Uncensored CMO

Ellie Norman has been at the top end of some of the biggest organisations in the world, having held senior marketing roles at Formula 1 and Virgin Media. Most recently, Ellie has been the Chief Communications Officer of Manchester United, one of the most high-pressure jobs in the world. In this episode I talk to Ellie about what it takes to drive success at the very top of your game.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:48 - Celebrating Southampton FC
• 03:12 - Ellie’s marketing background
• 07:29 - Virgin Media campaign with Usain Bolt
• 12:09 - Why Ellie moved to Formula 1
• 15:12 - How Formula 1 owns the brand
• 17:51 - The Drive to Survive partnership with Netflix
• 25:59 - Moving to work for Manchester United
• 29:51 - Goals for the CMO of Manchester United
• 31:23 - When do people choose the club they support
• 32:59 - What role does social media play for Manchester United
• 35:01 - Dealing with scrutiny as a huge brand
• 37:10 - How Manchester United work with huge sponsor deals
• 41:39 - How do you do a great brand partnership
• 47:59 - Ellie’s one peice of advice for marketers

In this episode I speak with Tom Fishburne, better known as the Marketoonist. Tom likes to poke fun at our industry through his entertaining cartoons saying what we're all thinking. We recently had him join as as our cartoonist in residence at Cannes Lions, where he shared his experience through a cartoon each day. We also discuss some of Tom's greatest cartoons and why humour is good for business.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Start
• 01:16 - How Tom Fishburne became a cartoonist
• 05:00 - Why is humour so important in the workplace
• 06:29 - Going full time as the Marketoonist
• 12:42 - Humour in the creative process
• 19:21 - Outdoor ads
• 22:30 - Discussing some of the Marketoonist’s greatest hits
• 23:17 - IoT cartoon
• 26:59 - Customer funnel cartoon
• 33:05 - Shiny new things cartoon
• 34:13 - Covid Cartoon
• 36:32 - AI cartoon
• 39:44 - The Marketoonist at Cannes
• 42:37 - Day 1 Cannes cartoon
• 45:39 - Day 2 Cannes cartoon
• 49:31 - Day 3 Cannes cartoon
• 53:46 - Day 4 Cannes cartoon
• 54:25 - Day 5 Cannes cartoon
• 57:59 - Jon’s own podcast cartoon

Kory Marchisotto is the Chief Marketing Officer of e.l.f Beauty, a beauty company that surpassed over $1b in annual sales. They're digital first brand builders, taking the internet by storm and connecting closely with their customers. In this episode we talk about why Kory invests heavily in their brand, how every employee is a shareholder and why they collaborated with Liquid Death.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro
01:15 - Kory’s background
06:11 - Founding story of e.l.f
08:39 - How do e.l.f make their products so affordable
11:30 - Why e.l.f are investing in brand building
15:15 - Staying close to your consumer
19:44 - Bringing customer insight into the business
21:23 - Staying agile as a large business
23:43 - Where have e.l.f invested marketing spend
27:28 - The e.l.f customer demographic
30:57 - e.l.f’ x Liquid Death collaboration
33:24 - e.l.f x Chipotle
37:01 - The e.l.f culture and why it’s important
41:00 - Kory’s advice to younger marketers
44:08 - Why Kory shares her learnings so much on LinkedIn

We're again talking about one of my favourite topics; challenger brands. In this episode we've got one of the most successful challenger brands in the world, Gymshark. They're one of the original influencer and social media creative brands, growing to be Britain's fastest growing Unicorn. I'm joined by their Chief Brand Officer, Noel Mack, to give me the inside scoop on exactly how they did it.

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
02:29 - Gymshark Origins
04:49 - How Noel Mack bet Ben Francis
07:59 - What is a Chief Brand Officer?
09:28 - How Gymshark do influencer marketing differently
15:17 - Growing the Gymshark community
20:38 - The benefits of being a newcomer
22:59 - Working at a founder-led company
25:36 - When Ben Francis met the Prime Minister
29:09 - The challenges of scaling up fast
37:21 - Launching the Gymshark flagship store in London
43:22 - What’s it like working with Ben Francis?
46:46 - Career advice from Noel Mack

Listeners of have shown me time and again that you want more B2B content, so in this episode I'm joined again by the Les and Peter of B2B, Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg (previously of the LinkedIn B2B Institute). We discuss why B2B marketing departments need to put their focus on building brands rather than talking about product features, why distinctive assets continue to be an essential part of any brand, and we find out what the B2B boys will be doing now they've left LinkedIn.

Find out more about Jon & Peter's new company here:
https://www.evidenza.ai/

Timestamps

00:00 - Start
00:49 - The Les and Peter of B2B
02:34 - The biggest B2B revelations
03:52 - Is B2B really different to B2C?
06:28 - Determining buying cycles
08:25 - The brand building opportunity in B2B
20:05 - Why B2B companies need to create fluent devices
30:48 - Why Jon and Peter left LinkedIn to start a new company
33:37 - What does Evidenza do
38:19 - Why AI-powered market research is going to be revolutionary

Every year, the advertising industry descend upon the south of France to meet up in Cannes over a glass of rosé to celebrate the power of creativity. So I thought it was about time that I caught up with the CEO of Lions, Simon Cook, to discuss why creativity matters.

The conversation ranges from how can you make the case for creativity in business while budgets are strained, to what you can expect this year from Cannes Lions.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Start
• 01:37 - Origins of Cannes Lions
• 03:38 - The scale of Cannes Lions
• 05:19 - Creative marketer of the year
• 07:16 - State of the Nation research
• 09:30 - Friction between agencies and clients
• 12:47 - Jon’s two Cannes Lions with Lucozade
• 15:15 - The return of humour at Cannes
• 17:46 - Trends and themes for Cannes Lions 2024
• 18:39 - Will we see an AI category at Cannes?
• 20:01 - Big names at Cannes Lions 2024
• 21:14 - Cannes for creative effectiveness, or just celebrating the craft?
• 23:56 - Cannes embracing creators
• 25:27 - Jon’s pitch for a low budget category
• 27:57 - Advice on how to win a Lion
• 30:20 - How Simon Cook got the CEO job at Cannes Lions
• 32:40 - Challenges Simon has faced as CEO
• 35:09 - Dealing with criticism of Cannes Lions
• 37:02 - The Cannes Lions legacy
• 38:06 - Simon’s proudest moment

In this episode, we talk about one of my all time favourite brands, Cadbury. They're also one of the best performers on the System1 database, consistently creating five star work. To find out more about the work I'm joined by David Boscawen from VCCP, also known as Bosco, and Gui Ferreira who's recently joined Cadbury, bringing an outside perspective on what it means to take over an iconic brand with 200 years of heritage.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:46 Gui's background
• 03:27 David's background
• 04:20 How VCCP and Cadbury started working together in 2017
• 14:24 David and Gui's favourite Cadbury ads
• 21:08 Compound creativity and consistency
• 31:30 Key to a successful client agency relationship
• 39:55 How to write a good brief
• 47:03 Cadbury business results
• 49:41 Future of the Cadbury brand

In this episode, we're talking about a very, very serious topic. Humour. It turns out humour is not just funny, but it's good for business. In fact, humour in advertising is one of the most effective things you can do to make people remember you and buy your products.

I'm catching up with someone who knows all about humour. Trevor Robinson was the creative behind some of the most iconic and funniest ads of all time, including Tango from the 1990s. And I caught up with Trevor to find out more about what makes advertising funny, how do you do it, and what are the funniest ads of all time.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Start
• 00:48 - How Trevor got into advertising
• 03:50 - Landing the Britvic client
• 05:49 - The Tango Ad
• 11:11 - Haribo kids ad
• 20:00 - You need to entertain for commercial gain
• 28:11 - The importance of talent
• 29:30 - How to direct a great ad
• 38:23 - Have we lost humour in the past few years?
• 41:48 - The funniest ads of all time

Monzo Bank has fast become Britain's favourite bank, offering a customer focused online banking approach that consumers were craving. When Monzo started in 2015 they managed to challenge the incumbent banks with their distinctive "hot coral" card and referral scheme. 9 years later they are an established brand in the category and AJ Coyne has been tasked with creating emotional advertising to help continue to grow their market share.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:44 - AJ’s marketing background
• 02:49 - What can clients learn from agencies
• 07:40 - AJ’s time at Klarna
• 09:48 - Taking the CMO job at Monzo
• 10:49 - The emotion of money
• 14:02 - Focusing on a world class customer experience
• 23:07 - Positioning Monzo as a bank in a sea of neo banks
• 24:09 - Monzo’s new brand campaign
• 27:22 - Embedding Monzo in culture
• 29:15 - Advice for being a young CMO
• 33:05 - How to deal with things going wrong
• 36:33 - Fostering creativity in an organisation
• 37:55 - How AJ is creating the Monzo culture
• 38:45 - AJ’s parting advice

Colleen DeCourcy is the Chief Creative Officer at Snap, having previously spent over a decade at Wieden+Kennedy as co-president and Chief Creative Officer, working on some of the largest brand accounts in the world. In this episode we talk about Colleen's time at W+K, some of her favourite quotes from Dan Wieden and how she's now tackling brand at Snapchat.

Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
01:22 - Colleen DeCourcy background
03:30 - Winning creative leader of the decade
06:30 - Colleen’s tenure at Wieden+Kennedy
13:50 - The TIME Interview
18:39 - From retirement to joining Snapchat
21:56 - The challenges of Snapchat
26:49 - Creating happiness in social media
30:02 - The 3D Chess of Being CCO and CMO at Snapchat
36:12 - What’s it like working for Evan Spiegel
39:07 - Advice to young marketers from Colleen DeCourcy