Jo Arden is the Chief Strategy Officer of Ogilvy UK, and she joins me on the podcast to talk all things strategy. What's involved, why it's important and how to make a career of it. Jo's experience is vast, not landing a "strategy" role until her 30's and since has had senior roles at Publicis•Poke and MullenLowe.Here's what we covered in our chat:
How Jo got into strategy
Her winding path from PR through business development and into strategy
What does a Chief Strategy Officer do?
The role of generosity in being a great CSO
The business case for involving your strategy team on a core business problem
The one question you should always ask your customer
“Making your thinking as funny as possible”
Why the winning ads in technology don’t take themselves seriously
The ‘good sense of humour’ approach to planning
“If you aren’t having fun you aren’t doing great work”
In praise of Dove and it’s purpose in advertising
“If it didn’t sell it wasn’t creative”
Why the industry loves a crisis narrative
The crisis in creativity is more of a trend than a crisis
Cannes Lions role in creative exploration rather than effectiveness
Jon was left out of his own Cannes Lion winning party
The one Campaign award no-one wants to win
Why Turkeys eat Lions for breakfast
“The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife”
The challenge of bringing the consumer into the room
The importance of doing normal things
Spending the most time out of the office
Rabbits in the office and other fun things at Ogilvy
Generating borderless creativity
Putting pressure on the task and not yourself
How to create an environment for creativity to happen
What Jo would advise her 21 year old self
Jon share his almost unbelievable imposter syndrome story
Using the power of your network