Welcome to another episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast!

Join Marc and Vassilis as they dive into the fascinating world of marketing strategy and innovation with a special guest, Adam Morgan. Adam is a pioneer in business and marketing, best known for his book "Eat Big Fish," which has inspired countless brands to adopt a challenger mindset. He’s also authored "The Pirate Inside" and "Overthrow" and hosts the podcast "Let's Make Things More Interesting." In this episode, Adam discusses his latest research with System1 and Peter Field on "The Cost of Dull," exploring the financial impact of uninspired advertising.

Guest Bio:

Adam Morgan

Partner, eatbigfish: Brand and Marketing Consultant

On LinkedIn

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

Get in touch with our hosts:

Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/

Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠

Timestamps

0:54 - About Adam

3:23 - Defining Dull

4:28 - The data sources of Dull

6:16 - Mediocrity inspired this research

10:01 - 4 the horseman of the dull-ocolypse

14:10 - Do dull ads influence consumer perceptions

17:33 - Optimizing to the average

18:27 - Sponsor - Quatical: Fractional Marketing Leadership

20:46 - The Smarter we get, the duller we get

22:07 - The financial impact of Dull

24:49 - Is average ad creative actually responsible?

27:34 - What makes impactful communication

30:15 - Emotion is more than tears

34:05 - Insurance industry has raised the B2B bar of creativity

36:19 - The % of B2B ads that are dull

41:07 - Attention & reach are different

43:03 - Dull inputs lead to dull outputs

44:10 - What is Risk and what is responsible

48:21 - Using AI in ad creative

52:52 - More about Adam

54:04 - Post Pod with V & Marc

Literature:

Risk & Responsibility: A lesson in creative responsibility

The Cost of Dull with Peter Field — The Challenger Project | The Home of Challenger Brands

Let's Make Your Brand More Interesting | Inc.com

The £10m cost of dull advertising | WARC | The Feed