APG Sideways
About our guest: Daisy Qin
Hello! I’m Daisy Qin. I’m currently the Strategy Director for Canada at McKinney, where we help brands create Unfair Attention. We’re in the process of building the agency’s first international office, which is a lot of fun.
Previously I’ve spent time at T&P/john st, Rethink, FCB and Grip (Dentsu).
I’m driven by curiosity and always wanting to grow, learn and try new things. Some have said I ask a lot of questions. That’s probably true.
Outside of advertising, I enjoy traveling, trying new foods (both cooking and eating!), and experimenting with creative outputs like photography, writing and crafting.
Brilliant Weird Best
Planners are curious folks so we asked Daisy to tell us the most brilliant, weirdest and best things she’s come across recently.
BRILLIANT: The KitKat Heist
Right before Easter, a truck carrying 12 tons of KitKat chocolate was stolen in Europe while en route from a production site in Italy to Poland.
The marketing and PR response was smart, creating a viral moment out of bad news. KitKat and VML UK launched a Stolen KitKat Tracker so consumers could verify the barcodes on the back of chocolate bars they had. Since the story was being reported internationally, they took the response to different countries too. In Canada, Courage gave a KitKat delivery truck a security escort during Easter weekend.
WEIRD: “The diabolical, millennial obsession with chicken Caesar wraps” – Vox article
This long form piece of journalism in Vox really got me thinking. I love a chicken Caesar wrap as much as the next Millennial, but I’m so curious whether the author’s proclamation about Millennials being obsessed with them and constantly thinking about, eating or posting them holds true in Canada too.
So of course I immediately hopped over to trends.google.com to compare search trends in Canada for some popular sandwiches! (Grilled Cheese is a crowd favourite here.)
The CCW abbreviation is fun, but doesn’t seem to have the same catchy cachet as the BLT.
BEST: ‘REALLY BAD PHOTOGRAPHER WANTED’ by Icelandair
Advertising has played a huge role in Iceland’s trajectory in recent years, with marketing efforts sparking a massive tourism boom. This Spring Icelandair put out a call saying “Really Bad Photographer Wanted”.
The idea that Iceland is so photogenic, even the worst photographer can take great photos, is so strong. Intentionally putting out a call for bad photographers and backing it with $50,000 and a 10-day trip adds weight to the claim.
It taps into very true human behaviour about tourist photos (both good and bad) that we can all relate to.
Top Guilty Pleasures
Not all of our consumption habits can be academic. That's why we asked Daisy to give us the sources to her creativity.
Gardening
Gardening is definitely a growth hobby – the more you grow, the more you learn.
In our highly digital world, it’s nice to have an analog hobby. When the plants grow well, it’s fun and exciting. The taste of homegrown, fresh-picked fruits and vegetables can’t be beat. Plus there are so many interesting cultivars to try!
It doesn’t always go well; sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate, sometimes there's a pest infestation.
That’s life though: even when you account for all that you can, sometimes factors outside your control can still cause things to go awry.
Side Quests
I love a good side quest, just experiencing something different from the norm or usual routine.
Exploring a new neighbourhood/city/country, having deep life chats with strangers you’ll never see again, wandering around without a map or a plan, taking on new challenges, trying new things for the first time, random adventures for the plot because why not…
It’s a cliche, but it’s true – true growth (and great insights!) lie just outside the comfort zone.
This month on Slack
Over on our Slack, strategists are supporting, debating, and shitposting. Click on a link to see the full convo.
There Are Only Eight Trademarked Scents in the U.S. That Should Probably Bother Marketers.
Ben Percifield shared this LinkedIn post pointing out that scent is the most underleveraged tool in branding: the only sense where emotion and memory share the same neurological pathway, and yet there are exactly eight trademarked scents on the USPTO register. The person wearing Baccarat Rouge 540 on the subway is doing more for that brand than any campaign could, for free, with zero legal protection in sight.
For Anyone Anxious About the Job Market, This Is Worth Sending Along
Spencer MacEachern shared this NYT piece as something worth passing to any recent grads in your life, and the framing is what makes it worth reading: it doesn't minimize how hard the current job market actually is, but pushes back on cynicism as a strategy. The core argument is that craft and need, not trend-chasing, are what sustain careers over decades regardless of what the economy does. Some people hoard every penny. Others log onto Polymarket. Both are strategies for a world that feels like it's about to deliver a blow that may never actually come.
Moen's New Campaign Proves the Best Insight Is Usually Just Honesty.
PK Lawton shared Moen's new "Must Be a Moen" platform, developed with Quality Meats Creative, which builds its brand promise around the unglamorous water moments people actually have rather than the aspirational kitchen nobody cooks in. A useful reminder that category-defining work usually starts with rejecting the category's visual language entirely.