Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising

Send us a textJohn is an ECD at Digitas and the author of a new book, "Zombie Brands."In our conversation, we talked about his book and the why, what, and how behind the rise of the Zombie Brand.Some of John's quotes from our chat.On the state of advertising:"No one went to, no one got into advertising to make a banner ad. No one got into advertising to make a Facebook ad."On the shift from craft to quantity:"The bragging rights have been we're working with Ridley Scott on this 60-second Super Bowl spot. Now it was we're spending five cents."On viral marketing's false lessons:"We spent zero in paid media and just gamed the system to draw lots of attention to this stunt that doesn't really have much to do with the brand itself... I think it was actually terrible for the industry in terms of the lessons taken away."On performance marketing:"I think a lot of this is hamsters on a wheel. I don't see the evidence that all this activity is leading to growth."On the attention span myth:"If people really did have no attention span, like every planes would be crashing all over the place... You just said no one pays attention anymore and then you watched like 37 hours of TV."On the zombie brand concept:"Zombies are not quite human, right? They kind of seem human, but they're not. They're hollowed out. They all kind of look alike. They all sound alike. They all grunt kind of the same few phrases. And yeah, they sort of maniacally roam the earth like looking for clicks."On Starbucks destroying its brand:"The whole brand, when I worked on Starbucks at Ogilvy, find the brand as fostering connections between human beings. It wasn't about coffee at all... they've completely killed the goose."On the data-driven optimization problem:"They had beta tested their way into basically a big subscribe button. That's all it was. It was a button for people who already had made up their mind to subscribe."On short-term thinking and performance marketing:"You're robbing future Peter to pay present Paul. I might not want you now, but maybe I do in a year, maybe I do in years."https://zombie-brands.com/books/zombie-brands

Send us a textTom Garland founded Edition Partners, a London-based creative growth studio, in January 2023. His career spans record labels (Sony, Warner, Universal), Red Bull's experiential marketing peak, and seven years at Highsnobiety where he became Senior Director and Head of Strategy, working with over 100 brands before the Zalando acquisition. Edition emerged from research with 52 brand founders struggling with growth strategy. The studio has worked with Lacoste, Marni, Nike, Burberry, and the Rolling Stones.Tom recently wrote this incredible piece where he goes into detail on the launch of Satisfy's first shoe. https://edition.partners/articles/satisfy-therocker-footwear-launch-interviewHere are some of the main themes and quotes from our conversation, 1. The Street as Pre-Institutional CultureTom reframes "the street" not as a place but as culture before commercialization — where hip-hop became luxury fashion, skate became brand language, and grime became generational uniform:"Instead of thinking of it as kind of low culture, which pre-Virgil Abloh was how it was viewed in certain spaces, it's better to think of it as pre-institutional culture, where new meaning is created before the world catches up and spins it into a meme."2. Sport as the New Cultural Operating SystemJust as streetwear defined the 2010s, Tom argues sport is now the dominant platform for identity-building — creating opportunities in micro-niches from desert running to golf:"Sport is the new streetwear... Sport is now the platform for people to create their own subcultures, their own identities. People are switching out this idea of being a pretty influencer for being a trail runner, or indeed just finding their own hero stories."3. Culture is Built, Not BorrowedBrands cannot parachute into communities and expect credibility. Tom points to Red Bull's sustained investment across music and extreme sports, and Nike and ASICS's multi-year journeys earning legitimacy in skate:"You can't just parachute into skate or music or anything and expect credibility. It's those who commit long term."4. Product as StrategyIn a world of infinite choice and AI-flattened creativity, Tom believes differentiation comes from restraint and proof — not more content or collabs:"In a world where we've got infinite choice, the most powerful brand signal is just to have the best products, and that requires no advertising."5. Ask What Still MattersHis framing for 2026: stop chasing trends, start building institutions with a genuine point of view:"We need to desperately stop asking what's next and start asking what still matters... the next few years won't reward the loudest. It will reward the clearest."

Send us a textIntroductionJustin Rashidi is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at SeedX, a data-driven marketing and business consultancy approaching its tenth year. In this episode of Inspiring Futures, he talks about his unlikely path from biochemistry student to entrepreneur, the tutoring company that taught him everything, and how SeedX grew from freelancing for a dairy farm to working with Fortune 500 clients.Key Themes1. The Tutoring Company: An Accidental MBA Waitlisted for medical school, Justin moved to New York, worked as a busser and bartender, and started tutoring affluent families. That side gig became his real education—lead generation, CRM, sales pipelines, hiring. He sold the company, which he now regrets: "I wish I never sold that company... that was a great company." Everything he does at SeedX traces back to what he learned there.2. Problem-Solving as Growth After selling, Justin and co-founder Jacqueline freelanced for anyone who'd pay—starting with a dairy farm. "It wasn't like I set out to start this company. You solve enough problems, and then I found myself here."3. Quality of Revenue He prefers longer sales cycles with larger clients who think in five to ten year terms. "The quality of the revenue is better. These people want to work together for five years."4. Lead Generation as Core Competency Unlike agencies that wait for the phone to ring, SeedX actively generates leads. "I love when referrals happen, but I don't rely on referrals... we're out here generating the next lead tomorrow."5. Systems Thinking Justin calls himself a "systems kind of dude." If it costs $20,000 to acquire a customer who pays $50,000 a month, the math works. "I don't care if it costs $2,000 to get a meeting."6. Hiring for Passion He looks for people who read about SEO on Saturdays because it makes them happy. "What you actually want to hire for is people who want to be there."7. AI Realism He pushes back on AI as a silver bullet. "You're going to save 50%? That's unrealistic. You still need people."

Send us a textNeil Perkin is a consultant, author, and self-described polymath working at the intersection of strategy, digital transformation, emerging technology, and leadership. With roots in media transformation at Time Inc during the dot-com boom, Neil has spent the last 16 years helping organizations navigate change. He's authored three books on agility and transformation, and now writes extensively about how AI is reshaping the practice of strategy.In this conversation, Neil shares his perspective on what it really means to work with AI—not as a replacement for human thinking, but as something far more nuanced and powerful.Five Big Themes from Our Conversation1. AI as a Genuine Thought PartnerNeil argues that the real opportunity with AI isn't automation—it's augmentation of human thinking through continuous dialogue."How you can really use AI as a bit of a thought partner... it's like fully integrated into a strategy workflow, or any other kind of knowledge or thinking workflow, in ways where you're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between human and machine.""Ideally what you are aiming for here, of course, is you're getting to places that you couldn't have got to on your own. And that's the possibility with AI."2. The Danger of Cognitive OutsourcingNeil warns against the temptation to let AI do our thinking for us—what he calls "cognitive outsourcing"—and the hidden costs of "work slop.""This whole idea of cognitive outsourcing is a potentially big problem because if you are able to get the AI to do your thinking for you, you don't need to do any thinking, and thinking is hard.""It's a big temptation because it's good enough, but it's not good. And so the person, the recipient has to then redo the work and it takes longer to actually do that."3. Think, Prompt, ThinkBefore rushing to the AI, Neil advocates for starting with human clarity—a simple framework that changes everything."Think prompt think, basically. So the importance of actually just starting with humans. Before you go to the AI engine, just thinking about what it is you're trying to do, what good looks like... So you start basically with your perspective.""Starting with you and then you having clarity and much greater depth with how you're then going to the AI... means that you're actually integrating it in a way which is not cognitively outsourcing or not disengaging your brain."4. Five Roles AI Can PlayNeil offers a practical framework for understanding where AI fits—from full automation to human-led illumination."There's a model which I come back to a lot, which is just kind of like five sort of key roles that it can play... automator... decider... recommender... illuminator and evaluator. And they sort of balance human AI to different extent.""The illuminator part is where the AI is augmenting your thinking. It's illuminating things in a way that actually you hadn't seen things before."5. Don't View the New Through the Lens of the OldDrawing from his transformation experience, Neil cautions against the natural tendency to apply old mental models to revolutionary technology."I learned a lot about not looking at the new through the lens of the old, the need to kind of reinvent and redesign as well as use technology to optimize.""The first kind of versions of things were always kind of skeuomorphic... online magazines were like literally scans of pages of printed magazines. I think probably we're going to see a lot of that with AI."Find Neil:Substack: onlydeadfish.substack.comBlog: onlydeadfish.co.ukNamed after the Malcolm Muggeridge quote: "Only dea

Send us a textIt's always interesting to see what a network agency in a local market is capable of, especially at a moment in advertising history when geography matters less than it ever has. A few weeks back, I got a chance to sit down with Havas Chicago's Chief Strategy Officer, Chase Cornett, and Chief Creative Officer Frank Dattalo to talk about the change they're implementing as a leadership team that includes President Kat Ott. Our conversation was wide-ranging and covered their approach to thinking about the new duality of marketing today- a concept they call "High/Low", the importance of building brand, treating talent with kindness, and recognizing the power and the limitations of AI. 1. The Leadership Triad In 2025, Frank Dattalo joined President Kat Ott and Chief Strategy Officer Chase Cornett to rebuild Havas Chicago's creative, strategic, and cultural core. Together, they're positioning the agency as a modern, independent, culture-driven hub within the Havas network.Chase: "It's been great to come back to Chicago and reimagine what Havas Chicago can be, a modern agency with the freedom to build what's needed without red tape.Frank: "We knew what we didn't want to be, slow or rigid. We wanted a nimble, modern marketing approach with culture at the forefront.2. The 'High–Low' Model — Think Like a Brand, Act Like an InfluencerHavas Chicago's creative philosophy pairs strategic brand thinking ("high") with the speed, fluency, and emotional immediacy of creators ("low"). Inspired by fashion's high–low aesthetic, it merges rigor and agility to create culturally resonant brands.Frank: "Our north star is thinking like a brand but acting like an influencer or content creator.Chase: "This isn't agency fluff. It changes how we hire, how we make, and how we operate."3. Breaking Down Silos — The Feed as the New Brand CanvasHavas Chicago rejects the traditional divide between social, brand, and performance teams. Culture, not channel, drives brand growth, and the feed is where that happens.Chase: "Brand building starts and ends in the feed. If it's not in the feed, people aren't talking about it.Frank: "Networks separate social and strategy, we're building an agency that does both."4. Reclaiming Brand Building — Escaping the Performance TrapCornett frames the 2010s as the "gold-rush era of performance marketing," where brands traded long-term equity for short-term metrics. The new Havas model rebuilds meaning, pricing power, and emotional value.Chase: "Performance became the buzzword, and brand was painted into a corner as arts and crafts." "If you follow the efficiency train, you're racing yourself to the bottom."5. Culture, Kindness, and Creativity — Building a Human-Centered AgencyThe trio's internal philosophy blends high creative standards with genuine humanity. They aim to make Havas Chicago a place where talent thrives, not just performs.Frank: "It's not about being nice; it's about being kind. Be hard on the work, kind to people."Chase: "We've created mandatory maker hours; no meetings, just making."6. AI as Tool, Not Savior — Protecting Creativity's Human CoreBoth leaders embrace AI for speed and efficiency but reject its overuse. For them, imagination remains the irreplaceable differentiator.Frank: "AI is like a bionic arm; powerful, but it doesn't have a creative point of view."

Send us a textA few months ago, in the middle of summer, I got a chance to sit down with Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, to talk about his brand new book, "The Running Ground." We got to talk about the book—what inspired it, how he approached it, and how he managed to create a compelling narrative. So this is a podcast episode about running, but it's also about writing and about the challenges of telling a good story.Nick's journalism career started at the Washington Monthly when he was around 24 or 25, working as a political journalist. From there, he moved to Wired magazine as an editor, then to the New Yorker, where he eventually ran the website, learning the business side of journalism. This led to his role as editor-in-chief of Wired before becoming CEO of The Atlantic, which was founded in 1857.But Nick is also a serious runner. In his mid-40s, Nike reached out to him as part of a program pairing non-elite runners with elite coaches. Through this process, he discovered he had talent he hadn't tapped into—his coaches realized that part of his problem was a fear of running fast, a mental block about what he could achieve. They had to "trick" him into going faster. The result was dramatic: he dropped his marathon time from 2:43 to 2:29, and eventually set an American record in the 50K at age 45, running 3:04.The book was originally going to be structured like a marathon and, of course, it was going to have 26 chapters, but then the chronology made no sense. The advice he got from a writer friend is that he needed to take the reader "deep inside the mind of the runner," and importantly, another bit of advice: "you have to make us care" and "you have to make us care about you." Where he ended up is an original and intriguing concept where he manages to weave his life, his father's life, and five other running characters together into a story. Once he had something, there was a process of editing out the unimportant stuff to focus on what mattered.The spark for the book was his father's death—on a plane back from his funeral, he wrote a 5,000-word letter to his three kids telling the story of their grandfather. This became the starting point, but he ended up telling his dad's story, his story, and also the stories of the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, his coach who had a story of addiction and recovery, his running partner who was homeless at one point in pursuit of her dream, a runner who developed Parkinson's, and another runner who has won a 3,100-mile race nine years in a row.As the Washington Monthly wrote in its review: "The Running Ground crackles with big ideas about intergenerational inheritance, the power of love and forgiveness, the inevitability of aging, the mind-body connection, and the value of hard work. The memoir's intertwined stories—Thompson's relationship with his father alongside Thompson's own journey as a marathon runner hitting his stride midlife—are compelling narratives."

Send us a textBrandon runs strategy at Trade School which is the creative agency which was born out of 22squared in 2020.The agency's clients include- Makita, Home Depot, Shark Ninja, Publix and Advent Health. Brandon's experience includes time at Campbell-Ewald/Detroit after which he joined West Wayne in Atlanta, which became 22 Squared. In our conversation, we talked about the evolving role of marketing, the importance of brands and brand meaning, and how AI is shifting and re-shaping the shopping journey.Here are some of Brandon's soundbites from the podcast. “We are a dopamine-driven ephemeral society. That is very difficult for brands. And I think that's why you see a lot of brands chasing attention.”“Brands are having a hard time creating memory structures because they're chasing attention. People just don't remember any ads at all. I think only 4% of ads are recalled three days later.”“Our agency spends a lot of time, and it's probably because we've, we, we work with a bunch of complicated, multiple-location, retail-type brands, but from hospitals to banks to grocery stores to home improvement stores. We spend so much time doing the internal work, the alignment, the branding campaigns internally, getting people rallied around the heart of the brand and how they live it.”“The whole product and brand discovery process is getting completely changed by AI. We're going to have to re-engineer our journeys and what we invest in and our technology in terms of it's no longer about search engine optimization. It's about content. It's about making things discoverable for AI, all these things, right? But the thing that I think will matter more than anything is going to be the brand meaning.”“For a long time, we've associated brand with frivolous type advertising and communications that are a luxury to have. Brand is an operating system for companies. It’s not a new thought, but it's a true thought. A mental organizing form for action, which is how people think about the world and about the category you're in and about the actions that they take and what it means for them.”

Send us a text5 Things I learned from talking to Kelsey Hodgkin- CEO-Special US In my conversation for the Inspiring Futures podcasts that spans London, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles, Kelsey Hodgkin — CEO and Partner at Special U.S. — maps out how a strategist becomes a leader without losing her strategic soul. Founded in 2007 in Auckland, New Zealand, Special Group began in an old cinema and is now an independent global network with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, New York, and London. Below are the 5 things I learned from our conversation. 1. Working in Turmoil Teaches ResourcefulnessWorking in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s economic turmoil taught Hodgkin a counterintuitive truth: when money becomes meaningless, creative output becomes everything.“It’s sort of this two-year experience of what it’s like to actually live somewhere where money and capitalism isn't the driving force. It’s much more about the creative output. You have to be really resourceful.”2. She Reframes Strategy as Living Beyond The Brief-Writing MachineWhile some agencies treat strategy as a creative-brief factory, Hodgkin articulates a more ambitious vision.“Strategy at its best is either upstream — really understanding the commercial side of the business — or downstream in the media complexity… being able to turn a big idea into an even bigger idea.”3. She Named the Real Challenge: ‘Our clients are in a "washing machine"Instead of complaining about client chaos, Hodgkin sees opportunity in the turbulence.“The unpredictability, the uncertainty… having strategists that can really understand that commercial reality… being able to be in there with them every day.”4. She Makes The Case For Agencies As Counter-CultureAt a time when agencies increasingly mirror their corporate clients, Hodgkin argues for resistance.“The job of agencies is to be countercultural — questioning of the mainstream and contrarian… if it becomes part of the machine it’s trying to change, then it’s less valuable in being able to change.”5. She Redefines Leadership As Creative CurationHodgkin sees the planner’s superpower — pattern recognition, empathy, orchestration — as the foundation for modern leadership.“As a planner, my strength was more curation than creation — helping greatness happen through others. That’s what leading an agency is.”In a challenged ad agency world, Hodgkin offers a roadmap: be resourceful, stay close to the chaos, protect creativity from corporatization, and lead by shaping the conditions for others to do their best work.

Send us a textWhile most of us are obsessed with the creative and strategy side of the business, the harsh reality is that agencies succeed or fail based on their operational competence. For this recent episode of Inspiring Futures, I spent time talking to Nick Avaria. Nick has owned his own agency, and he also buys agencies and consults with them to help them improve operations. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation. The agency landscape has transformed. Where generalist agencies once dominated through geographic proximity, today's winners are specialized, systematized, and financially disciplined.The Numbers that Matter Agency finances are simple: Revenue minus pass-through costs equals Agency Gross Income (AGI). People costs should consume maximum 45% of AGI (30% billable, 15% admin). SG&A should range 20-25%. This formula yields 30-35% profit margins—increasingly achievable in today's remote-first environment.According to Nick, most agencies fail by providing "Michelin star service at McDonald's prices." The solution isn't cutting quality but is all about being able to align price with value.Specialization to Survive In 2012, only 20% of agencies were specialized; today it's 70%. Specialists command premium pricing because they deliver results in weeks, not months. They skip expensive discovery phases, leveraging "institutional knowledge"—accumulated expertise that becomes an unassailable moat.The agency handling only Google Ads for personal injury lawyers doesn't need three months of strategy. They know what works. This expertise enables premium pricing while reducing delivery time.The Operations Gap Most agencies are "relationship driven, not systems driven." Every handoff fails.Every project reinvents wheels. Results: inconsistent quality, evaporating margins.The fix requires two feedback loops: systematized client experience (onboarding, expectations, education) and standardized delivery (dashboards, SOPs, training). These unglamorous systems separate scalable agencies from those that implode.What It Takes to Be Sold For maximum valuation: maintain 30-35% profit margins while growing AGI 30-35% annually. Achieve $1M+ EBITDA for 6-9x multiples.Build 2+ year client retention. Create owner-independent systems.Winners have transformed from creative shops into operationally excellent businesses. They've chosen their lane—vertical, service, or both—and built expertise others can't match.What it TakesToday, rewards neither generalists nor operational chaos behind creative brilliance. Success requires specialized expertise, systematic delivery, positioning, and financial discipline.Agencies can't thrive on talent alone. They need systems capturing talent's impact, positioning commanding appropriate pricing, and discipline ensuring every dollar builds a sellable asset. Creative magic still matters, but it has to be wrapped in a sound business model.

Send us a textThe latest Inspiring Futures podcast on better briefs and creative development featured a different format - instead of a typical one-on-one conversation, I gathered together an expert panel to examine and explore the issue.Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul von Weiler - From Better Briefs. Former creative agency strategists with two decades of experience working on thousands of briefs. They've published studies on brief writing and idea assessment, and now work with BetterBriefs, helping major brands create more effective briefs.Jeremy Diamond - Worked at major London agencies before moving to New York in 2000 to join Ogilvy & Mather. In 2004, he founded Distillery, a brand strategy consultancy, and has worked on a myriad of clients, including Diageo, Campbell's, Cox Communications, IHG, Holiday Inn, American Express, and AON.Tom Noble - A highly experienced global marketer and advertising strategist with extensive experience as a senior marketer and agency exec. Tom's experience includes Nike, adidas, BMW, MINI, AFL, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, and Fiat.Why this particular group? Matt and Pieter-Paul don't just theorize about brief problems - their research for the World Advertising Federation exposes the serious disconnect between clients and agencies, and they're in the trenches helping brands fix it. Tom and Jeremy have felt this pain firsthand across agency, client, and consulting roles. The combination gives us both the data on what's wrong and the real-world knowledge on how things could be better.