
The Edge Of Influence
The Edge of Influence is a 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.
Episodes

Commercial Resilience For Agencies
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 th

Talent, Culture & Building Agencies People Want to Work For
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 c

What CMO's Want - Building the Right Agency Ecosystem
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

Request For Partnership: Rethinking the RFP Process
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.

Creating an Agency Blueprint & Future of Social
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 meth

Women, Power & Ownership
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 conver

AI & the Independent Playbook
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

Client Relationships, Trust & How Work Really Gets Done in MENA
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 procure

From Fragmented to Formed: Building the Independent Alliance
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 Fi











