Making the Ad Age A-List with Brian Bonilla, Senior Reporter @ Ad Age
Release Date: 02/05/2024
How CMOs can avoid Super Bowl fumbles with NFL linebacker-turned-entrepreneur Dhani Jones
Question Everything
For the Super Bowl edition of Question Everything, we caught up with former NFL linebacker, now investor and entrepreneur, Dhani Jones. After founding two creative agencies, advising several startups, and serving as a board member across multiple categories, Dhani shares what it takes for brands to stand out in today’s increasingly crowded marketing landscape. In the episode, you’ll hear about Dhani’s journey on and off the field and the lessons he’s carried from the gridiron into the business world. He unpacks the parallels between the locker room and the boardroom, the Super Bowl ads...
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How to pitch and win in 2026 with Robin and Steve Boehler, Founders @ Mercer Island Group
Question Everything
How to pitch and win in 2026 with Robin and Steve Boehler, Founders @ Mercer Island Group Robin and Steve Boehler have seen the good, bad, and ugly in countless pitches for culture-shaping brands like Starbucks, Microsoft, Abbott, and Nintendo. Lucky for us, they wrote a book on how agencies can shift the pitch spotlight from core capabilities and humble brags to solving your prospect’s problems. Cause that’s how you win. In this episode of Question Everything, we cover major insights every agency needs to hear from the Boehlers’ new book, It’s Not About You:...
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The Gen Alpha strategy guide with Diana Kelter, Director of Consumer Trends @ Mintel
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What CMOs need to know about Gen Alpha with Mintel’s Director of Consumer Trends, Diana Kelter Diana Kelter, Mintel’s Director of Consumer Trends, is always one step ahead of where consumer behavior is headed. By combining data, cultural observation, and brand analysis, she helps marketers understand not just what people buy – but why. In this episode, Diana unpacks the newest generation of consumers, Gen Alpha. You’ll learn what makes these 15 and unders an experimental and disruptive generation, how they discover and evaluate brands, and why cross-category...
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How CMOs can win in the never normal with best-selling author and technologist Peter Hinssen
Question Everything
Peter Hinssen has spent his career helping leaders make sense of a world that refuses to slow down. A technologist, bestselling author, and keynote speaker, Peter has advised companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google on how to thrive in what he calls the “never normal” a new era defined by nonstop disruption and exponential change. In this episode, Peter shares what CMOs must do to successfully lead in a world of constant acceleration, the power of “day after tomorrow” thinking for your business, and why failing fast has quietly become one of the biggest competitive advantages in...
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How legacy brands can innovate like startups with Nicole Ayers, Business Unit Director @ General Mills
Question Everything
Nicole Ayers has built a career out of scaling brands that make mealtime 1000x more fun. She once managed cereal icons like Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. These days, she’s all about four-legged foodies. Partnering with Curiosity, Nicole and Blue Buffalo are stepping into the fresh pet food game with their newest product innovation: Love Made Fresh. In this episode, Nicole pulls back the curtain on how you can confidently bring new product innovations to market, why you should never let consumer testing dictate the fate of your work, and how to make the most of your...
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Building a challenger brand that wins with Stefan Lagerqvist, CEO @ Nick’s
Question Everything
Stefan Lagerqvist is a proven business leader best known for his unique blend of elevated financial expertise, strategic insight, and world-class brand-building experience, honed at P&G and Unilever. Currently, Stefan serves as the Group CEO at NICK’S, a Swedish better-for-you ice cream and protein bar brand that’s made a name for itself in snack aisles across Europe and the US. In this episode, we cover the unexpected difficulties Stefan and Nick’s faced during their high-growth era, the keys to pulling off the best experiential marketing, and how Nick’s crafted their...
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Multiplying impact with unique perspectives with Damaune Journey, Global Chief Growth Officer @ 72andSunny
Question Everything
Multiplying impact with unique perspectives with Damaune Journey, Global Chief Growth Officer @ 72andSunny Damaune Journey’s leap into advertising was inspired by purpose. A lack of representation across media inspired his mid-career pivot, and since then, he's made historic strides as the Global Chief Growth Officer at 72andSunny. Damaune has helped lead the agency to global recognition, award-winning campaigns, and an internal creative culture rooted in optimism. From filming Super Bowl spots in Ghana to co-founding Sport Beach at Cannes, he’s proving that advertising is bigger...
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The Gen Z ad industry playbook with Geno Schellenberger, Co-founder @ Breaking and Entering Media
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Breaking and Entering's Media’s Geno Schellenberger is writing Gen Z’s ad industry playbook Geno Schellenberger’s Breaking and Entering Media takes pretension out of the press by using Gen Z-native content strategies to keep advertisers entertained and in the know. In this episode of Question Everything, Geno opens up about the power of personal brand building in the age of AI, the most impactful Gen Z marketing strategies, and trends the industry should retire. It’s a party, and Geno’s inviting the industry’s newest talent to dance. What you’ll learn in this...
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The strategy behind the stir with Oliver McAteer, Partner at Mischief @ No Fixed Address
Question Everything
Oliver McAteer shares Mischief’s secrets to successful disruptive creative campaigns Oliver McAteer is in the business of making brands unignorable. As Partner and Head of Development at Mischief @ No Fixed Address, he’s helped shape one of the world's most talked-about and awarded creative agencies. In this episode of Question Everything, Ollie gets candid about how Mischief arrives at their disruptive creative strategies, how agency culture fuels talked-about campaigns, and what it takes to get CMOs outside their comfort zone. From viral cheese pulls to deepfake diplomacy,...
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The future of AI-driven creativity with PJ Pereira, Founder @ Silverside AI
Question Everything
PJ Pereira schools us on the best AI tools for CMOs and overcoming AI anxiety. PJ Pereira is an industry legend whose success is fueled by creatively embracing eras of extreme innovation. Starting his career when the internet was in its infancy, he has conquered the digital age of marketing and is setting his sights on taming the AI giant in the room. His third agency, Silverside AI, has already solved creative problems for some of the biggest brands in the world using AI. Most of all, PJ is fiercely passionate about helping creatives facing AI anxiety head-on by retooling their...
info_outlineWho doesn’t love a good inside scoop? As a Senior Reporter for Ad Age, Brian Bonilla is not only a captivating writer but also a crystal ball for the industry. He’s written countless articles on topics ranging from agency mergers and acquisitions to top campaigns from the biggest brands. For Brian, the challenge isn’t a lack of industry tea to cover, it’s sifting through the mountain of emails vying for his attention.
Today’s episode is our Super Bowl special. In preparation for the Big Game, we settled in for Brian’s hottest takes on upcoming Super Bowl spots, the do’s and don'ts when promoting your agency, DEI improvements in the industry, and how to make the Ad Age A-List.
Here’s a quick recap of the convo:
Why the most talked about Super Bowl spots will come from snack and sportsbook brands
Three things agencies should know about when promoting themselves
Spots that missed the mark at last year’s big game
How are DEI efforts progressing in the industry and what’s left to do
How the agency Highdive consistently produces spots that score big with audiences
What Martin Scorsese will bring to the short-form content world with his advertising debut
Why the Super Bowl may be losing relevance despite drawing a huge audience
What it’s like to be in the room that decides who makes the Ad Age’s A-List
Plus, some rapid-fire questions that’ll leave you breathless
Connect with Brian on X (Twitter) or LinkedIn.
If you’d prefer to read the biggest takeaways from our conversation, catch the write-up here.
Articles mentioned:
Meet the mayors of Drip City
https://www.bkmag.com/2023/12/14/meet-the-mayors-of-drip-city/
How agencies are marketing themselves – and why it’s more important than ever
The Ad Age Super Bowl playbook: https://adage.com/events/2521696
What Gen Z Wants to See from Super Bowl Advertisers: https://adage.com/article/marketing-news-strategy/what-gen-z-wants-super-bowl-advertisers/2539226