Uncensored CMO

Latest Episodes:

The divided brain, attention and how we see the world - Dr Iain McGilchrist Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. McGilchrist came to prominence after the publication of his book The Master and His Emissary, subtitled The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. His work formed the basis of Orlando Wood's books on advertising, Lemon and Look Out.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
01:09 - Iain McGilchrist background
06:05 - Hasn’t the myth of the right and left brain been debunked
12:48 - The changes in society based on right brained dominance
16:36 - Are we seeing a left to left brained shift in society today?
22:10 - How are the big discoveries made?
24:39 - How understanding attention could change the world
26:34 - How the left and right brains do things differently
29:19 - Is attention crested by us or the world around us?
31:18 - Can we train ourselves to be more right-brained?
35:13 - AI asks Iain a question
37:13 - How did Orlando Wood connect with Iain McGilchrist
45:02 - Orlando’s most profound piece of Iain’s work

The Mac is back: how Wieden+Kennedy gave McDonald's its swagger Nov 08, 2023

Show notes

In this episode I'm joined by Tass Tsitsopoulos, Strategy Director, and Brandon Pracht, Managing Director for the McDonald's global advertising team at Wieden+Kennedy. I catch up with them to find out how they brought McDonald's swagger back with some of their most memorable and effective work in recent years, including the "Famous Orders" and "As Featured In" campaigns.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:56 - The difference between UK and US agencies
03:15 - How did Brandon get into advertising
04:52 - What makes the culture special
08:07 - How W+K won the McDonald’s account
11:34 - Importance of connecting with real people
12:52 - What happens after winning the pitch
15:15 - What was the best McDonald's ad?
19:19 - The "Famous Orders" campaign
23:46 - The impact of the campaign
27:00 - The financial results
27:49 - Investing in long term having short term effects
29:05 - The “As Featured In” campaign
31:09 - Building fame
36:03 - How to thrive with a client like McDonald's
39:02 - What happens when things don’t do well
41:44 - Advice for clients wanting to make great work

How NBCU harnesses the power of entertainment; iconic shows, reality TV and the Olympics - Josh Feldman Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

Josh Feldman serves as Global Chief Marketing Officer, NBCUniversal Advertising and Partnerships. Feldman is responsible for driving how the NBCUniversal’s Advertising and Partnerships division shows up in the marketplace, leading creative executions that span Upfronts and industry-first events.

He oversees the entire Marketing and Content Partnerships group, comprising the division’s Commerce, Content and Talent Partnerships, Creative, Marketing, Strategic Initiatives, and Trade Marketing teams. This group operates the division’s full scale creative agency; leads NBCU’s development of an innovative suite of commerce solutions, such as One Platform Commerce; and furthers the company’s commercial innovation commitments.

Previously, Feldman served as the division’s Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing and Advertising Creative. Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Feldman started his career at Turner Broadcasting, where he took on various roles including Senior Vice President & National Sales Manager, Vice President & New York Sales Manager as well as Account Executive, where he oversaw client relationships for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TBS and TNT.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:35 - Josh’s Career Story
02:50 - How does being creative help with sales
04:17 - B2B strategies that make NBCU successful
07:58 - Why Cannes is important to NBCU
09:41 - NBCU’s iconic programming
11:05 - The secret to building strong client relationships
14:21 - Funnel marketing and the importance of end of funnel
16:34 - The popularity of Bravo
17:46 - BravoCon
21:00 - The best brand activations at BravoCon
22:51 - How brands can work with talent
24:49 - Being a media partner for the Olympics
27:59 - Josh’s advice on creativity and landing your message
31:39 - Helping smaller brands

How Salesforce built the world's most successful B2B brand - Colin Fleming Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

One thing we don't talk enough about on the Uncensored CMO is B2B. Specifically, B2B companies that are investing in their brand. One such company is Salesforce, who are a true force in the B2B tech world. I caught up with their EVP of Brand Marketing, Colin Fleming, a former Red Bull Racing driver, who gave us an insight into why their brand marketing has been so effective. From Super Bowl ads and partnering with Matthew McConaughey, to building recognisable brand characters and even creating their own huge event, Dreamforce.

Links:

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro
01:44 - Colin’s life as a racing driver
04:07 - From motorsport to marketing, what did Colin learn?
06:01 - The Salesforce journey
10:20 - The 95/5 rule in B2B
14:30 - The payback of investing in brand
15:27 - Investing in brand assets
19:31 - Why is a B2B company doing a Super Bowl ad?
21:26 - How Matthew McConaughey is involved in Salesforce
23:37 - Thoughts on AI
25:57 - Why Dreamforce is so big
32:28 - Why do people go to conferences
35:36 - Brand partnerships with Formula One
41:53 - Colin’s advice for marketers

The state of D2C and nailing your personal brand; advice from serial entrepreneur Tash Courtenay-Smith Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

Tash Courtenay Smith is a serial entrepreneur, renowned digital marketing expert, and best-selling author. Starting out as a journalist for the Daily Mail, Tash went on to found Talk to The Press, the Notting Hill Shopping Bag Company, Luminositie and now runs Bolt Digital. Tash also runs D2C Live, an event bringing together the best minds in Direct-To-Consumer. This conversation with a true entrepreneur covers topics such as the state of D2C, building a personal brand and inspiring the next wave of entrepreneurial talent with Biz Kids.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Starting out in journalism
01:30 - What can marketers learn from journalism?
05:03 - Why become a founder
06:49 - The unforgiving life of a journalist
10:37 - Challenges building and selling a business
16:08 - Advice to new entreprenuers
20:58 - What makes a good business to invest in?
26:03 - The best approaches for scale ups
30:11 - The turbulent D2C market
34:24 - Cutting through the D2C noise
36:00 - Which brands are nailing D2C?
37:00 - Creating a D2C live
40:13 - Writing and finding your own voice
41:17 - Building a personal brand
45:32 - The secret to a successful personal brand
51:17 - Going viral
53:44 - Biz Kids
59:41 - Parting advice

Mark Ritson on the best campaign of the year, Britain's favourite pint & why being different still matters Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

The Gary Vee of Australia is back in the Uncensored CMO hot seat. That is, of course, everyone's favourite marketing professor, Mark Ritson. In this episode we talk about the best campaigns of the year, Mark's most popular articles and why he thinks the US is lagging behind the rest of the world.

Watch Cadbury Garage

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro
00:31 - What’s going on in marketing in 2023?
02:19 - Why US marketers are off the pace
05:10 - Ehrenberg Bass and academic literature
06:53 - Mark’s contradicting viewpoints
07:23 - The Gary Vee of Australia
08:42 - Jon made a top 100 list
10:38 - Ritson’s biggest stories of the year
12:33 - Guiness
17:29 - The long and the short of it
20:38 - Cadbury
29:02 - Wear in vs wear out
36:43 - Running the same ad vs running a variation of a campaign
39:16 - Difference vs distinctiveness
45:51 - Is authenticity overrated?
48:12 - Do marketers use a brand’s history enough?
57:43 - Quick fire round

How LEGO used play time to unlock creativity - Julia Goldin, Global CMO, LEGO Oct 04, 2023

Show notes

Julia Goldin is the Global Chief Marketing and Product Officer for the world's no. 1 toy brand, LEGO. Prior to joining the LEGO Gin 2014, Julia was Global CMO at Revlon. She also had a 13-year career with Coca-Cola, where she held several senior global and regional marketing roles, including Division Marketing Director of Northwest Europe and deputy Chief Marketing Officer of Japan.

Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:53 - Julia’s background
01:57 - How did Julia become a CMO?
04:46 - What’s the secret to being a successful CMO?
07:51 - The secret to a long CMO tenure
09:37 - Staying on top of trends
11:30 - The LEGO mission and importance of plau
12:24 - Why play can help work
14:27 - Is working at LEGO as fun as it sounds?
17:51 - Product innovation at LEGO
20:02 - Collaborations and partnerships
23:11 - The best LEGO advertising campaigns
25:27 - The LEGO approach to sustainability
27:07 - Working with agencies
28:52 - Where should a CMO focus?
30:59 - Julia’s marketing career advice
36:23 - Getting the business to buy-in to marketing
40:26 - What will be important in the future

The myths of marketing live with Tom Goodwin Sep 27, 2023

Show notes

Tom Goodwin is back for our first ever live event in London. As uncensored as ever, we cover all things digital transformation to the biggest myths in marketing, this time with some thought provoking questions from a live studio audience.

Timestamps:
00:00 - Start
01:06 - Tom’s background
03:21 - Why Tom kept getting fired
05:08 - What technology will change our lives?
08:34 - We don’t care about consumers
10:21 - What opportunites are there?
12:45 - Things that aren’t changing
16:52 - Jingles
18:02 - Are brands dead?
20:32 - Questions
20:53 - The online advertising emperor has no clothes
25:38 - Why are brands not calling out social media companies?
28:28 - Biggest barrier to deliver on digital transformation
31:45 - Should marketers be more respected?
37:04 - How important is trust?
42:17 - Why did Tom keep getting fired?
44:49 - Is there ageism in marketing?
49:22 - Does not having kids make Tom more uncensored?

TikTok sensation Rob Mayhew on turning his passion into a business Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

For a very special edition of the podcast (episode 100!) I'm joined by a very special guest, Rob Mayhew, TikTok sensation and Creative Director at Gravity Road. Rob's witty commentary on the industry comes in the form of his hugely entertaining short-form videos, which often go viral on TikTok and on LinkedIn. Having found himself between jobs during COVID, Rob dug into his comedy roots and started posting up to 8 videos a day on TikTok which have grown in popularity exponentially over the past few years. He now finds himself striking some impressive brand partnerships who all want a slice of his comedy gold.

This episode covers the serious to the absurd. From Rob's story of how he got into the industry, to pitching a new British Airways ad to a special guest. I couldn't think of anyone better to have as guest 100.

Watch some of Rob's TikTok's if you enjoy laughing.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Start
00:03:41 - Rob’s backstory
00:07:32 - Rob’s comedy background
00:09:39 - How Rob got into TikTok
00:13:11 - Coming up with content ideas
00:16:50 - Rob’s most popular TikTok
00:19:25 - Landing a partnership with Pret
00:21:12 - The ultimate sponsor
00:23:34 - Jon’s pitch horror story
00:30:06 - Finding Rob new sponsors
00:31:17 - Pitching Nils Leonard Rob’s idea
00:37:07 - Sponsor brainstorm
00:38:51 - Cannes
00:40:39 - Making a career switch at 40
00:43:09 - Making a living from making online content
00:46:47 - Why Rob called his new agency Dunning Kruger
00:49:09 - Struggles of working for yourself
00:50:03 - Who are Rob’s heroes
00:53:47 - Dealing with inbound volume
00:54:39 - Rob’s new book
00:56:38 - Agency radio show
00:57:34 - Jon’s favourite guests
00:59:42 - What guest would Jon like on the pod?
01:02:22 - Rob getting fired
01:06:58 - The difference a good boss can make
01:09:21 - Something Rob has never told anyone else before
01:13:50 - How to be good on TikTok
01:14:47 - How to make B2B sexy again

The business of creativity - Sir John Hegarty Sep 13, 2023

Show notes

Advertising legend Sir John Hegarty returns to the podcast to discuss why he created a course focused on the business of creativity. If you've listened to the podcast before you'll know how important I think creativity is to drive business results, and so when Sir John announced he was creating this course, I had to get him back on the podcast to discuss.

Learn more about the course here.

About Sir John Hegarty
He was a founding partner of Saatchi and Saatchi in 1970. And then TBWA in 1973. He founded Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 1982 with John Bartle and Nigel Bogle. The agency now has 7 offices around the world. He has been given the D&AD President’s Award for outstanding achievement and in 2014 was admitted to the US AAF Hall of Fame.

John was awarded a Knighthood by the Queen in 2007 and was the recipient of the first Lion of St Mark award at the Cannes Festival of Creativity in 2011. John has written 2 books, ‘Hegarty on Advertising - Turning Intelligence into Magic’ and ‘Hegarty on Creativity - there are no rules’.

In 2014 John co-founded The Garage Soho, a seed stage Venture Capital fund that believes in building brands, not just businesses.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
01:37 - Why clients want to see ads
05:52 - Sir John Hegarty’s top 5 ads
06:47 - Ad 1: Audi - Villas
07:41 - Ad 2: K Shoes - Creak
08:41 - Ad 3: Levi’s - Launderette
11:24 - Ad 4: Xbox - Champagne
12:06 - Ad 5: Levi’s - Flat Eric
17:16 - Has advertising got too serious?
20:22 - The secret to pitching to a more rational audience
23:58 - How to make the most of your agency relationship
26:34 - Improving the brief
29:45 - Have we lost the art of brand building?
33:46 - The business of creativity
39:39 - Collaborators on Sir John’s Course
41:41 - The production of the course
44:33 - The legacy of Sir John Hegarty
47:26 - The format of the course
48:15 - Why training is important
50:29 - The case for creatives in leadership
52:36 - How would Sir John Hegarty launch a new agency

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