Oliver Klander from Think Jam, talking about Remake, an asset versioning platform and how it works.   Lastly, we catch up with one of MCA's Stefan Kerridge. He shares with us how he's mitigated risks on costs to production during the pandemic for our clients and some of the key lookouts for future production plans.

This week we are joined by one of North America's most recognised and awarded creatives in the advertising industry Paul Caiozzo and founder of the advertising agency Interesting Development. He talks to us about the differences of going from being an Executive Creative Director to running his own company and the challenges presented over the last several months. Next we have Leon Harlow, Commercial Director of YMU Group, the largest talent management company in the UK. He tells us how to get the best out of a celebrity/ brand relationship and how to negotiate with influencers and treating them like a media channel in their own right. Lastly, we catch up with our most junior member of the MCA team, Oscar Edwards. He tells us what it was like joining amid the pandemic and going from a client facing role to working from home since day one. 

On this week's podcast we talk to the former Head of Global Accounts at DDB, Greg Taucher, who now passes on that knowledge to the students at Michigan State University. We find out how he's helping to adapt the next generation in a digital led advertising world.   We then speak to Stephanie Balint, the Production Director of Verizon's In-house agency based in New York City. She shares some of the changes and trends she's seen in the last few months as well as benefits to integrating your agencies capabilities.   Lastly, we catch up with George Olver, co-founder of Movidiam, the online production networking platform. He gives us a walkthrough of how Movidiam can be an effective tool to provide an agile methodology of connecting clients, agencies and production companies.

This week we talk to Simon Wells and Adam Ford from Channel 4 TV about the opportunities for brands to invest and share the spoils in Branded Entertainment, and working together to leverage all content channels for better activation. Next we speak with Sergio Lopez Ferrero, McCann's EMEA Chief Production Officer. He shares some insight as to how McCann has thrived over the last 6 months, how he maintains a consistent standard of work across his 13 offices as well as McCann's take on sustainable options in production. Lastly, Adam Smith an independent media guru, gives us a look at the data landscape in marketing and talks about the missed opportunities between creative and data, the need for more clarity and collaboration.

On this week's podcast we're joined by Steffen Gentis, Chief Production Officer at BBDO Germany . He talks to us about sustainability, some best practices to making production greener as well as the innovations he's seen during the last 6 months. Next we have Jeremy Gibson, CMO at Hovis. Who talks to us about some of the key factors to consider in a multi-channel world, and how he sees the future landscape between brands and agencies. Finally Jon Crownshaw, having worked as CMO for BT Sport, Jon talks to us about the learning experiences he found when he started up his own sports talent sourcing consultancy. The key to thriving amid the pandemic and getting the most value through better activation.   Steffen Gentis: www.bbdo.de/en   Jeremy Gibson: www.hovis.co.uk/   Jon Crownshaw: www.weareathlete.com/  

On this week's podcast we talk to Luke Hammersley, EMEA CEO of Creative Drive, which was recently acquired by Accenture Interactive. He shares his insight on the acquisition, how they will continue to differentiate themselves and the value proposition the new acquisitive will means for clients. Luke reflects on the last six months and the changes he's seen in the relationships between client and production.   We then catch up with our extremely knowledgeable music consultant Debbie Pearce who has dealt with everyone, at every level in the music industry.  She tells us about some of the projects she's currently working on and offers us some best practice tips about music in your project and how we ensure our clients get it right the first time.   Luke Hammersley: Luke.hammersley@creativedrive.com www.creativedrive.com/   Debbie Pearce: Debbie.pearce@murphycobb.com

This week we talked to Cliff Francis, discussing his time and successes as the Worldwide Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi for Procter & Gamble brands, and taking P&G to the Cannes Lions Festival for the first time. How he's adapting to a new way of working and his view on how brands can return to making impactful and award winning campaigns. Next we speak to Ryan McFadyen, who thanks to his medical background in behavioural science, leads an agency which is changing the approach to tackling a client's problems. HIs agency utilises neuroscientific methods to gain more insight into the effectiveness of marketing campaigns towards consumer engagement. Lastly, Tom Horton talks to us about the abundant possibilities of Computer Generated Imagery and finding the right balance between integrated CGI and live action, to maximise the efficacy of a project.   Cliff Francis: cliff-francis@outlook.com https://www.bluememo.com/   Ryan McFadyen: ryan@haveyouheard.co.za https://haveyouheard.co.za/   Tom  Horton: fabulist.tom@gmail.com

This week we had Sarah Scudder, who joined us from America's tech heartland of California; she told us about her role as President of The Real Sourcing Network (RSN), a group of very smart American procurement thinkers, applying digital and technological solutions to help clients make substantial savings in their marketing spends.   Then, we spoke with Jessie Nagel and Gabi Kay from Green the Bid; who are heavyweight producers. They are leading a community dedicated to creating a carbon-neutral ecosystem to establish sustainable commercial production.    Lastly, we welcomed Robert Campbell; Robert was a founder of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe.  Robert is travelling a different path, acquiring and exploiting forgotten film and TV properties - notably, Hammer (The House of Horror) and, The Wombles.   Sarah Scudder – sscudder@rsnetwork.com https://rsnetwork.com/ Jessie Nagel - Jessie@hypeworld.com www.hypeworld.com Gabi Kay - gabi@invincibleunicorn.com https://greenthebid.earth Robert Campbell - robertpcampbell@mac.com

On this week's podcast, we invite four guests from the southern hemisphere who have been doing some very interesting things in these difficult times.   We welcome Amber Collins, the CMO of Australia Post, who have used the crisis as an opportunity to remake their relationship with the citizens of that vast continent, and in some really innovative ways.   Staying in Australia, we hear from Loren Bradley, of production company Finch, who have been proactively investing time and money in a range of non-advertising initiatives, including one to teach kids to be more polite during lockdown!   Then we head over to South Africa, and get a briefing from Dali Tembo and Bradley Shrimpton of The Culture Foundry, on the fascinating science of ethnography as applied to marketing research and insights.    Finally, back to Australia to get a local market update from our leader in Sydney, Les Luxford. How has the recent re-lockdown affected things?   Australia Post – amber.collins@auspost.com.au Finch – www.finchcompany.com; loren@finchcompany.com Culture Foundry – www.culturefoundryco.com; dali@culturefoundryco.com

In this week's Innovation Podcast, we shine a spotlight on the new routes clients are taking to create content — via in-house agencies, and specialists in format driven creation and production.   Firstly, we welcome Simon Martin, the CEO of the fast-growing Oliver, which has become a leading light in structuring and staffing in-house agencies for many clients.  He tells us how Covid has impacted their clients, and how their in-housing model deals well with the challenges the lockdown has presented.   Next we hear from Jenny Chan Von Meyenburg who is APAC Director of Lego's self-built and hugely-respected in-house agency, about the advantages Lego enjoys with the alignment of creative and marketing objectives.  She also introduces us to a word that may yet become all the rage:- TRY-VERTISING.   Then we have Victor Knaap, founder and CEO of MediaMonks, who are a world leader in the growing sphere of format-driven content creation and production; he talks about how clients are thinking about the “data versus creative” balancing act in these tough times.   Finally, our geography field trip this week goes to France, and a catch up with Christian Métrailler on the challenging situation that is still going on over there.

On this week's podcast, we heard from two heavyweight procurement professionals about how the crisis has affected the role and activities of a crucial stakeholder group of MCA's.   Simon Soothill who moved from an initial career in brand marketing to procurement and has held roles of increasing seniority at Diageo, Accenture, Lloyds Bank and now at Crown Commercial Services (the UK Government procurement arm) and;   Tina Fegent who has had a storied career in procurement, starting as a grad at Thorn EMI, and rising ever higher up the food chain, including some unconventional stops along the way as Head of Procurement in two major ad agencies, and now runs the "go-to" independent procurement consultancy in the UK.   Then we spoke to an incredibly interesting man, Pad, who is a leading business and performance psychologist; he works on helping businesses and the individuals within them maximise their potential through "archetypal psychology".  He spoke about the particular challenges of keeping teams motivated and on point in a world where we interact only by video screens, and how he sees the future playing out. The podcast is available to listen to here - or at any other good podcast platform   tf@tinafegent.com https://tinafegent.com +44 7970 472 211   pad@comealive.co.uk www.teamme.com  +44 7443 546 535

This week we're going agency side, starting with Tom Knox, Partner at Mullen Lowe, who spoke of the challenges of leading a team embedded in the heart of the UK Government during this pandemic. Then Andy Fowler, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Brothers and Sisters chats about the opportunities for agencies and production companies, born out of the necessities of lockdown. We get the view from over the Atlantic, as Lee Weiss, Senior Exec Producer at Ogilvy NY gives us the lowdown on how they have continued to be able to execute great campaigns for clients. Finally, our weekly check in with one of our markets, Dubai, where we chat with Sam Eid who tells us how the Emirates is opening up for business again.   

Every week we talk to the most interesting and experienced people in the advertising and production industry.  This week we chatted to the Chief Chaos Officer of P.I.G. China, Nick Dodet about the state of production currently in that market, how the business started and the trend toward working directly to brands.  Then we caught up with passionate LGBTQ run production outfit Sputnik Studio with bases in Warsaw, LA and Cape Town. Their founder/ owner Magda Czmuda told us about the challenges she faces, and building an all female list of directors.  Finally we chatted to John Spary of JSA, the founder of the worlds most respected Directors Rep company about life through Covid and briefly with his director Hans Emanuel about the ease of directing remotely in recent months.   

This week we talked to George Kegler, an expert in World Affairs, and specifically about Russia after last weeks Referendum, Putin and his views on what to expect next and how it affects us in advertising. Then we chatted to Tracie Saban and Claire Toeman at Crocodile Casting in London to see how easy it is to source amazing talent right now in the this current state of turmoil. 

This week we chatted to the team at Marshall Street Editors who have developed full remote editing practices. We also travelled to Istanbul to catch up with Tolga Kaya, MCA's Business Lead in Turkey, Ender Sevim the Managing Partner from Depofilm, and Müge Kolat, Managing Partner of IMA Group (Post Production). Finally we caught up with the challenges facing production in Argentina with Ivan Entel, Founder and CEO of Red Creek, and Martin Jakubowicz MCA's Business Lead in Buenos Aries.

This week we talk to Paul Randle, digital guru about some of his views of digital and marketing right now specifically the need for more focus on his 3 pillars - Environmental, Societal and Economic.  We then caught up with Derek Sewell of the production company Holiday United in Canada, and also Jose Barrera, Exec Producer from The Lift in Mexico to find out the state of production in those two markets.

Another week chatting on Zoom with Steve Davies the CEO of the APA (Advertising Producers Association), Jani Guest from the production company Independent, and Hughie Phillips from MindsEye. We covered numerous topics, including the tripartite agreement between the APA, ISBA and the IPA around the approach to Covid 19 best practice process, Agency Producers, In-House production and rosters. We also talked with Emil Rangelov of Icon Films in Bulgaria to see how the state of production is in Sofia. 

In this weeks innovation conversations we are joined by Caspar Delaney from Ridley Scott Associates, Mikhail Pimenov the CEO of Pepelatz Production in Ukraine, Yanina Barry from The Good Film Co /Remote Film, and finally Neil Cowling the Founder of Fresh Air, the highly awarded Podcast production company.