On the podcast this week, hear from Mike Taylor… In his own words, a “recovering agency owner” and author of the upcoming book, “Marketing Memetics”.
Tom, Ed and Mike go deep in 30 minutes. Is marketing art or science? Do ideas evolve in the same way that genes do? Is any idea ever original? Is creative optimisation the only lever left for performance marketers?
Q&A with Mike
Mike was a co-founder at Ladder, a performance marketing agency incubated by a traditional creative agency (BBH). He has hired and trained 100+ marketers, optimized 8-figure advertising budgets, and has run over 8,000 creative tests. He is the author of “Marketing Memetics: Reverse-Engineering Creativity To Drive Brand Performance”.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Building Ladder up to 50 people in three countries.
What’s the biggest business challenge that you’re facing in 2023?
There’s not enough time in the day to learn everything new that’s happening in AI.
What is your secret weapon when it comes to business growth?
Good naming conventions – if you don’t label campaigns properly you’ll struggle to report on them afterwards.
In your eyes, what is the role of marketing?
To reduce cognitive load of buying decisions – there are too many decisions we have to make and we don’t want to waste a lot of time thinking about them.
What role have your customers played in your business success?
I sold the first 50 customers Beta access to my book, so they got to read the manuscript and suggest edits.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
On holiday with my family, exploring a new city.
What is your greatest fear?
Doing something really embarrassing on national television.
Who are your heroes in real life?
I try not to idolise anyone – even the most successful people have aspects I don’t like.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I have an unlimited book budget – I’ve bought many more books than I could possibly read.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I tend to pick up random things my daughter says, and then end up repeating them to adults to quizzical looks.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The wife and kids!
What is your most marked characteristic?
I have an unusually strong work ethic, even when I don’t have to work that hard.
What is your greatest regret?
It would have been fun to work in Silicon Valley for a while, before everyone moved / went remote.
When and where were you happiest?
Pre kids it would have been living in New York for three years.
What is your motto?
I’ve always liked this quote from The Martian: “You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home”.
