The Edge Of Influence

Episodi

• 
  Commercial Resilience For Agencies 11.08.2026 38min

  Great creative work doesn't always mean a healthy bottom line. In this episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa and Lisa Welsh - Co Founders and Managing Partners, North Seventy Five, sit down with Zaid Aboobaker - CEO, CompassPoint Consulting, to unpack what commercial resilience really looks like for agencies navigating a tough, procurement-driven market. They dig into the race to the bottom on pricing, why over servicing quietly kills margin, and how financial transparency across a...
• 
  Talent, Culture & Building Agencies People Want to Work For 03.08.2026 26min

  In this episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of North SeventyFive is joined by Kat Bazalova, Managing Director of Incubeta and Chelly Meagle, People Director of Incubeta , to explore what it really takes to build agencies people want to work for. Together they dig into leading through a period of regional change, why operational clarity, transparent communication and a clear "North Star" matter most in uncertain times, plus how genuine psyc...
• 
  What CMO's Want - Building the Right Agency Ecosystem 27.07.2026 34min

  This week on The Edge Of Influence, host Iman Issa - Co-Founder and Managing Partner of North Seventy Five, is joined by Alasdair Hall Jones - GCC Director, The Marketing Society and Firas Wahbeh - Chief Brand and Strategy Officer, BEEAH Group, to unpack how the CMO role has shifted from managing marketing output to helping shape business strategy. They dig into why the rise of specialist agencies (retail media, influencer, AI) is fragmenting the marketing ecosystem even as holding companies ...
• 
  Request For Partnership: Rethinking the RFP Process 20.07.2026 31min

  In this episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of North Seventy Five is joined by is joined by Fiona Menzies, Head of Marketing, HH and Nick Walsh, Founder & CEO, Migrate and Founding Regional Partner, Alliance of Independent Agencies Middle East, and together they make the case for "request for partnership" over the traditional agency RFP. Fiona shares how she filters agency selection from the client side, from chemistry meetings and tissu...
• 
  Creating an Agency Blueprint & Future of Social 13.07.2026 27min

  In this episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of North Seventy Five is joined by Mike Khouri, CEO of tactical, to talk about the future of social and Tactical's newly launched report, Build Your World. Mike explains why he stripped the agency back from 17 services to three, and how a deep dive into Hollywood's creative systems led to a new methodology built around "effective entertainment" - the idea that social platforms aren't really social ...
• 
  Women, Power & Ownership 06.07.2026 28min

  In this episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of North Seventy Five is joined by Elisabeth Anne, Regional Managing Director of Imagination and Sally Henderson, Founder, High-stakes leadership mentor & Author of "The How of High Performance", for an honest conversation about women and leadership. Together they explore how the regional conversation has shifted from representation to genuine influence, who controls budgets, shapes strategy, a...
• 
  AI & the Independent Playbook 30.06.2026 25min

  In this episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of North Seventy-Five, is joined by Richard Bonner-Davis, Co-Founder & CEO Gabriel Worldwid and Arne Mosselman, Founder, CEO & Gen AI Strategist @ Ainigma, an AI transformation consultancy in Amsterdam. Together they unpack what AI really means for agencies, talent and leaders, and make the case for moving past a fear-based, cost-cutting mindset, toward AI as an investment in the future b...
• 
  Client Relationships, Trust & How Work Really Gets Done in MENA 22.06.2026 34min

  In this week's episode of The Edge of Influence, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of North Seventy Five, is joined by Roy Aftimos, CEO of C2 Communications, and David Fox, Senior Advisor and former CEO of Ogilvy in the region, to explore how work really gets done in MENA - through trust, deep client relationships and great craft. The conversation moves from navigating procurement and aligning on shared objectives, to shifting the conversation from "hours and deliverable...
• 
  From Fragmented to Formed: Building the Independent Alliance 22.06.2026 32min

  The Edge of Influence is a new podcast from the Alliance of Independent Agencies (MENA) and North Seventy Five, bringing together different voices and perspectives to surface the real challenges and opportunities facing the region's agency industry and to advocate for positive change and real dialogue. In this first episode, host Iman Issa, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of North Seventy Five, is joined by Clive Michon, Founder Director at Alliance of Independent Agencies and Nick Walsh, C...