Everybody writes. But do you know what it takes to craft the perfect sentence? Acclaimed brand, tone of voice, and copy consultant Vikki Ross shares her secrets to writing compelling marketing messages that drive results.

In this episode of Firestarters, she discusses the art of great copywriting, from how to define your brand’s voice to why it’s crucial to make every word count — and ensuring your copy always passes the “concrete, visual, and falsifiable” test.

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

New: Firestarters TakeOuts! Our fast-paced, all-you-need-to-know version of the Think with Google Firestarters podcast. In this series, we’ll be sharing highlights of our favourite episodes in 10 minutes or less. We hope you enjoy it.

Richard Shotton, best-selling author of The Choice Factory, explains how advertising has “dropped the ball” when it comes to consumer psychology, and what marketers can do to unlock its power.

Are PR and advertising really so different? Not according to Gen Kobayashi, CSO at Weber Shandwick. Hear him discuss why understanding people is at the heart of effective PR and advertising, the power of an earned-first mindset, and why the best ideas come from operating in the jungle, not the zoo.

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

All great advertising is just a matter of taste, says Sophie Lewis, CSO at M&C Saatchi. Hear her discuss why understanding cultural influences is the secret to creating real impact, how advertisers should think outside of their bubble, and why she has 64,000 photos on her phone.

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

How can agencies sell stand out ideas to their clients? What are the secrets of establishing truly beneficial and sustainable client and agency relationships? In this fascinating episode Jason Oke, Global Client President at Dentsu, talks about how to sell great creative thinking to clients, the importance of understanding how ideas move through organisations, and why agencies need to be more confident. 

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Marketing is the mortar that holds any business together, says marketing transformation consultant and former IBM CMO Alison Orsi. Tune in for her insights on mastering the art of customer experience, breaking down the silo mentality and fostering collaboration across teams.

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

How do you capture someone’s attention in under 3 seconds? Listen to design consultant and former creative director of Rolling Stone, Andy Cowles, on the art of effective visual communication and why the role of design is so often misunderstood.

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

How do you create a community and maintain a culture in the digital age? Listen to futurist, tech visionary, artist, and activist Adah Parris on why we need a more thoughtful, holistic, and sensory approach to technology. 

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

What are the best techniques for making your content marketing really fly? Matt Locke is the founder of the agency Storythings, and a renowned thinker on gaining attention through content. He joins Neil to talk about the need to understand how your content can fit into the lives of your audience, appreciating the media moments when it's possible to engage, and the formats that will work.

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Why is optimism and letting go of what we know so important when considering technology futures? How can we challenge unexamined assumptions to come up with new ideas? In this wide-ranging, insights-packed episode, Kevin Kelly talks about the role of imagination in understanding the future, why we should focus on enabling technologies, how to make creativity a habit, and the importance of lifelong learning, curiosity, and making new mistakes. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Don’t leave workshop energy at the door — bring it into your business. Listen to Alison Coward, founder of Bracket and author of “Workshop Culture: A Guide to Building Teams That Thrive”, as she joins Neil to discuss leadership lessons and prompts for creating meaningful conversations and work environments that foster psychological safety, commitment, creativity, empathy, and high-performance amongst teams.

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Is media planning becoming the impossible job? Michael Lee, Chief Strategy Officer at VCCP and former Chair at the Account Planning Group, joins Neil to talk about the challenges of the ever-changing media landscape, the importance of “T-shaped” knowledge, the skills that can’t be replaced by AI, and why data can’t predict if a radical idea will be successful.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

New: Firestarters TakeOuts! Our fast-paced, all-you-need-to-know version of the Think with Google Firestarters podcast. In this series, we’ll be sharing highlights of our favourite episodes in 10 minutes or less. We hope you enjoy it.

From data-driven storytelling to the future of marketing hear Rishad Tobaccowala, award-winning strategist, podcaster and author, discuss why the future of marketing is not just about data, but also about imagination, creativity, and human connection.

How can brands use consumer feedback, community, and authenticity to truly engage with their audiences? Claire Hennah, Beauty & Wellbeing Chief Customer & Digital Commerce Officer at Unilever, joins Neil armed with invaluable insights into how one of the biggest packaged goods companies in the world drives brand growth through consumer connection. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Are you making the most of your data? Rishad Tobaccowala, award-winning strategist, podcaster and best-selling author, joins Neil to discuss why storytelling is key to unlocking its true value and how successful companies combine ‘maths and magic’ in marketing.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Jerry Daykin VP & Head of Global Media at Beam Suntory — and former EMEA Senior Media Director at GSK*, speaks to Neil about the future of media, 'lazy endism', balancing hyper-personalisation with wider insight and empathy, and the power of context in media. 

*This episode first came out in September 2021. 

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Emma Cookson is a partner at The Brandtech Group (formerly You & Mr Jones) which positions itself as being built around in-housing, rooted in technology, and founded on transparency. Neil speaks to her about the power of simplicity, and how the ability to simplify complexity is a superpower for strategists. She also discusses some of the biggest and most disruptive shifts in marketing including the benefits of inhousing and the emergence of virtual worlds. And she describes what it's like to trend globally on Twitter (and not in a good way).

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

What is aspiration in the modern world? How do we achieve it, and how do we differentiate and signal our taste to others through knowledge and curation? Esprit's Global Chief Brand Officer, Ana Andjelic, talks about the premise behind her book on how social, cultural, and environmental capital changes brands. 

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Brand consultant Helen Edwards is a columnist for Marketing Week, adjunct professor at London Business School, and the author of a new book ‘From Marginal to Mainstream: Why Tomorrow’s Brand Growth Will Come From the Fringes – and how to get there first’. In this thought-provoking episode she discusses why marketers need to look beyond the usual places to drive sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive world. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

What are the parallels between planning and parenting? As both the Planning Director at VCCP and the father of a toddler, Rob Estreitinho distills some brilliant lessons for strategists and marketers. Rob talks about the importance of context in decision-making, flexibility and continuous learning, and creating the conditions in which solutions can emerge.

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Sarah Salter has been named by Campaign as one of the UK advertising industry's most renowned and authoritative voices on innovation. In this fascinating episode, Sarah discusses the power of conversations as a path to learning, plus the potential of new technologies such as NFTs to drive brand and consumer value. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Behavioural science is a powerful tool for advertising, but many marketers overlook it, says Richard Shotton, best-selling author of The Choice Factory. Tune in to hear how it can be used to tap into mood, situation, and human biases to craft more impactful campaigns.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Gaming represents a significant and diverse opportunity for marketers, so how can brands engage gamers in an authentic way? As gaming has matured as a medium, what are the techniques for understanding the environment and the audience, and what is the future for marketing to gamers?

In this enlightening episode, James Whatley — Senior Strategy Director, Gaming, The LEGO Group — reveals how brands can engage gamers in meaningful ways, how they can be player-centric, tap into the feeling that gaming evokes, and why it's important to 'go the extra click'.

Think with Google Firestarters delves into the minds of the marketing and advertising industry’s most inspirational leaders. Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

What are the key levers of effectiveness? What’s the value of difference in driving brand growth? How can brand value be a multiplier to profitability? Kantar MD, UK Insights and Marketing Effectiveness, Dom Boyd, reveals a gold mine of insights into advertising effectiveness. Delving into the current disconnect between advertising effectiveness evidence and spend, and the confidence that marketers have in their marketing strategies and mix.

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Are you speaking a totally different language to your customers? Lou Downe, author of the best selling book Good Services and former Design Director of the UK Government, joins Neil to talk about what we get wrong about service design and how improving it can help your users, your team and even the world we live in.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://goo.gle/3t13pWt

Why is thinking differently so important in modern marketing, yet sometimes so hard to achieve? In this episode, Nick Myers, Head of Planning at OLIVER Agency shares his thoughts on why you can only be a true heretic if you really understand the orthodoxy, and why the OLIVER model is such a good example of a heretical approach.

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In this episode, Lucy Jameson, a founder at Uncommon London, talks about the importance of finding your crew, building an agency culture from the top and the bottom, the enduring power of creativity and disrupting category norms, creating outputs that don't always look like advertising, and why fame is the least used strategy but so often the most effective one.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

In this episode, Andy Nairn, co-founder of Lucky Generals talks about the risks of overthinking marketing and brand problems, how the quest for perfection can suffocate serendipity and luck, and how becoming buried in process can mean that you become blind to everything else around you.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

What role does creativity play in creating net new value and enabling both disruptive and incremental growth? In this episode, Agathe Guerrier, Global Chief Strategy Officer of TBWA\Worldwide, discusses the all-important distinction between efficiency and effectiveness in marketing, the risks inherent in over-focus on one at the expense of the other, and the need to look at ratios in the context of absolute numbers.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

What are the key technology trends that every marketer should be paying attention to? In this episode, Scott Brinker, renowned martech writer and the author of Hacking Marketing, explains as opportunities for innovation multiply, the skills needed for creating real differentiation will increasingly be focused on how marketers can orchestrate and bring together the lego bricks of technology, apps and services in the most advantageous way. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

How can belief and craft drive what we deliver? What are the challenges of working at the speed of culture? What role can marketing leaders have in connecting the dots between specialisms? Find the answers in this episode with Ian Fitzpatrick, Global Director for Brand and Strategy at New Balance.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

What’s next for planning and marketing? R/GA Chief Strategy Officer, Tom Morton, discusses strategy as the assembling of truths to create advantage, why brand strategy has never been more important, and how ‘the revolution doesn’t care about your content calendar’. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

What opportunities exist for marketers to drive sustainability transformation and green growth? Leo Rayman, former CEO of Grey Consulting and Grey London, is now CEO of Green Growth consultancy EdenLab. In this episode, Leo discusses the need to connect climate expertise with marketing's ability to shape aspiration, paint compelling visions of the future, and change behaviour. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

New: Firestarters TakeOuts! Our fast-paced, all-you-need-to-know version of the Think with Google Firestarters podcast. In this series, we’ll be sharing highlights of our favourite episodes in 10 minutes or less. We hope you enjoy it.

Want tips about lifelong learning, fundamental skills, optimism, and breakthrough ideas? Kevin Kelly, author, co-founder, and senior maverick at Wired, shares his wisdom.

Thas has worked as a Senior Strategist at BBH, Group Strategy Director at Deutsch, and now runs independent agency Omelet. In this episode Thas speaks about the future of advertising, making creativity more accessible to business, how agencies can move upstream with clients, and the idea of leadership as the 'amplified self'.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Gareth is Founding Partner at Chapter in San Francisco. In this episode, he discusses how planning, marketing and advertising are all evolving. Gareth speaks about the power of having a high density of creative talent, the danger of planning specialising into irrelevance, the importance of diversity in inputs, and the challenges and opportunities that are emerging from the increasingly blurred lines between product and marketing disciplines. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Richard Huntington is the Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi London Group. In this episode, he discusses the critical lessons from his career in advertising, his insights into how marketing is changing, and predictions for the future of the industry. 

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Ian Leslie is a strategist and the author of acclaimed books on human behaviour including Conflicted, How to Disagree, and Curious. In this thought-provoking episode, Ian talks about the power of healthy argument in helping groups to get to the right answer and why 'thinking is a collaborative activity'. He also discusses how doing our best work requires managing our ego, how to avoid common bias in decision-making, and why debate is so necessary to the health of any shared enterprise.  

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Dan Cullen-Shute is the CEO & Founder at Creature, as well as being the CEO of White Crow, and a member of Forbes Agency Council and the IPA iList. In this compelling episode Dan talks about the potency in combining stubbornness with positivity, and in always believing that 'something magical is about to happen'. He describes the importance of 'intelligent misbehaviour', of self-awareness as a leader, of hiring people who are better than you and then getting out of the way, and of balancing consistency with flexibility in the age of hybrid working.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Patricia McDonald has run strategy teams at agencies including Isobar, BBH, Weber Shandwick and is now the Global CSO, Creative, at Dentsu. In this episode Pats talks about how as a strategist, it's not enough to be right, you need to bring people on the journey with you, and how the best strategists have generosity as an inherent operating system. She describes how storytelling is a superpower in creating memorability, especially those stories that have an evolutionary advantage. There are also insights into the risks inherent in the polarisation of the marketing industry, and the importance of psychological safety amongst planning teams.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Trevor Robinson OBE is the Creative Director and founder of Quiet Storm Advertising and Create Not Hate, the not-for-profit which aims to combat systemic racism and get underrepresented young people into the creative industries. In this fascinating episode, Trevor speaks about the importance of laughter and fun in the creative process, how clients can be brave and take creative risks, and how to get buy-in for bold ideas. He also talks about creating work that you're proud of, and why diverse perspectives and people are so needed in the creative and advertising industries.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Tom Roach, VP of Brand Planning at Jellyfish, discusses how brand planning can be the glue that binds different marketing specialisms together and about the need to break down the false dichotomies in marketing between brand and performance. He describes the inevitability of convergence between media and creative, human capability and automation, and how this is heralding a 'third age' of planning.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Amelia Torode spent many years leading strategy at agencies including VCCP, Good Relations Group and TBWA before launching The Fawbrake Collective, an independent strategy consultancy with a unique model based on distributed planning talent. In this fascinating episode Amelia talks about what's wrong with the current agency 'operating system', the need to move 'from large and layered to faster and flatter', how some moments in life refocus you on 'the fierce urgency of now', the challenge of running distributed teams, and why sometimes it can be hard but necessary to move on.

Check out our YouTube video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Brand consultant Jim Carroll is the former Chairman of BBH London. In this episode, Jim talks about how good strategists should have a continuous stream of inputs to get to good outputs. Great planners, he says, bring the outside world into the agency, and act as psychotherapists to clients rather than doctors - uncovering insights, listening, and looking for patterns. He discusses the dangers of 'windtunnel marketing', how best practice can help raise the floor but can also risk lowering the ceiling, and why we need 'Cavaliers' in advertising as well as 'Roundheads.'

Check out our Youtube video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

New: Firestarters TakeOuts! Our fast-paced, all-you-need-to-know version of the Think with Google Firestarters podcast. In this series, we’ll be sharing highlights of our favourite episodes in 10 minutes or less. We hope you enjoy it.

From challenging the status quo to getting the most out of yourself and your team, hear Trevor Robinson, founder of Quiet Storm and Create Not Hate, discuss why diversity of thought is the key to creative success. 

Before becoming VP Marketing at Bulb Energy Russell Davies led communications and digital strategy at organisations including Nike, Honda, Microsoft, Apple and was the Director of Strategy for the UK Government Digital Service for four years. In this fascinating episode Russell discusses the delicate dance that strategists perform between simplicity and complexity, how the most successful planners are those that can get an organisation to do something, but also how making things easy to do is actually really hard. He talks about the need for teams to have a common understanding of how advertising works, and how it should occupy the uncomfortable place between art and science.

Check out our YouTube video series at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Rachel Mercer is the Co-founder and CXO of innovation consultancy Proto, and previously served as the VP, Head of Strategy in R/GA's flagship New York office. In this enlightening episode, Rachel discusses the intersection of design and strategy and how critical it is for strategists to be expansive. She describes the need to take both a '20 foot view' and '5 foot view', to look at trends in the context of cultural edges, dominant subcultures and the mainstream, how brand strategy can be a lens for everything you do as business but also the importance of working at the speed of culture. Rachel also discusses the challenges and opportunities that the pandemic has opened up in the world of work, how we should all run towards something and the value in putting our own oxygen masks on first.

Check out our YouTube video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Sara Tate is an organisational consultant, the former CEO of TBWA London, and author of the new book 'The Rebuilders: Going from Setback to Comeback in Business and Beyond'. This engrossing episode is full of insights into how curiosity takes you further than knowledge, breaking out of self-imposed constraints, and the value of a beginner's mind in generating new possibilities. Sara also discusses the importance of creating a safe space for exploration, experimentation and learned experience in navigating change.

Check out our YouTube video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3

Katie Dreke has spent her career working both client and agency side, including seven years at Nike, where she was latterly the Senior Director, Global Concept Development at Nike Women, and stints at Droga 5 and Wieden & Kennedy. In this episode, Neil Perkin, moderator of Think with Google Firestarters, talks to Katie about the future of marketing, what agency strategists can bring to client organisations, breaking out of constraints, and how we can design better futures for brands and consumers.

Check out our YouTube video series at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNBdIP33wJ3rZLkH1iR_Xjy0TznS1Ii_3