Russel Wohlwerth | Co-author, Buying Less For Less

MarPro - The Marketing Procurement Podcast

This week on MarPro our guest is Russel Wohlwerth the co-author of "Buying Less For Less" a must-read for all marketing and advertising professionals and for all procurement pros who touch the marketing space!
In addition to being an author, Russel has been advising companies around the world on all aspects of marketing agency supplier management. He is a serial entrepreneur who was an owner of Select Resources, a founding partner of Ark Advisors, and founder of External View. Russel is also on the staff of London-based Alchemists, a marketing consultancy.

Russel started his career as a copywriter but discovered his true calling was in account management. His first job was with McCann Erickson but he spent the majority of his advertising career at DDB where he was a Senior Vice President, Group Account Director. Russel was also a digital pioneer joining one of the first interactive agencies in 1994.

Russel’s consulting approach was profoundly shaped by his experience working on several accounts that were in the throes of deregulation and structural change – airlines, healthcare, telecommunications, banking, and energy. Working in uncharted territory and creating solutions for never-seen-before problems has proven to be a great foundation for helping companies cope with the volatility of modern marketing.

While best known as a “search consultant” because of the 250+ searches he has conducted, Russel sees marketing agency supplier management as a complex system involving much more than just firing and hiring agencies. Although he has conducted searches accounting for billions of dollars in billings, Russel’s greatest achievements have been revitalizing client-agency relationships, reengineering marketing departments and agency rosters, and bringing sanity to the marketing procurement discipline.
Russel’s clients include Activision Blizzard, Adobe, BMW, GSK, Hallmark, HP, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Major League Soccer, Nintendo, National Football League, Oracle, Porsche, Pringles, Sanofi, SAP, Charles Schwab, Sunkist, Toyota, Visa, VW, Wells Fargo Bank, and many others. Russel has conducted more than 30 complex global consulting assignments and searches including several prominent international media reviews.

Russel is an active supporter of industry trade associations. In addition to his involvement with the 4A’s, he also works with the American Marketing Association (AMA), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), and the World Advertising Federation (WAF).