EP 107: Award-winning ads stopped driving growth says Steve Harrison
4/21/202646 min
Steve Harrison has spent over 40 years in advertising. He rose to Creative Director at Ogilvy, then founded Harrison Troughton Wunderman, building one of the most awarded direct marketing agencies in the world and winning 18 Cannes Lions.
In this episode, Steve argues the industry lost effectiveness when it stopped focusing on selling and started chasing societal impact. He explains why award-winning work stopped delivering commercial results and why purpose messaging rarely stuck with consumers.
Steve also shares a personal leadership mistake. After selling his agency, he took a global role that cost him day-to-day control and real influence, a lesson many senior marketers will recognise.
This is a direct conversation about effectiveness, growth, and why selling the product matters again.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Norton· Host0:00
Has the marketing sector lost sight of who's important and what is important, and is that a commercial focus?
Steve Harrison· Guest0:06
There's been a crisis of creative effectiveness.
Chris Norton· Host0:09
Have we been too focused on purpose and making sure we're as inclusive as possible, whilst losing the view that selling stuff is important? Marketing is about creating demand, um, PR is about reputation management, and advertising is about telling people about those amazing products that you've got.
Steve Harrison· Guest0:28
We've stopped selling and started saving the world.
Chris Norton· Host0:32
Today's guest has won more Cannes Lions than anybody else, 18 in total. He used to work at Ogilvy and then founded his own agency, which became one of the biggest direct mail companies in the world.
Steve Harrison· Guest0:43
We're talking about brands who have been promoting their purpose and have spent tens of millions of dollars doing so. It really hasn't landed.
Chris Norton· Host0:54
He had some interesting points that we discussed, um, I think you're gonna find it really fascinating.
Steve Harrison· Guest0:59
We've, we've got them... The, the order completely wrong. Gro- growth doesn't come from good, good comes from growth.
Chris Norton· Host1:06
Here's the conversation that Will and I had with Steve Harrison. Enjoy. [upbeat music] Well, Steve Harrison, welcome to the show.
Steve Harrison· Guest1:20
Thank you. Thank you for having me, lads.
Chris Norton· Host1:22
And we're... Yeah, you, you're welcome. We, we enjoy being in your kitchen. The microwave is now the star of the show, unfortunately you're blocking our view of it now.
Steve Harrison· Guest1:29
You're...