Champagne Strategy

We'll spend thousands of dollars a month on ads yet routinely underinvest in the quality of the creative. Even the biggest agencies do it. They cheapen out on the quality of the audio track. But great music can make or break a movie or TV series. It can also be the difference between advertising and promotions that your audience either remembers or doesn't remember.

Raj has recently taken this to the next level. Investing his own money into the production of an entire rap album. I haven't met too many companies who have done that before.

Even more interesting is that this album talks about a sector which most would find very boring indeed - B2B SaaS!

I this hair-brained creativity gone wild or is there method to the madness. This is something we just had to get the scoop on.

It doesn't' matter if you like music, rap or Raj's tracks or not. You'll learn about a few mediums all rolled into one. It starts with audio aka sonic branding, then goes onto how to craft better webinars, then a sales pitch in the context of startups seeking funding, and finishes with events.

But don't worry, there's strategy throughout as we discuss how he inserts audio into branded content for maximum gain. And by listening to the full episode, you'll start to understand how all of these things link together - after all - this is one of the hallmarks of good strategy - a coherent set of actions.

And yes, you'll also learn how to pitch your startup to investors using his trademarked Que Pasa method. You'll learn how to take your events to the next level. And some of the secrets behind creative production if you wish.

But, the more important learning here is exactly how Raj uses this music he's produced to drive value and achieve business goals. And that story is a very interesting one. One that no one else has discussed with him - until now.

Want to be GOAT to Market?

Yes

I do

I do

I do

You know all those famous authors and people on social media with posts that are wildly successful? You may be surprised to learn, it's probably not them. Most don't even manage their own accounts. But, who's work then are we really reading? Who's DM's are we really slipping into?

Today we're going to delve into the murky world of ghostwriting. And it reminds me of that famous scene from Fight Club - because....

It appears, the first rule of ghostwriting is that you don't talk about ghostwriting.

And while, today's guest is very tight-lipped about the people he manages, we do get him to spill some beans and expose some of the dark secrets within the industry.

And this is all very Wizard of Oz

From a hip-hop group who imploded after their ghost-music-writer secret was revealed on stage, to the downfall of a famous business personality who ironically, ran a ghostwriting firm.

You'll learn about juniper trees, gin, tonic and why we still treat newborn babies in a particular way.

You'll learn why chasing vanity metrics with content and social media is a futile exercise,

The difference between high and low-quality content, and much, much, more.

The perfect episode for executives and senior leaders as well as anyone in the content industry, social media folk, marketing strategists and of course those running a business.

Skip to around the 6 min mark if you want to miss the gin sipping and genesis story and I'll see you on the other side.

Brain Hurt = 6/10. Do you want your effort to translate into maximum reward without change getting in the way? If so, embracing inherent uncertainty in the world is arguably the best way to go about it.

Matt Watkinson published his third book this year which explores the concept of probabilistic thinking, systems, determinism and more.

We don't really do book reviews, but this one caught the eye of our CEO and needed to be explored.

This is Rory Sutherland-esque. In fact, they are both quite close and Rory gives a glowing review of this book.

If you don't learn something, you haven't been listening.

Start learning...press play

Brain Hurt Level = 2/10. "Great interview...I've often thought someone needed to interview you, put all of that red-pill business and marketing chat into one cohesive conversation. Your definition of marketing should actually be a front-slide of every conversation I have now."

Note: This episode best serves the interests of executives, founders, owners and senior management. But, there's takeaways for everyone, especially if you're leading a team or interested in escaping the adland bubble.

We can use terms every day and assume everyone knows what they mean. But, answering the most basic questions are sometimes the most difficult.

What is marketing? What is brand?

Do you need to have a culture built on values like sustainability, equality and saving the world?

Meqa Smith, an employer branding expert and executive recruiter interviews John and both discuss how their disciplines intersect. Together they explore how companies misinterpret the marketing function and brand. Which often leads to erroneous hiring plus unfair expectations being placed on people hired for certain roles.

Along the way basic terms are defined. Political realities are highlighted and growth constraints discussed.

Reposted with permission fom Meqa's recent foray into starting her own series of interviews on modern hiring and employer branding for companies in Australia at https://unforgettable.agency

Brain Hurt level = 5/10. Note: this episode is best for those interested in marketing or growth within the SaaS tech sector. Especially if you work in marketing, growth or as a senior marketing leader or founder. And even more so if that's B2B or Martech. But...

With that said, it's rare to find someone who has worked in design, engineering development, product, strategy and marketing. Even rarer again to find someone who's personally managed teams in each of those as well.

Shay Howe is the CMO of a marketing tech company called Active Campaign. Each day he's able to see-saw between strategy and tactical execution together with his team of 30. But, he says leading marketing is his most difficult and complex role yet.

Hear from the horse's mouth about the current challenges affecting all tech company's marketing and growth departments. The threat and opportunity posed by AI. The rapid proliferation and complexity within the marketing tech industry. Bridging the brand versus performance marketing challenge. Modern measurement. Team management. And the future of the marketing tech stack including a practical critique of the buzzwords and acronyms which can plague sound decision-making.

Ready to get your tech on?

Want to know what it's actually like to be a CMO inside a tech company?

Find out by pressing play.

Baiba’s career is varied to say the least. Starting with a bachelor of visual arts at university where she was dissuaded from pursuing a career in this field, to later attempts at breaking the small glass ceiling of male advertising strategists in her native Latvia. After some account management experience at both Ogilvy and Grey group she landed a strategist role at an agency in the Czech Republic, later working at Kantar Millward Brown. During COVID she started a community dedicated to serving fellow strategists around the world - pushing the profession forward.

Now she works mostly freelance in between guest lectures at Miami Ad School and a mix of other pursuits from her new base in Berlin. You couldn’t get someone closer to the front line in the advertising agency world who also has a healthy cross functional chunk of experience.  

Sometimes referred to as The Mark Pollard of Europe. She specializes in brand strategy and creative strategy. 

In this episode you’re going to get a good grounding in the history of strategists, formerly known as account planners. You'll learn where the role came from. Why it is needed. What the role looks like today (for better or for worse). Why you need access to one when working with an agency and all of the good, the bad and the ugly within the modern world of advertising.  

But what also leaks out are some very interesting comments about the modern state of the client agency relationship. The problems on both sides and how we can solve them together aligned in the pursuit of better work.

You'll learn how to brief better. How to tell an experienced planner from a junior one (or influencer cult follower). You'll learn which strategy frameworks you can use and which ones are overrated. You'll also learn why insights are not essential for good strategy - and much more.

As usual, many common myths will be debunked and if you don’t learn something new, you haven’t been listening. 

So what are you waiting for?

A recent article, some skeptical Twitterati and a belated Champagne film scene prompted the two Johns to join forces once again. In this episode, we put some of the doubters at bay. So if Jon Evan's recent Marketing Week article took your fancy, or you don't believe it, then you can hear the extended story of exactly how it all went down right here, right now. Listen and you might be able to pick up some tips on how to extend your budget's runway too.

A lesson in the power of constraints, creativity and Champagne.

The Uncensored CMO, uncensored again.

Listen before someone else does!

Have you ever found it difficult to brief and agency, a copywriter or a designer and get back the words you were expecting? This is really hard when you don't have a messaging strategy which sits at the top of your workflow. Working alongside your brand voice and tone, your positioning, brand story and strategic narrative.

It's the missing piece that nearly every company fails to invest in and without it, you'll experience a lot of frustration, back and forth communication, and rejected copy.

Failure to work on your messaging strategy especially affects complex, B2B or technical products and services the most. This is because the product offering is often multi-dimensional, highly intangible and technical. Saying what you and your product does can be infinitely more challenging than selling a toothbrush.

But, have no fear. You can fix most of that problem right now by listening to 61 minutes of pure messaging strategy bliss.

Today we're getting Eden Bidani, a writer turned copywriter and messaging strategist to spill all her secret sauce just for you.

To quote one of my favorite lines in Scary Movie, 'What are you waiting for.....what are you waiting for....what are you waiting for?'

Press play

Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10 There's a famous quote by Kleiner Perkins' OG John Doer, "Ideas are easy. Execution is everything. It takes a team to win".

If you've ever been responsible for bottom line results, you'll agree and nod because you know this quote to be true. Unfortunately, mastering the craft of execution is not politically advantageous.

Instead, most companies reward those who are seen as a big picture thinkers not those fussing with details in the weeds. So we talk about higher-level constructs like brand, strategy, mindset, buzzwords, general approaches etc. And then outsource as much of the grunt work as possible to further this image, and as a political hedge.

But, it's only when you've done the task yourself and architected operational systems, that you truly appreciate how critical the smallest details are to success. Hundreds of layered details which cascade with compounding effects that have a massive impact on the final result. And this is something that can't be solved with more tech, more planning, new frameworks, more consultants or more close-the-gap meetings.

This phenomenon is especially pernicious in the field of sales/marketing/growth. A reliance on third-party vendors (agencies) to execute the work became necessary for political survival. But over time, it's led to an underappreciation of the value and importance of operations. If you work for a large brand, halo effects also hide this importance. It's only when we move to smaller organizations do we fully understand how critical it is to success.

If we just took some time to at least know the basics, we would save a lot of miscommunication, misinterpretation, and failure downstream.

Which brings us to today's episode with Mike Rizzo, founder of the MarketingOps community since 2017.

Whether you want to call it marketing ops, growth ops, sales ops or revops it doesn't matter. Chances are the name will change again in a year or two anyway. This chat with Mike will allow us all to get a crash course in the discipline and hopefully use this knowledge to do better work.

Strangely enough, most firms, don't even have a marketing ops hire. And if they do, it's more of a technician without a broader understanding of how everything else fits together into a system guided by strategy. Then there's other marketers who are doing marketing ops without even realizing it.

So lets step down a few tiers from the business strategy or functional strategy layers and explore the operational strategy layer. With someone who lives and breathes marketing ops.

What is a brand? How do they work? How do you separate the marketing fluff from fact?

If you want to build commercial value from marketing investments this is a mandatory listen.

Listen to Dr Ethan Decker. A former ecologist who is now an applied brand science professional based in Boulder, Colorado.

Nothing more needs to be said.

Skip to the 5-minute mark if you want to skip the intros and Champagne sipping.