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I’ve long pondered over whether strategists need to have lived-experience of a situation, in order to effectively work on a brief - or if our role is to be truly objective interrogators, by getting deep into the lived experiences of others.
Traditionally, you might expect to see a female strategist on a brief about female reproductive health or a male strategist to work on a brief for beard trimmers - should the same expectation stretch to pharma briefs - do you need to have a condition to work on a drug campaign? Do you have to have experienced foster care to work on a brief for encouraging foster parents to sign up? Do you have to have died to work on a project for undertakers?
Does having a personal point of view add to our effectiveness as a strategist, or does it risk clouding our judgement? If we know a category all too well, does it mean we might fall into the traps of doing the same as every other brand? Does some level of naivety offer a benefit - because it means we need to go and seek out the answers, spend time with those who do have lived experience to gather, curate and synthesise inputs from others?
I’ve had the fortune of speaking to a number of people this week about the topic of diversity issues within strategy - and it’s clear to everyone there’s an issue. Not enough diversity of representation, background, experience or thinking.
Our lived experience absolutely informs the way we interpret, challenge or frame things. But it also brings biases and blindspots.
Should strategists have an opinion, or be a tabula rasa, an independent objective arbiter? Or is not having an opinion just as much of a problem? Not saying anything is often a choice. Should we be pushing back, standing up and driving things that are aligned to our values and world-view?
I believe we should have a point of view.
I believe our role is to tell clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
I believe our role is to both to help those with less of a voice speak up and be heard, whilst also having a point of view. We are not scientists. Our work is not a clinical study, but an exercise in combining rational and emotional.
But I also know that my view might be in opposition to others.
And I’m okay with that.
That’s one of the reasons why this place exists, as a platform for our community, the breadth of its voices and opinions. It’s a space to be both objective and subjective.
But I do know for a fact, that there are so so so many opinions and views and experiences and values within this cohort we’ve created - that to not welcome and amplify them would be wrong.
So I’m grateful to be handing over the newsletter this week to a fellow Outsider - and in the coming months, I want to continue to do that, let you use this as platform for your views too.
In this huddle, we invite you to bring your own experiences of productisation or systemising your work. We'd love to hear both positive and negative stories - where does it work? Where does it not? Does it build resiliance for turbulent times? Or does it commoditise your work?
We'll spend the first 50% sharing, listening to people's examples and stories - and the second 50% debating and discussing the pros and cons, pitfalls and opportunities.
Free for Outside Perspective members.
Thanks to Pior from adaily for taking us through their AI platform this week.
If you missed the demo, there’s a recording here. If you’d like access to the freelancer pricing and exclusive weekly tier for OP members, drop me a DM here on in the slack.
👋 Hi, I’m DuBose
I’ve been a strategist across creative, media and consulting in the UK and US. I was previously Head of Strategy at VaynerMedia EMEA before going into independent life, first co-founding and growing a consultancy called Rival, before finally settling into freelancing and my current venture, New Classic.
I’ve previously worked on clients from NatWest, Volvo, TikTok, Reebok and UNICEF down to startups like RTGS, Mettle and Old Mutual Bank - doing a mix of integrated and creative / media only work. My last year has been more agency focused, delivering communications and creative strategy through agencies for clients like UPS and Coinbase, as well as brand positioning for startups and SMBs.
My aim for this year has been to establish New Classic, with a focus on brand creation, creative strategy and comms planning. I founded New Classic, supported by a network of people I’ve loved working with, on the belief that smaller micro agencies have an opportunity to amplify their impact through technology over headcount. Development has involved creating new frameworks and a technology stack that consider how strategy can be augmented by AI and meaningful data.
We call the platform ‘Airgo’ and so far it uses share of search monitoring, cultural trend synthesis and social listening to help speed up the way we create competitive reviews, consumer insights and strategic foundations. I’m excited to see where the more competitive ‘middle of the strategic process’ AI space filled by Springboard, Waldo, Daily and others develops, what can be done when synthetic data providers get mature APIs and what new data sources can be found. If you’re thinking about similar work, I’d love to share notes.
I’m a firm believer in thought leadership as a new business engine (enthusiasm varies at times), so I publish a weekly newsletter called Sunday Strategy (on Substack and LinkedIn), which also lives on Spotify / Apple as a podcast and TikTok / YouTube as micro-content. You can only spend so much time at Vayner before the content factory embeds as a way of life. The newsletter has a combination of news, trends, data points from Airgo, thought pieces and talkable ads, so I’m usually reading everything from the NYT and Wall Street Journal to Substack (The Next Big Think, Snaxshot, Link in Bio, We Have the Data and others). If you want to share recommendations for weekly reads, takeover a bit to publish a story or share tips on content performance, let me know.
Matthew has kindly offered to let me take over to share a sample of some of the stories and ads from recent newsletters below!
When Shopping Bots Have to Have It
Designer Vandy the Pink’s latest collaboration with Asics, a candy themed Gel Nimbus 10.1, has shown the dangers of automated shopping. The collaboration was priced at $30k to deter reseller’s automated bots with a discount code being shared by the designer to reduce the price to $180. However, lacking the context of the code, the high price didn’t dissuade two buyers’ automated bots, who purchased the shoes at ‘full price’. The price disparity highlights the risk of automated shopping, either by bots or agents lacking context for our shopping decisions. Deciding when enough is enough is hard enough for human shoppers, let alone automated technology acting on our behalf.
2.) Warner Bros. Discovery Split Shows Streaming’s Shift to Speciality
Fresh on the heels of streaming service HBO Max’s ‘self-effacing’ rebrand back from ‘Max’, the companies behind the platform (Warner Bros. and Discovery) have decided to split after two years together. The split is reportedly driven by a lack of users engaging with both HBO’s dramatic content and WB movies, as well as Discovery’s more reality based fare. The theory that an ‘All You Can Eat’ streaming offering could compete with Netflix and others has given way to a specialized strategy, as you’ll have to go to two separate places to stream ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Naked and Afraid’ from now on.
1.) ‘Summer Like It's 1999’ - Instacart:
Delivery firm Instacart’s latest campaign goes deep in the 1990s summer nostalgia in a way that will make millennial parents want some pizza rolls and a Capri Sun. Despite recent news that Millennial culture is old enough to be featured in museums and history curriculum, most parents of a certain age will still feel like the summer of 1999 isn’t that far away.
The brand taps into this with two ads soundtracked by 90s artists, including Third Eye Blind, and featuring products straight out of 90’s childhood memories. The ads feature parents bonding with their children over 90s clothes, toys and hobbies, which given how the NYT has declared ‘everything Millennial is cool again’ - feels timely. Supporting the activity, the brand has taken a page from UK retailer Tesco’s anniversary campaign, and rolled back prices to 1999 levels on items (up to the CPI difference of 47%). With brands like Neutrogena highlighting how far away the 90s actually are, Instacart shows that while time passes, memories of summer aren’t that far away.
2.) ‘Music Gets Your Business Moving’ - Soundtrack:
Little things make a big impact when it comes to real life commercial experiences and audio is an integral, but sometimes overlooked, part of it. Between the complexities of use and licensing, as well as other concerns, music can be taken for granted.
Business streaming music service Soundtrack tries to raise the business profile of music in their latest ad, featuring a dancer working his way through several business environments without musical accompaniment. The squeak of his heels and dissonance of his moves, similar to TikToks of people singing with headphones on, gives music’s role in creating an in-store vibe a potentially bigger stage.
MK’s note — Thanks to Dubose for sharing some of his thinking from this week. Hit me up if you’re keen to do a community takeover.
» One for the strategists in the room - Zoe Scaman’s latest drop takes on the systemic challenges within our industry of strategy today. Potentially polarising, provocative for sure, but with some clear ‘what this means and what next’ takes, Zoe suggest a deep departure from the traditional craft into something more embracing of the realistic chaotic nature of the world. A long but interesting read.
» Anthropologist explores Coffee Shops, Third Places and Design in her essay on the developing nature of community, spaces and connection.
» (aka Sabeena Lone) writes about her experiences of “going viral” in her recent LinkedIn post.
» Creativity Benchmark. Which model is better at redefining and elevating your campaign ideas? From the folks behind Springboards.ai in collab with a handful of industry bodies.
» Virtue/Vice Media have published their Guide to Culture (behind a free registration wall here if you want to subscribe, or directly downloadable here.)
» shares a take on “Share of Model”, discussing Jellyfish’s concept and what it might mean.
» has been letting an AI give her coaching - her story is here.
» shares her insights from a year of independence.
» Join author Andy Crysell presenting themes from his new book, Selling The Night, exploring what happens when club culture meets brands, advertising and the creative industries. (Thanks Jim)
» Mark Reid steps down from WPP
» New report from Film & TV Charity shows issues with isolation for freelancers and independents - adjacency with our world of course.
» Industry faces fears around AI (Thanks Sandeep)
» What is Apple innovating in? (TLDR, not much)
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.
Briefs discovered and curated from across the stratosphere.
Promote your brief - or tell us if you’ve found work via the project.
Creative Strategist (Freelance) with sports exp (US)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-sports.html
Freelance social strategist (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-shepherd.html
Danish & Swedish-speaking creative freelancer (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-nordic.html
Senior Brand Strategist (freelance) fluent in dutch and english (NL)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-nl.html
Associate Director of Brand Strategy (Remote/USA/Canada)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-huge.html
freelance growth strategist (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-elements.html
freelance brand strategist with booze exp (UK)
https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20250611-beer.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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