Shows
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 104: Time To Say Goodbye“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? – it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies”. Jack Kerouac always had a way to capture a moment. And this is the moment, at the 2-year mark, to say goodbye.
2017-04-3003 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 103: Keeping It RealWhy do people buy? They believe that what you are selling is going to fulfill their need. And that's the key word...believe. For them to believe this fact, they have to trust. And in an industry based on artifice, to instil trust, nothing matters more than authenticity.
2017-04-2304 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 102: The Digital Strategist As IntegratorWe have previously discussed the emerging opportunities and threats presented by automation and artificial intelligence. Make no mistake, they are going to have a profound effect on our industry and society. But all is not lost. As we have previously outlined, the digital strategist is poised to thrive in this age of upheaval, and one of the key roles they will fulfill is the role of the integrator.
2017-04-1705 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 101: The Client AdvocateYou sit in the eye of the storm, pulled in a hundred different directions. How do you stay focused on the right outcomes? How do you turn the chaos and energy to your advantage? You do it by remembering who you work for. You do it by being the client advocate.
2017-04-0904 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 100: The Truths We Hold To Be Self EvidentBeing a strategist is about delivering outcomes predicated on understanding and driving human behaviours and actions. It is about understanding who your audience is, how they think, what they want, and delivering a message that motivates them to take the actions you want. Yes, in order to do so, you need to understand how to align and manipulate digital tools to deliver the right experience to the right person at the right time. But at the heart of this is an understanding of people in all our glorious messiness.
2017-04-0109 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 99: Building ConsensusConsensus can be a dirty word. It implies compromise. Compromise invites committee thinking. And committee thinking is associated with safe and uninteresting solutions. But without consensus, we can't deliver a digital strategy. How do we achieve consensus while remaining daring and innovative?
2017-03-2604 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 98: Strategy In The Age Of Media CrisisDigital media is having a moment, one that if not aggressively addressed will turn into a full blown crisis of confidence. Procter & Gamble CMO Marc Pritchard caused a sensation when he called on digital media providers to become transparent in the face of "crappy advertising accompanied by even crappier viewing experiences". Major advertisers, including the UK government, the Guardian and Havas have frozen all Google and YouTube advertising in the UK. What on earth is happening, how did we get here, and what is a digital strategist to do in this environment?
2017-03-1906 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 97: Self Awareness Is A Beautiful ThingThe Ancient Greeks wrote that you should know thyself. But self awareness is a seemingly rare trait. We rush to talk, to get our opinion across without thinking about the impact on how we are perceived. Why is self awareness so important, why is it so rare, and how can we become more self aware?
2017-03-1303 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 96: Why Are Soft Skills So Hard?Overlooked, sidelined and dismissed, soft skills are considered less important than hard technical skills and experience. But as you grow your career, they become ever more important. What are soft skills, why are they not considered important when you first start your career, and why do they become more important as you grow?
2017-03-0503 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 95: The Things Left UndoneWhen you're in the middle of the scrum, with a thousand requests coming at you at the same time, how do you prioritize? How do you deliver to expectations? How do you maintain the quality of your thinking and output? How do you stay sane?
2017-02-2505 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 94: Leading As A Digital StrategistThe strategist sits at the heart of the organization; is it any wonder your colleagues look to you for leadership? What are the traits that make a strategist a good leader, and how do you best provide that leadership as a strategist?
2017-02-1904 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 93: The WorkIt's a nebulous and subjective thing. Who decides what great work looks like, and why? What's more, we aren't creative directors. We are digital strategists. Our work isn't designed to inspire, amuse or move. Our work is designed to perform. So before you launch, and until you have results that validate your strategy, how can you know if your work is great?
2017-02-1305 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 92: Digital Strategic FrameworksBringing order to chaos. Simplicity to complexity. Vision to practicality. The strategist is there to align stakeholders, solve problems and achieve ambitious objectives. But doing so is not a straightforward task. Not unless you have a strategic framework to depend on.
2017-02-0504 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 91: A Great Story Well ToldThe spoken word. It connects in ways that the written does not. Maybe that is why the podcast, an old delivery platform that many thought was past its prime, is enjoying such a revival. The podcast allows us to tell stories, provide context and connect on a human level, and it holds a very important place in the role of an integrated digital strategy.
2017-01-2906 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 90: The Need For SpeedYou have an aggressive annual objective. You need an innovative strategy to achieve it. But each week you take on developing your strategy represents 2% of your year, and sets you that much further behind your goal. You now have a steeper hill to climb, and in less time. How do you square the requirement to spend an appropriate amount of time researching and planning, with the need for speed?
2017-01-2204 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 89: The Digital Strategist As Visionary‘If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea’. Writer, poet and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s beautifully articulated perspective on motivating people gives us insight into the role of the visionary. But what does it mean to be one, why is it important to be a visionary and why is the strategist the right person to take on that role?
2017-01-1505 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 88: The Long And Winding RoadStrategy is not about immediate impact, but rather about long term achievement of ambitious objectives. It doesn't constantly change; if it did then it wouldn't be strategy. So once the strategy is set, and the implementation begins, is there a role for the strategist? I believe the strategist is critical for the successful execution of a strategy once it launches because they fulfill 3 key roles.
2017-01-0905 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 87: Challenge Everything"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think". This quote from Socrates, articulated over 2,000 years ago, sits at the heart of the teaching method he created, the Socratic Method. This debate driven approach to challenging ideas and finding common ground is as valid today in the context of the work of the strategist as it was in the classical age.
2017-01-0204 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 86: Team Of Rivals"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe". Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States until his assassination in 1865. During his time as President, he led the nation through one of the most traumatic experiences in its history, the Civil War. A deeply astute politician, Lincoln was a frontiersman and self-trained lawyer, and is a man from whom we can draw three key lessons to make us better strategists.
2016-12-2605 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 85: I, RobotArtificial intelligence. Machine learning. Cognitive computing. The robots are coming, and they are going to have a profound impact on our industry. But don't despair. Don't give up. Don't rage against the machine. Prepare yourself for their arrival, because the age of automation needs the strategist more than ever.
2016-12-1805 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 84: Beyond UnderstandingBill Clinton once famously said ‘I feel your pain’. Not ‘I understand‘ or ‘I see‘, but ‘I feel‘. Empathy. It’s the difference between being an observer and an active participant. And in our data first world, it is often overlooked. But without empathy, we can’t execute on our vision. Without empathy we can’t lead. Without empathy our campaigns won’t work. Without empathy, we can’t be strategists.
2016-12-1105 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 83: The Mystic'If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?' Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was a 13th Century poet, scholar and Sufi mystic whose writings continue to inspire across cultures and languages, making him the best selling poet in the United States. Rumi's teachings are guided by the concept of Tawhid, or the union with the Beloved, and that the path for achieving this was through music, poetry and dance. Within these teachings are universal truths that allow us, as strategists to transcend the mundane around us and achieve something truly meaningful and memorable.
2016-12-0405 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 82: The Blue OceanIn 1997, Apple unveiled its ‘Think Different’ campaign, marking its re-emergence as a powerhouse in the industry. The idea of being different is not only compelling, it’s important. In a crowded marketplace, you can do what everyone else is doing, or you can apply the concepts of the Blue Ocean Strategy and create your own market. These concepts matter today in the practice of digital strategy, and will matter ever more as the space becomes more crowded and competitive.
2016-11-2605 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 81: The Veil Of IgnoranceHow do you figure out a path if you don't know the destination? What about if you have no idea about the resources at your disposal to get there? This is not a fanciful or hypothetical question, but a challenge that we are faced with often as strategists. When you have too little information, it can be tempting to walk away from the situation. Rather than do that, try seeing the challenge for what it really is, an opportunity, and apply a guiding approach to pierce the veil of ignorance and build a strategy.
2016-11-2005 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 80: The 4 Principles To Thrive In ChangeAnxiety. Despair. Paralysis. Rapid and dramatic change can be dizzying and debilitating. But it need not be. If we prepare ourselves appropriately, and approached pragmatically, change can be empowering and transformative. Here's how to thrive in a changing environment.
2016-11-1206 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 79: Strategy Is More Than A Collection Of TacticsIt's a common problem in digital marketing. We jump straight to execution without first developing the strategy. For many that work in this space, strategy is nothing more than a collection of tactics. Why is this sentiment so prevalent, how does it impact our work, and what is the benefit of treating strategy as more than a collection of tactics?
2016-11-0705 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 78: Applying Porter's 5 Forces To Digital StrategyToo often, when we think of our work in digital marketing, we consider it purely through the lens of the technology we are working with. In doing so, we forget the strategic frameworks that have been applied in planning for decades. How relevant are these frameworks to the work of the digital strategist, and how do they apply? To answer that question, let's look at one of the most interesting, Porter's 5 Forces.
2016-10-3007 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 77: Winning In Difficult SituationsSome weeks it feels like all we do is fight fires. This can be exhausting and demoralizing. But worse that that, it can serve to cause us to take our eyes off our goals, lose perspective, and make decisions that might alleviate the short term pain, but work to undermine the long term strategic objective. Here's how to win in difficult situations.
2016-10-2305 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 76: The Digital Strategist As Renaissance ManIn 1633, Galileo Galilei was convicted of and imprisoned for heresy by the Roman Inquisition for arguing that the planets revolve around the Sun, rather than around the Earth. Astronomer, physicist, philosopher and mathematician, Galileo, along with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other polymaths came to characterize an era of discovery, creativity and progress, often in the face of intense resistance. They were men of the Renaissance, and as digital strategists, we should look to them as our inspiration.
2016-10-1607 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 75: The PrinceTo be called Machiavellian is to be considered unscrupulous, immoral and deceitful. This is a man that wrote that 'since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved', and 'if an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared'. Machiavelli did not see people as inherently good, but wrote that 'of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain'. But in spite of this jaundiced worldview...
2016-10-0907 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 73: Herding CatsIndependent. Contrarian. Brilliant. Difficult. Nimble. Aloof. The digital strategist may be a multi-disciplinary octopus, but in our everyday skins, we can also resemble our feline friends. We like to work alone and on our own schedule. We don't like to follow the direction of others. We can come off as arrogant. We sometimes chase shiny objects. So how do you keep a team of strategists focused on working together, working within a broader team and delivering the best work that they can?
2016-09-2505 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 74: The Multicultural StrategistMatteo is the Senior Officer of Digital Communications and Audience Engagement at the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere region. In this role, he is responsible for uniting the Communications and Development departments in order to create a comprehensive digital strategy that both ensures IPPF/WHR's enhanced presence in social media and strengthens the organization's online fundraising efforts. Prior to joining IPPF/WHR, Matteo spent more than eight years building strategic communications and marketing initiatives in both the private and public sectors, including at the United Nations, Council of the Americas, and his own digital consulting agency, MCS...
2016-09-1821 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 72: Hiring Digital StrategistsFinding the right digital strategist to join your team is hard. Not only are you hiring in a competitive marketplace, it is incredibly difficult to evaluate the skills of individuals in this space. The word ‘strategist’ is overused to the point that it is almost meaningless. In any given interview for this role, I could find myself speaking with a salesperson or a technologist. And the interview itself is an odd kabuki dance where it often feels like the participants are masking their true selves. So how do you truly evaluate a strategist? How do you determine their skill set...
2016-09-1007 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 71: Should I Stay Or Should I GoYou've had a bad day. Your project isn't delivering. Your colleagues are grumpy. The client is being unreasonable. Your manager is disinterested. And when the phone rings, there's a recruiter on the other end of the line, painting a vision of opportunity elsewhere. How do you know when to ignore the call of greener pastures and when to move on?
2016-09-0505 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 70: From Inception To ActionIt's the most common complaint about digital strategists. We swoop in, ask some questions, dictate direction and then leave it to others to implement. All too often, it's a fair description of how many choose to conduct themselves. But without collective ownership of the strategy, it is unlikely to ever get implemented correctly, if at all. Without implementation, we can never prove the value of our ideas. And the way to get things implemented is through the mental sleight of hand called Inception.
2016-09-0405 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 69: Do You Feel Like A Fraud?You're halfway through your presentation and you feel good. Your audience is receptive, their body language positive and engaged. All except one person. He's sitting with his arms crossed, defensive and with a troubled expression on his face. Suddenly, his expression changes, he leaps out of his chair and pointing at you, calls out 'wait a second...he's a fraud!'. Maybe this hasn't happened to you. It has yet to happen to me. And yet, it amazes me how often I feel like this is going to happen. And I'm not alone. This sense of feeling like...
2016-08-2706 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 68: Taking The LeapOur parents graduated, entered the workforce in their twenties, and stayed with the same organization, often in a similar field for the entirety of their careers. They were also often able to comfortably afford their own homes in their early twenties, but hey, it was a different time. Everything has since changed. The security that previous generations experienced in their work no longer exists. We live in a time of anxiety and change like we have never seen before. Technology has disrupted countless industries, eliminating certainties and making a mockery of the idea of tenure. It has levelled...
2016-08-2205 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 67: Sun Tzu“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Preparation. It's at the heart of the Art of War. The idea that knowledge is power, that careful and cold-eyed examination of your relative strengths and weaknesses and those of your competitors are what have made this a critical source of wisdom for military and corporate strategists for cent...
2016-08-1406 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 66: The Marketing StrategistGeneral Douglas MacArthur once famously said that ‘old soldiers never die; they just fade away’. Is it time for the digital strategist to just fade away? Have we reached the point of maturity and integration in our industry that there is no longer a need for our role? Should we now simply be considered as marketing strategists?
2016-08-0804 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 65: Ulysses"The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on". Ulysses S. Grant was an uncomplicated, plain-speaking man who had an exceptional career. The most acclaimed Union general of the American Civil War who went on to win election twice as the President of the United States, Grant's early career was one characterized by failure that could have led to a lifetime of historical obscurity had it happened to someone else.
2016-07-3006 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 64: Embrace The Chaos“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.” If you need to be in control at all times, don’t choose this career. If you think all decisions should be based solely on logic, don’t choose this career. If you fear change, don’t choose this career.
2016-07-2504 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 63: Hypothesis Driven StrategyIn his book, Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell argues that spontaneous decisions are as good as, or even better than, carefully planned and considered ones. Does this fly in the face of the role of the strategist?
2016-07-1705 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 62: Home For A RestOurs is a competitive and complex industry. To stay ahead of the pace, indeed, to set the pace, we need to constantly learn, constantly think, constantly be challenged. We need to integrate our work and lives. But sometimes, it all comes to a crashing halt if we don't stop, rest and recharge.
2016-07-1104 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 61: Interviewing For A Strategic RoleWhether moving into a strategic role, or to the next role as a strategist, you will have to navigate a number of interviews. In any given month, I am lucky enough to interview a lot of people for a wide variety of roles within our organization. I always look for the same traits and am consistently baffled when people don't exhibit them. What do you need to know, to prepare, and to articulate in order to ace the interview?
2016-07-0405 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 60: Fireproofing Your Digital Strategy CareerClosing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Buying fire insurance while your house is burning. Googling 'how to move to Canada' after your compatriots have voted poorly. After a calamity has happened is the worst time to prepare for it. So what is the best way to fireproof your digital strategy career?
2016-06-2604 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 59: The Fallacy Of The Lone WolfThe idea of being the lone wolf is an attractive one for the strategist. As generalists whose skills are in high demand, it is easy to feel like a singular talent whose best path would be as a sole contributor. This idea is a mistake. We have actively explored the fact that the skill set we bring and cultivate as strategists is an unusual combination of digital expertise and business acumen. In an industry of specialists, we are the generalists that pull the various elements together. We combine media, creativity, design, content and data with an understanding of...
2016-06-1204 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 58: The Stoic Strategist'You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength'. Almost 2,000 years ago, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his masterpiece, Meditations, 'a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration'. I believe that the philosophy he espoused, stoicism, is one that is perfectly in tune with the role of the strategist. Stoicism is not a superficially attractive or romantic quality. The stoic outwardly appears to be...
2016-06-1204 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 57: The Power Of Brevity'I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead'. Mark Twain would have been writing about digital practitioners had he written that today. How many times have we sat through interminable presentations with 140 slides of data, minutely dissecting every point, speculating endlessly on the causes of fluctuations in performance? For people who work in communications, we sometimes find it hard to communicate. Why is that? Why can't we be direct? Why can't we get to the point? And what do we lose by not doing so?
2016-06-0603 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 56: In Defence Of Being Difficult‘The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”’. Contrast that quote by Jack Kerouac with the direction we are given in our everyday work lives to comply. Comply with process. Comply with systems. Comply with approach. Make decisions through...
2016-05-2905 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 55: Don't Be A StrategistWriting in Quartz, Kevin Delaney recently stated that he doesn’t “think anyone should have the word strategy in their job title”. Needless to say, I beg to differ. But what is the basis of the argument he articulates? What is the case for the prosecution?
2016-05-2304 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 54: Be Water My FriendMany years ago, while scuba diving in Dahab in the Sinai I watched as an octopus fought for its life. Perched on the side of an underwater cliff, this octopus was being attacked by half a dozen fish. These fish were working together to pull it off the wall and out into the open water where presumably they were going to tear it apart. Every time it looked like the fish were close to achieving their objective, the octopus would twist and reach out a tentacle to grab on to the coral. It kept moving, dodging and twisting, defying...
2016-05-1504 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 53: Innovation Through Conflict"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock". That's Orson Welles as Harry Lime in the 1949 classic, The Third Man. The subtext is clear; conflict breeds innovation. And yet conflict that is not constructively channelled can be deeply destructive. How do you harness conflict and use it to drive innovation? Mind your manners. Don't talk back. Respect...
2016-05-0805 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 52: Working With In-House TeamsThere is an undeniable trend towards building in-house teams and
away from using agency services. This trend has led to fierce
debate and introspection in agency land, not to mention a fair
amount of self-pity. But I would argue that if handled
appropriately, this is a positive development that should be
embraced and that reinforces the value of the digital
strategist.
2016-05-0105 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 51: Finding The Stamina For Long Term SuccessStrategy is not a short lived endeavour. It is the mechanism to make sense of chaos and to achieve success over the long term. But staying focused on a long term objective and executing consistently is difficult. It needs single minded purpose. It needs a clear understanding of objectives and expected outcomes. It needs inspiration. And it needs stamina.
2016-04-2405 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 50: Work/Life Balance Is A LieEverything you have been told is a lie. There is no such thing as work/life balance in our industry since it is based on the assumption that the work stops at some point. But the work doesn’t stop because the Internet does not sleep. In a globalized world, where your audience, your competition and your clients are constantly changing and demanding, there is no way to separate working hours and fallow times. Forget being able to switch off and unplug if you want to build a career in this industry. Rather, embrace the fact and integrate your wo...
2016-04-1805 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 49: Winning With GraceOne of the most satisfying elements of work as a digital strategist is the moment of victory. That moment when you hear that you've been selected, when your idea is to be implemented, or the recommendations you made turned performance around are the things we work for. But we have to learn how to take these victories in stride, to channel our emotions appropriately, and to win with grace.
2016-04-1104 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 48: You're Fired!It is the worst thing that we have to deal with in our work. It will happen more often than you expect, or frankly deserve. It is an inevitable fact of agency life that you will be fired by your client at some point in your career. Why does it happen, and how do you handle the bitterness of rejection while learning your lessons in order to become a better strategist?
2016-04-0206 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 47: The Pain And The PassionThe long hours. The crazy deadlines. The incessant pressure. The lack of resources. The constant questions. The eighth set of revisions. The lack of briefing. The 7 hour delay at Laguardia airport. There's a lot we deal with in our day to day work. So why do we put up with it? It's not as if we are out of touch, out of fashion and out of options. Agencies are continuously raided for talent by the tech giants and brands for in house teams. We are heavily in demand and can take our skills elsewhere. What's more, there is a...
2016-03-2705 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 46: The Digital Strategist In The Age Of Cognitive ComputingWe are entering a new age in our relationship with technology, an age where our devices understand us as we communicate in human language. An age where machines know what we need before even we do. And an age where computers not only understand trends, but set them. At least, that's the pitch. So what is cognitive computing, why does it matter, how will it change the digital landscape, and what is the role of the digital strategist within it?
2016-03-2004 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 45: The Digital Strategist As EvangelistWhen you're listening to a speaker at a conference, and you start to frown...not thoughtfully, but distastefully, that's bad religion. When you reach for your phone because the speaker is trotting out platitudes and boring you, that's bad religion. When you get up from your seat and walk out the hall because the speaker is a pompous, self important jerk, that's bad religion. When you're the speaker, and this is happening to you, that's bad religion. Here's 4 tips on avoiding bad religion when acting as the evangelist.
2016-03-1205 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 44: The Tortoise And The HareA moment of inspiration. A spark of genius. A stroke of brilliance. The creative element that separates the good from the great is often described in transitory terms. It's there, and then it's gone. But while the ability to come up with that spark is important for the digital strategist, it's not enough. What matters is your ability to do so consistently, day in and day out. It's not enough to be the hare. You also have to be the tortoise. The good news is that there is a method to making the madness work for you consistently.
2016-03-0604 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 43: Among The PredatorsIt's probably one of the most stressful parts of the job of the digital strategist; namely navigating an ecosystem of multiple agencies all executing work on behalf of the client. Under the wrong set of circumstances it can be wasteful, counterproductive, bureaucratic and frustrating. But when it is done well, it can be enormously rewarding and productive. Here's your guide to surviving and even thriving in this type of an environment.
2016-02-2907 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 42: The Art Of The PitchAn idea can move. An idea can inspire. An idea can make the difference. But that idea needs to be positioned, articulated and communicated in a way that will help an audience not only understand what makes the idea logically sound, it also needs to resonate emotionally. Understanding how to do that is at the core of the art of the pitch. And mastering this skill is what makes the difference between a good strategist, and a great one.
2016-02-2005 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 41: The Data StrategistMark Schurtman is an experienced digital analyst & digital strategist with a proven track record of helping businesses distill digital marketing data into critical knowledge that enables them to operate more effectively online. As Campaign Analytics Manager at Zurich North America, Mark is known as a results-oriented, digital marketing professional. He is able to interpret, identify, define, analyze and drive business insights from digital metrics. Mark is passionate about clarifying the confusing and unknown, developing actionable solutions and driving improvement. Major brands that have benefited from his integrated, global search marketing expertise include Accenture, HSBC, Brinks Home Security, IBM (Smarter...
2016-02-1118 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 40: The SEO StrategistMatthew Brown started his career in SEO in 2002, in a futile quest to get a semiconductor company's products found on the web. He served as Director of Search for the New York Times Company from 2005-2010, and founded two SEO consulting firms along the way. His last company was acquired by Moz in 2013, and he's currently serving as Chief of Product Strategy and Design at Moz. He still runs a portfolio of goofy websites with terrible content and has way too many ill-considered domain purchases. He joins us from Portland, Oregon to discuss the role of the SEO Strategist.
2016-02-0412 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 39: Selling StrategyProduct sale versus solution sale. What is the distinction, why is it important and how does it apply to strategy? I would argue that understanding the difference is one of the key strengths of a strategist, and leveraging that fact will make you more successful.
2016-01-3104 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 38: The Digital Strategist In BelgiumAlec Van Noten has a wide range experience in online brand building, and currently holds the position of digital & online strategy manager at the Brandhome group where he has managed a broad range of national and international online branding projects. Alec is particularly focused on social media and their effect on brand building. He has combined this understanding with his entrepreneurial mentality, to create a series of unique social media campaigns. He also holds the Belgian record for building the largest Facebook community in less than three days! He joins us from Antwerp, Belgium to discuss the role of...
2016-01-2219 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 37: The Agency IntrovertOur industry loves the loudmouth. The relentlessly self-promoting, shameless, opinionated extrovert. Look at any awards list and it is consistently made up of the same people time and again. This is not an accident. Those that never tire of telling you about themselves seem to do well in an industry that is all about promotion. But we forget that at its core, our industry is about communication, and this works best when it flows in both directions. And that is a skill that the introvert is better suited to, especially in the context of the work of the digital...
2016-01-1804 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 36: The Enterprise Digital StrategistAuthor, Speaker, Digital and Social Transformation and social advocacy expert, founder of “Brands Rising”.Susan Emerick is recognized by industry leaders as the foremost authority on building, implementing, and measuring successful advocacy programs for leading brands.Susan is the co-author of The Most Powerful Brand on Earth: How to Transform Teams, Empower Employees, Integrate Partners and Mobilize Customers to Beat the Competition in Digital and Social Media – A must read for anyone striving to build brand advocacy. Prior Susan led global enterprise social business and digital marketing programs for IBM where she led the technology giant’s social...
2016-01-0520 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 35: Global Digital StrategyDeveloping a global digital strategy is a task of immense difficulty and complexity, but also one of the most satisfying things you can work on in your career as a digital strategist. But while it can be rewarding, how do you plan and deliver a global digital strategy without getting swallowed up by the enormity of the task?
2016-01-0305 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 34: How To Manage ExpectationsIt's one of the most difficult functions of the digital strategist. It makes the difference between success and failure. And it defines your career. So why is it something that so many people struggle with? And how do you manage expectations while winning business and delivering profitable projects?
2015-12-2805 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 33: How To Say No And Maintain A RelationshipDigital marketing is complex. It's also loaded with misinformation. That makes it hard to manage expectations, to maintain a position and to navigate competing agendas. In order to do so, from time to time it becomes necessary to say no. One syllable. Two letters. And yet it's something that people in our industry hate to do. Many have a natural tendency to avoid conflict. Others are simply scared to deny a request for fear of ruining and endangering a relationship. But a successful career in digital strategy will mean learning not only when to say no, but also how...
2015-12-2105 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 32: Telling The Strategic Story"Make me care...emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically...just...make me care". That's Andrew Stanton, writer and director of the Toy Story movies and Wall-E explaining the key to great storytelling. Think about that statement and ask yourself the last time you sat in a meeting about digital marketing and really cared. It rarely happens, and I believe the reason is that there is a lack of awareness about how to tell a story in our industry. More than that, there's a widespread belief that it just isn't that important. Digital marketing is so accountable, so straightforward and metrics driven that...
2015-12-1409 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 31: The Human ElementThe era of the Mad Men is drawing to a close. The Math Men are in the ascendancy. Programmatic buying and marketing automation mean that the skills that matter today are the technical skills required to manipulate systems and software. And yet, in the rush to automate and optimize, we are increasingly overlooking the element that has traditionally been at the heart of our industry, the element that gives us purpose, that elevates our work from pragmatic to sublime, and that ultimately determines our success. That element is the human element.
2015-12-0707 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 30: Stay VitalThis year I turned 41 years old. Why does this matter? It matters because I work in an industry that is driven by image. What's more, the sub-set of that industry that I have built my career in, namely digital marketing is one that is characterized by rapid change, speed and disruption, all elements that are associated with youthfulness. I've heard it said that the key to a long-term career is to stay relevant. I don't believe this is true. Relevance is table stakes. It's the minimum required to deliver against expectations. Relevance, in the wrong light can look like...
2015-11-2807 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 29: The Paid Search StrategistAdiela Aviram is the Search Engine Marketing Team Lead with DAC Group. Adele specializes in managing highly complex, decentralized client engagements that involve multiple stakeholders and strict lead/conversion targets. She combines her agency background with experience in the not for profit sector, and ha run campaigns in the education, financial services and consumer electronics spaces. Her work at DAC has received recognition as a a finalist in the 2015 Search Engine Land Awards as well as the OMMA Awards. Adiela mentors a team of Paid Search specialists, educating them on the delivery of their day to day responsibilities as...
2015-11-2215 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 28: The Best Digital Strategy"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple". Jack Kerouac wrote that in The Dharma Bums, and it defines the element that sits at the core of the best digital strategy. Simplicity.
2015-11-1604 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 27: The Digital Strategist In The NetherlandsRalf van Lieshout is a digital strategist and co-founder of social content agency We Are Blossom, a GroupM/WPP company. Prior to founding We Are Blossom, Ralf worked at KPN (Royal Dutch Telecom) and on the agency side with DDB and Tribal Amsterdam. Today his agency costs of a team of 18 and works with clients including the National Lottery (Staatsloterij), Microsoft and M&M's. An active blogger writing about marketing, social media, branding and human behaviour, Ralf joins us from Eindhoven to discuss the role of the digital strategist in the Netherlands.
2015-11-0911 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 26: The Digital Strategist In The Journey To ConversionDaniel Prendergast is Head of Digital at Sheffield Hallam University where he is driving the digital transformation of the organization. Daniel brings over 15 years of digital experience to the role, with a keen understanding of campaign integration across online and offline channels for a variety of industries including higher education, international publishing, travel and tourism, and B2C/B2B online product retail, both on the agency and client side. He joins us from Sheffield, England to discuss the role of the digital strategist in the journey to conversion.
2015-11-0219 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 25: The Digital Strategist In South AfricaCherylann Smith is co-founder and Managing Director of WeCollaborate, a brand communications specialist consultancy. Cherylann brings over a decade of experience working with major organizations such as Nando's as well as the African Leadership Academy. She has worked on a wide variety of international brands such as MasterCard, Microsoft and Audi, focusing on digital, content and social media strategy. An active participant in the marketing community, including as a judge on a variety of major industry awards, Cherylann joins us today from Johannesburg to discuss the role of the digital strategist in South Africa.
2015-10-2613 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 24: The Digital Strategist In SwedenKristin Heinonen is a digital trend analyst at Medievarlden, a subscription service for media executives, as well as Program Curator at The Conference, an international digital conference with 3000 visitors from around the world. As a digital strategist Kristin has worked for some of Sweden's best known companies and large media organizations. She is also listed as one of the most creative people on the Swedish web scene by Internet World magazine, is a co-founder of Sweden Social Web Camp, Scandinavia's largest unconference on the social web and the future of the Internet and is actively engaged in the development...
2015-10-2017 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 23: The Digital Strategist In Integrated MarketingYa-Yung Cheng, who goes by YY, is the Senior Director of Digital Marketing and Platforms at Sylvan Learning, the leading provider of K through 12 tutoring and supplemental services in North America. YY brings almost 20 years of marketing experience to the role, with positions at American Express, Ingenio and Yahoo along the way. YY is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA from UC Berkeley. She joins us from Baltimore, Maryland to discuss the role of the digital strategist in integrated marketing.
2015-10-1317 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 22: The Digital Agency StrategistThe advertising agency. Maligned and mocked. Its obituary has been written countless times. Its sheen of mid-century cachet long diminished. Brands are taking business and talent in-house. Ad-tech platforms and vendors line up to tell CMOs that they don't need to spend money on agencies any more; that they can move the funds they used to spend on Friday night beer carts and hip offices for agencies of record on more working media to help them achieve their ever more aggressive objectives and hold on to their jobs. What's more, it now looks like many major agencies have been...
2015-10-0607 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 21: The Digital Strategist In ScandinaviaLouise Broberg is a digital and social strategist with strong copywriting roots. A native of Sweden, working in Norway and with experience with a Danish company, Louise understands what it means to work as a strategist across Scandinavia, with all the complexities and nuances of this region. She joins us from Oslo to discuss the role of the digital strategist in Scandinavia.
2015-09-2916 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 20: What To Do When You Get It WrongTo listen to podcasts and read blogs on the subject of digital strategy, it's easy to get the impression that ths is a straightforward business, where everything is awesome, or at least it would be if pesky clients could only grasp the wisdom of your words and if we applied the '7 rules for success'. But what happens when you get it wrong? I'm not talking about marginally missing the mark, but rather catastrophically, spectacularly failing. What happens when you realize that your well considered, intricately planned strategy that you worked so hard to pitch and convince various levels...
2015-09-2208 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 19: The Digital Strategist In ItalyDr. Elisa Cerruti is a Digital Marketing Strategist consulting with CMOs, startups and digital marketers on the planning and execution of their marketing strategies. Prior to working as a consultant, Elisa taught marketing and management as a lecturer and adjunct professor for start up incubators and for executive programs. Elisa started her career as a project manager in the arts, before earning her PhD, and then a research fellowship in Business Administration at the University of Turin. She joins us from Turin to discuss the role of the digital strategist in Italy.
2015-09-1519 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 18: The Role Of The Digital Strategist In JournalismJon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; and was editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Ofiice's eGovernment Unit. He began his career in journalism as a technolofy writer, working as a reporter for PC Week and news editor of Network News before moving on to become a founding member and editor-in-chief of business and technology website silicon.com. There he led editorial launches in London, Munich and Paris. In 2011 he...
2015-09-0819 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 17: The Digital Strategist In SalesIan Lee is VP Strategy at Sensei Labs, a division of Klick Inc. He is a twenty-five year veteran of strategic consluting, digital marketing, solutions architecture and client service. He has worked with clients across a broad spectrum of both consumer and B2B industries, devising business and techical solutions for marketing, infrastructure, collaboration and knowledge management.
Prior to joining Klick, Ian held senior leadership positions at several prominent North American digital agencies, engaging with clients in the automotive, pharmaceutical, retail, finance, aerospace, technology and transportation sectors. His core focus is the technology of business management and...
2015-09-0121 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 16: An Open Mind'It's how we've always done it'.
These are the words of bureacuracy. The words of inflexibility. Words that may make sense in the context of a well oiled machine delivering efficiently in a static environment. But as we've seen, digital media is not static. It's dizzyingly dynamic. And efficiency and success in this space are not achieved through myopic adherence to legacy processes, but to approaching challenges and opportunities with an open mind. We explore this subject with perspectives from the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
2015-08-2509 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 15: Digital Strategy And Transformation In ChinaMatthias Hendrichs is Managing Director with the Gao Feng Advisory Company, a pre-eminent strategy and management consulting firm based in China. Before joining Gao Feng as the lead for their digital practice for Greater China, Matthias worked in Europe and Asia for blue chip companies such as Bertelsmann and BASF. He consults, speaks and writes extensively on the subject of digital transformation and disruption in China. He joins us today from Hong Kong to discuss this subject.
2015-08-1826 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 14: The Role Of Gender In Digital StrategyErin Burrell is the Managing Consultant with Stibo Systems, an enterprise software company based in Denmark. She brings a decade of experience in digital marketing, including eCommerce and CRM responsibilities at the Home Depot and Sears. She also maintains an excellent blog at Erinburrell.ca. She joins us today from Auckland, New Zealand to discuss the role of gender in Digital Strategy.
2015-08-1114 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 13: The Digital Strategist As Transformation AgentOctavian Mihai is a digital strategist, a consultant and an agent of transformation within and on behalf of major Madison Avenue advertising agencies. Over the course of his career he has created and sold agencies as well as worked as SVP at McCann RCW. He joins us today from New York to discuss the role of the digital strategist as a trnsformation agent.
2015-08-0419 minOctopus Digital StrategyEpisode 12: The European Digital StrategistDavid Jowett is President of DAC Group Europe, a role to which he brings enormous experience running international and pan-European organizations. In previous roles he was Managing Director of Mediacom UK and President of Global Clients for Aegis Media. He joins us today from London to discuss the role of the digital strategist within a European context.
2015-07-2815 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 11: The International Digital StrategistGustavo Arruda is Global Director of Marketing at OpenSRS, a division of Tucows. With a strong background in digital marketing, Gustavo is responsible for the digital strategy for the storied technology company. He joins us from Toronto to discuss what it takes to work as a digital strategist in an International context.
2015-07-2121 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 10: The Digital Strategist In Higher EducationAndrew Hickey is Director of Digital Marketing at eCornell, the online arm of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Andrew leads the team that is responsible for the strategy and execution that is driving the growth of online education at the Ivy League school. He joins us to discuss the role of the digital strategist in the higher education space.
2015-07-1429 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 9: The Role Of The Blog In Digital StrategyViviana Machado is Manager of Digital Media and Content at The Home Depot. While her work there is interesting, what really sets her apart is how she has put herself on the map over the last five years with her acclaimed food blog,foodiesinked.com. This venture reflects a deeply held personal passion and has also impacted her career trajectory. She joins us from Toronto to discuss this.
2015-07-0720 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 8: The Digital Strategist In The Shadow of GoogleScott Ensign is VP of Search Marketing at DAC Group, one of the largest independent digital performance agencies around. In this capacity, he has built a sizeable team of search marketers on both the paid and organic side and is heavily involved in recruiting and developing the skills and careers of these folks. He joins us this episode from New York to discuss the opportunity and the challenges that come with being a strategist in the shadow of Google.
2015-06-3025 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 7: The B2B Digital StrategistThis episode we welcome David Kavanagh from Toronto to talk about his career as a digital strategist within a B2B companies. David is Director of Digital Strategy at ADP, one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing solutions, and is at the heart of driving digital strategy within the company. We started by exploring how he developed his career within the B2B space.
2015-06-2325 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 6: Digital Strategy As A Passion ProjectThis episode we welcome Ahmed Elemam, a key member of the digital team at Westjet in Calgary to talk about a digital career as a passion project. Ahmed grew up with a passion for travel that in combination with his affinity for technology led him into a multi-disciplinary career in digital. We began by discussing his start in digital media.
2015-06-1621 min
Octopus Digital StrategyEpisode 5: The Future of Digital StrategyNectarios Economakis joins us from Montreal to give us his perspective on digital strategy. With experience on both the agency and client side, Nectar left his role at Google, where he was the first member of the sales team in Montreal to collaborate with partners on a new venture, the PNR, a management-consulting firm with a technology and digital focus. I started by asking him how he decided this was the right career path for him.
2015-06-0922 min