Reflections on 40 Years in Marketing: Super Bowl Ads, Storytelling, and AI Slop | Alan Schulman

<p>Alan Schulman has 40 plus years in advertising and marketing. He wrote TV spots for Leo Burnett, FCB, and McCann Erickson before becoming one of the first creatives to take digital seriously. He was the first Chief Creative Officer ever hired by a consulting firm in the US, building out Deloitte Digital from two studios to seven. <br /><br /><b>=================================<br /></b>🚨 <b>Spoiler Alert:</b><br />He worked on the 2014 Super Bowl ad "<a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdlR1vWYuM0" target="_blank">God Made a Farmer</a>" for Dodge Ram. <br /><br />Now he runs Contagious Content, built around a simple idea: content has to move at the speed of the conversation happening right now, not the speed of your media plan.<br /></p><p>In this episode Alan makes a case that surprised even Shmuel: if you don't have the budget to do brand and performance and content all at once, start at the bottom of the funnel, not the top. Earn your way up. He explains why "poetry" still beats "plumbing" in storytelling.</p><p></p><p><b>=================================<br />What you'll learn:</b></p><ul><li>How to sequence your marketing budget when you can't afford brand, content, and performance at the same time</li><li>What "poetry before the plumbing" means and why it matters more as AI tools multiply</li><li>How AEO and GEO (answer engine optimization) are replacing traditional SEO as LLMs become the new search interface</li><li>Why conversational AI UI is going to break the business model of point-and-click SaaS platforms</li><li>The real story behind building the digital side of a Super Bowl ad, and how long that process actually took</li></ul><p><b><br />=================================<br />About Alan Schulman:</b></p><p>Alan Schulman is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer of Contagious Content, a studio built around creating content at the speed of cultural conversation. He spent his career at many of the leading ad firms before becoming the first Chief Creative Officer hired by a consulting firm in the US at Deloitte Digital, where he was a founding partner. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>=================================<br />Key moments:</b></p><ul><li>Why Alan calls a customer journey "just a funnel laid on its side"</li><li>The Oreo "Dunk in the Dark" example and what it means to actually be contagious</li><li>What went into building the digital component of the 2014 Dodge Ram Super Bowl campaign</li><li>W