Uncensored CMO

Latest Episodes:

MAD//Fest - From contemporary dance to craft beer revolution? - Tom Rainsford, Beavertown Brewery Jun 29, 2023

Show notes

Tom Rainsford has been named as one of the Top 50 creative minds in the country. After a surprising start to his career (that still stands him in great creative stead even now), Tom has grown a challenger brand into a household name and now leads the Marketing at one of the coolest brands on the planet – Beavertown Brewery.

What does Tom see as the magic ingredients for successful brand growth, why does he believe culture and fact-based emotion are they key and how is he going to top his show stopping MadFest opener from last year

Dancing your way to a top job in marketing
Should you do a marketing degree?
The first kickstarter brand? David to Goliath on Giff Gaff: 10 years building a genuinely different business model - how to outsmart the big boys
Are great brands emotional or rational?
The problems with tech marketing are…..
Watch your internal language doesn’t end up in your communications
Why Tom believes in In-housing: how to nurture creativity within a company
Why creativity is not valued in business.
The important questions businesses need to ask themselves about why their creative is wrong
The importance of Culture: Does pizza on a Wednesday help?
Was COVID a blessing for marketeers?
Art and advertising reflecting culture: A discussion about Orlando Wood’s Look Out
Why pubs can be the answer the growth.
Beavertown Neck Oil: Jon and Tom drink at 11am!
Has craft beer jumped the shark?
Is consistency important in marketing after all?
Why Logan (Robert Plants son) founded Beavertown and what’s it like working in Founder led businesses.
Why Beavertown innovation works (according to System1)
Why Tom wants you to steal his pint glasses.
What makes Beavertown stand out?
The importance of a stonking product
Shifting to Heineken ownership - have things changed?
Ensuring innovation succeeds within a titan mothership
Madfest: How Tom is planning to top his mobile phone/trust gig
How culture delivers brand trust and helps brands ride the storm
Can you learn to do what Derren Brown diss in a month?
Why being a CMO can be a lonely affair.
The importance of making more noise in bad times
Do people do good work when they are knackered?
Marketing artists vs marketing scientists
The biggest failure in Tom’s career (and what he learnt)
The reward of messing up
Why the more senior you get the less you know.
“To do” lists vs “to think” lists
What everyone’s next big business question needs to be……

Rory Sutherland, the Master of Madfest, on why behavioural science should get awards Jun 27, 2023

Show notes

Live from Cannes, third time returning guest Rory Sutherland gives us his views on just how good this year’s Festival of Creativity is, what should be awarded, AI vs AI, what we should be looking for as marketeers in current trends and the value that behavioural science brings to creativity.

He also talks about what he is looking forward to on the road to another great festival – Madfest, and why he is doing his Mad Masters course.

What we covered in this episode:

Why Rory thinks this Cannes Lions Festival is the most wonderful ever.
The backbone that Rory thinks System1 and WARC bring
The Campaign for a new Behavioural Science Award
Festival of creativity or advertising?
The brilliance of ABInbev brewers for bread campaign
Rory on re-writing the advertising rules
Jon’s 5 most creative moments
What excites Rory about behavioural science
Rory’s definition of creativity
The story at the heart of Crocs growth
Should there be a Cannes Lion for zero budget campaigns?
Fashions in psychology
The problem with chat GPT is……
Outlier vs average impact on creativity
The value Artificial Inquisitiveness and Interestingly wrong
People’s value in business vs automation
System1’s learnings on AI creativity and innovation
Why brand partnerships should be awarded.
Encouraging people to think more widely about what they should be testing.
Does Rory think the world needs Apple Vision?
Should Google have persisted with Google Glass?
Why all Europeans report to distain automatic cars.
Rory’s ideas for the tech world innovation
When are people happy being happy cut off from fellow men?
The most important economic thing about Zoom meetings.
How Rory is plotting to get more cash for creative people
Why Rory keeps coming back on The Uncensored CMO
The value of “crap creativity” – why the obvious solution could sometimes be better
Rory’s Road to Madfest - what he is looking forward to and why he is doing Mad Masters

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Cannes Lions - The Triple Opportunity of Attention with Karen Nelson-Field, Orlando Wood, Rob Brittain Jun 23, 2023

Show notes

In this episode I'm joined by three more effectiveness titans in my Cannes special coverage. Karen Nelson-Field, Rob Brittain and fan favourite Orlando Wood join me to talk about the triple opportunity of attention.

Cannes Lions - The 3rd Age of Effectiveness with Les Binet, Grace Kite & Tom Roach Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

Following on from the IPA EffWorks and WARC session on the Terrace Stage in Cannes, I speak to effectiveness legends, Les Binet, Grace Kite and Tom roach to outline the big shifts in advertising effectiveness in the digital era, suggesting that we’re leaving the trough of disillusionment and moving onto the plateau of productivity.

Digital once promised so much in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, tracking, and accountability. But the reality didn’t live up to the hype. And now we’re entering a new era - one where the best understanding about things have always worked are being blended with new ways of doing things, and the evidence suggests things are beginning to work better as a result. They challenge the narrative that creativity is declining and digital is the culprit. On the contrary, analysis of the ARC database shows effectiveness is improving in some places, (less so in others).

It will also shine a light on brand-building in the platform world, specifically, creativity within the platforms. Tom talks about how clients, agencies and creators are getting to grips with the new environment, showcasing examples of effective creativity from around the world.

Managing the biggest beauty brand in the world - Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, L'Oreal CMO Jun 14, 2023

Show notes

Lex Bradshaw-Zanger is the Chief Marketing & Digital Officer for L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa Region. Prior to this role, Lex was the CMO for the UK & Ireland, held roles in the Western Europe Zone and was Chief Digital Officer for the L’Oréal Middle East and Africa Region. Prior to L’Oréal, Lex was with McDonald’s and Facebook. He is a recovered ad-man having spent over 10 years in the agency world, with both WPP and Publicis – his last role was Regional Director for Digital Strategy & Innovation for Leo Burnett MENA.

A marketers guide to a squiggly career - Helen Tupper, Amazing If Jun 07, 2023

Show notes

Work is fundamentally important to the quality of our lives and we are surrounded by more change and choice than ever before. Our careers have become far less predictable and increasingly 'squiggly'. In this episode I have a chat with Helen Tupper, co-founder of Amazing If and co-author of "The Squiggly Career: Ditch the Ladder, Discover Opportunity, Design Your Career".

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Find out more about Helen:

What we covered in this episode:

How Helen and Sarah started their business on napkin
Why the career ladder is not necessarily the path to success
5 years of experimentation to develop the Squiggly business
How Helen and Sarah went from starting The Squiggly Careers Podcast to 330 episodes
How to create a growth flywheel for your brand or business - making content more useful
Why creating something of huge value for free is the key to B2B growth - remaining relevant
Trusting in reciprocity - why helping people authentically is so important for growth
Why you shouldn't worry about your weaknesses
The Squiggly Careers Book - The 5 Key Skills you need
The importance of deliberately choosing what you want to be known for
Your 2 week energy audit - How to discover your core skills and values
Jon and Helen's 12 month career high and why it mattered
Building high trust teams and emotional safety
Less budget = happy teams
Confidence Gremlins and limiting beliefs
Teaching yourself to draw on the positive
Learning how to fail.... and that this means for success
The pressure pedestal - we are not all Simon Sinek!
Jon's advice on presentation skills
Networking Events - how to reframe the fear
Fired? Redundant? How to get back into employment....fast!
Why you should only share what you really care about
How curious career conversations will set you up well in you next job
Creating a constant flow of future job opportunities
How to use your mobile phone contacts to find the perfect role
Redefining the definition of progression
Helen shares whom Squiggly Careers is for and whom it can help
Helen's advice on crafting your best career story

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Managing the worlds largest drinks brands (Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff & more) - Ed Pilkington, CMO Diageo NA May 31, 2023

Show notes

Edward Pilkington is the Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at Diageo North America, managing a portfolio of the biggest brands in the world, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff and more. If theres anyone that understands how to run marketing for huge brands, it's Ed, and he certainly brings his wealth of experience to this conversation.

How Google put humanity into technology - Nishma Robb, Google UK May 24, 2023

Show notes

Nishma is responsible for leading brand and reputation marketing for Google in the UK. She has led many of Google’s acclaimed projects and campaigns including Digital Garage, This is My YouTube, the Google Executive Summit, Brandcast, ThinkwithGoogle and Be Internet Legends.

Nishma is a Board Director at the School of Marketing and is proud to be a Fellow of the Marketing Society. Her accolades include Ad Age’s Woman to Watch, Europe (2018), Campaign A List (2017, 2018 and 2019), Drum Digerati and was recognised in the Hospital Group’s h100 list as one of the most influential and innovative people in the UK’s creative industry.

When she’s not looking after her twins or at work, you’ll find her in sparkly shoes dancing in the sun or under the stars!

Talking points

00:00 Intro
00:32 The inspiration behind MadWomen
04:18 How Teletext was the Google before Google
07:54 The responsibility of managing the Google brand
12:20 How Google makes you look clever
13:30 What search reveals about humanity
16:08 "It’s Ok to Ask" campaign with Uncommon
17:59 Why Marcus Rashford helping out with the campaign
20:37 It’s not what we ask it’s what we do with the answers
20:47 The role of humanity in Google's work
24:05 Why we shouldn't just sell cheese
26:01 How the Google Pixel phone makes technology accessible to new audiences
30:17 CODA, How Google helped people understand the life of someone with two deaf parents
34:02 How diverse advertising unites the audience
36:40 Telling one person's story well
39:40 Diversity and representation in media
42:28 How technology democratises the ability for creators to get funded
46:54 Creating the worlds first augmented reality brand
48:00 Top tips for YouTube creators
50:20 How creators and collaborators can grow your brand
51:05 The role of AI to democratise tech
53:13 Advice for advertisers using YouTube
58:01 The surprising effectiveness of brand building style advertising in digital
01:00:35 Nishma’s biggest ever failure
01:02:36 Outro

How to really understand your audience - Yusuf Chuku, NBCUniversal May 17, 2023

Show notes

Yusuf has worked across most flavors of planning and strategy making him one of the few genuine hybrid strategists. His experience spans a number of the world’s leading corporations including Microsoft, BMW, Samsung, Kimberley-Clark, Kraft and Verizon. He is currently EVP, Client Strategy at NBCUniversal.

Early ambition to become a city trader
Falling into media planning
Wearing trainers to work
Selling the internet in 1995
Crossing the creative and media divide
Why all things are not equal
The birth of planning
Why so many Englishmen end up in New York
Why 90’s sitcoms are still so popular
The power of stories to attract a global audience
The special relationship between audience and programming
The 3 aspects of Fandom
98% of commercial airtime is as engaging as the content
Pricing media based on emotion
Reflecting people identity on screen
Satisfying cultural curiosity
The representation hierarchy
The diversity divided when people feel seen
The power of empathy to connect with audiences
How empathy and sympathy are different things

From Mouldy Whoppers to Old Age Cows - Fernando Machado, NotCo CMO May 10, 2023

Show notes

Today I'm joined by one of the most influential and successful CMOs on the planet, Fernando Machado, of legendary Burger King fame. He went on to work at Activision and now is CMO at NotCo.

Fernando is a creative genuis, he's been awarded many, many times I've started to lose count (over 200 Cannes Lions). I wanted to catch up with Fernando and find out what makes a great creative marketer, was that "Mouldy Whopper" campaign actually worth it, and why did they sponsor a low league English football team? We also talk about what is he doing now working for a plant-based company and how AI plays a crucial role for them.

Links

Topics covered:

What makes an influential CMO
The culture that leads to award winning work
The importance of influencing an organisation QUOTE
The two hidden P’s of the CMO
The importance of a shared creative ambition
Why shared values and purposes is so important
What it takes to create award winning work QUOTE
Why is takes time to build up the credibility to take risks
Why huge failures are similar to most campaigns QUOTE
If your creative isn’t noticed everything else is academic
Why attracting the best creative talent means committing to bold work
The more creative work you do the more creative you are likely to get
When you have a smaller budget you have to get more creative
Sharing the results for Mouldy Whopper in public to address the critics
Where the idea for the Mouldy Whopper came from QUOTE
What Fernando learnt at Activision Blizzard
The power of networking in finding a perfect role
The biggest challenge facing NotCo
Why the best creative work gets done on small budgets
How AI is accelerating the development of plant based products
How AI beat the Nike design department
How AI created the most average Pizza advert
Why the brief matters when using AI QUOTE
From curation to creative, why AI is a tool and not a replacement of the marketing function
Why Notco is advertising old animals
Think of a colour that doesn’t exist
The one piece of advice for marketers

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