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I spoke to Anna Sampson, Insight and Strategy Consultant, who authored the recent IPA report on the issues of agism in the marketing and advertising industry, about the important work and wake-up call to the industry.
Q. Anna, tell us about the report, why it was commissioned, and why you think there's such an issue in the industry?
This report was commissioned by the IPA's Talent Leadership Group - a collective of senior leaders committed to championing diversity and inclusion across advertising.
The brief was clear: investigate ageism, and offer practical ways to build a more inclusive, intergenerational workforce.
But the real question they wanted to dig into was this: where’s the line between commercial reality and ageism?
Because the uncomfortable truth is that older talent is often both expensive and invisible in our industry. The report doesn’t shy away from that tension. It pairs lived experience of age-related bias with a candid look at the industry’s commercial structures.
It’s not about blame - it’s about being honest, and finding a way forward.
Crucially, it doesn’t stop at diagnosis. It offers practical, achievable steps - for individuals navigating this system, and for organisations ready to change it.
The launch event had a real sense of optimism. Despite wider political and cultural pressures, there’s a clear desire in this industry to keep pushing for inclusion - and to do it better.
Q. I assume you went into this with a number of hypothesis, what insights surprised you upon your interviews and research?
Like any good researcher, I had my hunches - and as someone living this experience, I thought I knew what I’d find.
Much of it was confirmed. But some of the numbers were still shocking. I was genuinely taken aback by how few people over 45 are still working in advertising. The data paints a stark picture. The ONS salary data post-45 was also revealing.
It made me realise that anyone who’s still carving out a successful career in or around the industry - in whatever form - deserves real credit. Because we’re navigating big structural forces, many of which are far beyond our control.
That insight stayed with me: it’s not just about personal choices or individual resilience. It’s about the systems we’re up against.
Q. The report highlighted that many older individuals find themselves in self employment - can you expand upon that finding, and what you learned? Does it challenge the idea that self employment is by choice?
Absolutely. Just as many of us fall into advertising, many fall into freelancing too - not through design, but by necessity.
The truth is many career exits aren’t really choices. They’re nudges. Sometimes shoves. Sometimes the slow erosion of long-term imbalance.
For many - especially women, parents, carers, neurodiverse and disabled professionals, and those with mental health challenges - the system simply hasn’t worked. The juggle of kids, ageing parents, and rigid work expectations is relentless.
And now, with the quiet rollback on hybrid working, many are being squeezed out all over again. Hybrid opened doors. Too many of those are now being slammed shut.
If we're serious about performance, presenteeism has to go. It doesn’t serve businesses, and it certainly doesn’t serve diverse talent.
The best creative leadership doesn’t come from cultures obsessed with visibility or staying late. It thrives in environments that trust people, value outcomes over optics, and adapt to different ways of working.
Q. The report mentions the value of working with senior fractional talent - are we seeing agencies and clients wake up to the opportunity there?
There are green shoots, yes — but we need more than isolated examples. Some smaller, independent agencies are leading the way, but real change will take broader structural shifts.
Right now, the industry is still in the midst of cost-cutting and restructuring - and that creates uncertainty. But forward-thinking CEOs won’t wait for the dust to settle. They’ll see the clear opportunities here. The report highlights how rethinking recruitment, compensation, contracts and flexibility can unlock the full value of experienced talent.
There’s a vast, often overlooked pool of senior professionals working independently - people with deep industry knowledge, strong critical thinking, and a coaching mindset. In a time of cultural and technological flux, tapping into that isn’t just about inclusion. It’s a competitive edge.
» Read the full report via the IPA website.
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We’re seeing an explosion in AI driven strategy platforms entering the market at the moment. I spoke to Piotr Bombol, co-founder of adaily about why he’s gone all in on AI tools for strategists.
Q. Piotr, AI promises (and threatens) to completely reshape strategy and planning - what impact do you expect it to have on the role of a strategist?
I spent 10 years as a strategist (first in network agencies, then running my own shop). I decided to switch to AI in late 2022 when it was all very fuzzy.
At first I thought the AI's impact will be limited so I started working on very simple use cases (finding strong benchmarks for strategic/creative work). But gradually I've been testing different hypotheses on how far AI can go.
Apart from that I've been reading about thought-provoking experiments around the world (like where an AI-generated creative brief rated higher by a human jury than the one made by strategy heads in Canada, or a human+AI team developing on-par concepts for a brief in one day vs the copywriter-art director duo in Australia). It led me to coming up with a concept of Adaily 2.0 which in fact handles full strategy on autopilot (research -> insights -> strategy).
The assumption was that since everyone has access to the same data in live web and top frameworks (with best practices), AI can probably handle it decently.
Then comes the most important part: what you as the user (here: strategist) bring on top? And I think this is the most important part of the future of the discipline: can you properly guide (in the beginning, in the middle) the AI tools and evaluate the responses to pick what's going to make it brilliant execution
Because if yes, then you're future-proofed. Because we are all aware that no one's going to unplug AI and clients won't tell you to take your time.
Many strategists initially worry that AI-generated work will feel generic or miss creative nuances. What we've found is the opposite - because Adaily is trained specifically on award-winning work and industry data rather than general internet content, it often identifies unexpected angles and cultural tensions that spark genuinely fresh thinking.
I don't think it will make junior strategists obsolete - actually it's a huge opportunity. They can jump straight to the interesting parts rather than doing endless desk research. It's like skipping ahead a few career years.
Looking ahead, we want to build the perfect sidekick for strategists. Not replacing anyone, but handling the mundane stuff while helping people level up their own work. Sort of what we did with Rob in our recent experiment - using AI to handle the first 90% so humans can focus on what makes strategy brilliant.
Q. What do you think tools like adaily mean for the commercials of marketing? Where does value creation lie now?
Recently I've grown confident that content is commodity. Or even, to some extent, the execution is commodity. I have seen obsession from a lot of marketers about how easy it is to generate and run content.
Yes, AI makes it super easy and fast for everyone, driving the end cost of content to 0. Not to mention that Meta plans to just handle full funnel directly with businesses. That's why I think tools that help you execute are just going to eventually become agents (or: robots) working for clients.
The biggest value that agencies and freelancers can bring is in the proper direction of advertising communication. Understanding the fundamentals, applying it properly to the situation, identifying most promising insights, building a convincing story. These are things that are hard for AI to handle on its own, but where AI can help. If you can leverage your expertise the right way, you can become a 10x strategist, 10x creative and so on. Or maybe a 100x one?
In practical terms, we're seeing users complete in 5 minutes what previously took 3-5 days of work. When you quantify that productivity gain, it's not just incremental - it fundamentally changes the economic equation of strategic work.
We had a brand strategist recently test it on a complex B2B brief, and they were surprised how quickly it identified and crystallized the audience - "always a sticking point in these projects," as they put it. The case studies were apparently super useful too.
Q. Tools like adaily have traditionally only been available to large enterprise agencies, you've opened this up to independent strategists - why is that important to you, and what impact do you think it will have / opportunities it creates?
There were two factors. First, the industry is transforming as we speak. People become freelancers by choice or by force. Many will stay freelancers. Second, after announcing Adaily 2.0 and talking to first testers I realized how proportionally more value we offer solo practitioners vs agencies, where you have many specialists covering the project.
Funny enough, it is quite well visible in the testimonials on our site where most come from freelancers, consultants or micro shops. And I heard from them that they have simply no reasonable choice: they either need to use consumer-grade AI tools with limited options or nothing. So we wanted to see if we can offer value for them, the same way we support independent agencies.
adaily have offered Outside Perspective members discounted access to the tool - jump into the community or DM me for details. Visit adaily.co to discover the platform.
» Community members Emily Penny and Joel Stein have published their long-awaited report on brand messaging in the UK design sector.
It’s the first of its kind in the sector, lifting the lid on a topic that’s often avoided. The full report includes in-depth analysis identifying the patterns, challenges and opportunities when it comes to positioning a branding agency.
“After looking at over 150 UK branding agencies, the overall impression is of an industry that takes itself rather seriously, but often it’s the agencies
that lead with more joyful, more playful messaging that feel most distinctive.” Joel explains.
“We’re giving airtime to studios from all across the UK, from North Shields to Leeds and Brighton - and more than one third of the agencies in our Top25 showcase are female-led. Our Top25 all look and sound very very different – and that’s the point.” Emily points out.
» Pre-order your copy of Fully Saturated here.
» Jim Mott on the Pope, the prompt, and the coming identity economy
» Dubose Cole on Reinventing the Wheel and models for advertising, strategy and AI.
» Nabila Ahmed on why we do things.
» Dan Salkey on brands entering their villain era
» On the rise of hotel merch
» The most rejected generation (thanks Claire)
» Has competitive wellness gone too far?
» From brand positioning to place positioning
» It was Dieter Rams’ birthday this week.
» Radar’s upcoming Event with Friends
» 21 things learned from watching people (thanks Joel)
Wanna share your work, ideas or thinking with the community? - drop me a message, and I’ll pop it in the next issue. This is a scrapbook of our ideas, so please open up your brains.
Every week, I’ll try and introduce a member of the community, so we can get to know each other better. If you’re keen to show your face, let me know.
👋 Hi, I’m Lauren Cooper
I’m a Strategy Director/Strategy Person, originally from London, but spent almost 5 years in Australia and couldn’t give up coastal living when I returned to the UK, so now reside on the South Coast in Dorset.
I’m a newbie to independent life (2 months in!) but have worked in strategy for almost 15 years, at a mix of agencies (Haygarth, We Are Social, Isobar Australia) and client side/publishers (Sony Music Entertainment, LADbible)
I had always been tempted by independent life, but took the leap this year after having my daughter last year and wanting (and needing!) the flexibility and also the variety that comes with freelancing.
My biggest project in the last year was having a child and becoming a mother, which really built my project management skills, multitasking capability and the ability to achieve goals on very, very little sleep.
But really, I’m only a couple of months in to independent life and I’ve mostly been working with one agency to help them define their agency proposition, which is unlocking a whole heap of work around their team structure, new internal initiatives, measurement and much more. I love that I can use the more traditional strategy skills across such a range of topics and projects.
I would really love to continue helping smaller and newer agencies and businesses define who they are and what they do, using my brand and strategy skills, but peppered with my operational experience too. I find it really exciting seeing the difference it can make when you get a company onto the same page, and how it can impact the work they do, the new business they pitch for and (hopefully) win, and the impact it has internally creating more cohesive teams.
Things I’m loving right now …
My garden - a very green gardener, I’m learning lots about the botanical world and seeing some of the tiny bulbs I planted in winter pop up as beautiful flowers is very satisfying.
The beach - it’s this time of year when living by the sea is such a dream, from beach pilates and morning dips before work to getting covered in sand playing with my daughter and dog, it’s very good for the soul!
Self Esteem’s new album ‘A Complicated Woman’ which is fantastic.
Say hello to Lauren on Linkedin, or via the Community.
Briefs discovered and curated from across the stratosphere.
Promote your brief - or tell us if you’ve found work via the project.
Freelance Content Strategist with video/youtube exp (Canada)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250523-tag.html
Freelance Brand Strategist with sports exp (London,UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250523-salt.html
Creative Strategist 6mo ftc with luxury exp (London, UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250523-luxury.html
Italian strategist freelance (Italy)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250523-italian.html
Freelance Pharma/Medical Strategist (NYC,USA)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250523-frog.html
Creative Strategist with social and video exp (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250522-video.html
Freelance Strategy Director with NYC culture exp (NYC,USA)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250522-clarepersey.html
Open Call: Strategists (NYC,USA)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250520-nyc.html
Freelance senior brand strategist with sports exp (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250520-love.html
Social Media Strategist (Australia)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250520-healing.html
If you’re a business looking to work with independent strategy people - or want to build out your own virtual community of freelance strategists, across a range of disciplines, get in touch.
Whether it’s sharing your brief directly with our community (no more endless lists of comments on LinkedIn), building a bench, or dropping your freelancers in to our space so they can also benefit from the community - we’re open to collaborate. Drop me a note.
That’s all for this week.
mk✌️
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