Champagne Strategy Hybrency

Brain Hurt Scale - 2/10 - The first of a world-wide mini-series exposing true life stories behind the number 1 impediment to workplace success - politics.

Mike Harris is an accomplished former executive and consultant with deep personal skills in consulting, sales, marketing, operations and product.

He gives us three examples from a storied career. The first of which is 30mins about a successful turnaround at Phillips.

On the surface all three stories are about political conflict and resolution. But also cover common constraints you'll frequently encounter in the workplace: interdepartmental cooperation, incentive dynamics, culture, capability, alignment and executive communication.

But they're also just great examples of basic strategy hygiene: diagnosis, problem identification, objectives and action. A skill Mike says has been lost in the face of a few modern trends that are getting in the way. Even though his first story is from the 90's, the takeaways are perhaps even more relevant today than they've ever been.

So no matter what sized business or what position you're in, I'd be very surprised if you don't learn something very valuable by listening to this series of wisdom-laden episodes.

Especially if you want to know how to deal with people to get what you need done

Let the games begin!

Brain Hurt Scale = 4/10. Why does ChatGPT provide me with terrible responses. Why does DALL-E give me an image that's terrible?

Learning how to brief creatives is an art form. After all, their job is to create artwork so this probably shouldn't come as a surprise. But if you've never created something yourself, you'll be oblivious as to how it all goes down.

That mismatched perspective can all be fixed by listening to this episode where Brett Friedman goes through start-to-finish the entire process that goes on behind closed doors when you hire an agency.

So if you want to be left to your own devices fumbling around using Canva or Photoshop or dealing with Upwork freelancers that's fine.

Or if you're an AI creative guru who is adept at prompting the most sophisticated technology on the planet but can't get something back you like...

This is the episode you need to listen to.

Now

Brain Hurt Scale = 6/10. Republished with permission of an interview John James did with Cognism's Jamie Skeels on The Loop podcast.

The Brandingmag articles caused quite a stir and Jamie was keen to dig a little deeper into some of the issues it raised for practitioners.

How do we target people to build brand and sales at the same time?

Which channels should we use?

How do we sell these campaigns (or not) to senior directors and executives?

What are the red flags or reasons not to invest in a brand campaign?

Is John the antichrist when it comes to brand advertising?

All important questions that are answered in this guest interview.

Nice one gov-ner!

Brain Hurt Scale = 3/10. A live recording of that time I was invited by James Pember to speak at the inaugural SXSW Sydney 2023. Note: this is a repost with permission of an episode of the Own The Moment podcast by Komo Technologies.

James interviews me on-stage in front of 70+people and I try to answer a series of questions completely impromptu.

James is a product leader and host of a podcast run by martech firm Komo Technologies. They have a podcast called 'Own The Moment'.

Reposting here because I think the questions and answers will be of interest to you all.

There were many things I wish I had said or rephrased or prepared for, but I suppose that's the nature of live interviews.

What do you think?

Brain Hurt Scale = 5/10. No one in B2B buys based on value.
Procurement and buying committees don't operate how you think they do. And why do 50%+ of B2B purchases end in a no-decision?

If you want your career to be occupied with creating ads, rely on correlation, work status and manipulate company politics to get ahead. Nothing wrong with that, it's fine. Go for it. You will do well.

But if you actually want to affect revenue and profit, this is an episode you can't miss.

Dale and John reveal some of the dirty secrets that lie hidden deep within the industry. Use this rare information to get ahead as a challenger brand and succeed in the marketplace if you want to.

Learn the history of Salesforce's success. The one that doesn't get talked about.

Learn why some of these academic 'laws' of marketing actually work or don't work in real life.

Why should you be really skeptical about the propositions ABM vendors and demand-gen platforms sprout?

What lies do marketing heads and vendors tell you which you should actually ignore?

Start listening to get head.

Or be left behind.

Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Racing car driver, Marketing Week columnist, retail media speaker and coach to marketing directors. Colin Lewis joins us for the first episode of 2024.

While we were supposed to talk about retail media, this was one of those rare chances to tap into someone's mind that's experienced a depth and breadth of experience that's exceedingly rare.

Colin's worked in multiple countries. Reinvented his specialty many times over. Put his money where his mouth is with his own businesses and worked for others to pay the bills. Big and small brands. For decades.

Colin oozes stoic wisdom in a discussion that everyone from all angles within the industry can appreciate. We explore everything from marketing fundamentals to direct response and brand advertising.

So get involved and start learning.

Up your game.

Start thinking like,

a director