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David Meikle

Things David Says on Podcasts

“When I'm sourcing an agency for a client, the first thing I think about is what would be my relative priority as a client within that agency. I would be lost like a fart in a hurricane if I put a small client into a very big organization. Agencies should say, there will be no one more important than your brand in our organization.” — David Meikle, Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast “Clients have eroded agency margins over the last three decades, catastrophically. But what they didn't realize is that that margin allowed agencies to stick to their guns and say, look, this is the plan we've got for you. We believe it'll work. If it doesn't work, you can fire us. And I think that more than ever agencies are full of frightened people.” — David Meikle, Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast “The least valuable bucket is solving problems with finite solutions. It's a Sudoku puzzle: it's either right or it's wrong. Getting the right ad with the right copy in the right medium at the right time is table stakes, but that is so much of the agency revenue model, and it's also the easiest to automate and check. So that whole revenue stream is sooner or later, we don't know when, going to evaporate.” — David Meikle, Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast

Where to Find Them

David Meikle has been a guest on Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast (2 times) , Art of Procurement and The Human Risk Podcast .

Recently: “The Underdog Advantage, with Richard Temple and David Meikle” on Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast (November 2026); “David Meikle on Creative Control” on The Human Risk Podcast (December 2023); “How to improve performance and reduce stress, with David Meikle” on Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast (November 2023); “201: How to Buy a Gorilla w/ David Meikle” on Art of Procurement (September 2018).

What They Said

“When I'm sourcing an agency for a client, the first thing I think about is what would be my relative priority as a client within that agency. I would be lost like a fart in a hurricane if I put a small client into a very big organization. Agencies should say, there will be no one more important than your brand in our organization.” — David Meikle, Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast

David Meikle, who helps clients pick agencies, says independents shouldn't try to match the networks' scale. They should sell priority instead.

Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast · 2026-11-11 Permalink → Listen →
Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast Around 24:20 into the episode
Richard Temple

…strategy. And the Dominant West campaign is one of the most underlying advertising campaigns and inspiring advertising campaigns of the moment. But I think you just started reading the IPA effect winners. But everybody who listens to this, just read them. They are well worth their weight in goal.

Jenny Plant

…I will put the link in the show notes to those old awards. This concept of Kinzugi, sort of celebrating the brokenness. I'm going to put you both on the spot. Can you think of an agency right now who has also used that strategy or how they could perhaps see that strategy for themselves right now?

David Meikle

Yes, I don't think it's difficult at all. I mean, it's not unlike what we were talking about a moment ago with the difference between corporates. They have their role, but a lot of the time, when there's a forced comparison between a huge network agency and a smaller agency, a smaller independent agency, then oftentimes people will say, well, they're smaller and therefore they don't have as much talent. They don't have as much this. They don't have as much that. But when you think about it in the terms that I use, for example, when I'm sourcing an agency for a client, the first thing I think about is what would be my relative priority as a client within that agency. So I would be lost like a fart in a hurricane if I put a small client into a very big organization, but I would be a more cherished client, which has the priority of the agency's best talent if I go to one which is a better ratio of my size to them. So as a start point in terms of how I would shortlist an agency, agencies need to think not about computer on the terms of the larger agencies and trying to say we can match all of this, but say there will…

Richard Temple

I think to add to that, if you look at the whole girls, and look, they're going for tough times for a number of reasons. Their business model is obviously to appeal to their shareholders. They've got cordly figures to hood, but there's been absolute desperation of talent there. And then just their…

David Meikle

It's funny, it reminds me of another point about the way that we constructed this, which is strategies aren't singular. What's really nice about strategies, you can take a bit of this strategy and you can take a bit of that strategy. So, what Temp's describing here is also a bit David and Goliath's…

Jenny Plant

When you were talking there, I was just bringing to mind a friend of mine who has an agency, it's a very specialized medical copywriting agency, and they have very senior people on the team who work directly with clients. And even though some of their clients have been subject to Holdco global…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“Clients have eroded agency margins over the last three decades, catastrophically. But what they didn't realize is that that margin allowed agencies to stick to their guns and say, look, this is the plan we've got for you. We believe it'll work. If it doesn't work, you can fire us. And I think that more than ever agencies are full of frightened people.” — David Meikle, Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast

Asked which principles the agency business has lost, David Meikle names conviction: arguing for the work you believe in. He blames squeezed margins and procurement practices for its decline.

Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast · 2026-11-11 Permalink → Listen →
Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast Around 46:15 into the episode
Jenny Plant

Oh, now that's going to come out as a soundbite. I agree. I think, okay, so what would you say? Because these forgotten principles, and you mentioned channel planning, you know, as one kind of discipline, perhaps. First of all, what other principles do you think we're losing?

Richard Temple

…when we say, well, we need this from you. And they've got to go round the house and stretch their different departments. They're struggling with that as well. But we've lost sort of the two fun bits almost: building relationships and getting on the phone and having a good old chat with your client.

David Meikle

I think the one I would add to that is conviction. Agencies have become, as a result of client behavior. So clients have eroded agency margins over the last three decades, catastrophically. But what they didn't realize is that that margin allowed agencies to stick to their guns and to say, look, this is the work that we've got for you. This is the plan we've got for you. We believe it'll work. If it doesn't work, you can fire us. And there was a certain belief and the level of conviction that came from the top, and they knew they were back to the top of the organization, which has now become much more complicit. So I don't want it like that. I want it like this. I needed to put the brand at the beginning of the ad, even though that's going to lower engagement. I need branding. Nonsense feedback that we know isn't how advertising works, but will dial a certain gauge up on a pre-test or something. And actually, it's all of those little cuts that make the ad worse. Because it might appeal at a lower level to a broader audience, but it needs to actually appeal at a higher level to a smaller audience to be effective. And understanding how…

Jenny Plant

Do you think the lack of conviction is because of lack of knowledge? What is it about an agency that you say, I admire JAA because they have a conviction and they're saying, look, we're not, you know, we're not right for you because we want these results. This is how we see it. And we know what…

Richard Temple

I mean, from a JA point of view, I mean, from an industry point of view, what you tend to find is if your quarterly reporting that you're reporting to the PRC is going to be subject to the fact you've made boldly says to the client, you can take it or leave it. They're probably someone upstairs…

David Meikle

Well, the answer to your question is both. So it's both a lack of knowledge to be able to argue coherently and intelligently about why your answer is correct. And I think that there's too little of that. And then there's too little willingness to do that for fear of what the consequence might be. I…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“The least valuable bucket is solving problems with finite solutions. It's a Sudoku puzzle: it's either right or it's wrong. Getting the right ad with the right copy in the right medium at the right time is table stakes, but that is so much of the agency revenue model, and it's also the easiest to automate and check. So that whole revenue stream is sooner or later, we don't know when, going to evaporate.” — David Meikle, Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast

Asked how AI is changing thinking in agencies, David Meikle sorts agency work into problems with finite, limited and unlimited solutions. Only the last, which needs lateral thinking, is far from being automated.

Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast · 2026-11-11 Permalink → Listen →
Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast Around 35:18 into the episode
David Meikle

…the underdog advantage can help with that, because it puts the strategic thinking and the business problem front and center. Whereas far too much time, energy, and money has been focused on the delivery rather than actually figuring out what it is that you're meant to be doing in the first place.

Jenny Plant

Talk to me a bit more about that, David. Your observations currently of how that thinking is being sort of outsourced to AI and the critical thinking muscle.

David Meikle

The way that I've described it, and the way that Thames and I discussed it is that there are largely two, maybe three buckets of work within any agency, right? So the least value bucket is solving problems with finite solutions, which is organizational, for which there's a right answer. It's a Sudoku puzzle. It's either right or it's wrong. And getting the right ad with the right copy in the right medium at the right time against the right audience is table stakes. But that is so much of agency revenue model that it's also problematic because it's also the easiest to automate and check. So in our new age, that whole revenue stream there is sooner or later, we don't know when, going to evaporate. Then you've got problems with limited possible solutions, which is the next stage that's going to be under threat. And that is where there are two or three different answers and they need to be evaluated. So the determination of what those might be can become automated. And then the judgment of those will slowly become automated. And again, the role for humans will be depleted. And again, the revenues will erode. But then there's problems with unlimited possible solutions. Problems with…

Richard Temple

I'll give you an example, Hanoi. I think that's already happening. I mean, there are some agreements. I mean, there's a wonderful video that were years ago, published by Sarah Carter, and that's been at How Motor Platt. One of the things they say is go furry. So if you just put a furry icon, you…

David Meikle

And when they become kind of petty, then you're undifferentiated. First of all, the two furry brands will do that. But then when the 100th furry brand comes along, it's not that special anymore. And the same comes with, you know, you can't just have a fluent device. You've got to have a fluent…

Jenny Plant

Okay, I want to pick up on something you just said, David, which my ears pricked up. Intuition. Now, as veterans in the industry, myself included, who started in the early 90s, a lot happens through osmosis and observation and experience and multiple different case studies and looking at different.…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

Collections They Appear In

Agency Business