Grow Your Brain

Matilda “Tilly” Scullion is a New York-based Group Strategy Director at Havas. Her agency experience includes Anomaly, Grey, and Superunion, and she studied English at the University of Cambridge.

Tilly and Pedro discuss why storytelling is part of doing strategy, not just presenting it. They explore how strategists balance analytical rigour with human understanding, turn research into a persuasive story, and stay open to information that challenges their initial assumptions. Tilly also shares what ghost stories taught her about making every word count, why understanding the right problem matters more than rushing towards a solution, and how involving creative partners early helps shape stronger strategic directions.

Tilly will be teaching a class at the APG Canada School of Strategic Goodness on October 21, 2026 titled “The Art of Storytelling: How to Think in Stories, Not Slides.” Register here.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• Truth, Lies, and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning by Jon Steel

Follow Tilly Scullion:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tilly-scullion/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Grow Your Brain Podcast
00:53 Introduction to Tilly Scullion
03:29 Tilly's Journey into Advertising
06:18 The Duality of Strategy: Art and Science
08:58 The Influence of Literature on Storytelling
11:49 The Power of Ghost Stories in Communication
14:22 Storytelling as a Strategic Tool
17:04 The Balance of Qualitative and Quantitative Insights
19:35 The Process of Building a Strategy
22:19 The Role of Open-Mindedness in Strategy Development
25:09 Navigating Hypotheses in Strategy
27:49 Challenging Preconceived Notions
29:28 The Importance of Contradictions
35:53 Understanding the Right Problem
38:45 The Role of Strategy in Creative Solutions
42:19 Expanding the Role of Strategists
44:33 Collaborating with Creative Partners

Hannah Tabor is the Group Strategy Director at Mother New York. Her work spans brands including Target, Bombay Sapphire, iShares, Dave & Buster’s, Seventh Generation, The Wall Street Journal, Stella Artois, Panera Bread, and Lee Jeans.

Hannah and Pedro discuss how conversations with unexpected experts can lead to more inspiring insights. They explore why strategists need to look beyond their own cultural bubbles, make room for human conversations, and stay curious even as timelines shrink and AI makes quick answers easier to find. Hannah shares how outside perspectives can help teams see familiar categories differently, why being a beginner is valuable, and how to balance creative intuition with research. They also unpack the importance of a “curiosity diet” and making strategy clear enough for others to understand without losing what makes it interesting.

Hannah will be teaching a class at the APG Canada School of Strategic Goodness on November 18th from 12pm-1pm EST titled “Strategy Has Left the Building: How to Turn Outsider Inputs Into Insider Insights.” Register here.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• The Criterion Collection

Follow Hannah Tabor:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahtabor/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/

Join APG to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Grow Your Brain Podcast
00:53 Introduction to Hannah Tabor
01:49 Hannah's Journey into Advertising
05:48 Cultural Perspectives: East Coast vs. West Coast
09:03 Keeping a Pulse on the Outside World
10:33 The Importance of Journalism in Strategy
13:38 The Value of Human Conversations
15:17 The Impact of AI on Human Interaction
17:20 Inserting Friction into the Process
20:03 Understanding Unexpected Experts
21:38 The Value of Fresh Perspectives
24:23 Embracing the Novice Mindset
26:37 Defining Insight in Strategy
28:47 The Art of Storytelling in Insights
31:12 Balancing Qualitative and Quantitative Research
33:42 Curiosity as a Core Competency
37:42 The Importance of a Curiosity Diet
43:04 Navigating Over-Intellectualization in Strategy

Samantha Francis is VP, Head of Strategy and Planning at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada in Toronto. Her career spans book publishing, digital and content marketing, professional services, client-side marketing, and agency strategy, with a focus on brand strategy, research, and effectiveness.

Sam and Pedro discuss what brands actually are, and why building one ultimately comes down to creating and maintaining useful associations in people’s memories. They explore the difference between the positioning an organization wants and the brand image consumers actually carry around, why so much advertising drifts toward category sameness, and how brands can turn familiar product truths into more distinctive and emotionally resonant creative.

Sam also unpacks the Toyota Canada "For What Matters Most" work and why good diagnosis requires knowing when to use quantitative research, when to go deeper with qualitative research, and when to acknowledge what you simply don’t know.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
• MiniMBA with Mark Ritson
• Toyota Canada – For What Matters Most
• Volkswagen – Think Small and Lemon
• Volvo Trucks – The Epic Split

Follow Samantha Francis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthafrancis/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Grow Your Brain Podcast

00:53 Introduction to Samantha Francis

03:17 From Publishing to Strategy: A Unique Journey

05:53 The Importance of Strategy in Marketing

08:13 Understanding the Client Perspective

10:38 The Art of Making Strategic Choices

12:55 Brand Building: Creating Lasting Memories

15:21 The Role of Associations in Branding

17:39 Awareness vs. Salience in Brand Strategy

19:59 The Concept of Wastage in Marketing

20:20 The Importance of Mental Availability

23:58 Brand Image vs. Brand Positioning

28:24 Creative Approaches in Automotive Advertising

33:15 Emotional Storytelling in Brand Campaigns

38:22 Balancing Quantitative and Qualitative Insights

Imogen Lee is a Senior Marketing Scientist at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, specializing in advertising effectiveness. Her work spans Category Entry Points, Distinctive Brand Assets, and advertising messaging.

Imogen and Pedro discuss how brands grow by reaching more category buyers and building useful memory structures over time. They explore why narrow targeting can limit growth, why “wastage” is often misunderstood, and why clicks and engagement are poor substitutes for actual business outcomes. Imogen also unpacks how marketers can use Category Entry Points, Distinctive Brand Assets, and mental and physical availability to make advertising more effective, easier to process, and more likely to be remembered in buying situations.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
• How Brands Grow Part 2 by Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk
• Building Distinctive Brand Assets by Jenni Romaniuk
• Better Brand Health by Jenni Romaniuk
• Marketing: Theory, Evidence, Practice by Byron Sharp
• Missing the Target? Investigating Targeted Advertising by Imogen Lee
• Are Swede Dreams Made of This? IKEA, Wicker and the Art of Staying on Brand by Imogen Lee
• Nielsen NetEffect (CPG) meta analysis: “There is no correlation between CTR and ROI” (study)
• Engagement on Facebook: When it matters (report)

Follow Imogen Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imogen-lee/

Follow the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute:  https://www.linkedin.com/school/ehrenbergbass/posts/?feedView=all

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Grow Your Brain Podcast

00:53 Introduction and Time Zones

02:20 Imogen's Journey into Marketing Science

04:21 Research Focus: Targeted Advertising

06:15 The Evolution of Targeting in Digital Media

09:09 The Importance of Reach for Brands

11:46 Distinctive Brand Assets and Category Entry Points

14:09 Mental and Physical Availability Framework

17:41 Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Practice

20:08 Understanding Loyalty in Marketing

22:08 Targeting Strategies in Marketing

25:59 Understanding Target Markets vs. Actual Buyers

28:21 Rethinking Wastage in Marketing

31:15 The Disconnect Between Clicks and Business Outcomes

34:49 Building Useful Memory Structures in Advertising

38:22 The Importance of Message Clarity in Advertising

40:33 Developing Effective Category Entry Points

43:24 Cultural Cues in Advertising

46:24 Embracing Marketing Science for Better Decisions

Padmini Mangunta is a strategist whose career spans senior roles at Interbrand, Barkley OKRP, Intouch Group, McCann New York, and McKinney.

Padmini and Pedro discuss why strategists need to get more comfortable with human contradiction, tension, judgment, and emotional nuance. They unpack the limits of personas when they stand alone, the importance of asking better questions, and why great strategy often comes from understanding people as fluid, dynamic, and sometimes inconsistent human beings.

Padmini will be teaching a class on the APG Canada School of Strategic Goodness on September 9, 2026 titled: “No more cliches: How to defy stereotypes and meaningfully connect with consumers”. Register here: https://www.apgcanada.ca/event-calendar/#id=198&cid=1396&wid=201

Resources talked about in this episode:

• The More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger
• Ted Lasso
• World Cup fan video: https://x.com/AllFutbolMX/status/2071719403331232091?lang=en

Follow Padmini Mangunta:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/padminimangunta/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Grow Your Brain Podcast
00:53 Introduction and Background
05:28 Career Journey and Transition to Advertising
10:48 The Role of Journalism in Strategy
17:31 Understanding the Customer: Beyond Personas
22:20 Exploring Human Tension and Judgment
26:07 Balancing Nuance and Simplification in Strategy
31:15 The Importance of Empathy in Storytelling
38:29 Understanding Empathy and Human Connection

Claudia Aguirre is a Calgary-based brand strategist, qualitative researcher, and consultant with more than 20 years of experience across Mexico, the US Hispanic market, Latin America, Canada, and Europe. She began her career in research and planning in Mexico, working with firms including Leo Burnett, JWT, FCB, and Research International, before eventually building her own consulting practice focused on research, branding, civic causes, not-for-profits, and sustainable brands.

This conversation between Claudia Aguirre and Pedro Porto Alegre explores strategy through Claudia’s deeply human lens: getting out into the world, observing real behaviour, and turning it into insights that creatives can actually build from. Claudia reflects on her early days in planning in Latin America and why great strategists often come from unexpected paths, before diving into why leaving the desk is essential for good strategy. They also discuss vulnerability as a strategic skill, how culture and language shape what people are willing to share, and the role of AI in modern strategy—useful for the groundwork, but no substitute for real-world observation, perspective, and judgment.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• The Jay Chiat Awards
• Balzac and La Comédie Humaine
• Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content by Anil R. Doshi and Oliver P. Hauser, Science Advances
• Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share by Emily Ekins, Cato Institute / YouGov

Follow Claudia Aguirre:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/aguirreclaudia/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/ 

Listen to full episodes wherever you get your podcasts:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033uubqHEgCKhsEtBQzMwD
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grow-your-brain/id1896893094
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxF4y-bl38Gcdi1FSSVROMnK3Ct-QLYT

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Grow Your Brain Podcast

00:49 The Gathering Festival Overview

01:13 Claudia Aguirre’s Career Journey

04:17 Building the Planning Profession

10:43 Why Strategists Must Get Out Into the World

17:37 Research, Human Behavior, and Creative Collaboration

20:49 Observation, Insights, and the Brief

28:40 Vulnerability as a Strategic Skill

33:33 Culture, Language, and Connecting With People

41:07 AI, Originality, and Doing the Real Work

Umar Ghumman is an experience strategist and founder of NewBrains, a website strategy studio built around the intersection of new technologies and enduring human behaviour. Over his career, Umar has worked across digital agencies, startups, Publicis, and VML, where he served as Chief Experience Strategy Officer.

This conversation explores how brands should think about websites, customer experience, AI, positioning, and distinctiveness in digital environments. Umar Ghumman explains why websites should be treated as complete buying systems that build both physical and mental availability, and why generic digital experiences are becoming less effective as AI increasingly compares, summarizes, and filters brands.

The episode also looks at the shift from social media to AI, the trade-offs between privacy and convenience, and how brand positioning should show up online. Pedro and Umar discuss how brands become habits, why consistency needs variation, and how developing taste and judgment in an AI-shaped world comes from experience, exposure, and feedback rather than aesthetics alone.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• A New Operating System for Brand Building in the Age of AI by Umar Ghumman
• The Social Dilemma
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

Follow Umar Ghumman:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/umarghumman/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/ 

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

01:15 Umar’s Background and the NewBrains Perspective

02:58 From the Social Media Shift to AI

05:07 Privacy, Trust, and the Pull of Convenience

08:23 Websites as Complete Buying Systems

10:08 Websites, Physical Availability, and Mental Availability

13:49 Bringing Brand Positioning to Life Online

15:54 Balancing Immersive Experiences with Utility

18:38 How to Define Brand Positioning

23:14 How Positioning Drives Website Conversion

24:58 Measuring Website Success

27:46 Customer Journeys and Brand-Rooted Experiences

28:34 AI’s Role in Modern Brand Building

30:10 Consistency, Variation, and Distinctiveness

32:13 How Brands Become Habits

35:15 Customer Centricity Without Sameness

38:22 Developing Taste and Judgment

Marc Binkley is an evidence-based marketing consultant, President of the Calgary Marketing Association, and co-host of the Sleeping Barber podcast. Through his consultancy, Quatical, he helps organizations apply marketing science to brand and business growth.

This conversation explores how evidence-based thinking can improve marketing decisions, why digital measurement has distorted our understanding of effectiveness, and what marketers can learn from the scientific method. Marc and Pedro examine the limitations of the traditional marketing funnel, how people actually make buying decisions, and why better diagnosis often matters more than having more tactics.

They also discuss mental and physical availability, the 95–5 Rule, the Theory of Constraints, and how marketers can build a stronger latticework of mental models without mistaking any single framework for reality.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger
• How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
• The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field
• The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
• Future Demand by James Hurman
• Better Brand Health by Jenni Romaniuk

Follow Marc Binkley:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/
• https://sleepingbarber.ca/
• https://calgarycma.com/
• https://www.quatical.com/

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroportoalegre/

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at http://apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at http://thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Marc Binkley and His Work

03:31 The Importance of Evidence-Based Marketing

06:10 The Evolution of Marketing Measurement

08:32 The Impact of Digital Marketing

11:00 How Digital Changed Marketing Thinking

13:37 The Limits of Digital Measurement

16:18 Why Small Brands Default to Social Media

17:21 The Importance of Asking Better Questions

20:36 Can Scientific Thinking Scale Across Marketing Teams?

22:55 Why New Ideas Threaten Core Beliefs

23:16 The Origins of the Marketing Funnel

24:59 The Strongest Arguments For and Against the Funnel

27:10 How Consumers Actually Make Buying Decisions

28:32 Mental and Physical Availability

29:48 Satisficing and the Reality of Consumer Choice

31:19 The Role of Mental Models in Strategy

33:18 Understanding the Theory of Constraints

36:21 Why Diagnosis Matters More Than Tactics

37:25 The 95–5 Rule and Future Demand

40:29 Alternatives to the Traditional Funnel

41:23 The 95–5 Cash Flow Funnel

43:05 Measuring Mental Availability

45:11 Turning Marketing Research Into Action

Jon Crowley is a Toronto-based brand strategist, Partner, Head of Strategy, and SVP at FUSE Create. He is also the writer behind A Benign Conspiracy and a founding editor of Rebrief, an independent Canadian journal of advertising.

This conversation explores the realities of modern strategy, agency culture, and the tension between creativity, business, data, and measurement. Jon Crowley shares his perspective on what strategists often misunderstand about their role, why agencies need to better understand how clients make money, and how the pursuit of certainty has shaped marketing’s obsession with attribution, funnels, and performance metrics.

The episode also covers the importance of writing as a way of thinking, the value of intentional friction in creative work, the role of print in a digital world, and why individual success in advertising is largely a myth. Jon argues that strategy is ultimately an elevated form of educated guessing, where the strategist’s job is to increase the probability of success by understanding the business, the audience, the market, and the creative problem clearly enough to point teams toward better decisions.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• A Benign Conspiracy by Jon Crowley
• Rebrief
• The Walrus
• Monocle
• Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan
• How Humans Decide (Oxford Saïd Business School / WPP research on brand preference)
• Shoresy
• A Big Life In Advertising by Mary Wells Lawrence

Follow Jon Crowley:

• LinkedIn
• A Benign Conspiracy

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• LinkedIn

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 The Indie Agency Experience

06:25 The Importance of Team Culture

11:59 The Journey into Writing and Strategy

17:12 Launching Rebrief: A New Perspective on Advertising

22:34 The Value of Print in a Digital World

22:57 Understanding Marketing in Business Context

28:00 The Importance of Clear Objectives in Briefs

33:25 The Shift Towards Performance Marketing

38:49 The Role of Media Mix Modeling

44:14 The Challenge of Teaching Young Strategists

Paul "PK" Lawton is a sociologist, co-founder of Sister Merci, and an instructor at McMaster University. His work examines how culture shapes behaviour, belief, and decision-making.

This conversation explores the intersection of sociology and marketing strategy, emphasizing the importance of understanding social actors, assemblages, and the limitations of traditional frameworks. PK Lawton shares insights on how brands are built in regulated industries, the influence of social sciences, and the need to adapt in an age of AI and rapid change.

Resources talked about in this episode:

• After Method by John Law
• How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
• Actor Network Theory (Bruno Latour)
• Retromania by Simon Reynolds
• Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher
• Shitification by Corey Doctorow

Follow PK Lawton:

• LinkedIn

Follow Pedro Porto Alegre:

• LinkedIn

Join APG Canada to connect with, learn from, and support the country’s strategic planning community. Become a member at apgcanada.ca/join-us.

Grow Your Brain is proudly sponsored by The Gathering, the award-winning yearly brand festival hosted in the Canadian Rockies. Learn more at thegatheringfestival.com.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Paul Lawton's Journey

02:58 Teaching and Academia: A Return to Roots

05:46 The Evolution of Strategy in Marketing

09:02 Defining Brand Strategy in a Changing Landscape

11:48 Building Brands in Regulated Industries

15:08 The Role of AI in Modern Strategy

18:02 The Concept of Brand as Assemblage

21:01 Navigating the Messy World of Marketing

23:59 Frameworks and Their Limitations in Strategy

28:03 The Complexity of AI Operations and Marketing Funnels

29:30 Understanding Social Assemblages in Marketing

32:09 The Role of Frameworks in Strategy

33:01 Actor-Network Theory and Its Implications

36:21 The Need for Sociological Perspectives in Strategy

37:39 The Limitations of Predicting the Future

40:22 The Erosion of Future Visions in Society

43:33 Navigating the New Marketing Landscape

44:54 The Role of Marketing Science in Strategy

49:17 Understanding Brand Growth Beyond Advertising

52:08 The Importance of Recognizing All Actors in Strategy