Everyone says their work is insight-driven. Almost no one's is. After 20+ years in PR and marketing Sarah Crabbe has watched smart teams chase the wrong north star. Not because they lacked data. Not because they lacked creativity. Because they confused information with insight, and built entire campaigns on a foundation that was never quite right. This session is for practitioners who are done with surface-level strategy. Sarah will break down what a real insight actually is (hint: it's not a stat from a deck, and it's not a consumer truth you've seen in 40 other briefs), why the industry's most common shortcut — the "borrowed insight" — is quietly killing campaign effectiveness, and how the agencies and brand teams consistently producing culturally resonant work that earns attention, without paying for it, have trained themselves to find the thing most rooms walk right past. You'll leave with a single, repeatable diagnostic question that will change how you evaluate every brief you touch — and the courage to push back when the insight isn't there yet.
Sarah Crabbe has over 25 years’ experience in providing senior strategic counsel to many global brands. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Sarah has provided counsel to some of North America’s leading brands and has led agency teams to Strategy Agency of the Year top 3 placements in consecutive years. Prior to leading the team at Agnostic, Sarah has held partnership roles in global and local agencies in Canada, London and Ireland and led communications strategy for some of the world’s leading brands including Netflix, Intuit, Loblaw, Dyson, PC Financial, RBC Ventures, PepsiCo Foods, Live Nation, Guiness, Telus, Tim Hortons and many more. Sarah is passionate about delivering creativity in each engagement and believed agencies only do brave work when they have truly brave clients. An Irish native, Sarah has lived all over the world, including New year and Jamaica and currently lives in Toronto with her husband and their two children. From a small island on the edge of the world, Sarah’s outward view is something she hones at every opportunity. A natural Irish curiosity means Sarah loves hearing people’s story and finding out what makes them tick. Which is why she loves reality TV, 24 hr news and Christmas movies – in equal measure. You will never find her on a rollercoaster, she’s been in comms since before X and is most likely to ask the question ‘So, what?’ when considering how our work can make a difference.