David Fischer started Highsnobiety in 2005 as personal blog dedicated to his passion for sneaker culture and fashion. Today it is a multi-pronged media brand, a magazine that prints twice a year and a creative agency. With 500 million social media impressions, and nine million unique visitors a month, Highsnobiety is about to enter a new phase: The company is partnering with Prada this month for a limited edition product launch this month as it rolls out its new commerce business.
Jul 18, 2019•38 min•Ep. 99
In an industry with no shortage of Negative Nancies, Rob Reilly is a perpetual, evangelical optimist. But he wasn’t always: He once had an employer require him to take a year’s worth of classes to learn how to be more respectful of others. Reilly credits that work—among other things—with why he’s having such a good run now: The Global Creative Chairman for McCann Worldgroup since 2014, Reilly and his team picked up network of the year for the first time in the agency’s history.
Jul 11, 2019•45 min•Ep. 98
According to a global survey of more than 25,000 respondents, consumer trust in brands is down across the board — and expectations of social responsibility from brands is up. That is the core takeaway from the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, released last week. Richard Edelman joins the podcast to discuss this crisis of brand trust and opportunities for companies. We talk about what his clients increasingly want from him as he evolves his own business—the largest PR firm in the worl...
Jul 03, 2019•35 min•Ep. 97
If you want to see what’s driving ad spending, just look for the net gains. Bradley Johnson joins us to break down the most interesting findings in our annual Leading National Advertisers report, out this week (hint, FANG has developed a big bite). We also dive into Datacenter’s 2019 agency rankings to draw some big and small conclusions about the state of the industry in 2019.
Jun 28, 2019•32 min•Ep. 96
What happens when Big Football meets Big Beer? Until now active pro athletes could not appear in beer ads during games. The head of sports marketing for Anheuser-Busch discusses what a rules change means for Bud Light, and dishes on the brewer’s overall sports marketing strategy.
Jun 21, 2019•27 min•Ep. 95
An advertising vet who started his own search consultancy in 2007 Avi Dan brings with him close to 4 decades of experience. As the rest of the agency world packs for Cannes, he breaks down how the festival has changed over the years, and who he thinks win big. We take a 30,000 foot view of the entire landscape, from consultancies in the agency space, the in-housing trend, data and creativity, and more. Avi also gets a little personal and describes his life growing up in Tel Aviv and his stint in...
Jun 13, 2019•46 min•Ep. 94
Depending on whom you ask, this is either the worst time to be in TV, or the most exciting. Count Linda Yaccarino and Josh Feldman among the hopeful. The two share the company’s moves to modernize measurement across the industry, and NBC’s plans to launch an ad supported streaming over the top service next year--to do battle with the Netflixes and Hulus of the world. They also explain why Cannes is going through something of a renaissance.
Jun 07, 2019•55 min•Ep. 93
Usually when you hear about consultancies in the marketing and advertising space these days, it’s in the context of them luring talent away from agencies or making full blown acquisitions. But last year when MediaCom was looking to hire a new chief client officer, it went right into the lion’s den. In hiring Bhavana Smith, a six-and-a-half year Accenture vet, the WPP media network is seeking to burnish its digital transformation capabilities—and take a page from the consultancy playbook.
May 30, 2019•29 min•Ep. 92
Rishad Tobaccowala, who has logged nearly four decades at Publicis, joins the podcast to discuss, well, a little bit of everything. In a conversation that kicks off by unpacking Publicis’s recent announcement that it will be acquiring data marketing juggernaut Epsilon, Rishad breaks down the industry from his own unique vantage point as someone who has spent time in creative, digital and media. We discuss how the holding company model is being forced to evolve and what it means to be a brand in ...
May 24, 2019•45 min•Ep. 91
In this week’s Ad Age Ad Lib podcast, we interview the chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, who tells us about his legendary 65-year history in advertising, including why he pointed a cannon--literally--at Leo Burnett’s offices and the inside story of the “Big Bang” merger that created Omnicom (and why he had to keep changing rooms at The Palace Hotel.) Reinhard also discusses his admiration for Bill Bernbach, who he calls “the Picasso of the business," and tells us where he sees the ad industry ...
May 17, 2019•38 min•Ep. 90
Peter McGuinness wasn’t always a yogurt guy. Before joining Greek yogurt brand Chobani in 2013, he had a career in ad agencies. On this episode of the podcast, he discusses making the transition to the brand side, and the fresh self-awareness that brought him. He describes working for a brand with purpose and how Chobani is grappling with the current dip in U.S. yogurt sales as more alternatives come to market.
May 09, 2019•36 min•Ep. 89
People are conducting more than a billion searches for GIFs on messaging apps a day. At the heart of their results is, usually, Giphy, a shareable online database of those short looping soundless videos. Giphy’s Alex Magnin who claims to net in the ballpark of 10 percent of the search traffic of Google, joins the podcast today to discuss all things GIF and messaging, what it looks like from an advertising and branded content perspective, plus what the most popular GIF search terms are. (Hint: Th...
May 03, 2019•33 min•Ep. 88
Our conversation with Shelly Lazarus, Ogilvy’s chairman emeritus, covered a lot of ground—from what it was like to be a woman ad exec in the 1970s to today’s #MeToo movement to where holding companies are going in the future.
Apr 25, 2019•48 min•Ep. 87
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners are on a roll. The agency nabbed the number two spot on the Ad Age A-List, released this week. Its founders, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, will be in Cannes this summer to pick up the prestigious Lion of St. Mark, rewarding a career filled with creative triumphs, including, most famously, the “Got Milk?” campaign. Goodby joins the podcast to discuss career highs and lows, his philosophy of openness, his favorite David Ogilvy story, his next chapter and more...
Apr 18, 2019•31 min•Ep. 86
Tiffany R. Warren talks about the skin care tradition handed down through her family and the ways she’s improved upon it. “In a way, when I take care of my skin, it’s a connection to my grandmother,” she says. She also weighs in on her ideal breakfast, what to do with your privilege and the enduring legacy of New Edition.
Apr 10, 2019•35 min•Ep. 85
Deloitte Digital is one of the world’s 10 biggest agency companies: In 2017 Ad Age ranked Deloitte Digital as the world’s second-largest digital network, behind rival Accenture Interactive. Hatch joins me today to explain what, exactly, it is Deloitte Digital does. “We exist to make old companies new again,” she says. She explains what that means, how data and tech like AI come into play and discuss her early career on a disease control project during an outbreak in West Africa.
Apr 04, 2019•38 min•Ep. 84
Pete Favat talks about building useful things from scrap and renovating his home on “This Old House.” The C-suite leaves less time to get his hands dirty on the job, he says. “You’re using your brain, which is good, but there’s no physical gratification at all. We weren’t put on this earth to just bang keys on a keyboard.” So he creates on his own time, putting together whatever strikes his fancy: a dog sled, a chandelier, a garden.
Apr 03, 2019•30 min•Ep. 83
When Nicolas Bidon talks about his business, he talks about becoming an “outcome” media company. As part of WPP and GroupM, Xaxis is a billion-dollar business — arguably the world's largest global programmatic media and technology platform — boasting some 3000 clients across 47 markets. The evolution to an outcome-based focus, Bidon says, represents a shift away from fairly crude metrics like CPMs to more real, specific business goals—with an assist from emerging tech like artificial intelligenc...
Mar 28, 2019•39 min•Ep. 82
Joan Creative CCO Jaime Robinson keeps both a spinning wheel and a loom in her closet so she can spin yarn and knit blankets and sweaters, “like the lady in Rumpelstiltskin.” She also reveals her favorite Joan and goes deep on the allure of “Russian Doll” and her childhood memories of the Sears Wish Book.
Mar 27, 2019•35 min•Ep. 81
It’s been a busy couple months for Johannes Leonardo. In February the shop announced that it would buy a "significant" portion of itself back from WPP. Then, weeks later, another tantalizing bit of news: Volkswagen named JL its lead agency. Bryan Yasko joins the podcast to discuss these developments, plus working with Adidas, the broader trend toward project work and why he doesn’t like holding companies.
Mar 21, 2019•24 min•Ep. 80
Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, is overseeing a 10-year, $2 billion investment on zero-emissions vehicle technology and awareness. The group's marketing director, Richard Steinberg, discusses what it is doing to help nudge the EV sector into the mainstream, including how charging stations might create branding opportunities.
Mar 19, 2019•30 min•Ep. 79
In a digital media landscape littered with layoffs, mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy, the New York Times remains a bright spot. Last week, the Times reported adding more than a quarter million new digital-only subscriptions in its fourth quarter earnings call. The publisher’s success invites the question: what does a subscription-first model mean for the paper’s ads business? Tomich joins the podcast to answer that — and more. We get into the runaway success of “The Daily” podcast, and how i...
Mar 14, 2019•43 min•Ep. 78
In a 20-year marketing career with Anheuser-Busch, Bob Lachky oversaw some of the most memorable ad campaigns in beer, including “Whassup,” the Budweiser Frogs and Real Men of Genius. Lachky, now a consultant, joins us to talk about the brewing marketing war between his old company and MillerCoors over corn syrup, as well as why Lachky thinks the beer industry has lost its way.
Mar 12, 2019•28 min•Ep. 77
The brand wizards behind Snoop Dogg’s career, Cashmere has done work on “Black Panther,” “Get Out,” “Atlanta” and more. Beyond entertainment, it also counts as clients BMW, Jack in the Box, Adidas, and Diageo among others. Cashmere’s Ryan Ford joins us to break down what it means to be a multicultural agency in 2019, the current state of the influencer landscape, and what brands get right — and wrong — when it comes to tapping into the culture.
Mar 07, 2019•44 min•Ep. 76
Iconic brands are struggling to remain relevant in today's food industry. More evidence came with Kraft Heinz’s recent $15 billion asset write-down. We examine the fallout and why Kraft’s fall could be good for ad agencies.
Mar 04, 2019•24 min•Ep. 75
Group Nine Media was formed in 2016 with a $100 million investment from Discovery and today rolls up four media brands: Thrillist, NowThis, the Dodo and Seeker. The rationale for consolidation, according to CEO Ben Lerer: Bigger is better. By combining the brands under one holding company, he says, he has gained a seat at the table with advertisers. He joins us today to discuss those conversations and his relationship with platforms like YouTube and Facebook. He also addresses the rumors that Gr...
Feb 28, 2019•52 min•Ep. 74
If you wrote iHeartMedia off as DOA last year, you may have made the call too soon. Last month the radio giant gained court approval for a plan that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy. Its CEO, Bob Pittman, joined the company in 2010 as an investor when it was still called Clear Channel. His mandate: completely transform the company. A quick glance at a few recent stats suggest how far he’s come: The multiplatform player boasts more than 120 million registered users, is the number one all-...
Feb 21, 2019•43 min•Ep. 73
Independent ad exchange OpenX raised eyebrows in the programmatic realm last month when it announced a five-year agreement totaling more than $110 million with Google to use its cloud computing services. The news came just a month after the supply-side platform laid off some 100 employees as it prepared for the deal and continues to push into the video arena. Tim Cadogan, CEO of OpenX, joins the podcast to discuss the arrangement and how the programmatic landscape looks in 2019.
Feb 14, 2019•39 min•Ep. 72
In a time where there is no shortage of gloom and doom in the agency landscape, the job falls to Marla Kaplowitz to be its biggest booster. Kaplowitz joins this episode of Ad Lib to field questions about the agency talent crunch, consultancy creep, brands bringing advertising capabilities in-house and, of course, that little FBI investigation into agency media-buying practices launched last fall.
Feb 07, 2019•32 min•Ep. 71
With its first Super Bowl ad, Bumble set out to empower women both in front of and behind the camera. On this special Super Bowl edition of the Ad Lib podcast, Laura Hutfless, partner at FlyteVu Agency, which worked on the ad, discusses how the social networking app pulled together a Big Game commercial in six weeks with a team composed almost entirely of women.
Jan 31, 2019•29 min•Ep. 70
