David Meikle in full flow: How to Buy a Gorilla author and consultant on overcoming stress and improving relationships in marketing

In this episode, host Ben Norman is joined by author (⁠How to Buy a Gorilla⁠, ⁠Tuning Up⁠), consultant, and trainer, ⁠David Meikle⁠, who specialises in improving client-agency relationships, and performance in marketing teams.

Across his 30 years in the marketing and advertising industries David has held top roles at Grey and Ogilvy & Mather, as well as heading up Ogilvy Russia for a four year period which saw revenue increase five fold.

Today David’s consultancy, ⁠The HTBAG Co (The How To Buy a Gorilla company)⁠, specialises in helping create better client and agency relationships and brings a unique model and strategic approach to pitch management.

In this episode, David and ben discuss:

Why the modern, open plan workplace is the worst environment for creating great work. Whether fair value exchange is possible between brands and agencies. Why it has become unacceptable for agencies to make money, how to negotiate better, and why it’s in a brand's interest for their agency to make money Navigating the triangle of doom between marketing, procurement, and agency How Rory Sutherland helped coin ‘The Meikle Matrix’, and the secret to high performance and flow state How to tackle stress in marketing teams and agencies, without reducing output Why agency market oversaturation is a myth The workflows that are most at risk from AI and how to stay in business Why business shouldn’t be democratic, and why we shouldn’t try to please everyone Why there’s no place for best practice in marketing The problem with bad intermediaries Plus, why the marketing world needs bigger bollocks and why David wants a pet Wookiee

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