There has been a lot of discussion about long term brand build and short term activation in the last few years. We've engineered our thinking around this opposition where one does a specific job the other doesn't deliver, or at least not as well. This week, we explore if performance marketing (search, e-commerce, programmatic etc.) can be a good vehicle to build a brand, and if yes how?

We're seeing a lot of products popping up with pretty polished brand identities and that try to fast track the value of their branding. This week, we are joined by Ana Andjelic, strategy executive and author of “The Business of Aspiration”, to discuss (and sometimes even debate a little!) what makes a brand a strong asset to a business.

Many big names in our industry are professing the death of brands. Their value is, in their opinion, waning with the crash of mass broadcast, hurt by the easy access to reviews, and a general direction towards the product more than the brand. This week, Rachel and Shann discuss why brands are more likely here to stay.

The recruitment and promotion process in advertising tends to reward outlandish claims. Sometimes, fitting in the narrative of the moment can help fast forward one's ambitions. But is that really a requirement? Is there a role for honesty and provocations that go against the accepted norms?

Agencies like to remind the world they're a talent business. But as competition for talents gets fierce, are they really set up to win the best? Rachel and Shann share their unfiltered views on what's happening to our business, and whether agencies can still retain, or even attract, talents.

Being able to provide direction is an essential skill for strategists. But it's at least as important to know when and how to let go - whether it's for other functions to take over, or while supervising someone else's work. In this episode, Rachel and Shann discuss how they develop a more hands off approach to their work sometimes, even when it feels hard to let go.

This has been a difficult year for junior recruitment in agencies, and we know some will struggle to get their foot through the door. Regardless, if strategic planning is something you'd like to start your career with, there are many questions worth asking yourself, from whether it's right to start there to whether you're working in the right environment for you to enjoy it. In this episode, Rachel and Shann share their personal journeys, which neither actually started in strategy!

Today we are joined with the phenomenal Bennett D. Bennett, writer/strategist/principal at Aerialist and co-igniter of 600 And Rising. In this episode, we discuss the importance of having a sustainable media diet for brands, one that rewards those who bring depth and not just click hacks, a particularly important discussion at a time where context makes a big comeback on the media scene.

Creative testing has long been a thing a lot of ad folks love to hate. The practice has certainly made massive contributions to the industry, but as always, when a method becomes a dogma, it's bound to become a problem. This week, Rachel and Shann discuss not if but how creative testing get in the way of great ideas, all the while being a valuable and important part of our process?

Somehow, strategy has become a very fragmented practice, with digital strategists, brand planners, comms planners, social strategists etc. This week, we take a question we've seen on Fishbowl (yes...), and discussed whether it was a possible (maybe even natural) fit for a digital strategist to become a "strat planner".