The Inspiring Futures podcast has been on hiatus for the past few months. In that period, a few recordings made last year never made it out into the public airwaves, which is an absolute disgrace. One such recording was an interview I did with Sophie Ozouz, the co-founder of Kin. Kin is a purpose-focused agency with offices in NY and Los Angeles. Sophie founded the agency with a former colleague Kwame Taylor Hayford. In the interview, I discuss Sophie's background as a strategist,  her experiences working at Sid Lee, their motivations for starting her own shop, their work at Kin, and some general discussion on brands and purpose. Kin was named Ad Age's Purpose Agency of the Year in 2022

Vasanth is a polymath- he's a creative director, but he's also an author, he has an engineering background is a graduate of computer engineering and started his career as a digital consultant. Somehow he saw the light, transitioned to copywriting, and has held numerous jobs with JWT, Wunderman, Edelman, and Sapient-Razorfish.  Vasanth also spent time in the halls of one of the most respected creative departments on the planet- BBDO NY. He worked on the likes of  P&G (Gillette), J&J (Splenda, Lactaid), GE, Mars, and Emirates Airlines.For the past four years, he's been running his shop, The Sunny Side, which aims to disrupt large agencies and make the combination of quality, speed, and price work. It seems to be paying dividends as the agency has picked up business from Sephora, Castrol, Novartis, and P&G.  In our conversation, we talk about his background, career, his work at BBDO, the similarities and differences between Asian markets, and bringing speed and skill to some of the biggest clients in the world. 

A few weeks back I was fortunate to chat with Neel Williams - Group Creative Director at the Martin Agency. Neel runs all things creative on the massive GEICO account. I couldn't beat the brilliant intro Neel has on his website, so I decided it was simplest to just cut and paste it."I am a copywriter by trade, Group Creative Director by title and gumbo-lover by birth. I graduated from Yale University, majoring in Art History. After attending The Creative Circus and working in Atlanta & New York, my wife and I moved to Richmond, Virginia.Since then I’ve made a lot of fun stuff at The Martin Agency, helped write two nationally published books, invented a high-five machine, grown two mediocre moustaches, fathered two outstanding children, founded a modern fairytale podcast, and sang lyrics about Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Boyz II Men."In the episode- we discuss Neel's early motivations to be a strategist, how he shifted into the creative domain, the importance of inspiration, improvisation with boundaries, the importance and role of strategy on the GEICO account, and the challenge of finding new ideas when you've already done most of the ones that are available. 

Bonnie Wan has been working at Goodby since 1998.  In 2022, she was named Advertising Age/Creativity Chief Strategy Officer of the Year.She started her career at Weiss, Whitten, and Stagliano in NY before becoming Adam Morgan's first hire at TBWA Chiat Day LA followed by stints at FCB and Hal Riney before joining GSP to work with Jon Steel. In the conversation, we talk about the shifts and changes in the strategy discipline with leaders moving from gurus to guides.  Higher stakes for clients and a wider remit in terms of media expansion. She describes her approach to strategy is to work and think as a "team"- "it's not about being the smartest person in the room", but "making the whole room smart" and that requires a spirit of generosity.  The department culture is key for Bonnie- it's all about her bench and her team and making alchemy happen between the members of the team.  When it comes to philosophy around the process of strategy, she highlights the need for always-on, constant monitoring of culture and of consumers and the practice of always asking the smartest questions to ensure you arrive at a really interesting place. Bonnie talks about her development of "Brand Camp" which is a 6-week strategy sprint that gets clients to an "organizing idea" and involves workshops with GSP strategists and the client C-Suites.  This has served to bring new non-advertising clients to the agency and codified in detail the strategic process. For emerging talent- she's created a 15-week training camp that teaches the fundamentals of Strategy.We also talk about her upcoming book- "The Life Brief" - where she applies the strategic thinking and framing used for brands to life. Which is something she applied successfully in her life, Bonnie has just signed a book deal with Simon and Schuster . 

This podcast episode features an interview with Stevie Archer- ECD and Kevin Skobac-Managing Director, Strategy- SS+KSS+K is part of the M&C Saatchi network and has been around for 30 years. It has a history of working in the political arena - including working for Obama in 2008. That political experience translates into a philosophy they describe as "thinking politically and acting creatively". In the conversation, we talk about the agency and how its philosophy manifests itself in the work and the discipline of strategy, how creative and strategy work together and discuss in detail their work for Icelandic Tourism. 

Kierstin De West is the Chief Marketing Officer of Alpha Foods.This podcast is the story of Kierstin's journey from ad agency strategist to brand marketer to running her consulting business and on to senior brand roles at Lululemon and Alpha Foods.In the episode, we talk about what she learned along the way,  what agency folks need to know about working client-side, why strategists make great marketers, and even how to market plant-based foods. 

Nick Steel is the co-founder of the creative independent agency HarrimanSteel. The shop has worked with the likes of Uber, Seedlip, Tom's, Nike, Girl Effect, FootLocker, Patagonia and more. Nick founded the agency straight out of art school at 27 and was lucky enough to get Nike as his first client. In our conversation, we talk about his approach to the business, the importance of agency culture, and how the pandemic has shaped his thinking and that of the agency. 

The latest episode of Inspiring Futures features an interview with Nikita Walia- the founder and CEO of Blank.Nikita studied at NYU and went straight to work as a "digital native" on the coalface of social media. She's done stints at We are Social, Matte Projects,, King &Partners- before setting up her own agency. Our conversation takes on the ambitious challenge of exploring the current state of social media from a variety of different angles and perspectives. From the challenge of working in social media today, to the unrealistic demands and expectations of clients, to influencers and their current status, the emergence of new social channels, and the potential for new collaborative communities like DAOs.

The podcast episode features an interview with Thomas Papadopoulos who is the CEO and co-founder of the Paris-based innovation consultancy Possible Future.Thomas spent 16 years in the consultancy industry, first at Accenture, leading the Accenture Interactive Digital practice in France, then as a Partner in charge of Digital Transformation at Infosys and finally as Managing Partner at Weave, developing the digital business practice to support the digital transformation of large corporations. His field of expertise covers multiple industries including FMCG & Retail.Possible Future is a consulting company dedicated to bringing innovation to market by harnessing the skills of engineers, designers, and business strategists. Its client roster includes- Richemont. Intermarche, Société Générale and it's part of the Cap-Gemini group. 

Wayne Chang is the General Manager of Saatchi Art. Wayne is an emerging artist himself but also has significant experience in the web and e-commerce space- starting with Newsweek and with stints at Photobucket and DogVacay. Saatchi Art is the world's largest platform for emerging artists with 1.4 million artworks, from 94k artists, representing 110 countries. In our conversation, we talk about what emerging art and art are exactly, how the site functions and works with both collectors and artists,  the emerging NFT space, and Saatchi Art's efforts, and how Saatchi Art connects with its live event brand 'The Other Art Fair" to bring new collectors to the art market.