Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising

Last month, I sat down for a conversation with Ian Murray- the co-founder of Burst Your Bubble. Ian has no shortage of contrarian views on everything from media and the current vogues in marketing to what strategists need to be doing in their work.To give you a flavor of the conversation- here are some soundbites.On Media "TV still produces the strongest signals in terms of what we call fitness, which is things like signaling a brand's quality, reliability, financial strength, and success.""Young people have the same response pattern on signaling as older generations. So they're watching less TV, but it has no lesser cultural impact for them."Findings from research conducted for Essence   The Problem with Niches "How do you build culture through these incredibly fragmented, personalized niches? You've no idea if anybody else is seeing the same thing you."People Want to Conform"It's not driven necessarily by niches. People aren't always looking to stand out and define themselves as different from others. They are, but it's not necessarily the dominant thing they're doing. A lot about what the mainstream are doing is they want to belong, they want to be the same as other people.”Strategists- Look More Closely at What's Around You"You are stepping over the stuff, you know, that you're ignoring on your way to the agency in the morning, you know when you're waiting for your street food at lunchtime in the market. You don't have to go 500 miles to see it's right in front of your eyes."The conversation is full of interesting perspectives on what the industry should be doing and how we can do our strategy jobs with a level of integrity.  

Jae Goodman is unique. He worked on Madison Avenue. He has a deep understanding of brands. He knows Hollywood, and he understands the power of culture and celebrity.  Jae has experienced these worlds throughout his career, which spanned the likes of Wieden and Kennedy, CAA, and the creation of his agency- Observatory, and now his consulting company, Superconnector Studios.In our conversation, we discussed the similarities between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the importance of relationships and community in Hollywood, the changing landscape for brands and communication, and what creatives and strategists need to focus their efforts on today. We also briefly touch on proprietary tools that allow his clients to see the intersection of brands, culture, and celebrity. 

Amy Daroukakis, a cultural strategist, discusses the importance of curiosity and human touch in a tech-driven world. She explores the impact of AI on society and emphasizes the value of cultural understanding in driving creativity and business decisions. The conversation also touches on disparities in London, quirky facts about Berlin, and the evolving landscape of marketing in a hyperreal UK socioeconomic context.

Peter Spear started his career at Tattoo in San Francisco, where he fell in love with qualitative research and has been a practitioner ever since. We discussed the importance of talking to people to learn the hows and whys that data can't explain. How, in recent times, talking to strangers has become a challenge, and how to overcome those challenges.  In short, this episode celebrates the art of qualitative research and advocates for it in a world that is seemingly becoming more data and machine-obsessed with less time and interest in understanding people and their thoughts, values, ideas, and motivations. 

Last December, I recorded a podcast with Keely Adler, who heads up Futures at Dentsu Creative. This was before the agency's huge T-Mobile win, in which Keely played a huge part. In this conversation, we talked about how she sees the discipline of "Futures" (what it is and what it isn't) and its role in strategy and for clients. Keely is also on the core team of the RADAR group, which is a fascinating group of futurists and those interested in the future. It's a DAO, which makes it somewhat unique as an organization, and its purpose is to promote "futures" thinking and to create reports on the topic. The most recent RADAR report is "Our Centaur Future" which RADAR describe as..... "At the convergence of man and machine lies Our Centaur Future. But what shape should that convergence take? Yes, this is about AI... but we’re going well beyond that. In the now, the near, and the next, it’s clear that we’ll be living (working, playing, learning, and creating) with more human-like technology than we’ve ever dealt with before. What does this mean for our relationship with technology? For our relationship with our humanity? For how we think about the physical, the digital, and the spaces in between?"

Back in November, I had a fascinating conversation with Laura Hutlfess, the co-founder of FlyteVu. FlyteVu is an entertainment marketing agency based in Nashville. Laura has a talent management background and worked for CAA before branching out independently. In our conversation, we talked about her background, the type of work the agency does, the importance of agility and nimbleness, her perspective on talent, working with start-ups, and what it means to lead as a founder. FlyteVu's clients include- Amazon, Jack Daniels, Bumble, and Victoria's Secret. 

A few weeks back, I got to talk to Neal Mann.Neal has had a fascinating career. Working in the literal frontlines of journalism, he got to experience the pressures and realities of getting stories out to the world before your competitors. He was an early advocate and power user of digital platforms like Twitter and understood the transformations happening to news and journalism. He spent time helping News Corp and Dow Jones with their digital transformations and at Anomaly, where he was Director of Content and Global Head of Transformation. Neal has recently relocated from the US to Portugal, where he now works as the co-founder of NOAN, a start-up that uses AI to empower millions of small business owners to compete with the big guys. 

Joe Carter spent time working in independent ad agencies in the UK, landed a sales job at Contagious, became enamored with Colenso BBDO,  arranged to have lunch with the agency MD, brought a one-way ticket to Auckland,  got a job in new biz at Colenso and then went on to be a co-founder of a company that makes cast pans- The Ironclad Pan Company.In the podcast, I talk to Joe about his journey, what he's learned, and his plans for the future.It's a required listen for anyone working in advertising who wants to take a shot at building a brand and business from scratch. 

The latest episode of the Inspiring Futures podcast features an interview with Katie Dreke. Katie has spent time with the likes of 180, Wieden Kennedy, Droga5, and Nike (7 years), and three years ago, she embarked on her journey as a consultant, which was when we last spoke.  We talked about her biggest learnings over the three years- such as unpacking and understanding her skills and capabilities and what she can offer her clients. Her fascination and interest in "futures" work and how it's become more relevant these days. Understanding that the future will be complex, we must look to the positives, technological advances, and the opportunities it presents.  How can brands navigate their way to this new future?How can they be the authors of their narratives?It also took us into the world of "Unknown- Unknowns" as the place to think about and where you can explore the most exciting questions and opportunities. And how a strategist has the power to look and poke through the system/ecosystem of pieces to find the "lightbulb that needs to be changed to make the world brighter."We also touched upon awards shows and how agencies should think beyond them to offer their core capabilities to solve problems meaningfully, and perhaps it means competitive agencies working together. There was also some discussion around the analogy of the contemporary brand as "the body"..............some parts need to move past, some parts need to move slowly, some parts need fixing, and some weak empathy muscles, etc...All in all, it was an inspiring and fascinating conversation with lots of food for thought. 

The latest Inspiring Futures podcast features an interview with George Prest.George started his career in the creative department of BBH and moved on to creative director roles at Lowe. He was early to understand the power of digital transformation and was Global Executive Creative Director at R/GA and, most recently, a partner at the Brandtech Group.In the podcast, we discuss his career trajectory, embrace of digital, and fondness for strategy and creative problem-solving. His most recent experience as a consultant has included thinking about the issues around brand purpose, which we discuss in the episode, and how it became a springboard to his involvement in local politics in the UK.