As M&M Global marks its 25th anniversary, Ben Wood, global CEO at iProspect, shares his experiences over the past quarter century.

If you turned back the clock 25 years what were you doing?

I’d have been 14, so I figure I would have been generally railing against the machine at boarding school in Shropshire.

Who has had the biggest influence on your career in the last 25 years?

Different people at different times. In my formative years at BLM Steve Booth ensured I grew a thick skin; Charlie Dobres and Andrew Wamlsley saw that I understood the importance of entrepreneurial culture at i-Level; Jeremy Miles and Helen Calcraft showed me the importance of great work and undiluted client focus at MCBD and at Aegis (now DAN), while Rob Horler and latterly Mark Cranmer have been calm and measured guides and mentors as I’ve built the iProspect business globally.

What is the best piece of advice – life or work – that you have been given?

It’s a touch clichéd – but ‘do as you would be done by’ is about the best motto for any organisation where people are the most important asset.

What person, service, company and product do you think has had the most influential effect on media in the last 25 years?

Google. No competition. In so many ways it has rewritten the rules. From what effective advertising is and looks like, to the way that advertising should be traded (remember search was programmatic before we even talked about ‘programmatic’), to the dynamic between buy and sell side, to the role of technology and data in the ecosystem. We are lucky enough to be a huge global partner, and without Google there would be no iProspect.

If you could turn back the clock 25 years what would you change about yourself or the industry?

I’d see that we collectively waged a more effective war on the needless complexity and bull **** that seems to have infected digital media. I would also ensure that the silo’s – digital, media, creative, above and below the line didn’t exist. They get in the way of big integrated ideas.

If you were a betting person what, or who do you think will have the biggest influence on global media in the next 25 years?

Google. The company is not slowing down. Oh, and those guys at Facebook, they don’t seem to be doing a bad job either.

What is your favourite advertising campaign of the last 25 years?

Compare the Market. Simples.