120: Why you can't afford NOT to be creative with Contagious co-founder, Paul Kemp-Robertson

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This week, we caught something Contagious. Luckily for us, it’s their Co-Founder Paul Kemp-Robertson.
A chap with serious smarts for global marketing communications, Paul is the brain behind Contagious. Part editorial, part consultancy, part research, they get their kicks helping brands and agencies be more creative, get smarter, and deliver better work.
Paul spreads his smarts across a tonnes of topics, including; being the intern who became editor at Shots, thinking Saatchi & Saatchi was an investment bank, creativity as giving the world something it didn’t know it was missing, Nordic socks on Instagram, zero based creativity, the manic unlock, question storming, drunken nights at the Gutter Bar, AI and the meh-taverse, agencies as outside agitators, ageism, and a whole lot more.
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Follow Paul on LinkedIn
Sign up for the Contagious newsletter
Check out Contagious IQ
Here’s his book The Contagious Commandments
Bag a seat at Most Contagious London 2023 on 7 December
And here’s Paul’s TED Talk
Timestamps
(02:00) - Quick fire questions
(04:25) - Going from intern to editor at Shots
(12:54) - Creativity is giving the world something it didn’t know it was missing
(20:00) - Zero-based creativity
(21:44) - What we learned about AI from Cannes Lions
(33:45) - The real value of agencies
(38:28) - Asking heretical questions
(46:38) - Listener questions
(50:57) - 4 pertinent posers

Paul’s book recommendations are:
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton
How Not to Plan by Les Binet and Sarah Carter
How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp
Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick
Shy by Max Porter
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