Driven by curiosity, fear, or money (20XX → 2025)
Preamble: In which we learn to resist the gravitational pull of the LinkedIn-industrial complex. Somewhere around the third paragraph of every sports essay, there s a moment where the writer pivots to business lessons. And just like Steve Smith at the crease, your brand needs to leave the balls that don t serve the strategy You can [ ]
My daughter is 16 months old. We have these beautiful Swedish picture books, but my Swedish is… let’s just say, fucking terrible. So when she sits one in my lap, I don’t really read it. I just make stuff up. Fun, inconsequential, aggrandising stuff. The little rabbit doesn t just find a carrot; he discovers a [ ]
I didn t go to Cannes Lions this year. But I kept my ear to the ground all week while getting ready to help deliver the Lions Creative MBA. The whole thing reminded me of a house party. The thing I love about house parties is that the host really doesn t get to choose how the [ ]
Walk through any city, scroll through any platform, flip through anything print, and you ll notice something unsettling: most advertising within the same category looks disturbingly similar. Luxury watches all feature dramatic lighting and Swiss heritage narratives. Car ads invariably show winding roads and engineering prowess. Banking commercials default to handshakes, families, and your future…
Have you ever looked up into the clouds and seen a dog, or a circus tent, and then a fatter dog? OK, so maybe it wasn’t dog, tent, dog but you get the picture. A fleeting masterpiece sculpted by the wind. But who’s the artist? The atmosphere? Physics? Or is it you, your brain [ ]
The New Creative Crucible – Forging Future Leaders Picture this: Your most seasoned creative, who still mumbles about the good old days of Letraset, just nervously asked if ChatGPT thingamajig can, you know, do the concepts for the next pitch. Or maybe it s the junior, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, who’s already using AI to generate campaign [ ]
Let s be honest. We re all sizing each other up, all the time. In a world overflowing with carefully curated LinkedIn profiles and AI-generated insights, figuring out if someone s actually sharp, feels like navigating a minefield in flippers. What’s the tell? What’s that one reliable indicator that someone’s got their cognitive gears meshing beautifully? For a [ ]
Is the key to fixing social media understanding a bizarre bank robbery from 1973? This video argues yes, drawing parallels between the hostage s adaptation and our own relationship with addictive, algorithm-driven platforms. It s a perspective that clarifies the present problems and emphasizes the critical need for alternatives like Logcast. We even wrote a pretty comprehensive [ ]
How can a company’s signature move, the very thing that propelled it to greatness, morph into a millstone around its neck. It’s the corporate equivalent of your favourite band (U2), whose encore is always, inevitably, that one song from decades ago (Beautiful Day). The curse of the golden goose Every successful organisation has a golden [ ]
Note: There s an updated version of this reading list over at my new site, Aizle.Co. I highly reccomend checking that out instead. I m wrapping up something of a Rory Sutherland bender. I don t know how many Youtube videos and podcast episodes I ve listened to but it s been weeks of loud shirts and sharp words. I [ ]
Remember when your usual commute got disrupted, forcing you to take a different route—only to discover a shortcut through backstreets filled with murals, new coffee shops, and a side to a familiar city you’d never noticed before and it was 10 minutes quicker? There’s something delightfully human about watching ideas unfold, mistakes transform into [ ]
Whenever I walk into Berghs, I smile at a quote on the window. It resonates profoundly with me; it feels like it could have come from my own thoughts. It s from Leonardo di Vinci, a name synonymous with creativity, exploration, and wisdom. Yet, as much as I wish those words were my own, they re not. [ ]
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When I see the Inner Development Goals, an interesting movement that borrows a lot of interest from the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, I worry. The premise is to fix yourself so you fix the world. It's a good one. But...
Thinking is the engine that drives our decisions, solutions, and innovations. But like any engine, its efficiency hinges on using the right gear for the terrain. In the vast landscapes of problem-solving, the terrain varies, requiring shifts between linear and lateral thinking.
Why you should embrace quantity and not quantity in ideation and brainstorming for creativity. Dive into flow, avoid judgment, and let ideas thrive.
How do you reduce food waste, kickstart a smarthome ecosystem, and win a hackathon? With Sustain the entry we made that won the hackathon. It s a system that makes it easy to make meals with the food that’s already sitting in your refrigerator. OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. So, here’s what really happened. [ ]
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If you're an outsider to the comms industry and you want to get in, maybe I can help.
How do you reduce food waste, kickstart a smarthome ecosystem, and win a hackathon?
How do you get tell your full range story and get subcultures to live together?
How do you keep your biggest fans up to date without social media algorithms getting in the way?
How do you turn something as simple as the classic BIC 4-Colour pen into an always-on social strategy and make it relevant to young fans?
How do you reboot a haute couture brand with the legacy and prestige of Paco Rabanne?
How of you show just how amazing the fit of Levi’s new 509 538 jeans are?
How do you thank people for buying a new car?
How do you keep teens, in 30+ countries, interested in breakfast on social media? You do it with memes and stuff they’ll get a little LOL from that gently reminds them of the Lion brand. This stuff rolled out across all international markets on Facebook, Instagram Twitter. To considerable success. //A 🦁
How do you grow a sandwich brand in France, the country that invented the baguette?
How do you encourage people to break their habits and try new things at Subway?
How do you get Australians to choose cider over beer as their summer drink of choice?
How do you position a an online recruitment agency focused on seriously big executive jobs?
How do you get a nation drinking a get back to a summer classic?
How does the world's best communication school best explain what 'creativity' is to normal people?
I was on a podcast a few months ago and really enjoyed it. It s a general discussion about what it s like in Sweden as an expat. I hope you like it.
How do you best capture the vibe of an online strategy course? You do it with If this, then that, a podcast that explores how Brand Strategy is more than just a mindset that applies to brands and the corporate world. Instead, brand strategy gives us all tools and techniques to decide what’s important, and [ ]
How do you show German hospitality is more than good beer?
Some radio and Spotify ads I ve done. I ve had the chance to work on a bunch of audio-content, sometimes on my own, sometimes with others. But I love being able to paint pictures with sound. Here s a sample of projects I ve worked on. Genesis: Change a Life Channel 7: No Horse Sense Alfred Hospital: We re [ ]
How do you promote a seriously reliable SUV to Aussie families who love adventure?
How do you tease Nespresso’s new iconic George Clooney campaign?
How do you teach yourself how voice-assistants work and test people on trivia that hasn't happened yet?
How do you thanks your clients in a way that’s both fun personal?
How do you encourage women to regularly check their breasts?
How do you best help people living with spinal cord injury?
How do you position a premium credit card to time-poor French professionals?
What’s a fresh way to preview next season’s denim collection digitally in-store?
How does an iconic Swiss watchmaker position itself in a world where everyone has a more accurate watch in their pocket?
How do you make a global site for the biggest breakfast food company in the world? You do it though close consultation and consensus building with all of Nestlé s regional stakeholder. You work with two agencies (one in France and the other in Frankfurt a whole team of designers (I was creative lead), and [ ]
How do you celebrate the world’s best communication students in a time of social distancing?
How do you pitch yourself as the safest, more reliable, and most fun sexual health brand on the market?
How do you promote the reigning World MotoGP champion’s home race to a hardcore audience?