Episodes
Sunday May 05, 2019
Sunday May 05, 2019
I've had an excellent conversation about design with Jennifer Severns, including some fun geeking out on Marvel superhero movies (tiny spoiler for Captain Marvel, FYI) and video games.
Jennifer is the Chief Experience Officer at the American Marketing Association, they recently went through a large rebranding exercise and a complete overhaul of their internal systems that we talk about in the episode as well.
"I have an infographic of the scientific method printed out in my office, hanging on the wall. If anybody comes in and starts talking about solutions or what's not working, I point back to it and say "OK, what is the question you are trying to solve?". Our primary problem [in marketing] is we go down a road of throwing a product out there without back to what are we testing, what are we trying to find out, and when will we know if it's working or not?"
Jennifer Severns
Mentioned in this episode:
- The American Marketing Association (AMA)
- Jennifer Severns on Twitter
- Captain Marvel
- Trolls Hit Captain Marvel with Bad Reviews on Opening Day
- No Doubt
- Wonder Woman
- Avengers Endgame
- Nashville
- Stomp!
- KFC
- Nightlife The Deep Dive (with IDEO)
- Glossier
- The Quantified Self
- Destiny 2 (video game)
- Business Model Generation
- Red Dead Redemption (video game)
- Grand Theft Auto (video game)
- Exploding Kittens (board game)
- Think With Google Video games culture
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
I invited Jim to be a guest on the podcast and he was gracious enough to invite me to chat in person at the lovely Soulsight offices in Chicago's downtown Loop.
Soulsight is an award-winning branding agency working with some of the largest businesses in the world, such as MillerCoors, Kraft-Heinz, or Pepsico. They rethink and design the experience of brands such as Blue Moon, Sol Mexican Lager, Henry's Hard Sodas.
Jim is a partner in the agency, and co-authored The Big Book of Packaging.
We had a brilliant conversation running across a number of topics, surprisingly including the value of boredom for creativity, thoughts about designing brands, how branding is a team sport, drawing elephants, and even touching on meditation.
"The brands and products we create define who we are as a culture today. If we were to go and dig up how life was like 50 years ago or a 100 years ago, what do we look at? People's trash. You look at the objects they were using to cook with, or clean with. What we're doing today is really defining the needs, the values, the purpose, and the ethics of what our culture is."
- Jim Pietruszysnki
"I like to say a brand is an artefact of a moment in time, and some brands can last a hundred, or two hundred years but they also evolve to stay relevant."
Information mentioned in this episode:
- Jim Pietruszynski on Twitter
- Soulsight
- Follow Soulsight on Twitter
- Iowa floods
- Pilsen
- Big Book of Packaging
- Kellogg's Frosted Flakes
- Tony the Tiger
- Drawing an elephant
- Marvel Comics
- The Sandman, Neil Gaiman
- Mobile Games
- Candy Crush Saga
- Clash of Clans
- Netflix
- Hulu
- Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Netflix)
- The OA (Netflix Original Series)
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
- Dr Gloria Wilcox Feeling Wheel
- Amazon Echo / Alexa
- Kleenex
- Dash Button
- Fiji Water
- Trader Joe's
- John Lewis Christmas Ads
- Orange Theory
- Mintel
- Gartner Iconoculture
- Dominican Republic
- Glossier
- The Casery
- Harry's
- Dollar Shave Club
- FTD / Interflora
- WTF Podcast with Marc Maron
- Euchre car game
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Dick Van Dyke Show
- Sam Harris
- Waking Up meditation app
Thursday Apr 18, 2019
Thursday Apr 18, 2019
I had a fantastic conversation with Emma Worrollo, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Pineapple Lounge. It's a research agency specializing in better understanding children, teens, families, and helping brands connect with them.
I came across the Pineapple Lounge and Emma while participating on an expert online panel about play, I thought the agency and Emma's work at the intersection of brands, creative communications, families, and play seemed fascinating.
Emma shared her experience of pregnancy and motherhood on her blog Mission to Motherhood, and currently sharing her philosophy of living playfully and designing a playful living environment over at The Playful Den.
"When children and youth are your business, there are 3 things that come up, pretty much in every single brief:
How can my brand be cool?
How can my brand be fun?
How can I encourage playfulness?If you can inject play into your [brand] experience, generally, and this is for any age, it's more sticky, it's more memorable, and it's more time worthy."
Emma Worrollo
We talked about mermaids, unicorns, rainbows, colors, living playfully, ope- ended toys, conducting brand research with children, teens, parents, what 'cool' is, and much more.
It was a brilliant conversation, if you enjoy listening, please share with your friends!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Follow Emma Worrollo on Twitter
- The Pineapple Lounge
- The Playful Den
- Bournemouth, Dorset
- Kawaii
- Japan
- Harajuku
- Mermaids
- Aquarius
- Astrology
- Chicago Polar Plunge
- Tony Robbins
- Tim Ferriss
- Heal Yourself with the Ice Shaman (Wim Hof) - Russell Brand
- Mission to Motherhood
- What the Heck is an Open-ended Toy Anyway?
- Harry Potter
- Star Wars
- Flow (psychology)
- How to Make Slime: Our Favorite 4 recipes
- Parkour / free running
- Whitling (Pinterest)
- Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Hapinness
- Atari Console
- N64
- Sega Megadrive / Genesis
- Sonic The Hedgehog
- Sonic The Hedgehog (Feature film)
- Geocaching
- Spider-man: Into the Spider Verse (Trailer)
Wednesday Apr 10, 2019
Revealing Uncomfortable Truths with Mark Pollard, Strategy Writer
Wednesday Apr 10, 2019
Wednesday Apr 10, 2019
I'm pretty sure a lot of people will be looking forward to this conversation, and for me it's sort of been a while coming. I met up with Mark Pollard over a couple of years ago in London, had just bought a new digital audio recorder I didn't really know how to use properly (and barely do now, just about enough to record one-on-one conversations), so the recording wasn't particularly good and to set that episode aside.
I was happy to catch up with Mark and we had an excellent conversation about the book he's writing; what he's up to with the Sweathead community and podcast; the way he views neglect and creativity, the five love languages, the games he plays with his children, and more.
"The idea behind what I'm doing with Sweathead is to connect people who think for a living, many of whom are quite intuitive, many of whom might identify as being sensitive and emotional - not everyone, but many. They want to do something creative, they're trying to figure out how to talk to themselves in healthier ways, and I'm just trying to create a gang around that because the power of these people and their brains - it's huge! If you can help them see through their day jobs, if they're not feeling fulfilled in their day jobs."
Mark Pollard
I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed chatting with Mark - and if you do, please subscribe to the podcast (more guests and episodes coming soon!) and give it a 5* rating and a review, it helps others find the show. Share it with your friends and acquaintances who might enjoy it too!
Mentioned in this episode:
- Follow Mark Pollard on Twitter
- Mark Pollard's website | Strategy Is Your Words
- Strategy the Work Out!
- Sweathead with Mark Pollard Podcast
- Sweathead Website | Facebook Group
- Hip Hop
- Geocities
- Leo Burnett Sydney
- Todd Samson
- Impostor Syndrome
- 5 Love Languages
- Wing Chun
- Bruce Lee
- Ip Man
- Karate
- Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
- Cannes Festival of Creativity
- The Lords of Strategy
- Chess
- Blokus
- Scrabble
- Words with Friends
- Clash Royale
- Clash of Clans
- Tower Defence Games
- The Marshall Chess Club in New York
- Chicago - Ilinois Chess Association
- US Chess Federation
- GenCon
- Behavioral Economics of Altruism
- Intermittent fasting
- Yoga
- IRC - Internet Relay Chat | mIRC
- RAM - short term memory
- The Good Men Project
- The Good Men Project articles written by James D'Souza
- "Are You Less of A Man If You Can't Have Kids?" by James D'Souza
- Design Thinking
- The Academy of Ideas on Youtube
- Zee MELT Conference in Mumbai, India
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
The Case For Boredom with Rob Estreitinho, Senior Strategist
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
This new conversation with Rob Estreitinho went by in a flash, it was a brilliant chat and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it. I even wondered if it was a little abrupt in my managing the end of it, but I was just conscious of time.
We talked about meeting in London a few years ago, how Rob views strategy and defines it for people not in the creative communications industry, about his growing up in Portugal and what he enjoyed playing at and with growing up, about school bullying, then how he found out about this career and got into it.
I love Rob's experimenting with art, creativity, and more on social media, I recommend checking out his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
"I Follow people on Twitter for the smarts, and people on Instagram for the arts."
Rob Estreitinho
Rob also writes the excellent Salmon Theory email newsletter, I highly recommend checking it out and subscribing!
Just a warning in case you have kids around: there are a couple of F-words in the episode.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Rob on Twitter & Instagram
- Salmon Theory newsletter
- Open Strategy
- Rob Campbell' blog - The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod
- Rob's interview on the Sweathead podcast with Mark Pollard
- Lego Technic
- 30 Things I'm Still Learning At 30, post from Rob
- School Bullying
- George Nimeh aka @iboy on Twitter
- Nimeh & Partners, The Agency For Changing Times
- Free: The Future Of A Radical Price, Chris Anderson
- Seth Godin
- The Guardian
- Kotaku
- Dionne Grant, Buzzfeed UK Social Media Editor on Twitter
- The Age of Envy: How to be Happy when Everyone Else's Life Looks Perfect (The Guardian)
- Retrowave
- #retrowave on Instagram
- #GlitchArt on Instagram
- Shadow of War video Games
- Pandemic Cooperative Board Game
- Lord of The Rings
- Meeples Together: The Why And How Of Cooperative Board Games
- Drive Movie Soundtrack (Retrowave music, on Youtube)
- Drawing
- Sunlight
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
Planning Dirty & Playing In Nightmares with Julian Cole, Strategy Consultant
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
In this new episode of the podcast, I had a great conversation with Julian Cole. Julian is a communications planner with a wealth of experience with some of the best creative advertising and marketing agencies. He was Head of Comms Planning at BBDO in New York last, and recently got back from 14 months traveling to many far flung and exotic locations.
I'd come across Julian's work quite a few times. I appreciate the originality of thinking, that he shares and teaches the way he does strategy and communications planning work, and comes up with creative and playful ways to express new ideas in order to better sell creative work to brand clients.
We talked about his career from Australia to the US, creativity, strategy, play, his travels, and what he's going to get up to next.
Remember to give the show a 5* rating and review on Apple Podcasts / iTunes, or your podcast app if you enjoy the show, it helps other people find it. And even better, if you enjoy the episode, share with your friends!
PS: I have a doubt and now believe I said "Dirty Planning" instead of "Planning Dirty" - my apologies to Julian for confusing the order!
In this episode:
- Julian Cole on Twitter
- Planning Dirty Newsletter
- The Planning Salon Interviews
- Youtube
- Chess
- Capture the Flag
- Australian Rules Football
- Viral Rockstars video
- "IPA Study: Ads That Win Awards Are 11 Times More Effective"
- Learnings From The Murder Capital of Creativity
- The Rick James Model For Creativity
- Christian Ethopian Art
- Reg Mombassa, Artist
- China Great Wall Slide / Toboggan
- $500,000 Luxury Dining Experience In The Maldives
Monday Mar 11, 2019
Introducing Playful Strategy
Monday Mar 11, 2019
Monday Mar 11, 2019
I can't believe it's already been nearly three months since the last episode I published for the podcast!
I've been spending time formulating what Ice Cream for Everyone is about, and finally got to a version I'm happy to share, and is on my updated website front page as well.
In the episode I'm quite simply sharing what I've been up to over the winter, this sort of manifesto, and a set of personal beliefs that I've been working on and helped me refine what the website, and this show is about - without changing much or anything of what I've been doing so far.
Ice Cream for Everyone is a Playful Strategy Consultancy.
Ice Cream is often associated with happy thoughts and memories, perhaps of childhood, simpler times.
Ice Cream is also surprisingly complex chemically, technically an emulsion, a combination of two or more liquids that don’t normally mix together.
Ice Cream exists in a seemingly contradictory and ephemeral state, creating a delicious combination as a result.
Ice cream requires the right ingredients, methodology, and temperature to go from complex chemistry to a simple desert. Similarly, we use creativity, play, and communication to go from complex situations to simple solutions with our clients.
We believe play, communication, and creativity are powerful assets for the development of businesses, brands, and everyone.
We believe dogma, bigotry, and blandness, are a hindrance to the development of businesses, brands, and everyone.
Playful strategy is the application and use of structured play, and sometimes games, to define and solve challenges in a business environment.
Playful strategy provides a recreational oriented state of mind fostering high levels of reasoning, insightful problem solving, and empathy for participants.
We play with elements that don’t seem to normally mix together and combine them into powerful ideas with our clients.
A few of the things mentioned in the episode:
- Faris & Rosie Yakob's Genius Steals Consultancy
- Willem's Guest edition of the Strands of Genius email newsletter
- Sweathead podcast with Mark Pollard
- The Strategy Inside Everything with Adam Pierno
- Sam Harris introduces the Waking Up Course (10 min audio)
- Penguin Talks, The Future of Education with Pr. Yuval Noah Harari and Russell Brand (Youtube)
- Russian Doll (Netflix)
- Dave Made A Maze
- American Gods (Novel & TV Series)
Saturday Dec 15, 2018
Creating Beautiful Games with Jamey Stegmaier
Saturday Dec 15, 2018
Saturday Dec 15, 2018
Happy Holidays everyone! It's nearly the end of the year and while it has been a slow one for the Ice Cream for Everyone Podcast I'm really happy to finish the year with an awesome guest, Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games.
Jamey is an award-winning board game designer, particularly known for quite intricate, strategy oriented games with beautiful pieces and design. He's also known in the industry for the knowledge he shares about design and crowdfunding. He raised $3.2 million on Kickstarter through different projects, and while he moved away from the platform he still writes and thinks about crowdfunding.
I first came across Stonemaier Games with Jamey's first published game: Viticulture, a board game in which players are winemakers in Tuscany. My brother received it as a gift for Christmas last year and I really enjoyed playing it. Earlier this year I got to play Scythe, probably his most popular game. It's pretty crunchy, as in there is a lot going on and a lot to learn. I was a little lost playing the first time but by the end I couldn't wait to play again.
We had an excellent conversation about Christmas and holidays overall, the games we play, how Jamey designs games, how he works and structures his days, thoughts about crowdfunding and more.
If you enjoy the episode, please share it with a friend or post a rating and a review on your podcast app – it makes a huge difference in helping others come across the podcast too.
A few things mentioned in this episode:
St Louis, Missouri
Montpellier
Richmond, Virginia
Euro style board games
Mille Bornes
Labyrinth
Stratego
Monopoly
Scotland Yard
Hero Quest
Chess
Kickstarter
Ben Rosser
Between Two Cities
Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Ticket to Ride
Cooperative Games
The Mind
Reef
Azul
Downforce
Scythe Rise of Fenris
Star Wars Roleplaying Game
Time Stories
Microscope
Fiasco
Wingspan
Jeni's Ice Cream
The Malazan Book of the Fallen
The Gift, Lewis Hyde
Vindication
Via Nebula
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
Designing Custom Folsom Skis with Co-Founder MikeMcCabe
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
A month already since the last episode of the podcast, and a (low) record breaking number, this being only the 4th episode published this season. I recorded this a while back over the summer, so it's a little overdue and at the same time it's right in time for the skiing season. My guest for this episode is Mic McCabe, one of the co-founders of Folsom Skis in Denver, Colorado. As you may know if you follow me on social media, I really got back into skiing pretty seriously two years ago. I hadn't skied since I was a kid and relearned in the French Alps.
Last season I bought an old second pair of skis with the intention of both improving my skiing and trying a few other pairs of skis. Of course I totally geeked out, read tons about it and tried about 12 different pairs of skis from different brands, sometimes 3 in the same day! While in Telluride I found out about custom skis, then found out about Folsom, I talked to them on the phone a few times, finally tried their skis in Breckenridge on Easter weekend 2018, and loved them so much I ordered a pair! I also commissioned an awesome illustrator for the top sheet for those to become my Ice Cream for Everyone skis.
I hadn't talked with a custom product engineer, designer, and manufacturer, I thought it might be a fun conversation for the podcast.
- Folsom Skis
- Follow Folsom on Instagram and Facebook
- Mike McCabe
- Colorado
- Loveland
- CU Boulder
- Winter Park
- Freestyle skiing
- Moguls / bumps
- Big Mountain Skiing
- Race Skiing
- Freeride Skiing
- Motocross
- Wakeboarding
- Engineering
- Blue whale > structure that it inspired in building wings?
- Evolutionary Biology
- Rossignol
- Dynastar
- Poplar
- Bamboo
- Maple
- Aspen
- Vibration dampener
- Wagner Custom Skis
- K2
- Atomic
- Trigger II Shape
- DPS Skis
- Vail Resorts / Epic Pass
- Alterra Mountains / Ikon Pass
- ManHunt
- How Google Works
Thursday Oct 04, 2018
Disney Strategic Alliances & Radical Toymaking with Jack Riback
Thursday Oct 04, 2018
Thursday Oct 04, 2018
In this podcast episode I have a fascinating conversation with Jack Riback, who created and headed the department of Strategic Alliances for Disney Studios. I met Jack quite randomly while listening to jazz at the Green Mill Lounge, in Uptown Chicago, got talking and it seemed he had interesting stories to tell so I invited him for a recording. That said I also have to apologize for the quality of the sound, we had a few technical issues and I ended up calling Jack's phone, which didn't turn out to be as good a sound quality as I'd hoped.
I still think Jack's behind the scenes anecdotes of brokering deals Disney Studios and McDonald's Happy Meals are brilliant, as well as him sharing stories of creative different businesses.
In other news, as I mention at the beginning of the show, I am looking for new contracts and clients at the moment, so if you have questions about your brand and marketing strategy please don't hesitate getting in touch.
A few things mentioned in the episode:
- The Green Mill Lounge
- University of Illinois
- Marketing advertising
- DDB
- Bernbach
- VW
- Iconic VW ads / Think Small
- Dancing Nixon Box (Howdy doody time)
- Urban Cowboy with John Travolta
- GAP
- Tempo
- Time
- Newsweek
- Named a "Radical Toymaker"
- Uber
- VR
- Target
- Wallmart
- Disney Studios
- Department of Strategic Alliances
- McDonalds
- Happy Meal
- History of Fun - Happy Meals / Polygon
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- The Little Mermaid
- Sears
- Michael Eisner
- Jeffrey Katzenberg
- Steven Spielberg