The Overthinkers

Oh boy, do strategists love their frameworks. We love using them, writing them, sharing them and even evangelising them. But do we really need them to write good strategy? What value do they bring to a team, and to an organisation? What makes a framework a good framework? And what happens when we don't use them?

Workoholism is often seen as something worth celebrating. "She worked the three weekends in a row on this, it shows her commitment!" It is particularly true in the United States, where the idea of "hustling" is often associated with merit. In this episode, Rachel and Shann share their own journeys, how they have identified it in their careers, and some suggestions for talent, leaders and clients to make sure they inspire a culture of effectiveness that doesn't come at the price of people's balance.

We welcome the awesome Thas Naseemuddeen, CEO at Omelet in Los Angeles, to discuss her progression from Chief Strategist to Chief Executive. What is it like to switch responsibilities? Is it more stressful, and why? What does she love about it? How does she leave space for the strategy leads to define the strategic vision? Tune it to listen to one of the most inspiring strategists in the ad industry!

Disclaimer: this episode was recorded prior to recent events and while it doesn't address some of themes that have grabbed recent headlines, Thas is a perfect reminder that we are a more vibrant and exciting industry when we embrace and promote the diversity of our talents.

Today we take a bit more time than usual to reflect on some of the things we have seen, heard and sometimes learned over the last 2 weeks.

We are joined by Cole Habersham, account manager at Droga 5 and contributing writer for ADCOLOR, to discuss the tragic events and escalation of the last few days in America. As we all face the reality that the message Black Lives Matter is as important as ever, we explain what's happening, how it may impact some of our friends and colleagues, but also the reality that we all have a role to play to make things better - as friends, colleagues, corporations and brands.

This week we are joined by special guest Zoe Scaman, a brilliant London based strategist trained in ad agencies and who is now working for Oscar winning filmmaker Ridley Scott's Creative Group. The occasion to find out more about what it's like working in the star studded entertainment industry, what skills she was able to transfer there, but also what she thinks the ad industry could learn from the entertainment world - among many other questions!

Because strategist don't really produce anything that is tangibly seen by the consumers, it is sometimes heard that there is a tendency for strategists do work in their own bubble. This can of course be a problem both in terms of collaboration with other teams, but also because strategists are tasked with helping understand the reality of consumers and the world they live in. Is the issue really that common, are there sometimes good reasons behind it, and how can strategists get down from their ivory tower if they ever get stuck up there?

A lot of people have a bit more free time, or at least the chance to think about other things to do on the side. This week, we discuss why we think the fact the internet is already filled with opinions doesn't mean you shouldn't be more vocal about yours - especially if you're a strategist! And we take this as a chance to share a little bit more about our story and how we decided to record this podcast in the first place.

This week we bring special guest and digital transformation expert Ana Milicevic to discuss whether ad agencies may or may not be the place to look for digital transformation services. During this extended episode, we also touched on what kind of businesses were harder to transform, if we could see some big differences in capabilities across regions, and even whether it was still right to talk about digital transformation in a business world where everything already has a digital flavour?

Rob Campbell recently made the provocation that he "would rather understand the culture of a category than know the behaviours of the category". This week, Rachel and Shann discussed how much they agreed (or disagreed) with that statement. Is there really such a hierarchy in the kind of insight we use? Are creative and media planners impacted the same? And is the role of planning meant to be so centred on culture?