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Why I left EssenceMediacom after 34 years: Sue Unerman interview

Why I left EssenceMediacom after 34 years: Sue Unerman interview
The Media Leader Podcast

Sue Unerman, global chief strategy officer at Brainlabs, joins the podcast to discuss leaving WPP’s EssenceMediacom after 34 years and “reinventing” herself at a very different agency.

Unerman is well-known across the industry and beyond as a progressive thinker and media strategist, thanks to the books she has written as an author about workplace culture and inclusion.

She is a Cannes Lions Creativity for Good winner and 2024 Glass Lions judge, a fellow of the IPA and has co-authored three best-selling books: Belonging, The Glass Wall and Tell the Truth. A fourth book, A Year of Creativity, is due to be released next month.

Listen now by hitting the play button or use the appropriate entry point into Spotify, Apple or Google Podcasts:

Highlights

Unerman on… AI: “Businesses that are built on AI, rather than businesses that are kind of importing AI as a last-minute thing, are going to have some advantages.”

Unerman on… strategy: “What has changed is the ability to gather signals and understanding and intelligence about the right time, the right place, the right message, the right person, has gone up exponentially, and finding a way to digest and see the signals in all of that data and all of that noise. That’s the task of the strategist.”

Unerman on… her new book: “There has been a lot more promotion of both people and techniques that fall within the left-brain bucket, the analytical bucket. And the right-brain techniques and ideas around creativity tend to get a bit squashed by left-brain thinkers.”

Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode. Discover how Trisonic can elevate your brand and expand your business by connecting with your ideal audience.


The podcast is taking a short summer break! Save for any bonus episodes, we’ll be back in September for more in-depth interviews with the most innovative and influential people in advertising and media, as well as looking ahead to our big UK events, The Future of Media, in Manchester and London, and the world’s leading TV advertising conference, The Future of TV Advertising Global.


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