A Life In Marketing

This episode is a bit different. Usually, Tom sits alongside Hanne as they interview people from the marketing world. This time Hanne interviews Tom! Tom is joined by Luan Wise as they chat about their new book 'Marketing and Psychology: Understanding Customer Behaviour With The ABC Approach' (published by Routledge). Luan Wise is a seasoned industry practitioner with 25 years of agency,...

Joe Johnston is a very smart marketer. As Head of Experimentation at Launch, Joe's role is to recommend and test ways to improve the effectiveness of his clients' marketing activity. He applies behavioural science principles and research-based insights to make marketing campaigns more effective.  Listen in to hear Joe chatting through his approach to experimentation and his approach to s...

Megan Fellows is not just an experienced digital marketer, but also a perennial student! She studied a degree, then a Masters degree, and now a PhD. All of this whilst handling digital marketing roles in retail, education, and financial services sectors. We discuss Meg’s career path to date, leading to her current role handling CRM for Screwfix. She explains what a CRM role involves, how previous...

Phil Treagus-Evans is man of many talents. Having harboured entrepreneurial dreams from an early age, he started his social media agency, Giraffe Social, after graduating from university. Running an agency wasn't enough for Phil though! As a voracious reader, he also had an ambition to write a book. So, in 2025 he published Human First Marketing, a book encapsulating his thoughts about social...

Suso (Susan) O'Brien has held marketing roles at some of the world's most famous brands, including several years as Brand Director at Sky, and her most recent role as Global CMO at Just Eat. From telephone calls in New York taxis, to hiring Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry to front the Just Eat adverts, Suso talks us through her career - and it's not all glamourous! She explains how she cl...

Melanie Nicholas has held roles that many marketers dream of, including Managing Director at Universal Pictures, Marketing Director at Polygram, and Head of Brand at Odeon Cinemas.  Mel is at least part of the reason you know about movies such as Fast and Furious, Despicable Me, and the Jason Bourne series. Mel has worked with, and for, some huge brands and very famous celebrities.  She talks us t...

Gareth Helm has had a stellar career in marketing, including roles at some of the world's biggest brands. Most recently he was Chief Marketing Officer for McDonalds, and then Chief Marketing Officer at Homeserve. His career though has included roles with Innocent Drinks, Zoopla, Nestle and Unilever among others. Wow! Gareth is now a non-executive director and provides career development and s...

Louis Havriliuc has created an amazing digital marketing simulation tool called Simbound.  If you want to find out how to undertake an effective digital marketing campaign, Simbound is a great way to learn.  The online platform allows learners to create a range of digital marketing tools and experiment with different techniques to understand their effectiveness.   We discuss the aims and purpose o...

Jenny Novitzky makes social media content for some of the UK's top TV shows. Her work as a senior digital producer has included content for The Great British Bake Off, The Great British Sewing Bee, The Great Pottery Throw Down and The Piano.  In fact, Jenny has appeared on more series of Bake Off than Mary Berry, Mel and Sue!  The chances are, many of you have seen and engaged with Jenny&apos...

We chat with Jon Payne, an entrepreneur in the world of digital marketing.  Jon wears various hats, including being the founder of the successful Bristol agency Noisy Little Monkey, a RevOps freelance consultant, the former host of the popular Digital Gaggle events, and now one of the driving forces behind Building Brands.  Jon shares some of the lessons he's learned over the years, as well a...

We chat with Stephen Hobbs, an expert in digital storytelling.  Stephen is a respected and experienced marketer who has worked with many household brands including Google, Volvo and O2.  We discuss the importance of content and storytelling in the age of AI.  Stephen tells us that his initial career as a journalist gives him a slightly different perspective on the world of marketing. You can conne...

We chat with Google Analytics expert Jill Quick about the importance of collecting and analysing the right data.  Jill tells us why it marketers should take a strategic approach to measurement, and why she called her business The Coloring In Department. You can connect with Jill here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillquick01/ You will also find plenty of further resources on Jill's website: ht...

In this episode, recorded in the Bristol Business School studio, we speak to five of the presenters from the Building Brands Conference in Bristol. Each guest gave a quick summary of the main points from their presentations, as well as telling us a little bit about what their work in digital marketing involves. Our guests are (in order of appearance): 1. Heather Murray, AI for Non-Techies: Why AI...

This is a great discussion with Vasia Apostolaki, an expert in social media advertising. Vasia is an account director at dentsu international in London, with particular experience working with luxury brands. We discuss why social media advertising is so effective, ethical issues, and areas for future development. As usual we also discuss some interesting academic research in this area. You can con...

We sit down with digital marketing consultant, James Vincent, to discuss his expertise in artificial intelligence (AI).  James is also a digital marketing lecturer and a PhD student studying the use of artificial intelligence in marketing. James refers to some AI tools that he is currently working with, as well as reflecting on some of the points from his recent TedX Talk about ethics and AI. As a...

As always, Hanne and I discuss relevant academic research that caught our attention – this time research looking at how different demographic groups use search engines.     We then chat to Luke Whitaker, Senior SEO Consultant at Organic, about search engine optimisation (SEO).  Luke tells us about his passion for educating people about SEO.  We also discuss recent changes to the Google algorithm,...

In this episode we chat to a conversion optimisation expert, Ryan Webb, about his work in making websites more commercially effective.  With more than 20 years of experience, Ryan is a recognised expert in this field and has worked with a wide range of clients. Ryan shares his 4-point plan for reviewing and improving websites, as well as explaining his decision to become a B Corp and to generally...

We chat to Ross Middleham, Creative Lead at the Met Office.  How does he encourage the Met Office to engage a wide range of audiences creatively?  How can he be creative when communicating online around serious issues such as the weather and climate change?  How does he deal with negativity around these issues?  Does he have any tips for marketers and communicators when trying to think creatively?...

In this first full episode we chat to social media expert Luan Wise about her new book.  Among our topics of conversation, we discuss the fundamental principles of using any social media platform for marketing, the difference between 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives', and Luan's own route to becoming a social media consultant. We begin this episode with a quick su...