Sleeping Barber - A Marketing Podcast

Overview The promise of digital advertising was precision: right message, right person, right time. No waste. But here's the uncomfortable truth, while we've been obsessing over hyper-targeting, consumer behaviour has already shifted without us. 90% of Canadians now consume CTV. Less than 50% still have cable. And 60% of their time is spent on the open web, not walled gardens. The question isn't w...

In this conversation, Vassilis Douros and Marc Binkley delve into the complexities of measuring ROI in marketing. They discuss common misconceptions about ROI, ROAS, and MER, emphasizing that these metrics often lead marketers to focus on short-term efficiency rather than long-term effectiveness. The duo highlights the importance of collaboration across teams to ensure that marketing promises alig...

In this episode of Barbers Brief, Vassilis Douros and Marc Binkley discuss recent trends in marketing, including the impact of Super Bowl ads, Google's February 2026 core update, the rise of agentic AI, and a surprising increase in trust in advertising. They explore how these elements shape brand strategies and consumer behaviour, emphasizing the importance of relevance and quality in content crea...

With the Big Game just days away, Marc and Vassilis unpack the biggest ideas from their recent conversation with Vanessa Chin (System1) — and what marketers should actually be watching for when the ads roll. This PostPod dives deeper into why emotion beats logic, why branding is still underused in creative, and how storytelling, distinctive assets, humour, and cultural context combine to create ad...

Super Bowl ads cost ~$8M for 30 seconds. So what separates a legendary “Super Ad” from an expensive shrug? In this episode of The Sleeping Barber Podcast, Mark and Vassilis welcome back Vanessa Chin from System1 to break down what actually drives impact when the stakes are highest. You’ll learn how System1 measures emotion and brand recognition (Star, Spike, and Fluency ratings), why “more you fee...

Welcome back to The Sharp Cut — where Marc and Vassilis take scissors to marketing’s biggest comfort blankets. This episode’s target: personas. Not “burn them all”… but the idea that personas are a valid operating system for audience strategy. Marc and V argue that personas don’t fail because they’re fictional — they fail because they pretend markets are stable, targetable, and neatly categorized,...

In this week’s Barber’s Brief, Marcc and Vassili unpack four timely stories that cut to the heart of modern marketing leadership: strategy clarity, AI’s real role in organizations, and why going small in marketing is often the riskiest move of all. The conversation starts with a sharp diagnosis of “strategy anxiety”—the condition where everything is labelled a priority, trade-offs disappear, and t...

In this post-pod discussion, Vassilis and Marc unpack the biggest ideas from their recent conversation with Dale Harrison on The Only Growth Lever Marketers Control — and what those ideas actually mean for marketers in practice. They explore a critical but often uncomfortable distinction: revenue growth is not the same as real growth. When categories expand, tides rise for everyone — but that does...

Most brands do not grow. Despite the industry's obsession with "growth porn," relative market share remains remarkably stable over decades. In this episode, Dale Harrison—physicist, former CFO, and consultant—joins Marc and V to dismantle the illusion of marketing-driven growth. He argues that most "hockey stick" curves are the result of external technological innovations or massive capital inject...

Welcome to the first Sharp Cut from The Sleeping Barber Podcast — a tighter, opinion-led format designed to challenge marketing’s most persistent assumptions. In this episode, Vassilis and Marc take on one of the industry’s most widely accepted beliefs: one-to-one personalization. Despite overwhelming surveys claiming consumers want personalization and businesses need it, the evidence tells a very...

In this Barber’s Brief, V and Marc cover the biggest marketing and platform stories from the last couple of weeks—plus introduce a new segment. First up, they unpack why marketers should stop trying to re-label marketing as CapEx, and why misusing finance terms (like ROI) can damage credibility with CFOs. Then they move into search and AI: Google’s Danny Sullivan warns publishers not to restructur...

Vassilis and Marc reflect on their conversation with Tom Fishburne, the Marketoonist. They explore the art of cartooning, the importance of humour in marketing, and the challenges posed by AI and innovation in the industry. The duo emphasizes the need for levity in the face of challenges, particularly as they prepare for the uncertainties of 2026. Enjoy the episode! Key Takeaways Tom's insights in...

What if the biggest barrier to innovation in your organization isn't lack of ideas, budget, or talent—but fear? Tom Fishburne, the Marketoonist, whose cartoons have appeared in more marketing decks than most actual strategies joins Marc and V to reveal why corporate fear is sabotaging innovation, and the surprisingly simple tool that breaks through it. With his weekly cartoons reaching over 500,00...

In this final episode of our Barber's Briefs for 2025, Marc and Vassilis discuss various marketing and advertising topics, including pricing power, the effectiveness crisis in advertising, global media trends, and the rise of influencer marketing. They also feature an insightful conversation with Paul Tedesco about the Alchemy of Effectiveness report, which highlights the importance of creativity...

In this episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast, Marc and Vassilis reflect on their conversation with Ty Heath. Together, they discuss the complexities of B2B marketing, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer relationships across various departments. They also dive into the significance of physical availability in B2B marketing strategies, the need for a holistic view of the customer...

B2B Institute's Ty Heath on Why Mental Availability Without Physical Availability Is Wasted Investment In collaboration with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Ty Heath, Director and Co-founder of LinkedIn's B2B Institute, reveals research showing B2B brands typically appear in only 3-4 channels while buyers engage with an average of 32 touchpoints. The result? Buyers who prefer your brand default to c...

In this episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast, Marc and Vassilis discuss topics that caught their attention over the last couple of weeks, including the recent merger between Omnicom and IPG, the impact of AI on retail, particularly through Amazon's new shopping assistant Rufus, and Adidas' innovative approach to market research by utilizing search data instead of traditional surveys. They also d...

In the latest episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast, Marc Binkley and Vassilis reflect on their conversation with Jane Ostler Chief Insights officer at Kantar. Marc and Vassilis discuss the challenges brands face in a rapidly changing environment, particularly focusing on the impact of AI on branding and marketing strategies. They explore the concept of 'sea of sameness' in branding, the importan...

Jane Ostler, Chief Insights Officer at Kantar, joins V and Marc to discuss 20 years of BrandZ data and what it reveals about brand growth. We explore the Meaningful, Different, Salient framework, why relative difference beats absolute uniqueness, and how marketers can separate strategic principles from tactical noise. Jane explains how small brands can compete without massive budgets, why trends s...

In our latest episode, Marc and Vassilis discuss the evolving landscape of advertising and marketing, focusing on the impact of AI technologies. They explore how AI can outperform human copywriters in ad creation, the implications of Amazon's layoffs due to AI automation, and the changing nature of marketing jobs. The conversation also delves into the ethical concerns surrounding hyper-personaliza...

In this PostPod episode, Marc and Vassilis discuss the complexities of digital advertising, emphasizing the importance of understanding viewability versus visibility, the pitfalls of cheap media, and the critical role of creative quality. They reflect on insights from recent guests and explore strategies for effective marketing, including the need for internal awareness and organizational change....

In this episode of The Sleeping Barber Podcast, Marc and Vassilis sit down with Adam Morgan (Eat Big Fish) and Dr. Karen Nelson-Field (Amplified Intelligence) to talk about one of marketing’s most overlooked money pits — dull media. You’ve heard of dull ads — but what about dull media? From perfume that smells like burning money to attention metrics that flip our measurement logic upside down, thi...

In this episode, Vassilis and Marc explore things that caught their attention over the last couple of weeks. Key stories they highlight include: Ehrenberg-Bass Is Probably Right. Until It Isn’t. A piece by G Douglas Why marketing’s old rules still work in a new world, by Mark Pritchard 7 Focus Areas as AI Transforms Search and the Customer Journey in 2026 Love Over Clicks, by Paul Worthington For...

Recorded live in Banff at The Gathering 2025, this special on-location episode of The Sleeping Barber Podcast brings together three conversations and a recap from hosts Vassilis Douros and Marc Binkley. The episode explores how belonging, creativity, and technology are shaping the next chapter of marketing — from AI and the creator economy to the deeper values that connect brands and people. Ryan...

There's a lot of marketing effectiveness research out there. Binet and Field. Byron Sharp. Jenni Romaniuk. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Karen Nelson-Field. Peter Field. System1. The Effies and the IPA databank. If you're trying to absorb all of this while doing your actual job, it's overwhelming. So we're making it simple: Eight fundamentals. These aren't tactics or channels. They're the underlyi...