Talking to Ourselves

After 6 years, 73 episodes and nearly 150 hours of interviews with some of the best marketing minds to ever do it, it's time to say thank you and goodbye. What a privilege. What a trip. Until we talk again, peace.  

GUEST HOST: Greg Hahn, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mischief. In 2022, less than two years into its existence, Mischief was named Agency of the Year by AdAge, Agency of the Year by Campaign US, and the second most innovative agency by Fast Company. In 2023, Adweek named Mischief US Agency of the Year. GUEST: Steve Stoute, Founder and CEO of Translation, the highly awarded creative agency that’s been connecting the world’s most famous brands to culture through sports and entertainment for nearly two decades. Prior to founding Translation in 2004, Steve was an exec at Sony Music and Interscope. He produced albums for Mariah Carey and Nas. He executive produced the Academy Award–winning “8 Mile”, film and soundtrack. He's been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Achievement, recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, and been named AdAge’s Executive of the Year. Steve is the author of the New York Times Best Seller, 'The Tanning of America,' which was made into a four-part VH1 documentary.

GUEST HOST: Paul Caiozzo, Founder of Supernatural, a 2023 AdAge Small Agency of the Year. His work has been parodied multiple times on Saturday Night Live, praised by Al Gore, debated on CNN, and displayed in The Smithsonian. Formerly ECD at Goodby Silverstein New York. CP+B alum.GUEST: David Kolbusz, Chief Creative Officer at Orchard. Before that, CCO at Droga5 London. Before that, ECD at Wieden+Kennedy. David Droga called him "one of the world’s best creative leaders.” His clients have included Coca Cola, Amazon, Facebook, Axe, and The Gap. His Ocean Spray "Wiggle" spot is among the best of the past year. His Guardian “3 Little Pigs” film is among the best of all-time. 

Mark Gross is co-founder and CCO at Highdive. Since its inception in 2016, Highdive has quickly become one of the great indie agencies in the U.S. They were Adweek’s 2020 Breakthrough Agency of the Year, among Fast Company’s 2021 Most Innovative Agencies, and a 2023 AdAge A-List standout. Highdive is the agency behind some of your favorite Super Bowl ads: Anna Kendrick and Barbie for Rocket Mortgage, Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd for Lays, and Bill Murray reprising Groundhog’s Day for Jeep.  Prior to starting Highdive, Mark spent 23 years at DDB Chicago, where he created a slew of iconic work, headlined by the Bud Light campaign: "Real Men of Genius." In 2012, Business Insider named Mark "one of the top 25 most creative people in advertising." His list of awards includes an Emmy and two Cannes Grand Prix. He's been a part of more than 75 Super Bowl commercials, placing #1 on USAToday’s Ad Meter four times. 

GUEST HOST: Anselmo Ramos, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT. Founded just four years ago, Gut has been an Ad Age A-List Agency 4 years in a row. The agency’s string of successes culminated at this year’s Cannes, where GUT won 35 Lions, becoming the #1 Independent Network of the Year, Latin America Network of the Year, and GUT Buenos Aires became both Independent Agency of the Year and Global Agency of the Year.GUEST: Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Creative Officer of Snap as of 2022.  Previously, Chief Creative Officer and Co-President of Wieden+Kennedy. Under Colleen’s leadership, Wieden+Kennedy experienced unprecedented growth and produced a number of award-winning campaigns, including Nike's 2019 “Dream Crazy” campaign. Colleen was honored as Adweek’s Creative Leader of the Decade for the 2010s. In 2022, Cannes Lions gave Colleen The Lion of St Mark, our industry’s honor. 

Tim Nudd is Creativity editor at Ad Age, where he covers creativity in business, particularly the advertising space. Tim has spent his career spotlighting and elevating the work that moves our industry forward, making him one of the most influential marketing reporters of this century. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Tim joined Adweek in 1997 (initially as a copy editor), started writing for the magazine in 1999, and launched the AdFreak blog in 2004. He then left to pursue a freelance career, notably as a writer for People magazine and other Time Inc. titles, before returning to Adweek full time as creative editor in 2010. In 2018, Tim joined the Clio Awards, where he launched Muse by Clio, a daily site and newsletter about creativity, and Tagline, a podcast that goes deep into the making of great ad campaigns. He began in current role at Ad Age in January 2023. 

GUEST HOST: Tiffany Rolfe, Chair and Global Chief Creative Officer at R/GA. She was a huge reason why CP+B won Agency of the Decade in 2010. Today leading R/GA, Tiff is among the most powerful women, award-winning creatives, and overall best humans in all of advertising.  GUEST: Bob Greenberg, Founder and Executive Chairman at R/GA. Bob is a legendary pioneer of our industry spanning over 4 decades. He never stops evolving R/GA, first from a world-class movie title shop, to a digital studio, to the best digital agency, and now to a company that spans ventures, consulting, tech, design, marketing, architecture and IP. With offices around the world, today R/GA remains one of the most influential and award-winning agencies. AdAge named it among its "Agencies of the Decade." AdWeek named it “Digital Agency of the Year” 5 times in 10 years. There is almost no recognition the agency hasn’t received by now, and Bob has had a front row seat for all of it. 

Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and unstoppable internet personality. Gary is the CEO of VaynerMedia, one of the most influential and award winning agencies of the past decade. He’s an early investor in some of the most powerful brands of our time. 

GUEST HOST: Jae Goodman, former Chief Creative Officer and Co-Head of CAA Marketing, which he spun out to become Observatory in 2018 and subsequently sold to Stagwell before stepping away last year. In his combined 16 years at CAA and Observatory, Jae racked up 4 Cannes Grand Prix in four different categories including the first-ever Entertainment Lion, 4 Emmys, the first and second-ever brand films accepted to Sundance, and he was the driving force in the creation of Nike’s new Film and TV studio, Waffle Iron Entertainment. But before all that, Jae cut his teeth at Wieden+Kennedy in the 90s, where he first developed a bond with... GUEST: The legendary Janet Champ. Her face is etched on the Mount Rushmore of Wieden+Kennedy greats. Throughout the 90s, she pioneered a new way of marketing to women with her iconic Nike Women’s Fitness Campaigns that inspired generations of women across the world. Winner of all the big advertising awards, there’s a permanent display at Nike HQ paying homage to Janet's greatest hits. Her career helped inspire the Peggy Olson character in Mad Men. Her prolific career continues on today, with work for clients like Apple, AirBNB, UnderArmor, and the non-profits closest to her heart. 

GUEST HOST: Jaime Robinson, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at JOAN, named 2020 Independent Agency of the Year by Campaign. Jaime has been awarded at every major advertising show, including 3 Grand Prix at Cannes. She’s also an Emmy winner, and one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business. GUEST: Shannon Washington, Chief Creative Officer at R/GA. Making her the first-ever Black female Chief Creative Officer in the history of holding companies! Her path to R/GA includes stops at Grey, Droga5 and Deutsch. Board Member at The Marcus Graham Project. She is a maker of award-winning work, and a maker of history. 

GUEST HOST: Ryan Kutscher, award-winning writer, creative director, and founder of the independent agency Circus Maximus, winner of multiple Ad Age Small Agency of the Year honors. Former ECD at CP+B, former CCO at JWT. GUEST: Aaron Starkman, Global Chief Creative Officer at Canada-based agency Rethink. Campaign Magazine named him Global Creative Leader of the Year. Rethink won 2022 Global Independent Agency of the year by Campaign and Clios. Winner of Ad Age’s # 1 ad in the world. Adweek Creative 100. Former CCO at CP+B Toronto. 

GUEST HOST: Chris Beresford-Hill, NA President and Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy. Chris has been on the Adweek CREATIVE 100, Business Insider’s Most Creative People in Advertising, and the AdAge 40 Under 40. GUEST: Jeff Goodby, co-founder and co-chair of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Since its inception in early 80s, Goodby has won Agency of the Year multiple times by multiple publications. The Museum of Modern Art has placed several of their ads into permanent rotation, including “got milk?” and the Budweiser Lizards. In 2006, Jeff was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. In 2010, Adweek named Jeff and partner Rich Silverstein 'Executives of the Decade.' In 2019, Jeff and Rich received Cannes’ highest honor: The Lion of St Mark. In 2020, Jeff and Rich taught advertising for the acclaimed content series, Masterclass. 

Pancho Cassis is Partner and Global Chief Creative Officer at David. Winner of 112 Cannes lions, 4 Grand Prix, 1 Titanium, a Black Pencil at D&AD, and a pile more awards too long to list. Under Pancho’s leadership, David has been named Agency of the Year by Ad Age, Clio, One Show and D@AD. These recognitions are the result of consistently outstanding creative, anchored by Burger King’s Moldy Whopper campaign, one of the bravest and most iconic campaigns of all time. 

Simon Cook is the CEO of Cannes Lions. Since joining Cannes Lions a decade and a half ago, Simon has served in almost every role within the organization, including Director of Awards, VP Creative Excellence and Managing Director. He is a powerful advocate for the marketing industry, and the gatekeeper of its most coveted award.  

Greg Hahn is Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mischief@No Fixed Address. Prior to Mischief, Greg was CCO of BBDO New York for nearly 15 years, where he became one of the most awarded creatives in the world (Cannes Grand Prix, Emmys, all that), and helped BBDO become one of the most awarded companies in the world. Yet in Spring of 2020, Greg headlined a wave of high profile layoffs at BBDO in reaction to pandemic fears.Just two short months later, Greg co-founded Mischief. Just two short years later, Mischief was named Agency of the Year by Adage, Agency of the Year by Campaign US, and the second most innovative agency by Fast Company. Marking one of the most all-time legendary starts by any creative agency ever.    

Devika Bulchandani is Global President of Ogilvy, making her the first ever woman of color to run a global agency network. In 2022, Ogilvy won Global Network of the Year at Cannes. Prior to joining Ogilvy in 2021, Dev had a storied 26-year career at McCann, most recently as President of McCann North America. She led Mastercard’s Priceless campaign. In 2017, she helped bring to life the iconic Fearless Girl, making Mccann one of the most awarded agencies in the world. In 2019 she was recognized by Campaign Magazine as U.S. Advertising Agency Head of the Year. Dev is also a founding member of Times Up Advertising, where she has tirelessly championed equality for women in advertising. 

Alex Lopez is President & Global Creative Chairman at McCann Worldgroup. Before that, he spent 23 years at Nike, where he became one of the most accomplished and awarded brand marketers of our generation. Pick any of your favorite Nike campaigns of the past two decades, and chances are you’ll find Alex’s fingerprints. Including on the now legendary Dream Crazy campaign starring Colin Kaepernick. Alex also led efforts to launch new sport categories like Nike Skateboarding, the brand’s launch into Digital Sport via the Fuel Band, and most recently Nike’s foray into long-form content with Waffle Iron Entertainment. Alex has won every major creative marketing award including an Emmy, seven Cannes Grand Prix Lions, the D&AD Black Pencil, One Show Brand Of The Year, and hundreds more. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. 

Mike Cessario is the founder and CEO of Liquid Death, the fastest growing nonalcoholic beverage brand EVER. Mike is hacking the bottled water market, inspired by heavy metal and punk rock culture, and a motto to "murder your thirst." Using 100% recyclable aluminum packaging and zero plastic, Mike’s evil mission is to make health and sustainability fun and disruptive. Since the inception of his brand in 2018, Mike has raised $125 million in funding. Liquid Death products are currently sold in over 29,000 retail locations nationwide, including Whole Foods, 7-Eleven andTarget. From its branding to its marketing, the food and beverage category has never seen anything like Liquid Death.  

Melissa Proctor is Chief Marketing Officer of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, and author of “Ball Girl to CMO.“ She was the subject of a 2021 ESPN profile titled: "The revolutionary path of Hawks CMO Melissa Proctor." She is a brand leader recognized for her creativity, work ethic, and empathy. As CMO of an NBA franchise, Melissa's responsibilities include: day-to-day marketing, team branding, advertising and promotions, managing the internal video production and creative agency Hawks studio, fan experience and game-day production, community outreach and more. Melissa started her career with Turner Broadcasting, serving in senior brand development and strategy positions for Turner Entertainment Networks, Cartoon Network, and Turner Media Group.  In 2019, the Caribbean American Arts Foundation awarded Proctor with a Captains of Industry award. She is not only an senior executive but also an artist, mother, author and speaker.

Ricardo Viramontes is Chief Creative Officer at The Springhill Company, the brand and content studio founded by Lebron James and Maverick Carter in 2020. Ricardo’s 20-year path to his current role includes stops at BSSP, Wieden + Kennedy, CAA, B-Reel, Apple and Lyft. His work has earned him awards and accolades at every major advertising show including Cannes, where he won the Film Grand Prix and the first Branded Entertainment Grand Prix. In 2021 Ricardo was named to the Adweek Creative 100.