In this episode of Strange Coordinates, Topher Burns is joined by special guest host (and creator, academic, and parent-marketing strategist) Sean Szeps to go behind the leak-proof seams of the multi-billion-dollar war between Huggies and Pampers. They trace the origin story of fierce 1980s patent battles, the effects of duopoly, and the environmental and sociological impacts of the diaper category and its marketing efforts over the past several decades.

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Find Sean Szeps on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanszeps/

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territorial is an advertising agency that helps brands find their place in the world. To see our work and learn more about what we do, visit weareterritorial.com.

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareterritorial

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Show art & design by Chris Allen

Editing & Video editing by Patrick Elmore: https://www.patrickelmore.co/

Marketing by Billy Silverman

Episode music by Blue Dot Sessions

In this episode, we trace the strategic history of fintech giant Chime to expose how design, psychology, and color theory fuel modern banking.

We break down Chime’s calculated play for the underserved gig economy, the ethical entanglements of their early Doctor Phil daytime TV endorsement, and the catastrophic Covid-era algorithm errors that left paycheck-to-paycheck users locked out of their accounts for months.

We also examine the 2026 liquidity landscape as Chime clashes with Venmo and Cash App , the structural similarities to our own Webby-winning campaign for healthcare disruptor Centivo , and why a tech company’s sudden choice of a serif font is the ultimate sign of a corporate identity crisis.

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territorial is an advertising agency that helps brands find their place in the world. To see our work and learn more about what we do, visit weareterritorial.com.

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareterritorial

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Show art & design by Chris Allen

Editing & Video editing by Patrick Elmore: https://www.patrickelmore.co/

Marketing by Billy Silverman

Episode music by Blue Dot Sessions

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (or just Cannes if you’re normal) is coming up, and we’ve got the perfect tour guides. Rachel Segall and Simone Mandel of the growth platform and consultancy NBZ take us behind the festival facades and endless flows of rosé they experienced last year to give us a sense of what to expect next week.

We talk about the shifting ecosystem of advertising, hyper-commercialization of the festival beaches, and how lean indie shops are successfully crashing a party historically dominated by legacy holding companies.

Learn more about NBZ: https://www.nbzpartner.com/

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territorial is an advertising agency that helps brands find their place in the world. To see our work and learn more about what we do, visit weareterritorial.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareterritorial

Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@strangecoordinates

Want to see our faces while we talk? Find Strange Coordinates on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@strangecoordinates

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Show art & design by Chris Allen

Editing & Video editing by Patrick Elmore: https://www.patrickelmore.co/

Marketing by Billy Silverman

Episode music by Blue Dot Sessions