The Scale Up Playbook

Still at home and meeting guests over Zoom, in this episode, Wax/On’s Mark Runacus and Paul Jacobs meet up with Tina Fegent. Tina is well-known in the marketing community on both sides of the client/agency relationship, and she has a unique perspective on that having worked in both worlds. Today she leads her own specialist marketing procurement consultancy helping brand owners find the right partners for a wide range of marketing services. She explains why a pitch remains the best way to choose an agency, and why agencies shouldn't be paid to pitch. She tells us how clients and agencies are adapting the pitch process to lockdown, including innovative ways to really get to know each other in place of the traditional “chemistry” process. She discusses the pros and cons of in-housing, talks about the 20 different agency models she's identified, and explains how brands have re-evaluated their procurement needs in lockdown, extending contracts and changing supplier relationships to help them meet their post COVID-19 evolving needs. And of course, she shares her favourite TV ad. +++++ https://tinafegent.com/ +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

How has lockdown been for entrepreneur owned and managed businesses? We speak to the founders of two new brands for whom the pandemic has either kick-started their direct to consumer ambitions or dramatically accelerated them. One has found a gap in the highly-competitive drinks market and the other has set out to disrupt the furniture category. Kris Ingham founded Rejuvenation Water out of a fascination with the power of amino acids, and Rob Bridgman created the sofa-in-a-box company Snug because his own sofa buying experience was such a nightmare. They talk about their different start-up experiences, funding, entrepreneur support networks, and what they've learned in lockdown. https://rejuvenationwater.co.uk/ +++++ https://snugsofa.com/ +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

The government wants us to go out and shop to kick-start the UK economy, but what's it like out there for retailers and consumers alike? Tim Robinson is CEO of Doddle, a business right at the crossroads of physical retail and e-commerce, offering solutions for click and collect, returns and ship from store. Tim is a veritable font of retail knowledge and he shares his vision of the retail future post COVID, where and how retailers must invest to survive, and how our obsession with home delivery damages margins and holds the sector back. He tells us how retail marketing should change post COVID, and gives an insight into the challenges faced by retail merchandisers. He also talks about the pivot his own business made when he realised Doddle wasn't in the right shape to capitalise on future opportunities. +++++ www.doddle.com +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

The 600,000 young people who are leaving university right now are facing an uncertain future. How do we avoid creating a lost generation of post-COVID marketing graduates? Paul and Mark talk to three recent graduates from Bournemouth University's advertising and marketing courses to find out how they're feeling about their career prospects. They share their own tips on Zoom interviews, how and when to be very creative with your job applications, getting the best from LinkedIn, what they ask of marketing employers in lockdown, plus the resources to get you more marketing and advertising skills and qualifications. +++++ https://www.coursera.org/yale +++++ https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage +++++ https://www.centreofexcellence.com/ +++++ https://www.studentjob.co.uk/ +++++ Additional music: Tomorrow's Times by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

Our special Business as Unusual episodes continue as the Wax/On team meet up by Zoom for web chats. In this episode Paul and Mark speak to Victoria Fox, Chief Executive of AAR, perhaps best-known as an intermediary helping businesses find creative and media agency partners, and now re-invented as a consultancy. Victoria talks about pitching in lockdown, how COVID should make everyone think hard about the way agencies are paid, juggling being a working Mum and a home schooler, and maintaining a focus on diversity and inclusion. +++++ https://aargroup.co.uk/ +++++ Right Housing for the 2020s 

 https://aargroup.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/AAR_Right_Housing_for_the_2020s.pdf +++++ https://www.fearlessfutures.org/ +++++.

https://wacl.info/about/future-leaders-award/ +++++ Additional music: Driftmaster by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com 

 +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

Wax/On’s Mark Runacus and Paul Jacobs meet for another working from home special. A few days before rumours of a Virgin Media and O2 merger surfaced, Virgin Media's Jeff Dodds explained how our communication habits have changed in lockdown, how his team created a brand-new TV ad sensitive to our COVID-dominated world, talked about his passion for getting differently-abled people into the workforce, and shared the leadership advice he was given by Usain Bolt. Beano Studios’ Emma Scott tells us how she pivoted an 80-year-old comic to a multi-platform content studio and global kids’ insight database, and explains how COVID is highlighting inequalities amongst children with 1 million UK and 8 million US children denied access to outside space at the moment. 

LINKS +++++ Beano Generation Alpha Insight https://www.beanostudios.com/post/the-future-s-bright-the-future-s-gen-alpha-1 and stay up to date with Beano’s latest research on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/beano-studios/ +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Please tell us what you think and leave your review on iTunes. And PLEASE SUBSCRIBE +++++ www.wearewaxon.com THANK YOU!

In our special Business as Unusual Wax Lyrical podcasts we chat about the ways our businesses can get through the crisis. Mark Runacus and Paul Jacobs speak to System 1’s Chief Innovation Officer Orlando Wood who explains how applying right brain thinking to our creativity will produce better results. Drawing from his fascinating book “Lemon”, he discusses why there might be a post COVID creative renaissance, why some new low-budget, low production value, user-generated COVID-aware ads are performing better than Cannes winners, and has tips for brands making new ads using UGC on staying distinctive. Orlando dissects his favourite right-brain ad of all time, and joins us in reviewing new campaigns from Aldi, Virgin Media, and Bold +++++ LINKS +++++ https://www.linkedin.com/in/orlando-wood-6a62946/ +++++ https://system1group.com/ +++++ Orlando’s Book “Lemon” https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lemon-advertising-brain-turned-sour/dp/0852941471/ +++++ Orlando’s Effweek presentation https://youtu.be/XUXYRf5O5T4 +++++ Download Mark’s Runacus’ summary of recent COVID-related consumer research https://bit.ly/WaxCOVIDresearch +++++ The Marketing Society https://www.marketingsociety.com/ +++++ Additonal music: Tomorrow's Times by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com +++++ Funk In The Trunk by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Please tell us what you think. Please leave us your review on iTunes. And subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

Our Business as Unusual special Wax Lyrical episodes continue as the Wax/On team meet up by Zoom for web chats. Mark speaks to Gemma Greaves about the mood amongst marketing leaders at the moment, how the Marketing Society is pivoting at pace to support the community, dealing with her imposter syndrome, and what she will miss as she steps down from her role. Meanwhile Paul and Cairen chat to Dr Simon Moore, CEO of Innovation Bubble and a Chartered Business and Consumer Psychologist who specialises in uncovering emotional and personality influences on behaviour. He explains how brands should respond to the current situation as consumers shift from gain to maintain. He explains why if brands go silent consumers will believe they are lacking in confidence; how marketers should be leading with more emotional messages, and why our marketing should make the consumer feel more in control. +++++ LINKS +++++ The Marketing Society https://www.marketingsociety.com/ +++++ Innovation Bubble https://innovationbubble.eu/ +++++ Additonal music by Purple Planet https://www.purple-planet.com +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Please tell us what you think. Please leave us your review on iTunes. And subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

Mark, Cairen and Ben are joined by Rik Moore from independent media agency The Kite Factory to discuss how the media landscape has changed dramatically over the past seven days. How some brands are still running advertising which should and could be changed. Spikes in radio listening, the decline of outdoor, and the closure of cinema. Meanwhile, what can brands do now to really help out, and why that’s important for their long-term survival? And how brands and their creative and media partners can plan NOW for the new normal: the social trends we expect to see when we emerge from the crisis, including a renaissance in local brands and services; “responsible hedonism” as we treat ourselves after months of social and experiential isolation; and of course new attitudes to wellness. 

LINKS +++++ The Kite Factory https://thekitefactorymedia.com/ +++++ Noel Penrose https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/managing-through-economic-turbulence-noel-penrose/ +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Please tell us what you think. Please leave us your review on iTunes. And subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com THANK YOU!

Mark and Paul discuss three simple Coronavirus guidelines for all marketers. Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Conscious Advertising Network Jake Dubbins explains how brands can make a stand against funding questionable content. Is TV reach now really in decline? Ebiquity’s latest report suggests it is. And following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s accidental promotion of Yorkshire Tea, Matt Phillips explains what to do when your brand gets unwanted celebrity attention. Plus, new campaigns from Uber Eats, Tesco, and Three. +++++ Conscious Advertising Network https://www.consciousadnetwork.com/ +++++ Ebiquity Mind The Gap https://www.ebiquity.com/news-insights/research/mind-the-gap-lifting-the-veil-on-cross-media-measurement/ +++++ Uber Eats “Bring It” https://youtu.be/-1tayzQn8uY +++++ Tesco https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51611514 +++++ Three “The real 5G future is here” https://youtu.be/OM4nwcNo6oM +++++ Jake Dubbins https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-dubbins-34888010/ +++++ Matt Phillips https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipsmatt/ +++++ Additional music by Kevin MacLeod www.freepd.com Purple Planet Music www.purple-planet.com 

 +++++ Talk to us [email protected] +++++ Please tell us what you think. Please leave us your review on iTunes. And subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com THANK YOU!