On Strategy Showcase – Live from Mother in London: Reflections on 2025

Podcast: On Strategy Showcase
Host: Fergus O’Carroll
Date: December 15, 2025
Location: Mother, London
Guests:

• Martin Beverly (Ace of Hearts)
• Mel Arrow (McCann London)
• Paula Bloodworth (Alien Baby)
• Alex Grieve (BBH)
• Chris Gallery (Mother London)

Overview

This special roundtable episode brought together top London strategists and creatives for an intimate, audience-free discussion to reflect candidly on the state of UK advertising in 2024. Hosted at Mother London the day before the Effie UK Gala, the panel explored standout campaigns, cultural shifts, the evolving nature of creativity, industry challenges, and the future of agency-client relationships.

The conversation oscillates between optimism about breakthrough work and realism about industry headwinds, culminating in collective calls for bolder creativity, better client partnerships, and the need to refocus on public, not just industry acclaim.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Mood of 2024: Challenging but Exciting

• Industry Headwinds and Creativity:
  Alex Grieve opened with candid acknowledgment that 2024 was "a challenging year," marked by industry-wide unease, but noted the potential for excitement in change.

  • “Anytime you have that sense of fear, creativity tends to tighten slightly... I quite enjoy the challenge of those things because change is inevitable.” [07:26]

• Optimism through Big Cultural Moments:
  Chris Gallery recalled the Oasis reunion as a "huge" moment, demonstrating the continued power of communal, large-scale experiences.

  • “It reminded us that things can be big and exciting and not just niche and small for small cultures.” [08:33]
  • Adidas’ collaboration with Oasis for the tour was highlighted as an example of authentic brand engagement.

• Collective Joy & Vulnerability:
  The panel agreed that events like Taylor Swift’s concerts, Lily Allen’s album, and the Fred Again tour provided rare, joyful unifying moments for a public otherwise fragmented and anxious.

  • Paula Bloodworth: “It’s a vulnerability that people are attracted to… artists aren't doing it with massive processes and layers of bureaucracy… they're just leading with their vulnerability… and I think it's getting the traction and the audiences.” [10:34]

Navigating the National Mood

• Tone-Sensitivity is Critical:
  Chris Gallery emphasized the delicacy required for strategists in downbeat national moments.
  • "You don't want to just play into that, but you can't be blindly optimistic either at the same time." [12:22]
  • Cited Mother’s Coinbase “Everything is Fine” campaign as a musical but truthful portrayal of the British mood, reflecting hardship with hope.

Was it a Vintage Year?

• "Golden Age Thinking" & Shifting Standards:
  Martin Beverly challenged nostalgia, referencing "Midnight in Paris":

  • “There's lots of great work out there… Sometimes we've just got to be better at championing it.” [13:54]

• Impossible Comparisons Across Eras:
  Alex: “It's like trying to compare footballers from the 70s to today… The cream of the very best work at the top is still absolutely brilliant… it’s just maybe that layer of cream is a bit thinner than it has been in the past.” [15:23]

• Barriers to Great Work:
  Alex described a system where “average tenure of a CMO is now 14 months… there are more layers… things get the edges clipped off.”

  • “It’s never been easier to make mediocre work and never been harder to make great work.” [16:57]

Are the Best Campaigns Still "Advertising"?

• Blurring Boundaries:
  The panel acknowledged much admired work now falls outside traditional advertising.

  • Fergus: “Are we in essence saying that the best work… is being done by people who aren’t even in this industry?” [18:19]
  • Chris: “Everything isn’t a film or a simple poster… There's really great activations happening.” [18:55]

• Looking to Art, Music, Fashion for Inspiration:
  Paula: “So much of marketing is more about insurance than growth at the moment… Maybe we do need a bit of proof… look to these other categories and industries.” [20:01]

• Brands Doing It Differently:
  Alex praised Fitzcarraldo Publishing’s distinctive book covers, “just those simple things of doing something different.” [20:41]

The Importance of Partnership and Long-termism

• Building Compound Value:
  Martin: “The industry's increasingly got short termist… you try to give a client what you think they want rather than what they need.”
  • Cited “disguised repetition” (from Sarah Carter, Les Binet, Andrew Tindall): the idea of doing “the same but different” as successful long-term strategy. [22:14]

Celebrated Campaigns from 2024

(Each panelist offers an admired work they didn't produce themselves)

1. On Running – “Soft Winds”

(Selected by Chris Gallery)

• Simplicity and coherence across product, brand, execution.
• Platform promotes “a gentler approach to running,” featuring Elmo from Sesame Street:
  • “Could that win, running for fun?” [24:53]
• Chris: “I love that brand and the purity of that as a platform. … It’s a fresher voice within the category.” [25:10]

2. Burberry’s Daniel Lee Era

(Selected by Paula Bloodworth)

• Series of films featuring Olivia Colman, Naomi Campbell, and “Britishness” with humor.
• Paula: “He went to the archives and figured out what this brand is about... Britishness is a sense of humor… you can see that bleed through the work.” [26:53]
• The work was “entertainment” and “not following the formulas”—a case for confidence and knowing your roots.

3. Nike “Scary Good” Campaign

(Selected by Mel Arrow)

• Focused on football’s attacking players; aesthetic of “insomnia and madness”—a darker, humorous twist.
• “There's a new wave of sports advertising that has taken a turn for the dark… It's about competition and not being afraid to bring your all to the pitch and ruin someone's day. And I quite like that edge.” [30:47]

4. Under Armour “Be the Problem”

(Admired by Alex Grieve)

• Strategic move to hero “destroyers of the game” instead of creative superstars.
• “A very attractive kind of mindset… heroing the destructive side of the game.” [32:53]

5. Anthropic “Claude” Launch

(Produced by Mother; praised by Fergus)

• Chris: “It starts from probably a deep relationship… there’s a genuine hope for the future… our responsibility was to talk about positive impacts of AI on human agency.” [37:16]
• “In a world where… the fear with AI is it takes the human out—the opportunity is to solve more.”

6. McCann’s Nurofen “See My Pain” Platform

(Described by Mel Arrow)

• Pivot from product features to leadership on the “gender pain gap”.
• “Pain is actually incredibly emotional… Nurofen have become this lobbyist and champion… It’s had phenomenal effects. For Nurofen, they are now back as the leader in the pain category.” [40:26]

Tensions & Trends in the Industry

Why Isn’t Breaking the Rules More Commonplace?

• The Power of Deliberate Difference:
  Martin: “All the best work is different… Sometimes we sleepwalk into doing what everyone else is doing… Deliberately doing the opposite is always a good way to look at the problem.” [34:14]
• Systemic Barriers:
  Chris: “The best and bravest work doesn’t always just happen when you’ve met someone yesterday… It takes getting really close… As an industry we have less of that. So that affects whether you are able to… do something genuinely different and brave.” [36:05]
• Example from Architecture:
  Alex: Zaha Hadid uses AI to show the “status quo,” then tells her team to design anything but that. [35:22]

Relationship Challenges

• Short-Termism & Project Work:
  Project-based relationships tend to stifle risk, as agencies chase what clients want, not what’s needed.
• The Compound Effect of Long-term Relationships:
  Martin: Only over time can agencies and clients “understand the handwriting of what works.” [22:14]

Looking Ahead to 2026: “Do More Of / Do Less Of” Roundtable (Timestamps in [MM:SS])

Mel Arrow

• Do More: “Removing some of the control from storytelling, experimenting… starting projects and not knowing how they’ll end.” [43:33]
• Do Less: “Less traditional thinking… There’s a whole lot of scope for different kinds of storytelling… we’ve only scratched the surface.” [44:24]

Alex Grieve

• Do More: “Back our taste… You’re hiring agencies because… they have developed this extraordinary thing called taste.” [45:02]
• Do Less: “Less time investing energy into awards, more competing against culture generally… There’s so much time spent worrying about awards…” [45:42]
• On Awards: “There seems to be more validity towards effectiveness awards…clients are more interested in them.” [47:03]

Paula Bloodworth

• Do Less: “I really hate the LinkedIn scroll. Less thought leadership… people who haven’t made anything talking about things… I just wish the work would speak more.” [47:21]
• Do More: “Smaller teams, more making, more experimenting, more trying.” [48:19]

Martin Beverly

• Do Less: “Less industry focus, more public focus… Too much work is made for the industry and not for the public.” [48:21]
• Do Less: “Coloring in around the edges… at its worst, an agency becomes expensive coloring in.” [49:09]
• Do More: “Back at the top table, advising clients at a higher level as to how creative ideas can change the entire organization.”
• Do More: “More looking after our talent… If you have the best talent, you win. It’s a competitive advantage.” [49:09]

Cross-Panel Reflection on Networks vs. Indies

• Mel Arrow: “There is a sort of dangerous narrative that only good work can come out of independent shops and startups… I think there’s brilliant work that comes out of network agencies and has done for years… Maybe the headwinds are harder, but there’s great work.” [50:47], [52:05]
• Talent and Morale: “We’re not going to attract the next generation of talent if we keep being so down on ourselves… I do think about would I join our industry now…” [52:06]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Anytime you have that sense of fear, creativity tends to tighten slightly... But not everyone feels like that.”
  – Alex Grieve [07:26]

• “Things can be big and exciting and not just niche and small for small cultures.”
  – Chris Gallery [08:33]

• “The cream of the very best work at the top is still absolutely brilliant… it’s just maybe that layer of cream is a bit thinner.”
  – Alex Grieve [15:23]

• “It’s never been easier to make mediocre work and never been harder to make great work.”
  – Alex Grieve [16:57]

• “People are attracted to… vulnerability, which I think is probably the only key to authenticity… Artists aren’t doing it with massive processes and layers of bureaucracy… they're just leading with their vulnerability and ideas and putting stuff out there.”
  – Paula Bloodworth [10:34]

• “I just go on [LinkedIn] and I see a lot of people… who haven’t made anything, talking about things that they haven’t had any skin in the game… Less thought leadership, less people, smaller teams and more making.”
  – Paula Bloodworth [47:34]

• “If agencies don’t adapt, they’re going to die… Like all of these models, the pitching model… is completely broken, it’s going to have to change.”
  – Alex Grieve [50:28]

• “If you have the best talent, you win. It’s a competitive advantage.”
  – Martin Beverly [49:09]

Segment Timestamps (For Key Themes)

• Industry mood, cultural moments: [07:08] – [11:25]
• National tone & optimism in strategy: [12:07] – [13:17]
• Is it a ‘vintage’ year? Industry self-reflection: [13:44] – [16:57]
• Blurring lines between advertising and culture, inspiration from other industries: [18:17] – [22:12]
• On partnership, long-termism, and “disguised repetition”: [22:12] – [23:48]
• Standout campaigns roundtable: [24:10] – [33:24]
• The power and barriers of difference: [34:14] – [36:59]
• Claude/Anthropic campaign strategy: [36:59] – [40:02]
• Nurofen “See My Pain”: [40:02] – [43:07]
• ‘Do more/less’ for 2026: [43:33] – [52:55]

Takeaways for Marketers & Agencies

• Bravery & Distinctiveness Pay Off: The most admired work in 2024 broke the rules, embraced vulnerability, and didn’t always look like “advertising”.
• Culture > Industry: The most impactful work resonated with broad audiences, not just industry peers.
• Relationships Drive Excellence: Deep, trusted partnerships between client and agency are crucial for breakthrough creative.
• Value "Taste" and Talent: Human judgment, taste, and the nurturing of creative teams are vital competitive advantages.
• Ruthless Focus: Avoid over-indexing on awards, LinkedIn posturing, or “coloring in”. Refocus on making things that matter in culture – with and for the public.

For listeners wanting the pulse of UK advertising in 2024, this conversation is a rich tapestry of candor, critique, wit, and hope for what bold creative partnerships can spark in the years ahead.