So far, I’m about eighty podcasts in.
If someone tells me they listen, they usually follow up with ‘that Frank Lowe one’s great’ (or ‘sick’, depending on their age).
I always ask why, but never get a clear answer.
They just like it.
It was enjoyable to record too, but I left wondering why
he’d barely mentioned Lowe Howard-Spink.
As if he’d only ever worked at CDP.
Which was a shame, CDP had been amazing, but they weren’t my era.
Lowe’s was.
By the time I’d snuck into advertising the cool agencies were the new ones – GGT, BBH, AMV and the agency that carried Frank’s name.
Year after year, they won big awards for big clients.
Stella Artois, Vauxhall, Tesco, Heineken, I could go on.
So I will – Lloyds Bank, Reebok, Weetabix, Gordons Gin, Parker Pens, The Mail On Sunday, Condor, Castella, Tizer, Ovaltine, KP, The Hanson Trust, Birds Eye, Smirnoff, Coca-Cola – they were huge.
And all of those clients won awards.
And, unlike CDP, they started opening or acquiring offices across the globe.
But it wasn’t always this way.
In 1981, only months after opening their doors, they were in turmoil.
Totally dysfunctional.
Having swiped a big chunk of CDP’s senior talent, they didn’t have a plan or structure of how to use them.
Who over-saw who?
Did anybody over-see anybody?
Who was Creative Director?
Dave Horry? Alan Waldie? John O’Driscoll? John Kelley? Alfredo Marcantonio? Or the recently added former CDP superstar Geoff Seymour?
They found that too many creative leaders meant they had no creative leader.
Six months in, Horry, O’Driscoll and Kelley walk.
On the way out the door, they advise Frank that he needed a Creative Director and it should be the least-known and youngest of the breakaways – Alfredo Marcantonio.
Suddenly, things started to work.

We talk about why and the rest of Marc’s career, hope you enjoy it.