Sleeping Barber - A Marketing Podcast

B2B marketing isn't playing a different game. It's playing the same game on hard mode.
In this episode, we're joined by Ty Heath, Global Director of Thought Leadership Go-to-Market at LinkedIn and co-founder of the B2B Institute.
Fresh off serving as Jury President for the Creative B2B Lions at Cannes, Ty shares what separated the best work from the rest—and why B2B creativity is entering a new era.
We discuss:
What won at Cannes B2B Lions
Why B2B creativity has matured
The role of emotion in B2B
Buying committees and "viability"
Why ecosystems beat campaigns
The origin story of the B2B Institute
Long-term thinking inside LinkedIn
Why B2B marketers are playing the game on "hard mode"

Whether you work in B2B, B2C, media, or brand strategy, this conversation offers practical lessons on creativity, leadership and marketing effectiveness.
Chapters:
00:00 - Welcome Back, Tyronna Heath
00:38 - Tyronna’s New Role at LinkedIn
01:11 - Winning an Effie for “Only on LinkedIn”
02:58 - Becoming Jury President for the Creative B2B Lions
05:24 - Reviewing 355 Cannes Entries
07:20 - Has B2B Creativity Finally Matured?
09:14 - What Effective B2B Creativity Looks Like
12:00 - Why the Best Ideas Can Be Explained in One Sentence
13:24 - What Is Still Missing from B2B Creative?
16:01 - Why Ecosystems Can Be More Powerful Than Campaigns
18:09 - The Role of Emotion in B2B Decision-Making
18:23 - Cannes as a B2B Brand Experience
21:37 - The Origin Story of the B2B Institute
25:25 - How the B2B Institute Built Its Influence
28:05 - Thought Leadership and Betting on What Won’t Change
31:09 - Human Behaviour as the Enduring Marketing Truth
32:43 - Where B2B Creativity Goes Next
34:15 - Why B2B Marketing Is “Hard Mode”
37:07 - LinkedIn’s Long-Term B2B Playbook
38:01 - Building Authority, Credibility and Confidence
39:10 - The B2B Institute as a Marketing Cheat Code
40:05 - Where to Follow Tyronna and the B2B Institute

What if almost everything we've been taught about advertising is built on a sales model from 1904?
In this Sharp Cut, we unpack six of marketing's most persistent myths—from "digital has no waste" to "last-click attribution tells us what works"—before rebuilding a simpler, evidence-based explanation of how advertising actually works.
Rather than relying on theory, we challenge these ideas using our own careers, practical examples, and decades of marketing science from Byron Sharp, Les Binet, James Hurman, Orlando Wood and others.
In this episode
Why digital isn't actually waste-free
Why targeting isn't enough
Why advertising isn't sales
Why creative matters more than many marketers believe
Why personalization has been oversold
Why ROAS isn't telling the full story
Why advertising is better understood as planting and harvesting

If you've ever struggled to explain marketing to your CFO—or even to yourself—this episode is for you.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Sharp Cut
00:15 Why Most Companies Misunderstand Advertising
02:13 Myth #1: Digital Has No Waste
06:36 Myth #2: Target High-Intent Audiences
09:36 Myth #3: Advertising Is Sales Done Over Media
11:03 Myth #4: Creative Is Just Decoration
12:34 Myth #5: Personalization Is The Future
14:29 Myth #6: Last-Click Attribution Tells Us What Works
17:10 How Advertising Actually Works
18:04 Why We're Still Using a Sales Model from 1904
19:55 Advertising Is a Weak Force
20:47 The Two Jobs of Advertising
21:39 Plant vs. Harvest: A Better Mental Model
22:04 The McCain Case Study
23:59 Why Most Companies Still Think Like Salespeople
25:12 Becoming Experts in Our Own Trade
26:20 Les Binet's One-Slide Explanation
27:29 Final Thoughts: Start Planting
Supporting Links:
Binkley, M., & Douros, V. (Hosts). (n.d.). What marketers still get wrong with Prof. Byron Sharp (No. 215) [Audio podcast episode]. The Sleeping Barber Podcast.
Hurman, J. (2026). Future demand. https://futuredemand.com
Iwamoto, A. (2024). The origin of AIDA: Who invented and formulated the AIDA model? Japan Marketing History Review, 3(2), 150-166. https://doi.org/10.51102/jmhr.3.2_53
Mulroney, R. (2024). McCain: When the chips are down, margins matter. How a focus on long-term emotional brand-building reduced price elasticity and increased profits for McCain [IPA Effectiveness Awards case study]. WARC. https://www.warc.com/content/article/mccain-when-the-chips-are-down-margins-matter-how-a-focus-on-long-term-emotional-brand-building-reduced-price-elasticity-and-increased-profits-for-mccain/156769
WARC. (2026). The multiplier playbook: The CMO's guide to integrating brand and performance. WARC.
Foundational sources (optional, for show notes)
Binet, L., & Field, P. (2013). The long and the short of it: Balancing short and long-term marketing strategies. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
Sharp, B. (2010). How brands grow: What marketers don't know. Oxford University Press.
To confirm before air: Hurman subtitle and publisher; the exact platform and date of Binet's How Advertising Really Works video (candidate: the Cannes Lions Advertising 101 course); the publication date of SBP episode 215; and a direct URL for the WARC Multiplier Playbook (produced with Analytic Partners, BERA.ai, Prophet, System1 and the ANA).

What do Netflix, Reddit, AI, M&M's and Lyft have in common?
More than you might think.
In this episode of The Barber's Brief, Marc Binkley and Vassilis Douros unpack one of the biggest strategic lessons in modern marketing: competitive advantages don't last forever.
From Netflix reconsidering binge watching, to Reddit fighting AI generated spam, to the explosion of Martech tools and one of the year's smartest advertising campaigns from Lyft, this episode explores why the brands that continue to grow are the ones willing to challenge yesterday's assumptions.
Topics include:
Netflix's changing release strategy
AI spam and Reddit's response
Are marketers buying too many AI tools?
Why one M&M mascot was banned
Lyft's brilliant "Save the Money" campaign
Why great advertising dramatizes problems instead of explaining benefits

If you enjoy evidence-based marketing, creative effectiveness and challenging conventional wisdom, subscribe for new episodes every week.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Netflix and the Innovator's Dilemma
05:30 Reddit vs AI Spam
10:05 AI Tool Overload
15:30 The M&M Mascot Ban
19:45 Ad of the Week — Lyft
23:20 Coming Next: How Advertising Really Works

News Links:
Did Netflix Break the Habit It Created? - https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/06/netflix-invented-binge-watching-now-it-may-have-outgrown-it/
Reddit Is Cracking Down on AI Marketing Slop - https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/reddit-cracking-down-ai-marketing-115000368.html
5 questions to ask AI vendors before buying a tool -https://searchengineland.com/ai-vendor-questions-481765
M&M’s brand character gets ad banned under unhealthy food rules - https://www.marketingweek.com/mms-brand-character-lhf-ad-rules/
Lyft. Save the Money - https://youtu.be/7KARBlOzx8E?si=a4ummQl8NvYFmPO8

What if marketing's biggest challenge isn't proving its value—but explaining it? Following our conversation with James Hurman, we reflect on one of the most practical frameworks we've encountered in years: Future Demand.
Rather than revisiting every topic from the interview, this Post-Pod explores what the ideas actually mean for marketers trying to influence leadership, defend budgets, and build long-term growth inside their organizations.
In this episode:
Why "future demand" may be better language than "brand awareness"
Why leadership teams naturally prioritize demand capture
The role of marketing during recessions - Why great campaigns wear in—not out
Why dashboards often tell an incomplete story
Objective truth vs. personal truth in marketing
How evidence-based marketing becomes repeatable inside organizations

If you've already listened to our interview with James Hurman, this conversation helps connect the dots between marketing theory and day-to-day practice.
Enjoy the show!
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to the Post-Pod
00:45 James Hurman’s Core Idea: Advertising Creates Future Demand
01:40 Demand Creation vs. Demand Capture
03:55 Future Demand as a Leadership Conversation
05:00 The Smartphone Example and the 95/5 Rule
07:55 Market Dynamics and Performance Marketing Bias
08:50 Why Brand Matters Most in Recessions
11:05 Campaigns Wear In, Not Out
12:40 The Problem with Platform Metrics
15:15 Objective Truth vs. Personal and Political Truth
17:20 Why Future Demand Is Easier to Sell Internally
19:15 Evidence-Based Marketing and Organizational Buy-In
21:50 Why Repeatability Matters
24:20 Final Reflections on James Hurman’s Book

Advertising doesn't work by persuading people to buy. It works by creating future demand. James Hurman returns to unpack his new book: why the funnel is the wrong model, how the biggest group of buyers isn't in the market yet, why green dashboards can hide a dying brand, and how to make the case for brand spend to a CFO who only sees this year.
There are two types of demand in any market: the small group ready to buy now, and the much larger group who will come in later. Most advertising pours everything into the first group, watches the dashboards turn green, and wonders why the business numbers stay red. James Hurman returns to The Sleeping Barber to explain the fix at the heart of his new book, Future Demand.
Marc, V, and James work through the two-part funnel that replaces the old model, the myth that great companies don't advertise, why Volvo's Epic Split kept paying off for a decade, and why ads wear in rather than wear out. They get practical on the boardroom case: share of voice, the five to ten percent rule, and how to reframe brand as future cash flow for a finance team. They close on AI: the book's Pocket Advisor app, and how language models lean on brand signals when they choose what to recommend.
Enjoy the show.
Show note links:
Future Demand (book, ebook, audiobook, Pocket Advisor app, community): https://futuredemand.com
Future Demand community: https://community.futuredemand.com
James Hurman (website): https://www.jameshurman.com
Tracksuit (brand tracking): https://www.gotracksuit.com
The Creative Effectiveness Ladder (Hurman & Peter Field, WARC / Cannes Lions): https://www.warc.com
Volvo Trucks: Epic Split feat. Jean-Claude Van Damme (2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7FIvfx5J10

Guest Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshurman/
Substack: https://substack.com/@jameshurman
Website: https://www.jameshurman.com
Book / app / community: https://futuredemand.com

Chapters:
00:00 - The two types of demand, and why James rewrote the book
06:25 - Brand isn't a big-company luxury: the 18-month payoff
09:42 - Two types of demand, made visual
14:14 - Why the funnel is the wrong model
16:03 - The great-companies-don't-advertise myth
22:30 - Target tight for now, broad for later
26:32 - Volvo's Epic Split and the milk paradox
31:35 - Ads wear in, they don't wear out
37:21 - Boats and tides: why green dashboards lie
43:30 - The boardroom case: share of voice, budgets, and the CFO
52:51 - Recessions: cut performance, protect brand
56:40 - AI: the Pocket Advisor and how models pick brands