The Prodcast

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to John Hegarty, Co-founder and Creative Director at The Garage Soho & The Business of Creativity. He was a founding partner of Saatchi and Saatchi in 1970 and founded Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 1982.

John looks back on his career, including launching Saatchi and Saatchi and reveals why his name isn’t above the door! He also tells the story of receiving his knighthood from The Queen and describes the event as ‘all the pomp without the pomposity’!

When it comes to modern marketing, John argues that brands have a tendency to forget two crucial ingredients - persuasion and promotion. John suggests that many brands’ approaches to advertising can verge on stalking their audience rather than trying to engage them, and suggests ways this can be avoided. Have brands and advertisers become too obsessed and reliant upon measurement?  Successful ads create empathy with the brand but ‘trying to measure that becomes an impossibility’ says John.

John also suggests that brands can be persuaded too by market research and tend to avoid using gut instinct. He uses the example of Abba having recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. At the time, the British public gave the song nul points. That is arguably consumer research that didn’t suggest the song would do very well, however it went on to become a huge hit!

John shares the creative process behind some of his most iconic ads, including the 15-year campaign for Levis. John explains the process that would involve creating as many as 50 ideas on paper, whittling them down, scripting and turning the best ideas into ads. What skills and specialisms are required to successfully turn an idea into reality? John also highlights the importance of music in advertising and explains why it should feature highly on any production budget.

John and Pat also discuss what creativity is, fundamentally. How are we creative? How does our creative ability separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom, and to what extent can AI begin to replicate human creativity? John explains how you can take part in his course ‘The Business of Creativity’ and how it is for everyone in all organisations to help them understand the role of creativity and how it leads to success. It’s not just for creatives!

For more from John, read his books:

Hegarty on Creativity: There are No Rules

Hegarty on Advertising: Turning Intelligence into Magic

Watch John’s favourite ad: Volkswagen - Funeral 

Hosted by Pat Murphy

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks with Global CEO of MullenLowe Global Kristen Cavallo. Previously, Kristen stewarded The Martin Agency to great heights, including being named as U.S. Agency of the Year, Ad Age’s Agency of the Year and making the Fast Company Most Innovative Companies list. Kristen is a leading voice in the advertising industry, taking on important social and business issues, serving as a champion for equity and inclusion, defending the integrity of original creative ideas and operating as a firm believer that innovation is where growth thrives. 

Kristen's life is a tapestry of diverse experiences, from her childhood as an Army Intelligence Officer's daughter to her extensive world travels, all of which have contributed to her dynamic approach to leadership in the ad world. In telling the story of her career Kristen reveals how she finds strength in change, and drawing on a myriad of perspectives to invigorate brand narratives.

Kristen explains how she strives to foster creativity and inclusivity at MullenLowe. She also explains how she’s worked to diversify her teams over the years and how that has in-turn helped her to be a better leader. “Being able to have a team with more diversity allows me the ability to hear more perspectives before I come up with a decision and understand the implications of how that decision will land”, she says. 

It turns out that Kristen, despite being an advertising CEO, has never been to a film shoot! Hear how that has happened and why she doesn’t intend to change it. Whilst not a creative herself, Kristen believes that creative people can work well for organisations in the CEO role. “I think the people that make and dream up the products understand the business in a new and different way than maybe the people who understand the consumer like me” she says. 

** Since recording, Kristen has announced she is leaving her position at MullenLowe to pursue a career in politics – something she alluded to in this episode. We wish her all the best for the future.  

See Kristen’s favourite ad: Ernest Shackleton – Recruiting for The Endurance   

Hosted by Pat Murphy  Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email  

To mark the end of a really successful season 2, we bring you a very special episode of The MCA Prodcast as we look back on some of our favourite bits of advice that guests have given us over the last few months. 

Pat Murphy has been lucky enough to sit down with some of the real shining lights in our industry and we’ve covered so many different topics; from diversity and inclusion, to AI, virtual production, and the seismic shifts that have happened in advertising production in recent years. 

How important is storytelling in advertising and how heavily should brands rely on data to inform their content decisions? Where in the process of devising your next campaign should you begin to think about DE&I? Can AI generated content be copyrighted?

Answering these questions and many more are:

·      Rishad Tobaccowala - Author, Speaker, and Podcaster 

·      Efrain Ayala - Global Creativity and D&I Director at Reckitt.

·      Andrew Robertson - President & CEO of BBDO Worldwide

·      Nick Johnson - Global Head of Tech, Media & Comms at Osborne Clarke

·      Melania Kulczycka - Client Director at VuFinder Studios

Season 3 of The MCA Prodcast will be landing in early 2024!

Hosted by Pat Murphy 

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to Andrew Robertson, President & CEO of BBDO Worldwide where he’s worked with some of the world’s biggest brands including Meta, AT&T, FedEx, GE, Mars Inc., PepsiCo, SAP and Wells Fargo. He has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame and currently serves on the Board of Hope Funds for Cancer Research.

Andrew reflects on his first experience in sales – selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door in his local town. What lessons about sales and marketing did he take from that experience and can they be applied to selling on a global stage (rather than in the customer’s front room)?!

Andrew reveals what makes a successful advertising company; the mantra at BBDO is ‘it’s all about the work’ – that if you have the best talent then the work will speak for itself. Andrew is unquestionably a people person and he also explains the importance of maintaining great relationships with those you work with; “You have to love your clients. If you choose to love your clients, generally, what you'll find is they'll love you back.”

Andrew talks about the seismic shifts he’s witnessed in our industry – the invention of the internet, the advent of smartphones and now the arrival of generative AI. Andrew foresees a future where the ‘craft’ will be in knowing what to ask for in order to execute an idea in the best possible way. However, he doesn’t believe machines will ever be able to fully replace creativity as AI can only model on what already exists. “At some point, you have to have a leap, you have to have an idea”, he says. Andrew also considers the ‘landmines’ we’ll need to watch out for along the way, such as IP issues and bias. 

Pat and Andrew also discuss the role that humour can play in advertising and how certain subjects have, rightly, become no-go zones. That said, humour can still be incredibly effective in advertising – even at communicating a serious message. Andrew highlights how stand-up comedians were employed to great effect in BBDO’s powerful Sandy Hook campaign, where they delivered shocking lines from past mass shooting perpetrators.

See Andrew’s favourite ad: The Economist – On the Edge of a Conversation

 Hosted by Pat Murphy

 Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to Anastasia Leng, Founder & CEO of CreativeX, a technology company that powers creative-decision making for the world’s best brands by helping them to measure creative efficiency, consistency, representation, and impact across all creatives worldwide.

In this episode Anastasia talks us through the birth of CreativeX and how it works to measure creativity against a number of benchmarks – providing data in both pre and post-production. “I don't think you can do one without the other”, Anastasia says. Post production data can evaluate the success of a campaign and inform content decisions going forward, whilst pre-production data ensures your content teams are all ‘marching to the beat of the same drum’.

Anastasia talks us through how CreativeX’s tech works; tagging content with micro-data, then grouping tagged content together under themes such as format, content, accessibility, suitability for certain platforms etc. This can then be correlated with performance data to see which tags led to greatest success. You could discover how many of your ads contained dogs, for example, or how diverse your cast has been, or how consistent your brand identity is across campaigns and so much more. This data can then be assessed to see how the campaigns performed in terms of building brand awareness and ultimately, increasing sales.

One element that is hard to measure is creative excellence, as the barometer or measure of success will be different for each brand. However, Anastasia says there are macro themes that tend recur across the board: “ads that have a combination of representing the brand well, cutting through with consumers and ultimately achieving business impact.”

Anastasia also shares her perspective on how the jobs market might change with the advent of AI, and what life lessons she plans on passing on to her children. An aspiring fiction writer too, she reveals how she regularly exercises her writing muscle. 

Watch Anastasia’s favourite ad: Snowbird – 1 Star 

Hosted by Pat Murphy

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to Melania Kulczycka, Client Director at VuFinder Studios. Melania has supported the execution of projects using virtual production technology for brands such as Beko, Bosch, Veet, Calgon, and many others. Vufinder is a virtual production studio that utilises LED screens, Unreal Engine, tracking systems, 3D environments and more.

Melania explains how her fascination with technology took her to a career in virtual production via aerospace, even working for the UK’s Ministry of Defence. She explains how virtual reality was used for the first time to train soldiers for scenarios on the battlefield. From there Melania went into business with her father to launch VuFinder Studios.

How does virtual production differ from older technologies such as green screen or back projection, and what benefits can it offer? Melania describes the enormous LED screen that her studio uses and how this provides a better end result, with a more natural performance from talent and less editing complexities such as the need to key out green-spill.

Melania explains that VP offers clients ‘absolute freedom of creativity’ because you are not limited by, for example, the laws of physics. You don’t need to obtain permissions to film as you would on location and there are no variables that can’t be planned for. ‘You are limited only by your imagination’.

Melania also talks us through the areas in which AI can help in her role; from demonstrating an idea to a client before a record, to scanning real humans into Unreal Engine so their likeness can be used – even multiplying them so one person could appear many times in the same ad!

Watch Melania’s favourite ad: Sony Bravia – Bouncing Balls

Hosted by Pat Murphy 

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to author, speaker, and podcaster Rishad Tobaccowala whose extensive career has covered almost every area of marketing and strategy. Rishad spent nearly four decades at Publicis Groupe, and spent time as Chairman of Digitas and Razorfish, two of the largest marketing transformation agencies in the world with over 11000 employees. He was named by BusinessWeek as one of the top business leaders for his pioneering innovation and TIME magazine dubbed him one of five ‘Marketing Innovators’.

Rishad reflects on the changes he’s witnessed in marketing and strategy throughout his career, from the shift in power from marketer to consumer, to the increased complexity of the market and arrival of hyper-personalisation. He describes the marketing industry as a fusion of poetry and plumbing; poetry being the creative storytelling and plumbing being the functional, business side. In Rishad’s view, the industry did lose an element of the poetry for a while, becoming too business-focussed, but it’s starting to redress the balance. “If you're in marketing and you aren't in the storytelling business, you're in the wrong business” Rishad says.

Rishad and Pat consider shifting mindsets between baby boomers and Gen Z; how approaches to work are changing, and how industry needs to evolve and adapt accordingly. With regards to work-life balance people used to ask ‘how do I fit life into my work-world’? Now people are saying ‘how do I fit work into my life’? 

How is AI changing production and what role will it play in the future? Rishad conducted an interesting experiment when writing his new book. He wrote a chapter, used an AI model to write the same chapter, and sent both to his publisher for feedback. The results were fascinating! Rishad also considers the human factors that machines will not be able to replicate, such as our curiosity and ability to communicate and collaborate. Rishad also explains how he learns everyday in order to ‘update his mental operating system’ and why you should do the same.

Listen to Rishad’s podcast ‘What next’

Watch Rishad’s favourite ad: Apple - 1984

Hosted by Pat Murphy

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to John Osborn, Director for Ad Net Zero in the USA. Originally launched in the UK, Ad Net Zero has grown to over 100 supporting companies, and now counts over 50 supporters in the US. John is leading Ad Net Zero to leverage the power of its supporters to educate, set benchmarks & standards, measure and take action to lower the carbon emissions associated across all advertising-related operations.

 The advertising industry is renowned for its innovation, and John explains how this innovation can enable advertising projects to become more sustainable. From travel and production choices, to even the food options available when catering – all these elements can be tweaked to provide a greener, more sustainable end product. They may seem like small, incremental changes but “it all adds up to something more significant”.

John explains AdGreen – a calculator tool from Ad Net Zero that clients can leverage to understand how decisions ultimately affect their carbon footprint. When in the decision-making stage of production, advertisers can use this tool to calculate the effect that different production options may have, and use this data to inform their choices.

John and Pat consider the friction that often exists between profit and purpose, and how the two do not have to be mutually exclusive – you can have both. Purposeful work delivered in a way that is engaging and captures people's attention can have a strong and powerful multiplier effect; for both the business and the planet. 

Watch John’s favourite ad: FedEx – Great Idea

Hosted by Pat Murphy

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to Nick Dodet, Founder and Managing Partner at PIG China. Over the years, Nick has produced over 800 TV commercials, including some of the biggest films in Chinese advertising history. He’s worked with iconic global talent such as Leonardo Di Caprio, Nicholas Cage, David Beckham and Jodie Foster to name just a few! 

What’s in a name? Nick reveals the story behind the rather unusual name for his business and how, over the years, the name has taken on a life of its own. Nick also explains how the Chinese advertising industry differs to Western markets that he was previously familiar with and how he needed to adapt his business accordingly. Nick was able to exploit his status as a ‘foreigner’ to bypass traditional hierarchical structures in China and achieve things he most-likely couldn’t if he were a Chinese national.

Nick and Pat discuss the shift towards AI and how brands are adopting it in China. Nick suggests take-up of these technologies is slightly slower in China but brands are moving that way. He says the demand amongst brands to adopt AI feels akin to 10 – 12 years ago when brands wanted to create apps, even if they didn’t really have a need for an app! Nick also considers the potential role blockchain technology could play in the future of IP management and control.

Watch Nick’s favourite ad: VW Polo – Protection 

Hosted by Pat Murphy

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy talks to Jos van Oostrum, Senior Director for Mars Sustainable Solutions at Mars Incorporated. Jos is a zoologist with a passion for our relationship with life on land and below water. At Mars, Jos leads a team whose mission is to find scalable solutions to help restore the ecosystems that Mars depends on and improve the resilience and livelihoods of the communities they work with.

Jos takes us back to the start of his career in sustainability, initially working with Unilever in 1998 to develop a sustainability plan for Bird’s Eye’s frozen peas. He emphasizes the importance of purpose-led companies and how young entrepreneurs and start-ups are now being inspired to hold these values from the very start of their business. ‘I find it so brave that you're not just starting up a business, but you're doing it with such a strong purpose and such a belief that you want to do things the right way’ Jos says.

Jos takes us on a deep dive into ocean health and ecosystem restoration, discussing his work with Mars' mantra of "bees, seas, and trees." He shares the incredible story of the Sheba Hope Grows Campaign, which aims to restore coral reefs in Indonesia and spread awareness of the importance of our ocean's health. You can even see the word HOPE spelt out underwater on Google Earth! Plus, hear Jos' personal experiences and efforts to make the ocean less fearful and more accessible to people, creating ambassadors of hope around the globe. 

Watch Jos’ favourite ad: Guinness – Wheelchair Basketball

Hosted by Pat Murphy

Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast:

Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email