Sweathead, A Strategy Podcast

Polly Wyn Jones has been anlayzing advertising for over 30 years. In the past two years, she's published two articles about humor in advertising - how it ebbed and flowed over the past 2 decades, the kinds of humor there are in ads, and if it's coming back. And this is what we discuss. You can find Polly's two articles here 1. https://www.kantar.com/uki/inspiration/advertising-media/ho...

Paul Fisher, Head of Strategy at BBDO Dublin, woke up with a mission one Sunday a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to confirm or debunk a belief that there's less humor in advertising than before. He spent hours trawling through and categorizing campaigns. And I thought it would be worth speaking to someone who feels like this is a good way to spend a Sunday. You can find Paul here: https://www....

Grace Gordon is an Australian who's worked with a list of companies many strategists would dream of working with: Netflix, CashApp, Nike, Apple, The Fader, Refinery29, as well as various agencies. In fact, we worked together at Big Spaceship a decade ago. In this chat, we discuss living and working the USA as Australians as well as what Grace learned about getting these kinds of jobs. You can...

Marc is a fractional CMO based in Calgary, Canada. He recently published a deck to help marketers work out how to set their budgets based on evidence. You can find the deck here: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7134918764252299264/⁠ You can find Marc here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/

You can download a free 45-page ebook on insights, including a chapter from my book "Strategy Is Your Words" here: https://mailchi.mp/sweathead/mastering-insights You can find out about The Insight Masterclass that I'm teaching on Wednesday, December 6, online here: http://sweathead.com/the-insight-masterclass-mark-pollard

Julien Normand is Global Strategy Lead for Publicis LEON @ Publicis Media in Singapore. Recently, he wrote a piece called "The Silent Ascent Of Super Light Buyers," in which he shares research that suggests marketers need to pay attention to people who don't buy them very often. You can find Julien here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julien-normand-101/⁠ ⁠ His article is here: https://www.linkedin.c...

I was going to keep it private but people started to find out. I got a hair transplant. And I had a second operation to get a lipoma removed. At the end of this episode I talk a little about functional versus emotional advertising. But most of the episode is about hair and Istanbul. You can find videos about the experience on my Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

Watergunz won two golds at the recent Ad Black Sea festival for a campaign called “Women Who Don’t Exist”. They won in the Impact category for Creative Strategy and Sustainable Development Goals. Their campaign managed to get the Tbilisi government to change street names to the names of accomplished women. I was fortunate to be the one who handed them their trophies in front of well over one thous...

It’s the final day of the Georgian advertising festival Ad Black Sea. The campaign winners will be announced soon. In this episode, I talk with fellow speaker Marie Reig Florensa, Ad Black Sea and agency Winfors founder Vato Lavtaradze, and Lado Malazonia who quit his job on stage during one of my sessions and in front of perhaps 800 people…and his wife. You can find out more about Ad Black Sea he...

The next Sweathead Strategy Accelerator happens in October, 2023. It's a 4-week program that will teach you about The Four Points framework, linear and lateral thinking, the importance of problems, how to write insights, and how to write strategy. This next accelerator is our fifth public accelerator so we thought we'd invite some previous students to share their work and experience with y...

In this episode, I share some of the student work from the Sweathead Strategy Accelerator as well as dive into some tips on how to improve your presentations. You can download 70+ pages of student work here: https://mailchi.mp/sweathead/9vtxjz2jqq

In this episode, I discuss a couple of recent essays—when it’s time to quit and how to help a strategy team that’s swirling all over the place. If you enjoy it, share it. And come say hi on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

In this episode, I share my experience at Hacktown as well as some uncomfortable truths about strategy careers. I’m doing a masterclass in São Paulo on Wednesday, August 23. DM me on Instagram for details. http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

I'm going to do a few solo episodes over the coming weeks. This episode's topic I've touched on a lot and I've even read out some of these words before. But I thought I'd start here as I share some of my most engaged-with social posts in voice format. You can download a free ebook How To Do Strategy here: https://zaap.bio/sweathead

Lots of updates and a list of things I wish I knew before becoming a strategist. My book “Strategy Is Your Words” is available this week on Amazon Kindle in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I hope you’re well out there.

Erick Apuy is building an empire from his home base in San Jose, Costa Rica. His agency, Interaction, is one of the most awarded in the region. Their love of problems and context help them help their clients in ways that involve advertising but only if they have to. For instance, they helped a hydroelectricity company make money from crypto. In this episode, I chat with Erick and Monica Gonzales,...

Dave Collins is Strategy Director at The Monkeys in Melbourne, Australia. The Monkeys have been a prolific creative agency ever since they launched and they were listed in the Effie Index in 2022. In this interview, Dave share the special sauce plus a few case studios. We also talk about his year in New York and how he's thinking about approaching his 30s in the industry. You can find Dave her...

Raluca Kovacs is Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis Worldwide in Romania. Romania is a competitive advertising country. It seems like one of those hotbeds that not enough of us know about. It's a hotbed that has created several agencies that frequently feature in award shows and in the Effie Index. In this episode, Raluca shares with us the culture at Publicis in Romania. You'll hear a big...

Mario Morby is Regional Head of Strategy at FP7McCann. He's based in Dubai. In case you didn't know, Dubai is very different from Birmingham in the UK, where Mario was working before joining FP7McCann. FP7McCann is prolific and Mario takes us on an intellectual tour of what makes the agency so good. You can find Mario here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariomorby ** You can find the Sweathe...

Javier Quintero is Chief Strategy Officer of GUT in Buenos Aires. Every decade a handful of agencies appear and then tear up the industry as we know it and GUT is currently doing this. In this episode, Javier explains to us how GUT does creative briefs and how they put pressure on their work so that nothing crap leaves the building. You can find Javier here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javiquinter...

Zahra Ali runs strategy at Ogilvy in Karachi. She's helped the agency win so many awards that the agency is listed in the Effie Index. In this episode, Zahra explains the culture of Ogilvy Karachi to us and takes us through some award-winning work. You can find Zahra here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zahra-ali-037bb616/ ** You can find the Sweathead report What Strategists Want From Work here:...

Victor Stroe is Associate Director and Head of Strategy at Leo Burnett in Bucharest, Romania. His office was ranked the eleventh most effective in the world according to the 2022 Effie Index). Romania has a prolific and competitive advertising industry–it's just not that internationally known. In this episode, we discuss Leo Burnett's mindset and culture, what helps the agency win so many...

Ryan O'Connell is Chief Strategy Officer of Ogilvy in Sydney, Australia. His office ranked in the Effie Index and we wanted to find out why. In this episode, Ryan talks about the need to be interesting and useful while also comparing notes between the two agencies he's spent the longest time in: Clemenger BBDO and Ogilvy. You can find Ryan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-o-connell-43854212/...

Amber Chenevert is Managing Director, Strategy & Insights as well as Global Culture Studio Lead at VMLY&R. She's a PhD and has taught advertising. In this episode we discuss a question that's been on her mind recently: "Is niche marketing making it harder to reach ppl?" You can find Amber here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-chenevert-phd-027a4b1/ ** You can find the S...

David Moreno recently moved to BBDO, Atlanta, where he's EVP, Strategy Lead. Prior to this, David was Managing Director, Strategy and Insights at VMLY&R. Big titles in big agencies doing big things. In this episode, David gently compares the two and gives us his first impressions of BBDO and what makes the agency so good at making effective advertising. You can find David here: https://www...