The Whole Marketer podcast

Episode #143. Today's topic is a technical and leadership skill exploring building and leading brands with soul, which doesn't just arise from the company strategy or tactical execution but from the passion, love, and responsibility of the leaders and people in the business.

Abby's guest who is passionate about this topic and author of 'Building Brands With Soul' is Siew Ting Foo. An impactful and influential marketing leader, Siew Ting is named consecutively, six times as Asia's most purposeful and influential CMO, and named Asia and China's top woman leader, having worked on brands including Unilever, Mars, Diageo, Fonterra and most recently, HP.

In this episode, Siew Ting shares her definition and characteristics of brands with soul and why it's important, the five pillars, human-centric leadership, global brands to local markets and how she connects to her team through 'Friday emails'.

Plus Siew Ting's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.

00:00:00 Welcome and introduction to 'building brands with soul'

00:03:45 The Five Pillars of Brands with Soul

00:05:13 Writing the Book for future leaders

00:06:29 Why is Human Centricity important

00:09:15 Siew Ting's Personal Discovery and Purpose

00:11:00 First 100 Days Framework

00:15:21 How to Create Global Brands with Local Soul

00:19:49 Building Internal Belief

00:22:27 Authentic Leadership through Friday Emails

00:25:51 Personal Career Highs and Lows

00:27:36 Advice for Future Marketers

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Siew Ting Foo | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #142. Connecting with your Consumer is the focus of today's episode, an evolving technical and soft/human skill for marketers to develop as our human understanding continues to deepen and evolve through societal and technological advancements.

Abby's guest to discuss is Toby Horry, Global Brand and Content Director at Tui, responsible to Tui's re-brand and the recently much talked about first Tui Christmas ad. Prior to Tui, Toby worked at Tesco's as Digital Marketing Director, part of the Brand Turnaround team, tasked with rebuilding trust in the Tesco brand and in the agency world as planner for AMV BBDO and MD of Dare.

In this episode, Toby shares his definition of what it means to connect with your consumer, the challenges of mass targeting, skills and behaviours marketers need to connect with audiences, marketing to global audiences, and lots of examples of connecting from brands such as Tui, Nicorette, Tesco and Fiat.

Plus Toby's career highs and lows and advice for marketers.

00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to 'Connecting with consumers'

00:02:23 The Importance of Understanding Customers

00:03:40 Changes in Marketing Communication

00:05:56 Consumer Expectations

00:07:25 Skills Marketers Need in Order to Connect

00:09:59 Insights from Nicorette Campaign

00:11:46 The Role of Concise Marketing Briefs

00:14:09 Global Marketing Considerations

00:20:03 Customer-Centric Ideas

00:23:23 Insights from TUI

00:27:32 Creativity and Agility

00:29:10 Toby's Career Highs and Lows

00:31:29 Advice for Future Marketers

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Toby Horry | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #141. Today's personal understanding topic is about owning your marketing career so that it is fulfilling to you, and the steps you can take to be proactive and intentional to move towards your ideal role.

Abby's guest to discuss this is David Brewerton, Growth Marketing Director of Monzo. Initially starting his marketing career in digital marketing, David broadened his marketing roles to have more strategic impact and has worked with brands such as Tesco Mobile, Metro Bank and now Monzo.

In this episode, David shares his definition of owning your marketing career, perception as reality, the art of giving and receiving feedback, his story of finding an ideal role after redundancy and the value of building your profile and making connections.

Plus David's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.

00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to 'Owning your Career'

00:02:12 Defining Career Ownership

00:03:55 Perception as Reality

00:06:11 Why Personal Branding is Valuable

00:08:52 The Importance of Authenticity

00:14:27 Feedback as a Tool for Growth

00:17:52 David's Approach to Securing a New Role Following Redundancy

00:22:35 Building a Profile Online

00:27:24 Proactive Career Ownership

00:37:13 Mapping Career Goals and Vision

00:39:15 Finding Your Tribe

00:41:27 Learning from Experience

00:41:40 Advice for Marketers of Tomorrow

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: David Brewerton | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #140. We're starting the new year with a technical topic on Marketing Excellence, to inspire and empower high performance for all marketing leaders and those in their care who are growing the brands and businesses of tomorrow.

Joining Abby is her guest Sue Warren, Head of Marketing Capability at Sky. Sue worked on brands such as Unilever, Telewest and Virgin Media before joining Sky and after a decade in various marketing, strategy and planning roles, is now developing structured marketing excellence programmes to upskill and energise the entire marketing function in Sky.

In this episode, Sue shares her definition of marketing excellence, the development and implementation of Sky's marketing excellence programme, it's impact on the output and creativity of the marketing function and the importance of embedding marketing excellence long-term, not just delivering training.

Plus Sue's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.

00:00:00 Welcome and introduction to Marketing Excellence

00:03:25 What is Marketing Excellence?

00:05:36 Benefits of a Structured Marketing Excellence Programme

00:06:35 Beyond Marketing Training – Empowerment and Investment

00:10:08 Creation and Drivers Behind Sky's Marketing Excellence Program

00:17:26 Methods, Processes and Behaviours of Marketing Excellence

00:23:35 Leadership and Accountability

00:25:42 Impact on Marketing Performance and Engagement

00:28:55 Lessons from the Journey

00:32:09 Sue's Personal Career Highs and Lows (00:32:09)

00:38:21 Advice for Future Marketers

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Sue Warren | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #139. Today's focus is on Personal Understanding, which is a fundamental pillar of the Whole Marketer philosophy and what we believe is the key to having a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole.

Abby's guest to discuss the benefits of developing your personal understanding is Kirsten McPherson. As Marketing Director at Mondelez, Kirsten is responsible for heading up two of the UK's top brands, Philadelphia and Dairylea. Her previous experience includes Procter and Gamble, where she spent more than a decade working on an array of billion-dollar brands, driving global change initiatives such as Always 'end period poverty'.

In this episode, Kirsten shares her definition of personal development and its importance for leadership development, her formula for personal energy, implementing 'prison Fridays' and the role of community and mentoring in developing your personal understanding.

Plus Kirsten shares her advice for career highs and learnings, and advice for marketers.

00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Personal Understanding

00:02:07 What is Personal Development?

00:05:03 Personal and Professional Growth and Leadership

00:07:56 Kirsten's Formula for Personal Energy

00:08:19 Purpose, Motivation and Confronting Limiting Beliefs

00:13:17 The Importance of Coaching

00:15:33 3 Key Areas for Marketers

00:16:14 The Concept of "Prison Fridays"

00:21:59 The Role of Community in Personal Development

00:25:19 Creating Community Initiatives at Mondelez

00:29:23 Advice for Starting Community Initiatives

00:30:46 Kirsten's Career Highs and Learnings

00:34:24 Advice for Future Marketers

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Kirsten McPherson | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #138. Creativity is the skill featured in this episode, however being creative is not a department or a job title; it's a skill and mindset that every marketer can harness to keep evolving in pursuit of new, innovative ways to solve problems.

Joining Abby is Kevin Chesters, a marketing strategist with over 25 years of experience both agency and client-side, including being the former Head of Strategy at BT and CSO of W+K London, plus Dentsu, McGarryBowen and Ogilvy. Kevin's first book, 'The Creative Nudge' was an Amazon best-seller and he shares the concepts from his book in this podcast.

In this episode, Kevin shares his definition of creativity, 'nudge theory' where small changes can lead to significant impacts, 9 behaviours to rediscover your creativity and how marketing leaders can create an environment for creativity.

Plus Kevin shares his advice for reviewing creative respectfully and his career highs and lows.

00:00:00 Welcome and Creativity in Marketing

00:02:00 Defining Creativity

00:03:32 Why is Creativity vital to stand out?

00:06:09 Kevin's Nudge Theory Explained

00:08:12 Nine Behaviours to Rediscover Creativity

00:15:12 How to Create Conditions for Creativity?

00:17:56 Being Willing to Challenge the Status Quo

00:21:56 Creativity and Human Evolution

00:24:51 How to Review Creative Ideas?

00:33:12 Reviewing Creativity and Giving Feedback

00:37:29 Kevin's career Highs and Lows

00:48:18 Advice for Marketers

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Kevin Chesters | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #137. Today's episode is a holistic topic on how the breadth and depth of marketer's roles are continuing to evolve as we move towards leading the long-term commercial agenda, understanding the advancements in science and neuromarketing for how consumers make decisions and adopting AI into our everyday lives.

Abby's guest is legendary marketing leader, Margaret Jobling, Group Chief Marketing Officer at NatWest Group. Before joining Natwest in 2020 and implementing agile ways of working, "Tomorrow Begins Today" brand platform and the NatWest partnership with team GB for the Paris Olympics in 2024, Marg has spent the majority of her marketing career in FMCG categories, working on some iconic brands such as Lynx, Dove, Radox, Cadbury, Dairy Milk and Birds Eye, as well as Director of Marketing for British Gas.

In this episode, Margaret shares her definition of the role of marketing today and how it has evolved, the art and science of marketing, learnings as a CMO, marketing in the age of AI and building trust and authenticity with consumers in a digital environment.

Plus Margaret's career highs and howlers, and advice for marketers of tomorrow.

00:00:00 Welcome and why we need evolving skills in marketing today

00:03:13 Defining of the role of Marketing

00:05:40 Key shifts in marketing

00:06:42 Impact of technology on customer interactions

00:10:05 What are the skills required for modern marketers

00:11:27 The future of marketing with AI and building trust

00:20:53 Skills Margaret looks for when hiring marketers

00:24:56 Building relationships with stakeholders

00:28:14 Experimentation, Curiosity and Continuous Learning

00:31:16 Margaret's Career Highs and Howlers

00:36:31 Advice for marketers of tomorrow

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Margaret Jobling | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #136. This episode is a personal understanding topic for working parents to help you gain fulfilment in your life as a whole - navigating the reality of being both a marketer and a parent and what you can do to balance both worlds when work and home life collide.

Joining Abby is her guest Rachel Morris, an Exec business coach, co-founder of Motion Learning and best-selling author of 'Working Mother', a book inspired by Rachel's decades of expertise and practice coaching new parents as they leave and return to work.

In this episode, Rachel shares her definition of working parents, challenges faced particularly by mothers, insights on setting boundaries, self-care, and the emotional struggles during transitions like maternity leave.

Plus Rachel's advice for working parents.

00:00:00 Welcome and challenges faced by Working Parents.

00:02:21 What is a Working Parent?

00:04:01 Rachel's motivation for writing 'Working Mother' book.

00:09:46 Common emotional patterns experienced by working parents.

00:10:41 Overwhelm during maternity leave preparation.

00:12:40 Fear and anxiety in new parenthood.

00:16:58 Challenges of returning to work.

00:20:21 Why you should set boundaries.

00:25:54 Understanding what gives you energy.

00:32:53 Empowerment to gain clarity and direction.

00:37:17 Finding fulfilment to gain balance.

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: - Rachel Morris MNCIP, PCC - | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #135. Today's topic is a technical skill on copywriting and its critical role in driving action and building brand trust.

Joining Abby to discuss is seasoned copywriter Dave Harland aka the Word Man. A naturally entertaining storyteller, over the past two decades Dave has built a notable career in persuasive writing that captures attention for brands such as Google, Jaguar, Tesco and Castor. He is a regular speaker at industry events and also has a LinkedIn following of almost 100k people who enjoy his witty stories - particularly leading scammers down rabbit holes and challenging bad actors on the internet.

In this episode Dave shares his definition of copywriting, 3 effective copywriting principles, when brands get it wrong, empathy for your audience, copywriting tips and brand success stories.

Plus Dave's career highs and lows and advice for marketers.

00:00 Welcome and why the art of copywriting is so important for marketers.

05:44 How being entertaining converts consumers into loyal fans.

07:52 Ryanair excels at self-deprecating, entertaining branding.

13:16 Brands misuse clichés and jargon which impacts consumer engagement.

18:56 Empathy is crucial for effective copywriting skills.

22:20 Knowing what is interesting to your audience.

26:50 How to improve your writing skills.

31:37 How Dave turned a career low into university writing opportunity.

36:46 Dave's career high and advice for marketers.

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Dave Harland | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #134. Today's topic is Agency Partnerships – what makes a great client-agency relationship and perspective from both sides of the fence.

Joining Abby to discuss is Richard Robinson, awarded "One of the ten most influential Leaders in Digital & Tech" (BIMA) and Campaign A-List 2024. Richard is highly experienced in the client (McDonalds, Coca-Cola) and agency (Publicis Worldwide) world and as an intermediary for both at Xeim Engage and Oystercatchers. In his latest role as Executive Director of Ingenuity+ and Exco member of The Ingenuity Group, UK's largest connector of brands with agencies, Richard specialises in connecting the Marketing World.

In this episode Richard shares the two fundamentals of a great agency partner, the role of account handling, all agency 'rules of engagement', quality of briefing, plus insight from Ingenuity+ 'Redefining the pitch' report and why Richard is excited about the future of his new role.

Read a copy of Ingenuity+ report mentioned in this episode: Ingenuity + Redefining The Pitch (ingenuitylondon.com)

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Richard Robinson🔥 | LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by House of Performance

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The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com