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After traversing lakes, vast boreal forests and glaciated mountains, we finally caught up with the charismatic Fredrik Hallberg.Being born in the most boring town in Sweden, Köping, propelled Fredrik to leap into the world of computers, and ultimately the internet, just to find something interesting.Fast forward in time, and he is now a seasoned Marketing Strategy Director and Management Consultant with more than 20 years of experience consulting Fortune 500 companies, digital start-ups, tech giants and domestic brands.A popular speaker at many public seminars and lectures, Fredrik has also just taken a brand spanking new position as a Partner at The Commercial Works alongside Wiemer Snijders, curator and editor of the brilliant ‘Eat Your Greens’.He talks to us on marketing strategy, brand purpose, the problem with online advertising, how important David Hasselhoff was to him in early life and a whole lot more!/////Books by (Amazon Links):Bob HoffmanDave TrottByron SharpDaniel KahnemanCas Sunstein /////

Catching Vikki Ross was no mean feat; she's here, there and everywhere. One of the best copywriters in the business, Vikki specialises in Branding and Tone of Voice, running workshops all over the globe, and creating voices for some of the UK’s biggest brands, including The Body Shop, Sky, ITV, and Virgin Media.She dedicates time to mentoring budding copywriters and is a very vocal champion of the art of copywriting itself. Vikki says; “Copywriting will take you further than you imagined – into people’s homes, onto high streets and on shoots around the world…”/////Vikki RossA Big Life in Advertising Mary Wells Lawrence How To Write Better Copy by Steve HarrisonPersuasive Copywriting by Andy Maslen Hey Whipple, Squeeze This! by Luke Sullivan The Copy Book by D&ADAli Hanan / Creative Equals / Creative Equals ConferenceFor Creative GirlsWho's Your Momma?@VikkiRossWrites #CopywritersUnite #CopySafariGasp (The Blogfather)Context. The Devil is in the DetailBuilding a Brand

This week’s podcast guest Eaon Pritchard was a tough catch, seeing as he is based in Melbourne and all, but that didn’t stop us collaring him for a chat.He’s a self-proclaimed ‘advertising douchebag’, but that does him a disservice, as Eaon has worked as an ad creative and planner for over 20 years, firstly in London and now over in Oz.He also lectures, consults, and writes regularly for WARC and other ad industry publications, while his spectacular and highly-praised book on advertising, ‘Where Did it All Go Wrong?’ caused R/GA’s Head of Strategy Rob Campbell to declare; “Eaon is funny and insightful. I hate him.”/////Eaon Pritchard:Twitter: @eaonpWhere Did It All Go Wrong - Adventures At The Dunning Kruger Peak Of AdvertisingThe Stupidity Paradox: The Power and Pitfalls of Functional Stupidity at Work by Mats AlvessonThe Triumph of Emptiness: Consumption, Higher Education, and Work Organization by Mats AlvessonBusiness Bullshit by Andre SpicerIntuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking by Daniel C. DennettThe Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture by Jerome H. Barkow/////

Published author, poet, public speaker and Starcoms’s Head of Strategic Innovation, Amy’s led media and marketing strategies for some of the world’s biggest brands, including the BBC, Unilever, and Nando’s.Her first foray into writing, with the modern-day fairy tale, The Little Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks, was a stonking success; storming to the top of the charts on Amazon.Amy’s also been listed as one of the most influential and innovative people in UK digital media by the likes of The Drum, while her career has taken her to Asia and back again, and she is rightly a vocal champion for smashing gender inequality in our industry, and beyond.///// Amy Kean:Twitter: @Keano81The Little Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks WebsiteThe Little Girl Who Gave Zero Fucks (Amazon)The Chimp Parodox by Prof Steve PetersAmy's Shots ColumnSelling to the Subconscious: Should more markers use 'Dreamvertising'? The Drum articleGasp:Dreams. The Final Advertising Frontier?/////

We’ve caught award-winning author, artist, public speaker and former QI head elf Stevyn Colgan for our latest podcast.Stevyn’ career started with 30 years in the Met Police Service, where he quickly landed up in the intriguingly named, ‘The Problem Solving Unit'; using lollipops to deal with noisy, rowdy night-clubbers was but one ingenious (and highly effective) idea he introduced.An expert problem solver, he’s given TED talks on this subject, amongst other top gigs, including the Edinburgh Festival, Latitude and Ogilvy’s behavioural science centrepiece Nudgestock.///// Stevyn Colgan:Stevyn’s WebsiteTwitter: @StevynColganWhy Did the Policeman Cross the Road TED talkPerfect Pitch Nudgestock 2017The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard MlodinowProblem-Oriented Policing by Herman GoldsteinThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanNudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard H ThalerGasp:Gasp Agency WebsiteSending Scrumpled Up Balls of Paper delivers >6000% ROI for global Learning client, SkillsoftHitting Golf Balls into People’s Gardens wins International Ads of the World Best Direct Mail award/////

Hot on the heels of our maiden podcast, we collar JP Hanson. He is the CEO and co-founder of Rouser, an international strategic consultancy firm headquartered in Stockholm, where he works making client brands better, not just bigger, and stresses that his singular goal is to build client profit. If this wasn’t enough, he contributes to outlets such as The Drum and the IPA’s EffWorks, and is increasingly delivering entertaining, no-nonsense talks across the globe, as well as being a qualified lawyer.The Rouser Manifesto, built on; ‘Strategy First, tactics Later. Brand Always’, is something we regularly dive and dip into at Gasp, so we are box-of-frogs excited that our kindred spirit is on the podcast.///// JP Hanson:Twitter: @RouserJPThe Rouser Manifesto: A Proposal for How to Get Marketing Back to the BoardroomThe Drum His methods still matter – a response to ‘David Ogilvy must die’The Halo Effect by Phil RosenzweigHow Brands Grow by Byron SharpEat Your Greens by Wiemer SnijdersThe Long and the Short of It by Les Binet & Peter FieldGasp:Gasp Agency WebsiteCausing Mayhem. What Does it Take to Create a Great Advert?Strategy & Tactics/////

In our maiden episode we catch Richard Shotton.Increasingly known as the author of The Choice Factory, a best-selling book on how to apply findings from behavioural science to advertising, Richard also operates as a consultant, speaker and trainer. A choice choir of industry legends have collectively sung praise for his book, most notably Rory Sutherland, Dave Trott, Mark Ritson and Phil Barden, with the latter referring to it as “catnip for the industry”; which explains why one of our Account Managers likes to rub it all over himself when he arrives every morning. ///// Richard Shotton:Twitter: @rshottonBuy The Choice Factory on AmazonMumbrella Brand Purpose Article14 Books on Behavioural Science that Marketers Should ReadBehind the Scenes in Advertising, Mark III: More Bull MoreIrrationality: The enemy within Paperback by Stuart SutherlandGasp:Gasp Agency WebsiteContact/submit a question to the Show: hello@calltoaction.coOur articles on Brand Signalling and Online ReviewsBob Hoffman's blunt, yet superb, definition of Signalling/////