Jim Houghton on breaking down M&A for creative businesses

Welcome to another episode of Agency Dealmasrters, where we're excited to dive into the ins and outs of agency expansion, leadership, and personal development with our special guest, Paul O'Malley, CEO of Fox Agency North America.Prepare to be captivated as we discuss the intricacies of agency culture, the vital importance of team individuality, and the enthralling journey of self-discovery that led Paul from a high-pressure career to the world of photography and literature— and back into the agency life with a renewed perspective. We discuss: Overcoming challenges in new markets and different culturesDebating long-term career growth decisionsUnderstanding and catering to the specific needs of the US marketValue of empathy and supportive relationshipsMisconceptions about staff caring for profitability

Our guest this week is Simon Latarche. We are delighted to announce that Simon has joined Milestone Advisory and will sit alongside Miles Welch as Founding Partner. He was CFO of an entrepreneurial Digital SME for nine years, which sold to Publicis Groupe for €416M in 2013. He then went on to become CFO of Publicis.Sapient in the UK before setting up his own Corporate Advisory firm. He has significant M&A and Fundraising experience and is an expert on growing companies profitably. He was voted a Top 20 CFO in the TMT sector in 2013 by BDO and studied Financial Strategy at Said Business School.We talk about:🔸The state of M&A in the Marketing Services sector🔸Mistakes that agencies make and how to avoid these🔸When is the right time to sell an agency, and how to sell for a fair price🔸The main market buyers and the impact on agencies wanting to sell🔸Why agencies should consider working with MilestoneEnjoy the conversation. Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Sam Budd is the Founder and CEO of Buddy Media Group, an Award-winning digital-first performance marketing agency with a specialist focus on delivering Luxury, Fashion, Alcohol, Hospitality, and Student marketing programs.Sam was also one of the founding members of Social Chain, the award-winning agency founded by Steven Bartlett. We talk about:🔸 What it takes to be successful in the agency world🔸 Key systems and processes to fall back on 🔸 What he has learned from growing and scaling the company 🔸 The future of Buddy Media Enjoy the conversation. Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Tim Williams is CEO at Onalytica, an influencer marketing company helping brands run influencer programs to increase brand awareness, improve reputation and drive lead generation. They have worked with clients such as Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Accenture, Ericsson and SAP, to name a few. We talk about:🔸 What B2B influencer marketing is and isn’t🔸 The size of influencer marketing and what brands are using it🔸 The business problems Onalytica helps clients solve🔸 How influencer marketing, brand building and ABM link togetherEnjoy the conversation.Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Simon Corbett is the Founder and CEO of The Jargon Group, a digital-first international media, marketing and corporate communications business. They have over 70 retained clients, including Facebook. The group owns a number of market-leading brands that provide public relations and media services to brands in ad:tech, cloud, mobile, big data, retail, fashion and automotive.Before Jargon, Simon spent over ten years at notable agencies, including WeberShandwick, Porter Novelli and Edelman.We talk about:🔸 The founding story of the agency and the major milestones 🔸 How the best brands in the world approach PR and profile raising🔸 What has changed in the ways brands get PR now🔸 How the agency has refined/developed their recruitment processEnjoy the conversation. Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Jake Stott is the CEO of Hype Partners. Hype Partners are Supercharging Web3 Communities. In 4 years, they have grown into the leading full-service marketing agency in Web3. With a team of 90+ globally, they have worked with over 110 top-tier blockchain projects. We discuss:🔸 The dynamics and state of the Web3 market🔸 Will demand meet the supply of the Metaverse 🔸 What are the next businesses to benefit from web 3🔸 A deeper explanation of the Metaverse and Web3 Enjoy the conversation. Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Pete Hendrick is the Managing Director at Octopus Group the Brand to Sales agency, a B2B agency making their clients famous and growing their sales.Over a 20-year career with the agency, Pete has helped build Octopus into a powerhouse B2B marketing agency with clients like Visa, BT, Siemens, Rolls Royce, and Logitech to name a few. Octopus was recently acquired by Publicis, making the company's future even more interesting. We talk about:🔸 How Octopus Group came about and the major milestones🔸 Why now is such a good time to be in B2B marketing🔸 Why brands thrive when awareness and sales work together🔸 The role of creativity vs data and tight targetingEnjoy the conversationMentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Peter Reid is the Founder and CEO of MSQ Partners, a global group of diverse thinkers who blend human insight with data, technology and creativity to help businesses drive accelerated growth.They have Ten award-winning agencies who make up the groups, you may be familiar with Stein IAS, MMT Digital and TwentySix to name a few. We talk about:🔸 How MSQ has tripled in size over the last 2 years🔸 The problems MSQ Partners solves for clients 🔸 The importance of brand and is it all about digital 🔸 What drives good collaboration between agenciesEnjoy the conversationMentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Rob Gold is the UK CEO of the Merkle B2B group. They deliver leading-edge data-driven, tech-enabled, and idea-led B2B solutions for their clients. Their end to end solutions cover brand building, customer acquisition, customer retention to customer loyalty.We talk about:🔸 The most pressing priorities for CMOs of the biggest B2B brands🔸 Why B2B has taken so long to understand, brand is crucial🔸 The most significant changes within B2B marketing🔸 What diversity in the workplace means to MerkleEnjoy the conversation. Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Alfie Wenegieme is the Managing Director at Profit Sprout. Alfie is a certified chartered accountant with over 13 years of commercial finance experience. He’s worked with senior leaders in global PR agencies including Edelman and Weber Shandwick.His focus is on profitability for agencies through financial management and a strong strategic approach to business operations. He also counsels senior leadership teams to achieve an agency’s financial objectives. We talk about:🔸 What drives profitability in agencies🔸 The importance of commercially astute leadership🔸 The impact of inflation on agencies and how to tackle it🔸 What a financially astute culture meansEnjoy the conversation. Mentioned in this episode:Agency Dealmasters is brought to you by Bridge Find out more at Bridgegrowth.org or get in touch by emailing [email protected]