Our guest this week is the man who put us in touch with the author of the famous Kiwi shoe polish creative brief. Christopher Owens, head of brand strategy at TRG, formerly The Richards Group, hired Sarah Walker-Hall. He reached out to us years ago and asked if we wanted to meet this strategist. And that led to a two-part interview on The Brief Bro…

The second part of our conversation with TBWA Worldwide's Rob Schwartz. Today, guest-host David Moore and I talk with Rob about the heroes among strategists. The story behind the full-page ad for TBWA\Chiat\Day NY's move. What's the way forward for our industry? Is advertising creatively rewarding? And more. Reminder: For a 90-minute live webinar a…

Creative Director. Executive Creative Director. Chief Creative Officer. CEO. Chair. And now Certified Coach. All the aforementioned at TBWA\Worldwide. First in Los Angeles, then in New York. Rob Schwartz has worn many hats in his illustrious career. He was even my boss at Team One Advertising in the late 90s before he moved on to TBWA\Chiat\Day. An…

Part memoir, part textbook for all creative entrepreneurs, Nick Cohen's Honest! A True Story of a Ridiculous Attempt to Make Advertising More Truthful is a must read. It's fun, funny, and an improbable tale of 15 years of creative genius and ground-breaking work. And it's the unforgettable story about the founding of a brilliant shop, Mad Dogs & En…

What do you get when you combine erudition, deep research, and a copywriter's dexterous poise with a sentence? You get The Road to Hell: How Purpose Leads to a Worse World. Our guest on The Brief Bros. this week, Nick Asbury, tackles a timely and provocative subject, purpose. And Henry Gomez and I take a stroll down this road with Nick and we disse…

Join us for Part 2 of our first-ever all-creative panel discussion. We continue our talk about our industry, the state of creativity, and the role of AI. Co-host David Moore, who sits in for the traveling Henry Gomez, and I join seven of our friends and colleagues: Gene Payne in Chicago, Nic York-Bogen in LA, Monique Thomas in Minneapolis, Sara Ros…

In a first for the Brief Bros., we've assembled a panel of seven advertising creatives to talk about our industry, the state of creativity, and the role of AI. The discussion was so lively and robust, we talked for more than two hours. Today's episode is Part 1. Part 2 airs next Wednesday. Joining me and my friend and reliable substitute co-host Da…

A good strategist can walk a mile in the shoes of the customer. And a good novelist must do the same, except in the shoes of many characters. Henry Gomez and I are excited to introduce you to a practitioner of both skills—strategy and novelwriting. His name is Tim Maleeny and he is the chief strategist and innovation officer at Havas in New York Ci…

He's the first to appear on The Brief Bros. three times. And we're delighted and privileged to have him back. Cameron Day joins Henry Gomez and me today to talk about his new book, Stones & Sticks. It's the third book in his trilogy The Advertising Survival Guide: Stage Three: The Highest Altitudes of Your Career. Listen to a professional describe …

Creative briefs are a vital element in advertising, but so are brand manifestos. Our guest today is Lonnie Elliott, creative lead at Meta, and the founder of Manifestowriting.com. Lonnie shares with Henry Gomez and me examples of great manifestos, some of which you may recognize. And he talks about his plans to expand his growing collection of mani…

Four months ago, Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis created the postion of Chief Operating Officer. They created it with one person in mind, our guest today on The Brief Bros.: Stacy Janicki. A legacy advertising agency needs a great leader, and CL found it in Stacy. Join Henry Gomez and me as we chat with this dynamic and laid-back personality. CL's …

Luckett Vanguard oozes all the qualities you want in a strategic planner: curiosity, gregariousness, passion, the team player. FCB in Chicago hired him a year ago from the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Comm. Kudos to our friend Mark Jenson for the rec! And already he's made his mark. Henry Gomez and I quizzed him on the unusual path he took…

She was a founding partner at Mad Dogs & Englishmen in New York (thank you Dave Dye for your encyclopedic memory!). And today, she runs her own strategy consulting firm, Open Mind Strategy. Henry Gomez and I are thrilled to welcome Robin Hafitz to a sit-down chat on The Brief Bros. Robin was one of the first five American practitioners of account p…

Henry Gomez and I welcome Mack Saunders, the director of brand experience for The Annex, a boutique hotel in Toronto. Mack's background and perspective on branding came to my attention when I met him at The Annex on a recent trip to Ontario. Fans of The Brief Bros. will be intrigued by the challenges he has faced in his role. And the intrepid manne…

Lance Saunders, strategic consultant and adjunct professor at York University in Toronto, returns to The Brief Bros. to talk to Henry Gomez and me about the inaugural essay he contributed to my blog titled, "Beyond The Brief." It's all in celebration of the recent addition of more than 50 briefs to the Creative Brief Archive, a repository of finish…

Our guest this week is Vasanth Seshadri. He is the founder and creative director of The Sunnyside, a virtual ad agency in Singapore. Vasanth's story will resonate with creatives everywhere. The route he took from newbie copywriter to the founding of his own shop covers a journey of thousands of miles and tenures with many legacy agencies. Including…

Say "AI" to anyone in our industry, and it will likely cause a wince, a pucker, even a laugh. And probably a few other reactions. Say it to our guest, Ross Patrick, Creative Lead and Director of Advertising at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and you'll be in for a passionate discourse on the technology's many benefits. That's why Henry …

Henry Gomez and I welcome Tim Nudd, a journalist who covers creativity for AdAge. Tim was the host and narrator of a popular podcast called Tagline, sponsored by Muse by Clio. It was a feast of backstories and wonderful anecdotes about some of the most iconic ad campaigns produced by our industry. Henry and I talk at length with Tim about his role …

Jon Steel's book, Truth, Lies & Advertising is the bible for strategy, creative briefs and what makes great creative campaigns. Now in its 26th year, it remains fresh and relevant, even if the advertising referenced in it are from the 20th Century. His thinking proves that new and shiny pales against fundamentals and fundamental truths. Henry Gomez…

One of them did a trumpet solo and she doesn't play trumpet. The other did six minutes of stand-up comedy and she isn't a comedian. No, they weren't auditioning for Britain's Got Talent. In a return to our New and Emerging Talent series, Henry Gomez and I talk to two current ad students at London's famed School of Communication Arts—the most awarde…

In a first for Henry Gomez and me, The Brief Bros. hosts three...ghosts. You'll hear them, but you won't see them. That's because they prefer to let their creative work speak for itself on behalf of their clients. And that's their story. Which we are transparently delighted to share with you. For small group and corporate training in writing inspir…

Henry Gomez and I bring you two young advertising talents who started The Loudest Roar last year, which they call the "Cannes Lion Fantasy League." It's an online communmity for young professionals to predict the winners at Cannes, and it's growing in popularity worldwide. We're delighted to welcome Chirag Khushalani and Samita Balakrishnan, two st…

Meet the host of Stuff About Advertising Ashley Rutstein. She's a freelance copywriter, social media verteran, and the star of her own TikTok page where she talks about, well, Stuff About Advertising. And Henry Gomez and I had a fun and enlightening conversation with her. So many brands want to be on TikTok, but did you know the space is wide open …

This week Henry Gomez and I introduce you to the founder of DAIVID, Ian Forrester. Ian is the brains behind an AI tool that measures the effectiveness of ad creative by pinpointing which of 39 emotions a piece of creative evokes. Yeah, we know—another bogus way to test creative, right? Don't be so quick to judge. Ian demonstrates for us why this to…

Two advertising industry giants join us today to talk about their new book, The Howard Gossage Show. Both Steve Harrison and Dave Dye have talked to us before. But today they arrive together as co-authors of a book as big as its subject matter. And a necessary teaching tool for all of us in the ad game. Sitting in for the traveling Henry Gomez, our…

You need chutzpah to land an internship in our industry. Spell it any way you like, you gotta get the decision-maker's attention. Which is why Henry Gomez and I are so delighted to introduce you to Kristina Olsen Pinjusic, a.k.a. "The Kristina," your new favorite intern. She displayed enviable intrepidity and gutsiness and used LinkedIn to announce…

Todd Turner is a talented graphic designer who's carved out a fun niche in Out of Home. Lately, he's formed a partnership with Richard Molinaro called Up to Something in North Carolina. Todd and Richard create unforgettable OOH for brands, agencies and media companies. But it's Todd's side gig that grabbed our attention. Henry Gomez and I talked to…

No Single Individual is a unique business model. It is a company of woment strategists who work for legacy shops like Deutsch NY, FCB NY and TBWA\Chiat Day LA. Founded by Christine Olivas in 2021, No Single Individual is an "all-freelance firm [that] provides ancillary strategy and account teams to agencies across the globe, from the industry’s big…

My co-host Henry Gomez stays connected with other strategtists, especially on LinkedIn. He received an email recently from Mark Pollard, author of Strategy Is Your Words, and a well-known and respected strategist and strategy coach. Mark had compiled a list of the top ten traits he thought all strategists shared. My buddy Henry saw a similarity bet…

Henry Gomez and I relish every chance we get to feature a young advertising talent who is already shaking things up. This week we continue our series of interviews with recent grads of US and UK advertising programs. Allow us to introduce you to Elizabeth Gordon. Elizabeth is a 2023 grad of the U of Minn's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Comm…

Most creatives aspire to become creative director one day. And most creatives believe they have the chops to lead a creative department. But making the leap from art director or copywriter into a leadership role takes more than a promotion. Our guest this week is an old friend, TJ Bennett, owner and creative director at The Pudding Factory. He's ba…

Join Henry Gomez and me for Part 2 of our conversation with a master of the artform, Neal Foard. He tells us more about his new online, self-directed tutorials at Storyfire to help you practice and polish your own stories. So sit back, grab a bowl of popcorn and take it all in. This is good, old-fashioned entertainment. For small group and corporat…

For 30-odd years, Neal Foard was an advertising copywriter and creative director, working on major brands like Toyota. Then he morphed into what I call the Garrisoin Keillor of the Internet. He's a storyteller extraordinare, whose mellifluous voice is part velvet fog, part maple syrup. With thousands of presentations under his belt, Neal stands in …

Mark Liebert leads the Marketing Training & Development Center at the ANA. His team of dedicated professionals connect subject-matter experts with ANA members to enhance their marketing and advertising skills. Since the beginning of our podcast, Henry Gomez and I have revisited the subject of training many times. So today, we meet an experienced tr…

It seems like an obvious question: What is the strategy? But even asking it opens a can of worms. What do you mean by "strategy"? Then you can ask, why do so few briefs ask this question? This week, Henry Gomez and I tackle the conundrum of what role strategy plays in writing a creative brief and whether the question belongs on the brief. For one-o…

Henry Gomez and I decided to take a breather and talk about AI. No panic. No exaggeration. No gloom and doom. Just the real stuff. It's here and it ain't goin' away. What's its role in advertising creative? In the creative brief? This is only the first of what we both think will be many conversations. But after insightful chats with two guests, Tim…

What is a manifesto? Is it a creative brief? Or like a creative brief? And how does a so-called "manifesto" help us understand a brand? These are some of the questions Henry Gomez and I discuss today on The Brief Bros. We review and dissect one of seventeen brand manifestos, this one for Avis, posted on LinkedIn recently by Lonnie Elliot.…

Who says the advertising industry can't attract ambitious young talent? Not our guests this week on The Brief Bros. We welcome Anna Clayden and Hope Whitehead, art director and copywriter respectively. They teamed up while studying at London's premier School of Communication Arts. They join Henry Gomez and me to shed bright light on the rigors of S…

Writing a great brief depends on more than great writing. Agency vet and Strategy Finishing School founder Julian Cole joins Henry Gomez and me in an insider's look at briefs. You'll learn something new after this week's episode of The Brief Bros. For example, did you know that an "artist" and a "detective" creative director respond differently to …

Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay. But like all new toys, what we don't understand tends to scare us. So this week, The Brief Bros. invited Sherry Horowitz, the self-described AI Conjurer, to talk about the intricacies of creating imagery with AI using language prompts. Her deep knowledge revealed how hard it is to use AI to its fullest. And w…

We welcome the creative chairman of BBDO/Singapore, Tay Guan Hin, to this week's episode of The Brief Bros. Henry Gomez and I asked Guan about his career in art and graphic design. Guan revealed a common thread among many creatives: his parents had other plans for him. But his passions led him to advertising anyway. His new book Collide: Embracing …

This week, Henry Gomez and I discuss a video posted by Julian Cole, a link to which we included below. He explains the differences between a marketing and a creative brief. Julian is a noted strategist, teacher and mentor to young strategists. And we have invited him to be a guest on The Brief Bros in the coming weeks. Henry and I dissect and expan…

In Part 2 of our conversation with Ben Levy, creative director and presentation coach at SellItGreat.com, Henry Gomez and I ask Ben about "nuts 'n bolts" problems all presenters face. This is a fascinating and enlightening conversation you don't want to miss. For one-on-one, small group and corporate training in writing inspiring creative briefs, c…

Presentation Coach Ben Levy has made just about every mistake you can imagine as a presenter of creative work. And he'll show you how you can avoid them in his training on creative presentations. This week on The Brief Bros., Ben is our guest in a two-part episode. He is the founder and Head Coach at SellItGreat.com, and he shares his experience, h…

From the "Shameless Commerce Division" of The Brief Bros. (no apologies to Car Talk's Click & Clack), today Henry Gomez quizzes me about my creative brief workshops, my promise to attendees who want to learn how to write better briefs, my teaching philosophy and how I got started. You can get the details at creativebriefworkshops.com. Batteries not…

As our first episode of the New Year, Henry Gomez and I review 2023 and talk about what stood out for us on The Brief Bros. Amazingly enough, Henry and I wrapped up our third year together! And we still like each other! Enjoy this conversation as we share our thoughts on what mattered most in our on-going conversation about briefs, briefing and adv…

This week on The Brief Bros. Henry Gomez and I review and discuss a tool created by a friend and past guest, Tim Brunelle, called the Creative Brief Coach. ChatGPT is everywhere, causing either havoc or joy depending on your point of view. Tim's tool is a worthy topic because he laid out the details of its development, and gave Henry and me an argu…

Henry Gomez and I review an undated creative brief for the UK's famous soft drink Tango, ad agency unknown (if you're privy to the info, please share in the comments section). I featured this brief in my first book on the creative brief, and I included it in my rotating list of briefs for my creative brief workshops, but I have not used it in many …

In our ongoing series, Henry Gomez and I review a creative brief written by a London-based agency for its client, BBC. The brief was written to create a new campaign to promote the BBC's on-air coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. We even have creative so you can ask yourself if the work answers the brief. For one-on-one, small group and…

Gabi Kinney joins Henry Gomez and me this week in a continuation of our series on young talent in our industry. Gabi is a recent grad of the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the U of Minnesota, a familiar name to anyone who follow The Brief Bros. This young woman is blazing a powerful path for herself at Broadhead and we deli…