What is risk? For most people, a risky situation is one where you’re exposed to danger. Put another way, it’s the possibility of something bad happening. But for Andy Pearson, VP of Creative at Liquid Death, the definition of risk takes an interesting detour. For Andy, the real danger is not that something bad will happen, but that nothing will hap…

Why should strategists do focus groups with real humans if AI-enabled synthetic focus groups can yield an equally powerful aha moment at a fraction of the cost? That’s one of several challenging questions I explore with Ed Cotton, brand consultant and former chief strategy officer from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners (BSSP). For the past 25 years, …

Tim Malefyt has an amazing ability to make the familiar strange. He does this by doing deep, ethnographic research, helping brands uncover hidden consumer truths through a combination of carefully constructed activities and thoughtful conversation. As a business anthropologist, Tim’s research methodologies and key findings have helped re-energize a…

Dan Cohen loves a good challenge. Tell him he can’t say something in a campaign headline and he’ll find a creative way around it, to the delight of clients and customers alike. Over the past thirty years, Dan’s creative, collaborative approach has helped a wide variety of brands in commoditized categories, including Bounty (paper towels), Charmin (…

A great magic trick, like a great creative briefing, begins long before everyone gathers in a room. To the general public, Mike Jacobson may be best known for his magic show performance on America’s Got Talent in 2023, but for the past decade in the business and advertising world, Mike has brought his unique methods to strategic briefings and creat…

Sascha Mayer knows what it’s like to be invisible. Like so many new moms nursing their children, if she wanted to nurse or pump when she was away from home, her options were often limited to a bathroom stall, an unattended room, or a parked car. But it was around Labor Day weekend in 2006 that an article in the New York Times and a confluence of ot…

There are a lot of strategy documents in the world. Briefs. Decks. White papers. Books. According to Alex M H Smith, most of them are full of shit. Impenetrable, calcified, piled-high bullsh*t. That’s because, despite all their words and charts and graphs, these so-called strategies fail to inspire action. And that’s what Alex wants to change in th…

For over two decades, Shobha Sairam has worked on a wide variety of brands at a number of agencies around the world, including Leo Burnett, Mother, Deutsch, and The Community among others. Most recently, Shobha has led strategy at 22 Squared Inc, based out of New York, where she and her team have breathed new life into brands like Baskin Robbins, P…

Most ad agencies have clients. That’s not exactly the case with Bullish Inc. Started in 2015 by Michael Duda and Brent Vartan, the co-founders of Bullish asked a provocative “what if” question that re-envisioned what an agency could be to help maximize a new brand’s success. Their question: “What if we invested in early stage brands by providing ac…

Curiosity, conviction, and a desire to get out of one’s comfort zone - these are just a few of the characteristics that Seth Gaffney and Marika Wiggan look for in strategic candidates at Preacher, and it’s this non-traditional approach to finding talent and building campaigns that has led to Preacher’s continued success, winning them Small Agency o…

Introducing Any Insights Yet? with Chris Kocek.By Chris Kocek