1) There’s a new consciousness in culture. We’re more aware than ever of the beauty in our differences and we can’t un-know what we know. This awakening, thank goodness, is seeping into our walls. Slowly, but surely, it’s kindling more conversations. We know we need diverse perspectives on our teams and we know we need to build nurturing environments where everyone can thrive. Of course it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also making us so much better. Smarter. Stronger. It’s leading to deeper understanding of our audiences and more rich, more dynamic, more meaningful ways to connect with them. It’s sparking more collaboration and creative solutions. It’s making us think differently. And that’s when amazing change happens.

3) This summer, our interns were charged to give rise to change. With no budget and pure hearts, they chose to cancel sexist tech. They found that digital assistants (almost always female voices) are programmed to respond to harassment with passive, coy, even flirtatious answers. Coders are reinforcing stereotypes of women being docile and submission. And, with predictions that 50% of searches will be initiated with voice command as early as next year, this gender bias imbedded in AI is not okay. So, our interns created a digital hub where the community can challenge big tech and help create some more appropriate responses.

I’m also proud of our work for AdventHealth this year. Instead of producing a traditional ad campaign, our team created a program to help members of our communities take their health into their own hands with simple actions. The 21-day Feel Whole Challenge was designed to rejuvenate participants’ bodies, minds and spirits and remind them to think about their health every day—not just when they’re sick or in need of care. Communities, influencers and media personalities rallied behind the challenge across the country. We received so many notes from folks saying the challenge was life-changing. Even life-saving.

4) To promote Season 3 of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” our team transformed Baskin Robbins locations into Scoops Ahoy shops (the ice cream parlor in the series), complete with custom flavors and 1980s pricing.

They also ran retro commercials with a phone number that led consumers to an alternate reality game that could only be played with technology from the 80s (including land lines and fax machines!). Engagement with superfans of the show, the core audience, was groundbreaking.

Because we’re students of consumer behavior, because we build brands and brand strategies, we have been approached by other production companies to bring those same insights into the entertainment space.

5) Beyond sharing messages and stories, I’m excited to see how brands choose to show up in the world. How will they take action or create more experiences for consumers? How will they make a difference? Whether it’s as big as changing behavior or as simple as making someone smile or feel that they’re not alone, I hope 2020 brings more intentional, meaningful conversations.

There is a fierce generation coming up, y’all, and I can’t wait to see how they shake things up. This new crop of talent is more open, more purpose-driven and more fearless. They’re compelled to do all the good they can with all the resources they have.

There’s this awesome, growing murmur among them to make the world a more beautiful place. And they’re poised to do it.

6) Get back to the art of advertising. Hone our craft. Make it gorgeous. Make it sing. Make it unforgettable.

Meet people where they are with something they need to hear.

Give rise to change with each project or challenge we tackle.

1) This year, we’ve seen the continued rise of AI, which is affecting the way in which brands communicate and advertise. Given it analyzes data and targets consumers in real-time, this streamlined approach not only optimizes brands’ ad spend, but also creates ads specifically targeting and speaking to individual consumer’s needs.  The opportunities with AI are huge, and have many people wondering whether it will replace real human creativity and connections. We believe the brands that do both well--harness technology while also infusing real humanity in their communications--will ultimately win ahead. 

2) As an independent shop, we have the benefit of constantly evolving our services to best meet our clients’ changing needs. Additionally, we’re able to invest in industry and cultural initiatives that really matter to us. In addition to pledging to Free the Bid/Work this year, we also recently launched Fellow, an app-based professional community for women in advertising. The idea was conceived by our Senior Art Director, Aisha Hakim, and former colleague, Christoph von Ruexleben, and was designed to facilitate mentorship connections amongst women across the industry – not merely within an individual agency’s walls. Fellow offers a safe place for women to discuss key issues such as navigating maternity leave, asking for salary increases and breaking the glass ceiling. VB&P fully funded the development of Fellow, as we see it as an exciting tool in helping women in advertising unlock their full potential.

3) I’m most proud of the work we did for Reebok this year. Our clients challenged us to come up with a creative concept that combines fashion and sport, which strayed from their traditionally fitness-focused marketing, and appealed to a younger audience. The integrated campaign, called “Sport the Unexpected,” embraced the idea of being different, and launched with a film called Storm the Court, which went on to earn numerous accolades, including Silver and Bronze Lions at Cannes. Two additional films followed in the campaign, including one which memorably featured Cardi B and her epic nails. I’m very proud of how our team came together to complete this complex production within a tight timeline, and the final work which redefined the brand, and drove amazing results for Reebok. 

4) This year, Generation Z will become the largest single population in the world. Research shows that this group watches an average of almost 70 videos each day. With the surge of apps like TikTok, Gen Z’ers have the opportunity to create their own content. Clients realize that their brands need to be entertaining, but have also come to understand the importance of creatively engaging these consumers in the process too. I’m seeing our clients placing greater emphasis on experiential marketing and activations in their plans because they understand that memorable experiences help forge emotional connections with their brands. Though they also recognize that this must be balanced with thoughtful integrated communications which make the most of these connections and relationships over time.

5) In this oversaturated market of endless communications channels, consumers are craving authenticity from brands, and meaningful connections that evoke emotional responses. AR will continue to be a big opportunity for brands given it enables people to interact with content rather than simply viewing it. This type of engagement with the work and brand has great potential to turn passive viewers into active participants – and ultimately, when used effectively, the potential to forge tighter bonds between audiences and the brands vying for their attention. 

6) Not a resolution per se, though in 2020, we’ll look to continue to partner with like-minded clients and brands that we believe in, and with whom we can make a real impact on their business and in culture. We’ll also continue to look for opportunities to use our creativity for good in the world, and beyond branded work. And ultimately, be a place where our team enjoys working each day, and can stretch and grow both personally and professionally.

1) The impact of social continues to be one of the most significant trends. Everything is about creating more content, but that should not mean simply chopping up a TV spot to post on different platforms. This year we launched the ‘Hate-Like” campaign for Hotels.com, which pokes fun at the universal social media behavior of liking your friends’ vacation posts even when you’re secretly jealous. In addition to multiple TV spots, we made more than 125 pieces of unique social content -- all captured on the same shoot. The trend is to create more content, but more importantly, to create more content for a specific purpose and with a specific platform in mind.

2) The biggest adjustment has been making more tangible work. As an industry, we rely too heavily on comps and PDFs to sell through our ideas. But at the end of the day, we are never releasing comps or PDFs into the real world. Our producers are makers at heart and are often prolific social content creators in their personal lives. Their goal is to make more production-level content and prototypes earlier in the process in order to help our clients and partners better understand our creative vision.

3) We’re in the business of making creative assets and I’m most proud when our team of producers get their hands dirty in the process. For one client, we had a small content request with a small budget. With limited production options, one of our producers and an art director flew to LA and drove a rental car around California for three days capturing content. We used a private Instagram account as the presentation and review method. They were uploading images as they road tripped. It was smart, efficient and a little different, but a fun new process to test out.

4) Everything we do should be engaging, whether it’s amusing to the target or evokes some other intended response. You can’t just throw celebrity or influencer talent into content and call it entertainment. But you can always tell a good story. That is what makes our job fun and unique. And that has never changed.

5) Content will continue to rule. The ability to create more and to create it cheaper and faster while still retaining the quality that we expect for us and our clients will be a focus for 2020. We love to make. We have to make. That is our job and we are constantly optimizing our process in order to make better work. Audio content will also continue to surge and take more of a role in 2020 media plans.

6) Being an agency producer is one of the most interesting jobs in the world. Some of us have been doing this for 10+ years and our family still has no idea what we do. My new year’s resolution is to finally produce and release a CPB production podcast. We have a group of really unique and talented producers that have all different kinds of experiences that don’t often get featured. I think it’s easy to forget how fun and unique our job is – the people we meet, the teams we partner with, the places we go, the things we make. Everyone has a great story or experience and the world needs to hear it.

1) One of the industry trends that I think was significant and hasn’t really shown signs of slowing down is the obsession with data. The amount of data. Who owns the data. How private the data is or should be. What the data means. How it should be used…. Data is a powerful and important part of what we do, but it’s also still pretty much the wild wild west right now. There’s not a lot of brands or agencies using data in surprising and culturally impactful ways yet, but Spotify is a great example of one who is.

2) Every year, there are more and more things competing for the attention of the people we’re trying to reach. A shit ton of content. Multitudes of streaming services. Social feeds. Fake news. real news. But despite what you might hear, people’s attention spans aren’t decreasing – binge habits prove that – it’s just that the bar for what is worthy of their attention is higher than its ever been. Indifference is at an all-time high. One of the things we’ve done at the agency that I’m really excited about is created a group called the The Cultural Impact Lab. It’s a super group of PR/EarnedMedia and Comms Planning expertise and we’ve imbedded it in the creative department. Our job is to get brands noticed. Buzz and earned media is not a nice to have, it’s a business imperative. Talked about brands grow 2.5 times faster than brands that aren’t. And when we make PR part of the creative process, we aren’t leaving cultural impact to luck. And when you impact culture, you impact sales. and at the end of the day, that’s really what we’re all here to do.

3) I’m proud of a lot of work that we’re doing, but one of the standouts is what we’re doing for Donate Life, an organization that encourages people to become lifesaving organ donors. We created a streetwear brand called 83Futures and the only way you can get the exclusively designed stuff is by signing up to be an organ donor. 83 Futures refers to the amount of lives you can save with your donated organs. It’s crazy ambitious because it hasn’t really been done before. It’s not a one and done effort, it’s a brand that lives and grows in the world. The amount of work that had to go into securing not only the at-launch design collabs but the seamless connection to donation sign ups was daunting and we’ve only scratched the surface. I love big ambitious ideas that break new ground and I especially love them when they are doing good in the world. 83 Futures saves lives. It doesn’t get more important than that.

5) In 2020, one of the biggest elections in our country’s history will take place. I think that will dominate media time and mental availability. I also think it will continue the important conversations about a variety of really big and weighty topics like social media’s role in disinformation – how accountable are they or should they be? Or the seeming inability of much of the American populace to discern truth from untruth, or even more importantly, their complete lack of interest in facts and provable science. Or the complete disintegration of things like civility, honor and compassion. This kind of stuff isn’t just politics, it’s a major shift in the psyche of Americans. As marketers, much like the 2016 election proved to be, 2020 will be a modern marketing playbook that we should all be paying attention to.

6) New Year’s resolution both personally and professionally: Do at least 10 things (hopefully more) that scare the shit out of myself.

1) The emphases on shorter content/ads for mobile seemed to ramp up this year. It’s a territory where fingers are poised to hit Skip, so how do we make that first frame so captivating that people forget that they have the option to move on? It’s also led us to think about how we use the canvas—a.k.a. the screen—differently. How do we frame the elements to use the 9:16 or 1:1 ratio best so that viewers want more of this virtual eye candy? I find these challenges to be incredibly fun because we are learning to speak authentically to the audience.

3) This is a really tough one to answer. It’s like asking, “Who is your favorite child?” “Lessons in Herstory” was such a smart use of technology that allowed and encouraged engagement. The stories that it brought to light inspire and educate. “Lessons in Herstory” is just really special and necessary today. I also want to send a very special kudos to the team that worked on “A Holiday Reunion” for Xfinity. It was a great example of teamwork from client to agency to production partners—and even Mr. Steven Spielberg himself! Everyone worked so hard to stay true to the original story, and it paid off in spades.

4) With all the compelling content out there that have a strong hold on people’s attention (Amazon Original shows and Netflix films, for example), how do we steal their attention, especially when people are paying for services to avoid advertising altogether? We need to create content that is equally as entertaining—content that they seek out and want to engage with. “A Holiday Reunion” for Xfinity is a great example of work that is more entertainment than advertising. It was really important to all involved that the integrity of the original story—and all the emotions that come with that story—remain intact. And with maintaining that integrity they were able to evolve the story into a piece that resonates with and has been enjoyed by, well, everyone.

6) My New Year’s resolution for the department and the agency is to continue to collaborate and invite partnership. Throughout my career I’ve seen instances where people feel they need to “own” the work. But in those instances, the ego almost always gets in the way. Yes, ownership in the form of accountability is important. But greatness flourishes when collaborators join together to agree on the important and unwavering core of an idea and then spend the next few months nurturing and paving paths for that idea to thrive.

1) Empathetic and values based advertising. This has been growing for the last number of years but the idea of defining your customer through product seems, i dunno, so counter to the reality of today. Like any relationship, we choose our partners based on shared beliefs, why would companies we choose to do business with be any different?

2) We are a Reinvention company...we don’t call ourselves an agency very deliberately because, well, we aren’t. Insight and strategy are central to our approach...a balance of fact and feeling. As a result our work and briefs come directly from what is core to brands. This obviously, and immediately, engenders work derived entirely from what the brand stands for.

3) I think we’re most proud of our Staples work for back to school. We made a conscious effort to stay a bit quiet. Rather than big musical numbers, dig into the notion of what it’s like for parents, children and teachers to unlock the potential of product to achieve, excel, dream.

4) They always have. Jeff Gooby led the way, and the lines have become increasingly blurred. However, this is why values and value lead communication is so darm important. With a dearth of streamable and bingeable (sic) content available, audiences will quickly ignore those things that are purely about moving product. To give them a story or a narrative that appeals to them intellectually or emotionally is critical. This is what entertainment does to avoid the click away. Client Partners don’t demand this, they are savvy enough to expect it.

5) Simple stories told with some narrative complexity. Serial, follow ons, distributed story, connection. I think the channel world and audiences sophistication with it will produce, or should, ways to tell stories in a distributed manner across channels. The interesting thing to me is that we now are embracing mindsets, psychographics but media/channels are still a demographic game. The mindsets are real, but 37 year olds aren’t on tik tok or snapchat (mostly) so how does the story work demographically so it gets in-font of various audiences?

6) To replace volume with precision. To engender empathy within the department by being empathetic and to make sure creatives get away from their computers and live a life in the cultural zeitgesit they are meant to know and understand. Personal? More plant based food

1) A welcome shift for me has been more brands willing to invest in, and take the leap into, long-form digital storytelling. It seems like yesterday there were cries of the fractured attention economy and the need to go “short, short, short.” Telling an emotional story in six seconds was the challenge. The industry answered with a resounding “yes,” producing bite-sized content in droves and forcing inventive, creative thinking to tell an emotional story in such an abridged fashion. And this is likely to continue. But now the conversation has done a 180 as brands flex their storytelling muscle without the constraints of time. And now, free of these constraints and in this attention-deficient world, it’s about getting and holding the consumer’s attention. This is the true ambition of any good storyteller and a very welcome shift. Get it right, and length is almost irrelevant. Get it wrong, and you might have been better off sticking to six seconds.

2) I’m seeing two things that, in my opinion, must remain steadfast for real success going forward. Firstly, we must never lose sight of our connection with our everyday coworkers inside the company. It’s so important to lead with empathy than with an iron fist. Secondly, we must never lose sight of perhaps the most important connection of all – the consumer. Ensuring you give a shit about what they give a shit about, as opposed to doing what we think is right for the moment. At VaynerMedia, we do this by starting close to the consumer and working our way up, rather than pushing an idea for a brand from the top down. We make lots of small, creative bets on social media, and once we see heat around an area, we increase the bet and go from there. The goal: to go from a simple tweet to a full-blown Super Bowl ad.

It’s about working together to create amazing things for our clients. Let’s do it with more smiles than jabs and make sure our true audience is Timmy in South Dakota, not just advertising people in a dark room in the South of France. Everybody wins, but mostly Timmy.

3) Great work that works for our clients makes me proud. If that work also starts a conversation that changes the world? Well, that makes me even prouder. The work we’re doing with Budweiser and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), in my opinion, is starting to hit that mark. The Women’s World Cup had everyone clamoring to capitalize on the U.S. team’s success. But Budweiser and VaynerMedia wanted to make a difference and elevate the women’s game in the long term. The day of the final, Budweiser announced it was becoming the first official beer sponsor of the NWSL, simultaneously launching a film and a full-page ad in the NYT encouraging fans to keep supporting the women’s game. But it didn’t stop there. When the NWSL Championship arrived, the Budweiser team shifted its focus to recruiting other brands as sponsors. Its social posts and print ads featured Megan Rapinoe posing with generic versions of products, all branded with “Future Official Sponsor” labels. These ads, paired with a sixty-second TVC, directed people to TheFutureOfficialSponsor.com, where fans could pledge support for future sponsors to attract their favorite brands’ attention. To date, the campaign has led to unprecedented support from new corporate sponsors.

6) This is a very subjective business. But if we are going to evolve, we have to be open to new and diverse ideas like never before. So my New Year’s resolution is to fully realize that my opinion on work, while tested through the years and garnered with industry accolades, is just that--my opinion. Going forward, this means being truly open-minded on what is considered “good,” leading with that rather than ego. Not always having to be the one with the answer, but promoting a workspace that’s conducive and judgement-free to get to the right answer, where everyone from the bottom up is comfortable sharing ideas without fear of getting shot down. The same applies to working with clients – creating a collaborative culture of “make and share” together versus the traditional “present and pray.” Of course, there will come a time to make a subjective call. But I hope I have the humility to share that I am, in fact, making a subjective call. I might be right, I might be wrong, but one thing is certain: we gave creativity a pretty long leash to truly flourish. It is only then that we will truly uncover real new ground. It will be a process, it will be a difficult muscle not to flex, but that delicious unknown is where our future strength may lie.

1) One thing that we’ve seen a lot more of in the past year, particularly at our agency, is tight collaboration amongst creative, strategy and media teams. This cross-comms approach is an incredible useful creative tool as it gives us a keen understanding of our audience, what motivates them, the type of content they are consuming and where, etc., early in the process, which ultimately leads to creating tailored messaging that really engages and delivers.

We launched a media and analytics practice last year, and bringing these team members deeply into our creative and strategy development process has made a huge impact on our work.

2) In today’s quickly evolving landscape, we’re seeing the rise and development of many innovative communication platforms. With these endless channels, the need to be both disruptive and engaging is more important than ever, in order to deliver a message that breaks through and resonates with consumers.

This again is why we believe and have heavily invested in integrated creative, media and strategy services at Zambezi. Our media and analytics practice has been our fastest growing one since launching last year - and for good reason, as this capability helps us create and deliver the right work, to the right audience, at the right time. It’s a game changer.

3) I’m hugely proud of our “Unleashed” spot and campaign for Beats by Dre and its Powerbeats earphones. It was a very competitive pitch and we were thrilled to have won it with a unique approach of highlighting the innovative product in a way that hadn’t been done before.

Our creative focus was to show Powerbeats Pro technology in action, bringing athletes the full power of music, unconstrained, uninterrupted and unleashed. There was also a huge sense of accomplishment in filming the top athletes from across the globe to bring this story to life. It was an amazing experience to shoot this work with acclaimed director Hiro Murai, and I was extremely proud of our team’s great collaboration with Beats by Dre’s internal marketing team on this effort, too.

4) Over the years, advertising and entertainment have always been intertwined to a degree - just look at original soap operas, for example. Today, with the proliferation of content and massive challenge of capturing consumers attention, entertainment plays an even more vital role in branded communications. Without an entertainment factor, a brand is lost. Each approaches entertainment differently of course; some use borrowed interest by featuring high profile celebrity talent or the latest technology, while others tell stories in other compelling new ways. Whatever the approach, the importance of entertainment in advertising today reminds us that we must also be pushing for new ways to communicate and captivate audiences ahead.

For our team, we’re looking forward to big projects in 2020 that will be executed in unique formats, and outside of traditional media. We love these kinds of creative assignments that push boundaries and present entirely new opportunities for our clients’ brands.

5) As we move into 2020, advertisers will continue to explore a myriad of communications platforms ranging from the innovative and unexpected channels, to the more traditional TV, radio, banners type option which I believe are just as relevant as ever. It’s a complex media landscape, though incredibly exciting too, given we have so many ways to create and communicate today and in the year ahead.

I also believe we’ll see an interesting evolution in client and agency relationships in the year ahead. In this age of more in-house agencies, production shops taking on greater roles, and agencies expanding their capabilities also, the various players and dynamic between them is shifting in an interesting way. There’s less of a divide and more collaboration amongst teams, and I really welcome that.

6) Every new year, I think there is an opportunity for us to use our experiences and learnings from the previous year, and apply them to the year ahead. Ultimately, the resolution is to always be better in our work, how we treat each other, and the opportunities that we unlock together. For the creative team specifically, I want us all to be more adventurous in our approach. And to have a feeling of both immense responsibility and immense freedom, which I believe leads to powerful new ideas.

3) Generation Lockdown was the most important work I did in 2019. My brother is a lacrosse coach at Marjorie Stoneman Douglass in Parkland so I jumped at the opportunity to partner with MFOL. The producers at Hungry Man and I spent six months researching companies that would allow us to shoot our drill in their workspace…and while the awards and accolades are great the most important reward from that project is that it started so many conversations about what our children are learning every day at school.

4) Definitely getting a sense that there are more entertainment style jobs coming our way…which is a great and exciting challenge for the producers on my team. One of our deliverables for Super Bowl 2019 was a half hour documentary that ran on CBS Sports and the NFL Network – after doing so many digital executions it was fun to have the opportunity to do a feature length execution.

5) Across all of our Verizon production platforms we are consistently learning to be more ergonomic and nimble. This will continue into 2020 as we producers will continue to be charged with leading the ways to efficient production solutions to accommodate tighter timelines and budgets. My production team is continuously keeping up with trends and learning how to problem solve in real time so we can keep ambitious programs on track creatively and financially.

6) Every year I challenge myself to do something impossible. From running marathons, to a small part in a big movie, there always needs to be a goal personally and professionally. For 2020 we have a few big hills to conquer.

1) In 2019 advertising’s version of Where The Wild Things Are continued. Horrible teeth gnashed and horrible roars roared in the fight between what’s more important, Data or Storytelling. Also, advertising continued its transformation into something more like entertainment. Or profiling. Or hypnosis. Or a carnival ride.

3) Two of our proudest moments pushed into untracked territory for both our agency and one courageous client. We launched a new product born out of the pop lexicon. Dietz Nuts – the world’s first meat nuts – was written about as one of the best Super Bowl spots, despite the fact that we didn’t purchase a national spot in the game. Also, for Dietz & Watson we developed a fashion line of over 80 unique pieces of apparel and accessories and launched it in a 2400 sq. ft. eye-candy-filled retail experience. In the process we did what every agency has to do these days – learned new skills. Fashion trends. Flow rates. Merchandizing. Sourcing. Pay systems. Permitting. Etc., etc., etc.

5) For 2020, we’re predicting a slow pendulum swing back toward making hearts pound over testing and analyzing the soul out of ideas. To help that happen, good agencies will hone their ability to turn data into plotlines and character development that people care to invite into their lives. Bring on the new decade.

1) It’s fascinating to watch the blending of iconic and mass-movement advertising, as connected to some mobilizing force or cause—think the marketing-side adoption of Colin Kaepernick—creating enviably scaled experience, along with the everyday-any-moment personalized micro-experience—think the designer-but-discounted (and hopefully enviable!) duvet cover I just purchased on IG—and how the micro and macro co-exist. With possibly less in the middle?

2) We know that we’re capable of, and deserve to be called upon to, solve business problems with experience over comms. For us, collaborating with St.Jude’s and Facebook in the creation of the “Hall of Heroes” experience, with VR at its core but broadening to a plethora of experiences-- for the young patients and their families, for the bold journey of embattling cancer and for those that want to learn of the values at St. Jude’s. With “Heroes” we extend directly from product experience.

3) We’ve had a handful of great outputs this year, in my immodest book, but one that resonates a lot is our breakthrough work with Thinx, with the spot  “MENstruation.” The spot is breakthrough much because it could never be as breakthrough for them as their product and cultural refiguring itself. I think we responded to the task beautifully, with a provocative piece directed by Rachel MacDonald of Biscuit. It upends the taboo of menstruation, by showing us-- humorously, naturally and tenderly-- the world as “what if we all had periods.” It naturally depicts extremity, but then lands us questioning how such a norm is viewed as abnormal. Go Thinx.

4) We might as well earn the attention we get. Though I see “entertainment” as just another form of utility. Thus I do believe brand’s must and will continue to purpose entertainment as a form of its expression, if not product itself. Watch how Netflix and Amazon continue to weave data-strategy into their creation (Netflix, in property dev) or distributional process (Amazon, in proximity to product), and I think there’s huge opportunity for brand-hosted entertainment. I think data-strategy that seemingly results in small-bit stuff could just as well feed into high production-value entertainment.

5) My crystal ball broke when I didn’t see the video revolution coming in 2012 or whenever, so I gave it to my son and he uses it for in-house (literal) baseball. But if I had to dive back in I’d say that as marketers become more independently capable (they will), they will still best flourish in the smart use of dependency. We’re heading in to a very new collaborational phase, with our clients and our partners.

6) If I had to candidly express my next year’s resolution, I’d say that I’d like us to continue to be as creatively great, and groundbreaking as we are, at BBDO—and I’d like us to be expansively so, by volume of greatness—through the pursuit of curation, alongside origination. I want us to flex the remarkable muscle of scale, and further curate in-the-world things and moreover causes, partners, client culture, everyday as well as world’s-best creators, while we also draw upon our own imagination and pursuit of breakthrough origination. Then I want to slam it all together, and attract tons of clients. Done, next question!

1) I think there were two valuable trends in 2019. 

One is that brands, marketers, and agencies are finally waking up to the fact that we don’t have to choose between “product” advertising and “purpose” advertising. More brands than ever before are finding the right balance between work that builds equity for the long-term and work that borrows equity for short-term sales wins. We no longer live in a binary media world and being able to use all the crayons in our box is what makes this the most exciting time to build brands.

Two is that the best brands and marketers are finally creating bespoke work that fully unlocks the potential of social media. We’re seeing less and less work that just re-purposes traditional television and print advertising in digital spaces. 

2) Instead of complaining about changes in the marketplace or the industry’s “broken model,” we did something about it. We’re not just thinking about great ideas; we’re making them. We dedicated over 25,000 square feet to maker space. We hired multiple directors and photographers. We built 25 edit suites, five audio recording and editing rooms, multiple mini-content studios, and even purchased a RAM truck for mobile content creation. We didn’t just adapt; we invested and created something clients truly want. 

3) Our two most exciting campaigns of 2019 came from two unexpected places - healthcare and CPG.

To launch Allegheny Health Network’s revolutionary, first-in-the-nation postpartum center, we partnered with Chrissy Teigen on #MyWishForMoms, a campaign designed to end the silence and give new moms the help they need. This campaign, based in Pittsburgh, ignited a global conversation that is helping overcome the stigma around PPD and has led to more people searching for help on Google than any time in history.

My second proudest moment of 2019 was the attention we received for a Farmland bacon social campaign. When fashion brand Supreme stole the Farmland logo for a line of hats, we didn’t promote legal action; we went social on them and backed it up with content featuring pork farmers in Supreme gear. Overnight, this campaign turned a regional pork producer into the darling of the social media elite, proving that any brand, properly executed, can participate and even dominate in culture. 

4) The lines are unquestionably being blurred and that leads to massive opportunities for brands and agencies. Last year, during the Oscars, to celebrate A Star is Born, a billboard was put up in Hollywood with Lady Gaga that matched the “Ally” billboard featured in the film. It was a cool way for life to imitate art. We saw this as an opportunity for Netflix and put up a billboard opposite “Ally” for Amy Schumer’s new show that just said “Amy.” 

5) This is more of wish than a prediction. My hope is that, in 2020, we will see an end to the false premise that “data is the new creativity.” This false narrative has led to years of “blandvertising.” This premise incorrectly assumes that context is more important than content. In 2020, I hope to see more work that blends data with creativity with content with an approach to context. We used this approach on behalf of Potbelly and saw great success for the brand.