Last month, I sat down for a conversation with Ian Murray- the co-founder of Burst Your Bubble. Ian has no shortage of contrarian views on everything from media and the current vogues in marketing to what strategists need to be doing in their work.

To give you a flavor of the conversation- here are some soundbites.

On Media

 "TV still produces the strongest signals in terms of what we call fitness, which is things like signaling a brand's quality, reliability, financial strength, and success."

"Young people have the same response pattern on signaling as older generations. So they're watching less TV, but it has no lesser cultural impact for them."

Findings from research conducted for Essence   

The Problem with Niches

 "How do you build culture through these incredibly fragmented, personalized niches? You've no idea if anybody else is seeing the same thing you."

People Want to Conform

"It's not driven necessarily by niches. People aren't always looking to stand out and define themselves as different from others. They are, but it's not necessarily the dominant thing they're doing. A lot about what the mainstream are doing is they want to belong, they want to be the same as other people.”

Strategists- Look More Closely at What's Around You

"You are stepping over the stuff, you know, that you're ignoring on your way to the agency in the morning, you know when you're waiting for your street food at lunchtime in the market. You don't have to go 500 miles to see it's right in front of your eyes."

The conversation is full of interesting perspectives on what the industry should be doing and how we can do our strategy jobs with a level of integrity.