Most marketers are grappling with emotional exhaustion, feelings of being overwhelmed and crippling levels of imposter syndrome, according to Marketing Week’s 2026 Career & Salary Survey.

To explore the human stories and real life consequences behind the data, deputy managing editor and head of insight, Charlotte Rogers, is joined by former Deliveroo marketer and founder of training firm Badass Unicorn, Alice ter Haar, and former Sephora CMO Richard Clark, founder of content agency Boodsta.

From working long hours covering gaps in the team, to remits expanding to cover two roles in one, marketing’s messy ‘more with less’ culture is leaving marketers exhausted and without a support system.

Layer on company culture without any psychological safety and the constant pressure to justify your worth, and some marketers are questioning if they need to leave the industry to protect their mental health.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Ellie Norman joined Formula E as chief marketing officer in October 2024, the 11-year-old electric motorsport was in “plucky startup” mode with its eyes set on growth. Her brief was to turn it into a “global brand”.

By the end of its recent 2024/25 season, Formula E had grown its TV audience by 14% to 561 million and its fanbase was up 13% compared to the previous year, reaching 442 million people. All signs that suggest the plan Norman set in place is working.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, recorded live at Festival of Marketing with podcast agency 18Sixty, Norman shares her approach to partnerships, how she navigates team building and the importance of “building a culture where everyone can do their best work”.

She also shares how she approaches her first few months in a new role, with previous jobs including chief communications officer at Manchester United and global director of marketing and communications at Formula 1.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It took 18 months for Ash Schofield to decide it was time to leave Giffgaff. The CMO turned CEO explains that while his team had “positively” disrupted the mobile and broadband market, one thing he hadn’t disrupted enough of late was himself.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, Schofield retraces his steps back to 2013 when, attracted by the “whiff of revolution in the air”, he took on the top marketing role at Giffgaff just three years post-launch.

In conversation with deputy managing editor and head of insight Charlotte Rogers, Schofield explains how he made the transition from punchy marketing director and “self-appointed champion of culture” to a CEO focused on co-creating a strong, ethical business with real longevity.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Given, Sainsbury's chief technology, data and marketing officer, and Marketing Week's 2025 Marketer of the Year, has steered the retailer through a period of strong growth by putting customers at the heart of everything it does.

He joined Sainsbury's in 2013 and was promoted to chief marketing and sustainability officer six years later. The promotion saw him join the business's board and, as he details in this interview with Marketing Week's editor-in-chief Russell Parsons, allowed him to focus "relentlessly" on making it a brand that listens to its customers.

In the latest episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, marking Given's first podcast appearance, he shares the secrets to Sainsbury's success in recent years. He also reflects on a varied and accomplished career in marketing and shares career advice for any marketer at the start of their own journey.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spearheading a brand turnaround means committing for the long haul, embracing transparency and prioritising patience, according to Burger King.

In this latest episode, Charlotte Rogers, deputy managing editor and head of insight, chats to Burger King UK CMO Katie Evans and BBH London deputy chief strategy officer, Saskia Jones, about their journey from a decade of “Whopper silence” to winning the coveted Grand Prix and Long-Term Brand Building prizes at the 2025 Marketing Week Awards.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosts Charlotte Rogers, deputy managing editor and head of insight, managing editor Lucy Tesseras and senior reporter Molly Innes are joined by the wider editorial team to find out what trends, developments and decisions are shaping the year ahead.  

The episode spans everything from what levers marketers could pull to help gain investment and influence, to the shifting media and marcomms landscape, social media's growing share of brands’ budgets and the impact of AI on martech.  

We also look at how marketing recruitment is changing, what B2B marketers should be paying attention to and offer a sneak peak of our upcoming 2026 Career & Salary Survey results.

00:00 Intro

00:43 Niamh Carroll on growth

06:51 Charlotte Rogers on marketers' progression

11:51 Amrit Virdi on social media and influencers

21:49 Molly Innes on recruitment

27:32 Josh Stephenson on technology

33:10 Grace Gollasch on media and marcomms

38:30 Emily Manock on B2B

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the latest episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, we’re looking back on the stories, moments and quotes that shaped marketing in 2025.  

From it being another 12 months of “more with less” for many brands and a summer of women’s sport, to our reporting on the reality of a career in marketing for working parents and the industry’s burnout crisis, it’s been a busy year.  

Host Charlotte Rogers, deputy managing editor and head of insight, is joined by managing editor Lucy Tesseras, editor-in-chief Russell Parsons and senior reporter Molly Innes to dig into what 2025 meant for marketers.

We also hear from our columnists Helen Edwards, Jonathan Knowles and Laura Chamberlain, who share their marketing moments of the year.  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, recorded at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing with podcast agency 18Sixty, Sadler shares how the charity pulled off its biggest fundraising year to date and how she's built the team for growth.

The British Heart Foundation's most recent financial results showed the charity generated £108.4m from legacies, while its other fundraising efforts raised £58.2m, a 22% increase on the previous year.

Current president of Women in Advertising Communications Leadership (WACL), Sadler also shares her priorities for the year and how the industry can do better on equality.

Extra reading:

• WACL 50% CEO Playbook
• British Heart Foundation's 2024/25 financial results

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Specsavers scooped the win of Marketing Week’s brand of the year for 2025, pipping Adidas, EE, Monzo, ServiceNow and Warburtons to the prize, off the back of its success in the October 2024 IPA Effectiveness Awards, where it won gold for its for its ‘I don’t go’ campaign. Founded by Doug and Mary Perkins in 1983, Specsavers has seen strengths in the business, as group revenue grew by 7.5% in the 2023/24 financial year to £4.18bn.

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, editor-in-chief Russell Parsons is joined by CMO Peter Wright and global brand director Spencer McHugh to delve into how the brand has evolved and grown into new territories but kept its purpose core to its heart and maintained “enviable awareness consideration and trust” in a competitive category.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Great leadership is great leadership. Poor leadership is poor leadership, irrespective of what discipline or function that leadership is in," Becky Moffat, chief customer officer for retail banking and wealth at HSBC UK, tells Marketing Week. 

In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, recorded at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing with podcast agency 18Sixty, she shares her lessons for leaders, and how leadership is "fundamentally" about building trust and joining dots. ‘We’ve put marketing in context’: Inside HSBC’s team evolution 

She also explains how her remit has widened with her promotion from CMO to CCO earlier this year and how HSBC's team structure has evolved as a result. 

Marketing at HSBC sits within the 'customer' function, alongside disciplines including data and analytics, advertising and partnerships. She describes her team as working in "communities of practice" and explains how the business got to this setup and how, at the heart of it, the customer is being put first.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.