Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising

The latest Inspiring Futures episode is all about "Futures".My guest is Donna Dupont, Chief Strategist, Foresight and Design at Purple Compass.As the Founder and Chief Strategist in Foresight & Design for Purple Compass, Donna Dupont brings skills and insights developed over 20 years working with leaders in healthcare, emergency management, government public policy, strategic planning and program design. She has facilitated a range of foresight and design activities for clients in healthcare, emergency management and military.In the conversation, we talk about the world of "Futures" what it is, what it isn't, the skills required, the approaches, and some of the challenges involved. 

The latest episode of Inspiring Futures features an excerpt from a webinar I hosted with Brent Vartan of Bullish. Brent began his career as a strategist at shops that included- BBDO and Deutsch. Bullish was founded in 2016 with the promise of bringing ad agency expertise, including strategy, to the start-up world. The company describes its approach as "blending capital, consulting, and creation to design the most remarkable businesses in the world."In our conversation, I spoke with Brent about the pivotal role that strategy and strategists play in this space. It's a world where strategists work upstream, partnering with CEOs and founders to shape their brands in ways that are aligned with their vision and expedient to their needs and culture. We dive into what this entails and what it takes to get it right.

Mark is the co-founder of Squint Consulting. Before Squint, Mark was an experienced Head of Strategy working with clients like Nike, Netflix, Samsung, and Diageo. His career spanned New York, London, and Amsterdam and he spent his formative years at R/GA, the world’s leading digital innovation firm.In our conversation, we talked about his experience at R/GA, why he wants to be a "brand," not just a "freelancer," working with companies that, after 5-10 years, are finding they've reached the "plateau" with performance marketing and now need to think more deeply about their brand, his work with Olipop and how happiness is an important new space for brands today. 

YAMA Group was founded in 2009 and has steadily built a reputation as one of the leading small, independent pharma shops in the world. It has worked on brands including Botox, Humira, and Keytruda and works with Takeda, AbbVie, and Pfizer. It's a highly creative agency that works across all aspects of pharma marketing including efforts to reach specialists and has developed its unique products for these interactions involving the creation of "digital patients.In my conversation with Martin and Michelle- we discuss the world of pharma marketing, look at what matters in the space, and how the agency differentiates itself and has created its own unique culture. This is an agency that grew its revenue an astonishing 67% in 2023. 

My latest Inspiring Futures podcast episode features an interview with Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel.Anastasia is a cultural theorist, writer, social critic, and strategist specializing in inclusivity within marketing, media, and tech. She earned her doctorate in cultural studies from Duke University and is now using her expertise to help brands ignite cultural innovation and leverage the power of media for good. Dr. Gabriel is the author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers, published by Kogan Page in March 2024.She has consulted for the world’s largest brands at research and creative agencies like Wieden+Kennedy, Dentsu Creative, McCann New York, Kantar, and Canvas8 and been featured by the American Marketing Association, the Association of National Advertisers, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Advertising Week, Campaign US, Teen Vogue, and others,In our conversation, we talked about her early years and upbringing in Latvia and her school experience in Hong Kong. We talked about what culture means to her, how she thinks about it, and its importance. 

The latest episode of Inspiring Futures features an interview with Julianna Katrancha- Group Strategy Director at Johannes Leonardo. This is one of my favorite interviews because Julianna dives into the learnings from her journey from a media planner to a senior strategist. She talks about her periods and moments of doubt, and how committed and focused she is on carrying the practices and principles that deliver strategies with impact. We talk about what those are. How you cope with the challenges agencies face today and some thoughts on what it means to manage teams. 

The latest Inspiring Futures episode features an interview with Allen Adamson of Metaforce. Allen is a seasoned executive with experience client side at Unilever and in the agency world with the likes of Landor, Y&R, and Ogilvy. He has taken his extensive experience in both worlds to build his own consulting company that's focused on helping clients solve their problems but does it in a very different way to the classic ad agency model. 

The latest Inspiring Futures podcast is a discussion with Joe Nash and Patrick Kizny about the current and future state of creative services and creative studios. Joe was formerly the Director of Business Strategy at Buck and the co-founder of Slate. Patrick runs Futurecrafting which provides strategic advisory services to brands and companies and has an extensive background as a creative director, art director, and technical/software specialist. In our chat, we talk about the evolution/revolution that is taking place and how companies need to think about and prepare for the future. 

The latest episode of the Inspiring Futures podcast features an interview with Lori Bartle of Cultivagency. Lori has over two decades of experience in Account Management although she much prefers to call it Account Leadership.In our conversation, we discuss some of the challenges the discipline faces and the critical importance of a role that brings a deep understanding and knowledge of a client's business to the table. As you will hear, Lori is an extremely passionate advocate of the discipline. 

The latest episode of Inspiring Futures features an interview with Tom Suharto, Global Strategy Lead at Forsman & Bodenfors. Tom started in market research (quant) worked with Hall and Partners and helped to establish their office in Shanghai and then on to Wieden in Shanghai to work on Nike, Disneyland, and then to the Portland office to work on Nike and Samsung.He's been at Forsman & Bodenfors for four years. In our conversation, we talked about his learning journey; his experience working in China, the culture and DNA of Forsman, and how he's developed the strategy practice at the agency.