Little Grey Cells Club

Breakfast Briefing

Marketing Clinic

Bring A Challenge. Leave With A Diagnosis.
With Mark Earls And Pete Markey.

November 19 @ 8:30 am - 11:30 am

To be confirmed

We all think we solve challenges by considered choice and yet typically we are addressing habits, advice from authorities or copying our peers.

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100 CMO/Marketing Directors gather for roundtable challenge triage and advice from their peers.

Marketing Clinic

Bring A Challenge. Leave With A Diagnosis.
With Mark Earls And Pete Markey.

What if you could triage your marketing challenges at speed and with your peers – senior-level marketers from the UK’s biggest brands?

We invite you to join us for a celebratory 4th anniversary edition of our Little Grey Cells Club breakfast briefing – with a twist.

Globally renowned strategist and celebrated author, Mark Earls will be joined by marketing legend Pete Markey (Boots, TSB, The Post Office) as guest curators for a very special edition breakfast briefing addressing the disciples of problem solving as senior-level marketers.

We’ll have our usual fireside chat with Mark and Pete, our panel discussion with marketing leaders – discussing the pros and cons of fast decisions.

In a break from our usual format, our roundtable discussions will be a triage for marketing challenges.

How will this work?

1. Bring one clearly articulated business or marketing challenge to the session

2. In a 45 minute roundtable session you will diagnose your challenge with help from your peers around the table. See axis above? All will be explained on 19 November – but we’ll be placing your challenge on the grid.

3. Once all the challenges have been diagnosed, one of the challenges on each table will be tackled by the team sat around your table.

4. You’ll leave having fully defined what your challenge is, ready to fully consider the best ways to address it and move forward.

Sound like a plan?

As ever, our Little Grey Cells Club breakfast events are free-to-attend, and we screen for seniority to ensure you are only ever sat next to top-tier marketers at your equivalent level of decision-making.

Join us for a super-dynamic breakfast celebrating 4 years of our community that elevates marketing through collective insight.

Location

8:30 am

Guest arrival

HH:MM am/pm

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8:40 am

Breakfast is served

9:15 am

Chair's opening remarks: Tim Healey

9:20 am

Fireside chat:
Mark Earls (Strategist, Author), Pete Markey (Former CMO, Boots, Aviva, TSB, The Post Office) and Tim Healey (Founder, Little Grey Cells Club)

9:40 am

Comedian: Ken Cheng

9:45 am

Panel discussion:
TBA

10:20 am

Roundtable Triage Session:

11:00 am

Report back from tables

11:30 am

Event concludes

Guest Speakers

Mark Earls

The Herdmeister

Mark Earls, known universally as the HERDmeister, is a writer and consultant whose work sits at the intersection of behavioural science, marketing, and the fundamental question of why people do what they do. Much of his most pioneering thinking was developed alongside Rory Sutherland, but his reputation is very much his own. The nickname, typically self-deprecating, was born from a Twitter handle and a book title. It stuck because the idea behind it proved genuinely important.

His landmark book HERD challenged a foundational assumption of marketing: that human behaviour is best understood by examining individuals. Earls argued instead that we are a “we-species” suffering from the illusion of “I,” and that the critical space for marketers to understand is not between consumers’ ears, but between people. It was a provocation aimed squarely at the industry’s individualist orthodoxy, and it landed hard. Subsequent books, including I’ll Have What She’s Having (with Professors Alex Bentley and Mike O’Brien) and Copy, Copy, Copy, extended that thinking into practical territory, making Earls as useful on Monday morning as he is stimulating on a train.

Before writing full-time, Earls spent the first half of his career at creative agencies including the revolutionary St Luke’s and Ogilvy. He is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and the RSA, and an Honorary Fellow of the IPA. For many, he is Britain’s answer to Malcolm Gladwell, without the hair.

Pete Markey is an award winning marketer who has spearheaded growth at a number of leading household brands including Boots, TSB, Aviva and the Post Office.

At Boots, he delivered 17 consecutive quarters of growth, record brand health, and over 3 million new Advantage Card customers. Most recently he’s been developing a portfolio career working with agencies including Fusion Unlimited on their growth strategy. He’s also been working on an exciting new brand launch for 2026 with celebrities Ben Shephard and Joel Dommett.

Pete has won five “Marketer of the Year” awards and three diversity ally awards. He is a Fellow of the Marketing Society, the Marketing Academy and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate in Business for his contribution to business and DE&I, and mentors emerging talent through The Marketing Academy, The Marketing Society, and the School of Marketing.

Pete Markey

Former CMO Boots, TSB, The Post Office.

Our Guest Panel

Hear from the Sharpest Minds in Marketing

"Refreshing, thought-provoking and inspiring"

"Great to meet so many impressive marketers from such a range of companies and have such stimulating conversations - there's nothing else like it"

"Fantastic event, great networking, the panel discussion and the table topics were spot on"

Our Partners

Register to Attend

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Tickets

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Marketing Clinic with Mark Earls and Pete Markey

Bring a challenge. Leave with a diagnosis. With Mark Earls and Pete Markey

£ 0.00 + VAT

128 available

Tickets

The numbers below include tickets for this event already in your cart. Clicking "Get Tickets" will allow you to edit any existing attendee information as well as change ticket quantities.

Marketing Clinic with Mark Earls and Pete Markey

Bring a challenge. Leave with a diagnosis. With Mark Earls and Pete Markey

£ 0.00 + VAT

128 available

If you would like to book multiple tickets, please contact: [email protected]

Seniority Screening

Little Grey Cells is a ‘brain trust’. We are unashamedly elite (in the sense of ‘invite only’, for the most senior marketers in the UK) – but not elitist (in the sense of not stuffy, snobby or formal). Our attendees are exclusively of the same level of decision-making marketing responsibility as our advisory board. As a result we screen all registrations to ensure that marketers who attend our events meet this criteria. Thanks for your understanding.

Little Grey Cells Club

Little Grey Cells Club

Marketing Clinic

We all think we solve challenges by considered choice and yet typically we are addressing habits, advice from authorities or copying our peers.

Happening In

Marketing Clinic