APG Sideways
About our guest: Lindsay Waugh
Lindsay is a senior strategy consultant with over 18 years of agency and brand experience and has been a freelance strategist for the last five years. In March 2023, with partner Julie Sheldon, Lindsay launched Tough Love, a female-owned agile strategy collective built for the labour and love of brand building in today’s reality. Tough Love supports both agencies and brands alike who struggle with the time, budget, or talent needed to make smart strategy happen.
In her free time (hilarious to say with two young kids), Lindsay produces The Two Marketeers Podcast alongside Wiseguy, Sean Patrick. Sean and Lindsay are 4 seasons (almost 90 episodes!) deep, discussing hot topics like is effectiveness killing creativity, the value of indie agencies, pay transparency and if AI is going to take all our jobs. If you have a sec, have a listen wherever you get your podcasts. They are everywhere!
Previous Posts
Brilliant Weird Best
Planners are curious folks so we asked Lindsay to tell us the most brilliant, weirdest and best thing she’s come across recently.
Brilliant: Just Add Milk by Seed x Swehl
As stated in Ad Age, “After breastfeeding platform Swehl’s billboard featuring Molly Baz, a cook and content creator, was removed from New York’s Times Square by billboard company Clear Channel Outdoor for being too “inappropriate,” probiotic brand Seed swooped in to bring Baz’s ad back to Times Square via a different digital outdoor display with Lightyear Media. Seed offered its Times Square billboard with Lightyear to Baz and Swehl through the first week of June. The Swehl ad is accompanied by an adjacent screen reading, “Dear Molly, Thankfully we’re not (lactose) intolerant”—a reference to the “lactation cookies” for breastfeeding moms that Baz promotes on the billboard. The move, in keeping with Seed’s innovative use of its Times Square ad inventory, was applauded by those who saw Clear Channel’s move as censorship.”
Weird: Burt’s Bees X Hidden Valley Ranch
This unhinged Hidden Valley Ranch x Burt's Bees campaign initially sprang from a viral April Fools' Day social media post. Consumers responded positively to the hoax, and the brands raced to prove they were in on the joke. From that spark, the lip balms were actually born, ushering in instant social media clout for both brands. (“THEY ARE NOT A WANT; THEY ARE A NEEEEDDD," commented one TikTok user on a video shared by Burt's Bees.)
Best: Salmon Theory Newsletter
The Salmon Theory newsletter is designed for modern marketers, offering “micro wisdom” through a mix of strategy, philosophy, and cultural insights. Created by Rob Estreitinho, it serves up bite-sized, insightful content that helps marketers cut through the noise and think strategically, even in the middle of the usual marketing chaos. Salmon Theory is a great place to start if you want to sharpen your marketing game with smart, thoughtful content!
Top Guilty Pleasures
Not all of our consumption habits can be academic. Even a bodybuilder needs a bag of chips now and then, and planners need a cheat day. Good thing all that indulgence can spur great thinking. In fact, sometimes, the most random things can spur our thinking. So, we asked Lindsay to give us the sources of her current creativity.
Celebrity & Public Figure Biographies & Memoirs
I’m just going to say it: I don’t like made-up stories. Sorry, Harry Potter. I’m obsessed with human behaviour, what we do, and, more importantly, why we do it. Celebrities are put up high, on a pedestal and out of reach. I love to study the people people envy, the people you would give up everything to walk a mile in their shoes. I also love deconstructing perfection and getting to the real way people are when they aren’t perfectly poised on TikTok. Perfection is boring; at least, that’s what I preach to my daughters. The goal is not perfection; be as curious, exploratory, diverse, and interesting as possible.
Recent faves you must explore: “Down the Drain” by Julia Fox, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” by Matthew Perry, and “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy. Eye-opening, to say the least.
Everything Matty Matheson
As someone who lists food and drink exploration as a hobby, Matty is one of my faves, and I would LOVE to do a brand collab with him one day. His unfiltered, larger-than-life personality brings a genuine, raw energy to everything he does, and it’s all amazing. And for anyone who’s ever worked in the high-pressure hospitality industry, his performance in The Bear was next level.
Pickleball… And yes, I’m not 70 years old
Hear me out. It’s meditative. A fun beverage is required post-game. And the pickleball fit… come on! Plus, incredible places are popping up everywhere to play. A big shout out to my marketing consultant pal, Hayley Shay, for her fantastic work with The Jar, Toronto’s First Dedicated Indoor Pickleball Club. Hayley led the strategy and brand DNA for The Jar, with Hildebrand Studios on the design and VIS ID.
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