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 here: https://adblacksea.com

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 you. You'll hear from: - Dulce Vazquez- VP, Strategy Director, Wildtype Health - Rodolfo Andres...

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, Interaction's strategic planning lead, to find out how they go about their work. You can find...

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 here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-collins-b5b15357/ ** You can find the Sweathead report What...

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 emphasis on learning and self-improving. You can find Raluca here:...

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 Sweathead report What Strategists Want From Work here: https://bit.ly/what-strategists-want ** Next...

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/javiquintero/ ** You can find the Sweathead report What Strategists Want From Work here:...

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: ⁠https://bit.ly/what-strategists-want⁠ ** Next strategy event: The Sweathead Strategy...

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 awards, and how strategists fit in. You can find Victor here:...

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/ ** You can find the Sweathead report What Strategists Want From Work here:...

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 Sweathead report What Strategists Want From Work here: ⁠https://bit.ly/what-strategists-want⁠ ** Next...

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.linkedin.com/in/david-moreno-577b928/ ** You can find the Sweathead report What Strategists Want...

I've been interviewing chief strategy officers from some of the world's most effective advertising agencies according to the Effie Index. Many of them contributed to our recent report What Strategists Want From Work. I'll share the interviews via the Sweathead podcast in June.

In short–and perhaps this is merely a truism as well as a self-fulfilling prophecy that doesn't feel insightful:

The world’s most effective ad agencies are built for effectiveness.

1. They have a clear and compelling...

Aisha Hakim is an associate creative director at 72andSunny. She's also prolific online. Aisha will be hosting a masterclass called "The Art Of Deck-Making" for us on May 17. Aisha originally published a deck about deck-making to Twitter and then to LinkedIn. The deck went a little viral and it still pops up every few months. In this episode, we discuss all of this. You can find Aisha here: https://aishamadeit.com/ ** Next strategy event: The Art of Deck-Making with Aisha...

It's May 4. Today marks three years since Sweathead launch its first online class. And, to celebrate, we've published a new report "What Strategists Want From Work". In this report, you'll learn: 1. What strategists want from the companies they work at, 2. What strategy bosses want from their strategists, 3. What makes a strategy career happen, 4. The top strategy bosses that people want to work for, and 5. The companies strategists most want to work at. Find it here:...

Bonnie Wan is Head of Strategy at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, an agency she's worked at for thirteen years. In 2022, she won a big award: AdAge's CSO of the year. And she's about to publish a book through which she's going to put all of her strategy nous into a shape that can help you in your life. It's called "The Life Brief." In this episode of Sweathead, we discuss how to become more of who you are–How do you work out who you are? How do you be that? You can find Bonnie here:...

Bernice Chao is author of "The Visibility Mindset". Her agency experience includes R/GA, Zambezi, TBWA, and David&Goliath. While navigating her career in the creative department, Bernice found herself longing to be able to connect with more people who understood her experience. So she set up Asians In Advertising with Jessalin Lam and has amassed a community of over 4,000 people who identify as AAPI from around the world. And this is what we discuss. You can find Bernice here:...

Sofia, Bulgaria. It’s the capital of one of Europe’s poorest countries, a country that spent decades behind the iron curtain, a country after which the Bulgarian Split Squat is named, and a country that wants you to visit it. I’m speaking at Digitalk on May 18 and I’m teaching a masterclass on May 19. And to whet people’s appetites for the eccentricities I’m going to bring, this episode features a live workshop with Adriyana Mihaylova, a local strategy mind who’s spent the last couple of...

Yikes. I think I squeezed four episodes into one here. We discuss: 1. Advertising industry news and breaking campaigns from Dodge, Icelandair, KFC, and Lawn Doctor 2. Natalie Brinkman's strategy for Sriracha 3. How to improve Get/To/By 4. Tensions facing strategists right now And a bunch of Sweathead news including masterclasses and conferences. ** Subscribe to our newsletters here: https://sweathead.com/newsletter/strategy-for-life/

@Agencyprobs is crushing it on Instagram. With over 110,000 followers, the meme account helps everyone in advertising laugh and cry a little at the career that's chosen them. In this anonymous and debut interview, I speak with one of the founders and minds behind the account. We discuss what the ad industry creator lifestyle is like and we discuss some of the industry problems that cause the most pain. You can find Agency Probs here: https://www.instagram.com/agencyprobs/ ** Next strategy...