October 21, 2020 • 39 mins
Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of the Ad Council, drops by to share best practices on how to lead during a crisis. Lisa talks through how the Ad Council prioritizes speed over perfection in getting out public safety messaging during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, and how the organization pivoted to open-source briefs to bring ideas to life quickly. We learn more about the history of the Ad Council, how the ad community can get involved, and more on Lisa's career journey to leading the Ad Council's industry-defining agenda.
Plus, Nate Nichols, Co-founder of Allyship and Action, stops by to share information about Allyship & Action's State of Equity Summit on October 29-30. To learn more and register visit: www.allyshipandaction.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
What's up on Laura Curni And I'm Alexa Kristen. Welcome
back to at Landia episode two. So we have a
great guest this episode, Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of
the AD Council. But before we get into the interview,
we want to thank the ad Landia community. What welcome
back tweets, the emails, the reposts. You gotta listen to
(00:32):
this show. Amazing, it felt so good to be back.
Didn't feel good to be back. It's awesome. And big
shout out to Sara Fisher over at Axios for the
awesome coverage on the relaunch of the show. If you're
not already subscribing to Axios Media Trends newsletter, make sure
you go check that out. One of the best newsletters
in the business. So Alexa, with that, let's get into
the interview. So we got in touch with Lisa actually
(00:54):
at the beginning of COVID to do this episode because
what the AD Council was doing was they were quickly responding,
working with the White House and the CDC to get
the message out about COVID safety, health, et cetera. And
I think what's really important, and Laura, you said this
to me was that there was such a focus on
speed over perfection. And I think that that message for
(01:18):
the industry and actually all of us as individuals. Sometimes
we grind, right, we grind getting it perfect, but that's
not the point. Always point is just get it out,
start getting a response, start gathering community, start getting your
audience rallied. And I think that the AD Council is
one of the most important organizations in the industry and
(01:39):
actually in the country to get things out into the
world that are like critical societal issues. So really excited
about this interview. Over to Visa Sherman. We'll be right
back and we're back if Lisa Sherman, President and CEO
(02:02):
of AD Council. So excited to have Lisa on the show. Welcome, Welcome, Lisa.
I'm as excited to be here as you guys are
to have me. Thank you so much, Lisa. We have
so much to talk about. We want to turn it
over to you to share with at Landia. What AD
Council is A bit of a crash course on the
(02:22):
history of it, um and and sort of where you
see it going. Terrific. It's my favorite topic. Um So
you know, I like to think of the ad Council
as the place where creativity and causes converge, and our
mission is really to use the power of communications to
take on the most important issues facing our country and
(02:44):
our roots. Interestingly enough, go all the way back to
World War Two when the country was about to go
to war. Was right after Pearl Harbor Um and FDR
actually understood the power of communications and called all of
the leaders of the advertising community to Washington to brief
them on the war effort, and then he convinced them
(03:06):
to develop advertising campaigns to get the country behind the
war effort. So things like war bonds came out of
that initial effort. It used to be called the War
Advertising Council. Actually UM Loose lips sink ships a very
famous ad um that came out of that period of time,
and they use the model that we use today. Agencies
(03:29):
and content creators developed the work. Media companies made sure
that the messages were seen by by the right people
and brands where they're supporting them UM, And that's exactly
what we're doing today. Obviously, they're way more content creators,
way more media platforms. Brands are playing very different roles UM.
(03:51):
But that's what we do so, Lisa, fast forward to
here you are as the CEO of the AD Council
during a global pandemic. Can you take us through with
the last few months have been like for the AD
Council was wired for times like this, that's what we do. UM.
When we heard the day that the WHO declared COVID
nineteen a pandemic, we were on the phone with our
(04:12):
partners at the CDC and and HHS asking what we
could do, because it was very clear early on that
we needed to get fact based, tangible information into the
hands of the American public so they knew what to do,
they knew how to take care of themselves. UM. And
so literally we reached out to a couple of our
(04:33):
partners are our friends at NBCUniversal, our friends at Viacom,
CBS UM and over a weekend we stood up two
massive campaigns that we got into the market in five days.
They all focused on early days. UM, social distancing, a
term we've never heard of really, UM, handwashing and hygiene
(04:57):
focusing on high risk poppy relations people that were more
at risk of getting sick. UM and UM. Yeah, it
was an extraordinary It was an extraordinary effort. And you know,
I'm sort of keeping my little list of sort of
a COVID playbook, because you know, you don't like planned
to be in a crisis or a pandemic, but speed,
(05:18):
to me is one of the most important things that
has to happen when something like this strikes. And um,
we I think even surprised ourselves frankly at how quickly
we were able to get it done. How are you
guys actually able to produce this stuff? You know, the
the creative shops within both of those media companies handled
(05:40):
all of the production. UM. I know that one one
round of work that we did were you know Dr
Fauci talking to to camera, um. Dr Brex talking to camera.
They were shooting that stuff at the White House and
and literally just sending it via email to to folks,
and that's how it got done. I mean, it is crazy.
(06:00):
And then on the Viacom CBS side, they developed a
really brilliant platform called Alone Together, really targeting young people.
Um they used their own talent who were all calling
in from home and shooting stuff on their phones. Um.
They use great animation. And I think that the trick
(06:20):
that allowed us to scale so quickly is that we
did everything open source. So we created a set of assets.
We then said, but if you don't want to use
those assets, if you're a media, if you have a
platform that you want to use, we'll send you the scripts.
You can shoot your own stuff um or we'll give
you a creative brief and you can do your own
(06:42):
thing as long as it's true to the brief. And
people were just grabbing stuff and wanting to help. It
was like everybody just wanted a job. And everybody took
that those assets and those the ability to do their
own thing and just started producing tons of work and
getting it out there. Like think in the first two
weeks we had over fifty million dollars and donated media
(07:04):
an hour, up over two hundred million in the first
eight weeks, and you've reached like billions and billions of
impressions and it's phenomenal. I mean, when you're talking about
the ad Council and Laura and I have been in
the industry for a while now, is that something that's
going to last post COVID, This idea of open source,
(07:24):
Like how do you take an issue and actually create
open source you know, content creative? Well, I certainly think
for the work that we do. I am all in
on that idea because you know, we would traditionally work
with a single agency UM to produce work, which was
always fantastic. I mean, Smokey Bear has been around for
(07:46):
seventy five years and FCB has been doing that work
for seventy five years, which is extraordinary when you think
about it. UM. But when you need to scale fast
and you need to move quickly, I think the ability
to give people the tools to do it themselves, UM,
as long as it's true to the brief, why not.
(08:08):
It's interesting because unfortunately I don't think COVID is going
to be our last public health crisis, right, and so
speed is now a new metric UM. But it's like
absolutely critical. It's truly about people's lives. I think the
other thing is that UM, the AD Council is that
place where competitive brands, competitive agencies, competitive media companies really
(08:32):
always come together because there is a higher calling and
a higher purpose. And I think that you know, for CBS,
viacom and and NBCUniversal to produce things that were brand agnostic, like,
it wasn't about getting the credit. It was about helping
solve a massive problem. And that's part of the the
(08:53):
amazing secret sauce of the AD Council and this industry
when we come together, um to to work on these issues.
Are there best practices as you look back over the
course of the last few months that you might offer
to brands who are still sort of in this space
of figuring out when is the right time to step
in with what message. I have really been like listening
(09:17):
to others and and trying to absorb and learn and
and so just just observe our own teams and what
we're doing. And I do have a couple of things
that I'm certainly happy to share. I mean, one of
the things I will share is that people should be
sharing more, you know, um, we can all learn from
each other. And and there's no pride of authorship in
some of this stuff. Quick decisions, not time for perfection,
(09:40):
The ability to be agile, the ability to pivot. I mean,
we were talking to the CDC every single day, and
on any given day there was a pivot and we
would have to figure out, literally in a phone call,
what we were going to do the next day to
adopt to either a new set of messaging or an
adjustment to a message like that stuff we never thought
we could do before. So speed is critical. I think
(10:04):
what's so interesting is that as we all adjust to
a new reality, we might reveal a better reality. We agree,
what's the thing that surprised you or your team the
most in this process? You know? I think, look, we
all have process right, and our processes are especially at
a seventy five year old company organization like ours, like
they're very entrenched, and we tell ourselves all the reasons
(10:27):
why we can't change the process until you have to,
and all of a sudden, you just got to get
stuff done. You know, you don't have to get it
approved by ten people. Two people say let's go, and
you go. Now, look, I mean that's what happened, and
I don't think you can survive in that mode, you know,
when you're sort of back to normal. But but there's
(10:49):
a version of that that has to go forward. How
do you start to set the agenda and what you're
focusing on. So look, I mean, you know, if if
your mission, our mission is to take on the most
boordant issues facing the country, and we know there are
no shortage of issues, it's mostly really about how do
you prioritize the ones that warrant the resources and the
(11:10):
talents of this industry to get behind. And so, you know,
many many people come to us with issues. But we
we have an Advisory Committee UM, which is really like
a think tank that's made up of educators, social scientists,
UM policy people that are studying, educators that are studying
(11:31):
what these issues are, and then they help us really
think about is the issue of big enough scale right?
Is it is? It doesn't warrant us really sort of
convening the industry behind it. Is it something that communications
can really make a difference in moving the needle? Is
there a specific target audience? Is there a specific call
(11:52):
to action? What are you asking people to do? We also,
I think and I think one of the reasons that
the ACT Council is so successful, especially in times like this,
is that we are a nonpartisan organization, you know, and
I like to say that while I don't believe any
of these issues are political issues, I believe almost every
issue today seems to get politicized in some way, and
(12:16):
so we're sort of the honest broker. If it comes
from the ad Council, people understand that it's science based,
it's fact based. We're able to speak to both sides
and have this amazing ability to thread the needle on
issues that can be difficult. And so we take all
of that into consideration, um and then we make some
(12:37):
decisions about what we're gonna what we're going to support.
On any given year, we'll probably take on two to
three new issues, and many of the issues we have
we've been running for a long time because the other
thing is we don't take we don't do short term
stuff like our goal is to solve the problem, and
when you're trying to change behavior, that doesn't happen over
now stop amazing for every marketer out there, If you're
(13:02):
really truly trying to solve something, it's usually not going
to be a short term thing. You've got to be in.
So we make commitments for a minimum of three years.
When we take an issue on, we know we're taking
it on for a minimum of three years. And then,
as I said, many of our our issues have been
around for ten twenty more more than that. How do
(13:23):
people currently get involved in AD Council supporting AD Council
and what are things that you've been thinking about that
might be different than the way things have been done,
But you're you're very open to potentially exploring. So I think, look,
the model really still holds. We are comprised of every
aspect of the ecosystem of our industry. So we've got
(13:45):
agencies who want to help and be assigned an issue. UM.
And when we get a new issue and we're thinking
about taking a new issue on, we think about who
would be the right agency to do that. And we've
broadened our portfolio of agencies so much in the last
several years. UM, as we're talking here, I think going
(14:07):
forward we might think about multiple agencies or other content
creation partners who can participate in a more open sourced way. UM,
we look at how do we develop the right media
strategy and get these messages to the right person at
the right place at the right time. If you have
a platform, we would love to work with you in
(14:29):
helping to get our messages out. And then of course, UM,
we're always looking at innovation, and UM we're working you know,
just in COVID, like two or three weeks in we
created the first private marketplace for nonprofits with partners like
Cadrion and Engine and the Trade Desk who helped us
(14:49):
stand this thing up and was we're I think we've
served I don't know, a hundred million oppressions already all
donated like that something that we talked about doing, and
we knew that it would really be helpful to us
in our longer term strategy. But again, quickness, speed, necessity.
We got it done in two weeks. UM. So I
(15:12):
think if you have ideas, um and then if there
are certain issues, like Laura, you and I have talked,
if there are issues they you and your team are
interested in, we have lots of groups that sort of
deepen those issues. If it's something around climate change or immigration,
we will find ways to plug people in. Because our
model doesn't work unless we've got lots of hands on deck.
(15:33):
How are you measuring impact coming out of activity that
the ADD Council's leading every single campaign, before we even
presented for approval, we lay out what's success look like.
How do we define whether we're gonna really move the
needle on this issue? So it tends to be very
issue specific. Um. You know, just recent example, early days
(15:56):
of COVID, our goal was to get as many people
to this CDC website to get information on how to
take care of themselves. Um. And so we were able
to track what we were able to do there, you know,
with the media that we had and the scale that
we were able to quickly create. I can tell you
how many people went to the website, probably thirty million people.
(16:20):
But I do think some of that did help to
begin flattening the curve that we've seen. But I look
at Love has No Labels. I think about a much
bigger impact into the zeit geist of the country. How
are you looking at that? I mean, if you have
the think tank and the data scientists and folks like
that are are you are you looking at the lasting
(16:44):
fabric of a conversation that you're creating as well? So
for Love has No Labels, I mean that is true
behavior chains right, Um? How do I first of all,
am I aware of my own unconscious by us? Um?
Does that allow me to think differently with that awareness
(17:05):
about how I see other people? And that we're really
tracking and have been tracking over the last five years
through uh continuous tracking study, asking these very specific questions
and have seen double digit increases in in that. But
look here we are. I mean, xenophobia is rearing. It's horrible,
you know, ugly head um, And so we have a
(17:28):
we have a lot of work to do. Are there
insights are best practices that you can share that brands
should consider can consider when they think about taking on
initiatives that have that level of impact that go far
beyond transaction. To me, it all starts with values, like
I think you have to you have to be very
grounded in values and the sense of purpose of an organization.
(17:51):
Like if you don't have a cultural compass that guides you, um,
then you're not really able to authentic lee fulfill this
idea of purpose driven marketing. Um. I'm much more about
substance over form, Like I feel like you've gotta walk
the talk. You've got to put your money where your
(18:12):
mouth is, And I think, um, more and more brands
are starting to do that. You know, I always think
about Beth Compstock when she says, if you see a
better way to do things, you have an obligation to
do them. And I think people in our industry are
looking for ways to give back that go beyond our
daily works. So, Lisa, how are you seeing people collaborating
right now? Well? Look, I mean I really feel like
(18:32):
the way we've been able to show up in the
last eight weeks has set a new bar for US
as an organization. And I think this idea of coalitions
and people coming together. I think this idea of open
source and brand agnostic work that allows things to scale quickly. UM.
(18:55):
I I think that UM, you know, even for us.
Like somebody called the other day and they wanted to
know if this was an AD Council thing, and I
heard what they were doing, and they had already put
a lot of the pieces together, and I'm like, we
don't need to own this, but if there's a place
in this group that you're putting together where we can
add some value that's not being covered, like, I'll sign
(19:16):
up for that. You know, it doesn't have to be
all owned and operated all the time anymore, UM, which
is new for us and I think it may be
new for others. And so I think there's something in
all of those elements UM that I believe we will
take forward and that will allow us as an industry
to do more and and drive even more impact UM
(19:38):
and to do it at a much larger scale. I'm
totally thinking there's an AD Council at Landia Collaboration. So
we're in here. It's cause Landia I can see it.
I love see it. But Lisa, if we can UM
pivot for a second, because it feels like this is
something you've been doing the entirety of your career. UM.
(20:00):
In a bit of our research, reading an article, UM
that was written by your alma mater at Dickinson, we
found this paragraph that I was like, Alexa, I'm going
to read this on on the show. UM. So if
if you're just a second, UM. Realizing that the newly
founded w n b A and the victorious US women's
soccer team had raised the public's awareness of women's sports,
(20:22):
this former Dickinson student athlete, which I found out you
played basketball and lacrosse, UM, took a calculated risk and
co founded a women's sports marketing agency. It was a
big leap after seventeen years of the same company. But
I learned at Dickinson that you learned by doing, and
that when something is right, you feel it in your gut.
It sounds like you've never deviated from that. Lisa, can
(20:45):
you just take us for a second on the journey
from founding a women's sports marketing agency, UM, fast forward
to CEO of ad Counsel. Well, I will say about
my career that it was not a linear career at all.
But what I will say in sort of looking backwards,
because that's the only way to sort of figure out
(21:06):
where the dots are connected. Um. Every twist and turn,
every up and down, every success and failure led to
the next thing. And so when people ask me, you
know what advice I have for them if they're starting out,
I'm like, gotta take risks you've got. You've got to
change it up and shake it up, because you just
stay in the same thing for too long, you're just
(21:29):
not going to grow. UM. So I left the company
after seventeen years. UM and I followed my passion, which
was sports, and at a time when women's sports was
really emerging. Um and and you could just see the
enthusiasm and the excitement for really in the piece that
you just read, um around the Olympics and the w
(21:51):
n B A and um these women athletes who are
these heroes for so many of us. UM And I thought,
we've used sports it's as a vehicle to reach men
through advertising and marketing forever. But women are making all
the so many of the decisions in the household, Like
why wouldn't we use women's sports as a vehicle two
(22:16):
for brands to reach their audiences. So that was the idea.
We went out and we you know, tested it with
a bunch of people. We raised some venture money, and
we uh launched the Women's Sports Network, and UM, it
was the first time in my life that I did
something where I lined my passion with the work that
(22:37):
I did. And honestly, that was a cocktail that was
completely intoxicating. UM. I worked harder than I'd ever worked,
and I was more energized and excited than I'd ever been. UM,
and we had some great clients. UM, and we were
cooking along pretty well. That was sort of Internet one point. Oh,
(22:59):
and fortunately we got caught up in nine eleven. Nine
eleven happened the world changed. Um. You know, when you're
like the new thing that brands are trying in their budgets,
it's the first thing to go sort of like a
moment like now, like things are getting cut. And it
was very clear we were going to make it work,
and so we had to shut our business down and
(23:21):
it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.
But honestly, I look back and even in that moment,
I had zero regrets. I learned so much about myself
and about this idea that I could never ever again
work at a place where I didn't have that. I
didn't feel that thing in my gut, and so um
I went on from there. I spent a couple of
(23:42):
years at an agency um doing new business development and
account management. But I got a call um to uh
see if I was interested in launching a new cable
network at Viacom called Logo, which was going to be
the first ever AD supported cable network on the at
it targeting the LGBT audience. And I thought it sounds
(24:05):
like an amazing job, but I have no TV experience,
and I told the recruiter I wasn't sure I was
the right person, and he said we should meet anyway.
So we had our breakfast, and it turns out that
they were looking for somebody who could build a brand,
was entrepreneurial, could run a business um and do new
business development. And the guy who was gonna be developing
(24:27):
all the content and the TV shows was somebody who
was a genius and we were going to partner together.
And I got the job. And that took this notion
of combining my passion with my work and put it
on steroids because to do something that was that groundbreaking
and that important um and and for me um as
(24:47):
a gay woman, like it was just I can't even
begin to describe to you what it felt like when
we turned that. We literally flipped the switch and saw
it on the TV. It's amazing. UM. So I did that,
and again it was a very mission driven culture that
we built, and we really gave gave people a home
based on television for the first time. Um. We were
(25:08):
running a very successful business. And nine years later I
got a call from another recruiter about this thing called
a council. And I will tell you that day, I
literally felt lightning run through my body when they mentioned
this because I wasn't that involved in the act council.
I mean, I knew what it was, of course, but
I thought, wow, I could use the power of media
(25:30):
and marketing and advertising, not just to work on one
issue against a single audience, but I could work on
many issues. And I decided that day I had to
have this job. And I literally was like I set
up a war room in my house. I had pictures
of all the people on the search committee. I was
(25:51):
doing deep dives into the history of the ad Council.
I just was all in and luckily I got the job.
And I and I will say I say it all
the time, I do have the very best job on
the planet for me to align all the work that
I've ever done. I worked at a media company, I
worked at an agency, I worked at a brand, I
started my own business, and now I get to take
(26:13):
all that experience, UM and use it all with our
amazing industry to make the world a better place. Like
it just doesn't get better than that. The article from
Dickinson goes on to quote you as saying when you
were the CEO and co founder of the Women's Sports Network,
every day was electrifying. She remembers, I felt there was
a purpose in my work. I like, I get chills
(26:37):
reading that because and and just hearing the story you
just went through. Because it's so evident, UM that you
never looked back. And I think, you know, for Alexa
and I and I'm assuming the community that's listening to
this episode, UM, if we could all be so fortunate,
UM to have that, Uh wow, you know, it's just incredible,
(26:59):
So thank you for sharing that story with us. What
would the name of your book. Bay, huh, the Sherman Eader.
That's what my called me. Can I just tell you
that's what my team calls me, the Sherman. Really we
need to get you a T shirt that Sherman Eader. No,
but you can answer that question. I want to answer
(27:19):
for you. There's a there's a phrase that I use
and I think I would use it on the book.
It's a boat that doesn't rock, doesn't move mm hmm.
I love that, And so Lisa. Our final question, which
is when we ask all of our guests, what is
your kill? By d I y, if you could kill anything,
(27:41):
buy anything, or do anything yourself in the industry or
in the world, what would it be? Guy's a limit? Wow,
Well this won't surprise you. But I think what I
would kill is all of the vitriol and hate that
is showing up on social media. It's just horrible. And
(28:02):
I think these social platforms have done a lot of
good and they've connected a lot of people, but honestly,
what lives there um uh in addition is just awful
and I would kill it if I could. What would
you buy? Well, I really want to set of golf
clubs because I've just decided I'm going to take up golf.
But um, I think what I you know, if this
(28:22):
has taught me this sort of stay at home thing,
I buy time like you can't like, I just would
love to have. I've enjoyed the time at home, which
I've never really got very much of before. I have
enjoyed the time with my family, um and, so I
would buy more time. I think that's one of the
best answers we've ever actually had on this show. Is
(28:44):
that right? Yeah? I think so, And it's uh, I
couldn't agree more. I'm with you on time. Let's double
down on time. What would you do yourself? Well, you know,
Laura at Alexa like that women's sports network idea was
ahead of its time. Let's bring it back. And I
really really really would love to find a way to
do more with girls in sports, um and and and
(29:06):
figure out the right value proposition. I'd probably do a
one for one model now, because of course we can,
you know, so with every dollar we'd raise, we'd give
a dollar to you know, Girls Inc. Or some you know,
the Women's Sports Foundation or whomever. But um we got
to get with the fact that when girls play sports,
you learn I always said I learned more life lessons
(29:28):
playing sports than in any other place. Agreed, Well, this
has been an amazing conversation. Thank you for the time, Lisa. Lisa,
if people want to get in touch with you to
talk about all things AD Council, how can they do that, Well,
you can email me at l Sherman at AD Council
dot org, or you can find me on LinkedIn or
(29:50):
on Twitter or on Facebook. I'm pretty much everywhere. Be
pretty easy to track down. I think you're gonna have
to change your email to Shermanator. We so appreciate the
time and insight you shared. Thank you guys so much.
It's been a pleasure. Thanks so much. Thanks Lisa, so
thank you Lisa Sherman for coming on the show the Sherminader.
(30:13):
We're going to call her the Sherminader from now on,
and we're gonna do Germinader shirts. Yeah, it's totally going
to be part of our capsule collection merch drop coming soon.
But Lisa had a great note at the top of
the conversation talking about the need for speed um in
times of crisis and really thinking about speed over perfection
and curiously at your perspective as a CMO and thinking
(30:33):
about her notes and how to do that really relying
on open source briefs, thinking about collaboration, getting outside of
the roster of agencies and partners that the AD Council
had worked with in the day to day in an
effort to do that. What are your thoughts as a
CMO on that being a future model that we work within.
I think it's really critical. Having that center of gravity
(30:55):
that your brand is always pivoting around is critical. And
I think you know, we talked about quote cause marketing,
cause there is no such thing as cause marketing anymore.
In my mind, it's what's that center of gravity? What
is your purpose? And then actually pushing yourself and your
organization to find partners to find ideas that are going
(31:19):
to bring a freshness to that perspective is just it's
kind of table stakes now. Um. The other thing that
I think is really interesting. You know, you and I
are always been a fan of the non brief brief.
What's the idea, not the strategy, Who were trying to
really reach or what community are we trying to create?
(31:40):
I think is really critical and this idea of an
open brief briefs that are really focused are great, but
they're also extremely limiting. I think you really got to
this on the Malcolm episode where you really punt at
home what he was saying, which was great, our briefs
actually really limiting us to be thinking in a very
different way. And so times that way is just what's
(32:01):
the obvious thing that needs to be solved, what's the
obvious thing that needs to be said? And so I
think this idea of open brief pushing for new partners,
new ideas is kind of the is the new kind
of I don't want to say normal, it's a new standard.
There's a point in the episode Alexa where Lisa talks
(32:21):
about having a cultural compass, which I believe sums up
what you're saying in terms of having that that center
of gravity to operate from. And when we think about
the idea of an open brief, perhaps we shouldn't be
starting with the objective. We should be leveling up thirty
thousand feet and starting with what is our cultural compass?
And so that is that is something I absolutely am
(32:42):
going to take away from this conversation. Yeah, I love that,
and you know, um, I also think that it's really important,
you know, the Council has been around a long time,
Lisa explained it to us, um and I'm a big
believer right now and the power of institutions like AD Council.
I think they're actually more important right now because what
(33:04):
the AD Council is doing for the industry is actually
giving us that center of gravity, and it's also giving
us this kind of um very overt sense of a
collective consciousness that talk about it being the home base,
the home base in a nonpartisan way, yes, as a
platform for where all brands can operate from. So you
(33:26):
can say, you know, it's so funny because like in
the industry, the AD Council Gala, it's one of the
biggest events in the fall of every year, and you're
gonna say that's a gala. You can say that's an event.
You can say it's fancy, and you can say that
there's all these you know, who's who, who to know
and who's who of the industry there. But the point
(33:47):
of actually gathering right the industry at something like that
is about actually putting a fine point in a moment
in time around that collective consciousness. So I think it's
actually critical that we all especially in a time where
we're dispersed, right, we're dispersed physically, is that we're constantly
always going back to and have a kind of a
(34:10):
center and a central voice. To your point, that's nonpartisan.
That is really galvanizing, that collective consciousness is is critical.
So yeah, as you were saying that really uh connected
with me in terms of thinking about that galat Yes,
at a moment of time, um, but really agenda setting
for the industry. And speaking of agenda setting, we have
(34:32):
Nate Nichols, co founder of Allyship and Action, dropping in
to talk to us about the agenda for next week's
State of Equity Summit on October thirty. Nate, Welcome to Atlantia.
Pe peo peo, peo pew pew. Thanks you appreciate having me. Nate,
tell us what Allyship and Action is, What ally Ship
in Action is as a platform for us to really
(34:53):
understand the different dynamics and experiences of people, UM that
you know, our black, non black lgbt Q plus non
binary understand their experience in our rule as an industry,
to ensure that they feel safe, to ensure that they
feel like they have a home and a place to thrive.
(35:16):
Professionally and be retained and be moded and not feel
like they have to leave. Actually see you know, fifty
years in this industry where they can be promoted and
have a C suite opportunity because to date that doesn't
exist for people in marginalized communities in our industry. And
so our platform exists to really be a space in
place for you know, us to come together to design
(35:39):
ourselves in a better way, to be a platform for
communities that have been marginalized in this industry forever. Now
tell us about the ally Ship and Action event that's
happening next week. So next week we're doing our annual
State of Equity and so this is our annual kick
As summit where we have the CMO of Levi, CMOS Force,
you know, Fernando Machado from Burger King and Popeye's from
(36:02):
rb I. I'm doing a fireside shot with Mark Reid,
you know, to talk about, you know, what he's gonna
do with that thirty billion dollars, talk about what it
means to be a white man in this industry and
have other white men as friends who are making millions
of dollars a year and ask him like, so, what
are you'all and your friends talking about regarding this, like
what do you doing personally and professionally? You know, to
ensure your friends are doing things to make change in
(36:25):
the industry because you are influential and you have an
ability to create change in communities that I don't have
access to, that we don't have access to on this podcast.
So it's really to have those conversations and really have
people who have influence and the ability to make true change,
systemic change to get them to speak on what their
truths are personally and professionally. And that's what next week
(36:46):
is going to be about. So how do people sign up? Yeah,
you go to allyship and action dot com. You click
the sea event details on the in the in the header,
and you roll down and registered. So we're gonna assume
these are not he are conversations. These are real human
conversations with people and leaders in this industry talking about
(37:11):
what they're really going to be doing and as you said,
how they and how we can all be responsible for
the change. So Atlantia, you need to be in this conversation.
It's not optional and to make that happen. Laura, what
are we doing? We are partnering with Allyship and Action
(37:31):
to give away twenty five tickets to next week's summit.
Follow us on Twitter at at Atlantia podcast for more
information and the Allyship and Action is also offering corporate
packages where can organizations find out more. They can go
to the registration page and find a link for the
corporate packs, or just hit us up at Let's connect
at ally shape and Action dot com. The Allyship and
(37:52):
Action Summit is coming to screens everywhere next Thursday and Friday, October, Atlantia.
We'll see you there. And before we forget, we are
two weeks from the election, it's time for good Landia, Atlantia.
We are two weeks out from the general election November three.
Have a voting plan. We are partnering up with the
(38:14):
AD Council to bring you good Landia, which you may
have heard on the episode, evolved from our initial thought
of cause Landia. So big thank you to Lisa Sherman
and team. We are bringing you this message from good Landia.
So for this month of October, we're gonna be totally
focused on voting. Make sure you have a plan to vote. So,
speaking of having a plan, the AD Council developed a
(38:35):
campaign in partnership with Viacom CBS called Vote for Your Life.
It makes it easy for potential voters to register to
vote and make a plan to vote early. If you
want to vote by mail or if you prefer to
drop your ballot off in person at a local drop
box our county election office, time is running out. The
election is just weeks away November three, so request a
(38:56):
ballot in time to be counted. Don't wait, go to
vote real life dot com and make sure you vote.
This is a message from good Landia. Laura hit it
with a list of all of our friends and family
I heart who have been so good to us and
helped us get back on air. Big thank you to
Bob Conal Carter, Andy, Eric Gayle Val, Michael Jen We
(39:19):
appreciate you. Thank you so much for this opportunity. We'll
see you in two weeks.
What's up on Laura Curni And I'm Alexa Kristen. Welcome
back to at Landia episode two. So we have a
great guest this episode, Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of
the AD Council. But before we get into the interview,
we want to thank the ad Landia community. What welcome
back tweets, the emails, the reposts. You gotta listen to
(00:32):
this show. Amazing, it felt so good to be back.
Didn't feel good to be back. It's awesome. And big
shout out to Sara Fisher over at Axios for the
awesome coverage on the relaunch of the show. If you're
not already subscribing to Axios Media Trends newsletter, make sure
you go check that out. One of the best newsletters
in the business. So Alexa, with that, let's get into
the interview. So we got in touch with Lisa actually
(00:54):
at the beginning of COVID to do this episode because
what the AD Council was doing was they were quickly responding,
working with the White House and the CDC to get
the message out about COVID safety, health, et cetera. And
I think what's really important, and Laura, you said this
to me was that there was such a focus on
speed over perfection. And I think that that message for
(01:18):
the industry and actually all of us as individuals. Sometimes
we grind, right, we grind getting it perfect, but that's
not the point. Always point is just get it out,
start getting a response, start gathering community, start getting your
audience rallied. And I think that the AD Council is
one of the most important organizations in the industry and
(01:39):
actually in the country to get things out into the
world that are like critical societal issues. So really excited
about this interview. Over to Visa Sherman. We'll be right
back and we're back if Lisa Sherman, President and CEO
(02:02):
of AD Council. So excited to have Lisa on the show. Welcome, Welcome, Lisa.
I'm as excited to be here as you guys are
to have me. Thank you so much, Lisa. We have
so much to talk about. We want to turn it
over to you to share with at Landia. What AD
Council is A bit of a crash course on the
(02:22):
history of it, um and and sort of where you
see it going. Terrific. It's my favorite topic. Um So
you know, I like to think of the ad Council
as the place where creativity and causes converge, and our
mission is really to use the power of communications to
take on the most important issues facing our country and
(02:44):
our roots. Interestingly enough, go all the way back to
World War Two when the country was about to go
to war. Was right after Pearl Harbor Um and FDR
actually understood the power of communications and called all of
the leaders of the advertising community to Washington to brief
them on the war effort, and then he convinced them
(03:06):
to develop advertising campaigns to get the country behind the
war effort. So things like war bonds came out of
that initial effort. It used to be called the War
Advertising Council. Actually UM Loose lips sink ships a very
famous ad um that came out of that period of time,
and they use the model that we use today. Agencies
(03:29):
and content creators developed the work. Media companies made sure
that the messages were seen by by the right people
and brands where they're supporting them UM, And that's exactly
what we're doing today. Obviously, they're way more content creators,
way more media platforms. Brands are playing very different roles UM.
(03:51):
But that's what we do so, Lisa, fast forward to
here you are as the CEO of the AD Council
during a global pandemic. Can you take us through with
the last few months have been like for the AD
Council was wired for times like this, that's what we do. UM.
When we heard the day that the WHO declared COVID
nineteen a pandemic, we were on the phone with our
(04:12):
partners at the CDC and and HHS asking what we
could do, because it was very clear early on that
we needed to get fact based, tangible information into the
hands of the American public so they knew what to do,
they knew how to take care of themselves. UM. And
so literally we reached out to a couple of our
(04:33):
partners are our friends at NBCUniversal, our friends at Viacom,
CBS UM and over a weekend we stood up two
massive campaigns that we got into the market in five days.
They all focused on early days. UM, social distancing, a
term we've never heard of really, UM, handwashing and hygiene
(04:57):
focusing on high risk poppy relations people that were more
at risk of getting sick. UM and UM. Yeah, it
was an extraordinary It was an extraordinary effort. And you know,
I'm sort of keeping my little list of sort of
a COVID playbook, because you know, you don't like planned
to be in a crisis or a pandemic, but speed,
(05:18):
to me is one of the most important things that
has to happen when something like this strikes. And um,
we I think even surprised ourselves frankly at how quickly
we were able to get it done. How are you
guys actually able to produce this stuff? You know, the
the creative shops within both of those media companies handled
(05:40):
all of the production. UM. I know that one one
round of work that we did were you know Dr
Fauci talking to to camera, um. Dr Brex talking to camera.
They were shooting that stuff at the White House and
and literally just sending it via email to to folks,
and that's how it got done. I mean, it is crazy.
(06:00):
And then on the Viacom CBS side, they developed a
really brilliant platform called Alone Together, really targeting young people.
Um they used their own talent who were all calling
in from home and shooting stuff on their phones. Um.
They use great animation. And I think that the trick
(06:20):
that allowed us to scale so quickly is that we
did everything open source. So we created a set of assets.
We then said, but if you don't want to use
those assets, if you're a media, if you have a
platform that you want to use, we'll send you the scripts.
You can shoot your own stuff um or we'll give
you a creative brief and you can do your own
(06:42):
thing as long as it's true to the brief. And
people were just grabbing stuff and wanting to help. It
was like everybody just wanted a job. And everybody took
that those assets and those the ability to do their
own thing and just started producing tons of work and
getting it out there. Like think in the first two
weeks we had over fifty million dollars and donated media
(07:04):
an hour, up over two hundred million in the first
eight weeks, and you've reached like billions and billions of
impressions and it's phenomenal. I mean, when you're talking about
the ad Council and Laura and I have been in
the industry for a while now, is that something that's
going to last post COVID, This idea of open source,
(07:24):
Like how do you take an issue and actually create
open source you know, content creative? Well, I certainly think
for the work that we do. I am all in
on that idea because you know, we would traditionally work
with a single agency UM to produce work, which was
always fantastic. I mean, Smokey Bear has been around for
(07:46):
seventy five years and FCB has been doing that work
for seventy five years, which is extraordinary when you think
about it. UM. But when you need to scale fast
and you need to move quickly, I think the ability
to give people the tools to do it themselves, UM,
as long as it's true to the brief, why not.
(08:08):
It's interesting because unfortunately I don't think COVID is going
to be our last public health crisis, right, and so
speed is now a new metric UM. But it's like
absolutely critical. It's truly about people's lives. I think the
other thing is that UM, the AD Council is that
place where competitive brands, competitive agencies, competitive media companies really
(08:32):
always come together because there is a higher calling and
a higher purpose. And I think that you know, for CBS,
viacom and and NBCUniversal to produce things that were brand agnostic, like,
it wasn't about getting the credit. It was about helping
solve a massive problem. And that's part of the the
(08:53):
amazing secret sauce of the AD Council and this industry
when we come together, um to to work on these issues.
Are there best practices as you look back over the
course of the last few months that you might offer
to brands who are still sort of in this space
of figuring out when is the right time to step
in with what message. I have really been like listening
(09:17):
to others and and trying to absorb and learn and
and so just just observe our own teams and what
we're doing. And I do have a couple of things
that I'm certainly happy to share. I mean, one of
the things I will share is that people should be
sharing more, you know, um, we can all learn from
each other. And and there's no pride of authorship in
some of this stuff. Quick decisions, not time for perfection,
(09:40):
The ability to be agile, the ability to pivot. I mean,
we were talking to the CDC every single day, and
on any given day there was a pivot and we
would have to figure out, literally in a phone call,
what we were going to do the next day to
adopt to either a new set of messaging or an
adjustment to a message like that stuff we never thought
we could do before. So speed is critical. I think
(10:04):
what's so interesting is that as we all adjust to
a new reality, we might reveal a better reality. We agree,
what's the thing that surprised you or your team the
most in this process? You know? I think, look, we
all have process right, and our processes are especially at
a seventy five year old company organization like ours, like
they're very entrenched, and we tell ourselves all the reasons
(10:27):
why we can't change the process until you have to,
and all of a sudden, you just got to get
stuff done. You know, you don't have to get it
approved by ten people. Two people say let's go, and
you go. Now, look, I mean that's what happened, and
I don't think you can survive in that mode, you know,
when you're sort of back to normal. But but there's
(10:49):
a version of that that has to go forward. How
do you start to set the agenda and what you're
focusing on. So look, I mean, you know, if if
your mission, our mission is to take on the most
boordant issues facing the country, and we know there are
no shortage of issues, it's mostly really about how do
you prioritize the ones that warrant the resources and the
(11:10):
talents of this industry to get behind. And so, you know,
many many people come to us with issues. But we
we have an Advisory Committee UM, which is really like
a think tank that's made up of educators, social scientists,
UM policy people that are studying, educators that are studying
(11:31):
what these issues are, and then they help us really
think about is the issue of big enough scale right?
Is it is? It doesn't warrant us really sort of
convening the industry behind it. Is it something that communications
can really make a difference in moving the needle? Is
there a specific target audience? Is there a specific call
(11:52):
to action? What are you asking people to do? We also,
I think and I think one of the reasons that
the ACT Council is so successful, especially in times like this,
is that we are a nonpartisan organization, you know, and
I like to say that while I don't believe any
of these issues are political issues, I believe almost every
issue today seems to get politicized in some way, and
(12:16):
so we're sort of the honest broker. If it comes
from the ad Council, people understand that it's science based,
it's fact based. We're able to speak to both sides
and have this amazing ability to thread the needle on
issues that can be difficult. And so we take all
of that into consideration, um and then we make some
(12:37):
decisions about what we're gonna what we're going to support.
On any given year, we'll probably take on two to
three new issues, and many of the issues we have
we've been running for a long time because the other
thing is we don't take we don't do short term
stuff like our goal is to solve the problem, and
when you're trying to change behavior, that doesn't happen over
now stop amazing for every marketer out there, If you're
(13:02):
really truly trying to solve something, it's usually not going
to be a short term thing. You've got to be in.
So we make commitments for a minimum of three years.
When we take an issue on, we know we're taking
it on for a minimum of three years. And then,
as I said, many of our our issues have been
around for ten twenty more more than that. How do
(13:23):
people currently get involved in AD Council supporting AD Council
and what are things that you've been thinking about that
might be different than the way things have been done,
But you're you're very open to potentially exploring. So I think, look,
the model really still holds. We are comprised of every
aspect of the ecosystem of our industry. So we've got
(13:45):
agencies who want to help and be assigned an issue. UM.
And when we get a new issue and we're thinking
about taking a new issue on, we think about who
would be the right agency to do that. And we've
broadened our portfolio of agencies so much in the last
several years. UM, as we're talking here, I think going
(14:07):
forward we might think about multiple agencies or other content
creation partners who can participate in a more open sourced way. UM,
we look at how do we develop the right media
strategy and get these messages to the right person at
the right place at the right time. If you have
a platform, we would love to work with you in
(14:29):
helping to get our messages out. And then of course, UM,
we're always looking at innovation, and UM we're working you know,
just in COVID, like two or three weeks in we
created the first private marketplace for nonprofits with partners like
Cadrion and Engine and the Trade Desk who helped us
(14:49):
stand this thing up and was we're I think we've
served I don't know, a hundred million oppressions already all
donated like that something that we talked about doing, and
we knew that it would really be helpful to us
in our longer term strategy. But again, quickness, speed, necessity.
We got it done in two weeks. UM. So I
(15:12):
think if you have ideas, um and then if there
are certain issues, like Laura, you and I have talked,
if there are issues they you and your team are
interested in, we have lots of groups that sort of
deepen those issues. If it's something around climate change or immigration,
we will find ways to plug people in. Because our
model doesn't work unless we've got lots of hands on deck.
(15:33):
How are you measuring impact coming out of activity that
the ADD Council's leading every single campaign, before we even
presented for approval, we lay out what's success look like.
How do we define whether we're gonna really move the
needle on this issue? So it tends to be very
issue specific. Um. You know, just recent example, early days
(15:56):
of COVID, our goal was to get as many people
to this CDC website to get information on how to
take care of themselves. Um. And so we were able
to track what we were able to do there, you know,
with the media that we had and the scale that
we were able to quickly create. I can tell you
how many people went to the website, probably thirty million people.
(16:20):
But I do think some of that did help to
begin flattening the curve that we've seen. But I look
at Love has No Labels. I think about a much
bigger impact into the zeit geist of the country. How
are you looking at that? I mean, if you have
the think tank and the data scientists and folks like
that are are you are you looking at the lasting
(16:44):
fabric of a conversation that you're creating as well? So
for Love has No Labels, I mean that is true
behavior chains right, Um? How do I first of all,
am I aware of my own unconscious by us? Um?
Does that allow me to think differently with that awareness
(17:05):
about how I see other people? And that we're really
tracking and have been tracking over the last five years
through uh continuous tracking study, asking these very specific questions
and have seen double digit increases in in that. But
look here we are. I mean, xenophobia is rearing. It's horrible,
you know, ugly head um, And so we have a
(17:28):
we have a lot of work to do. Are there
insights are best practices that you can share that brands
should consider can consider when they think about taking on
initiatives that have that level of impact that go far
beyond transaction. To me, it all starts with values, like
I think you have to you have to be very
grounded in values and the sense of purpose of an organization.
(17:51):
Like if you don't have a cultural compass that guides you, um,
then you're not really able to authentic lee fulfill this
idea of purpose driven marketing. Um. I'm much more about
substance over form, Like I feel like you've gotta walk
the talk. You've got to put your money where your
(18:12):
mouth is, And I think, um, more and more brands
are starting to do that. You know, I always think
about Beth Compstock when she says, if you see a
better way to do things, you have an obligation to
do them. And I think people in our industry are
looking for ways to give back that go beyond our
daily works. So, Lisa, how are you seeing people collaborating
right now? Well? Look, I mean I really feel like
(18:32):
the way we've been able to show up in the
last eight weeks has set a new bar for US
as an organization. And I think this idea of coalitions
and people coming together. I think this idea of open
source and brand agnostic work that allows things to scale quickly. UM.
(18:55):
I I think that UM, you know, even for us.
Like somebody called the other day and they wanted to
know if this was an AD Council thing, and I
heard what they were doing, and they had already put
a lot of the pieces together, and I'm like, we
don't need to own this, but if there's a place
in this group that you're putting together where we can
add some value that's not being covered, like, I'll sign
(19:16):
up for that. You know, it doesn't have to be
all owned and operated all the time anymore, UM, which
is new for us and I think it may be
new for others. And so I think there's something in
all of those elements UM that I believe we will
take forward and that will allow us as an industry
to do more and and drive even more impact UM
(19:38):
and to do it at a much larger scale. I'm
totally thinking there's an AD Council at Landia Collaboration. So
we're in here. It's cause Landia I can see it.
I love see it. But Lisa, if we can UM
pivot for a second, because it feels like this is
something you've been doing the entirety of your career. UM.
(20:00):
In a bit of our research, reading an article, UM
that was written by your alma mater at Dickinson, we
found this paragraph that I was like, Alexa, I'm going
to read this on on the show. UM. So if
if you're just a second, UM. Realizing that the newly
founded w n b A and the victorious US women's
soccer team had raised the public's awareness of women's sports,
(20:22):
this former Dickinson student athlete, which I found out you
played basketball and lacrosse, UM, took a calculated risk and
co founded a women's sports marketing agency. It was a
big leap after seventeen years of the same company. But
I learned at Dickinson that you learned by doing, and
that when something is right, you feel it in your gut.
It sounds like you've never deviated from that. Lisa, can
(20:45):
you just take us for a second on the journey
from founding a women's sports marketing agency, UM, fast forward
to CEO of ad Counsel. Well, I will say about
my career that it was not a linear career at all.
But what I will say in sort of looking backwards,
because that's the only way to sort of figure out
(21:06):
where the dots are connected. Um. Every twist and turn,
every up and down, every success and failure led to
the next thing. And so when people ask me, you
know what advice I have for them if they're starting out,
I'm like, gotta take risks you've got. You've got to
change it up and shake it up, because you just
stay in the same thing for too long, you're just
(21:29):
not going to grow. UM. So I left the company
after seventeen years. UM and I followed my passion, which
was sports, and at a time when women's sports was
really emerging. Um and and you could just see the
enthusiasm and the excitement for really in the piece that
you just read, um around the Olympics and the w
(21:51):
n B A and um these women athletes who are
these heroes for so many of us. UM And I thought,
we've used sports it's as a vehicle to reach men
through advertising and marketing forever. But women are making all
the so many of the decisions in the household, Like
why wouldn't we use women's sports as a vehicle two
(22:16):
for brands to reach their audiences. So that was the idea.
We went out and we you know, tested it with
a bunch of people. We raised some venture money, and
we uh launched the Women's Sports Network, and UM, it
was the first time in my life that I did
something where I lined my passion with the work that
(22:37):
I did. And honestly, that was a cocktail that was
completely intoxicating. UM. I worked harder than I'd ever worked,
and I was more energized and excited than I'd ever been. UM,
and we had some great clients. UM, and we were
cooking along pretty well. That was sort of Internet one point. Oh,
(22:59):
and fortunately we got caught up in nine eleven. Nine
eleven happened the world changed. Um. You know, when you're
like the new thing that brands are trying in their budgets,
it's the first thing to go sort of like a
moment like now, like things are getting cut. And it
was very clear we were going to make it work,
and so we had to shut our business down and
(23:21):
it was one of the hardest things I've ever done.
But honestly, I look back and even in that moment,
I had zero regrets. I learned so much about myself
and about this idea that I could never ever again
work at a place where I didn't have that. I
didn't feel that thing in my gut, and so um
I went on from there. I spent a couple of
(23:42):
years at an agency um doing new business development and
account management. But I got a call um to uh
see if I was interested in launching a new cable
network at Viacom called Logo, which was going to be
the first ever AD supported cable network on the at
it targeting the LGBT audience. And I thought it sounds
(24:05):
like an amazing job, but I have no TV experience,
and I told the recruiter I wasn't sure I was
the right person, and he said we should meet anyway.
So we had our breakfast, and it turns out that
they were looking for somebody who could build a brand,
was entrepreneurial, could run a business um and do new
business development. And the guy who was gonna be developing
(24:27):
all the content and the TV shows was somebody who
was a genius and we were going to partner together.
And I got the job. And that took this notion
of combining my passion with my work and put it
on steroids because to do something that was that groundbreaking
and that important um and and for me um as
(24:47):
a gay woman, like it was just I can't even
begin to describe to you what it felt like when
we turned that. We literally flipped the switch and saw
it on the TV. It's amazing. UM. So I did that,
and again it was a very mission driven culture that
we built, and we really gave gave people a home
based on television for the first time. Um. We were
(25:08):
running a very successful business. And nine years later I
got a call from another recruiter about this thing called
a council. And I will tell you that day, I
literally felt lightning run through my body when they mentioned
this because I wasn't that involved in the act council.
I mean, I knew what it was, of course, but
I thought, wow, I could use the power of media
(25:30):
and marketing and advertising, not just to work on one
issue against a single audience, but I could work on
many issues. And I decided that day I had to
have this job. And I literally was like I set
up a war room in my house. I had pictures
of all the people on the search committee. I was
(25:51):
doing deep dives into the history of the ad Council.
I just was all in and luckily I got the job.
And I and I will say I say it all
the time, I do have the very best job on
the planet for me to align all the work that
I've ever done. I worked at a media company, I
worked at an agency, I worked at a brand, I
started my own business, and now I get to take
(26:13):
all that experience, UM and use it all with our
amazing industry to make the world a better place. Like
it just doesn't get better than that. The article from
Dickinson goes on to quote you as saying when you
were the CEO and co founder of the Women's Sports Network,
every day was electrifying. She remembers, I felt there was
a purpose in my work. I like, I get chills
(26:37):
reading that because and and just hearing the story you
just went through. Because it's so evident, UM that you
never looked back. And I think, you know, for Alexa
and I and I'm assuming the community that's listening to
this episode, UM, if we could all be so fortunate,
UM to have that, Uh wow, you know, it's just incredible,
(26:59):
So thank you for sharing that story with us. What
would the name of your book. Bay, huh, the Sherman Eader.
That's what my called me. Can I just tell you
that's what my team calls me, the Sherman. Really we
need to get you a T shirt that Sherman Eader. No,
but you can answer that question. I want to answer
(27:19):
for you. There's a there's a phrase that I use
and I think I would use it on the book.
It's a boat that doesn't rock, doesn't move mm hmm.
I love that, And so Lisa. Our final question, which
is when we ask all of our guests, what is
your kill? By d I y, if you could kill anything,
(27:41):
buy anything, or do anything yourself in the industry or
in the world, what would it be? Guy's a limit? Wow,
Well this won't surprise you. But I think what I
would kill is all of the vitriol and hate that
is showing up on social media. It's just horrible. And
(28:02):
I think these social platforms have done a lot of
good and they've connected a lot of people, but honestly,
what lives there um uh in addition is just awful
and I would kill it if I could. What would
you buy? Well, I really want to set of golf
clubs because I've just decided I'm going to take up golf.
But um, I think what I you know, if this
(28:22):
has taught me this sort of stay at home thing,
I buy time like you can't like, I just would
love to have. I've enjoyed the time at home, which
I've never really got very much of before. I have
enjoyed the time with my family, um and, so I
would buy more time. I think that's one of the
best answers we've ever actually had on this show. Is
(28:44):
that right? Yeah? I think so, And it's uh, I
couldn't agree more. I'm with you on time. Let's double
down on time. What would you do yourself? Well, you know,
Laura at Alexa like that women's sports network idea was
ahead of its time. Let's bring it back. And I
really really really would love to find a way to
do more with girls in sports, um and and and
(29:06):
figure out the right value proposition. I'd probably do a
one for one model now, because of course we can,
you know, so with every dollar we'd raise, we'd give
a dollar to you know, Girls Inc. Or some you know,
the Women's Sports Foundation or whomever. But um we got
to get with the fact that when girls play sports,
you learn I always said I learned more life lessons
(29:28):
playing sports than in any other place. Agreed, Well, this
has been an amazing conversation. Thank you for the time, Lisa. Lisa,
if people want to get in touch with you to
talk about all things AD Council, how can they do that, Well,
you can email me at l Sherman at AD Council
dot org, or you can find me on LinkedIn or
(29:50):
on Twitter or on Facebook. I'm pretty much everywhere. Be
pretty easy to track down. I think you're gonna have
to change your email to Shermanator. We so appreciate the
time and insight you shared. Thank you guys so much.
It's been a pleasure. Thanks so much. Thanks Lisa, so
thank you Lisa Sherman for coming on the show the Sherminader.
(30:13):
We're going to call her the Sherminader from now on,
and we're gonna do Germinader shirts. Yeah, it's totally going
to be part of our capsule collection merch drop coming soon.
But Lisa had a great note at the top of
the conversation talking about the need for speed um in
times of crisis and really thinking about speed over perfection
and curiously at your perspective as a CMO and thinking
(30:33):
about her notes and how to do that really relying
on open source briefs, thinking about collaboration, getting outside of
the roster of agencies and partners that the AD Council
had worked with in the day to day in an
effort to do that. What are your thoughts as a
CMO on that being a future model that we work within.
I think it's really critical. Having that center of gravity
(30:55):
that your brand is always pivoting around is critical. And
I think you know, we talked about quote cause marketing,
cause there is no such thing as cause marketing anymore.
In my mind, it's what's that center of gravity? What
is your purpose? And then actually pushing yourself and your
organization to find partners to find ideas that are going
(31:19):
to bring a freshness to that perspective is just it's
kind of table stakes now. Um. The other thing that
I think is really interesting. You know, you and I
are always been a fan of the non brief brief.
What's the idea, not the strategy, Who were trying to
really reach or what community are we trying to create?
(31:40):
I think is really critical and this idea of an
open brief briefs that are really focused are great, but
they're also extremely limiting. I think you really got to
this on the Malcolm episode where you really punt at
home what he was saying, which was great, our briefs
actually really limiting us to be thinking in a very
different way. And so times that way is just what's
(32:01):
the obvious thing that needs to be solved, what's the
obvious thing that needs to be said? And so I
think this idea of open brief pushing for new partners,
new ideas is kind of the is the new kind
of I don't want to say normal, it's a new standard.
There's a point in the episode Alexa where Lisa talks
(32:21):
about having a cultural compass, which I believe sums up
what you're saying in terms of having that that center
of gravity to operate from. And when we think about
the idea of an open brief, perhaps we shouldn't be
starting with the objective. We should be leveling up thirty
thousand feet and starting with what is our cultural compass?
And so that is that is something I absolutely am
(32:42):
going to take away from this conversation. Yeah, I love that,
and you know, um, I also think that it's really important,
you know, the Council has been around a long time,
Lisa explained it to us, um and I'm a big
believer right now and the power of institutions like AD Council.
I think they're actually more important right now because what
(33:04):
the AD Council is doing for the industry is actually
giving us that center of gravity, and it's also giving
us this kind of um very overt sense of a
collective consciousness that talk about it being the home base,
the home base in a nonpartisan way, yes, as a
platform for where all brands can operate from. So you
(33:26):
can say, you know, it's so funny because like in
the industry, the AD Council Gala, it's one of the
biggest events in the fall of every year, and you're
gonna say that's a gala. You can say that's an event.
You can say it's fancy, and you can say that
there's all these you know, who's who, who to know
and who's who of the industry there. But the point
(33:47):
of actually gathering right the industry at something like that
is about actually putting a fine point in a moment
in time around that collective consciousness. So I think it's
actually critical that we all especially in a time where
we're dispersed, right, we're dispersed physically, is that we're constantly
always going back to and have a kind of a
(34:10):
center and a central voice. To your point, that's nonpartisan.
That is really galvanizing, that collective consciousness is is critical.
So yeah, as you were saying that really uh connected
with me in terms of thinking about that galat Yes,
at a moment of time, um, but really agenda setting
for the industry. And speaking of agenda setting, we have
(34:32):
Nate Nichols, co founder of Allyship and Action, dropping in
to talk to us about the agenda for next week's
State of Equity Summit on October thirty. Nate, Welcome to Atlantia.
Pe peo peo, peo pew pew. Thanks you appreciate having me. Nate,
tell us what Allyship and Action is, What ally Ship
in Action is as a platform for us to really
(34:53):
understand the different dynamics and experiences of people, UM that
you know, our black, non black lgbt Q plus non
binary understand their experience in our rule as an industry,
to ensure that they feel safe, to ensure that they
feel like they have a home and a place to thrive.
(35:16):
Professionally and be retained and be moded and not feel
like they have to leave. Actually see you know, fifty
years in this industry where they can be promoted and
have a C suite opportunity because to date that doesn't
exist for people in marginalized communities in our industry. And
so our platform exists to really be a space in
place for you know, us to come together to design
(35:39):
ourselves in a better way, to be a platform for
communities that have been marginalized in this industry forever. Now
tell us about the ally Ship and Action event that's
happening next week. So next week we're doing our annual
State of Equity and so this is our annual kick
As summit where we have the CMO of Levi, CMOS Force,
you know, Fernando Machado from Burger King and Popeye's from
(36:02):
rb I. I'm doing a fireside shot with Mark Reid,
you know, to talk about, you know, what he's gonna
do with that thirty billion dollars, talk about what it
means to be a white man in this industry and
have other white men as friends who are making millions
of dollars a year and ask him like, so, what
are you'all and your friends talking about regarding this, like
what do you doing personally and professionally? You know, to
ensure your friends are doing things to make change in
(36:25):
the industry because you are influential and you have an
ability to create change in communities that I don't have
access to, that we don't have access to on this podcast.
So it's really to have those conversations and really have
people who have influence and the ability to make true change,
systemic change to get them to speak on what their
truths are personally and professionally. And that's what next week
(36:46):
is going to be about. So how do people sign up? Yeah,
you go to allyship and action dot com. You click
the sea event details on the in the in the header,
and you roll down and registered. So we're gonna assume
these are not he are conversations. These are real human
conversations with people and leaders in this industry talking about
(37:11):
what they're really going to be doing and as you said,
how they and how we can all be responsible for
the change. So Atlantia, you need to be in this conversation.
It's not optional and to make that happen. Laura, what
are we doing? We are partnering with Allyship and Action
(37:31):
to give away twenty five tickets to next week's summit.
Follow us on Twitter at at Atlantia podcast for more
information and the Allyship and Action is also offering corporate
packages where can organizations find out more. They can go
to the registration page and find a link for the
corporate packs, or just hit us up at Let's connect
at ally shape and Action dot com. The Allyship and
(37:52):
Action Summit is coming to screens everywhere next Thursday and Friday, October, Atlantia.
We'll see you there. And before we forget, we are
two weeks from the election, it's time for good Landia, Atlantia.
We are two weeks out from the general election November three.
Have a voting plan. We are partnering up with the
(38:14):
AD Council to bring you good Landia, which you may
have heard on the episode, evolved from our initial thought
of cause Landia. So big thank you to Lisa Sherman
and team. We are bringing you this message from good Landia.
So for this month of October, we're gonna be totally
focused on voting. Make sure you have a plan to vote. So,
speaking of having a plan, the AD Council developed a
(38:35):
campaign in partnership with Viacom CBS called Vote for Your Life.
It makes it easy for potential voters to register to
vote and make a plan to vote early. If you
want to vote by mail or if you prefer to
drop your ballot off in person at a local drop
box our county election office, time is running out. The
election is just weeks away November three, so request a
(38:56):
ballot in time to be counted. Don't wait, go to
vote real life dot com and make sure you vote.
This is a message from good Landia. Laura hit it
with a list of all of our friends and family
I heart who have been so good to us and
helped us get back on air. Big thank you to
Bob Conal Carter, Andy, Eric Gayle Val, Michael Jen We
(39:19):
appreciate you. Thank you so much for this opportunity. We'll
see you in two weeks.
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