Felipe Tomaz is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Saïd Business School at University of Oxford. He's about to publish a paper in the Journal of Marketing after analyzing 1,000 campaigns and a million customer journeys via Kantar and Wavemaker. With this paper, he'll be showing that "not all reach is created equal" as well as how few campaigns are actually effective. I invited Tom Roach to join me for this chat. Links Felipe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drfelipethomaz Tom:...

Ipsita Das often reaches millions of people every month. While she was studying media and psychology at he New School, her Instagram account started to pop. Now, she works with tens of people every week. She tries to help them with the thoughts in their minds that are holding them back. In this episode, we discuss the five issues Ipsita hears about more. Ipsita will be teaching at our 2024 Sweathead Do-Together. Find tickets at http://www.sweathead.com. Links: Ipsita:...

Steve Walls has had big strategy jobs at TBWA, Ogilvy, Publicis Groupe, and more. But, now, he lives in Zurich, works with Moon Rabbit, and sees agency pitches from the other side - as someone helping marketers get more out of their agencies. In this episode, we discuss what Steve sees agencies get right and wrong in the pitch process. Steve will be teaching at our 2024 Sweathead Do-Together. Find tickets at http://www.sweathead.com. Links: Steve:...

I’m halfway through a trip to the UAE, Sri Lanka, and The Maldives and I wanted to share some observations as well as hypothetical strategies. Find details for my masterclasses and our upcoming conference The Sweathead Do-Together at www.sweathead.com Say Hi: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

Mike Jacobson has worked in strategy for years. But he's been a magician for decades. Not long ago, he appeared on America's Got Talent. That's how good he is. In this episode, Mike breaks down the business of magic as well as how what he's learned from being a magician and strategist has helped both of his crafts, something he'll be teaching at our upcoming strategy conference The Sweathead Do-Together. Links: Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobsonmike/ Mark:...

I recently spoke with Joe about strategy frameworks and whether they're dumb. In this episode, we discuss strategic territories, which is one of those tools that is either useful or offensive, depending on how people use it. Joe will teach us how to use territories at our upcoming strategy conference The Sweathead Do-Together. Links: Joe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-burns-bb73a31b/ Mark: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard The Sweathead Do-Together:...

Lucien Etori is the Chief Strategy Officer of McCann New York. He grew up moving around a lot as well as a fan of several music subcultures. This has led him to question the way a lot of advertising people use the word "culture". What do people mean by "culture" and "the culture" and "be part of the culture" and "to do work at the speed of culture"? And this is what we get into. Links: Lucien: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucien-etori Mark:...

The last time I spoke with Jenny Chang was four years ago. Since then, she's worked in agencies and for Lego and has now launched her own company, Constellation Theory. In this episode of Sweathead, we discuss this journey as well as what it's like to build a business around yourself. Jenny is hosting our upcoming strategy conference The Sweathead Do-Together. Links: Jenny aka jennifer m chang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayemsey Mark: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard The...

Kevin Chesters has CSO’d it all - Ogilvy, Wieden + Kennedy, Dentsu and more. He’s started a business. He’s sold a business.  He’s also started writing a book and finished writing a book, which is the hardest part of starting to write a book. It’s called The Creative Nudge. Kevin is speaking at our fourth Sweathead Do-Together about how to say your ideas in a few words. In this chat, we touch on this topic but we spend a lot more time on being diagnosed with being on the autism...

James Hurman was once the number one planner in the world. Now, he runs an innovation studio called Previously Unavailable, he teaches a Master of Advertising Effectiveness with the crew at WARC and Cannes Lions, and he directs brand-tracking company Tracksuit. In this episode, we discuss James’s 18 months in the creative department and what he learned that can help strategists.  We also get into the 101 of brand tracking. Here, you can find…  James:...

How often does your advertising career feel stuck?  How often do you compare your career to other people’s careers? What do you do to get your career un-stuck? Iuren Ramiro is a Strategy Director at Agência WE in São Paulo. He’s also on the ANA and Lions CMO Growth Councils. In this episode, we discuss Iuren’s own journey through the darkness as well as a recent survey we ran to see how other strategists feel about these topics. Find our deck on feeling stuck in nan advertising...

Maytê Carvalho won a special version of Brazil’s The Apprentice television show when she was 18 years old. People told her she was persuasive. They told her to write a book about it.  But, first, Maytê decided to study persuasion and ended up getting a Master’s degree focusing on it. She also became a Research Fellow at the Berkeley Global Society. Simultaneously, Maytê worked in the Grey Group and Accenture Song in São Paulo and TBWA\Chiat\Day in LA then CUBOCC in New York as their...

Come for a walk around Washington DC as I discuss the ten things strategists whisper to me and debrief you on 14 events in 5 countries for 700 people over the past two weeks. Find our classes here: http://www.sweathead.com Find me here: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

Join me on a walk from Times Square to the Flatiron District as we discuss some big life changes, my masterclasses in Asia, impostor syndrome, and teaching strategists. Find me @ http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

John Lyons is a fractional CMO. This might mean that he's a fraction of a CMO and that he's either very small or only does a fraction of what a CMO usually does. Well, that's what I think when I see the title "Fractional CMO" - Oh, it's a thumb-sized CMO doing 10% of the CMO job. But, in this chat, John puts me straight while also sharing his thoughts on why B2B service-based companies - especially agencies - struggle with marketing. And John gives us a brief mental health update...

Lena Roland is Content Director, Strategy at WARC. This means she's dealing with all of you as she explores and gathers the smart minds in the world and what they're doing to market and advertise effectively. In this episode, we chat about the present of strategy - what we're both hearing from strategists around the world. If you'd like to share what you're thinking about the future of strategy, WARC is collecting opinions for their Future Of Strategy report until August 2, 2024....

Join me by the river Vitava in Prague for a beer and a chat about the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival.

- The power of paper - Summarize stingily - Digging into problems - Fixing presentations Find out about my masterclasses: http://www.sweathead.com Download the ebook "How To Do Strategy" http://www.sweathead.com Find me on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/markpollard

Toygun is Chief Strategy Office at TBWA in Istanbul, one of my favorite cities on the planet. He recently presented his thoughts about artificial intelligence at SxSW. We discuss these thoughts as well as Turkey.  You can find Toygun here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toygun-yilmazer-29810267/ ** For details about our upcoming strategy masterclasses and free ebooks, go to http://www.sweathead.com 🇨🇿Prague 🇩🇪Berlin 🇺🇸NYC, LA 🇸🇬Singapore 🇮🇩Jakarta 🇵🇭Manila 🇦🇺Sydney

Joe was Head of Strategy at BBH in New York but decided to go to an indie shop Quality Meats as a Group Strategy Director. We discuss this move as well as a survey that suggested a lot of strategists think strategy frameworks do more harm than good. You can find Joe here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-burns-bb73a31b/ ** For details about our upcoming strategy masterclasses and free ebooks, go to http://www.sweathead.com 🇨🇿Prague 🇩🇪Berlin 🇺🇸NYC,...

Mani Schlisser is Director of Strategy at OBERLAND in New York. He's had big comms planning roles at Ogilvy, Mekanism, and Chiat Day. In this chat, we talk about Comms Planning 101 but also get into the daily challenges facing anyone creating advertising right now: - What's happening on the social media platforms, and - What agencies are getting wrong, You can find Mani here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manischlisser/ Find out about our upcoming masterclasses at...

Monika Farkašová (from agency Triad) has won the Young Lions so I'm now calling her World Champion because "Winner" is boring. The Young Lions takes the best young talent from around the world and pits them against each other in a ferocious battle of minds for 24 hours in Cannes every June. David Cerveny (from agency Zaraguza) is a frequent contender in this battle as well having represented the Czech Republic several times. He has his eyes on the big prize and the new title WORLD...

Dr Anastasia Karklina Gabriel has just published her first book "Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy". Having earned a PhD, Anastasia has consulted for many agencies and now works in Reddit's Global Insights team. In this chat, we discuss a few of the key concepts in the book as well as the experience of writing it. You can find Anastasia here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastasiakgabriel/ And her book...

Rob Estreitinho and I have just dropped a deck for you. It's called "Stop Collaborating And Listen". In it, we discuss why workshops are being forced on everyone right now, how this isn't always a good thing, and what to do about it. You can find the deck here: http://bit.ly/stopcollaboratingandlisten