Sweathead, A Strategy Podcast

Julian Cole was formerly the Head of Comms Planning at BBDO in New York. We've known each since around 2008. We've blogged, taught Skillshare, and spoken at conferences side by side. And now we're doing a strategy class in a bunch of different cities side by side. It's called The Strategy Super Sizer Megaclass.  We discuss: - Revenge-astroturfing a bank by walking into it and yelling at it - The v...

I don't know how good Mike is at strategy but I'd hire him just from how good he is at the things that make a good strategist: finding out stuff, spending time in unfamiliar places, talking to people, documenting it all, and putting it out into the world.  Mike is from London but has lived in Tokyo for the past 11 years. He's a journalist, documentary-maker, and DJ, and he spends his days at Mulle...

I interviewed Rob about philosophy a year ago. This time, we chat anxiety and what it's good for. For some reason, there are topics like this that I really want to talk about but when I ask the questions... I get a little anxious and they don't come out right. And I think some of my questions here a bit vague but Rob handled it well. You can find Rob and his newsletter Salmon Theory at https://twi...

Here are answers to about 20 questions people asked today via Instagram Stories. The questions include: How do you inspire creative teams? What do I do without a planning director for a year? What are some useful presentation tips? What’s a good creative brief template? Should anybody give up? Is getting credit important? Find me on Instagram here: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard   For more s...

Nicole Landesman is Head of Business Development at BBDO in New York, where she helps potential clients navigate everything BBDO has to offer. And she was once a planner. We discuss: - The BBDO new business process - What’s going on inside a marketer’s mind during a pitch - What makes a useful pitch brief - Moving form planning to business development   For more strategy talk: 1. Strategy newslett...

Jason Lonsdale is the Head of Brand Strategy at Ogvily. Originally from New Zealand but now based in New York, Jason manages a team of strategists across America.  We discuss: - What Ogilvy New York is about - B2B marketing - The New York agency landscape - Advice for upcoming strategists You can find Jason here: https://twitter.com/jasonlonsdale   For more strategy talk: 1. Strategy newsletter: h...

Helene Dick is Strategy Director at New York's Barton F Graf, an agency renowned for provocative work. And in a time where provocative work seems rare, how on Earth do these ideas travel through an agency committed to them? And what role do planners play? We discuss: - The work: Supercell, Welch’s, Little Caesars, Emerald Nuts, The Climate Name Change, Ragu - Briefs, briefings, and reviews - Clien...

John Kenny is CSO of FCB Chicago, an agency with a planning team of 85 people. A transplant from Ireland who arrived in Chicago many years ago to attend college, John has seen planning in America since the early days of planning in America. We discuss: - Why John feels so bullish about the future of planning - What makes planning and planners work - Planning in the USA You can find John here https...

Dave McCaughan was a public librarian for 10 years then worked 27 years for McCann in Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan. This makes him one of Australia's earliest planners. He is still based in Asia - Bangkok, Thailand, and he hosts a podcast about market research called MR Realities. He talks, he advises, and he is definitely open to you asking him about planning. We discuss: -  The Aust...

Mylene Ong is the Head of Strategy at Colenso BBDO in Auckland, New Zealand. She has worked in New York, Shanghai, and her hometown Singapore. Much of our discussion uses Singapore, a country that is just over 50 years old, as a metaphor for the future of advertising. We also discuss: - Adapting yourself to different cultures - Generalists and specialists in strategy departments  - How working in...

On Instagram, I recently asked people what questions they had about insights and I responded as an Instagram Story. This episode of Sweathead is those questions and my responses but on a walk around Central Park. Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard For more strategy talk: 1. Strategy newsletter: http://www.markpollard.net/email-newsletter/ 2. Strategy drawings: http://www.instagram.com...

John Harris is CEO and President of Worldwide Partners. Worldwide Partners is a network of 72 independent agencies in 40 countries. It has existed since 1938. One thing that makes Worldwide Partners interesting is that the agencies own the network - the network doesn’t own the agencies. John helps make it work and, insodoing, he has great insight into the minds, needs, and trends of the independen...

Emma Brooks leads marketing at Toronto's Wattpad. Wattpad serves stories to 70 million people around the world every month. Many of the authors are anonymous and many share as they write. Some of the stories are making their ways into books and movies. It's an intimate community where people are able to share ideas that haven't always belonged elsewhere. Also, Emma worked in advertising for over a...

Gareth Price is a senior planner at JWT/WundermanThompson in London. He won the 2017 IPA President’s Prize and the Advertising category in the 2018 WPP Atticus Awards for his IPA Excellence Diploma thesis, Thinklong, which outlined a seven-point plan to tackle short-termism in marketing. So we decided to talk about writing about strategy. Topics include: - The IPA Excellence Diploma - Short-termis...

Matt Tanter is the Chief Strategy Officer at Grey London and the Chair of the Account Planning Group (APG). As far as planning credentials go, CSO + Grey + London + Chair of APG = legit. He's a leader who's interested in culture over process and I thought I'd talk to him about this focus to help companies trying to bring in planning understand that you can't just drop in a planner and have plannin...

Gillian Rightford grew up in the vibrant South African advertising industry. Now, Gillian lectures at the University of Cape Town and, in her company Ad Therapy, she consults with marketers and agencies about how to do better creative work and how to have better relationships to get to better creative work.   We discuss: - Why marketing suffers a credibility issue - The advertising industry in Sou...

Govind Pandey is CEO of TBWA\India, a global advertising agency he sees as a startup. This idea is an easy one to say but Govind can speak to what this actually means as part of his philosophy of running the company (Is the agency solving interesting problems well? Is the agency applying what they learn back to their projects? Are they building new revenue streams and pricing models because of thi...

Anselmo Ramos cofounded and sold the Miami agency David after years working his way around the world. Madrid, New York, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires feature on his itinerary. He recently cofounded another agency, Gut. You'll know him from his work with Burger King and Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches." He takes risks and takes on clients who' also take risks. For, what else is there? We discuss: - The...

Lynne D Johnson is an adjunct professor at SUNY, she's worked in agencies like R/GA, in publishing companies such as Fast Company, and she did a stint at the Advertising Research Foundation. She has spent well over two decades tinkering with the Internet, blogging, and expressing on social media. Lynne and I first crossed paths when Lynne was at Vibe Magazine - and I was publishing a hip hop magaz...

Heidi Hackemer. Many of you have heard of her, met her, watched her speak, or read her. Many of you will have seen her article "I've cried on a few runs lately" in which she documents losing her job at the Chan Zuckerburg Institute, family health problems, closing the agency she co-founded, edging towards 40 years of age... and now what?  We spoke on the day Heidi was due to get an impressive tatt...

Kaitlin Maud recently set up Current Forward, a strategy collective based in Austin, Texas. And as part of her preparation for our conversation (yes, sometimes people do homework... but I don't judge either way), Kaitlin asked the strategy community on Twitter about strategy taboos - what topics or points of view are just too raw for us to admit or examine?   The taboos we discuss:  - Strategy is...

Phil Adams has helped to merge three agencies. He's also worked in London at BBH and in Edinburgh at The Leith Agency and Blonde, and is now at Signal. He's had strategy and managing director roles. He's an OG and was kind enough to let me surprise him with something that resembles a virtual workshop about how to do better work. Like, what happened to taking risks? We discuss: - What we’ve got wro...

We're about to hit 100,000 listens. Seems like a solid number. Thank you for listening and sharing it with your friends. It means a lot to me because this podcast is how I trap people into deep conversations. If you'd like to rate the podcast, which is something you've probably been contemplating, please do.  Recently, I finished the second draft of this strategy book I'm writing and I wanted to r...

Alexandra Stankiewicz is CMO and Head of Online Sales at Aloha. She's also worked at Chobani and Calvin Klein. But, guess what? Alex was one of the first ten employees at Mother New York and she spent seven years there. So I thought it would be great to talk to her about what she's learned from being on both sides of the fence.  We discuss: - How agencies and clients can have better relationships...

Omer Azeem is 20 years into a career that has taken him from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Eqypt, Qatar and back to Pakistan. We recorded this a few weeks ago before the war talk between Pakistan and India this week so you'll hear Omer say that things feel "calm". You'll also hear him echo the sentiment in the interview with Priyanka Agrawal from Bombay, India - that we are more alike than we ar...