• Nicole set the tone - immediately the place was relaxed and ready for anything.

• Gemma Greaves, CEO of the Marketing Society discussed the importance of ‘Fearlesness’ with Nicole.

• Dave Trott injected his unique humour and truth as he explained what a game-changer Mike Yershon is.

• John Caswell tried to interview Mike and in 30 minutes only managed two questions. The rest was Mike in full flow

• Mike Yershon was the inimitable Mike Yershon. Literally unstoppable.

• The audience would have stayed all day.

THE BACKGROUND ON MIKE YERSHON

Mike Yershon was the youngest ever fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

He was recently voted in the top 50 game changers in the ad industry over the past 100 years - when the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising celebrated their centenary.

Mike changed how media was done and even what media was.

Mike still changes

WHAT MIKE YERSHON SAID:

“I Had A Journey Of Good Fortune - I found myself in a situation where I loved my job and I wanted to be the best I could be at it. I’m fortunate enough to have boundless energy and it does not seem to have diminished with age, yet!”

“I was always frustrated by the prevailing attitude to media and the business of it all. Media was constrained by being the cinderella department in the three full-service agencies I worked for. Media was presented, as an afterthought in the last 5 minutes of the creative presentation to clients. On one occasion my presentation was dropped by the agency CEO because there was not enough time. This frustrated me no end.”

“Enough was enough and I decided to take the risk and set up on my own - selling the idea to advertisers of media as a separate contract to creative. The client wanted increased sales and entrepreneurial thinking. This was right up my street and still is today. I wanted to sit on the client-side of the table promoting plain language and transparency.”

“The media plan had to calculate precisely how, through what method and means, in the most effective way possible, and for what amount of money the client could get the promise of the product/service to its customer.

This is still true today.”

ALWAYS THE ALCHEMIST

“What was a presentational afterthought for half a century is now one of the most important calculations a business will ever make. In my opinion, it always was. The easy solution was to put it on TV. Nowadays that is not an easy solution. Thankfully I found a few clients, now very wealthy people - who agreed with me. But I had to form my own agency to really make my point!”

“Being prepared to take the risk of leaving a highly paid job with no clients no money no offices and no staff was a big risk. But I was determined not to be in a position when I would look back and say to myself I wish had taken the chance when it was there.”

“My specialist subject area back then has expanded to embrace what it means to be a business right now.” - Mike Yershon

“I’m amazed, and it seems to work every time, that I find it hard not to answer a problem. Once the problem virus enters my body and my brain then that it. I’m locked and loaded like a laser-guided missile fixed on the target. I can’t switch it off. On my constitutional walks, as I speak to others somewhere in this whirlwind lies the answer and it becomes my mission to unlock the solution to whatever the issue is.”

“I can’t write down a formula because it’s different each time. What stays the same is my persistence and bloody-mindedness at needing to fix it. I never give up trying to find the solution to the problem. Obviously, I will draw on my experiences. It has been said of late that people are looking for people who do not have the experience because the issues today have no previous relevance. I see the point but feel the combination of experience and keeping up to date with all that is happening today combines the best of both.”

THE MEDIA BUSINESS OF CREATIVITY

THE CREATIVE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

“Today we have well over a hundred channels in media and more new technologies and dimensions than we could ever imagine. Cultures have changed beyond recognition, consumer behaviours have transformed in so many ways. Expectations are different but business results are still expected, the calculations still need to be made, but the real cut-through of the innovative media and creative idea still needs to be found.”

“Someone smart said - the more things change the more they remain the same - but the aim of every business is to reach the target audience - at the right time - through the right channel - with the right message - as often as the budget will allow. NO different today than it was in 1959.”

“There are infinite ways to identify and know the target audience. A myriad of ways to dynamically alter the message as your audience passes by different screens, there’s the real-time assessment of how well that value proposition is doing through which media platform and with what treatment. There is one big difference though. Between 1955 and let us say the end of the 20th century, there was one media planning strategy decision that made sense above all else. Put it in commercial TV.”

“I don’t mean to suggest that no money should be spent on TV now, but my issue is what proportion of the total marketing budget should be spent on TV. The balance should include what I call a ‘test and run’ policy. It should include what I call ‘activation’. This, for example, could be anywhere that pulls in a big crowd. We need to find the best ways in creative and media to make it work towards ROI. This is also a policy of test and run. Too often I am told we did this or that but it did not work.”

“I won’t rest until I have made it work.”

BACK TO THE FUTURE - THE BEGINNING

“There’s always a close relationship between creative work and creative media planning in my mind. To me, they are two sides of the same coin. Separating them never made sense. The reason I moved to separate them was a signal of the frustration I felt. Media needed to prove itself as a function of equal importance to creative and now it ranks in that way. The media agency contract ranks pari passu with the creative agency contract. Creativity and Media are inseparable parts of the job that needs doing.”

“If I was a client, and it was my own money, I would insource media planning. I have a view about insourcing media buying - but let’s get media planning in-sourced first. For me it is the raw material of being in business.”

“Digital is on everyone’s mind. Yes it’s disruptive but it blows nothing up except the immediacy, extent and pace of it all. The speed with which everything can be considered and done is exponential. And pretty soon even today will seem slow. We are entering the no-code, fully automated, quantum computer, carbon nanochip mixed with every thing else world - science fiction fast becoming fact. But what I’ve been doing to calculate success stays unwaveringly the same.” 

“Bring it on.”

My 20 year plan is about putting back - into my roots - school, youth club - back into the advertising industry and being an entrepreneur. I can’t stop thinking in terms of putting back.”