Purpose (the "making society better" kind) has been hailed as a great booster for business. While the practice is likely valuable, do we really see difference between brands that have a strong purpose and those that do not? In this episode, we talk about the way purpose influences reputation, perception, and maybe business results.

Subscription revenues is the new black in the world of business. Investors love them and tend to highly reward companies that can demonstrate not just revenues, but recurring revenues. Subscription markets even follow different loyalty patterns than repertoire markets. But is that really the future of business, and aren't there inherent limits to the model?

Strong leaders/founders can often shape the future of brands - Steve Jobs and Apple, Elon Musk and Tesla etc. In recent years, we've also seen the explosion of major content creators and influencers able to give brands some wings. Is this becoming the new playbook? And with a media world fragmenting and revolving more and more around people, should we expect it to be essential for brands building?

This week we're joined by the lovely Kim Mackenzie, founder of Ladies Who Strategize, a marketing strategist community specifically for women and non-binaries. In the episode, she tells us why she created it after years spent in New-Zealand, the spirit behind her community, what makes is so great and what she wants to see in the future.

On the heels of the Coinbase turmoil that made some waves this week, we ask ourselves what has led us to this position where agencies struggle to get credit for their work - and often struggle to even be seen as a valuable actor in the advertising industry?

Celebrities and advertising have been a love story for as long as most of us can remember. And as Superbowl kicked off, it is clear the trend is not reducing. But do celebrities really make brands stronger? Or is their use just a creative cop-out for when a brand doesn't really have an idea?

Today we're joined by Tattiana Bamba, Comms Strategy Director at Droga5, to talk about comms / connections planning. A chance to discuss what it does and what it doesn't do, as well as what it takes to be a comms planner and what it takes to be good at it. Whether you're eyeing a shit into comms planning or a veteran, we promise you won't miss the chance to hear what Tattiana has to say about it!

Over the last 5 years we've seen a growing trend celebrating "contrarianism". In this episode, we discuss whether this has a positive impact on the industry, whether it's reserved to a certain group of people, and the overall role of critique in moving us forward.

Hint: it's not behind a computer screen. This week, we're delighted to bring you 3 brilliant people from Nonfiction, Lindsey Wehking, Gunny Scarfo and Ben Zeidler. They tell us about their unique approach(es) to getting to more insightful truths, from spending time actually meeting people to making them comfortable to answer unexpected questions. First and foremost, theirs is a call to get out of the cage we're all putting ourselves into so that we can get to the questions that really matter.

Web 3 has been a buzzword of 2021, and as trends read are being rolled out, will no doubt be a feature of many outlooks. But is too early for brands to look at it, and will it really matter to marketers in the long term? To discuss this topic, we're joined by "technology meets brands" expert Nilesh Ashra, founder at Pragmatic Futurism and ex Director of Creative Technology at W+K.