In the marketing and advertising worlds, we often hear about the importance of creativity. A great deal has been written about how creativity is a big driver of marketing effectiveness, and it’s hard to argue with the data - see Paul Dyson's work evidencing how greta creative delivers a 12x profitability multiplier in advertising effectiveness, or WARC's Effectiness code.

So, what does it take to be creatively excellent? How do you get from good to elite in marketing communications. That's where Neil Quick, my colleague at Oystercatchers and guest in this episode of the show, comes in. Neil has been in advertising for 35+ years, working on brands including, Guiness, Harley Davidson, Co-Op, a whole raft of household icons in the P&G House, and many more.

In the show, Neil and I explore why brands should invest in creativity and what it takes to excel. If you work in the world of marketing, advertising and communications, you'll probably learn something new and it will give you a taster for working with us as we take our Creative Skills Bootcamp training around the world.

Building brand advocacy is at the top of a marketer's to-do list, but we rarely think of internal marketing to achieve it. Maybe we're missing a trick. What if you could use internal marketing to create a tribe of advocates to help grow our brand?

In this latest episode of Through the Line, I'm joined by Kerry-Ann Stimpson, the CMO of Jamaican financial services firm JMMB Group and host of the Internal Marketing Podcast.

In the show, Kerry-Ann introduces her passion for internal marketing and how it is critical in building her organisation's brand from the inside out.

60% of the World's population is now active on social media. It's probably time we learnt how to sell to them there then.

In this latest episode of Through the Line, I'm joined by social selling expert Tim Hughes to explore the new world of sales. No doubt Tim is an expert in this space. Not only does he run an agency that trains and advises clients on how to sell better online, but he's also written THE book on the subject.

In the show, Tim shares bucketloads of advice for how sales (and marketing) professionals need to shift their methodology forward to get better sales results.

This show is 39 minutes and 34 seconds long. Surely you can invest that sort of time to find the secret sauce to greater sales.

A common challenge for B2B marketers is how to reach a C'Suite audience.

After all, they're the decision-makers, right? So we really need to get some content in front of the CMO, CFO, CRO, C whatever O, but they are notoriously hard to reach, let alone influence. Thankfully, the team at copywriting agency RH&Co did a little research into the type of content CxOs want to read, which they pulled together into a handy report for B2B marketers.

Rin Hamburgh, the agency head, joined me on this episode of Through the Line to take me through the research. One of their key findings was that marketers underestimate the CxO's desire for things to be simple. They want complexity of thinking presented in a way that is simple and engaging, and tied to the bigger picture. They don't want you to sell to them, nor do they have time for waffle.

Click below and listen to the show if you want to find out more about engaging the C'Suite with your marketing.

Have you ever been asked to justify your marketing spending? How about whether your marketing is actually working?

I will be amazed if you haven’t. All marketers need to justify their existence at some point; otherwise, we get labelled with derogatory pap like ‘the colouring in department’. Thank goodness for experts like Gabe Hughes.

According to Gabe, we should all be able to assign value to our marketing. To do this, there’s a marketing measurement trifecta that includes digital attribution, econometrics, and incrementality or A/B testing.

By using these models, marketers can get to grips with the marketing that works at a brand level and also sales performance, including which channels and campaigns are adding value.

Gabe is a true expert on marketing measurement. In the show, we cover everything from data being the new oil to the value of different types of attribution models and the pros and cons of GA4. I promise you there is value in this show if you are new to marketing measurement or just want to enhance your understanding of the options available for measuring marketing performance.

Remember social media? Despite being out of the limelight, social media is no less important. In fact, as my guest on this show, Claire Hoang, suggests, it's even more important; many of our audiences are now social media natives. They have never known a world without social, so it's no time to lose our heads and focus on another shiny penny.

In this episode of Through the Line, Claire takes me through how brands can utilise social media to engage their audiences and build brands. In a wide-ranging conversation, Claire and I look at everything from the importance of native content, supporting organic with paid social, the importance of attention, brand building rather than pushing product in an always-on world, brand safety and even touch on regulating social media. If you're in any way involved in social media strategy, you'll find some value in this episode.

In this episode of the Through the Line podcast, Kate and I explore how to use Artificial intelligence (AI)I to grow internationally. The obvious avenue is with translation, but there's so much more for marketers to think about; everything from market testing to CX, getting the right skills in your marketing team, and of course, asset creation. There's a lot to think about, and Kate explores them in practical, easy-to-understand terms. If you're wondering what to do with all the AI hype, you'll enjoy our conversation.

In this episode of Through the Line, I explore brand transformation with Dr Emmanual Probst, who has just published his book called Assemblage - the Art and Science of Brand Transformation. The book is a real treasure chest of ideas for brand managers looking to create better relationships with their customers. I recommend it to anyone looking for some fresh ideas and inspiration.

In this episode, we explore a range of branding topics, from purpose to the creator / re-mix economy, the impact of climate change and the need for brands to be more sustainable and going direct to consumer. We barely scratch the surface of his book, but it will give you a flavour of what's to come.

Every man and his dog has seen the potential of building a personal brand, from leading CEOs to start-up founders, copywriters and agency bosses. But, not everyone has got it mastered. Not yet, anyway.

Rajen Mistry from specialist consultancy Founder Story joins me on Through the Line to unearth what it takes to build a personal brand and why you should. Rajen shares generously, and there are lots of takeaways, tips and ideas about what to do and how to measure results.

Enjoy the show.

How important is your website?

I'm going to hazard a guess that the answer is very. Since the advent of the internet, websites have moved on at quite a pace. Where once we had simple brochure sites, we now have complex sites with lots of content and many opportunities for a browser to convert into a sales funnel. It could be starting a trial for a SaaS product, donating money to a charity or buying a new watch on a DTC-branded e-com site. They generally all have one thing in common: conversion.

Want to find out about some fresh ideas for optimising your website using neuroscience? Listen in to the show.