Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising

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... 

Design is a phrase that's often used as a catchall for a lot of different disciplines. This podcast is focused on the world of brand design- meaning crafting and creating the identity and look of a brand new brand or updating an old one.To help me navigate through this complex world, the podcast features two guests- Christina Falzano - Managing Director of Conran Design US, and Ben Solomon- VP Creative Director.We discuss how this work is done, what is required to make it successful, and importantly how you sell something that it's subjective in the extreme. 

Lesley Bielby was part of the second wave of account planners who landed on US shores.  She is currently the CSO of Hill Holliday- her second time in this role and has spent time at Digitas, Di Massimo Goldstein. MMB and a number of London shops. She has just written a book - Super Strategist- The Art and Science of Modern Account Planning. It is designed to be a guide to Account Planning today, taking the core principles and craft from the origins back in the late 1960s and merging them with the new demands of data, science that come from the worlds of digital and social. In our conversation, we talk about the evolution of the discipline and the challenges and new demands of it today. Lesley offers a ton of practical and pragmatic observations and insight about what a Strategy Department looks like and how it functions in 2021. She takes a long-term view of talent development asking the individuals in her time to declare a major and two minors, a reflection of the evolution of the Planning discipline, and to ensure that everyone has the comprehensive set of skills required today.

Mo Said heads up the creative shop Mojo Supermarket which includes the likes of Adidas, Fenty, and Netflix as its clients..Mo's story is an inspiring one- he literally clawed his way to the top of the creative tree in advertising after arriving in the US from Lahore, Pakistan as a 17-year-old. He has worked on some of the biggest brands and created a number of award-winning campaigns during his stints at BBDO and Droga5 in New York.His mission now is to develop a company with a truly creative culture- one that nurtures, protects, and inspires its creative talent and at the same time does brilliant, breakthrough, culturally relevant work that puts brands on the map. 

Dan was one of the original team who helped established Innocent Drinks. A brand born in 1998 on the whim of four friends who maxed out their credit cards and found a couple of investors to back them making fruit smoothies. The company sold a majority stake to Coca-Cola in 2010. Dan headed up all things brand at Innocent from its inception to 2018 when he left for Apple. In the podcast, we talk about the genesis and genius of Innocent- what and who it took to build the brand, creating vs. managing, and the importance of teams and collaboration.