Rob Walker is a writer, teacher, and journalist. He studied journalism and started his career working for trade magazines. In the early 2000s, he worked for Slate under the leadership of Michael Kinsley who suggested he should write a weekly column about advertising. Kinsley's perspective was advertising was a key cultural force but it wasn't understood or appreciated as such. Rob found this somewhat of a challenge, being dismissive of brands and ads himself. However, eventually, he got hooked on the topic and he ended up spending a decade writing the "Consumed" column for the New York Times Magazine. Rob is now focused on helping people find interesting ways of escaping the Attention Economy by seeking out new moments of opportunity and discovery which he started exploring with his 2019 book, the Art of Noticing, and has followed up with in his subsequent Subtack newsletter. 

Nick is one of the creative leaders over at design and strategy company- COLLINS. We had a very interesting, but somewhat rambling conversation where we covered his background in music, his work for record companies, and the magazine Frank. To be honest, I talked a little too much - Nick was either interviewing me or I was interviewing myself. We did manage to talk about some of the work and process for COLLINS clients like Crane, Clubhouse, and Robin Hood. And we touched upon the old favorite of how we work and create together during COVID, which led nicely to a chat about their new space in Brooklyn., 

Design is tough to understand and that makes design strategy even tougher. In this episode, Paul Collins the Strategy Director of Elmwood does a brilliant job of explaining how strategy works in a design agency. What is there to do? How it inspires and how it works with clients.  We also talk about boundaries, like- where design ends and advertising begins. Elmwood and Paul have a lot of interesting experiences especially with the Tecate beer brand which we discuss in some detail. 

David is the Founding Partner at HUSH. Hush is a unique experience design practice where they create experiences designed for physical environments that use digital technology and data.Think of a space like the lobby at Uber's HQ and HUSH are the folks that bring that experience to life.This requires a really interesting set of skills from architecture through to coding and finding the talent and getting them to work seamlessly together is a fascinating challenge. So, in the conversation, I talk to David about the company- how it functions,  how they use inspiration, how they create and present their ideas- plus how they've been managing to do this in the pandemic enforced virtual workspace. 

The latest episode of Inspiring Futures features an interview with John Graham- Head of Strategy at Cartwright. John has had an amazing strategy career - starting off working on Dos Equis at Havas,  going to BBH and getting to work on the Axe account and the famous "Susan Glenn" campaign, and then 7 years at 72 and Sunny where he rose through the strategy ranks and worked on numerous accounts including - Activision, Starbucks, and Sonos.John is now at Cartwright in LA. The agency was founded by Keith Cartwright and part of the WPP family with clients that include- The NBA, P&G, and CBS News. 

The latest episode of Inspiring Futures is an interview with John Roescher- the CEO and co-founder of handsome in Austin, Texas.  We got to talk about the genesis of the company, what designing experiences mean and are, how to manage to combine the advertising and design discipline under one roof, and we also talked about the future of a company that operates without an HQ.

Nathan Phillips is the co-founder of the NY agency Technology Humans and Taste.  Prior to becoming a copywriter, he worked in the performance art world, starting out in the world of improv. These are the experiences he brings to his agency where strategy is all about opening up possibilities, rather than the traditional approach of a finely tuned focus and creativity is something that is always on and if creatives aren't working on client work they are developing ideas for the agency's content arm. One particularly interesting initiative is the agency's databank/database of truths which is part of an ongoing process to collect,(sessions every Friday) archive, and use. 

Frank Rose started his career as a beat reporter on the NY music scene for the Village Voice and went on to write for Fortune and Wired covering the worlds of business and technology.  Now he's a Senior Fellow at Columbia School of the Arts  and faculty director of the executive education program Strategic Storytelling,Frank has just authored a new book - "The Sea We Swim In- How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World" published by Norton. In the book, Frank argues that stories are the most powerful way of persuading people, but this idea has been ignored or rejected by everyone from economists to marketers. What has changed is the way in which technology has allowed us to experience stories- either through streaming media with our Netflix  "binge-watching" or  perhaps, most importantly, our ability to  immerse and interact with stories at scale. 

The longer one spends in the industry, it seems it gets easier to get more skeptical and cynical about the ad business. However, if you want a different take- talk to people who are just embarking on their careers in the business and see nothing but positivity and hope. I recently interviewed Payal Pereira and  Shannon Gerety who are recent strategy graduates from the VCU Brandcenter.  I was taken aback by their maturity, pragmatism, and good old-fashioned enthusiasm for the business and craft of strategy. What impressed me most was their desire to be part of the changes that the industry needs to make and how well they understood the importance and potential impact of these changes. There's a lesson here for those in management- the world you see isn't the same one that your new employees see and it's therefore imperative that you listen and learn. Reverse mentoring can be a powerful thing. 

Greg Hahn left the world of big agency advertising for what basically was a start-up and has kicked off with quite an incredible first year. The agency was recently awarded Ad Age's "Newcomer of the Year" with the following soundbite " “Since Mischief officially hung out its shingle on June 1 of 2020, its ascent has been swift and storied, with each campaign living up to the agency’s name.”Greg and I had a wonderful and wide-ranging conversation that included- what it's like to leave and start up something fresh, the appeal of his partnersNFA which is best expressed by its mantra "What would you do if you weren't afraid". the real origin story of the great Snickers campaign, NY as a source of inspiration, cat herding, Fallon, the power of great strategy and strategists, the importance of calling it a day- and not pulling all-nighters- plus much more...