At MAD//Fest North in 2026, Rory Sutherland shared a top marketing tip with Mike Nicholson. Here it is in just over one minute.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Dean Harris, Head of Co-Op Media Network, accountable for commercial strategy, proposition development, marketing, operations. Innovation and team leadership.

Here are some of the topics we discussed in this episode.

The decision behind creating a retail media network

Separating the proposition away from supermarket grocery retail media towards convenience retail media

The big punch of a small shop

Treating the network as a brand  

The importance of positioning

Challenging the status quo about small baskets

Trust and the importance of people

Events that signal credibility

Easy to buy, easy to serve and easy to sell

Sharing the proposition, the evidence, creating curiosity and having the conversation.

The importance of relationships

Varied purchase cycles and the serendipity of B2B

The importance of being visible on LinkedIn with your personal brand

Familiarity, trust and credibility

The convenience environment and the shopping mindset

Brand equity, loyalty, trial and non negotiables

The mission based approach

About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Lucy Verby who has 20+ years of experience in the agency sector heading up strategy at PHD, Dentsu and Carat before founding her strategic consultancy We Are Masterplan - teaching everything from critical thinking, to pattern recognition and tailoring approaches to both customers and clients. Lucy is also the Founder and Chair of UN//SCENE a creative and marketing festival designed to platform fresh thinking and new voices.

Here are some of the topics we discussed in this episode.

The whisper becomes a shout - the transition to running a company and the reformation of priorities

The powerful, the powerless and the pointless - the importance of shaping and reclaiming the media narrative

Defining strategy and lining up behind a definition that works

The optimal path to your goals within your resources

Articulating your strategic platform and avoiding word salads

Shifting mindsets and getting from point A to point B

The importance of teaching strategy and reflecting consumer mindsets

The myth that only certain people are good at strategy and avoiding gatekeeping

Unlocking the potential of your whole team

The process and the practice of strategy

Strategy as a team sport and taking the pressure off

Finding the opportunities to drive growth and uncover what is useful

Critical thinking and pattern recognition

What growth looks like and differentiation in the marketplace

Accepting and absorbing AI and the importance of critical thinking

About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

‍

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to advertising royalty Patrick Collister, Custodian of The Caples Awards, creative guru, ad trainer, honorary Fellow of the IPA and author extraordinaire about his distinguished career.

Here are some of the topics discussed:

Writing the ‘Accrington Stanley, Who Are They?’ Milk ad and the story behind it

Hiring planners to test a hypothesis and test patterns within data to drive insights

Getting signoff from everyone including Ian Rush, to Liverpool FC to Margaret Thatcher

The proudest ads of Patrick’s career from ‘The Water in Majorca’ to Heinz Baked Beans

Making ads memorable and the difference between the 80’s and today

Left brain advertising and the importance of featuring relatable characters and people

The process of writing a TV ad

The ingredients of the perfect ad and the three P’s - people, plot, place

Importance of creativity and change

About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

‍

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Steve Filler, whose roles span brand, display, video, CTV, interactive creative, branded content, publishers, programmatic and SAAS sales, with a real strength in crafting and delivering sales strategies that cut through the clutter. Currently Country manager UK at the ShowHeroes Group he thrives on building best in class commercial teams.

Here are some of the topics discussed:

Scale within CTV and uptake in interest

Buying and the key teams involved in the process

Growth in retail media

The role of video in campaigns

Targeting the right ad to the right person

The importance of unified platforms and contextual segmenting

AI in the marketplace - the positive and the negative

Acceleration of AI generated content and the importance of brand safety

Users reaction to AI and the need for genuine human experiences

The growth of CTV and the players within the space

Innovation and investment in research into ad effectiveness and user experience

More education within the CTV space and the opportunities that are available

Measuring advertising success

About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

‍

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Gemma Legg. Gemma has 22+ years in global sales and marketing including The Telegraph and Google and has now launched her own company Leggacy-Inc helping organisations achieve a truly inclusive culture where everyone can thrive. 

Here are some of the topics discussed:

Understanding and recognising bi-polar and autism.

The grief of a diagnosis and how it affects families.

Creating a circle and protecting yourself.

Being a chameleon and masking.

Risk taking, catastrophising and manic episodes.

Psychological safe spaces and DEI.

Accommodations and inclusivity.

The launch of Leggacy and creating impact.

Breaking down the stigma of a diagnosis and celebrating the differences.

About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

‍

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

AI in Media with James Harris, VP of Planning & Strategy WPP, on The Six Sells Podcast.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Phil Jackson who has 10+ years experience within the media sales, agency and client side of the industry; including roles at GSK, Havas, Mindshare and now as Global Digital Marketing Effectiveness Innovation Director at Haleon.

Here are some of the topics they discussed in this episode:

Defining marketing effectiveness and efficiency.

How do brand decide if they hire marketing effectiveness as a function?

How the marketing effectiveness team interacts with other marketing and media functions.

Attention and media quality data and driving incremental business performance.

Cost efficiently using attention data to achieve successful outcomes.

Importance of tapping into the short, long, tactical and brand-level measurements.

Listening and learning from trends in marketplaces and being ready when the trend explodes.

Contextual advertising and measuring effectively to attribute outcomes.

Seasonality and the planning cycle and learning plan.

Importance of measuring robustly, case studies and post campaign analysis to achieve global learnings.

About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Ross Sergeant who has scaled high growth brands like Peroni, Asahi. and now The National Lottery as Global Media Director at Allwyn.

Here are some of the topics we discussed in this episode.

Defining diverse media plans and why programming choices, partnerships and nuances are key.

Regionality, accent, idiosyncrasies and language within content and category entry points.

How media selection has changed over the years and understanding the bias.

The decision to separate creative and media agencies.

The importance of the entrepreneurial mindset and the benefits of acting like a startup.

The 70:20:10 mindset of tried and tested, mirroring what others have done, and big valuable tests.

Briefing the industry and being open and transparent with agencies to discover more.

Defining quality media and where these parameters lie including the quality of the viewership.

Understanding the nuances of category bias, regionality, stereotyping and using data to understand insights.

The ideal make-up of a future thinking, diverse media agency that could accurately plan for all the cultures that they are buying for.

Putting the checks and balances in place to constantly interrogate media buying decisions.


About The Six Sells Podcast:

The Six Sells Podcast is for people working in marketing, media, advertising and adtech.

There are over 100 episodes and counting, and the biggest episodes have achieved 30,000 views across all platforms.

Want to get in touch? Email [email protected]

Who is Six Sells?

Six Sells is an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.

Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.

With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.

In this episode of The Six Sells Podcast, Mike Nicholson spoke to Nick Flood, who has spent 23 years working in media.Nick started at Haymarket before moving to Dennis Publishing, then delving into private equity backed data businesses before landing at Future Publishing, Kindred, and now Shinka where he is Senior Vice President of Product and Go-To-Market.

Here are some of the topics they discussed in this episode:

• The power of video and what makes it stand out from display or static advertising?

• The danger of AI blurring of the lines between what's real and what isn’t.

• What opportunities can CTV bring to advertisers over and above other mediums?

• The measurement of CTV

• What Nick is most excited about in terms of creativity and innovation.