Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising

Seven years ago, Rob Baird, Seth Gaffney, and Krystle Loyland left Mother NY to set up their own shop- Preacher.I got the chance to sit down and have a chat with Rob and Seth. I learned they made a deliberate decision to locate to Austin- partly because Rob wanted to head back to Texas, but also because they wanted to impact, connect, and contribute to a place with a diverse artistic culture. They added an art gallery to their agency space from the get-go.In the conversation, we talk about the importance of having a point of view as an agency, the advantage of having skilled practitioners from different disciplines as founders, working with friends, and building a "family" culture that is strong enough to support a cast of 60 folks.Importantly, they've learned from some of the best along the way, and instead of jettisoning some of that thinking- they've used it as a foundation to build from; they clearly have tremendous respect for their alma mater- Mother; they parted as friends, and the larger agency has consistently supported them from the sidelines. 

Charlotte is the CEO of The Talent Business in North America.  She has a background in advertising having worked in the client services side of a number of agencies including - TBWA, McCann, and JWT. For the past eight years, Charlotte has worked for The Talent Business in Los Angeles in New York.In our conversation, we talk about the new energy around marketing talent and the desire for companies to find the right people to help them grow. We discuss the qualities that companies and brands are looking for and how these compare to the leadership qualities of old. In addition, we also talk about how the pandemic has accelerated the demand for change and has in some ways been a kind of incubator for a new breed of more vulnerable, open, and empathetic management. 

Cindy Judge is the President and CEO of the Boulder, Colorado-based- creative collective that works across the areas of research, strategy, design, and communication for its clients. SRG has expertise and a reputation for its work in the food and beverage space having worked with many of the leading restaurant chains and CPG brands. The focus of the conversation with Cindy focused on food- what we are seeing in the pandemic, what are some of the broader trends she is noticing and how are Americans' attitudes to food changing. 

Kristen Cavallo re-joined the Martin Agency as CEO 3 years ago. The agency was in crisis and was in urgent need of rejuvenation. She had spent 13 years at Martin in a variety of roles ranging from Planning Director to Head of Business Development but left in 2014 to join Mullen.It was Kristen's first CEO job and she leaned in on her experience as a strategist- applying brand planning skills to the Martin Agency brand.By going back to the origins, she unearthed the first principles of the agency and found they were still relevant today. In 2019, she was named Ad Age's Executive of the Year. Elizabeth Paul joined Martin from Mullen in January 2020 and has been instrumental in bringing new strategic thinking to the table- like the "Diversity Brief". Having built a strong team-when the pandemic struck, the team's strength paid dividends since they already had such a solid working relationship. Out of the gate- within days of the pandemic and the impending "work from home" IPG mandate, the Martin team brainstormed implementable ideas for every one of the agency's clients and was all in on getting these ideas made and ensuring there was no slow down or pause.The change of leadership, the doubling down on the importance of getting brands talked about by consumers, and the commitment to diversity have all been strong transformative forces for Martin; not only has this helped to maintain the confidence of its existing client base, but it has also been instrumental in bringing in new clients. Since the pandemic struck in March of this year, the agency has brought on seven new pieces of business. In a wide-ranging conversation, we talk about the process of change, what the agency believes in, and why and how they managed to keep it all together working remotely and via Zoom

This episode features an interview with John V Willshire. John has been running his innovation consultancy- Smithery for the past nine years- after graduating in Economics- he trained as a market researcher, worked for Viacom Out of Home, and then took on various roles at PHD- including separately - in the disciplines of econometrics and innovation.Somewhat disillusioned with agency innovation offerings - he set up his own with the guiding mantra "Make Things People Want, rather than Make People Want Things."Our conversation was broad and touched on his background in economics to building motivating narratives and onto the future of work. We covered a lot of territory in the sixty or so minutes but looks like we are going to need to do a part 2 because we have more ground to cover. 

In this episode, I talk with Tim Maleeny who is the President and Chief Strategy Officer at Havas- NY.Tim has an interesting background which includes stints at Hal Riney when Hal was working there, Ogilvy, RGA, and Havas.In our conversation, we talk about how the discipline has evolved and is evolving, the importance of department and teamwork, and how to run an agency and win business during a pandemic- which Havas appears to be doing OK at.We also talk about the importance of being passionate about something else other than advertising because that fuels the day job. Tim is the author of six almost seven mystery novels.

Many people from adland might be thinking that now might be a good time to start their own shop.This episode features an interview with Meryl and Gaelan Draper who have been running their own shop- Quirk - for the past six years.They have built a niche for themselves in the world of video advertising with a focus on delivering performance- this focus has attracted them to a host of DTC clients- including- the likes of Third Love and Keeps. In the conversation we talk about their backgrounds- Gaelan comes from film and Meryl has experience in PR, but also ran the IBM global business for Ogilvy in Bangalore, India. We also discuss how the past six years have been about how they have been continuously optimizing which comes from listening to their clients and really understanding needs. 

Zeus Jones was founded in 2007 by former employees of ad agency Fallon. They wanted to do things differently and do different things- help clients come up with new ideas that could help their business, but those things were more action-oriented than word-based.Fast forward to 2020 and the company has a new generation of leaders and in the podcast, I get to speak to the Creative and Strategy Leads Jason Zabel and Elsa Perushek. We talked about how they work together as creative and strategist and how the company is driven by a collaborative work style and what that means for their roles and how they work with others.We also discussed how COVID challenges these workstyles and what they have been doing to adapt their working practices. 

Katie is currently the Senior Director, Global Brand Concept at Nike Women, It is her 7th job at Nike in her 7 years at the company. In the episode, we talk about a lot of things from her unconventional route into strategy, to the changing consumer landscape and the importance of opening yourself up to new experiences.Katie is unique in the fact she has worked at 180 and Wieden and Kennedy and both of their icon clients Nike and Adidas. She has also got out of the country and has had stints in Holland, Australia and Japan. Did I mention that she also worked for Droga 5?She believes the secret to success is getting the money/business end of the strategy right, once you have that down, you will have permission to be rebellious and creative. 

Kelli Robertson and William Esparza are partners and co-founders of Hyphenated which describes itself as a clandestine operation bridging companies and communities.Kelli is a strategist and William the creative. They both have impressive and extensive backgrounds at shops like AKQA, RGA, Goodby, MAL and have worked on their fair share of amazing brands like- Nike, Beats, Activision etc.They met while working together at R/GA and recognized the importance of the disciplines working together- seeing that it led to better work.In the podcast, we talk about what this means and what it takes for a strategist to be a creative advocate, ally, and enhancer.