Sleeping Barber - A Marketing Podcast SBP 168: The Barber's Brief - Marketers beware! Less is not more.
In this week’s Barber’s Brief, Marcc and Vassili unpack four timely stories that cut to the heart of modern marketing leadership: strategy clarity, AI’s real role in organizations, and why going small in marketing is often the riskiest move of all.
The conversation starts with a sharp diagnosis of “strategy anxiety”—the condition where everything is labelled a priority, trade-offs disappear, and teams are left busy but directionless. From there, they examine why many organizations are stuck using AI to make marketing cheaper, not more valuable, and why that mindset risks turning marketing into a disposable cost center rather than a strategic function.
The episode then tackles the growing backlash against “less is more” marketing, drawing on effectiveness research that shows scale, reach, and creative boldness still matter—even in a world obsessed with efficiency dashboards.
They close with Ad of the Week, spotlighting Petro-Canada’s “No Time to Hibernate” Winter Games campaign, breaking down why distinctive assets, emotion, and long-term creative commitment still outperform cautious, forgettable work.
If you’re feeling pulled in too many directions, overwhelmed by priorities, or pressured to optimize your way to growth, this episode offers a much-needed reset.
Key Takeaways
- If everything is a priority, you don’t have a strategy.
- Strategy requires exclusion. Anxiety fills the gap when leaders avoid hard choices.
- Activity is not clarity. More dashboards, roadmaps, and urgency don’t replace direction—they often create noise.
- AI used only for efficiency shrinks marketing’s importance. Making content cheaper doesn’t make marketing more valuable or more defensible.
- AI is moving from experimentation to infrastructure.Organizations that fail to move from tools to orchestration risk building tech debt, not advantage.
- “Less is more” is often a trap.Small, fragmented marketing doesn’t reduce risk—it guarantees invisibility.
- Reach, scale, and salience still drive growth. Efficiency metrics are useful, but they don’t replace business outcomes.
- Brand vs. performance is a false dichotomy. Every marketing activity builds the brand—customers experience one system, not silos.
- Great campaigns compound over time. Distinctive assets and creative consistency matter more than short-term optimization.
Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 – Welcome to the Barber’s Brief - What caught Marc and V’s attention this week.
01:00 – Strategy Anxiety: When Everything Is a Priority - Why lack of focus creates burnout, reactivity, and execution without confidence.
04:45 – Strategic Drift and the Cost of Avoiding Hard Choices - Why exclusion matters as much as inclusion in real strategy.
06:40 – AI, Davos, and the Efficiency Trap - Why using AI to do “more with less” risks shrinking marketing’s role.
09:15 – From AI Pilots to Enterprise Infrastructure - How AI becomes tech debt without orchestration and outcomes.
11:45 – Less Is Not More: Why Marketing Needs Scale - Why cautious, fragmented spend often delivers the worst ROI.
14:45 – Efficiency Metrics vs. Business Outcomes - The danger of optimizing dashboards instead of growth.
16:30 – Brand vs. Performance: A False Divide - Why all marketing builds the brand—and why silos hurt effectiveness.
18:30 – Ad of the Week: Petro-Canada’s ‘No Time to Hibernate’ - A breakdown of emotion, distinctive assets, and long-term creative value.
22:45 – What’s Coming Next on the Podcast - Upcoming episodes and closing thoughts.
Show Links:
If Everything Is a Priority, You Don’t Have a Strategy
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/everything-priority-you-dont-have-strategy-anxiety-g-douglas-x0wae/
What most marketers missed at Davos
Link: https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/what-most-marketers-missed-at-davos
Less is not more: Marketers ‘must go big or go home’
Link: https://www.decisionmarketing.co.uk/news/less-is-not-more-marketers-must-go-big-or-go-home
Stop saying ‘brand marketing’, it’s one half of a false dichotomy
Link: https://www.marketingweek.com/stop-brand-marketing-false-dichotomy/
Ad of the Week
Petro-Canada / It's No Time To Hibernate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfGXYpTG_LU
https://lbbonline.com/news/Petro-Canada-Milano-Cortina-Olympic-Paralympic-Winter-Games-2026-Campaign