Ed has spent over three decades helping brands develop effective communication strategies. His agency experience includes Account Planning roles at McCann-Erickson and Lowe and for the past 20 years at BSSP, where he was Chief Strategy Officer, a partner, and part of the team that helped to grow agency revenues 10x and win business from the likes of Converse, MINI and Priceline.
Both Priceline and MINI were with BSSP for over ten years and also won multiple Effie awards during this period.
During his tenure, BSSP was awarded Small Agency of the Decade by Adweek and Small Agency of the Year by Advertising Age in 2018.
Ed helped build the agency’s Influx brand; starting as one of the country’s first marketing blogs, before expanding into conferences and a consulting unit.
He has also been a speaker at events with the ANA, Mirren and Worldwide Partners and for the past five years, Ed has served as chair of the Strategy Committee at the 4As and helped organize the annual Strategy Festival.
PHILOSOPHY
I like nothing better than identifying problems and finding opportunities and solutions to capitalize on new opportunities. It takes a curious mind and a relentlessness to see these and to find the insights that can serve as the fuel for ideas. I am not a believer in creating a templatized processes for this because every client’s situation is different and instead favor a tailored approach to getting there.
Working at a small agency for a long time gave me a pragmatism and resourcefulness; you have to get stuff done fast, and with limited available dollars you have to place your bets on tools and approaches that you believe are going to deliver the highest value. Therefore, I tend not to favor one specific methodology but to appreciate how different tools and techniques can be applied effectively to certain situations.
I also know how strategy and strategies can end up getting lost or misunderstood because they are poorly sold into clients and merchandised inside the organization. Ensuring the agency and client team are part of the process is critical and creating meaningful and inspiring outputs is vital.
Having been fortunate to work at an agency that prided itself in its creativity, it made sense to use this to bring insights to life for clients to help give our research findings more clarity and power. There is no bigger waste of money than a research report gathering dust on a shelf and nothing more powerful than creating a film that can help everyone in the organization understand their customer better.
WHAT I OFFER
Agencies
- Current Clients – Help to get unstuck and find new strategic avenues
- Pitches – Experienced help that understands how strategy needs to deliver in order to win at each stage
Strategy Department
- Fast-track tune-up – objective evaluation and internal workshopping
- Inspiration – Half day sessions to motivate and inspire departments
Clients
- Business Opportunity Analysis – Where are the new opportunities for growth?
- Inspiration – Curated events to inspire marketing teams to new levels
- Ecosystem – Connections to related individuals and companies that can bring ideas to life
- Consumer Understanding
- Go deeper on your understanding of your existing customer base
- Help in finding new customers and bringing them to life