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In the creative hub of South Africa, Pepe Marais is catalyst. With Joe Public, he has won many local and international awards, and the advertising and communications group is one of the largest on the continent. What drives Pepe? Creative excellence, a hunger for knowledge, and a positive attitude – unless it's about that awful ‘billable hour’ or ‘the digital tsunami of cr*ppy advertising’. Still, he puts positive spin on that as well. “Globally, there's a bit of darkness in creativity that's maybe needed for us to start refocusing on what we bring to the world.”

‘The anti-bullshit copywriter with massive fingers’ is perhaps the most apt meta description ever for Dave “The Word Man” Harland, founder of boutique agency Copy Or Die. You may know him from his playful LinkedIn posts taking on online scammers and AI gurus, gathering an audience of 95,000 followers. His clients know him as a freelance B2B and agency copywriter, specialising in transforming corporate lingo into words people really want to read. We interviewed him about humour, freelance work vs agency work, and getting so good at your craft that your work speaks for itself.

Two gentlemen from the world of advertising for the price of one: that's what you get in this episode. Steve Harrison opens up about Howard Luck Gossage, a 1960s adman who – like Steve himself – was not averse to a dash of controversy. The key lesson? Advertising is show business. “It's our job to entertain.”

Reading tip if you want to dive into the life and work of Howard Gossage: Check out Steve's latest book ‘The Howard Gossage Show: And what it can teach you about advertising, fun, fame, and manipulating the media’. 

Does your agency have a purpose? And what about the clients in your portfolio? Author, poet and anti-purpose thinker Nick Asbury thinks the pendulum has swung too far. Does a mayonnaise brand need a purpose? How can your agency make a positive impact without being tacky? And how does purpose affect the credibility of your agency and your brands? We let Nick loose in the playground of purpose, and got a super interesting podcast out of it.

Agencies have become too docile: they carry out what clients ask and avoid difficult conversations for fear of losing those clients. Yet, according to agency consultant Michael Farmer, they are ideally placed to challenge brands, bring innovation to the table and thus make their brands grow. How do agencies reclaim that role? How can they contribute more to a brand's success? And how can they reap the financial rewards? You’ll hear more in this episode.

Agencies are delivering more and more work, for less and less money. We discuss this crisis with Michael Farmer (US), author and agency consultant with 30+ years experience at places like Ogilvy and Bain Consulting. Farmer explains how this complex issue came to be, but also offers solutions to get out of the vicious cycle. The first step: understanding better the exact work you do for clients.