The Prodcast Premieres Season 3 and Promises to Deliver Even More Insights

The ad industry isn’t short on podcasts and yet The Prodcast, hosted by MCA’s founder and CEO Pat Murphy, occupies a unique position in the noisy landscape. Now in its third season, which officially premiered on the 24th of April, it offers invaluable insights about everything innovative in the space of advertising production. What’s more, Pat’s hosting skills have been honed over decades - many may not know that he is an experienced radio presenter who has presented programmes for the BBC and on commercial radio for much of his career. 

Radio was actually Pat’s biggest passion as he was growing up and he never gave it up, instead fitting it in around his advertising production career. Up until two years ago, he was doing a number of weekly slots on a radio station. The Prodcast is then a way to keep the two areas of interest going through one source while giving listeners a chance to learn from some of the industry’s best minds. Season one and two saw guests like Sergio Lopez-Ferrero, Tanya Bogin, Rishad Tobaccowala, Anastasia Leng, and even LBB’s own Matt Cooper, to name a few. 

Season three is looking to be even bigger and better while building on the conversations that rear their heads continuously: AI, sustainability, measurability, virtual production, and diversity. "Season three of The Prodcast is really exciting for me. There's been so much interest from the industry about the calibre of the guests we have had and spoken with,” Pat says. 

Pat has seen the scope of the podcast grow and expand from the first season to now. “The original idea was for the podcast to focus just on ad production. But we have seen a slightly wider kind of conversation with some amazing production people as well as serious C-suite executives such as the last guest of season two, Andrew Robertson, the president of BBDO. Coming up in the next few episodes we have Sir John Hegarty; Wesley Ter Har, the founder of MediaMonks; and Matt Miller, the president of the AICP."

The first episode of the new season features the global CEO of MullenLowe Global, Kristen Cavallo, discussing inclusivity and innovation in ad leadership. As a leading voice in the industry, Kristen tackles its issues head on and is a loud champion for equity and inclusion. She’s also always on the side of original creative ideas since she believes that’s how the industry can help innovation and growth thrive. 

Each podcast episode is a highly digestible length, between 20 and 40 minutes, and Pat and the guests fit a lot into each one. Pat also makes space for the personal stories that showcase the guests’ personalities, lives, and diverse range of experiences. "The reason I love doing these podcasts is to seek out the interesting personal stories about the individuals I am chatting to. They are more than just advertising people, they have other interests outside of this world, and that's what makes it fun,” Pat explains. “I mean, who would have known that Andrew Robertson started life as a Hoover salesman; Wesley Ter Haar was a project manager for Vodafone; or that Matt Miller played drums in a band called Bicycles of Afghanistan?”

For Pat, the podcast is an ongoing opportunity to satisfy his own endless curiosity about the advertising industry, and he has previously said that he thought he “knew most things about production” he now thinks the opposite - “I suddenly realise how little I do; I’ve become much humbler about it.” With that in mind, season three of The Prodcast is sure to deliver even more insights on all things advertising production as discussed by the industry’s most innovative and bold leaders. 

You can check out all of The Prodcast’s episodes theprodcast.com or on any other good podcast platform.