202: The perils of agency search
Our friend Vivek Kuchibhotla returns to talk about the challenges brands face when they search for a new ad agency. He’s a veteran of Leo Burnett, where he worked on Proctor & Gamble, first in Venezuela, then Hong Kong, finally in Chicago. He was then put to work on the global MacDonald’s business. Vivek is […]
201: Howard’s Single-Minded Proposition webinar
Henry Gomez chats me up today about my latest training, a 90-minute webinar on writing the Single-Minded Proposition. It’s one week from today, Wednesay, January 15. Today, I give you highlights of the webinar’s take-aways. The training consists of 60 minutes of insights into real SMPs on real briefs, plus 30 minutes of discussion and […]
200: Bob Hoffman
Henry Gomez and I welcome back an old friend, Bob Hoffman. He’s here to talk about his new book, The Three Word Brief. It’s an incisive and no-holds-barred examination of the ad business and marketing. When Bob speaks, people listen. And on his third visit with us, he has much to say. From the flaws […]
199: Is GeorgeCo LLC really a Delaware company?
Finally, and at long last, George Tannenbaum answers the question on everyone’s mind: Is GeorgeCo LLC really a Delaware company? He talks about much more than that, of course. Henry Gomez and I delight in the return of our friend. He’s our holiday present to all of you. Consider this our joint thank you for […]
198: Alex Morris on the tension between strategy and creative
Our guest, Alex Morris, is a freelance strategy consultant who authored a study Creatives on Strategy: Looking Outside Ourselves to Define What Strategy Offers. It is a survey of creatives’ thoughts about strategy. And it’s the topic of our discussion today. Alex is a strategist of high regard, as evidenced by the comments from his […]
197: Ed Tsue—the brief is dead!
Ed Tsue, Global CSO at Media Futures Group, a respected and admired strategist in our industry, tells us that the Creative Brief is Dead. Today on The Brief Bros., he defends and expands on his position, first posited in his Medium newsletter a year ago. And thanks to last week’s guest Ed Cotton, who reposted […]
196: Ed Cotton’s creative brief provocations
When he launched his Substack blog Provoke six months ago, strategist Ed Cotton had a clear goal. He decided to post excerpts from and links to his favorite LinkedIn articles. But he didn’t stop there. When a topic struck his fancy, he looked beyond LinkedIn and created a curio box of goodies. Most are strategy […]
195: Writer Derek Walker—shunned by agencies, embraced by brands
It’s a too-familiar story. Derek Walker, copywriter and agency founder, came to advertising via journalism. When he graduated, he couldn’t find work in ad agencies. Instead, he cut his teeth in corporate America. Radio Shack, for one, where as in-house ACD, he worked on the Howie & Teri television spots. As he tells it, his […]
194: Christopher Owens, Part 2
Part 2 with Christopher Owens, head of brand strategy at TRG, formerly The Richards Group. Today, Christopher continues to share his passion for strategy. He talks at length about the dangers of short-term thinking on building brands. Then he addresses the turn away information-driven creative back to creativity and story-telling to make emotional connections. He […]
193: Christopher Owens, Part 1
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 […]
