Curious Strategy
A playful guide to serious brand leadership. Curious strategy is our substack exploring ideas, insights, and provocations from the intersection of culture, creativity, and change. Each piece is written to help brand leaders cut through the noise, think long-term, and move from reacting to shaping.
What About Trust?
What comes to mind when you hear about declining levels of institutional trust? Is it numbness? Overwhelm? Paralysis? A general sense of “well obviously, but what exactly can I do about it?”
Grace Stratton on Building Inclusive Change
“Do something small everyday that is aligned with how you want the world to be.”
A Guide to Being Solution-Oriented
Be less shit and more solution-oriented and we can start to right some wrongs. Think big by starting small. And it’s never too late to start.
The problems aren’t for posting, they’re the work to be done.
The World We Were Born Into No Longer Exists
What aspects of our present world do you want to no longer exist in the decades to come? What alternative can you build towards? What needs to be true today to create that future?
The New Rules of Engagement
When existence feels chaotic, creating smaller circles of trust becomes a means for survival. Control through community. Agency through back-channel belonging.
The Future isn't Inevitable, it's Intentional
When 70% of young people report feeling worse after spending time online, that's no longer a niche experience. That's pretty massive design failure.
Creative Upheaval & The New Rules of Relevance in 2025
The Lyst Index Q1 2025 got it right in saying “One word can describe how the industry started 2025: turbulence.”
Soft Power 2.0
It sounds like the opening line of a terrible dad joke, but what do a what do a scholar, a pope and a musician with a piano on his back tell us about Power changing? Or better yet, what does a 90s geopolitical concept have to do developing your brand and content strategy in 2025?
The End of Escapism
There’s real opportunity in designing systems people can connect and benefit from within, instead of just consuming from. That can look like circular supply chains, mutual aid models, or shared ownership platforms.
It will feel messy. It will take time. And best to start small. But it’s something we can build - together.
What the Dark Mode missed
“Everything starts to look like everything else—not because of shared meaning, but because the system demands it.” Kyle Chayka, Filterworld
Case in Point
Real-world examples of change in action. Where strategic thinking meets creative doing — stories of how brands turn uncertainty into opportunity.
Get in Touch
Change starts with a conversation. Let’s talk about what’s next for you.