Strategy was never in short supply. Courage was.
Ad-verse Reactions (Omar Oakes) Sent
“Strategy is still difficult. It still means specialising, putting more resource into this and less into that, and making hard choices that carry risk.”
SHELF No. 03
Agency futures
How creative/strategy/media agencies are evolving.
PREVIOUSLY FILED
Ten things I know about business
William Drenttel Sent
The best new business is your current business.
Rebrief Magazine — Store
Rebrief Magazine Filed
The shop page for Rebrief Magazine, a Canadian print journal of advertising covering essays, fiction, visual experiments, and interviews, with Issue 01 dropping August 6, 2026.
Now Hiring — Viral Creative Producer
Ramp Experiments Sent
Score 9 or 10 on the taste test to unlock the application.
Welcome to the Guild of Better
StratMonday Sent
Deserve is not earned by the customer. It is owed by the maker.
The End of Creative Agencies. Or the Beginning of the Right Ones.
PatouPivots Sent
Become an augmented creative solutionist.
AI will make your marketing team faster and worse
The Tenon Sent
A sharp take on how AI acceleration might compromise marketing quality and strategic thinking
The Semantic Drift of The Strategist
LinkedIn Sent
“So I grabbed 100 titles from 2nd-degree connections on LinkedIn that had strategy somewhere in the visible profile and ran some analysis.”
The Brand That Thinks
Substack Sent
“The gap between these two kinds of brand is about to become unbridgeable. And most of the industry hasn't even noticed it's opening.”
The creative agency model is dead – that’s why I shut mine down
It's Nice That Sent
“This is the terminal flaw in the agency model: the profit margin squeeze is built into the system.”
The creative agency model is dead – that’s why I shut mine down
It's Nice That Sent
“This is the terminal flaw in the agency model: the profit margin squeeze is built into the system. You’re always competing against someone willing to go lower.”
What worked last time is the enemy of what works next
Its Nice That Sent
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael,” Picasso once said, “but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
The New Creator Economy Is Monetizing Your AI Brain
Rafat Ali Sent
“What if you could subscribe to a domain expert's AI brain the way you subscribe to their newsletter?”
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What Clients Think Report 2026
Up to the Light Sent
Annual report based on 700 client interviews revealing what clients actually think about their creative agency relationships.
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Appearing Productive in The Workplace
No One's Happy Sent
“The slowness was not a tax on the real work; the slowness was the real work. It was how the work got good.”
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Typography might be the last thing AI can't fake
Creative Boom Sent
“AI will make everything look the same. We're already seeing it. Most AI-generated images share the same aesthetic. Every template library offers the same layouts.”