Suzie Bao, IW Group's new VP Account Director for McDonald's stopped by the Bad Pod to talk about...

• Joy work; engaging career growth and creativity with a focus on multicultural representation
• Lessons on finding mentorship early and often; the courage it takes to embrace people willing to tell you what you are bad at
• Accelerating and championing Asians in Advertising, a non profit organization dedicated to elevating traditionally overlooked voices and faces.
• Superpower: being a “fixer” and “client whisperer” — someone who packages an idea in a way that will get it across the finish line
• “It’s so nice to not be the only. I collaborate with clients that want to be a cultural icon.”
• Virtually every brand wants to capture the Gen Z audience. To them, multicultural marketing IS marketing.
• Learning by osmosis: "I know how to be an Account person. I’m NOT a strategist, so how can I become more strategist? I hang out with Strategists. I'm NOT a creative, so I hang out with creatives. I rather be around what I cannot do for a living."
• “Account is a thankless role and people often don’t fully appreciate it until I leave”

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You'll be glad you caught this one. Matt Johnson has paved his ad career as a strategist and now agency founder with determination, humility, and of, course, a heaping helping of creativity. He cut his teeth at some of the most iconic names in LA advertising; Goodby, 72&Sunny, 180LA, and now Haymaker

Matt tells us about sharing an alma mater with Dan Weiden and “growing up” in his career path alongside the rise of Jordan in the ‘80s when, for the first time, a single athlete was defining the culture of sports and beyond.

Episode Quotes:

• Almost leaving advertising: “when you’re a competitive person, and a really hard worker, advertising is really easy to get sucked up into because it’s such a tough business and demands a competitive fire.”
• “There’s never an end to the work… you could go forever.”
• "Strategy IS creative." Say it back.
• On new business: “Hire the partner not the idea”
• On modeling the agency: "Haymaker is a reflection of the founders’ partnership and friendship"
• Industry friction/ truth: “Not everyone can eat a Creative Idea”
• On life: “I found my way into opportunity and listened.”

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• Introducing our guest all the way from Lincoln, Nebraska… Clint Runge, CEO & Founder of Archrival!
• Turns out, advertising was a second chapter for Clint, who actually started out in architecture and design.
• Archrival is a youth culture agency setting out to reinvent how brands with the hearts and minds of young adults, teens to twenty-somethings.
• Clint and his team of 65 have worked with brands like Spotify, Adidas, and Epic Games, and they aren’t slowing down.
• “Rewriting the Ten Z playbook” - Vogue, March 2024
• Gen Z is breaking the traditional marketing funnel, moving away from a top-down broadcast model towards a bottom-up, grassroots approach to building brand identity
• We chat about the job search, career satisfaction, creativity vs creativity management

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