The Overthinkers

It's an oft-repeated trope: deep down the strategist is a frustrated creative wanabee. But is that really so common? Or could it be an expression of the tighter relationship between strategy and creative?

We take a question from listener Lexie Perez this week. Creative testing has been the bane of many creatives' existence. Too soon, too biased, too incomplete, too limiting, too vanilla... At the same time, for many companies millions of dollars are at stake, and few would want to take stabs in the dark. So is creative testing (and pre-testing in particular) harmful for great creativity?

Audience definition is a core part of marketing. Unfortunately, in too many cases marketers end up with a poorly or outright wrong definition of their "target". A chance to address the problems with personas, over targeting, and the general lack of actionability behind most targeting exercises.

Sometimes, getting a budget out of a client is like pulling teeth. "Tell us a great idea, and we'll find the budget", we're often told. But in reality, budgets are rarely coming out of thin air, and play an important role in framing what's really possible. Does that mean they're an essential - if not the most important part of the brief?

Recessions have a tendency to burst bubbles. And while the jury's still out, there sure has been a lot of hype around the future of the metaverse or Web3. This week, Rachel and Shann are joined by Zoe Scaman, founder of Bodacious and co-founder of Marc Cuban Experiments (MCX), to discuss whether there is more to the hype, and how companies might separate the wheat from the chaff.

Today, listener Matt Jukes asks us whether the legacy agency structures (suits&creatives, art directors & copywriters etc) was holding back creative work. As ever it likely depends, but coming on the heels of a very inspiring episode with the folks at Maximum Effort, we definitely think it's a question worth discussing.

When Ryan Reynolds got into the world of advertising with Maximum Effort, a whirlwind of exciting campaigns started to pop - starting with his own Aviation and Mint Mobile ventures, or working with client brands like Peloton (recently reacting to the death of Big in record time). We're joined by two brilliant strategists at the heart of the company, James Toney and John Deschner who tell us more about what it's like to work on big ideas that can be executed in 48 hours, how it pays off, and what it takes to deliver them - with or without Ryan Reynolds in the mix.

Let's face it, most of marketing is pretty mediocre. There's a reason people decide it is worth blocking altogether when they have the chance or technical resources. But why is that? Is it a lack of ambition? Guts? Or maybe a remnant of something that might have worked in the past?

Agencies' business model has often been debated, but rarely agreed upon. Is it even possible "radically" change it when virtually everything has been tested yet? This week, Rachel and Shann share their thoughts as agency co-founder and ex-agency people.

Unusual question? Well, apparently it's not an unusual assumption. Sometimes it's even a lamentation from clients: "how come do the people who work for me agency side are paid more than I am?"

In this episode, Rachel and Shann discuss whether this thinking has merit, what may be driving it, and also where it may be taking the service industry.