I’ve always believed that strategy only matters if people can actually use it. Not admire or nod along with it — use it. As I step into the Head of Strategy role at Codeword, that belief is shaping how I think about the next chapter of our practice. The work ahead is about helping clients get to the one idea capable of powering their entire brand, and building the systems that make that idea operational.
Elevating Strategy into an advisory discipline
When I joined Codeword eight years ago, strategy mostly meant channel plans and content frameworks. Today, the work at Codeword looks very different — and intentionally so.
Brands don’t need side quests; they need to win the game. So we’ve recently brought in exceptional market analysts, GTM experts, and expanded our data team — a group doing pioneering work in AI visibility and GEO. Their expertise gives us a clearer picture of the environments our clients operate in, and a clearer path through them.
But the strategist’s role is evolving in ways that aren’t purely analytical. Powerful subcultures drive culture now. There’s no monoculture, no mass market trends — just communities with their own shorthand, references, and obsessions. If you want to create meaningful impact, you need to understand how these communities work, what they value, and how to meet them in ways that feel authentic rather than extractive.
This is where Codeword’s tech journalism roots matter. Investigation, reportage, embedding — these muscles translate directly into modern strategy.
AI is a tool — but only if you ask the right questions
AI has changed the strategist’s job, but not in the way many assume. It’s a good research assistant and interrogator of notions. It can sift, surface, and stress‑test. But it can’t tell you what will actually fly with a real audience. It can’t replace your own court sense for what will work, and how to sell it to a client.
If anything, AI has made the simple act of asking the right questions even more important. Bad questions lead to bad thinking, and AI will cheerfully accelerate both.
It’s worth spending the time to proselytize this distinction — and build the instincts that AI can’t.
The trust gap is widening and brands need to take it seriously
One of the biggest undercurrents in tech right now is the erosion of trust between society and tech companies. A lot of “innovation” is being pushed into the world that seemingly no one asked for, and consumers feel it. They feel unconsulted. They feel like progress is happening to them rather than for them because they know too much now about corporate interests and their role in it to simply ride the latest hype cycle. Regaining that trust is a prize worth fighting for.
The issue is, the techniques that worked 15 years ago won’t work now. Features and benefits aren’t enough. Brands need a point of view that resonates emotionally, ethically, and culturally. This is a conversation I’m eager to have publicly — because it’s central to the future of marketing and the future of AI.
The work ahead
Over the next several months, I’m excited to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our incredible team on:
- Solving our clients’ biggest marketing challenges
- Building our GTM offering into something genuinely differentiated
- Expanding our data practice to give clients clearer visibility into AI‑driven ecosystems
- Deepening our cultural anthropology capabilities
- Guiding clients through a period of industry consolidation and AI temptation
- Leading the conversation around trust, technology, and the future of brand‑audience relationships
Every day is a chance to solve a big problem. That’s what excites me about strategy. And that’s the work I’m committed to leading at Codeword.