Keywords

creativity, AI, digital advertising, leadership, work-life balance, personal growth, innovation, creative management, technology, storytelling

Summary

In this episode of 'Just a Chat with a Brand and Creativity', host Andrew Dobbie interviews Lars Bastholm, a seasoned creative leader with a rich history in digital advertising and AI. They discuss Lars's unconventional journey into creativity, the evolution of digital advertising, and the challenges of leading creative teams. Lars shares insights on work-life balance, the impact of AI on creativity, and the importance of personal projects for young creatives. The conversation also touches on the duality of AI's potential, exemplified through a humorous experiment with an AI-generated Billy the Fish, showcasing the playful side of creativity in the age of technology.

Takeaways

Lars's journey into creativity was accidental, starting from a film and English degree.

Direct marketing taught Lars the importance of understanding customers.

The arrival of the internet changed the landscape of advertising.

Leadership styles must adapt to different cultural backgrounds.

Creative management often involves navigating corporate politics.

AI tools can enhance creativity but should not replace the creative process.

Personal projects are crucial for showcasing a creative's true self.

The balance between work and life is essential for creativity.

AI can create absurd scenarios, but human input is vital for quality.

The future of creativity lies in collaboration between humans and AI.

Titles

Navigating Creativity in the Age of AI

From Advertising to AI: Lars Bastholm's Journey

Sound bites

""AI can superpower your creativity.""

""Fail fast, have fun while doing it.""

""You don't want to do the shit jobs.""

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Lars Bastholm

02:59 Lars's Journey into Creativity

10:02 The Evolution of Digital Marketing

12:17 Leadership in Creative Teams

18:04 The Challenges of Creative Management

25:04 Transitioning to Google and Work-Life Balance

30:06 Navigating the Creative Landscape at Google

31:58 Creative Leadership at Google

34:44 Balancing Work and Family Life

36:21 The Rise of AI and Machine Learning

39:41 Exploring AI Tools for Creativity

41:34 The Scandinavian Creative AI Summit

43:45 Wonder Panic: The Duality of AI in Creativity

46:44 The Dance of Human and AI Collaboration

49:40 Sora 2: A New AI Social Network

51:54 Navigating Reality in the Age of AI

56:30 The Future of Shared Reality and AI

In this episode of Just a Chat with, I sit down with architect and entrepreneur Danny Campbell, founder of Hoko Design and judge on BBC’s Scotland’s Home of the Year.

We chat about building a business with purpose, the dangers of ego, and what happens when you scale too fast. Danny opens up about how near-burnout reshaped his views on success, why he swapped a Jaguar for Crocs, and how kindness—not competition—became his guiding principle.

It’s a conversation about design, growth, and rediscovering what really matters—at work, at home, and in life.

Key Takeaways:

• Ego is the enemy. Growth driven by ego leads to stress and instability. Purpose-driven growth lasts.

• Kindness scales. Doing good for others multiplies back—personally and professionally.

• Simplify to survive. Hoko shrank from 35 people to 10 and became more profitable and happier.

• Inside-out success. The best businesses start by getting the people and purpose right before the process.

• You don’t need more—just the right things. Letting go of material pressure creates mental freedom.

  
  

  Chapters

  
  

  00:00 Welcome Back and Introduction to Danny Campbell

  01:51 Incredible Journey: The McLean Brothers' Record-Breaking Row

  05:25 Reflections on Travel and Inspiration

  09:18 Finding Purpose and Passion in Work

  12:54 The Architecture of Home: A Unique Perspective

  17:41 Building a Team: The Importance of Complementary Skills

  21:57 Navigating Growth: Lessons from Scaling a Business

  26:41 Embracing Technology: The Role of AI in Architecture

  30:05 The Impact of Public Life: Balancing Work and Family

  34:20 Parenting in the Digital Age: Teaching Resilience

  39:38 The Future of Hoko: Vision and Growth Strategies

  
  

  More here: https://justachatwith.com/

In this episode, we sat down with Adam Morgan who is the Executive Creative Director at Adobe.

With over 25 years of experience in marketing, with a focus on creativity, strategy and storytelling, Adam has produced several award-winning campaigns. He was also named the 40 under 40 up-and-coming professionals by Utah Business Magazine and in 2020 and AdWeek named him one of the top 100 creative minds in the world, influencing advertising, media, and culture. 

If that wasn’t enough, he has also written a book called “Sorry Spock, Emotion Drives Business” and hosts his own podcast, “Real Creative Leadership” which talks about the issues, challenges and benefits of creative leadership. 

Follow Adam here:

Linkedin

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We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

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Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode, we sat down with Alex Dickens who is the Head of Brand at Grenade. 

Alex has been working for Grenade for the past eight years, starting out as their Junior Graphic Designer. Throughout this time, he has managed to build the Grenade brand into the award-winning, worldwide, explosive brand it is today. 

Listen on to find out how he managed to get the best out of his creative team and what the Grenade brand stands for beyond the product. 

Follow Alex here:

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Instagram

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Watch this episode on YouTube

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We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode, we sat down with Craig Black who is an amazing visual artist from Scotland. Craig is extremely passionate about what he does and has recently shifted away from his original technique of typography to create a whole new technique in visual art called Acrylic Fusion. This new technique involves mixing acrylic paints to create interesting and mesmerising patterns on different surfaces and products such as shoes, footballs and skateboards. All this began after he was inspired by his Wife’s leggings!

His unique and versatile style has since led him to work with brands such as UEFA, Wisdom Audio, Pepsi and Ribble Cycles and his work has been displayed from New York to Dubai and Sydney.

Listen on to find out how he has managed to grow such a successful studio, how he has evolved his artistic talent and his top tips for bringing in new opportunities.

Follow Craig here:

LinkedIn.

Website.

Instagram.

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Watch this episode on YouTube

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We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode, we sat down with James Cross who is the Creative Director at BBC Creative. James joined the BBC in 2017, shortly after its inception. Since then, James has produced award-winning campaigns such as the Tokyo 2020, FIFA 2018 world cup and the ‘We know our place’ campaign celebrating women in sport.

James got his start as a Copywriter, working with brands such as WKD, Domino’s and Harley-Davidson. Today, we discuss his transition from Copywriter to Creative Director, and how he manages to create such talented and distinctive creative work. 

Follow James here: 

Linkedin

Website

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Watch this episode on YouTube

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We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode, we sat down with Rob Mayhew, a stand-up comic, TikTok star and Head of Influence and Retail at FleishmanHillard.   

In his 20 years of agency experience, Rob has worked with brands such as McVities, GSK, Lacoste, Bacardi, Molson Coors, and General Mills, building both content and global shopper strategies.   

Rob now uses this experience, along with his comedic timing, to create viral sketches about agency life that resonate throughout the entire industry.   

Listen on to discover how he comes up with ideas for TikTok, how he manages to post consistently while working full-time, what impact his TikTok success has had on his life and some of his top tips to get started!

Follow Rob here: 

TikTok

LinkedIn

Twitter

Watch this episode on YouTube

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We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode we sat down with Ndukwe Onuoha, an advertising copywriter, spoken word poet, and Creative Director at Oliver MEA which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Over the course of his career, Ndukwe has created memorable communications in Nigeria and West Africa for brands like AB InBev, Uber, British Council, and Diageo's International Premium Spirits, amongst others. 

Ndukwe describes himself as a “copywriter by day but a poet by design”, and you can listen to his second Spoken Word album, ‘Nwa Chukwu’, on all popular streaming platforms. 

In 2020, Ndukwe was endorsed by Arts Council England for his work in poetry and moved to the UK with his family in 2021. He now lives in Derby with his wife and two children and continues to work on getting African stories told on the world stage.    

Check out Ndukwe's work here

Watch this episode on Youtube

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We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Ash Jones, the Founder at personal branding agency, Great Influence.  

Ash has helped to build personal brands for some of the UK’s biggest CEOs & Founders and transform them into industry-leading influential figures on Linkedin.  

His journey started with Steven Bartlett, CEO of Social Chain, where he was one of the founding employees in the team. Ash helped set the strategy for Steven’s personal brand. Steven is now widely considered to be one of the UK’s most influential entrepreneurs, with his #1 business podcast 'Diary Of A CEO' and Sunday Times bestselling book 'Happy Sexy Millionaire'.  

Since then, Ash has worked with a number of CEOs & Founders, most notably the CEO of PrettyLittleThing - Umar Kamani, Myprotein Founder - Oliver Cookson, Huel Founder - Julian Hearn, and Parklife & Warehouse Project Founder - Sacha Lord.

Follow Ash here

Check out Great Influence

Watch this episode on Youtube

—

We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie  

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us: 

Facebook 

Instagram 

Twitter 

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com

In this episode we sat down with the amazing Betty NFT, who is the co-founder and director of Deadfellaz - an NFT collection & community and you could say metaverse web 3.0 brand.

The Deadfellaz collection of 10,000 NFTs sold out within 20 minutes of launch on the 13th September 2021, and has since traded over 46 million USD through NFTs.

With a DeadFellaz token comes art, culture & community. And they are here for the love of art and the evolution of gamification, IP & NFT tech. They have big plans and focus on innovating within the NFT space & empowering their holders in creative ways.

Betty’s role within Deadfellaz as one of the two co-founders (along with her husband and Deadfellaz illustrator Psych) who have handled everything from concept development, community engagement, and brand outreach to marketing, innovation, and experience design. 

Betty is also co-Director of a creative production agency servicing AAA brands and corporations globally and has been in the industry for the last 11 years.

Follow Betty here

Check out DeadFellaz

Watch this episode on Youtube

—

We’re a video podcast talking brand and creativity with the world’s best in class.

Hosted by Andrew Dobbie  

Sponsored by The One Club for Creativity

Powered by MadeBrave

Follow us: 

Facebook 

Instagram 

Twitter 

Linkedin

Our website:  https://justachatwith.com