Any Insights Yet? with Chris Kocek

Greg Hahn has built his career on reframing questions and seeing things just a little bit differently. 

Actually, that’s an understatement.

Before launching Mischief, Greg spent almost 20 years at some of the biggest and most celebrated agencies in the business, including Fallon and BBDO, where he led creative for brands like Timberland, Citibank, HBO, eBay, FedEx, and more. Along the way, he helped create some of the most awarded ca...

What do forensic science and marketing have in common? More than you might think. 

Both require an ability to analyze evidence, challenge assumptions, and uncover hidden truths that are often hiding in plain sight.

Alina Burroughs, a forensic expert and star of the hit show Crime Scene Confidential, has spent years piecing together clues to solve cases, and as it turns out, many of those same techniques can also be applied to marketi...

Despite the billions of dollars spent on advertising every year, most ads go completely unnoticed. In fact, 85% of them don’t even hit the minimum threshold for attention. So how do you make it into the 15% that actually break through?

John Gibson, Head of Strategy at The Martin Agency, has spent his career answering that question, helping brands fight invisibility by uncovering complex emotional truths.

For Papa John’s, that meant m...

The best work in advertising doesn’t just stand out—it challenges the status quo. 

And that’s exactly what Gordy Sang and Brian Siedband do with every client and every campaign at Quality Meats. Whether they’re working on a GoDaddy spot for the Big Game or a provocative box of chocolates for U by Kotex, Gordy and Brian (and their distributed team of strategists and creatives) always bring an unexpected twist to their creations, spar...

How do you take a challenger brand from number two and make it number one? 

And how do you do that with a relentless focus on positive behavior change?

Those are the kinds of challenges that Mark DiMassimo and Lesley Bielby love to tackle at DiGo Brands, and over the past twenty years, they have elevated  and re-energized numerous better-for-you brands, including Weight Watchers, Crunch Fitness, The Partnership to End Addiction, The ...

What is risk?

For most people, a risky situation is one where you’re exposed to danger.

Put another way, it’s the possibility of something bad happening.

But for Andy Pearson, VP of Creative at Liquid Death, the definition of risk takes an interesting detour. For Andy, the real danger is not that something bad will happen, but that nothing will happen at all.

No reaction. No learning. No breakthroughs.

Just a boring piece of creative, d...

Why should strategists do focus groups with real humans if AI-enabled synthetic focus groups can yield an equally powerful aha moment at a fraction of the cost?

That’s one of several challenging questions I explore with Ed Cotton, brand consultant and former chief strategy officer from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners (BSSP).

For the past 25 years, Ed has been at the helm of strategic planning in NYC, leading strategy for a wide v...

Tim Malefyt has an amazing ability to make the familiar strange.

He does this by doing deep, ethnographic research, helping brands uncover hidden consumer truths through a combination of carefully constructed activities and thoughtful conversation. 

As a business anthropologist, Tim’s research methodologies and key findings have helped re-energize a number of big name brands across multiple categories, including Campbell’s, Gillette,...

Dan Cohen loves a good challenge.

Tell him he can’t say something in a campaign headline and he’ll find a creative way around it, to the delight of clients and customers alike.

Over the past thirty years, Dan’s creative, collaborative approach has helped a wide variety of brands in commoditized categories, including Bounty (paper towels), Charmin (toilet paper), Pampers (diapers), Pepto-Bismol (digestion), and Puffs (facial tissue).

H...

A great magic trick, like a great creative briefing, begins long before everyone gathers in a room.

To the general public, Mike Jacobson may be best known for his magic show performance on America’s Got Talent in 2023, but for the past decade in the business and advertising world, Mike has brought his unique methods to strategic briefings and creative campaigns for a wide range of clients, including Oreo, Subway, Comedy Central, Par...

Sascha Mayer knows what it’s like to be invisible. 

Like so many new moms nursing their children, if she wanted to nurse or pump when she was away from home, her options were often limited to a bathroom stall, an unattended room, or a parked car.

But it was around Labor Day weekend in 2006 that an article in the New York Times and a confluence of other events inspired a question that would change her life’s trajectory.

“Why are these ...

There are a lot of strategy documents in the world. Briefs. Decks. White papers. Books. According to Alex M H Smith, most of them are full of shit. Impenetrable, calcified, piled-high bullsh*t.

That’s because, despite all their words and charts and graphs, these so-called strategies fail to inspire action.

And that’s what Alex wants to change in the world of strategy. With his book (No Bullsh*t Strategy) and his consultancy (BasicArt...

For over two decades, Shobha Sairam has worked on a wide variety of brands at a number of agencies around the world, including Leo Burnett, Mother, Deutsch, and The Community among others. 

Most recently, Shobha has led strategy at 22 Squared Inc, based out of New York, where she and her team have breathed new life into brands like Baskin Robbins, Party City, Publix, and Toyota. 

Over the years, Shobha’s research for different brands...

Most ad agencies have clients. That’s not exactly the case with Bullish Inc. 

Started in 2015 by Michael Duda and Brent Vartan, the co-founders of Bullish asked a provocative “what if” question that re-envisioned what an agency could be to help maximize a new brand’s success.

Their question: “What if we invested in early stage brands by providing actual money along with world-class strategic and creative services?”

That question and t...

Curiosity, conviction, and a desire to get out of one’s comfort zone - these are just a few of the characteristics that Seth Gaffney and Marika Wiggan look for in strategic candidates at Preacher, and it’s this non-traditional approach to finding talent and building campaigns that has led to Preacher’s continued success, winning them Small Agency of the Year for four of the last five years.

Some of my favorite aha moments from our c...