Waypointers
Waypointers is the go-to podcast for agency leaders. In this series, produced by Waypoint Partners, we bring together the brightest minds in the industry and our own in-house growth advisory specialists to share illuminating conversations to grow your agency.
Bringing you insights, analysis and knowledge from the leading lights of the UK agency landscape, Waypointers is a must-listen for aspirational agency leaders.
Subscribe to Waypointers wherever you get your podcasts.
Waypoint Partners is an expert global growth and M&A advisory firm providing support to businesses in the marketing services and technology sectors.
Episodes
40 episodes
40. Is your agency truly change ready? Lessons from the performance marketing sector
Agencies in the performance marketing sector are arguably having to face up to change faster than other parts of marketing services. When the platforms you’ve built your career and businesses around over the last 20 years are suddenly transform...
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Season 1
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Episode 40
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27:22
39. How the right bank can turbo-charge your agency’s growth: In conversation with Frazer Barrs, head of media, Barclays
Private equity grabs most of the headlines in our sector, but without the range of facilities your bank has to offer, you might find it hard to grow your agency effectively.Exactly quite how significant that contribution can be comes to ...
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Season 1
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Episode 39
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31:33
38. Our 2025 agency hot tip – fast-growing, award winning, “Anything is Possible”
A successful agency founder needs conviction and vision.
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Season 1
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Episode 38
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32:44
37. Do you have the CFO your agency needs to grow?
Driving agency growth depends on a strong leadership team and that includes having a CFO who is deeply embedded within the business. Or at least that’s the way it should be. Despite this being a role that is central to agency success, conversat...
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Season 1
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Episode 37
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35:17
36. Coca-Cola’s AI Xmas – a sign of advertising creative to come?
Most of the year, the advertising industry barely registers in the world at large. But that changes as we head into the festive season. Indeed, the first
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Season 1
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Episode 36
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28:10
35. Becoming an expert negotiator – lessons from the pros
If you ask most agency leaders, very few will claim to enjoy negotiating. Sure, it’s a necessary part of business, but secretly most of them will be wondering how they could do things better. Could they have got negotiated better payment terms;...
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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40:40
34. What you don’t know about corporate culture! In conversation with Joel Levy, former adman, adviser to Tony Blair’s Labour government and co-founder of Leonardo Advisory
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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43:43
33. SAMY Alliance, a fast growing social-first agency group working with the world’s leading brands
A new challenger on the blockAt Waypoint we talk often about
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Season 1
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Episode 33
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33:42
32. SMEs should look again at public sector contracts – legislative changes are levelling the playing field!
Some agency and tech businesses have got their processes around tendering for public sectors contracts off to a tee. Many others are put off by a set of negative perceptions; that the whole thing is beset with red tape and simply not worth the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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45:58
31. Simon Martin, founder and chief executive of Oliver, on 20 years as an industry disruptor
Disruption is a recurrent theme in our Waypointers podcast and it often happens at the hands of outsiders – as our
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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38:56
30. A former US marine’s guide to agency leadership – in conversation with Justin Lewis, chair of Constellation (part of the Stagwell Group)
Serving in the military provides a unique perspective on leadership. In this episode of the podcast, Waypoint Partner Matt Lacey sat down with former US marine Justin Lewis to learn about his very personal form of leadership at Constellation, a...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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42:09
29. STRAT7 - An agency at the forefront of AI – in conversation with Barrie Brien Group CEO and Paul Jackson, Managing Director of STRAT7 Bonamy Finch, and Founding Partner of STRAT7
As a sector, market research has been experimenting with machine learning and predictive algorithms earlier than many other parts of the marketing services industry; the same is true of AI. Research group
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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38:06
28. Becoming the European management consultancy for integrated communications - in conversation with Lansons/Team Farner CEO Gordon Tempest-Hay
2023 was a busy year for M&A in the PR/comms industry. One of the most significant of these deals was announced in October when Lansons was acquired ...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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33:40
27. Where next for AI? In conversation with futurist Nell Watson: tech ethicist, researcher and reformer
To mark the start of 2024 this episode of Waypointers looks to the future, specifically the future of AI and tech more broadly, covering business, society and beyond.Our guest is the inspirational
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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40:18
26. A masterclass in putting purpose at the heart of an agency offer, with Jason Foo
In this episode of Waypointers our guest is Jason Foo, the CEO of independent agency, BBD Perfect Storm, a brand and cultural transformation company, helping clients transform themselves and their categories for increased growth and positive so...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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37:19
25. AI and the creative process – a conversation with Peter Gasston, innovation lead at VCCP and innovation director at its AI agency, Faith.
Leading agency VCCP created headlines earlier in the year when it launched AI agency, Faith, with Sage as a founding client. In this episode of Waypointers, Faith’s innovation director Peter Gasston explains why VCCP took the decisi...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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42:21
24. Challenger Agencies - MSQ – a next generation creative and tech group with ambitious scale up plans
Peter Reid, the CEO of MSQ Partners is the next guest in our Challenger agency series.A former McKinsey consultant, Peter has taken MSQ on quite a journey. He joined in 2007 to turn around a business that at the time was known as Med...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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46:39
23. Driving growth and breaking into the US, with Robin Skidmore
Robin Skidmore, CEO of Journey Further, is a serial entrepreneur. He built his first agency Epiphany and sold it into listed business, Jaywing in 2014. In this episode he explains what drove him to set up his second agency, performance marketin...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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30:55
22. Building a brand that tells your story, with Gay Flashman
Join us on our latest Waypointers episode where journalist, CEO, and renowned communications & brand strategist, Gay Flashman, is our special guest.Gay details her fascinating career in international journalism, the move to brand man...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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31:53
21. Technology services businesses: The hidden gems of the software M&A world
SaaS businesses get a good deal of attention in the merger and acquisition (M&A) world. But many businesses that co-exist in the same markets - the technology services businesses which offer application consult, design, build and implementa...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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39:13
20. Billion Dollar Boy – unlocking the power of technology
Tom Walters, one of the three founders of Billion Dollar Boy, a trailblazing influencer agency, discusses the journey he and his fellow founders have been on over the last ten years – some of the wins and some of the challenges - and why they m...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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35:28
19. Challenger Agencies – in conversation with Stagwell’s Global CEO, James Townsend (deep dive special)
What kind of agency is best equipped to handle the modern marketing brief? Can a challenger agency compete with the holdcos for some of the industry’s biggest media accounts? The answer is most definitely yes. These are among the t...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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33:38
18. A fresh approach to the agency model, with Steve Johnstone
Is the conventional agency model fit for purpose in today’s ever-evolving business climate?Steve Johnstone founded Alliance Creative to address the supply and demand needs businesses are looking for in a way that the traditional model of...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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28:17
17. Building an agency with ESG at its core
Jenny Hughes and Jodie Williams, founders of The Marketing Pod, join Jamie Learmont in this week’s episode. Jenny and Jodie discuss how, with no prior agency experience, they set up their award-winning B2B marketing and strategic comms agency, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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19:44