Media buying has become a numbers game. Now some agencies are tearing up the hiring playbook and recruiting mathematicians, economists and computer scientists over advertising graduates, and betting that curiosity beats a marketing CV.
Hannah Bowler
As huge swathes of society become increasingly priced out of live experiences, Jodie Fullagar, co-founder and co-CEO of Run Deep, believes brands have a clear choice. Remain passive bystanders with logos on perimeter boards, or step in as cultural enablers.
Jodie Fullagar
AI has made competent creative almost frictionless to produce. But raising the floor isn’t the same as raising the ceiling, and if agencies mistake output for creativity, they’ll erode the one advantage they have left, writes Arthur Perez, managing director at Stereo Creative.
Arthur Perez
ESPN and United Airlines just turned a fantasy football draft into a literal mile-high event. It is just one of the signs that digital-native brands are starting to chase something a screen can’t give them: a real moment, shared in person.
Contributor
The signals beneath the noise. We track slow culture, emerging scenes, and values shifts shaping how people live, work, play – and what that means for the products, media, and experiences they choose next.
We’ve become used to sharing everything online, but now people are finding enjoyment of experiences without an audience. Annie Harte explores the resurgence of analogue culture and what it could teach brands about creating spaces not just for performance.
Annie Harte
Long before he was building brands, Squarespace’s Nate Skinner was studying culture through record sleeves and the sprawling web of Britpop‑era music journalism – a habit he now credits with proving that cultural curiosity, more than anything else, is what helps brands find their audience.
Hannah Bowler
Explore our archive of articles, interviews, and creative projects
The Midnight Club has made jewelry, candles, honey and now a fashion line with Bianca Saunders. Managing director Emily Mitchell on working without a brief, becoming its own client, and what agencies risk when they create their own things.
Hannah Bowler
