In this episode, brand strategist Alexander Shapiro discusses the evolving landscape of brand collaborations, particularly with celebrities. He explores the risks and rewards of such partnerships, citing examples of both successful and unsuccessful collaborations. Shapiro emphasizes the importance of strategic thinking in creating long-term, profitable collaborations that resonate with consumers.

He also critiques recent high-profile collaborations, offering insights into what makes a partnership effective and sustainable... tune in!

Takeaways:

• Celebrity collaborations can be high risk and high cost.
• Many collaborations are driven by laziness rather than strategic thinking.
• Successful collaborations often have a long-term focus and deep connections.
• Brands need to prioritize cash flow over mere engagement metrics.
• Survivorship bias can skew perceptions of collaboration success.
• It's essential to treat collaborations as business transactions.
• Brands should engage loyal customers in the collaboration process.
• Effective collaborations should enhance product value and brand authenticity.
• Avoid superficial partnerships that lack genuine connection.
• Strategic frameworks are crucial for evaluating collaboration success.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Brand Strategy and Collaborations
02:11 The State of Celebrity Collaborations
12:34 Successful Collaborations: Case Studies
19:54 Framework for Effective Collaborations
29:00 Analyzing Recent Collaborations: American Eagle and Sydney Sweeney
32:54 Principles for Long-Term Successful Collaborations

Get in touch at hello@studioeverywhere.com to explore how your business can build an unstoppable brand...

In this conversation, Strategy Director Lachlan Williams shares his extensive journey in the marketing industry, discussing his experiences and insights on brand strategy, the importance of employer brand and employee experience, and the balance between technology and brand. He addresses the need to take a people-centric approach to business strategy and the role of creativity in driving transformation. Lachlan also explores the future of the industry, highlighting the impact of technology and the rise of independent agencies.

Insights Everywhere
Insights Everywhere is an interview series, where trailblazers from Studio Everywhere’s network of strategic and creative collaborators share their advice, fresh ideas and unique experiences across the realms of brand, design, marketing, and business transformation.

Studio Everywhere
Studio Everywhere is the world’s creative consultancy. We help ambitious businesses build unstoppable brands. Get in touch with us at [hello@studioeverywhere.com](mailto:hello@studioeverywhere.com)

Takeaways
- A strong brand strategy is essential for business success.
- Employee experience is critical for delivering great customer experiences.
- Technology must enhance, not detract from, brand experience.
- Transformation requires empathy and understanding of employee needs.
- Process can create the right conditions for creativity.
- Strong employer brands are built from the inside out.
- Critical thinking is essential to protect when using new tools like AI.
- Independent businesses are likely to thrive in the current market.
- Reading widely and forming a strong point of view are key for aspiring young strategists.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Lachlan
07:27 The Evolution of Brand Strategy
14:51 Balancing Technology and Brand Experience
21:26 The Importance of Employee Experience
23:52 The Duality of Brand Experience
25:32 Defining Transformation in Branding
29:43 Navigating Mergers and Cultural Integration
33:53 The Role of Process in Creativity
38:49 The Future of the Industry and AI's Impact
43:26 Advice for the Next Generation of Creatives

View more episodes and subscribe to our series [here](https://www.youtube.com/@studio_everywhere).

Get in touch at hello@studioeverywhere.com to explore how your business can build an unstoppable brand...

How to best use AI to identify unique insights and trends for your business

In this insightful conversation, Piers Fawkes, founder of PSFK, shares his journey from a writer to a trend analyst and discusses the evolution of gathering marketing insights and trends over the past 20 years. He emphasizes the role of AI in supporting trend analysis, but the importance of human input in generating actionable insights. The discussion covers how best to leverage these emerging automation tools (with some specifics mentioned) to enhance and speed up the process of trend analysis and insight generation. The discussion also touches on the changing landscape of marketing agencies and the impact of AI on consulting, culminating in a look ahead to the hopes and fears for 2025.


Key Takeaways

- Previously, trend reporting was quite manual (gathering of ideas, identifying patterns, sourcing data to back it up).
- The issue with future trend reporting is, there isn’t a lot of data to back it up as it’s an emerging concept to take hold at a future point. Therefore it requires intuition and leaps of faith which is very different to traditional market research.
- These days, AI can speed up the trend analysis processes significantly.
- However, AI is probably giving everyone the same, generic answers, yet with trend reporting, a lot of the value comes with providing thought-provoking, unique ideas.
- Therefore, Piers still believes in humans guiding a lot of the inputs and finessing a lot of the outputs of AI.
- You can train AI by feeding back your human-filtered results so it knows what to look for over time.
- AI helps to write good first drafts, but the output currently needs to be edited.
- In the future, humans could be seen as the orchestrators, and the AI the agents to execute.
- Insights must be actionable and unique to be valuable.
- The role of the CEO is increasingly intertwined with marketing, therefore it would benefit agencies to be in touch with the CEO (versus just the CMO).
- The future of work will see a shift in middle management due to AI.

Chapters

02:31 The Evolution of Trend Reporting
04:42 The Role of AI in Trend Analysis
07:16 Human Versus Machine-Generated Insights
09:24 Balancing Work Done Between Human and AI and Optimising AI Overtime
14:07 The Impact of AI on Consulting and Agencies
16:40 The Future of Work and AI's Role
19:06 Tools and Technologies in Trend Analysis
21:25 The Changing Landscape of Marketing Agencies
23:42 Looking Ahead: Hopes and Fears for 2025

Get in touch at hello@studioeverywhere.com to explore how your business can build an unstoppable brand...