ANY INSIGHTS YET?
THE PODCAST
Before the idea, there was the insight.
Before the award-winning campaign, before the category-disrupting innovation, there was the insight - the aha moment or the re-framed truth that helped founders, strategists, and creative directors see the world in a new way.
But how do you get to an insight in the first place?
What are the techniques that entrepreneurs and innovators use to break open problems and spark new ideas?
Any Insights Yet reveals the secrets, stories, and surprising discoveries that have led to fresh insights that have, in turn, led to the world’s most memorable campaigns and breakthrough business ideas.
SEASON 1
Episode 1
Transforming Clients and Customers Into True Believers with Seth Gaffney & Marika Wiggan at Preacher
Episode Description:
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 of the Year for four of the last five years.
Some of my favorite aha moments from our conversation include:
Discovering the very different ways Seth and Marika broke into the world of advertising
Scrappy techniques for learning about customer pain points and mapping out the customer journey
The way Preacher is leveraging AI in their strategic work
Funny and insightful stories from their work on Tommy John, Tecovas, Favor, WeTransfer, Sport Clips, and Foot Locker
The personal advice from parents that have shaped their approach to the work they do every day
Episode 2
How Honor and Vengeance Can Grow Your Brand with Brent Vartan at Bullish, Inc
Episode Description:
Most ad agencies have clients. That’s not exactly the case with Bullish, Inc.
Started in 2015 by Michael Duda and Brent Vartan, the founders of Bullish asked a provocative “what if” question that re-envisioned what an agency could be in order to help maximize a new brand’s success.
Their question: “What if we invested in early stage brands by providing actual money along with world-class strategic and creative services?”
That question and their counterintuitive approach to brand-building has led to some impressive results for brands like Warby Parker, Harry’s, Casper, Peloton, Hu, Care/of, Nom Nom, and many more.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Brent include:
Exploring immutable human desires like family, honor, and idealism as key starting points for brand-building
The role of vengeance as a rallying cry for brands and consumers
How chasing after the lowest cost per acquisition is NOT always the best way to grow a brand
The evolution of ecommerce to consultative commerce
Brent’s secrets for getting consumers to let down their guard during research
Episode 3
Putting “What If” At the Center of the Creative Brief with Shobha Sairam, Chief Strategy Officer at 22 Squared Inc
Episode Description:
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, Party City, Publix, and Toyota.
Over the years, Shobha’s research for different brands has exposed her to a variety of sensitive and challenging subjects, including sexual wellness, banking, and the American Dream.
Some of my favorite aha moments during our conversation include:
The surprisingly complex reasons people have sex and how those reasons led to the evolution of the K-Y brand
Moving beyond the classic problem-solution formula that most brands adhere to
The impact Gen Z has had on brands and storytelling across multiple categories
Re-framing the banking industry away from the standard idea of “financial freedom” toward something more poignant and provocative
Transforming “What is” to “What If” in creative briefings and client work sessions to consistently get to more effective, engaging work
Episode 4
Easy Ways to Cut the Crap and Build Something Great with Alex M H Smith, Author of No Bullsh*t Strategy
Episode Description:
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 bullshit.
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 the world of strategy. With his book and his consultancy, Alex is on a mission to help brands differentiate themselves through bold, decisive action.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Alex include:
The difference between a bullshit strategy and a no bullshit strategy
How to redefine your competitive set to create a category of one
The surprising lies that most marketers believe when it comes to targeting
How to maintain differentiation when when copycats come in with commoditized claims
How to reduce your strategy down to just one word
Episode 5
How to Make the Invisible Visible With Sascha Mayer, Co-Founder at Mamava
Episode Description:
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 other events inspired a question that would change her life’s trajectory.
“Why are these women who are so visible to me so invisible to everyone else?”
That question - and the answers that followed - led Sascha and her co-founder Christine Dodson on a seven year journey to create Mamava, a revolutionary lactation pod for on-the-go moms (and dads) who need a clean, comfortable space for nursing, pumping, or bottle feeding.
From the first location in 2013 at the Burlington International Airport to more than 5,000 Mamava locations today, Sascha has channeled her bodacious optimism for mission-driven brands into the Mamava ecosystem, transforming a topic that was once invisible into something that is now highly visible, approachable, and welcoming.
Some of my favorite aha moments from our conversation include:
The process of coming up with a memorable name and provocative logo for Mamava
Breaking down barriers and raising awareness around the topic of lactivism
Finding key partners and “pollinators” to help carry the message and mission of Mamava
Sascha’s favorite Mamava pod location and why it’s special to her
The importance of expanding the Mamava ecosystem from physical pods to a user-friendly app
The critical branding and ethnographic research lessons Sascha learned while working for Bernie Sanders and brands like Seventh Generation and Burton Snowboards
Episode 6
How to Add Magic To Your Next Campaign with Magician-Strategist Mike Jacobson from America’s Got Talent
Episode Description:
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 creative campaigns for a wide range of clients, including Oreo, Subway, Comedy Central, Paramount, and other MTV Networks.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Mike include:
The surprising overlaps between magic, mentalism, and marketing
How to take a simple card trick (and a creative briefing) to a level 10 engagement
Mike’s terrible interview at 72andSunny and how he turned it around to get his first job in advertising
The secret to priming your audience to be more receptive to your message
How to get and hold people’s attention in an era of shrinking attention spans
The importance of confidence and mystery in modern marketing
Episode 7
Thinking Inside The Box More Creatively with Dan Cohen, Executive Creative Director at Saatchi New York
Episode Description:
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 (toilet paper), Pampers (diapers), Pepto-Bismol (digestion), and Puffs (facial tissue).
He’s also worked on the other side of the advertising spectrum, re-energizing luxury brands like Rolex, DeBeers, and Bentley.
No matter what he’s working on though, Dan always manages to find those aha moments hiding in plain sight - in data points, personal experiences, and in casual conversations with his creative teams.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Dan include:
The data point that became a powerful springboard for Bounty’s latest campaign
How to build awareness for brands in commoditized categories
Charmin’s creative activations in unexpected places like Pottypalooza and Times Square
How Gen-Z has upended the traditional approach to linear storytelling
The summer job Dan had in college that taught him a valuable lesson
Episode 8
Why Context is Everything with Tim Malefyt, Business Anthropologist and Clinical Professor at Fordham University
Episode Description:
Tim Malefyt has an amazing ability to make the familiar strange.
He does this by doing deep, ethnographic research with customers, 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 number of big name brands across multiple categories, including Campbell’s, Gillette, FedEx, HBO, Revlon, PepsiCo, Cadillac, Crayola, and New Balance among many others.
For Tim, context is everything.
If you want to understand a person’s behavior, you have to talk to them in the right context. That means getting them out of the focus group room, putting away the interrogation pad, and talking with people in the environment where the behavior naturally takes place.
Because as Tim puts it, “It is in the doing, in the action, that the ‘knowledge of the body’ starts to come through.”
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Tim with include:
Reframing Campbell’s “dinner dilemma” into something more creative and communal
The surprisingly social nature of driving and the unexpected challenges that poses designers of self-driving cars
The power of metaphors to hide, shape, or distort reality and how to use metaphors during interviews to get to more meaningful truths
How to check for and overcome gender bias in research projects
The way Tim’s experience as a ballet dancer has influenced his approach to research and presentations
Episode 9
Looking for Anomalies & Opportunities in AI Focus Groups with Ed Cotton, Chief Strategist & Brand Consultant
Episode Description:
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, Ed has been at the helm of strategic planning in NYC, leading strategy for a wide variety of brands, including Amazon, Apple, BMW-MINI, Chipotle, EA, LG, Nestle, Nike-Converse, Unilever, and Wal-Mart.
In today’s fast-moving marketing environments, where CMO tenures are shorter than ever Ed sees a multitude of opportunities that AI can offer - speed, cost reduction, and more ways to connect the dots.
But at the same time, he worries that the combined pressure of smaller budgets and tighter deadlines are creating situations where strategists are afraid to get out of the office or out of their comfort zone.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Ed include:
How to overcome insecurity as a junior strategist
Why big data can sometimes be misleading and doesn’t necessarily lead to more insights
Which categories are most toxic for focus groups and what to do if you’re doing research in one of those categories
How one of Ed’s favorite hobbies helps him see the world with fresh eyes
A valuable life lesson that Ed learned from a creative director when he was just starting out as a strategist
Episode 10
Reframing Risk & Doing Scary Stuff with Andy Pearson, VP of Creative at Liquid Death
Episode Description:
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 happen at all.
No reaction. No learning. No breakthroughs.
Just a boring piece of creative, dead on arrival, completely ignored.
That’s why, over the course of his career, Andy has developed a habit of pushing himself into uncomfortable situations and doing “scary stuff” so that he can explore ideas that most people won’t even consider.
But scary stuff isn’t the same as doing anything.
There is always a Liquid Death Logic underneath every idea that helps the team connect the dots between dumb ideas and smart ideas in unexpected ways.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Andy include:
Andy’s favorite activations at Liquid Death and why he loves them
One of the scariest things Andy did early on in his career before Liquid Death that has shaped his outlook on risks and creativity
The questions Andy likes to ask in brainstorms to push ideas even further
How Liquid Death manages controversy and consistently transforms hate into something great
The intriguing parallels between one of Andy’s hobbies (ultramarathons) and building a brand
Episode 11
Transforming Challenger Brands into Category Leaders with Mark DiMassimo & Lesley Bielby at DiGo Brands
Episode Description:
How do you take a challenger brand from number two and make it number one?
And how do you do that with a relentless focus on positive behavior change?
Those are the kinds of challenges that Mark DiMassimo and Lesley Bielby love to tackle at DiGo Brands, and over the past twenty years, they have elevated and re-energized numerous better-for-you brands, including Weight Watchers, Crunch Fitness, The Partnership to End Addiction, The Bronx Zoo, and Better Help, just to name a few.
Whether they're making award-winning ads or redesigning a brand's identity from top to bottom, their work combines the latest findings from behavioral science with a unique blend of humanity, humility, and just the right amount of absurdist humor.
Our conversation takes some wonderfully unexpected twists and turns as we try to decipher the motivating emotions surrounding embarrassment and the importance of teamwork when it comes to new business pitches.
Some of my favorite aha moments talking with Mark and Lesley include:
Their “go-for-the-jugular” approach when it comes to customer research
How they turned HelloFresh from a challenger brand into the undisputed category leader
The key research findings and creative executions that allowed Better Help to connect with a wider audience
The insightful and entertaining ways they transformed Crunch Fitness into a national brand
How Mark’s experience in his grandparents’ hair salon and Lesley’s experience as a hypnotherapist have shaped their approach to strategy and creativity