Our love/hate relationship with cookies is about to end, so how will we be able to identify our new customers?

Fear not! Because solutions architect Tom Ridges is the CEO of GDLabs, a targeting platform that can analyze sales data to predict where your next best customers are and his company has just been VC funded to help agencies identify and track sales for their clients.

Using a ground-breaking combination of AI and data science, Tom’s team have turned the whole problem on its head and developed a solution that doesn’t rely on packets of data, but instead takes all your existing customer data and tells you where you should target your sales for growth.

Frankly it’s awesome, and if you work in business development and listen to this show, you’ll have bragging rights for months, in any discussion about where we go after cookies have been outlawed.

Tom delivers a tight 45 minutes of non-sciency data discussion to explain how your agency can stay ahead of the pack and give your client a best-of-breed solution.


In this show, we discuss:

1st, 2nd & 3rd party data advantages

The timeline for the end of cookies

The alternatives to cookies and why surveillance and intent marketing doesn’t work

The democratization of customer data

Big data -v- little data

Why it’s important to be ahead of the curve

Where to look for your next new clients and customers

Plus talking of giving up cookies, Jeremy Davies is back with a monologue about agency new year resolutions.

Show notes

Tom’s LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomridges/

GDLabs web site here: http://www.gdlabs.ai

The ‘Data For Bluffers’ podcast here: https://www.gdlabs.ai/blog/data-for-bluffers-3/

FREE TEST your data to see how it works here: https://www.gdlabs.ai/blog/test-your-data-and-grow-faster-with-network-effects/

How NBC Universal is handling it: https://www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/nbcuniversal-cookie-free-first-party-identity-platform/

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

Oops, we did it again! Helen Calcraft is undoubtedly one of the most high profile VIPs in the creative industry. A self confessed “New biz girl at heart”, Helen is one third of the leadership of Lucky Generals, the agency responsible for some of the world’s most creative campaigns on both sides of the pond.

If you want to know what motivates Helen to not only champion the cause of integrity in the advertising industry, but also commit so much time and effort to philanthropy, then this is a blockbuster of a show for you.

After several attempts to pin the recording date, we finally sat down together just before Thanksgiving but there’s not a trace of turkey to be found here. It’s all insight, tips and advice for anyone working in the creative industry – all delivered with Helen’s trademark personal and stylish touch.

In this show, we discuss:

  •  Helen’s early career at AMV BBDO, her inspirations, mentors and agency friendships
  •  The art of being an entrepreneur and what led to the formation of MCBD
  •  Can the magic still happen for advertising startups?
  •  Nabs #TimeTo and sexual harassment
  •  Cancer Research and Helen’s personal struggle
  •  Can we tax the wealthy?
  •  The need for change on our environmental priorities
  •  What agencies Helen really admires
  •  Helen’s top 3 campaigns of all time
  •  Outsized Post-It notes
  •  The importance of clients having a mission
  •  A totally honest appraisal of agency life under lockdown
  •  The back story to ‘that’ Amazon Alexa Super Bowl advert
  •  The importance of bathing
  •  And Helen’s nomination for the most beautiful and romantic pop song ever written
  • We also have a themed monologue from Jeremy Davies, who manages to link Peter Pan to new business research.

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

One of the UK’s foremost experts on B2B content marketing is here to demystify the discipline and show us how creating trust through sharable and informative content is the way forward for new business.

Ian Truscott has been banging the drum for the content marketing industry since before it was cool. Over the years, he’s developed strategies and knowledge about what works, what doesn’t, and how to do it like a pro! Here’s an hour of his time for you to enjoy and invigorate your new business campaigns.

In this entertaining interview, we discuss:

 How everyone in your company needs to be aware of the brand gap

 Turning problems into content opportunities

 How to develop a flexible CM strategy

 The Salesforce TV channel

 Bullshit marketing phrases

 How long have we been content marketing?

 Who’s doing it right?

 Targeting your content to the right audience

Plus Jeremy Davies, drops by to explain how nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.

Rockstar CMO website.

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

Nick Vivion is pioneering a new way of working hard and staying agile. At the start of 2021, tired of living to work, paying for expensive property he asked himself “what if I only had two years left to live?” He pulled a ‘Nick move’, took his successful tech PR agency mobile and began exploring the great outdoors in a recreational vehicle.

Nick’s not alone. There is a whole younger segment of society that is discarding the shackles of ‘normal’ life and adapting to a new, flexible, life-affirming, greener existence.

In this show, we discuss what motivated him and how he will be followed by an entire generation of Alt:Execs, dedicated to maximising their income by living lean and able to rapidly respond to changes in society.

This is a wonderful opportunity to explore the entrepreneurial millennial mind.

In this show, we cover:

 ‘The Two-Year Deadline’

 What you need to live a life more mobile

 Living off-grid

 Crypto and financial PR

 Content marketing

 Top tips for how to Hustle

 The future of nomadic working

Also, the ever-funny  Jeremy Davies  on product targeting and new business.

 Title Music and Theme tune by The Prospectors (Matt Bullard, Bob & Barn and Peter Banks)

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

Hank Blank is back. It’s like he never left.



In this show, we discuss:

Hank is our man in the USA for new business and client-side agency searches. Last time we spoke to him, we were in the epicenter of the second wave of the pandemic. Now eight months later, Hank is here to update us on how clients are managing with their agency searches and pitch lists.

It’s a mixed bag of fortunes as Hank’s business has been forced to accommodate this new hybrid way of working, but can pitching via video call compete with pitching in person? Will the client opt for a less creative response because they had in-person chemistry? Don’t forget this is America and the lights never get shut off!

  •  The future for advertising agencies doing hybrid business
  • How to do agency searches under these conditions
  • The dangers of Zoom calls
  • Problems of finding and retaining talent
  • …and we have time for a couple of Hankisms for 2021.

Plus Jeremy Davies branches out to provide a humorous analysis on the Internet of Trees – he can’t leaf it alone!

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

What do you do when your world gets turned upside down by a pandemic? You hustle and redeploy your skills as TedX speaker, business mentor, author and tech wizard into a broadcasting company and a brand new format business video show called the Business Breakfast.

The show is a slightly irreverent, chatty and informative look at business and entrepreneurs and proves the theory that there’s no better form of defence than attack.

Nick Looby and David Bell are two seasoned speakers and business mentors who have spotted a gap in the market for a video show, much like the beloved breakfast TV shows we all loved – like a cross between The Big Breakfast, Tizwas and GMB.

If you haven’t already tuned into the show, do it because we bet you’ve got nothing better to do at 8am every Thursday.

Nick brings all his skills as a people person, author of The Modern Zombie – a lament on the loss of humanity to binary code, while David Bell uses his years of entrepreneurship and business leadership to deliver a great sixty minutes of easily digestible, commercially relevant current affairs and insight from businesses around the country. And they’re just about to announce a new launch.

In this show, we discuss:

 Missing human interactions

 The distraction of technology

 Hybrid events

 Ideal guests for the show

 Long term strategy for the Business Breakfast Show

 Why we need to read

 David’s lunar conspiracies

 An extraordinary book recommendation from Nick

Show notes:

Nick’s LinkedIn profile HERE

David’s LinkedIn profile HERE

Chatbox Productions web site HERE

BUY NICK’S BOOK! HERE

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

Tim Lindsay is the Chairman of the D&AD – the advertising and design organisation created in 1962 to promote excellence in the industry. D&AD’s Pencils are the most highly sought-after awards for creative brilliance. They give any creative – young or old – lifelong bragging rights round the workstation.

In the last couple of years, the D&AD has been fighting a battle on two fronts: it has had to scramble and adapt to a world without meetings and events and it has been leading the charge for equality, social and environmental responsibility in the industry, which has attracted ire and praise in equal amounts.

So what does Tim think about it?

In this wide-ranging interview, he outlines the future strategy of the D&AD, recounts stories of advertising legends he’s worked for and with, provides advice for the creative industry on pitching for work and solutions for how the industry can defend itself from accusations of elitism. Along the way, he reveals his own all-time top 3 advertising campaigns and his hopes for the advertising industry’s role in the new economy.

In this interview, we discuss:

 The D&AD’s new responsibilities for creative standards

How to increase diversity in the creative and advertising industry

Are influencers creative?

How can the creative business claw back its prestige?

Whether agencies should or should not pitch with creative work

Agency compensation and burn-out

Surveillance marketing or intent marketing?

And an amazing couple of coincidences with our What3Words game, so stick with it to the end!

Also – the ever-hilarious Jeremy Davies on who drives the creative car – the agency or the client?

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

Check out the latest episode of the Fuel podcast with the unstoppable Ted Rubin – one of the most influential CMOs on Twitter and LinkedIn and business book author, including the legendary ‘Return on Relationship’.

Ted’s charismatic personality is on full display as he gives his advice on how to use networking and social media to help fuel your sales activity.

In this show, we cover:

💥What makes a company VC-worthy

💥Why influencer marketing out-performs advertising

💥Why CMOs are getting it all wrong in the boardroom

💥The 5 principles behind Return on Relationship™

💥How accurate is his horoscope?

💥Getting and retaining a sales prospect’s attention

💥How to Co-Own your content

💥How to recycle and re-purpose content

Also – the incomparable Jeremy Davies shares his thoughts on the trend of personal branding.

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

Agency leader, author and magician of metrics, David Allison in a can’t miss episode on The Fuel Podcast.


You’ve heard of Demographics and Psychographics, now meet Valuegraphics, a way of classifying market segments based on shared values. Not age, not earnings but what drives our own operating system.


Throughout the world we have 56 shared values and using this process you’ll guarantee that you have all the right trigger words in your messaging.

In this show, we discuss:

  •  How the UK’s values differ from Europe
  •  The difference between values and beliefs
  •  How brands can avoid purpose washing
  •  What drove David to invent a new system for agencies
  •  How Valuegraphics could create the perfect politician
  •  How to get an entire hotel staff to wish you goodbye

Plus our very own Jeremy Davies loses his vowels over ABRDN, Consignia and lazy journalism.

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.

In this episode, we help agencies on two fronts: Firstly, we demonstrate how artificial intelligence-driven financial forecasting can help you win new business by proving to prospects that you know all the financial pain points of their sector. And secondly, we help you understand exactly how critical it is to be able to spot zombie companies that appear to be financially OK but are in fact just hollow husks of business that could bring your agency down.

Zitah and her team of fintech superstars are on hand to address some vital new business issues:

🔘 The stress of not commuting

🔘 Factors to consider when prospecting for new clients in a post-pandemic world

🔘 How to spot companies investing in R&D and why this is a great sign

🔘 Data can be fun if fun equals profit

🔘 Increase your chances of success by looking at financial KPIs

🔘 How to spot a zombie company

🔘 Who came off worse in the pandemic

🔘 Equality and branding in the VC world Plus Jeremy Davies is playing bullsh*t bingo again, but it’s for new business people this time!

All of us at The Advertist invite you to check out The Fuel Podcast, where we pull on the experience of leaders of companies in a variety of sectors with loads of fantastic interviews, tips and tales.

To check out this episode of the podcast click here.