Podcasts about Razorfish

Razorfish President, Dani Mariano, explores how brands can build authentic connections through emerging technologies and explains why Gen Alpha is reshaping the future of marketing and commerce.In this episode of Gen C, host Sam welcomes Dani Mariano, President of Razorfish, a 30-year-old creative agency known for innovation in the marketing world. Dani discusses how Razorfish has evolved from a digital agency to a "marketing transformation agency" helping brands navigate emerging technologies like blockchain, Web3 and AI. She shares insights on the shift from points-based loyalty programs to creating authentic emotional connections with consumers and reveals research about Gen Alpha's sophisticated digital behavior and their surprising influence on household purchasing decisions.Links mentioned from the podcast: Razorfish's TwitterRazorfish's WebsiteWatch this episode on video:YouTubeCoinDeskFollow us on Twitter: Sam Ewen, CoinDesk-"Gen C" features hosts Sam Ewen. Executive produced by by Uyen Truong. Our theme music is "1882” by omgkirby x Channel Tres with editing by Doc Blust. Artwork by Nicole Marie Rincon.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when leadership loses its way — and work loses its soul, let alone its staff? In S2 Ep37 the impressive Rishad Tobaccowala, futurist, author, and former Chief Strategy / Growth Officer (now Senior Advisor) of Publicis Groupe joins me on Insider Interviews to offer a refreshingly human take on the future of work. And yes, we have a musical interlude.... The author of “Restoring the Soul of Business” and his latest,  "Rethinking Work," explains what it really takes to stay relevant in marketing -- and business in general. As Rishad says, “Change Sucks. But irrelevance is worse!” First, I found out that we are both quadruple espresso fans, so if you wonder where Rishad gets his energy.... THEN I discovered we both had a thing about MATH that changed our respective trajectories*. But, after comparing our coffee rituals we go full steam into how companies need to evolve old leadership styles —from “bossing” to inspiring. Rishad shares why corporate models are in urgent need of a reset, and how flexibility, curiosity, and a human-centered approach must replace outdated hierarchies. Think “fractional workers” and project-based teams meets AI. Rishad urges organizations to stop clinging to legacy systems and start designing for the future. But, as this is primarily a show about media, marketing and advertising, (he is, after all, being inducted in the Advertising Hall of Fame) he also explores how storytelling goes hand in hand with tech and remains a marketing essential — not despite the data age, but because of it. Discover the "5 Cs" of embracing the future in Marketing. Interestingly, as former Chairman of Razorfish, his imprint may have been made on Anthony Yell, who - per Epi 30 - clearly agrees in Collaboration and merging Creativity with tech and storytelling! Of course, we talk brand purpose -- and that theme actually runs through it all, with Rishad explaining how generosity is not just as a personal value, but a business advantage. He shares how this belief drives the Tobaccowala Foundation's work in improving access to education and healthcare in India — and why doing good can, and should, be good business. This episode is a frank but, yes, inspiring look at how to rethink work, reimagine leadership, and build companies that serve people — not just profit. *(FYI: Hear how math impacted the journey of Cadillac CMO Melissa Grady, too!) Key Moments:  01:03 Rishad Tobaccowala's Background and Award-Worthy Achievements! 02:57 The Essence of Rishad's Books - "Restoring the Soul of Business" and "Rethinking Work"   03:28 Combining Story and Data in Business 06:21 The Continuing Impact of Pandemic WFH Mentality and the Impact of AI on Work Lifestyles 07:11 Rethinking Work Now and Near Term Future Trends 11:02 Strategies for Embracing Change (Yes it "Sucks" But so Does Irrelevance!) 13:04 Building a Future-Ready Workforce 22:02 Personal Development Thru Continuous Learning 23:46 Mentorship and Leadership Advice Through Musical Metaphors (AKA: E.B. has to Sing Again) 25:37 The Crisis in Modern Leadership 26:07 Boss vs. Leader: Key Differences 32:06 Generosity as a Strategy 37:39 The Tobaccowala Foundation's Mission 39:45 The Future of Marketing and Creativity (Hint: Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past!)  46:03 Book Summary and Can't Miss Resources Oh, and you might WIN! ...Add a "like" and a comment on Apple, Spotify or YouTube for this episode, and I'll randomly (okay, those who LOVE the show might have an advantage!) will be entered to win a copy of Rishad's book which I'll announce on or before 4/30/25. BUT to make SURE you get your own, and to learn more about Rishad, visit:  https://rethinking-work.io/whats-inside-2  Follow, Connect & Share the Love Connect with Rishad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishadtobaccowala/ Learn about Rishad/Purchase Rethinking Work: https://rethinking-work.io/ Connect with E.B.

Bon, ça partait mal sachant que j'avais même pas compris le titre de cet épisode. Mais, grâce à Jérémy j'ai vraiment halluciné - et j'ai eu peur aussi - sur ce qu'on pourra faire demain grâce aux IA... Préparez-vous, parce que ça arriver vite ct'affaire ! Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Avant cet épisode, je pensais que la Gen Z c'était une génération pleine de paradoxes... Maintenant j'en suis sûre ! Bon, certes, une personne interviewée c'est pas représentatif de toute une génération, mais vous allez voir que dans cet épisode on comprend plein de choses sur cette génération ! Merci @SarachloebHébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

What's the difference between being a product manager at an agency vs. in-house? In this episode of Productside Stories, host Rina Alexin sits down with Anne Veit, Head of Product Strategy at Razorfish, to dive deep into how agency product management works, how to navigate rapid innovation, and why problem-solving skills matter more than industry expertise. If you've ever wondered what it's like to manage products on behalf of multiple clients, this episode is a must-listen. Key Topics Discussed in This Episode Key topic #1 Product Acceleration Teams: How Razorfish builds cross-functional teams that rapidly innovate and execute at speed. Key topic #2 The Agency vs. In-House Product Manager Experience: The unique challenges and advantages of leading product in a client-driven environment. Key topic #3 AI & Product Innovation: How agencies help companies cut through AI hype and find real business value. Why Listen to This Episode? In this thought-provoking episode, you'll gain: Learn how to thrive in an agency product role – Managing multiple stakeholders and moving fast without breaking things. Get insights on cross-functional collaboration – How blending data, design, and tech accelerates innovation. Discover the secrets of product acceleration teams – The agency approach to shipping fast, learning faster, and keeping clients ahead of the curve. Understand AI's real role in product management – Why “AI everywhere” isn't always the right answer, and how to separate hype from strategy. If you're in product—whether agency or in-house—this episode will challenge how you think about strategy, execution, and innovation. Related Resources Check out these additional tools and resources to add to your PM belt: Productside Resource Library More Productside Stories Podcast Episodes Explore Productside Courses 

Déjà ce podcast, on l'a mis sur Youtube et on a fait un transcript. Donc c'est pas parfait mais j'ai au moins compris que ça l'a rendu un plus accessible que d'habitude. Et dans ce podcast on apprend plein de choses sur la manière de faire des sites accessibles et sur la notation qui va avec. voici ce que je mentionne dans le post :à visionner et lire ici : https://youtu.be/o4gertekgHoou à lire ici : https://lion.app.box.com/s/j25f818varlvkljt4mm76s4tcr9k3jj9Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Today Kevin and Laura sit down with Eric Müller, VP of Engineering and CISO at Presence, to explore the complex intersection of product development and security. We discuss today's digital landscape where companies are constantly walking a tightrope between innovation and cybersecurity. With over two decades of experience across industries like banking, social media, and online gaming, Eric shares his insights on emerging cybersecurity threats, the rising costs of ransomware attacks, and the evolving regulatory landscape—including the UK's controversial push for encrypted data access. We discuss how organizations can safeguard electoral integrity amid growing concerns of foreign interference. But it's not all doom and gloom—Eric also sheds light on the transformative role of AI and other emerging technologies in shaping the future of data security and privacy. Tune in for an engaging discussion on leading resilient tech teams, fostering innovation without compromising security, and preparing for the cybersecurity challenges of tomorrow. Don't miss this episode!Eric Müller is the VP of Engineering and CISO at Presence, where he has led engineering teams and supported automated processes to deliver high-quality digital products for the past decade. With over 20 years of experience in engineering and security, Eric has worked across various industries including banking, social media, B2B, retail, fashion, and online gaming. His extensive background includes significant roles at Wells Fargo Bank, Charles Schwab, Razorfish, and Mekanism, where he delivered award-winning projects for clients such as Samsung, eBay, and DKNY. At Presence, Eric fosters empathetic leadership and transparent communication to build resilient, high-performing tech teams. 

It is incredibly rare to have your startup become a verb. Google and Uber immediately come to mind. But what about when a group of strangers or friends with shared interests decide they want to get together? They, Meetup. Scott Heifferman didn't set out with becoming a verb in mind but he certainly started Meetup with the intent of building something big and impactful. And on those dimensions he delivered in spades. Along the way he sold 30% of his company for $1M to Tim Draper's DFJ (funny story around the 36 min mark), raised from other great investors (Brad Burnham from USV makes a cameo in the video), met face to face with Mark Zuckerberg who also decided that getting groups of people to meetup would be important for Facebook too, going so far as to run their very first Super Bowl ad promoting their meetup competitor product. There are so many great stories and anecdotes in this one. In our effort to mine Web 2.0 ideas and playbooks for applicable lessons for this current wave to startups, this conversation delivers in spades. A few take aways:— The Origins of Meetup and Community Building: Heiferman reflects on how 9/11 and experiences like Burning Man inspired Meetup's mission to foster real-world connections. He emphasized the importance of creating tools that empower people to form communities and build belonging offline, using the internet as a catalyst.— Early NYC Tech Scene vs. Silicon Valley: Heiferman shares stories of the scrappy, experimental nature of the 1990s NYC tech ecosystem, contrasting it with Silicon Valley's more established infrastructure. He recalls starting iTraffic with maxed-out credit cards and seeing startups like Razorfish and DoubleClick shape the local scene.— Facebook's Competitive Threat: Heiferman recounts how Facebook's groups feature directly competed with Meetup, even running Super Bowl ads mimicking its concept. This competition influenced his decision to sell Meetup to WeWork, as Facebook's scale and resources were hard to match.— Critique of Modern Marketplaces: Heiferman critiques platforms like Uber and DoorDash for extracting excessive margins from workers and businesses. He advocates for a fairer market economy where technology empowers individuals rather than exploiting them.— Future Vision and Lessons Learned: Looking ahead, Heiferman expresses interest in building impactful projects outside traditional VC structures. He emphasizes the need to focus on creating products that energize people, deliver value, and prioritize meaningful societal impact over maximizing profits.One thing that especially stood out to me in this conversation was a reminder of how “people” were so core to Web 2.0 ideals. Whether it was getting people to connect online or off, fostering real and personal connection was such an important driver for innovation at that time. When today's headlines are so  filled with stories that seem to pit people against algorithms, Scott's sentiment is a refreshing reminder that technology at it's best is a tool for enhancing our lives, not eradicating them. On that theme, a comment Scott made has been rattling in my head ever since. At around the 40 min mark he says something along the lines of “AB testing is the price you pay for not having a pulse on people”. In this conversation he talk a lot about energy, following the energy of individuals and his own energy and interests. He seems energized to build again and we talk a bit about what's next for him and how his time working in an Amazon warehouse informed his thinking around what problems he wants to tackle. We can't wait to see where he goes with all that energy. This was a ton of fun to connect with Scott and Brad to revisit the Meetup story. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed recording it. 

As a CMO and serial marketing innovator, Shiv Singh has been on the forefront digital change for decades. So, when he says that AI is underhyped, marketers might want to pay attention. In this 50th (50th!) episode of No Brainer, Shiv joins hosts Geoff Livingston and Greg Verdino for a power-packed conversation about AI's transformative potential and the future of marketing in an AI-driven world. For marketers who want to remain relevant, Shiv emphasizes the importance of adapting quickly, embracing AI tools, and developing uniquely human skills to thrive in the evolving marketing landscape. The conversation dives into the evolving relationship between humans and AI, as Shiv, Greg, and Geoff share personal stories about their experiences with AI at work and in life. They discuss the implications of AI on human interactions, the importance of humility when working with AI, and the need for businesses to adapt to the changing landscape. The conversation also touches on the regulatory environment surrounding AI and concludes with insights from Shiv's book, Marketing with AI for Dummies, emphasizing practical advice for marketers and the marketing industry in the AI era. In the end, the message is clear: Get on board or get left behind. Shiv Singh is an author, advisor, and the co-founder of AI Trailblazers. He has held senior marketing leadership roles at Lending Tree, Expedia, Visa, PepsiCo, and web 1.0 superagency Razorfish. For more of his insights be sure to subscribe to Savvy AI on Substack and be sure to grab a copy of his latest book. Chapters  00:00 Introduction 04:56 Why AI is Underhyped 14:52 The Future of Marketing Careers 20:00 Human Skills in an AI-Driven World 24:51Navigating Change in Marketing 31:53 The Human-AI Connection 34:04 Embarrassing AI Experiences 45:07 Navigating AI in Business Leadership 48:00 Marketing with AI for Dummies: Insights from the Book Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to UNLEARN, the podcast where we explore the stories, strategies, and mindset shifts that drive real innovation and growth. Today, I'm glad to be joined by Diana Stepner, a true trailblazer in the world of product management and people-centered leadership.A Silicon Valley native, Diana has spent over two decades building and leading global product teams for companies like Monster, Cheapflights (later acquired by Kayak), Salesforce, and Razorfish. As Co-Founder, at Product Gold and Former VP of Product Management at Pearson, she has honed her expertise in creating impactful solutions. Along the way, she discovered that while launching great products is exciting, helping people launch their careers is even more rewarding..Diana's passion for fostering talent and preparing organizations for the future shines in her new book, Next-Gen Product Management: Future Proof Your Career. It's a must-read for anyone navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, teams, and innovation.We dive into her journey, the lessons she's learned, and the practical advice she has for product leaders looking to thrive in an ever-changing world.Check out her website at www.dianastepner.com to learn more. Key Takeaways:Product vs. Project Management: Diana explains the key differences. Supercharging Product Managers: How top contributors maximize impact. Winning with Teams: The power of cross-functional collaboration. Breaking Into Product Management: Trends shaping new career moves.Additional Insights:The Product Gold Framework, Diana shows how adaptability and empathy unlock market opportunities. Engagement in the Digital Age by mastering attention in a world full of distractions. Thinking Differently in Business: How challenging norms drives big advancements.Prepare for an enlightening discussion with Diana Stepner on transforming traditional product strategies and fostering a culture of creativity and innovation.Episode Highlights: [00:33] -Episode Introduction "One of the trends that we're seeing in product management is this rise of a super IC. People are able to do a whole lot more because of AI than they could have done before."[01:33] - Guest Introduction "Today, we're joined by Diana Stepner, an expert in product management and people-centered leadership. Diana has built leading global product teams at companies like Product Gold, Monster, Salesforce, and Razorfish."[03:08] - Shift from Project to Product Management "People kept saying, 'Oh, you're a project manager.' And I'm like, 'No, I'm not a project manager. I am a product manager.' Over time, people began to realize that it actually was a skill or an expertise."[10:44] - The Role of Collaboration in Product Management (corrected from 10:49) "You need all of those instruments to come together to really make the music sing, and companies still...

Agencies now have more breathing room to think carefully and be strategic about signal loss solutions, because signal loss isn't just a third-party cookie thing, says Sisi Zhang, chief data and analytics officer at Razorfish. Specifically, she says, brands need to spend more time testing alternative identifiers.

Next in Creator Media spoke with Cristina Lawrence, EVP of Consumer & Content Experience at Razorfish about the march toward more TV-like seasons for many top creators, and whether this is making it easier to move ad dollars over from TV. Lawrence also talked about TikTok's future, who might grab the social commerce mantle, and whether Joe Rogan is a podcaster or a YouTuber.Takeaways:Long-Form Content is Winning the Creator EconomyPlatforms like YouTube are shifting towards structured, episodic content (e.g., video podcasts, multi-part series).Creators are becoming media networks, with brands integrating organically into their content strategies.Creators Are the New Media NetworksInfluencers now function as full-scale media companies, reaching highly engaged audiences.Brands must approach them as partners, not just ad placements.The Rise of Creator-Led Brand PartnershipsMega-creators like MrBeast, Hailey Bieber, and Charli D'Amelio are launching their own DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands.These businesses succeed when they align authentically with the creator's identity.Social Commerce is Gaining Traction, but Still EvolvingPlatforms like TikTok Shops and Amazon Live are making inroads in live shopping.However, U.S. adoption lags behind Asia, where live shopping is deeply integrated into culture.Micro-Influencers & Niche Creators Are EssentialBrands are shifting to micro-influencers for more targeted, authentic engagement.Agencies use AI-powered discovery tools (e.g., Publicis' Influential) to identify high-performing niche creators.The TikTok Uncertainty & the Future of Short-Form VideoIf TikTok were to disappear, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels could fill the gap.However, each platform serves distinct user behaviors, with YouTube favored for long-form content. Guest: Cristina LawrenceHost: Mike ShieldsSponsor: VuePlannerProducer: FEL Creative  

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: prioritizing podcast ads, a Capital one lawsuit, and 2025 goals for podcasting.Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.

Here's what you need to know for today in the business of podcasting: prioritizing podcast ads, a Capital one lawsuit, and 2025 goals for podcasting.Find links to every article mentioned and the full write-up here on Sounds Profitable.

Que de rires dans ce podcast avec un vrai de vrai Nold : Patrick ! Nold, c'est "never old", un concept récent qui décrit pas vraiment une génération, mais plutôt un état d'esprit pour les gens qui se sentent trop vieux pour être jeune et trop jeune pour être vieux ! Et on va tous y passer... alors faudra choisir : nold ou boomer ? mouahahahHébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Happy New Year and welcome to the first episode of Own It for 2025! This week we're talking to Alona Lisa of Far From Timid. There are few people we talk to as diverse and fascinating as her background suggests. She paints, runs, plays basketball and writes. She's a blockchain and metaverse thought leader. She's worked on both the brand side with IBM and Marriott, and on the agency side with Razorfish, Gray and more before founding Far From Timid in 2019. As you might imagine, her journey, her influences and her perspective on our industry was quite colorful and interesting. I can't wait for you to dig into this one.  Thanks for listening to this episode of OWN IT with Alona Lisa of Far From Timid. You can find links to her LinkedIn profile and company website in our show notes at untilyouownit.com.   If you're enjoying Own It, please find it on your favorite podcast app and drop us a rating and review. Those help more people discover the show and join our community.  Also, if you're a female or non-binary agency owner, or you want to own an agency someday, join our growing community at that same address … untilyouownit.com.

As the host of the Lessons in Leadership podcast, I have the privilege of sitting down with incredible individuals who redefine what it means to lead. In a recent episode, I had a compelling conversation with Diana Stepner about a topic that challenges conventional wisdom: "You Don't Need to Be Loud to Lead." Diana's thoughtful approach to leadership and her deep expertise in product management revealed key insights for anyone looking to lead with intention and authenticity. If you like today's message, here are four ways I can help you grow faster… 1. Speak at your next event. 2. Conduct a full or half-day leadership training workshop. 3. VIP Client: Personal and professional 1:1 coaching. 4. Unlock the proven system I use to elevate my brand and business on LinkedIn, inspired by my work with Tony Robbins. I specialize in mentoring speakers, coaches, and consultants frustrated that their businesses aren't growing fast enough. https://www.billstorm.com/ About Diana Stepner Diana is a Silicon Valley native who believes in the power of putting people first. For over 20 years, Diana built and led global product teams - discovering launching people is even more rewarding than launching products. This awareness led her to focus on coaching, combining extensive product leadership experience with a human-centered approach to help ambitious product leaders unlock their full potential. By partnering with Diana, you develop a deeper self-awareness, aligning your actions with your vision, and embracing your authentic leadership style. Diana believes every person holds untapped potential, and she's here to help you discover yours. Diana's background includes leading teams in startups (E.piphany, Cheapflights - bought by Kayak, and SimplePractice), enterprise organizations (Salesforce, Monster, Pearson), digital agencies (Razorfish, part of Publicis) and software consulting (Epsilon, E.piphany). She also has a MIMS from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Boston University. If you're a product leader looking to level up or someone navigating the complexities of team leadership, Diana's coaching and writing are invaluable resources. You can connect with her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianas/ or explore her work at dianastepner.substack.com and https://www.dianastepner.com/. Bill Storm is a seasoned advisor and consultant renowned for his expertise in driving peak performance and fostering effective leadership within Fortune 500 companies. With a multifaceted skill set spanning organizational systems, the psychology of achievement, team building, and sales, Bill is a trusted resource for executives, managers, and team leaders seeking to maximize their potential. Drawing from his extensive experience as a Peak Performance Strategist with the Tony Robbins organization and Team-Building Specialist with the John Maxwell Leadership Team, Bill has developed a unique set of frameworks tailored to the needs of industry leaders. These frameworks provide a foundation for building winning teams and achieving sustainable success in today's competitive landscape. Driven by a passion for continuous improvement and a deep understanding of human behavior, Bill Storm empowers organizations to reach new heights of performance and effectiveness. His strategic guidance and hands-on approach have earned him a reputation as a go-to advisor for companies seeking transformative solutions. With Bill's guidance, businesses can unlock their full potential and achieve lasting success in the ever-evolving marketplace. In his personal life, Bill has been married for 29 years to the love of his life, has two adult children, and recently welcomed his first grandchild into the world! Bill spends much of his time with his Golden Retriever, Charlie. The two are attached at the hip! https://www.billstorm.com/

Le rapport entre un chien en jean, laurent baffie et un raton laveur qui danse ? Les trends. Un épisode où on rigole et on chante. Identification des tendances, rebonds malins ou loupés, on parle de tout ça avec Eva. Et ça fait un très chouette épisode. Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Acheter en ligne, tout le monde ou presque le fait. Mais est-ce qu'on a vraiment compris comment ça marche le e-commerce et pourquoi ? Alors moi oui, parce que j'ai enregistré ce podcast avec Ombeline et Rémy. Mais vous pourrez dire pareil à la fin de cet épisode. Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

À l'aide d'un outil de mesure de l'impact environnemental du web, Razorfish a créé un baromètre permettant de classer les sites internet et les outils d'IA en fonction de leur méfait pour l'environnement. Charlotte Dollot, la directrice générale de l'entreprise, nous explique la manière dont il a été conçu.-----------------------------------------------------------------------SMART IMPACT - Le magazine de l'économie durable et responsableSMART IMPACT, votre émission dédiée à la RSE et à la transition écologique des entreprises. Découvrez des actions inspirantes, des solutions innovantes et rencontrez les leaders du changement.

My guest this week is Nic Chidiac, Chief Strategy Officer for Razorfish, where he oversees brand and experience strategy. He's worked with CMOs from the biggest brands in the world across a wider range of categories, including QSR, travel, tech, automotive and government. Formerly with Leo Burnett, Nic brings a global lens to his CMO perspective as well, having spent his career working across markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. We talk about everything you need to know about working with an agency, how to effectively use AI and what the changing role of the CMO means.

Learn why I asked Razorfish Chief Creative Officer, Anthony Yell, for a Vulcan mind meld. He's not your typical CCO. With a reverence -- and professional envy -- for drummers who keep things moving, he is a digital marketer who dances to a different beat: Anthony credits a passion for Legos (!), emblematic of analog games, as an antidote to screen time and keeping him balanced in his work at the digital-first shop. As a multi-Cannes Lion and Clio winner, it must be working. But his understanding and application of cutting-edge digital strategies and tech applied to creative and communication, like Meta's new Orion glasses and neural interfaces, has also made him a sought-after panelist at conferences from SXSW to AdobeMax. This S2 / Epi 30 of Insider Interviews is one of the most info and insights packed, ever. Anthony even shared the crib notes on the four waves of the future of tech from his recent session with Chris Duffey, called: "Future You; Future Proof -- a Creative Playbook for the Next Decade."  Part of that future-proofing for brands, per Anthony, and the key to thriving, is having a marriage of performance with brand purpose. It's the mantra of the new Razorfish. New, because, as Anthony explains, the agency has kept pace with change and evolved its own purpose -- but finding that what's old can be new again, too, resurrecting its original 1995 name brand. And now he ensures that "creativity isn't confined to a single department" but is the lifeblood that flows through every role and responsibility. "Brand purpose isn't just about feeling good. It's about creating meaningful connections with consumers that drive real business results."   Additional key points worth hearing from the Chief Creative Officer's mouth: While he adopts new tech as helpful tools at every turn, Anthony also explains how fostering a culture of collaborative creativity can lead to groundbreaking campaigns and strategies...and what the next generation of career-minded creatives will need to do to thrive. "Creativity isn't just about making things look pretty. It's about solving problems in innovative ways, and is something everyone in the organization can contribute to." Anthony embraces AI as a powerful ally in the creative process vs a threat, recommending a future where AI handles the mundane: "AI isn't replacing creativity; it's amplifying it." He predicts a future where faster connectivity and advanced AR/VR and every other "R" will revolutionize how brands connect with consumers, opening up new realms of creative possibility and forms of communication. This episode isn't just a peek into a creative playbook; it's also a career playbook for anyone looking to navigate that exciting intersection of technology, creativity, and brand purpose in digital marketing. Key Moments: 3:15 Analog Passions: Anthony's love for vintage drums and synthesizers 9:30 Agency Evolution: How Razorfish transformed to focus on brand purpose and performance 16:45 AI as a Creative Catalyst: Leveraging AI to enhance human creativity 17:46 Future You, Future Proof: Takeaways from Anthony's Adobe Max presentation 22:30 Purpose-Driven Success: blending purpose and performance 26:05: The significance of what “36 billion” means in marketing 28:15 Tech Horizons: How emerging technologies will shape future marketing strategies 34:20 Next-Gen Advice: Anthony's guidance for aspiring creatives in the digital age 35:06 Democratization of MarTech: Adobe Gen Studio for Performance Marketing 40:03 Good News...or Scary?: The Role of Digital Twins *PS: I promised an intro to drummer Jeff Hamilton if Anthony wants lessons in retirement (!), whom I talked about in this episode of my OTHER podcast, "It's Quite a Living" with his bandmate, John Clayton, the composer of THIS show's theme music!  Resources: Anthony Yell - LinkedIn Connect with Insider Interviews: Instagram: https://www.instagram.

Dans cet épisode on parle du site qui a révolutionné la vie des UX et UI mais aussi des clients, des commerciaux... Bref, de tout le monde. Avec une idée toute simple : la collaboration. Mais maintenant que ça a beaucoup de succès, Figma en profite pour abuser de son monopole. Ouhlala, ça dénonce. Du crousti cet épisode ! Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Les recherches en natif sur TikTok, les réponses apportées par ChatGPT, l'AI direct dans Bing, on est en droit de se vêtir de noir et de commencer à mettre Google dans le cercueil. En tous cas, on se pose la question : est-ce qu'avec tout ça, Google va vraiment mourir ? Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Arm & Hammer Cat Litter and its creative agency, Razorfish developed a new AI tool to create AI-generated “Purrsonality Pics” to help shelter cats get adopted. This initiative launched during the ASPCA's virtual cat adoption event in June and has already made a huge impact. Today Michelle Fern is joined by Ruth Allen, Director, Admissions & Placement, ASPCA Adoption Center, and Julianna Diamond, Senior Brand Associate, Arm & Hammer Pet Care to talk about how the AI “Purrsonality Pics” highlight the unique charm of each cat, making it easier for cat lovers to connect with them at a glance. You won't want to miss this episode! Wow Meow! EPISODE NOTES: AI-Generated Purrsonality Pics Help Shelter Cats Get Adopted!

Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten fell in love at first sight when they met in the office of Razorfish in the 90's. But before then, Josh grew up straddling Miami and Vermont, where he gained experience navigating different worlds and perspectives. While Evan, growing up in Minneapolis, was bursting with curiosity, learning languages, and pushing to travel as often as possible. Their chemistry and compatibility ultimately led to the founding of COOL HUNTING. Now after 20 years, they are still exploring the edges of art, design, cars, craft, tech and travel, while also leading the charge (custom project with Ferrari blending traditional craft with high-tech luxury) and the conversation (new podcast, Design Tangents) on the design of a meaningful and beautiful future.Images and more from Josh and Evan on cleverpodcast.comPlease say Hi on social! Twitter, Instagram and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers,If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kristian Schwartz spearheads The Montgomery Group, a boutique search firm he established, specializing in senior-level marketing and media placements. He is known throughout the industry for his thank-you notes. In this episode, we explored the power of thank-you notes and their impact on your professional brand. Whether digital or handwritten, thank-you notes create lasting impressions and show genuine appreciation. In this episode we discussThe benefits of sending thank you notes.What happened when a top company didn't receive any thank you notes from their leading candidatesShould they be digital or handwritten?How do different generations feel about thank-you notes?How thank you notes contribute to your professional brandShow guest:Kristian Schwartz, a seasoned leader with over 20 years in digital transformation and marketing, transitioned to executive search at Korn Ferry, rising to Senior Partner. His professional journey is a testament to his expertise, with tenure at renowned companies such as Wired Magazine, Razorfish, and Sapient, where he collaborated with influential Fortune 500 brands like Visa, Verizon, Clorox, Unilever, and Hewlett-Packard. Kristian founded  The Montgomery Group, a boutique search firm., specializing in senior marketing and media placements. He holds a B.S. in Microeconomics from the University of Oregon. Support the Show.Jill Griffin helps leaders and teams thrive in today's complex workplace. Leveraging her extensive experience to drive multi-million-dollar revenues for brands like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Samsung, and Hilton Hotels, Jill applies a strategic lens to workplace performance, skillfully blending strategy and mindset to enhance productivity, teamwork, and career satisfaction across diverse organizations. Visit JillGriffinCoaching.com for more details on: Book a 1:1 Career Strategy and Executive Coaching HERE Gallup CliftonStrengths Corporate Workshops to build a strengths-based culture Team Dynamics training to increase retention, communication, goal setting, and effective decision-making Keynote Speaking Grab a personal Resume Refresh with Jill Griffin HERE Follow @JillGriffinOffical on Instagram for daily inspiration Connect with and follow Jill on LinkedIn

To cap off a disastrous PR month for Google, Mike King and Rand Fishkin published essays outlining the leak of a trove of Google APIs found in an open GitHub owned by Google. The SEO community's faith in Google had already been badly shaken since the series of updates which started back to early autumn 2023 and culminated in the HCU and March 2024 Core Updates. Now, after seeing what was in the documents, many feel as if Google misled or even lied to them. Debate in the SEO community is now fully engaged and already people are marketing new techniques and strategies based on findings they found in the documents that will go down in SEO history as, “The Leak”. Basically, Mike and Rand dropped what appears to be an 800lb gorilla into our midst and that gorilla needs a thorough examination before we let it run wild. To help us do that, we have in the studio one of the few SEOs we absolutely know to be qualified to dig into these documents. Ryan Jones is the Senior Vice President, SEO at Razorfish. He was instrumental in the dissection of Yandex last year and has spent the last few days digging into the documents and sharing his findings.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/webcology/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

L'intelligence artificielle s'est imposée comme un sujet central dans l'édition 2024 de Viva Technology. Pour « La Story », le podcast d'actualité des « Echos », Pierrick Fay et ses invités reviennent sur ce que les visiteurs ont pu apprendre et comprendre de l'entrée de l'IA dans nos vies.Retrouver l'essentiel de l'actualité économique grâce à notre offre d'abonnement Access : abonnement.lesechos.fr/lastoryLa Story est un podcast des « Echos » présenté par Pierrick Fay. Cet épisode a été enregistré en mai 2024. Rédaction en chef : Clémence Lemaistre. Invités : Viken Darakdjian (directeur Stratégie et Data chez Razorfish) et Joséphine Boone (journaliste aux « Echos »). Réalisation : Willy Ganne. Chargée de production et d'édition : Michèle Warnet. Musique : Théo Boulenger. Identité graphique : Upian. Photo : Laurent Grandguillot/REA. Sons : VivaTech, « Scarface » (1983), « Pinocchio » (1940), « La soupe aux choux » (1981), YouHumour, Jean-Manu, « Le trou normand » (1952), « A.I. Intelligence artificielle » (2001). Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Julien Ouvrel, Associate Creative Director chez Razorfish France, explore avec nous la richesse du gaming : la diversité des profils qu'on y trouve, ses spécificités versus les médias plus traditionnels, et surtout les nombreuses opportunités qu'il offre pour les annonceurs. Quels sont les différents profils de gamers qui existent dans le gaming ? Comment les marques peuvent s'adresser à eux ? Comment le gaming permet-il d'embarquer son audience ? Qu'est-ce que le "story-playing" ? Il nous répond !

My guest this week is Nic Chidiac, Chief Strategy Officer for Razorfish, where he oversees brand and experience strategy. He's worked with CMOs from the biggest brands in the world across a wider range of categories, including QSR, travel, tech, automotive and government. Formerly with Leo Burnett, Nic brings a global lens to his CMO perspective as well, having spent his career working across markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America. We talk about everything you need to know about working with an agency, how to effectively use AI and what the changing role of the CMO means.

In this episode of 5to9, I had a chat with Sonya Matejko, a writer and poet who moved from New York to Vienna to live her dream life abroad.After a decade in advertising and tech, following rules and checking boxes at companies like Razorfish and Way Up, Sonya was craving more autonomy in her work and wanted to finally pursue her lifelong dream of living in Europe and publishing a book. With company layoffs in 2019, Sonya took it as a sign to launch her business, Nurtured Narratives, where she provides feel-good storytelling experiences for brands, entrepreneurs, and dreamers who value well-being and feeling seen. Some of her clients include Betterment, American Express, MetLife, and Eden Health.In addition to growing Nurtured Narratives, she writes poetry on her Instagram and recently got a book deal. She is also a yoga teacher and loves to explore coffee shops in Vienna in her free time.We talked about her journey from following rules to going against the grain, the first steps to building her business and its evolution, moving abroad, how she got her book deal and more!This is Sonya Matejko for 5to9.****This episode of 5to9 is sponsored by Groove. With Groove, you can finish the important things, have a life outside of your work, and feel inspired by people who care. Groove was built for business owners working from home who wish they had more time to tackle everything on their plate. To get into the Groove, and use the code SPACETOGROW to redeem your FREE 30-day pass, no credit card is needed. Groove's coworking sessions are on-demand, so simply hop into a Groove whenever you're ready to get into work mode for an hour and 1-3 other humans will be there to cheer you on. 

A 2023 report from digital agency Razorfish found that access to the internet has accelerated Gen Alpha's brand maturity than previous generations. Gen Alphas are expected to command a massive spending power that could outpace previous generations. As the cohort gets older in 2029, Alpha's collective global economic footprint is forecast to exceed $5.46 trillion according to an agency known as Mcreel based in Australia.

AdtechGod sits down with Ali Manning from Chalice. Ali has an impressive background having worked at leading companies like Razorfish, Google and Snap. She is now the co-founder at Chalice custom algorithms. We chat about her love for the industry, her passion for her family and the drive and dedication she has for Chalice. Thank you to Relevant Digital for advertising on this podcast. Visit adtechgod.com for educational resources, ATG slack community, jobs and more.

Joanna O'Connell is one of the most recognizable names in ad tech, a fame she built over the course of three decades as an industry analyst, and marketer, among other roles. O'Connell is now evp of innovation at R3. In this episode of Digiday's Oral History of Ad Tech, she speaks with Seb Joseph about her role in helping to build one of the media industry's first agency trading desks at Publicis Groupe during her role at Razorfish in the mid-to-late 2000s. In this discussion, she covers The desire to illuminate the black box of programmatic advertising Holding companies' desire to use ad tech as a means of carving out new revenue in austere times  How the ‘agency-friendly' model of ad tech prevailed In the coming weeks, Digiday's History of Ad Tech, produced by Digiday Media's audio producer Sara Patterson, lifts the lid on some of the key undercurrents in ad tech over the last 20 years with Seb Joseph, senior news editor, and Ronan Shields, senior reporter, advertising technology, in conversation with some of the key players during that time.

The Jason & Scot Show.  Podcast about e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Editor note: We're trying some fun new AI features for this episode. The following show notes were written by ChatGPT. We're also let AI remove all the "stop words" in our audio, and we've switched from Google to OpenAI for our audio transcription. Let us know your feedback. In this episode of the Jason and Scot show, our special guest is Sean D. Nelson, the CEO and founder of Lovesac. He shares his inspiring journey of starting the company as a beanbag business in his basement and growing it into a successful public company. Sean highlights the key moments of his entrepreneurial journey, including winning a million dollars on Richard Branson's reality TV show and navigating the ups and downs of the business. Sean has upcoming book and podcast, both entitled "Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story." Sean emphasizes the importance of being a direct-to-consumer brand and how Lovesac has found sustained success by focusing on customer acquisition costs and offering a high-quality product. He discusses the concept of direct-to-consumer and shares his thoughts on its significance. Sean believes that having a differentiated product that provides value to customers is crucial, rather than simply relying on an online sales strategy. The conversation also touches on the topic of innovation and how Lovesac has been able to push the boundaries of what a furniture company can offer. Sean discusses their Stealth Tech innovation, which incorporates surround sound into their couches, as well as their commitment to creating products that are built to last and designed to evolve. Sean acknowledges the challenges of operating in physical retail and highlights the importance of their showrooms in reducing customer acquisition costs and providing a hands-on experience for customers. He also mentions their partnerships with Best Buy and Costco to expand their reach. The discussion expands to the future of retail and e-commerce, with Sean mentioning the transformative role of AI but cautioning that it takes time for movements to fully evolve. He emphasizes the importance of being patient and keeping an eye on developments in the industry. The conversation concludes with Sean expressing his long-term commitment to Lovesac and his desire to build something meaningful rather than focusing solely on personal gain. Listeners are invited to check out Sean's podcast and website, as well as his upcoming book, which will be released in January. Overall, this episode provides insights into the journey and philosophy behind Lovesac's success and offers valuable perspectives on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future of retail. Chapters 0:00:46 Introduction and Welcome to the Show 0:08:36 The Journey of Love Sack: From Highs to Lows 0:12:05 Love Sack's Traditional IPO and Company Performance 0:15:49 The Importance of Having a Differentiated Product 0:19:49 The Value and Overhype of Market Movements 0:23:18 Sactionals: Built to Last, Designed to Evolve 0:25:56 Driving a Movement for Sustainable Consumerism 0:31:36 Innovation and the Evolution of Lovesac's Product Line 0:37:07 The Strength of Lovesac's Physical Showrooms in the DTC Landscape 0:40:03 Testing and Learning: Mobile Concierge and Shop and Shop 0:41:52 AI's transformative role in the future of technology 0:50:08 Long-Term Vision vs Quick Profit Episode 313 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, November 9th, 2023. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show. This episode is being recorded on Thursday, November 9th, 2023. I'm your host, Jason "RetailGeek" Goldberg, and as usual, I'm here with your co-host, Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:37] Hey, Jason, and welcome back. Jason and Scot show listeners. Jason, we're very fortunate to have a entrepreneur on the show. I'm the entrepreneur side of our partnership. So I always really enjoy these. Introduction and Welcome to the Show [0:49] We have on the show, Sean D. Nelson. He is the CEO and founder of Lovesack. And a little birdie told me that he recently started a podcast himself. He started Love Sack as a beanbag company in his basement when he was around 18. And now it's a public company and doing relatively large revenues over 600 kind of run rate. If I look at the last quarter, I took a little glance at that. Sean, welcome to the show. Shawn : [1:13] Thank you. Thanks for having me. Great to be with you. Jason: [1:16] We are thrilled to have you, Sean. Listeners always like to kind of get the background. I'm imagining you don't have a deep background before you started Love Sack because you started it so young. But can you, like where were you in life when that brought you to start build your own product? Shawn : [1:34] Yeah, strangely, 25 years in and still running the same company I founded as my side hustle in college, which is exactly what Love Sack was. So 95, all the way back then, I made a giant not bean bag because I thought it would be funny. I literally, 10 days out of high school, got off the couch at my parents' house, having this dumb idea, like, how about a beanbag, like, me to the TV, like, the whole floor, like, huge. Drove down to the fabric store, bought some fabric, brought it home, cut it out, and then began sewing it up, broke my mom's sewing machine, neighbor finished it, took three or four weeks to try and stuff it, originally with beads, but couldn't possibly find enough, so looked around the house, I just found out my parents' camping mattresses chopped up yellow foam, you know, like those yellow slabs of foam you take camping, on a paper cutter in the basement. And eventually, I mean, foam, packing peanuts, old blankets, had this thing stuffed and started using it out and about through university, taking it camping, back of the truck, driving movies. Ended up putting it away for a couple years. And by the way, everywhere I took it, everybody wants one. Like everyone's always like, Oh my gosh, what is that thing? Where'd you get it? I was like, I'll never make another one. It was such a pain in the butt and put it away for a couple of years to go be a missionary for my church. [2:58] And came back to finish up university in 1998. And that's when I founded the company. Cause people kept bugging me to make them one. And it became my side hustle in college. And we tried to sell these things eventually beyond our friends and family and beer fest, May fest, October fest, car shows, boat shows, 10 by 10 booths, how we got started. Tried to sell them to furniture stores and they laughed at us and told us it was a dumb idea. [3:34] Eventually, at a trade show got discovered by the limited to this is like, you would not today as justice like in the malls, like little girls pink and purple fuzzy stuff for their bedrooms and, and clothing. Anyway, they ordered 12,000 little love sacks, not knowing it was me and a buddy and like a woodchipper shredding foam in the back of this furniture place. And, and that forced us to source over in Asia, which is, you know, where I had served my mission. So I speak Mandarin Chinese. There's a whole story there I won't get into it it was just kind of one thing led to another led to another week we built a factory to support that 12,000 sack order we then went out to the furniture stores who again laughed at us didn't want our $500,000. [4:19] Beanbags having completed that order wanting to keep the factory going so we finally opened our own store in a mall that didn't even want us there but finally capitulated let us in because they We had a space to fill for the holiday season, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it just exploded. We did a good job, carpet paint, neon sign, made it look like a proper mall chain store selling giant beanbags, and it just took off. Like, it worked. People came in, flopped down, music bumpin', big screen TV, playin' movies, had a great time. There was a couch in the corner to look pretty, be part of the decor. People kept asking about the couch, And that led us to eventually, many stores later, many states later, invent Saxionals, which is our modular sofa solution, which now drives almost 90% of our sales today. So we're more a couch company by far today than we are a beanbag company. And there was a whole, listen, I'm skipping over decades of time really, but there was a whole transition where we... We went through after we invented the sectionals and solved all these problems people have with couches not only can you ship it to your house via FedEx which was hyper relevant you know for. [5:32] E-commerce and digital marketing obviously but it's watchable and changeable, and movable and it can be with you the rest of your life that that led us to a whole design philosophy that now. [5:42] Drives are innovation we think is a really cool secret sauce called design for life but. 10, 20, 50, 100, 250 locations now. We came public in 2018 on about 100 million in sales. Right around the time there was just tons of fervor in this direct consumer movement. We had farted around, we'll call it as a furniture store, selling rugs and lamps and bowls and baskets and all the obvious things along the way. And it was really when we purged all that stuff around 2015, seeing the Caspers of the world emerge and Warby Parker's and even Tesla with their showrooms. Could we adopt a more e-commerce-led model with showrooms for people to kick the tires, so to speak? And that transition is really what unlocked the lovesack that you see today and where most of our growth has come since about 2015, 16, when we made that pivot, took the company public, wrapped around that direct consumer story. So we're not a digitally native brand originally, we were actually a retailer that pivoted and became digitally led. And now we don't even operate stores in the traditional sense. We don't, we don't stock things there. You know, you don't walk out of there with your product. They're all really online sales and those showrooms are extremely powerful mechanisms for helping people make up their mind around a five or 10, $15,000. [7:06] Purchase where they want to see the thing and sit on it and, and, and see if it's everything it's cracked, it's cracked up to be online. And so we, we, we believe that we really, uh, through that arc. And then by the way, since coming public, I don't know, six, seven X, the company this year, you know, we'll, we'll be on a run rate to the analysts were a public company. So the analysts show us around, you know, it's called 700 plus in revenue and profitable, very profitable and cash generative. So we think, you know, the direct consumer game, in a lot of respects, Love Sack is one of the unlikely winners of that entire movement. Because I think at that scale, there are very, very few, what I call successful direct to consumer brands. And so we're really proud of that. And it's been a long saga, and we continue to grow and change and adapt and evolve. Jason: [8:01] It's an amazing story. And we definitely want to unpack it. But I want to go all the way back to the beginning for one second. Did that neighbor who helped finish sewing the first prototype get any equity? Shawn : [8:13] No, it was my ex-girlfriend's, mom, so about the time she exited, you know. No, it was just a friendly favor, but the truth is a lot of people helped out along the way, and a lot of people had equity or have equity in Love Sack from along the way, but look, we've been through every high, every low. Somewhere in the middle there, I skipped over it just because of brevity. Not only did I win a million dollars on TV with Richard Branson, The Journey of Love Sack: From Highs to Lows [8:38] his reality TV show on Fox Network back in 2005, if you can believe that, the rebel billionaire. But I also guided the company through a complete chapter 11 reorganization back in 2006, spearheaded by Venture Capital, which was painful and ugly and embarrassing and humiliating. So we've been through every kind of thing over these better than two decades. Scot: [9:01] Yeah, my deep dive question is, when you rented or bought the wood chipper, did you tell them you'd be throwing foam in there, or did they think you were clearing up a tree? Shawn : [9:09] Oh, that's so the original story. Yeah, the original woodchipper actually, you know, if you've ever used one in your backyard or, you know, you shove sticks into these things, that's basically what the original shredder was. And it was in the back room of this furniture factory already. They had used it back in the seventies to shred foam, but it had an electric motor, right? Instead of like, okay. Scot: [9:30] So it's okay to be inside here. Shawn : [9:32] Well, yeah, but I had to rehab it because it hadn't been used in like a decade or two because shredded foam had fallen out of favor in furniture. And then later to do that bigger order, we couldn't afford like a proper German, shredder, so we ended up driving out to farm country to find more of those same kind of shredders and actually found a hay grinder called a hay buster can shred 2000 pounds at a whack. Scot: [9:57] And that's a lot of power. Shawn : [9:59] Yeah, it's powered by a tractor. So we, you know, agricultural loan for tractor and hay grinder. I mean, crazy, crazy story in the beginning. Scot: [10:07] Yeah, as a family, you gotta figure out how to get it done, right? Whatever it takes. Shawn : [10:12] Whatever it takes. Scot: [10:13] I didn't know the Richard Branson thing, so that was interesting. Did he like, was he an active investor, or that's like one of those things where his people kind of take over and you never hear from him again? Shawn : [10:22] No, I mean, it was a weird situation. He had a reality TV show, 2004-5, The Rebel Billionaire, you know, whatever, 16 contestants. It was like The Apprentice, but not for apprentices, for entrepreneurs. So my runner-up on the show was Sarah Blakely of Spanx, gives you an idea. Scot: [10:38] Oh, okay, cool, neat. Shawn : [10:39] Yeah, yeah, so we became great friends, she and I, Richard and I. I ended up also being named President of Virgin Worldwide for a minute as part of the prize, believe it or not. So, worked with Richard, worked with all of his CEOs. Totally weird outcome. And, you know, but huge, huge blessing and a huge piece of story. And he was involved in sort of our VC round that ensued on the tail of that. Scot: [11:06] Okay, and then I think I saw that you guys were on Shark Tank, right? You were like one of those that you know, kind of one of the big success stories. Was that the OG Shark Tank or? Shawn : [11:16] No, we weren't on Shark Tank. A lot of people thought that. There was a Love Sack copycat that's on Shark Tank. Okay, and so they got... Scot: [11:23] I was confused because like Google says you were and then I was like, but then I couldn't find the episode. Jason: [11:28] There's a whole TikTok channel dedicated to Love Sack and Shark Tank and it's super weird. Shawn : [11:36] That's super, yeah, people get confused. Scot: [11:42] Yeah, yeah, super weird. Yeah. And then when you did your IPO, was it a traditional IPO or did you guys get caught up in the SPAC craziness? Shawn : [11:51] No, we did a traditional IPO back in 2018 and you know, our stock has been really volatile for lots of different reasons that, you know, COVID was crazy, but the company performance has been really solid. So we're just trucking. Love Sack's Traditional IPO and Company Performance Scot: [12:06] He, I think, was at Graham that said in the short-term it's an emotional machine, in the long-term it weighs your financials. So you got to, it's very hard, you know, I took a company public, not to the level you have. And yeah, it is, I was like, I'm not going to look at the stock, it's not going to influence me. And then suddenly everyone's like, are we making the quarter? And it's like, okay. And then suddenly it's very hard to get out of that, that short-term mindset. So congrats to you for sticking to it for so long. Shawn : [12:29] Yeah, look, I'm actually a big advocate of it, having lived inside of it now for almost six years. Scot: [12:36] Yeah, the transparency is good, you know, and I like that part of it, I think that's good for, you know, to kind of have to put out everything that you're doing, you know, it's a, the ultimate, yeah, it's like, yeah, transparency tends to be a good thing. Shawn : [12:48] I think it's the right way for companies to be governed and ran. Anyway, we could get into that if you want. Scot: [12:56] Yeah, I like the, you know, and you talked about all the other, we call them digitally native vertical brands, like the Warby's and Bonobos and all that. And yeah, a lot of them have not made it past kind of like that hundred million dollar level. And you guys have obviously, you know, six, seven X that, which is awesome. And then, you know, the big knock on Casper for a long time was as we've actually had this guy, Dan on the show, people were able to pick apart the CAC LTV and they found the average selling price was like, Jason will know these numbers, but it was like 350 and their cost to acquire a customer was 400. And they were like, you know, that obviously wasn't sustainable. So it's pretty neat that you guys have figured that out. Shawn : [13:36] Yeah. I mean, that's at the root of why obviously we've had some sustained success. And I think it's also at the root of why there are almost no other direct consumer brands making any money. End of story, full stop. And it's pretty fascinating to watch the whole thing unfold, because it really has been a movement for almost a decade. Scot: [14:01] Yeah, and I don't want to dig into the information you don't divulge publicly, so this is not a trap or anything but is it because the selection or your products, you've kind of cracked the code on Kakao TV, like what do you, and I don't want to know any methods or anything. and what do you attribute it to? Shawn : [14:18] Look, I think, let's start at the root. I think that many companies, product companies, let's start there, overlook the fact that you need a really good product. I think they pick a category and they say, oh, it could be a direct consumer brand. And the truth is, what does that even mean? Do you mean, because here's the funny thing. When I hear analysts and industry people talk about direct consumer, it has become synonymous over the last decade as it's unfolded today with e-comm. Oh, you mean you're an e-comm company and in many cases you do half of your sales through wholesale. So what does it even mean? I mean, if you want to talk about a direct consumer brand, LoveSack may be the most direct. We don't have any wholesale. I'm talking zero, and we only sell through our own channels, whether it's our website or our showrooms. And we have these partnerships, for instance, where we operate our own showrooms inside of a Best Buy or a Costco. [15:26] But you know, so this whole phrase even, direct-to-consumer, I think is really kind of silly. You mean you're a company that sells stuff online and maybe in showrooms and maybe in wholesale? So you're a company that sells stuff. So let's start with stuff. And you have to make, I think, if you want to be successful in the world, it's not a new concept. You have to have... A great product or or you have to have some other really. Hiller efficiency The Importance of Having a Differentiated Product [15:52] and i think what most have discovered it was a list again over this long decade of direction sumer evolution is that without a really differentiated product. You're just another company with a clever name lots of funding and if you throw lots of money at anything it's gonna grow. But you need to be differentiated. So Love Sack, you know, start with the giant beanbags. They were unique, especially in their day. There's tons of copycats out there now. [16:24] Sactionals are extremely unique. The problem is they photograph just like any other sectional sofa. Like if you took an image of Sactionals and an image of one of, you know, out of any competitor that sells couches, ours looks a lot like theirs. But the difference, the differences are myriad in terms of their washability, changeability, quality, and modularity, and many of those aspects, especially on the modular side, are patented at LoveSac. And so once you dig into it, you find that that's the number one driving factor, is we have a product that's truly differentiated, truly gives more value to the customer, and therefore, we can extract more from the market. It's really that simple, right? And that's at the root of why our CLV to CAC ratio it was so high and sustainable and cash-generative and profitable. And then we could go down all kinds of other paths. We could talk about our website, execution and stuff like that. And all of it needs to be there. Look, running a business is multifaceted and difficult. But at the root of it is that. Jason: [17:27] For sure. One of the things I sort of admire about your company is the original premise was not to have a particular go-to-market strategy. It was to have this great product that people wanted to have in their lives, right? And it feels to me like that, the whole quote unquote D to C movement, like this notion that before you solve any other problem, you're just gonna put a flag in the ground, like this is how you're gonna go to market, that just, it just seems silly because that may not be how the customer wants to acquire your product. Shawn : [18:00] Yeah, I think you're right. And I think that, so I think that whole movement that we're a part of, so I don't mean to like bag on the movement. I'm just an observer as well. Like I've been living in it, right? And we put, and I'm being really transparent, we put on those clothes very intentionally. [18:16] Because people that planted those flags were getting funded. People that planted those flags were being understood at the time. And these movements come. Right now, I could hold up a flag that said AI on it and go out there and raise a bunch of money and do something. And in the end, 99 out of 100 of those, flags are going to fall by the wayside after having tons of money thrown at them and Probably 1% of them will go on to you know be the next Googlers or who knows what right? But these movements come and go and and and I'm and this is what I'm saying You gotta be careful. I'm not bagging on the movement because these movements are useful these movements drive economic activity these movements drive innovation But they're often way overhyped, not as, I think, not as, so, you know, I mean, we could get into AI, you guys are, I'm sure, tracking it just like I am. What does that even mean? Oh, you mean like software? You mean like software that, that does stuff in an automated fashion? Like is that, is that, is it really that new? But it doesn't matter. It's a story that's being heard. It's a story that's being understood and it's where the momentum is. And so if you're able to wield, take advantage of these movements in the marketplace to your end, that's what, and that's exactly what LoveSack did. We put on those clothes, we took a concept that had been around for a long time, our concept. [19:42] And look, in the end, the thinking and the development and even like, let's say the web services and all the things available to that movement that The Value and Overhype of Market Movements [19:49] were spun up because of that movement, we benefited from. The money raising pricing aside, momentum, going public, whatever, all these things aside. So that's why I'm saying I think that there is value in these movements, but fundamentally, you still need to have a great business, a great product, something that's truly differentiated, because anyone with some funding can go out, buy a logo, buy a name, and look like they know what they're doing. Jason: [20:20] And yeah, for sure. And to your point, there's a, there's a funny data by going around in, in our industry this week that like over a hundred million dollars or I'm sorry, Amazon's GMV is, I'm sorry, a hundred billion dollars of Amazon's GMV is from AI. And you hear that and you're like, oh my God, that's huge. And then you find out it's product recommendation tiles that they launched in 1997. Shawn : [20:45] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jason: [20:47] Which, yeah. Yeah, so I do just want to like kind of wrap up this section, but put it in context. When you open that first store in a mall, like the mall competition for furniture stores was like Expressions Furniture, right? Which no one on this call would even remember probably. And then like by the time you really, after your IPO and really caught fire, you were competing directly against all these D to C companies that were expanding in malls. You were probably competing for leases. Shawn : [21:18] Yeah. Jason: [21:19] It's quite the, quite the journey. Now, Scot mentioned at the beginning of the show that you had recently started a podcast and I'm two part question. How the heck did you have time to start a podcast and tell us what the premise behind the podcast is and what you're talking about? Shawn : [21:36] Sure. Yeah. Just to comment first on what you pointed out, there is this whole strip in the malls now out there right now. But by the way, in these shopping malls that I was told were dead, you know, I could read the headlines of shopping malls are dead back in 2001 when I was opening my first shopping mall and I was forwarded those kind of emails by friends and family who were concerned. And here we are in 2023 and while these things change, they take decades to change. Meanwhile, they've evolved and you have all of these direct consumer players now and it It just cycles through, you know? What the players inside of these shopping centers happen to rotate, and I've watched it all evolve, and by the way, they're rotating again, because a lot of those players are not viable. Some of the best ones, biggest ones, you know? Like, concepts like Peloton, who I think is amazing as a concept, you know? They have their struggles, and so we watch these things evolve. In terms of, the podcast is relevant to this. Let me explain why. We had the chicken, I'm going to go, given the nature of what your podcast is, I'll give you a much broader picture than just, hey, why am I recording a podcast on my own and writing a book? [22:55] It works like this. We had the chicken before the egg. Sactionals being the chicken, we discovered, as we observed and had success with it, we believe are so successful because they are are built to last a lifetime and designed to evolve. Like those two attributes in our product are quite unique. And those two attributes underpin what we call our designed for life philosophy. Sactionals: Built to Last, Designed to Evolve [23:21] I did not found Love Sack to make products that are super sustainable, sustain hyphenable. In other words, things that actually sustain. Who's talking about that? I was just trying to survive. I made a big beanbag, people liked it. Made a couch because people were asking about couches. who has solved all these problems, observed the success, and that success was rooted in the fact that things were built to last, designed to evolve. Now that's led us to this whole philosophy that will inform our innovation on every product going forward, and it's why I'm so confident that we can continue to succeed, is because of this design philosophy that I'm sharing with you openly. Because it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to execute to it. That's the hard part. It's the execution that's the hard part, you know? Now, that said... [24:08] I'm trying to drive a movement. I believe that there are many people that are sort of aware now that we have been conned into buying too much crap. New season, new collection, the merchandising hamster wheel, new iPhone, now it's got a titanium band. Really? Everyone knows. No, it's not even hidden. It's not even like a secret. it. This whole hamster wheel called planned obsolescence that was not an accident, it's absolutely an economic strategy to lift us out of the Great Depression and onward. And it has roots all the way back to Louis XIV. What's my point? The world has just, I guess, accidentally, not so accidentally, fallen into all kinds of rhythms that are unhealthy, unsustainable, and not good for anyone, not good for the environment, not good for people, you know, we're frenetically chasing out. Now my jeans are too tight, now they're too loose, now they're too long, now they're short, now I got, now they got to show my ankles, now they got to drape over my, like, this is not an accident. This is a self-propelling machine that we have created. What's my point? I believe we can drive a movement amongst people to reject that. And I believe factionals is one of the embodiments of that. Things built to last a lifetime are designed to evolve. So that movement is actually my long-term strategy. [25:33] In the near term, I need to... One of the ways that we will reach people besides buying advertising and using it to drive a strong CLV to CAC ratio is through... I don't know, even podcasts like this is through people finding our brand, finding out about me, finding out about the company through... Whether it be me, whether it be through the goodwill of our customers, sharing this or that, the other. And so I wrote a book called Let Me Save You 25 Years. It's our clever story Driving a Movement for Sustainable Consumerism [25:59] at Love Sack. It's really great. I think it launches in January. I spun up a podcast called Let Me Save You 25 Years where I share my own entrepreneurial mistakes, miracles, and lessons of the Love Sack story. That's the subtitle of the book. That's the spirit of the podcast. I talk to successful people, some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and successful people about these concepts. And it's not an interview podcast. We go really deep into some of these concepts. So my long-term goal ultimately, is to write another book that can help drive this consumer movement that I'm describing because I think if we can get a little bit of luck and get people thinking about these things and then eventually seeking out. Products that can do this, and just a lifestyle that is supported in the way that I'm describing. Buy better to buy less. Buy better stuff so you can buy less stuff. Well, obviously, LoveSack will benefit from that as a company that makes better stuff. And so, look, it's a long, long, long, long way around, but you asked the question, and I'm totally serious about that. Scot: [26:58] Yeah. So I'm gonna guess you're not a fan of fast fashion. Shawn : [27:03] No, I mean, that's obviously gonna be I made the topic of the book, you know? Scot: [27:06] And I'm not. Jason's a huge Xi'an fan, so you just really hurt his feelings. No, I'm just kidding. Jason: [27:11] Hey, I wore a Patagonia, a used Patagonia jacket in honor of tonight's show. What are you talking about? Shawn : [27:18] You are speaking my language, man. And look, it's not even about being a tree hugger. I think that people have a brain. And people, I think, are waking up to the idea after the iPhone 15, that holy crap, Apple probably should have been forced to innovate a long, long time ago. Biggest company on planet Earth because they sell us the same thing every year or two. Had we not allowed them to do that, they would have had to use their enormous treasure and enormous skill base to innovate into other categories and and change the world. Instead, we've allowed them to sell us the same thing every year. Scot: [28:06] That's an interesting ethos. Having built a company, about how many people are in your company at this point? Shawn : [28:12] Total about 1,500. It's about 400 at the headquarters and another 1,000 out in the field-ish. Scot: [28:19] Yeah, you're at that phase where there's people at the company that you've never really met before. And it's awkward because they always expect you to know their name and they all know your name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you get a company to that scale, how do you keep innovating? And, you know, one of the ones that I really love that you guys have done is the Stealth Tech. I think that's genius because I love AV and like having a really immersive experience. And I'll let you explain what it is, but, you know, my wife hates the big black speakers that I try to put all over the house. So I think it kind of solves like six problems in one. So A, maybe let listeners know a little bit more about what we're talking about. And then be I'd love to hear like how do you guys you know it's really hard to kind of you know ideas are easy and execution is hard on execution. It's really hard to like you know nail what you're doing and you have a lot going on and then like keep innovating. How do you how do you like get the org functional that way? Shawn : [29:16] Yeah. I mean, I think number one is you have to, you have to really want it, you know, not, not just like, Hey, I want to, I want to get, I want to get more business. I want to sell more stuff. Obviously there's that. But this ethos that I just kind of unpacked for you that, that we tripped stumbled into does the design for life ethos animates this organization. Like, it is a lot of, it is very motivating to think about, holy cow, now that we know our purpose, and it's been identified, right? Inspiring humankind to buy better so they can buy, you know, everyone's like, it was purpose, purpose, purpose, and hire some consultant, you know what I mean? But for real, if you have something that's truly unique, and it's meaningful, it's not just like words on the wall, it really is motivating, it's exciting. Scot: [30:11] And you bake baked in the products have to get better too, right? Like you, that's not well, so you have to support it. Shawn : [30:17] That's exactly right. Like, yeah, like we have to make stuff that's built to last a lifetime and design to evolve, which is really hard because if it was easy, everyone would do that. And here I am telling you openly about it. Like that's what we're going to do. And I'm not afraid to tell you because most companies won't do it because it's just freaking hard. Like it's a lot easier. Like why doesn't love sack? You know, you brought up stealth tech. So Stealth Tech is full Harman Kardon surround sound, no quality sound loss audio. Perfect audio emanating from your couch through the phone through the next layer of fabric and through the decorative layer of fabric that's washable, changeable, removable, tuned down to the color of that fabric so that the audio is perfect rear, front, center, subwoofer, invisible, beautiful, because you don't see it, it looks just like a couch, and it has all that packed in there, it's radically successful. It's been, it's now a huge piece of our business. And nobody saw that coming, because what would they expect a couch company to do next? A couch beanbag company. An end table, a coffee table, a rug, a lamp, you know, decorative accessories, get into the bedroom, who knows, right? Like the obvious stuff. Scot: [31:32] Meatballs. Shawn : [31:32] And what, yeah, right? Why did we do that? We anyway, we saw the opportunity and we also invented it. So one is, Innovation and the Evolution of LoveSack's Product Line [31:40] to answer your question, a lot of play. We are constantly at our innovation lab playing. So it's not just consumer-led insights, which is a big piece of what we do, but it's also a lot of inventions. You gotta have teams to invent. You gotta have engineers. You gotta have, so you gotta support that. So there's a cost structure there. And that's why LoveSack is quite profitable, but not as profitable as it could be in the future, because we are investing in innovation. And there's a lot of heads. there's a lot of engineers, there's a lot of designers doing things. Now they're not just all running around playing, they also have a very disciplined approach to executing on innovation, like launching Stealth Tech a couple years ago, and bringing that to market, which is a heavy lift because it's our invention, it's our patents, and it was not easy for this beanbag company to get into home electronics in a real way. [32:29] We've done, I think, more than 100 million in home electronic sales and making us a pretty, a pretty big player in that space, believe it or not. Already, and I don't think most people even, you know, would think that. But we're, you know, totally serious about it. So, innovation, wrapped around an inspiring path to innovation, I think is the key. Do you have an inspiring path, or are you just trying to make more stuff? Because if I wanted all those things I mentioned, like I'm over here in Asia right now, I'm in Hong Kong. And if I wanted a whole line of living room furniture with our logo on it to make myself feel good, I could have it in four weeks. The suppliers will do it for me. They've been doing it for 30 years over here for all the biggest brands you can think of, you know? And we could give them some designs and give them some ideas and let our, I mean, it's so easy to just source stuff. I'm talking about, you know, product land. Now we're talking fashion, talking furniture, talk any category you want, the same is true. But to truly invent stuff's a lot harder. And that's why I think we've had success, that's why I think we will continue to have success. Jason: [33:35] Yeah, you know, so I am interested, I mean, obviously the product has to be the lead in solving that real problem for a customer. But I do think another helpful aspect to your business is that in order for those products to be successful, like, they have to be demonstrated somehow. Like, per your point, the catalog for the StealthTech sectional looks just like the catalog for a generic sectional. And so I'm thinking you having your own showrooms was a big advantage for being able to tell the story. And ironically, I'm not sure you opened that first showroom because you recognize that problem. It sounds like you opened that first showroom because you had no other way to get distribution. Shawn : [34:21] Oh yeah, yeah. And that's why I'm not taking any claim as some kind of marketing genius. We just kind of tried to survive in the beginning. And opening a showroom was actually a reaction to being rejected by the big furniture guys, because they didn't, you know, want our product, they didn't believe in us, whatever. They couldn't see it. And so thankfully, it went that way. And by the way, they weren't showrooms, they were stores. We were a furniture store for a decade and a half. And we did all the furniture store things. And we sold merchandise, and you pulled your car around and we loaded you up, believe it or not, or we shipped to you. And it took us a long, long time to, after copycatting all those furniture stores and hiring merchandisers and window dressers and all those kinds of things from our competition to do that stuff in our stores. [35:14] To make that pivot to the direct consumer model that we operate on today that obviously looks very prescient in today's model. Now, the reason I think we've been so successful at it is because we had those 15, 20 years to get really good at operating now 250 locations across every state, almost in the United States of America, where people are fighting and bickering and hiring and firing and touching each other, whatever it takes. The point is operating physical showrooms is not something you get good at in a day or a week or a year just because that seems like the next thing to do. We have a website, now people need to see our stuff, to your point. And that's the approach I think a lot of the direct consumer brands have taken. And I don't think that they realize how hard it is to be profitable at retail and how many pitfalls there are. Where if I want to get a little better at digital marketing, which I think we're pretty good at now, but I can hire that. I can agency that, I can platform that. And so I think that the physical side of things is really underestimated. And so thankfully, our very long haphazard history has played out in our favor in that realm. And I think it's a huge strength of ours, because by the way, now that the economy's pulling back and this and that, we're 250 locations ahead of most that are just really coming around to the marriage of physical with digital and not realizing that, You know, it's not something you can just turn on and be good at. Jason: [36:44] Yeah. And I think it's you, you rightly pointed out that like the whole landscape of DTC hasn't been particularly successful. There's not a lot of wins, but the, the people that are outperforming the average, even one thing they all have in common is they all have some kind of physical footprint to, to reduce CAC, right? So they're either have their own stores or they, they are white selling through wholesale, or they're, they're in front of customers in some way, The Strength of LoveSack's Physical Showrooms in the DTC Landscape [37:09] other than, than Facebook ads. Yeah, I, I did. I think there's a super interesting new evolution. I thought I read about though. So like Amen stores and showrooms are super complicated. People wildly underestimate how many mistakes you can, you can make owning and operating a retail store. And now, now that you seem to have that clicking, you guys are bringing the retail store to the customer's driveways. Is that true? Like talk to us about the mobile concierge. Shawn : [37:37] Yeah, so just like we're innovating in product, we're also always innovating go to market. So whether it's mobile concierge, which is a lovesack trucks, where you can, you know, from the comfort of your home, have us pull up in the driveway and show you our products, which we've which we've dabbled in, and have tested into. And we'll see, you know, where that goes. I think that that has its own just like retail has its own complications, but also more, I think, more. I guess scalable already is Shop and Shop. So our showrooms right now in shopping malls, they're only like 800 square feet. So obviously the metrics are great, right? We're selling very big ticket items out of very tiny footprints with a small staff. There's just good metrics. And I don't hide from that. That's been a big part of our success, right? So we chose a good category in that way. We chose a terrible category in the sense is that the home category has all kinds of other issues. Jason: [38:38] Not the easiest category to deliver the product. Shawn : [38:41] Yeah, I mean, there's delivery, but there's also just the cyclical nature. You couple that with the idea that, look, we are selling you something that we are intending you to have for decades. My sectionals in my home are 16 years old, some of them, made with brand new pieces, made with Stealth Tech. That's pretty cool. On the other hand, unless we give you Stealth Tech and other reasons to come back, like, you know, you've got your satchels and you've made your investment. And so look, we deal with cover. So we're innovating on product, we're innovating on go to market, shop and shop. So these thousand square foot showrooms have been very useful for us. We have 200 square foot showrooms inside of Best Buy's or Costco's, where our people are basically checking you out and allowing you to kick the tires on the product. And then look, whether you buy there or whether you go back and buy online, we don't care. We built an agnostic platform where we just want you to be in the family. So I think these are things that have evolved over time and you've got to test and learn, whether it's mobile concierge, as you described, whether it's shop and shops. And these tests and learn activities can take years to play out and really take to scale and stuff like that. And so I think in this day and age of, hey, I'm gonna go raise a ton of money and build my company to X revenue and exit for X multiple, which is I think Testing and Learning: Mobile Concierge and Shop and Shop [40:05] what drives a lot of entrepreneurial activity. [40:09] That kind of mentality just doesn't have the staying power necessary. And that's why you see so many of these brands reach a point where they have to be retooled, like some of them are going through now. And look, they've made someone rich. Sometimes these founders find ways to squeeze a bunch of money out of it, or private equity tosses the hot potato to the next guy and they make a ton of money out of it. But in the end, what's left? a brand that is at scale, doesn't make money, and can't go anywhere. So my point is you gotta have the stomach to grind it out, to spend the time, to really slow cook some of these things, and to be flexible when they don't work, and shut them down and move on to the next. And so constantly innovating on go-to-market, constantly innovating on product, and really putting in the time and energy it takes to refine concepts, you know. Scot: [41:03] I know we're running up against time, and you've obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this. I know your goal is to bring this ethos out, but if you think about retail and e-commerce, what do you think the next five years hold? You talked about AI. There's a lot of this stuff that's temporal, but anything you think that you believe is going to change the way we shop and buy, either in-store or online? Shawn : [41:29] Yeah, look, I think that it will just continue to evolve, and so I think AI is real. I think it will play a transformative role, and I think everyone's trying to figure out exactly what that is, and nobody really knows yet. I wish I could just give you a clever answer, but I think I've witnessed, AI's transformative role in the future of technology [41:53] you know, that's What's the benefit of having a 25-year perspective is it's like I was saying about shopping malls. The mall is dead, headline from 2001. TV is dead, headline from 2008. Here we are with both of them still intact. By the way, TV advertising is still a big piece of our marketing spend. I know that's kind of mind-blowing because it seems like everybody's cut the cord or gone to this extreme. And I'm just telling you, these movements take decades. And so while it's great to be ahead of a movement, you don't, unless you are trying to drive that movement, like unless you are trying to take advantage of that AI, boom, to go raise money and wave that flag or whatever. [42:40] I've found it's okay to be a laggard. It's not always beneficial to, unless you're trying to build your concept around that and take advantage of that movement itself, let the movements evolve. So I can't give you a great prediction of exactly what's going to happen. AI is important. But how, where the winners will actually be and what the effects will actually be, I think it's way too early to tell. But I do think it's important to keep your finger and keep watching and eventually, you know, to find the connection and lean into that to affect your business. You have to be a little bit patient, I think. Jason: [43:27] Yeah, well, certainly 25 years in, I think you've earned your patience creds, by the way. Shawn : [43:35] Maybe too much. Jason: [43:37] Yeah, I mean, there's pros and cons to both. Urgency can be useful in certain circumstances, but short time horizons come with a lot of problems, as you have rightly pointed out. That did lead me to one sort of thought question. And you, you referenced some of your, your CAC economics and side note, we've, we've one of the, our favorite guests on the show is this professor Dan McCarthy. Who's, who's a huge advocate for cohort analysis and customer lifetime value based businesses. And so he would be thrilled that you're on, because I know you guys disclose some of your cohort metrics in, in your financial statements, which he loves. And to me, you're in a really interesting category to do that because although your product has invented a reason for customers to come back and you've sort of turned a product into a system, it's not like a fast cycle, right? Like, and so like when you're thinking about like a time horizon for LTV, and you guys have a very good return on your CAC, but compared to most companies, your CAC still is really high, right? Like, you sell a lot of product to compensate for that. Shawn : [44:57] Yeah. Jason: [44:58] So how, like, you know, you're spending five or six hundred bucks to acquire a customer and then you're earning thousands of dollars on each of those customers. Like, was it difficult to sort of have the financial discipline to have a long enough time horizon to see those sorts of high CLVs come back for that initial customer acquisition? Shawn : [45:23] Yeah, I mean, you could call it discipline. In our case, again, it was just survival, being really transparent. You know, we were just trying to find a way to make this business work, and we weren't profitable right out of the gate. It took us many years to get better at retail, to get better at e-commerce, to have a shopping cart experience that was commensurate to the product, because that's really hard with our product. Our product is really weird and complicated. And so that's something that's overlooked with Lovesack. And I think a lot of our copycats and competitors are realizing that. You can't just use a Shopify checkout if you're going to sell something as dynamic as, let's say, factionals where, you know, you can buy a bunch of these and a bunch of those and combine them in a million different ways. How do you, how do you shopping cart that? How do you Amazon that, you know? And so, and so these are superpowers that we've developed over a long time and thankfully given it enough time to become profitable. So to answer your question about, you know, patience, I think part of it is just been our lot in life to, to be, to have patience forced on us. But secondly, real discipline around. [46:32] Our CLV and CAC metrics. So we are, we are, and have been for a long time, carefully monitoring them, tracking them, constantly innovating and refining on the marketing side, these things that I mentioned, whether TV, you know, over the top, linear, nonlinear, digital marketing with its 500 heads, you know, like I'm talking about species of digital marketing, it's such a big word, right? I have to be constantly and tirelessly refined and risk taken and stuff tried and stuff failed and all rolled it and it all rolls up into that CLV to CAC ratio that you can hope you can keep moving and then couple that with innovation so that people can come back and buy more. And so thankfully, look, we chose a category with a high ticket and that drives the lion's share. That first purchase drives the lion's share of that CLV to CAC relationship. But our long-term point of view now is not only to find other ways that we can do more of that, maybe even in other categories and adjacencies. [47:32] But also give like StealthTack, give people a reason to come back and add on. And then by the way, when they do come back, then they face the consequence of, well, what do I do with some of these things that I need to, let's say, I get StealthTack and I got to swap out two of my sides. Well, okay, the obvious answer is I don't want to throw those in the trash. We don't want them throwing them in the trash and they may not need another couch in another room. So it's leading us to services, trade in, trade up, recycle, you know, all kinds of things that will again, give us more reasons to reach out and touch that customer. And so I think that if you relentlessly pursue. [48:13] A good concept with good intentions being driven by good philosophy and purpose like I've described, it's been my experience that the universe kind of unfolds for you, but it doesn't do it overnight. And you can't just have a, at least in my experience, you can't just have a master plan and be like, we're gonna do this and then that and that. You have to iterate to it. You have to observe, you have to live some, like when we launched Stealth Tech, we just, you know, it's easy now to look back in hindsight and be like, well, of course people are gonna want to or trade in their sides or do whatever. But some of those things aren't always so apparent. And you need to plunge yourself into the pool, see what comes of it, and then react to that. And some of those reactions can take years to unfold. Like some of these services that I just described and whatnot, they'll take us years to manifest. [48:59] But the nice thing is, the core business can generate profits that will carry us to that and we'll invest some of those profits in that innovation that I'm describing. But it's like, it's just relentless, man. It's tiring. It's like you have to have the stomach to go the distance. And that's where the time horizon, look, I'm a big advocate of it. Culturally, you know, like when my whole organization knows, like the theme of our manager fest a month ago, this is where we all get together once a year, was 25 and 25 more. And I'm not kidding. Like my personal point of view, if I'm allowed to be here as a public company CEO, if I do good enough to stay in the seat, which is inherent, and that's why I love the structure. It forces you to be awesome, you know? [49:45] If I can do that, but the fact that my organization knows that I'm in for another 25, you know how grounding that is and stabilizing that is, as opposed to, man, when's Sean's gonna sell his stock and bail and go start his next company? That's what I'm supposed to do, isn't it? That's how I become a bazillionaire, isn't it? I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in building something. And I think that that, I don't know, desire is actually kind of rare these days. Long-Term Vision vs Quick Profit [50:14] I think everyone just wants to be a bazillionaire as fast as they can. Jason: [50:17] Oh, for sure. Yeah. Everybody's assuming you're going to cash out and invest in your first rocket. Shawn : [50:24] Yeah, whatever. And I think it's sad. Look, I'd love to make a ton of money, whatever. That's all great. But whatever happened to the ambition of let's build something awesome, no matter how long it takes. And that's where I'm at. Jason: [50:41] Yeah. Well, Sean, it's been an amazing run so far. This is going to be a great spot to leave it because we have used up our allotted time, but I know listeners are going to appreciate you saving them the first 25 years, and we're going to be super excited to watch what happens in the next 25. Shawn : [50:57] Thank you. Thank you. Scot: [50:59] We really appreciate it, Sean. I know you're in Hong Kong, you're in the middle of your day there, and we appreciate you coming on the show. If folks want to check out your podcast, where would you point them to? Shawn : [51:09] Yeah, wherever you love listening to podcasts, Let Me Save You 25 Years is the name. LetMeSaveYou25Years.com. You can find me on social media, Sean of Lovesack. I'm all over that and love to be connected, slide into my DMs. I mean, I love talking to customers, friends, peers, being very accessible and looking forward to building the movement. Of course, Lovesack.com. We're easy to find. Scot: [51:33] Trey Lockerbie 41 Yep. And the book's coming out in January and I assume it's going to be in all the usual places. Shawn : [51:37] Sean O'Toole 41 All the usual places. Yeah. Let Awesome. Jason: [51:45] Thanks again and until next time, happy commercing!  

In today's episode, we're thrilled to have Makoto Kern, the Founder and UX Principal of a leading Product Development and Design Agency. With nearly two decades in the UX Product Design realm, Makoto brings a wealth of knowledge from a diverse array of industries, ranging from energy to healthcare. Dive into this engaging conversation, led by Avetis Antaplyan, as they explore the intricacies of user-centric product design, the importance of an outcomes-driven strategy, and the future of UX in an ever-evolving tech landscape. Key Takeaways: Makoto's Origins: From his early interests in Electrical/Robotics engineering to leading design initiatives at industry giants such as Deloitte, Accenture, and Razorfish. UX Across Industries: The unique challenges and opportunities in designing for sectors as varied as cybersecurity and healthcare. DesignOps & DevOps: How Makoto harnesses agile methodologies, UX & Product Design, and strategy to revolutionize outdated enterprise applications. Business-Centric UX: Dissecting the discrepancy between companies that tout user-importance and their actual investment in UX teams and usability testing. Innovating Amidst Downturns: The philosophy of building and innovating during challenging times and how it can set businesses apart in the post-crisis era. Mentioned in this episode: IIIMPACT: The renowned Product Development and Design Agency led by Makoto, known for transforming complex applications into user-friendly solutions. Recognized in the 3x Inc5000 list from 2021-2023. Makoto's Scholarly Work: A peek into Makoto's academic prowess with a link to his publications on Google Scholar. Key Career Stints: Highlighting Makoto's significant roles at Deloitte, Accenture, Razorfish, Manifest Digital, and other reputed design firms in major cities like NYC, Austin, and Chicago. Connect with Makoto Kern: IIIMPACT's Official Website Makoto's LinkedIn Up Next: Stay tuned for our next episode as we continue to delve into the dynamic world of technology, design, and business. Thank you for joining us! Remember, for SEO optimization, you should ensure that the provided links are properly working and relevant. Also, make sure to use the chosen episode title consistently across platforms to boost its visibility in search results.

COOL HUNTING'S JOSH RUBIN AND EVAN ORENSTEN ON EXPLORING UNCHARTED TERRITORY Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten fell in love at first sight when they met in the office of Razorfish in the 90's. But before then, Josh grew up straddling Miami and Vermont, where he gained experience navigating different worlds and perspectives. While Evan, growing up in Minneapolis, was bursting with curiosity, learning languages, and pushing to travel as often as possible. Their chemistry and compatibility ultimately led to the founding of COOL HUNTING. Now after 20 years, they are still exploring the edges of art, design, cars, craft, tech and travel, while also leading the charge (custom project with Ferrari blending traditional craft with high-tech luxury) and the conversation (new podcast, Design Tangents) on the design of a meaningful and beautiful future. You can find more episodes of CLEVER at SurroundPodcasts.com

Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten fell in love at first sight when they met in the office of Razorfish in the 90's. But before then, Josh grew up straddling Miami and Vermont, where he gained experience navigating different worlds and perspectives. While Evan, growing up in Minneapolis, was bursting with curiosity, learning languages, and pushing to travel as often as possible. Their chemistry and compatibility ultimately led to the founding of COOL HUNTING. Now after 20 years, they are still exploring the edges of art, design, cars, craft, tech and travel, while also leading the charge (custom project with Ferrari blending traditional craft with high-tech luxury) and the conversation (new podcast, Design Tangents) on the design of a meaningful and beautiful future.Images and more from Josh and Evan on cleverpodcast.comPlease say Hi on social! Twitter, Instagram and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers,If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kristian Schwartz spearheads The Montgomery Group, a boutique search firm he established, specializing in senior-level marketing and media placements. Kristian is a seasoned strategic leader renowned for elevating premier brands through a blend of strategic hiring and consulting expertise. He has extensive experience working on various facets of the industry, and his professional journey includes tenure at renowned companies such as Wired Magazine, Razorfish, and Sapient, where he collaborated with influential Fortune 500 brands like Visa, Verizon, Clorox, Unilever, and Hewlett-Packard. In this episode, we discuss: Best Practices for Effective Collaboration with Executive Search PartnersThe Importance of Nurturing RelationshipsHow to find RecruitersKey Elements Sought by Recruiters in ResumesThe Crucial Role of Career StrategyAdapting Resume Requirements for Recruiters versus Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)Mentioned on the show  Forbes List of America's Top Recruiting FirmsGet a copy of Kristian Schwartz's Win a Day HEREShow guest: Kristian Schwartz is a seasoned leader with over two decades of experience driving digital transformation and marketing initiatives. Recognizing his knack for spotting transformative talent, Kristian transitioned into executive search at Korn Ferry, rising to Senior Partner in the Integrated and Digital Marketing practice. Presently, he leads The Montgomery Group, a boutique search firm he founded, which specializes in senior-level marketing and media placements. Holding a Bachelor of Science in Microeconomics from the University of Oregon, Kristian, a dedicated father to twin daughters, enjoys activities such as cycling, cooking, and fly fishing.Follow Kristian Schwartz on LinkedIn Support the showJill Griffin is dedicated to enhancing workplace life by guiding leaders in shaping their next chapter, elevating their well-being, intentionality, and overall impact. Jill's executive coaching, strategy, workshop facilitation, and innovation have generated multi-millions in revenue for the world's largest agencies, start-ups, and well-known brands. Her strategic expertise and perceptive insights drive success for individuals and organizations alike. Jill collaborates with individuals, teams, and organizations to nurture high-performance cultures, enabling leaders to achieve growth. Visit JillGriffinCoaching.com for more details on: Book a 1:1 Career Strategy and Executive Coaching HERE Advising and Consulting Gallup CliftonStrengths Corporate Workshops to build a strengths-based culture Team Dynamics training to increase retention, communication, goal setting, and effective decision-making Keynote Speaking Grab a personal Resume Refresh with Jill Griffin HERE Follow @jillGriffinOffical on Instagram for daily inspiration Connect wit...

In today's episode are revisiting the most popular episode of 2023, featuring Kiri Masters and the director of SEO in Acadia, Scott Walldren. Scott shares his insights and expertise on ecommerce-specific SEO strategies. With the changing landscape of paid traffic, SEO has emerged as a crucial long-term traffic strategy for retail and ecommerce brands. Scott dives into the key considerations and tactics necessary to optimize your online store for search engines. Make sure you tune in! Scott Walldren is the Director of SEO for Acadia since October 2022. Previously, he spent 8 years developing and eventually heading up the SEO practice at 360i for Dentsu international. In addition to SEO, Scott has managed millions in paid search spend for national brands at Digitas and Razorfish and as a consultant inside and outside of startups. He lives in the far north Atlanta suburbs (close to Lake Lanier) with his wife, 3 kids, and 3 cats. Incidentally, he has some hands-on experience (albeit about 10 years old) setting up a store, product feeds and running ads on Amazon when he was at Case-Mate. In today's episode, Kiri and Scott discuss: E-commerce-specific SEO strategies - What's different about ranking content for ecommerce vs other types of sites - It's blessed and cursed by the nature of its templates and functions and as a result, you need to think through both your indexation strategy and how your content will be syndicated. What has changed in this area / what should be the focus in 2023 - Reputation matters more than ever. Who you are as an ecommerce business extends beyond your website and should include how you take ownership of your whole discoverable presence. I'm not just talking making sure you've claimed and utilized social media profiles but am speaking more about claiming and maintaining your Google Business Profile, and if applicable your knowledge panel. Biggest mistakes - What are ecomm brands usually doing wrong with SEO? #1 mistake: Launching without consulting with a competent SEO or developer with proven SEO chops. It's easier to let the cat out of the bag than to put it back in the bag. Who's getting it right? Scott is a huge fan of REI. Unlike many ecommerce sites, they have a strong brick and mortar presence which contributes significantly to their success. But strictly looking at their ecommerce approach they have put in the work to understand keyword strategy and how people search for product categories, products, and how-to guides.    

Born in Australia, Jen traveled to New York City to work at Razorfish, becoming VP of Client Engagement, Managing Partner and then Executive Vice President and North East Region Lead. She moved to fellow Publicis Groupe agency Digitas UK at the start of 2023. She has worked with some of the biggest brands including Unilever, Citi, United Nations and Marriott, specializing in the latest from TikTok, to MadTech, AI, gaming, and social commerce.Jen talks about her personal journey in leadership – learning that it's okay to admit when you're wrong and how nurturing teamwork improves progress — and shares her ambitions to create a societal impact through ‘unicorn' agency, Digitas, by immersing itself in emerging technologies and partnering with companies like NexTech Girls, to expand access and promote practical education for women and girls in the tech industry.

As Head of Product Design & Research at Oracle, Jod Kaftan leads a design practice that strives to meaningfully impact climate change and provide SaaS solutions that bring critical energy services to populations globally. Jod has more than 20 years of extensive end-to-end expertise in the enterprise and at both agencies and start-ups, driving cross-channel experiences across platforms for blue-chip clients such as Sony, Microsoft, Riot Games, Google and Wells Fargo. Before leading design teams at Oracle and Accenture Song, Jod was an experience designer and strategist at shops such as Razorfish and Possible, where he's been exposed to a large spectrum of business models and design problems, from CPG, Financial Services and Entertainment to Non-Profits, start-ups and innovation labs. When not at home in Los Angeles, Jod is probably hiking with his wife, 12-year-old son and dog in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The web has changed a lot over the past 25 years. Or maybe it hasn't. Enterprise content architectures are maturing and finally beginning to separate content from its presentation. But old-fashioned artifacts like PDF files still abound, and authors still expect WYSIWYG editing experiences. And when Karen McGrane reflects on her work 25 years ago at Razorfish she's struck by how the team structures and business practices they adopted there are still relevant today. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/karen-mcgrane/

Ashley and Dougald co-host Adam Greenfield to talk about his idea of LifeHouses as featured here https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/from-churches-to-lifehouses. Previously a rock critic, a bike messenger, a free-clinic medic and a sergeant in the US Army, Adam Greenfield has spent the past quarter-century thinking and working at the intersection of technology, design and politics with everyday life. Before founding his own practice, Urbanscale, in 2010, he worked as lead information architect for Razorfish in Tokyo and head of design direction for service and user interface design at Nokia headquarters outside Helsinki. Selected in 2013 as Senior Urban Fellow at the LSE Cities centre of the London School of Economics, he has taught in New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and the Urban Design program of the Bartlett, University College London. His books include Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, Urban Computing and Its Discontents, and the bestsellers Against the Smart City and Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. His next book is Beyond Hope: Collective Power and Mutual Care in the Long Emergency, coming next year from Verso. You can sign up for his irregular dispatches from London at http://tinyletter.com/speedbird , or connect with him on Mastodon at http://social.coop/@adamgreenfield Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer, speaker and the co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project and a school called HOME. His latest book is At Work in the Ruins (2023) and he publishes new essays on his Substack, Writing Home. atworkintheruins | Instagram | Linktree His substack can be found at: Writing Home | Dougald Hine | Substack

For the next several episodes, we're partnering with Chorus America to bring you a sneak preview of what's coming up at the Chorus America Annual Conference, being held this year in our home town, San Francisco! We hope you'll enjoy this opportunity to get to know a bit more about the conference's speakers and their areas of expertise, and especially to get to know these folks on a personal level. Today's episode is with Karen Hopper, the Associate Director of Performance Strategy at Razorfish, where she helps Fortune 100 clients make smart decisions about their creative marketing using data. Karen will be leading the session “Unleash Your Fundraising With Digital Scale,” and today we'll get a small taste of what Karen's session will be all about. We hope to see you in San Francisco for the Chorus America Conference, May 31 - June 2, 2023. More information is available at chorusamerica.org. Music excerpts: Alleluia, by Jake Runestad, performed by Kantorei, directed by Joel RinsemaBefore Spring, by Mari Esabel Valverde, text by Amir Rabiyah, performed by CantusEpisode referencesChorus America conferenceKaren HopperJason Max Ferdinand SingersAndy CrestodinaKantoreiCherry Creek SchoolsThe M+R Guide to Effective and Ethical Direct Response CreativeChoral Arts

"I think Augmented Reality is very close in our near future… AR might be one of those items where consumers are adopting fully as their day-to-day." - Kenneth Chong   Kenneth is a native New Yorker who is Growth Marketing Lead at Mona. Prior to Web3, Kenneth was doing growth marketing at ecommerce companies like Rent the Runway, Walmart Ecommerce, and Jet.com. He started out his career in marketing with a Paid Search role at Razorfish and has climbed his way up to his current position with Mona. In this interview, we discuss many varying topics with Kenneth… from digital marketing to Twitter, Discord Servers, and their relationship to Web3.    Website: https://monaverse.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethchong/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monaverse/

In today's podcast, we are speaking once again with Scott Walldren, the Director of SEO for Acadia. Make sure you tune in to find out more! Scott Walldren is the Director of SEO for Acadia since October 2022. Previously, he spent 8 years developing and eventually heading up the SEO practice at 360i for Dentsu international. In addition to SEO, Scott has managed millions in paid search spend for national brands at Digitas and Razorfish and as a consultant inside and outside of startups. He lives in the far north Atlanta suburbs (close to Lake Lanier) with his wife, 3 kids, and 3 cats. Incidentally, he has some hands-on experience (albeit about 10 years old) setting up a store, product feeds and running ads on Amazon when he was at Case-Mate.

If you can point me in the right direction, I can't figure out how to get the latest episode to land on the home page… Join Larry Littrell from Tailer Trash Fly Fishing as he sits down with Tim Williams, the owner and designer behind Razorfish Boats – One of the newest skiff builders in the shallow water game. A unique blend of engineering, planning and a lifelong passion for boats has helped Tim see some early success as his business becomes more well known. Hear how Tim's boating experiences lead him to leave a successful position with a nationally knows boat builder and sell everything to move his family and life to Florida to get one step closer to realizing his dream of starting his own boat building legacy. Tim is a testament to never giving up, always being there and keeping focused on the future. Grab a cold one, crack it open and have a beer with us as we discuss those things and more. By the time we're finished we think you'll agree, if you're thinking about getting a skiff, you'll want to check out Razorfish's offerings and talk to Tim to learn more about how he approaches skiff building.

Brian Cosgrove is the Principal and Chief Data Strategist at BrainDo. BrainDo provides a diverse mix of digital services, including marketing, experience, and partnership. Over Brian's 15-plus-year career in the digital marketing space, he's created innovative strategies for Fortune 500 brands, including Digitas and Razorfish. He also co-founded the digital marketing application at TPG, garnering over $1 million in revenue his freshman year. Susan Brake is the Senior Vice President at Development Counsellors International (DCI), a 60-year leader in marketing destinations. Additionally, DCI specializes in economic development and tourism marketing. Before taking on the Senior Vice President role, Susan served as DCI's Vice President, where she was responsible for growing the digital department. Philip Hill is the CEO and President of Purebred Marketing. The Atlanta-based marketing agency creates digital marketing strategies and provides services such as SEO, web design and development, and email marketing. Philip is an avid dog lover and launched his first business in the pet space while attending the University of Alabama. He's also launched several e-commerce startups. Glen Moore is the Co-founder and CEO of Bear Fox Marketing, which provides expert SEO services depending on your company's needs. Glen is an author and a 20-year marketing executive veteran. Glen's previous ventures include a four-year stint as the Vice President at PetIQ and six years as a marketing executive at Schiff Nutrition International.  Duncan Alney is the Founder and CEO of Firebelly Marketing, an Indianapolis-based social media marketing agency. Firebelly has partnered with major brands such as Sony, Netflix, Fiji Water, and Cisco. Duncan is a dad, partner, son, and servant leader. He draws from all those titles to create a set of company standards and values and considers himself the happiest problem-solver. A self-professed communicator and social media lover, Duncan also hosts The Firebelly Social Show, a podcast featuring food and beverage brands on a mission to make the world better.  Peter Cunningham is the CEO of Evolve Healthcare Marketing (EHM), a data-driven agency focused on generating leads. EHM's primary clients include B2C medical practices and B2B healthcare companies. A father of three, two of which have special needs, Peter heavily relies on talented physicians and trustworthy healthcare providers. These are the motivating factors that inspire Peter and EHM to help the prosperity of healthcare organizations. They also donate 1% of the company's gross sales to charities serving the needs of children suffering from chronic illnesses. In this episode… Even the smartest, most talented, and most successful executives don't have all the answers. That's why Jason Swenk, agency coach, advisor, and mentor at Digital Agency Elite created the high-level Jason Swenk Mastermind.  At the Mastermind, a community of agency founders, owners, and entrepreneurs gather to connect, fellowship, share, and ask questions to avoid mistakes and scale businesses. If you want to learn some of the biggest tips, tricks, and advice from some of the smartest masterminds in business, stay tuned! Join Dr. Jeremy Weisz, host of the Inspired Insider Podcast, as he speaks to some of the smartest minds on the planet, live at the Jason Swenk Mastermind. Dr. Weisz chats with Brian Cosgrove of BrainDo, Susan Brake of Development Counsellors International, Philip Hill of Purebred Marketing, Glen Moore of Bear Fox Marketing, Duncan Alney of Firebelly Marketing, and  Peter Cunningham of Evolve Healthcare Marketing.