June 3, 2025

Ep. 105 - Cancel a Missile, Make an Ad - Neil Davidson

Show Notes

In this episode of Future Fuzz, Justin speaks with Neil Davidson, CEO of London-based creative agency HeyHuman. They dive deep into the future of creativity in advertising, exploring how generative AI is reshaping agency roles, what the future of content creation looks like, and how smaller, nimble teams might outmaneuver larger agencies. Neil also shares his personal journey of repositioning HeyHuman, integrating behavioral science into strategy, and how neuroscience has influenced their creative development process. The conversation is rich with honest insights about leadership, industry change, and what brave, human-first advertising can look like in the age of AI.

Guest Bio

Neil Davidson is the CEO of HeyHuman, an award-winning creative agency recognized as one of the Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work in 2024. With a background in agency leadership across the UK and Europe, Neil combines commercial acumen with academic depth - holding an MBA, an MA in Creative Writing, and currently pursuing doctoral research into generative AI’s impact on agency creativity. At HeyHuman, he has spearheaded the integration of behavioral science and neuroscience into campaign development, creating bold, effective advertising grounded in human understanding.

Takeaways

Generative AI will push creative agencies to polarize: big agencies leveraging scale, and small “creative curators” thriving with tools.
Repetitive creative tasks like social media content are increasingly automatable - only human-authentic brands may resist this shift.
Great content isn’t necessarily increasing, even if content volume is. Generic work risks becoming the norm.
Clients still crave transformative creative work, but organizational risk aversion hinders bold decision-making.
HeyHuman’s behavioral science framework centers on three deceptively powerful questions about audience behavior and decision-making.
Effective ads balance the unusual with the familiar - “unusual everyday” content sticks.
Bravery and trust between agencies and clients remain central to outstanding creative work.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Neil Davidson

01:11 The AI Threat vs. Creative Reality

03:20 Big vs. Small Agencies in the AI Age

04:33 Is Social Content Toast?

06:04 Are We Losing Creative Greats?

08:38 Behind the Scenes: A Royal Navy Campaign Disaster

10:25 Client Risk Appetite and Creative Bravery

13:11 The Repositioning of Heyhuman

15:40 Reflection on Leadership and Taking Stock

18:34 Behavioral Science in Practice

21:06 The Three-Question Behavioral Framework