The Prodcast

Murphy Cobb & Associates Ltd
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Welcome to The Prodcast. This is your fix for everything innovative in advertising production. On each episode MurphyCobb's founder and CEO Pat Murphy speaks to the movers and shakers who are driving the agenda and shaping the world of production for the future. He'll be asking searching questions about their views of what will be coming round the corner so brands can act smarter and with greater efficiency, to deliver outstanding creative campaigns. You'll hear who might be their best partners to deliver that for them across a multitude of channels and media types, and we might even hark back to some great old ads that have stood the test of time. 

  1. 1 dag geleden

    Mark Knowles – Intentional Human Friction: Knowing when to Zig and not Zag

    This week on The MCA Prodcast, Pat Murphy is joined by Mark Knowles, Global Solutions Officer at dentsu, where he sits at the intersection of media, content, technology, and innovation. Having begun his career in CGI and visual effects, Mark moved to New York in 2012 to launch the Americas arm of Taylor James. He later joined Tag, where he led creative operations across the Americas before becoming CTO following dentsu’s acquisition in 2023, building the AI-native Content Engine designed to transform how global content gets made. Mark and Pat consider the pros and cons of AI use in media production. Mark broadly agrees that the industry risks ‘scaling mediocrity’, producing a hundred forgettable variations instead of one great piece of work. His answer is ‘intentional human friction’. Because AI averages across everything and predicts the next token, it cannot produce the left-field idea that makes people stop. The human skill is knowing when to zig instead of zag, and the role of the production technologist is to design workflows that create space for that instinct rather than engineering it out. The conversation also covers the broken world of the RFP. Mark argues that most pitches he sees are procurement-driven, which means they prioritise comparability over creativity, becoming ‘a race to the bottom’. A great RFP, he says, should feel like a consultation: “This is us as a brand. This is where we want to go. How do we get there together?” He also gets behind Pat’s theory that production could become the operating system for marketing, pointing out that unlike media strategies or creative territories, production is the only part of the chain that delivers something physical. That is precisely why it is uniquely placed to act as the connective layer across creativity, media, commerce, and performance. See Mark’s favourite ad: John Lewis – Man on the Moon (2015)  Hosted by Pat Murphy   Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    Mark Knowles – Intentional Human Friction: Knowing when to Zig and not Zag

  2. 1 jul

    Mary Bekhait – Standing in Your Power

    This week on The MCA Prodcast, Pat Murphy is joined by Mary Bekhait, Group CEO of YMU, one of the world’s most powerful talent management companies. Representing global names across entertainment, music, sport and business - from Ant & Dec and Graham Norton to Simon Cowell and Davina McCall - Mary has led a major transformation at YMU, turning it into a progressive, social-first, globally integrated talent powerhouse. Mary’s career journey began as a music journalist, before realising very early that what she really wanted was to be “in the room where talent made decisions.” A mention in Broadcast magazine’s 30 Under 30 list eventually led to her joining James Grant Management (later YMU) as a director. Her philosophy throughout: do whatever you’re doing brilliantly, add more than is expected, and the next opportunity unlocks itself. When Mary took the CEO role in 2021, the first thing she ran at was social media. YMU’s roster of established television talent weren’t fully capitalising on the opportunities social platforms offered. Mary invested in skills and infrastructure to help them make the shift, while simultaneously acquiring Gleam Futures, the UK’s pre-eminent social-first management company, bringing their entire team and client list into the YMU fold. The combination of legacy broadcast talent and digital-native creators has, she says, been phenomenally successful.  Mary is known for her leadership principles of clarity, courage and curiosity, and for turning them into concrete action. On empowering women, she argues that small incremental moves such as speaking up in a meeting or going for a promotion before you feel ready compound into real career momentum. She credits parenting with deepening her empathy and her capacity for active listening; qualities she now considers as important to business as speed.   See Mary’s favourite ad: Yves Saint Laurent – Opium (2000)   Hosted by Pat Murphy Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    Mary Bekhait – Standing in Your Power

  3. 17 jun

    Nick Manning – Who's Speaking for the Advertiser?

    This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy is joined by Nick Manning, one of the most respected and influential voices in media transparency. Co-founder of Manning Gottlieb (now OMD), former CEO of OMD UK, and founder of independent consultancy Encyclomedia International, Nick has spent decades championing advertiser interests with a directness that has made him one of the industry’s most necessary voices.  Nick considers how the advertising industry has potentially lost its way. The conflation of ‘non-working spend’. with production is, he argues, one of the most damaging ideas in modern marketing: if the advertising you make is brilliant, every pound spent making it is working. What the industry has instead chased is performance through direct response and dashboard metrics at the expense of the kind of beautifully crafted material that actually builds brands.  Nick is also very outspoken about the lack of transparency in the industy and the Publicis acquisition of LiveRamp (which was announced the week of recording) gives Nick a live example. While industry commentary focused on what the deal meant for agencies and ad tech, Nick filed an article asking a different question: what does it mean for advertisers? The programmatic market has been inherently inefficient for advertisers for nearly twenty years, and moving money from one set of hands to another does not fix that. What it does do is concentrate more control of the advertising supply chain within a single holding group. He argues that the need for genuinely independent advisors, free of holding company structures, is now more crucial than ever. Nick is a co-founder of ‘Advertising Who Cares’ which is a grassroots movement set up to protect the advertising industry. It is not a campaign to return to the past, but a call to remember what great advertising actually does: build brands over time, and deliver returns that a performance dashboard cannot measure.  Outside the industry, Nick writes local history books for charity, is midway through a postgraduate diploma in Spanish and Latin American studies, and is never far away from a very bad pun.   See Nick’s favourite ad: Marston’s Pedigree – Team Portrait (1995) Hosted by Pat Murphy   Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    Nick Manning – Who's Speaking for the Advertiser?

  4. 3 jun

    PJ Pereira – Pirates of Thought: Creativity, AI and the Human Edge

    This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy is joined by PJ Pereira, co-founder and Creative Chairman of Pereira O’Dell and founder of AI-first creative lab SilverSide. A Brazilian-born creative leader, martial artist and novelist, PJ has spent three decades at the intersection of storytelling, technology and innovation. His branded entertainment series The Beauty Inside for Intel won a Daytime Emmy and remains one of the most influential pieces of branded content ever made. PJ details his creative philosophy rooted not in advertising, but in programming, writing and martial arts. As a shy kid in Brazil, all three felt like different expressions of a single impulse: subversion. Whether writing code with features it wasn’t supposed to have, or pitching ideas that broke every rule, PJ’s driving question has always been the same: how can I do this in a way it was never supposed to happen? He also reveals how he splits his identity deliberately across platforms: LinkedIn for business, Instagram for martial arts, TikTok for fiction, and why that discipline of detachment from a single label has kept him genuinely excited about advertising for 30 years. PJ is an AI optimist, but a specific kind. He argues that the industry is fundamentally misreading what AI is for. It isn’t an efficiency tool - it’s an ambition unlocker. He describes a client who killed a script for being too expensive, only for that same idea to be resurrected three months later when the technology caught up; and how AI now makes it possible to pitch the boldest idea alongside the safe one, because you can now afford to do both. On young talent, he’s equally direct: the story that AI has deleted entry-level jobs is, in his words, a lie - a convenient narrative invented by executives to justify mismanagement. At SilverSide, 22-year-olds in their first advertising job are already writing scripts and directing films. PJ also opens up about growing up in a religious cult in Rio de Janeiro, and how the experience gave him his ‘maybe’ creative philosophy - the belief that every idea deserves genuine consideration, regardless of where it comes from. He connects this to the human skills he believes will outlast the AI revolution: memory, emotion and taste. Not people skills in the conventional sense, but the capacity to read an AI’s infinite output and say, with conviction, “this is the one.” We can only do that, he argues, because we have fallen in love, been afraid, and had our hearts broken. The silicon chip will never understand what hunger and heartbreak is.   See PJ’s favourite ad: The Independent - Litany   Hosted by Pat Murphy   Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    PJ Pereira – Pirates of Thought: Creativity, AI and the Human Edge

  5. 20 mei

    David Wheldon – It’s a ‘We Thing’: Creativity, Humility and Advertising’s Future

    This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy is joined by David Wheldon, President Emeritus of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). With a career spanning decades at agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, WCRS, Lowe, BBDO and WPP before moving into global brand leadership at Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Barclays and RBS, David is one of the most respected and influential figures in advertising. He was appointed WFA President for the second time in March 2025 and is the recipient of an OBE and a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Drum. Pat and David explore what it really means to build brands from the inside out. From David’s formative years at Saatchi & Saatchi, where “nothing is impossible” was literally carved into the steps, to his time heading global marketing at Coca-Cola, where his first humbling discovery was that nobody in the boardroom talked about advertising. David shares how the leap from agency to client side fundamentally reshaped his understanding of what marketing is, and what it takes to be a genuinely great CMO.  David reveals the inside story of his five-year stint at RBS as part of what he calls the ‘clean-up team’, overseeing the rebrand to NatWest and working to rebuild public trust after the 2008 financial crisis. His guiding philosophy: ‘It’s hubris that got us into this mess. It’s humility that will get us out of it.’ He also reflects on whether banks have truly learned their lessons from the crisis. David approaches AI with optimism but clear-eyed caution. He argues that the big idea and the brand platform are more important than ever, pointing to MasterCard’s ‘Priceless’ campaign as a masterclass in a single advertising idea that has scaled across an entire business. But he warns that the industry isn’t being honest enough about the human cost of AI-driven change, and that job losses need to be part of the conversation. David also reflects on his return as WFA President; stepping up to defend the organisation’s mission of protecting commercial free speech in the face of a legal challenge brought by Elon Musk, and why his independence made him uniquely placed to take on the role.   See David’s favourite ad: V&A Museum – An Ace Caff with quite a nice museum attached.   Hosted by Pat Murphy   Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    David Wheldon – It’s a ‘We Thing’: Creativity, Humility and Advertising’s Future

  6. 15-12-2025

    The Best of Season 4

    As 2025 comes to a close, we’re celebrating with a very special recap episode of The Prodcast, revisiting some of the most powerful insights and standout advice our incredible guests have shared over the past year.  Pat Murphy has had the privilege of sitting down with some of the brightest minds in the industry, exploring a wide range of topics — from the evolving role of the producer and the impact of sonic branding, to why being selective with your projects is more important than ever, and the rapid rise of creator marketing. In this episode, you’ll hear highlights from: ·      Ed East, founder of Billion Dollar Boy, breaking down how creator marketing really works, how success is measured, and how you can harness the power of creators in your next campaign.  ·      Steve Davies from the APA on the evolving role of the producer — and why producers are more essential now than ever before. ·      Nils Leonard of Uncommon Creative Studio on why turning down work can sometimes be the right move, plus their unconventional approach to making sure great ideas actually get made. ·      Simon Elms, ad composer, on the science behind sonic branding and why getting your audio right is absolutely critical.   Season 5 of The Prodcast will be launching very soon with loads more outstanding guests. Follow the show now, for free, so you don’t miss an episode.    Hosted by Pat Murphy   Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    The Best of Season 4

  7. 26-06-2025

    Simon Elms – The Sonic Cuddle: How Music Makes Ads Unforgettable

    This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy is joined by Simon Elms, Founder of Eclectic Music & Bark Soho. Simon is a multi-award-winning composer, arranger, and producer with over 30 years of experience spanning film, television, and advertising. In advertising specifically, Simon has crafted bespoke music for high-profile global campaigns for brands such as Coke, Ford and HSBC.Simon has developed a reputation for his musical insight, creative agility, and sonic precision. His original compositions and inventive sound design have earned industry recognition, including an International Emmy nomination. Simon and Pat explore the pivotal role music plays in advertising, and why it so often gets overlooked. Simon shares his frustrations over how sound is typically left to the final stages of production and argues for integrating composers much earlier in the creative process, recounting how true collaboration between agency, client, and music partner can yield not only better work, but smoother workflows.  Simon discusses the deep connection between music and neuroscience, explaining how sound can bypass rational thought to trigger powerful emotional responses. He highlights a quote from Sir Thomas Beecham — “the function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought” — to illustrate how music communicates directly with the subconscious, a concept long understood by composers and now backed by modern science. For this reason, Simon argues that imperfect, emotional tracks can often connect more deeply than overly polished ones. Simon also shares his view on the rise of AI in music production. Whilst he acknowledges that technology may displace some traditional roles, he sees it as a tool that, in the right hands, can empower more creativity and accessibility.   See Simons’s favourite ad: Hamlet - Wig     Hosted by Pat Murphy   **The MCA Prodcast is now available on YouTube. Click here to Subscribe** Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    Simon Elms – The Sonic Cuddle: How Music Makes Ads Unforgettable

  8. 28-05-2025

    Edward East – How Billion Dollar Boy has helped Supercharge Influencer Marketing

    This week on The MCA Prodcast Pat Murphy is joined by Edward East, the Founder and CEO of Billion Dollar Boy. Since its inception in 2014 the agency has become a global leader in creator marketing, delivering integrated, creator-led advertising at scale for the world's leading brands. Ed talks us through the story behind BDB; back in 2014 Ed recognised something fundamental that many brands are only now beginning to grasp – creators aren't just media channels, they're storytellers, producers, and essential brand partners.What began as a simple database connecting PR agencies with bloggers has evolved into an award-winning creative social agency that's reshaping how global brands approach content creation. The results speak for themselves: Billion Dollar Boy was recently named Influencer Marketing Agency of the Year and works with prestigious clients like Versace, Loeuvre, and Burberry.  Ed explains how the production process differs when working with creators; how ideas are pitched, developed and brought to life, whilst simultaneously balancing creator freedom with brand messaging and expectations. Ed also reveals how creator marketing has democratised content production, making it ‘far faster’ and ‘far cheaper’ than traditional agency models while potentially delivering superior engagement. This explains why companies like Unilever are now allocating 50% of their advertising budgets to social media platforms – a major shift that validates Ed's early vision. Ed also tells us about his latest venture, the FiveTwoNine Creator Club which supports the broader creator economy through education, networking, and opportunity creation. See Ed’s favourite ad: Guinness – Snail Race    Hosted by Pat Murphy **The MCA Prodcast is now available on YouTube. Click here to Subscribe**   Connect with Murphy Cobb and The Prodcast: Murphy Cobb & Associates |  The MCA Prodcast  |  LinkedIn  |  Instagram | Email

    Edward East – How Billion Dollar Boy has helped Supercharge Influencer Marketing
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Info

Welcome to The Prodcast. This is your fix for everything innovative in advertising production. On each episode MurphyCobb's founder and CEO Pat Murphy speaks to the movers and shakers who are driving the agenda and shaping the world of production for the future. He'll be asking searching questions about their views of what will be coming round the corner so brands can act smarter and with greater efficiency, to deliver outstanding creative campaigns. You'll hear who might be their best partners to deliver that for them across a multitude of channels and media types, and we might even hark back to some great old ads that have stood the test of time. 

Informatie

  • Maker
    Murphy Cobb & Associates Ltd
  • Jaren actief
    2022 - 2026
  • Afleveringen
    42
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    © 2026 The Prodcast
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