Uncensored CMO

Les Binet and Sarah Carter are planning royalty. Starting out at the iconic BMP, the agency which evolved over time to become adam&eve today, they are the planners behind many famous campaigns. Not least John Lewis which lasted an impressive 14 years. A few years ago their popular myth busting column turned into the well known book ‘How Not to Plan’ taking conventional wisdom and turning it on its head. I catch up with the dynamic duo to pick their considerable brains on the topics they think marketers least understand.

Talking points from this episode:

• The real godfather of effectiveness
• How John Lewis changed Christmas
• Les & Sarah pick a favourite ad
• Why vignette ads are a cop out
• What the John Lewis econometrics reveals about the campaign
• Why you should make people feel something not show them feeling
• Jon discovers the Long & the Short of it
• The best way to really upset Les
• That famous key visual
• Can you ever achieve both long & short at the same time
• Why consumers don’t give a s**t
• How myth busting inspired the book
• Being turned down by Marketing Week
• Why there are more P’s than Promotion
• How to involve planners early
• The BMP Philosophy of planning
• How not to get caught Short
• Why 60% of campaign results are long term
• How not to be consistent
• Knowing what to change and when to change it
• What advertisers can learn from designers
• A little plug for Orlando’s fluent device work
• It’s only advertising and no-one died
• The case for animals and music
• How not to make sense
• How not to change your pricing
• Why EPOS data switched spend from communication to price promotion
• Digital attribution is the new price promotion
• The more detailed the measurement the worse the marketing has got
• Jon shares his only Effie case study
• How not to be different
• Why how you say something matters more than what you say
• Les takes down the idea of loyalty
• The one topic which wasn’t covered in the book
• Finding things to get angry about

In this episode I'm joined by Sam Conniff, the author of Be More Pirate, creator of Uncertainty Experts and stand-up comedian. I speak to Sam about what marketers can learn from the pirates (which is a genuinely interesting look back in time), how we can deal with uncertain times and find out what his best joke is in his new hobby, stand-up comedy.

To win a copy of Sam's book, you just have to guess the number of books he's sold. Send me a message on LinkedIn with your guess.

What we covered:

•  Why hot pink is the colour of a punk rebellion
•  Creating a challenger brand pirate operation inside a large soft drink company
•  The fear and loneliness of the challenger
•  Why piracy inspired a book about being an entrepreneur
•  How today is like the golden age of privacy
•  The forward thinking nature of Piracy that are relevant today
•  How piracy is a creative rebellion
•  Pioneering fair pay, equal relationships, insurance scheme, democratic process
•  How the pirate flag became the worlds first super brand
•  How ‘surrender or die’ was a very effective strap line
•  Protecting the pirate brand guidelines
•  The power of shared values in victory
•  What do you do with no money
•  Why values based results never materialised
•  How fear drives decision making
•  Navigating yourself off the map
•  The pirates that work in the Navy
•  How the pirate code ensured strong accountability
•  The role of advertising in a post consumer society
•  The fantasy of the ‘business plan’ compared to lived values
•  What are you willing to fight for?
•  The best modern day pirates
•  How pirates end up becoming the navy
•  Turning land-fill firehoses into luxury items
•  The 5 Pirate Principles also known as the 5 ‘Rrrrr’s’
•  The upheaval that led to becoming an expert on Uncertainty
•  What you can learn from gang members in prison
•  How the pandemic was predictable
•  The truth in most situations is ‘I don’t know’
•  There is discovery in doubt
•  The profound impact of increasing your uncertainty tolerance
•  Sam shares a surprising new talent

Nir Eyal is back for the second part of this 2-part Uncensored CMO series. This episode, we talk about the book that made him famous - Hooked - and how you can apply habit-forming techniques to your own marketing work.

Some more about Nir:

Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. 

Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Reviewas, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Bloomberg Businessweek wrote, “Nir Eyal is the habits guy. Want to understand how to get app users to come back again and again? Then Eyal is your man.”

He is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

• Why the AdContrarian decided to end his weekly newsletter

• The irony of Bob getting an award for best speaker at an AdTech conference

• A surprising honour from Byron Sharp

• The freedom that comes from being an independent

• Bob’s most contrarian ever statement

• The shocking amount of personal data gather about every person

• How the marketing industry is complicit in on-line tracking and division in society

• The issue of tracking and how we managed just fine beforehand

• Why advertising works better when it isn’t personal

• The primary role of advertising to create fame for the brand

• System1 data to show the value of Fame building

• Why most people don’t care about your banner ad

• How targeting devalued creativity

• Why AI will just lead us to more average creative work

• The insanity of M&M’s withdrawing their characters in a moral stance

• Why the industry isn’t taking the failures of adtech seriously

• Explaining ‘programmatic poo’ and why it matters

• The 40,000 websites your ad appears on

• The 9 billions ads that suddenly disappeared

• The important distinction between ad impressions and views

• Why only 9% of people actual see a banner ad

• What happens when we start media buying based on attention

• The things your Gran could have told you about advertising

• Why your audience aren’t ‘buying into the conversation’

• Is my toilet paper pro Brexit?

• The scale of ad fraud and why it isn’t news

• Ad fraud is bigger than Coke or Nike

• The scale of ad fraud funding criminal activity

• Why low CPM’s drive the wrong behaviour in the digital world

• How 3rd party data only predicted gender 46% of the time

• Whether its time for legislation to fix the issues

• The 3 things every marketer can do to help

• What works in marketing doesn’t work in advertising

• Introducing the Marketing Bottom and what most marketers don’t know

• Why people buy what makes them feel good

• How Fame, Feeling & Fluency predicts success

• The one topic we should be talking about

• The case for being silly and having more fun

Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. 

Nir co-founded and sold two tech companies since 2003 and was dubbed by The M.I.T. Technology Reviewas, “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Bloomberg Businessweek wrote, “Nir Eyal is the habits guy. Want to understand how to get app users to come back again and again? Then Eyal is your man.”

He is the author of two bestselling books, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

What we covered in this episode:

• What motivated Nir to write Indistractable
• The one topic that hadn’t been written about
• Focusing on what works in practice and not just in theory
• How the book helped work, life, family and health
• Why we get in our own way
• What it’s like to see your own book on the shelf
• Who Nir really wrote the book
• Why yellow is the best colour for a book and podcast
• Understanding what causes distraction
• The role of intent in separating traction and distraction
• Why you shouldn’t write a to-do list
• Focus on what is important rather than easy
• How work tasks can also be distraction
• The internal and external triggers of distraction
• The shocking 90% of distractions that come from within us
• How we have to master our internal triggers
• The secret hack of planning our time rather than to-do’s
• The myth of will power of a depleting resource and the one group for whom its true
• Why you should avoid seeing yourself as a victim
• Changing the narrative we tell about ourselves
• Living to your own values rather than other peoples
• Making time for traction by turning values into time
• Being generous with your money and stingy with your time
• The importance of planning time for fun and interacting with people
• Dividing work into reflective vs reactive work
• Using your calender rather than email to determine your day
• The tyranny of the to-do list
• How to a get to a higher level of team productivity
• Using communication tools like a hot-tub
• How to manage your boss
• The role of culture in supporting its people to be Indistractable
• How BCG changed their business culture
• Work hard and go home – the lesson from Slack
• Why focus is the superpower of the century
• How to approach meetings
• Why 80% of meetings have no agenda
• The surprising number for the optimum number of people in a brainstorm
• The only reason to have a meeting
• The homework required before every meeting

Mark Ritson is back on the Uncensored CMO podcast, and he's more uncensored than ever. This episode brings his ever candid thoughts on the best ads of 2022, who f*cked up and who he's been most impressed by. Strap in for Ritson's Review of 2022.

Watch Uncensored CMO on YouTube here.

What we covered in this conversation:

• Biggest marketing cock up of 2022
• The 2022 new entry on Mark’s Marketing Bulls**t Top 10
• The biggest surprise of 2022
• Which brand impressed him the most in 2022
• Who taught him the most in 2022
• The short term pay off of long term brand building
• The challenge of stagflation in 2023
• Why pricing is a big opportunity for Marketers
• The importance of framing and communicating price
• Have we passed the peak Christmas Ad yet?
• The strategy behind Aldi’s successful Christmas Ad
• The power of Fluent devices to connect short & long
• The under leveraged power of music to drive effectiveness
• How Coke Holidays are coming owned Christmas
• How doing less leads to more
• The one time a client changed agency and kept the creative the same
• Jon & Mark review the best ads of 2022 on the System1 database
• How Cadbury hit 5 Star in only 10sec with hardly any production
• The power of consistency for Cadbury
• How the emotional response varies by category
• How Kelloggs owned the breakfast category
• What Mark learnt about branding whilst writing articles for the BA magazine
• How Go turkey made the Top 5 but remained forgettable
• How to value the impact of the music
• Mark and Jon create the perfect advert
• How agencies could guarantee a pitch win with System1
• When Jon lost out on a Hollywood Director
• Why marketing is so often seen as a cost not an opportunity
• Jon reveals the No.1 Ad of 2022 (excluding Christmas Ads)
• Jon reveals the Top 5 Advertisers of 2022
• How Magnum reflected older people so well in their Advertising
• Marks most famous MW column on Cannes and how it compares to System1 data
• Jon reveals the No.1 Advertiser of 2022
• Why simple beats clever every time
• Brands are tiny and un-important in consumers lives

What does it take to be the CMO of an iconic British high-street retailer, like Boots? Pete Markey shares his valuable wisdom and insights from a career at the very top.

What we covered in this episode:

• The difficult second album making Boots Christmas Ad
• Rediscovering the joy of Hall & Oates
• Why Retailers are so good at making Christmas ads
• Making people feel more festive
• The importance of escaping reality at Christmas
• How Boots landed on Joy as a proposition for Boots
• The purpose of making gifting easier and more joyful
• Being CMO of a high st retailer during covid & recession
• How Boots is using pricing and Advantage card to help customers
• Going from ‘good old Boots’ to ‘oh wow Boots’
• How Boots is using advertising to reflect the full diversity of society
• The importance of telling one persons story well
• Wising up and showing older people in a better light
• How ‘Summer be ready’ campaign reflected older people as part of the story
• The role of purpose and whether it can also deliver profit 
• Never drink the kool aid on your own purpose
• How to tell your brand story internally as well as externally 
• Making the finance team your best friend
• Being shortlisted for Brand of the year in two awards
• The power of Boots advantage card as a media channel
• Meeting the challenge of Black Friday
• Being on the Campaign and Marketing Week Top 100 lists
• Impressing the kids with a Hollywood style photoshoot
• The secret to being a Top 100 CMO
• How the reality of being a CMO is different to the perception 
• Creating the framework for success and unleashing the talent 
• The hidden P’s of Politics and Persuasion
• The importance of non-marketing skill set for a CMO
• Pete’s advice to the aspiring CMO – be curious, get trained & build your network
• How Jon got a job that was never advertised
• The hidden power of your network
• What you should do right now to build your network
• How Jon accidentally ended up doing a speech at the wrong event
• The 100 day plan to meet 100 people
• Pete’s aim to terrify himself via improvised comedy

As Christmas ad season is in full swing, I speak to the planning and strategy team from McCann Manchester, the agency that created Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot.

What we cover in this episode:

• Why Darren and Jamie bring a life size Kevin’s to meetings
• The benefit of doing strategy as a pair
• Convincing a sceptical customer to shop at Aldi for Christmas
• Taking inspiration from John Lewis the reigning king of Christmas
• How the humble carrot being the big idea
• Selling the idea into Aldi
• Why they didn’t want to recreate a brand new campaign every year
• The challenge to beat Kevin every year
• Inspiration from light entertainment and why’s its harder than it looks
• Sticking to what works whilst always finding ways to keep it fresh
• How to balance Christmas, a cost-of-living crisis & Christmas
• The importance of entertainment even in tough times
• Jamie & Darren rate this years crop of Christmas ads
• Beating the benchmark Coke Truck Index
• How Kevin successfully leverages the Long and Short of it
• Using System1 testing to screen for early stage ideas
• Why the simplicity of the System1 metrics are so important
• The case for testing a 4 min long animatic
• How media is like renting a stage upon which to put on a show
• The astonishing business results delivered by the Kevin campaign
• Proving that being cheaper doesn’t mean you can’t be better
• The power of combining fame and consistency
• Wear in vs wear out on the System1 Test Your Ad database
• Why we are over familiar with our own work vs the audience
• How little attention advertising actually gets
• The power of jokes you know the punchline to
• Being lovably pirates rather than the navy
• The powerful purpose being Aldi’s mission to make good food affordable

The most returned guest in Uncensored CMO history, Orlando Wood, is back. He made a brief cameo last episode but I wanted to dive deeper into creative styles that work in difficult times and if you should re-use old creative.

What we covered in this episode:

• How Hovis proved the power of wear-in with an almost 5 Star
• Creative inspiration from an ad that is almost 50 years old
• How the romantic era is reflected in the Hovis ad
• The role of the right-brain in capturing attention
• What covid taught us about creative wear-in vs wear-out
• The accidental creative experiment that occurred during covid
• Proof that ‘wear-out’ is a marketing myth
• The difference in campaign length between the US and UK
• How right-brained features perform better in recession
• Why Christmas 2022 Advertising is the best yet
• The role of nostalgia in difficult times
• How Kevin the carrot delivers consistent 5 Star success
• Great creative shouldn’t just be for Christmas
• The power of fluent devices in advertising and re-using old work
• Orlando’s top 3 tips for investing in a recession
• How good advertising can support price increases in recession
• How brand building helps you come out of recession better
• Orlando’s top 3 tips for making creative work in a recession
• Why focussing on character, incident and place make effective creative
• The role of humour in difficult times

Storm clouds continue to gather over the global economy. With the latest quarterly UK GDP figures released on November 11 and the US and other parts of the world also bracing for a recession, this special recording of System1’s webinar dives into how brands can navigate tough times.

However, tough times also bring opportunity. As the late great F1 driver Ayrton Senna once said, ‘You cannot overtake 15 cars in sunny weather… but you can when it’s raining.’

In possibly the most comprehensive study of recession, Nitin Nohria found that 9% of companies come out of a recession in better shape than they went in.

We're joined by Professor Mark Ritson, brand consultant and creator of the Mini MBA in Marketing, and Orlando Wood, author of IPA best-selling books Lemon and Look Out, to understand how brands should approach this challenging period.

WATCH: The ad Orlando referenced: Hovis - Boy on a Bike

What we covered in this episode:

• Which brands won and lost during covid
• Why the CEO expects the CMO to step up in a crisis
• The 4 issues that hold businesses back in a crisis
• Why marketers must do their market orientation and get their strategy in place first
• The over-whelming evidence that supports investing in a recession
• What happens when brands go dark and why small brands suffer most
• How ESOV can be more achievable in recession and what it means for the long term
• The very strong business case for investment
• The role of operational efficiency and innovation to help come out strongly
• How to get your pricing strategy and communication right
• Whether you should be changing your communication
• Inspiration from a campaign that is as good today as it was 50 years ago
• How right brained creative features are connecting better in recession
• Why wear out is a myth based on thousands of ads on the System1 database
• What we can learn from the current Christmas Adverts
• The role of character fluent devices to make your advert more memorable
• Top 3 reasons to invest in creative right now
• Top 3 ways to make creative emotionally engagement and effective
• Mark and Orlando answer some tough questions
• Why marketing professors don’t teach how marketing actually works