60% of traffic. 1.6 billion views. A YouTube celebrity in-house. Carwow CMO Ben Carter reveals how they built a content machine so powerful, it became their moat and their moneymaker.

Welcome to the Marketing Hustle - a podcast about the real work behind building bold brands. We go behind the scenes with founders and marketing leaders to hear honest, unfiltered stories of what actually drives growth and cuts through the noise to build something that lasts.

Today’s guest is Ben Carter, CMO of Carwow - one of the most quietly disruptive brands in the UK. In this episode, Ben shares the inside story of how content became their unfair advantage: 60% of their traffic is free. Their YouTube channel boasts 10 million subscribers and 1.6 billion views. And their in-house presenter? Recognised by 25% of UK men.

But this conversation is about far more than content.

Ben opens up about losing his job unexpectedly and what it really takes to lead inside a Series E business during economic uncertainty.

We also dive into:

• How CarWow raised $52M in Series E funding from Bessemer and others

• Why first-party data and retail media are the real goldmine for modern marketers

• The death of SEO as we know it and the coming AI-ification of search

• Why most CMOs are either too brand or too performance and what it means to be bothThe future of jobs, AI, and marketing orgs in the next 5 years

This is an honest, high-intensity and highly strategic episode for anyone trying to scale a brand, build a resilient team, or keep up with the seismic shifts reshaping marketing today.