This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is a must for any marketer navigating the industry's enduring and fresh challenges.

Professors Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute join editor-in-chief Russell Parsons live from Cannes Lions to cover topics such as influencing finance departments, growth for small brands and AI "hype".

"[Marketers] should stop trying to pretend they're amateur CFOs and stealing terms like ROI and things like that, which just make the CFO think the marketers are jerks," says Sharp. "The job of the marketer is to explain to the CFO what they're trying to achieve and put forward some appropriate metrics to be measured on, not promises of huge leaps in market shares and sales."

They also discuss why an obsession with some metrics is leading to wasted budget and their opinion on the industry's purpose pushback, as well as interrogating some of marketing's biggest myths.

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Oura is one of the fastest growing health wearable brands, with revenues increasing fourfold in the last two years and the business on track to surpass 5 million users.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, CMO Doug Sweeny joins host Molly Innes, work and careers editor & podcast lead, to explore the brand's approach to marketing, from sports sponsorship to its recent brand repositioning and platform 'Give us the Finger'.

Since Sweeny last spoke to Marketing Week in October - when the brand repositioned from fitness tracker to 'holistic' health brand - its brand awareness has jumped from 20% to 30% in the UK.

He also discusses his team's relationship with the product function. "We work incredibly tightly with the product team. It's left hand, right hand," he says, noting that the "idea of a baton hand off" to marketing just doesn't cut it.

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar.

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In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, we’re reflecting on the year so far and what it means for marketers going into the second half of 2026.

Hosts Lucy Tesseras, managing editor, and Molly Innes, senior reporter, are joined by the Marketing Week editorial team to dig into the big stories of 2026 and the lessons brands should carry through to make a success of the next six months.

This episode spans everything from how marketers can find growth in a low-growth environment and influencer marketing transparency, to the evolution of AI search and B2B buying behaviours.

The team also discuss the industry’s career progression crisis and how it’s impacting parents, as well as a look at how marketers can improve their martech stacks.

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. Its LINK AI creator content insights turn influencer ads into predictive insight you can act on. Discover how you can invest with confidence, not guesswork with LINK AI by Kantar.

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Is marketing as progressive, equitable and inclusive an industry as it claims to be?

Taking pay disparity as a meaningful measure, Marketing Week data proves the industry still has many issues to resolve.

With marketing’s gender pay gap now at a five-year high of 21.7%, the 2026 Career & Salary Survey data also reveals both the ethnicity and socio-economic pay gaps are at their highest levels since 2022 at 13.7% and 18.6%, respectively.

To discuss what needs to change, Marketing Week deputy managing editor and head of insight, Charlotte Rogers, is joined by founder of creative comms agency Work & Class Laura Burch, The Marketing Academy Foundation CEO and campaigning chair on WACL’s executive committee, Lianre Robinson and co-founder of workplace equality champion People Like Us, Darain Faraz.

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With the 2026 FIFA World Cup around the corner, brands across the globe are making big swings to capitalise on the action and push their businesses forward.

Diageo is one such brand. As FIFA's official spirits partner for the tournament, the Johnnie Walker owner is "very clear" on the role its brands can play in the conversation, says Rick Pineda, vice-president of global sports.

He joins The Marketing Week Podcast, hosted by senior reporter Molly Innes, to discuss how Diageo is showing up for the biggest World Cup of all time.

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. LINK is an end‑to‑end creative effectiveness system, built for modern campaigns. Discover how you can drive stronger campaign performance and brand growth with LINK by Kantar.

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The Marketing Week Awards celebrate marketing that delivers real impact, where creativity, strategy, and execution come together to make a difference for brands, businesses, and customers. Click here to find out more details on entering.

In a category that’s often met with “a lot of indifference” from customers, building a banking brand that not only resonates but is celebrated is no small feat. 

However, this is what Nationwide has achieved. The 'A Good Way to Bank’ platform, which launched in 2023 alongside a wider rebrand, positions the bank as different from its competitors, backed up by a commitment to keep branches open and share profits with customers. 

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, Nationwide director of brands and marketing Richard Warren and Imogen Hope Mandla, strategy director at Mother – Marketing Week’s 2025 Agency of the Year – join managing director Lucy Tesseras to discuss the secrets of a successful relationship. 

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Marketing faces several enduring challenges, including driving business growth, establishing a framework for success and putting customers firmly at the heart of the business.

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast provides a case study for any marketer facing these universal challenges. Arla Foods' CMO Patrik Hansson joins editor-in-chief Russell Parsons to share how he led the organisation through a marketing transformation, helping it cut through with customers, drive growth and reframe the effectiveness conversation.

This episode of The Marketing Week Podcast is sponsored by Kantar. LINK is an end‑to‑end creative effectiveness system, built for modern campaigns. Discover how you can drive stronger campaign performance and brand growth with LINK by Kantar.

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As Pearson vice-president of global brand Rachel Exton points out, a lack of ambition is not the reason 44.6% of mothers responding to the 2026 Career & Salary Survey say being a parent has harmed their progression.

The reason is a system failing to embrace flexibility, which discounts the value parents bring and isn’t prioritising building a pipeline of future leaders.

To discuss what must change to stop parents leaving the industry, Marketing Week deputy managing editor and head of insight, Charlotte Rogers, is joined on The Marketing Week Podcast by Exton and Alex Lloyd Hunter, co-founder of campaign group The Dad Shift.

In this episode we analyse Marketing Week’s new data exposing the progression crisis facing working parents and explore why the UK’s two-week paternity leave is a major contributing factor to the gender pay gap – which within marketing has hit a five-year high.

We also discuss the impact of new day one paternity leave rights, why six weeks statutory paternity leave would be a good starting point for change and why flexibility should never be positioned as a favour.

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 Social media advertising continues to grow, with spend increasingly concentrated among a handful of dominant media owners.

Now, as certain social media platforms face claims that their algorithms are intentionally designed to be addictive, fail to adequately protect children and allow high levels of ad scams, we are questioning the role brands should play in holding tech platforms to account.

In this edition of the podcast, Marketing Week reporter Grace Gollasch is joined by Jake Dubbins, co-chair of the Conscious Advertising Network and managing director at Media Bounty, and Alex Tait, founder of marketing and MMM consultancy Entropy and co-founder of Reform Political Advertising, to discuss accountability and transparency in digital advertising.

The episode explores recent court cases involving Meta and YouTube, examines claims social media platforms are designed to be addictive and unpacks who holds the power in making change. The conversation also covers the dissolution of GARM and outlines the key questions brands should be asking about their advertising supply chains and the content their ads appear alongside.

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As brands continue to ramp up investment in influencer marketing, it’s more important than ever to ensure the brand-influencer relationship is solid. 

In this edition of the podcast, we delve into topics around creator gifting, education and creativity covered in the recent edition of our Influencers Explored series. Host Amrit Virdi, reporter at Marketing Week, is joined by Ross Farquhar, CMO at Little Moons, and Cerys Gardiner, marketing manager at Medichecks and a freelance content creator.

We discuss how the influencer strategy of both brands has evolved, covering everything from creator selection and briefing, to measuring effectiveness and where they see the industry heading. 

How both brands fully onboard influencers to work within regulations and what makes a good brand-creator relationship is also discussed, with Gardiner offering the influencer view as a content creator herself. 

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