Marketing moves fast. Honestly, it moves so fast that by the time a textbook is printed, the case studies inside are basically fossils. That's the core tension Zaid Al-Qassab and the team at Adweek are trying to solve. If you've ever felt like your brand is perpetually three steps behind a TikTok trend or a shift in consumer sentiment, the Speed of Culture podcast is probably already sitting in your Spotify queue. If it isn't, you’re missing the actual blueprints for how big legacy brands stay relevant without looking like "Steve Buscemi with a skateboard" in that one meme.
The show isn't just about ads. It's about survival.
Produced in partnership between Adweek and Suzy, the Speed of Culture podcast focuses on a singular, high-stakes question: How do the world's most successful CMOs keep up? Matt Britton, the founder and CEO of Suzy, usually sits in the host chair, and he has this specific way of cutting through the corporate jargon. He doesn't want to hear about "synergy." He wants to know why a brand decided to pivot their entire 2025 strategy because of a niche subreddit or a sudden shift in how Gen Z views "dupe" culture. It’s gritty. It’s fast. It’s exactly what happens when business strategy hits the real world at a hundred miles an hour.
What Actually Happens Inside the Speed of Culture Podcast
You get these heavy hitters. We're talking CMOs from places like MasterCard, United Airlines, and PepsiCo. But here’s the thing—they aren't giving you the PR-approved script. Or at least, Britton doesn't let them stay there for long.
One of the most compelling aspects of the Speed of Culture podcast is how it treats "culture" as a data point. Usually, data is seen as numbers on a spreadsheet—conversion rates, ROAS, click-throughs. But culture is the context for those numbers. If you don't understand that people are currently obsessed with "quiet luxury" or that there’s a massive pushback against AI-generated imagery in fashion, your data is going to tell you a story that’s already over.
Breaking Down the "Culture" Myth
Most people think culture is just what's trending on Twitter. It's not.
In the world of the Speed of Culture podcast, culture is the collective behavior of humans. It’s why people are suddenly buying analog cameras again. It’s why "de-influencing" became a thing. The guests on the show often talk about the "lag" between a cultural shift and a corporate response. If that lag is too long, the brand dies. It’s that simple. Matt Britton often pushes his guests to explain the mechanics of how they shortened that lag. Do they have a "culture war room"? Are they using real-time consumer insights platforms (like Suzy, naturally) to pivot in 48 hours instead of six months?
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The conversations are often surprisingly honest about failure. You’ll hear a CMO admit that they completely misread a trend or that a high-budget campaign fell flat because it arrived three weeks too late. That’s the "speed" part. Speed isn't just about being first; it's about being synchronized with the audience's heartbeat.
Why Every Modern Marketer is Obsessed With These Episodes
Let's look at the guest list. It’s a literal who’s who of the industry. When you listen to the Speed of Culture podcast, you’re essentially getting a free MBA from people who are managing billion-dollar budgets.
Take the episode with Raja Rajamannar, the CMO of Mastercard. He talks about "multisensory marketing." Most people focus on the visual, but he’s out here discussing the sound of a brand and even the taste of a brand. He argues that in a world where we’re constantly bombarded with screens, the brands that win are the ones that occupy other senses. That’s a cultural insight. It recognizes that we are reaching "peak screen" and consumers are looking for tactile, real-world experiences.
Then you have insights from guests like Linda Boff at GE. She’s dealt with a brand that is over a century old. How do you keep GE "fast"? You do it by finding the intersections where industrial tech meets human storytelling.
- The "Vibe Shift" Analysis: The show excels at identifying when a trend is a flash in the pan versus a fundamental shift in behavior.
- The Tech Stack: Guests often get into the nitty-gritty of the tools they use. It’s not just "we use AI." It’s "we use AI to analyze 50,000 consumer comments to find the one person who gave us a product idea we hadn't thought of."
- Leadership Dynamics: There's a lot of talk about how to convince a stodgy Board of Directors to take a risk on a "weird" cultural moment.
Honestly, it’s refreshing. Most marketing podcasts feel like they’re recorded in a vacuum. This one feels like it’s recorded in the middle of Times Square during rush hour.
The Technology Driving the Speed of Culture Podcast
You can't talk about this show without mentioning Suzy. As the primary partner, Suzy provides the "real-time" element that anchors the conversations. For those who aren't in the loop, Suzy is a consumer insights platform that basically lets brands "text" thousands of consumers and get answers in minutes.
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This tech changes the nature of the Speed of Culture podcast episodes. It moves the conversation from "I think people like this" to "We asked 2,000 people three hours ago, and they actually hate this."
It’s a bit of a meta-commentary on the industry. The podcast itself is a product of the need for speed. Episodes are released frequently, reacting to the market as it shifts. It’s not a monthly deep dive into ancient history. It’s a weekly check-in on the state of the world.
Why Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the "Shadow Guests"
Every single episode of the Speed of Culture podcast is haunted by the younger generations. Not in a bad way, but in a "they are the ones setting the pace" way.
The guests are obsessed with how to reach 19-year-olds who don’t watch TV, use ad-blockers, and trust a random creator on TikTok more than a 50-year-old brand. The show explores the concept of "cultural currency." Money is great, but if a brand doesn't have cultural currency, that money won't buy a second of a teenager's attention.
Common Misconceptions About Staying "Current"
A lot of listeners go into the Speed of Culture podcast expecting a list of "top 5 trends for 2026." They’re usually disappointed, and that’s a good thing.
Trends are superficial. Culture is deep.
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One major takeaway from the show is that you shouldn't chase every trend. If a brand jumps on a TikTok dance just because it’s trending, they often look desperate. The guests on the show talk about "brand permission." Does your brand have permission to speak on this topic? If you’re a bank, maybe don't try to be a "brat." If you’re a fast-food joint, maybe you can be a bit more unhinged.
Finding that lane is what the Speed of Culture podcast helps marketers do. It teaches you how to filter the noise. There is a lot of noise in the digital age. Most of it is useless. The skill isn't moving fast; it's moving fast in the right direction.
Practical Steps to Apply Insights from the Show
Listening is one thing. Doing is another. If you want to actually use the stuff you hear on the Speed of Culture podcast, you have to change how your team operates.
- Kill the long approval chains. If a cultural moment happens on Tuesday and your social post has to go through six lawyers and four VPs, don't bother. By the time it’s approved on Friday, the internet has moved on.
- Invest in "Listening" over "Talking." Most brands spend 90% of their budget talking at people. The most successful guests on the show flip that. They spend the majority of their time listening—via social listening tools, consumer panels, or just being active participants in the communities they serve.
- Hire "Cultural Translators." You need people on your team who actually live in the niches you’re trying to reach. If no one in your marketing department knows what "corecore" or "liminal spaces" are, you’re flying blind.
- Embrace Imperfection. Speed requires a certain level of messiness. A grainy, authentic-feeling video often performs better than a $100k polished production because it feels real.
The Speed of Culture podcast isn't just a "how-to" for ads; it's a study of human sociology through the lens of commerce. It’s about understanding that the consumer isn't a "target demographic"—they are a person living in a chaotic, fast-moving world, and they only have so much bandwidth to give you.
If you want to stay relevant, you have to keep up. And keeping up starts with hitting play on these conversations.
Your Next Steps:
Start with the Raja Rajamannar or Linda Boff episodes to see the high-level strategy, then move into the more recent episodes to see how those strategies are being tested by today’s specific market pressures. Audit your current marketing "lag time"—measure how many days it takes from a cultural event to your brand’s response. If it’s more than 48 hours, use the insights from the podcast to identify which bureaucratic bottlenecks you can realistically cut. Finally, sign up for the Adweek "Speed of Culture" newsletter to get the synthesized takeaways if you’re short on time.