Tim Healey, founder of Little Grey Cells, unpacks his thinking around Little Grey Cells and reflects on the last year of events.
Why did you launch Little Grey Cells Club?
Little Grey Cells exists so that senior marketers can get the support they need to ensure that they make their marketing the best it can be. We’ve had an amazing first year – powered by our stellar advisory board and amazing community.
When do the world’s most senior marketers get the opportunity to meet and then share experiences and expertise? Marketers bump into each other at conferences and marketing events, but rarely are they on a table where the others sat around them are the key decision makers for the biggest brands.
And even more rarely do senior marketers get time to chat with their peers, seek advice or offer their own expertise. Our community attends our Little grey Cells Club events to improve their marketing knowledge and network with the best in an open and welcoming environment that fosters support and excellence.
How did you end up in Marketing?
My past includes 20 years in the music industry as a DJ/Music producer, label owner and artist manager. I was fortunate enough to start producing electronic dance music in the early ’90s, and my music got released on a load of underground labels. Suddenly, I was on a plane most weekends DJing at clubs and festivals across the world. If there was a way to make money from music, I had a go. I produced club tunes, scored car adverts, worked with Jason Donovan, Liberty X and remixed Gwen Stefani. I also got to tour countries like Japan and Brazil extensively, playing at festivals like Burning Man, Glastonbury, Fusion and Fuji Rock.
Next I spent years as a creative and then creative director working in ad agencies, like McCann and with Google Creative Labs for brands as diverse as BMW and Disney. Then I moved “up the chain” to marketing. I upskilled by doing all 3 of the Mark Ritson mMBA courses and worked as a fractional marketing director for a variety of businesses.
How did the move to curating events for the UK’s most senior marketers come about?
In my time as a fractional CMO I wanted to work more closely with the most recognisable brands. To do this I began to interview the most senior marketers that I could get hold of, and then get those interviews published. I quickly built a network of the most experienced and talented marketers in the UK.
There was (and continues to be) a commonality between all the interviews. Everyone had their own amazing career path and insights, but I sensed that it can be lonely at the top. If you are a CMO who do you go to for advice? Who can you ask if (god forbid) you need to change your advertising agency?
I realised there was a real need for events where senior marketers can learn from each other and make great connections with their peers. Also at these events, the delegates must not be sold to – because there are too many events that already do that. Working closely with my team, we created a “sacred space” for senior marketers with our quarterly breakfast briefings.
I still interview CMOs from the world’s biggest brands, on both sides of the Atlantic, each week, and the interviews are published by The Drum every Monday. Some of the insights that are shared with me are inspirational. A personal favourite last year was from renowned brand director and academic Ana Andjelic: “Brand is the emotion you feel that separates your product from being a commodity.”
What have been the highlights in the last year?
Honestly: it has been seeing the community grow. Seeing marketers connect outside of our events and become friends and colleagues – and chat on linked. Or catching up with a senior marketer, and suggesting the connect with another LGC community member – only to be told they have already met them at the last event and have subsequently met for several coffees. That is life-affirming and convinces me that all the effort we put into our events worthwhile.
I have also learned much from the community and our guest speakers and guest curators. We’ve worked with some amazing venues and we’ve invited successful marketers, strategists, comedians and historians to speak to our delegates at our events.
Our guest curators Dom Dwight (Taylors/Yorkshire Tea), Cecila Weckstrom (LEGO) have been great, as have our fireside chat guests Sarah Barron (Dominos) and Kerttu Inkeroinen (Lucky Saint). Our panellists have covered a wide-range of industries and all stepped up to moderate their tables and add their expertise to our events.
We’ve also had some amazing feedback from our members. Like these: “There’s nowhere else where I get to meet such interesting and accomplished marketers,”“I learned more in 3 hours at LGC than I did at the last 3 day conference that I attended,” and “Such interesting insights, perspectives and shared experience – you don’t get this when sitting in your own role or attending adhoc events.”
I hope we continue to get feedback like that. But we are not resting on our laurels. We are always keen to get honest feedback from the community and we are always open to suggestions as to how we can improve our events.
What’s new in 2025 for the community?
Alongside our 4 events in 2025, we’ve some great new initiatives:
FreeWheel Beach at Cannes – we’re still locking in the precise details (guest speakers et al), but if you’re going to be at Cannes this year – make sure you arrive Monday morning at the latest as we are taking over the FreeWheel Beach with amazing speakers, focusing on helloing marketing leaders to be their best-selves from 17:30 on 16 June.
The “OM” Sessions – this is being led by our LGC event director Fiona Cullen. She’s curating a series of meet-ups for women in marketing kicking off in 2025 spring.
Engage, Don’t Broadcast: Content Marketing in the AI Era – we’re delivering our first LGC report for the community in February 2025, with our partner Adobe Express.
Accountability Sessions – our first group started in Autumn 2024. And we’re looking to create more. Senior marketers really get loads from these sessions where the wisdom of the group trouble-shoots challenges.
What do you think is the secret to your success?
Having a great team around you, empowering them and then letting them do their own thing – within a framework. I couldn’t have created Little Grey Cells without Fiona Cullen (our event director), Andrew Maximov (our photographer and videographer), Emanuele D’Amico (our CRM wizard), and Caroline McQueen our web designer.
There has been support from Chris healey and Oliver Ramirez and I’ve also have amazing guidance from the Little Grey Cells Advisory board – who have all offered their expertise and counsel as we continue to shape our community and the events that we offer.
Ultimately we exist because we want to help senior marketers continue to refine and optimise their work, but in a convivial and fun environment. We don’t take our amazing community for granted, we need to keep delivering quality events, in exciting locations with great speakers.
If you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see at an LGC event or ideas for future community activities – get in touch with fiona@littlegreycells.club
