Frameworks for navigating culture

Clear strategic direction, anchored to powerful insights

About

Culture is frothy, and it's easy to lose your way in the chop.

Before getting into marketing, I studied the long human arcs of anthropology and mythology. I know how current day wants connect with deep-seated needs, and I'm intimate with the stories invisibly sculpting all of our choices. I know what to watch, and what to ignore in whirlpools like TikTok.

At top creative agencies like GS&P and VCCP, I learned why insights and strategy can't just be true and relevant to be useful. It's critical that they also inspire. To generate messages and campaigns that break through the noise, big organizing ideas need to spark something in all the teams that'll work with them.

In my independent work, I uncover deep human insights, carve out distinctive brand narratives, and align all the stakeholders needed for moving full sail ahead.

About

Selected Experience

Agencies

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
VCCP
mcgarrybowen
180 Amsterdam

Brands

verizon
xfinity
JPMorgan
klover
cosmos
letsgetchecked
vsp
elanco

Services

Brand Positioning

Organizing ideas that focus all your comms on the situations where you, and only you, can do the trick

Brand Architecture

A future-proofed portfolio structure that gets the most from all your brand assets

Creative Strategy

Briefs that inspire creatives and hold up under the tightest scrutiny

Identity Strategy

Detailed frameworks for triggering all the right associations

Research Design

All the right questions, using all the right methods

Turnkey Qualitative Research

Complete qualitative studies fielded, moderated, and reported without high-overhead vendors

Brand Effectiveness Workshop

A workshop for leadership teams on the potential of brand, and how to structure brand creative

Company Positioning

A two-day intensive for founders to get focused on who they serve, what they do, and why this is perfect moment

Motherlode

An AI research tool that delivers cultural insights, only from reputable sources.

Googling is dead, obviously. And LLM responses are essentially cursed, because they answer your question by any means necessary.

LLMs grab whatever they can from content farms, random forums, and blogs from 2006. They misinterpret, and as a last resort, they hallucinate whatever will make you happy. It doesn't matter how tight you write your instructions. (I tried, and I uncovered all the hard limits.)

Motherlode is different.

Motherlode only pulls content from a human-curated list of top-notch sources.
Everything it shows you was published within the last two years.
It reports back with direct quotes. No paraphrases. No hallucinations. See for yourself.

Try Motherlode

Contact

Not sure how to start? Book a free 30-minute conversation. If I don't have what you need, I can point you to someone who does.

Book a free consultation