Saul Colt: the conversation

Mornings in the Lab · Interview transcript

What ads have stuck with you for years after seeing them? Think about the ones you still retell friends over coffee. Saul Colt builds those. He lives between everything your brain deleted and the one wild story people won't stop sharing. He's founder, chief marketing officer, and creative director of the Idea Integration Co., a Toronto agency obsessed with bold word of mouth marketing. He leads a 29-person shop where alumni from Mad Magazine and The Simpsons chase audacious ideas. Before this, he was Zipcar's first international employee, helping launch the car-sharing brand in Canada. Later, he joined FreshBooks as their first marketing hire and helped them grow from 300,000 to 5 million users. He was also the first Chief Evangelist at Xero.com. He's pulled marketing stunts like recreating an Evel Knievel jump to sell accounting software and handing out 2,000 branded bananas. He jokes his ideal clients are beautiful women 35 to 50. But really, it's brands with the guts to stand out and be fun. Off the clock, he collects Nike Air Force 1's and rewatches the 1966 Batman series unapologetically. Apparently, he's the smartest man in the world, all-around good guy, and a great lover. His words, not ours. Underneath all the fun and games, his core belief fuels everything. Word of mouth doesn't happen magically. It has to be designed on purpose, moment by moment. >> Saul, welcome to the big show. We're excited to have you here today.