Tiffany Rolfe (she/her)

Well this is timely 🤔 Really well written and thought provoking “this needs to change” article from M.T. Fletcher over at Ad Age. Having now sat on every side of this equation, the notion that the #rfp process is broken is certainly not a new one. Leaders like Seth Matlins are working hard to listen and give CMOs both a voice in this but also a more collective voice to be heard in how to nuance the current situation. Major industry events like Mirren Business Development, Association of National Advertisers, Advertising Week, POSSIBLE , and Brand Innovators have dedicated significant portions of programming to it. One of the biggest thigs I hear whispered sometimes is that as soon as they step off the stage - the line is 10 deep with people wanting to pitch them. Again something I understand from both sides. Digiday, MediaPost, ADWEEK and The Drum have written consistently about the challenges all parties face in the process. A reckoning is coming - it simply needs to. Thanks to all of those like Christian Muche and Ruth Mortimer to dedicating so much thought to the reimagining of the process for marketers. Thanks to people like Shannon Pruitt, David Shing, Steven M., Josh Golden, Alyson Griffin, Casey Hurbis, Sri Rajagopalan, John Militello, Dave Currie, Isaac Mizrahi, Matt Wilson, Rick Watson, Eric Dopkins, and Dave Kersey who’ve given their time and opinions to discuss or provide content around how to create better team conversations around the topic. If your marketer and your interested in having a MiO Campfire 🔥 content & conversation session - I’m yours and we’re here to listen. You can book a campfire with me HERE: https://lnkd.in/e-AtBc-c AM I RIGHT HERE? LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW 👇 #media #marketing #mio

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"Chaos asks questions of you order never will" The wonderful Colleen DeCourcy retells her experience working with Dan Wieden when she took over as Chief Creative Officer at Wieden+Kennedy Her immediate response to me asking about working with Dan was this quote about chaos. We have a natural reaction against chaos because it can be destructive and unsettling but what if we reframed it as a necessary condition for achieving something truly breakthrough 🌪 Chaos propels you forward while order maintains the status quo 🌪 Chaos creates leaders while order creates managers 🌪 Chaos demands a response while order delays it 🌪 Chaos reveals the cracks while order papers them up 🌪 Chaos forces ownership while order delegates it 🌪 Chaos fosters creativity while order fosters compliance 🌪 Chaos requires trust while order replaces it It got me thinking whether there is an optimal mix of Chaos and order required to achieve breakthrough ideas and momentum? We spend most of our time creating order but what if what we actually needed was an injection of chaos? To hear more from this episode check out the links in the comments John Kearon Kerry Collinge Orlando Wood

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Talked to Ad Age about why CMOs unrealistic expectations about AI cause them to abandon projects. An important read. As CMOs address change management, level-setting expectations may also require them to reassess the fundamental purpose for why they are adopting AI… Thanks for the chat Asa Hiken https://lnkd.in/erYhQVvr

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Not every brand needs to be universally adored—sometimes leaning into the discomfort is the key to real growth. In my latest article, I explore how understanding why people dislike your brand can unlock powerful strategic shifts. It’s not about chasing approval; it’s about embracing feedback, addressing misconceptions, and positioning yourself authentically. #iWroteAnotherThing https://lnkd.in/g8CrgXud

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Speak out on topics that truly matter and authentically align with your brand's values. And do not play the short game of acquiescing to the usual mob of purpose-haters. #SocialJustice #BrandValues #TakeAction

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Read this piece on our own James Brownstein of Poster Child and Brownstein Group.

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HOT TAKE INCOMING!! Look at Liquid Death. Started by an ad creative. Now a billion dollar brand most creatives in advertising wish they could do work for. (Kudos Mike Cessario and Andy Pearson) Jason G. started Illicit Elixirs. Jan Livingston started Gray Whale Gin. (Who else?) Imagine if MORE advertising creatives started a brand and showed the industry what advertising is supposed to be? Maybe then we could get back to making work that's fun and not marketing from a place of fear. We could raise our own creative bar and force clients to play on the level we all know they should. Here's an idea I came up with while writing this: What if we all pitched in $150 a year to help build a brand from nothing to Liquid Death status. (that's one less coffee a week in LA.) We'd all be owners and share in its success. We could call it "Go F This Biz" (Fund) It's a Go Fund Me platform for ad creatives who have ideas for companies and want to get out of advertising but still make great advertising. I'm in. Who's in?? If my network pitched in that'd be 1.3MM to start. Not bad. Just a thought. Have a great holiday weekend ya'll! #Stayhungrymyfriends

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This takes our social practice effectiveness to a whole different level where we can be precise in our insights and truly understanding audiences behaviors and propensity towards a behavior. #digitas #swat

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Let's unpack this "18-month long pitch" (there's almost no one that should be celebrating). Lego's Marketing Team cannot make a decision and clearly is horribly aligned internally. There is no reason why it should take this long to select a media agency. Especially when so much of the budget is digital (~75%). My guess is the regions couldn't agree, the CMO couldn't pull them together and the CEO should be wildly concerned about how much time and money was wasted on this review. Publicis probably gave away the farm to win this. An 18-month pitch is not a battle of titans trying to edge each other, like the famous 11 hour Isner/Mahut Wimbledon Match. This is likely painful negotiations both internally at Lego and with Publicis/the other agency participants. It also sets a horrible precedent for future reviews and agency employees should be concerned. Also don't forget, the best of the best get staffed on these reviews... participating in a pitch like this risks your best talent. Every Publicis client should be concerned. Since Publicis likely gave away the farm to win, they are going to look for it somewhere else. Every client of the losing agencies should be concerned. They spent millions in aggregate to pitch this, they are going to look for it somewhere else. Lego's HR team should be concerned. Their new office in Boston is attracting quite a bit of interest from talent. If it takes this long to make a decision, it's going to be a concern for new applicants. This kind of pitch process is a big part of what is destroying the ad agency model. These Lego clients should be ashamed of themselves and the rest of the ad community should hold them to task. There is only one winner... the pitch consultant. And they should be grateful they are not listed in this press release. No brand client should ever hire them again. (and if you're curious... I've won pitches this big on the agency, held reviews this size as a client, and managed some as a consultant.) #adagency #mediaagency #RFP #Lego

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So more and more brands are in-housing their marketing mix modeling operations into a central team, or a Center of Excellence, managing the MMM projects for all the markets they operate in.  And it makes sense. From the global HQ perspective, this setup provides a unified dashboard to compare and optimize media budgets across countries. Within each country, further optimization can be done to determine the best channels and media investments.  So reporting, KPIs, measurement, and optimization are aligned because it is done by a single team. However, where this approach could go wrong is when the local marketing teams are not involved in the decision-making process.  They might see the central team as imposing strategies without considering local conditions & insights, then impose data requirements and deadlines on them.  This just leads to friction, delays and resistance in data sharing and implementation of recommendations. The focus needs to be on the ADOPTION of MMM results. That is the end in mind.  This is why I recommend an iterative approach to MMM implementation.  In the iterative approach, we make sure the local teams’ perspectives are taken into account as part of the MMM model iterations.  We listen to what they say and take into consideration their hypotheses when it comes to finalizing the results. They are part of the process, and the results are shaped with their perspectives in mind.  So when it comes to adopting these results, you get something that is already adopted by the local teams because they have been part of the journey.  Adoption is key. You need to win that battle first. Otherwise, you'll be spending millions of dollars on MMM and nobody in the local marketing teams will be applying them because they don't feel that it represents their reality.  

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Brand love or brand growth? Choose both. Through creativity, commerce has transformed from transactional tactics to inspiring brand experiences that happen to sell a whole lot of stuff. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on Creative Commerce. MRM McCann Worldgroup ADWEEK

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50+ Million Views, 50+ CGI Creations, and we’re just getting started! 🚀 Thrilled to see Craywingz featured in ThePrint, as we continue redefining what digital advertising can achieve with CGI. From bold, immersive campaigns for Phoenix Malls, Jade Blue, Shivalik Group, and more, we’ve always believed in pushing the boundaries of creativity. As I mentioned in the article, “We started when minimalism was a trend in digital creatives; as the trend kept up, we leveled up.” And level up, we did—transforming how brands connect with their audiences by merging art and technology to craft unforgettable experiences. This recognition is a testament to the passion and hard work our team pours into every project, and we’re just getting started! With 50+ million views and counting, we’re ready to continue pushing the envelope and elevating digital storytelling. Check out the full feature to dive into our journey and what’s ahead: https://lnkd.in/dFu-Bpcp #Craywingz #CGI #CGIAds #CravStudios #ArtMeetsTechnology #Advertising #CGIAds

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Hard to believe that this continues to be hotly debated and protested by both client and agency slide leaders. The answer seems obvious. I would argue against testing a Brand's positioning strategy with consumers. If the right leaders have the right inputs / data (especially consumer and competitive understanding), I recommend not testing a strategy per se. Rather, I encourage clients to move briskly into creative development and then test the creative. This serves as a disaster check on the strategy and also paves way to getting business building creative in market.

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Now up at Contagious - WARC discusses how they help make the case for making creative impact. We need to ask difficult questions of the c-suite because : 2/3rds of brand assets are perceived as weak. There is a $189B “cost of dull.” WARC and System1 say more than half of ads tested today are meh. weak. (See chart). Instacart acknowledged they needed to put brand and performance in one budget. So they made their creative tied to shopping message. It pays to entertain. (Think: Liquid Death.)

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Why did WPP and Cannes invite Elon Musk to speak at Cannes? Musk has shown nothing but contempt for the advertising industry, expressed racist views, peddled dangerous conspiracy theories, and allowed hate speech and disinformation to run amok on the website formerly known as Twitter. At the beginning of their discussion, Read lamely said that he “didn’t agree with Elon on everything” which is about as hard-hitting as it got. You can watch the whole painful interview, which consists entirely of Read lobbing softball after softball to Musk, on YouTube. Here's the thing. If you’re going to put a malign figure like Musk on a stage—especially if you lead a company that claims to value diversity—you should hold him to account. So these are 10 questions Read should've asked. 1.       You wrote that “DEI is just another word for racism.” I couldn’t disagree more, and at WPP, we are strong proponents of DEI, and have invested heavily in it. Why do you believe it’s racist? 2.       Regarding DEI programs, you also wrote, “It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE [sic].” What evidence do you have that DEI initiatives make airline travel less safe? 3.       Your post about airline safety was a reply to a post that claimed, without evidence, that Black HBCU graduates have low IQs (“borderline intellectual impairment”). Do you think your amplification of racist views like that is responsible? 4.       Since Tesla is currently being sued both by the US Equal Opportunity Commission and by 200 Black employees for racial discrimination, don’t you think your company would benefit from more diverse representation and perspectives? 5.       You accused the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the world’s most well-regarded organizations committed to fighting hatred—and one we have supported at WPP— of being “the biggest generators of anti-Semitism” on X. What is the evidence that this is true? 6.       You agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people, writing, “You have said the actual truth.” Why did you agree with that? 7.       You posted a video that promoted "the great replacement" theory, writing "This is actually happening!" Can you explain that? 8.       You often claim you are a “free speech absolutist.” But according to Bloomberg, you ordered a team to search Twitter employees’ Slack and social media postings and fired those who made “snarky comments” about you. How do you square that? 9.       Multiple independent studies, including by the EU, the ADL, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and Montclair State University have shown that hate speech and disinformation on X have increased dramatically since you bought the company. Why has that happened? 10. Why should brands advertise on X when the CEO amplifies content that almost no brands want to be associated with? #CannesLions2024 #WPP #Advertising #X

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Check out this article from my partner in crime, Michelle Edelman as she introduces our new agency positioning!

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This should be the headline for all us ad folks: "The integration of advanced AI into brand interactions will require marketers to work closely with AI teams to ensure that these systems accurately represent brand voice and values." I'd add "brand story" to that list as well. No matter how much things change and tech evolves, the fundamental truth remains, we are the keepers of the brand story, voice and values.

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#CauseAndEffect #BurdenOfProof #BetterSafeThanSorry Unsolicited advice for advertisers making claims about net-zero emissions, bamboo products, or recyclability: Until there is clarity on what qualifies as an “internationally recognized methodology,” it’s probably best to stop making environmental claims - not just in the oil and gas sector -, or have a chat with legal.

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