BEYOND THE BRAND

Peony Li built Jude by serving the customer that almost everyone else in women's health overlooks: older women. She and Adam talk through how she built around them, from imagery that shows older women with dignity to a 30,000-strong community that now shapes the brand and gave Jude its first-ever employee. The conversation covers growing a brand when ad platforms restrict the words you need to rea...

Max Henderson started Hotpod Yoga in 2013 with his childhood friend Nick, despite neither of them being yoga people at the time. Today, Hotpod Yoga is Europe's largest yoga business in 3 countries with over 500,000 customers. Most of those customers arrived sceptical about yoga, or were put off by it altogether. So Hotpod stopped leading with yoga and started selling the experience around it:...

From social to shelf without a pitch Hannah Samano left Unilever at the height of the direct-to-consumer boom to build something from nothing. She's now founder and CEO of Unfabled, a women's health and supplements brand that has gone from a pure D2C launch to 730+ Boots stores, Holland & Barrett online and 61 Sainsbury's stores, without ever pitching for that first retail deal. In...

You can get water from a tap for free. So why does anyone pay for a bottle? And why do some people pay more for one bottle over another? Michele Ricci is Head of Global Marketing for Nestlé Pure Life and local brands. He has spent 15 years working on Nesquik, San Pellegrino, and Buxton, in some of the most commoditised categories on the shelf. In this episode, Michele talks through how he moved Ne...

85% of Heinz's in-house content hits or beats the engagement rates their external agencies deliver. Karen Owen , Chief Growth Officer for Europe and Pacific at Kraft Heinz , built the team behind that. In this episode, she talks through the architecture of The Kitchen, Heinz's content studio now running across 4 continents, how it operates alongside external agencies rather than replacing...

In this episode, luxury marketing expert Michael Edelmann (CMO, 111SKIN. Ex. Dr. Barbara Sturm, Business of Fashion, Gucci) talks about what it takes to build a brand universe that people genuinely want to belong to, and why that matters for anyone managing a brand in FMCG. He explains how 111SKIN rebuilt its loyalty programme around belonging after realising that points and discounts were driving...

In this episode, Caroline Pay (Ex. Headspace, Mother, BBH, Grey) discusses the creative layer that sits between a brief and the work that comes back, and why, in her experience, it is almost always missing. The brief lands with a designer. The thinking that should happen in between — the strategic and conceptual work that turns a problem into something distinctive — gets skipped. The result is wor...

In this episode, Peter Markey talks about life as a CMO of a heritage brand and the need to adapt. Consumers change, categories mature, and competitors want to take your hard-earned market share. At the same time, your brand only grows if it stands for something clear and consistent. Pete draws on his time leading marketing at Boots, TSB, Aviva and the Post Office to explain how to manage that in...

84% of marketers report experiencing imposter syndrome. It reflects the reality of working in a discipline built on ambiguity. In this conversation, Professor Laura Chamberlain explains why marketing operates in shades of grey, while teams are still expected to deliver clear ROI narratives and confident answers. When your work depends on context, judgement and human behaviour, doubt isn’t a defect...

Many senior brand managers believe that only new ventures can deliver big wins. This conversation shows why unlocking value in established brands can create sustainable growth. Jordan Schlipf left the excitement of building tech startups to lead Cowshed , a heritage bath and body beauty brand. He explains how modernising an existing brand, building a trusted team and using measured risk can unlock...

Growth is not a checklist of marketing tactics. It is a series of small experiments that help you learn what truly matters to your customers. In this episode Adam Wright sits down with Hannah Parvaz , founder of Aperture , a UK‑based growth consultancy. She explains why treating growth like science, not advertising, leads to deeper insights and better results. Why this conversation matters now Man...

Marketers talk about being consumer first. Louise Troen, CMO at Clue actually operates that way. In this episode, she explains why no one cares about your product, why most strategies fail before they begin, and why the future of marketing starts with closing a human gap not hitting a business metric. Lou shares how she built mission-led brands at Bumble , Headspace and now Clue by putting emotion...

Tessa Tysome has one of the most unconventional and instructive careers in modern marketing. A Global Brand and Growth Strategist, Fractional CMO, eCommerce and Digital leader, and Soho House Creative Network mentor, she has shaped brands at Meta, Nike, L’Oréal, Diageo and PepsiCo before launching her own consultancy. Her journey spans continents and categories, but the real value is how she think...

Bridget Hirst , Head of Brand at DASH Water , joins us to explore how a young soft drinks company is preparing to take on the giants. She explains the mix of discipline and creative instinct behind DASH’s rise, shaped by her years on Lucozade and Ribena at Suntory and sharpened through her work at Proper Snacks. Bridget talks through why DASH has stayed focused on its core range while other brands...

Olivia Mae Hanlon turned a one woman side project into Girls in Marketing, a global community of more than half a million marketers. Now as co-founder of Passata, an AI productivity tool built to make work more personal and effective, she is redefining what balance looks like for modern founders and marketers. In this episode, Olivia joins Adam Wright to talk about the realities of building a busi...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, Adam Wright and Matt Huntly chat with Rossana Doldi, Marketing and Strategy Director at Church & Dwight. Rossana has shaped global brands across P&G, Reckitt, and now Church & Dwight, where she oversees everything from beauty icons like Batiste dry shampoo to trusted healthcare brands like Anusol, as well as intimate skincare products such as Femfre...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, Adam Wright and Matt Huntly sit down with Sara Gordon, general manager at Zoe and a specialist in brand positioning and growth. From helping scale Bloom & Wild to advising global health tech teams, Sara shares how customer insight, clear positioning, and emotional relevance drive long-term success. This one’s full of smart, practical thinking about what rea...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, Adam Wright sits down with Katrina Smart, Head of Digital Commerce at Mars United Commerce. They explore how retail media is evolving into a more sophisticated, full-funnel discipline. Katrina shares her perspective on global frameworks, the rise of in-store digitalisation, new measurement approaches, and how brands can prepare for the future of retail media. K...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand , Adam Wright and Matt Huntly sit down with Azlan Raj , CMO for Merkle and Dentsu across EMEA. Named one of the UK’s most influential marketers, Azlan shares how he helps global brands turn complexity into progress. The conversation covers the changing role of the CMO, how to measure meaningful progress, the shift back toward brand-building, and how to apply AI...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, hosts Adam Wright and Matt Huntly sit down with Matt Higgins and Ash White, managing partners at Dentsu’s Addressable Media and Total Commerce units. Together, they explore the fast-evolving world of retail media, from its roots in Amazon to its expansion across major UK retailers. With years of experience guiding brands through media transformation, Matt and A...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, Adam Wright and Matt Huntly speak with Bella Noakes, innovation director at Next Tech Now, the specialist innovation arm of Publicis Media. Bella shares how she helps bridge the gap between big brands and startup tech, delivering practical innovation that solves real brand problems. We talk audio, AI, dynamic creative, and what makes experimentation work. Key t...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, Adam Wright is joined by Sophie Rock, head of brand at Wilkinson Sword. Together, they unpack the bold repositioning of a 250-year-old brand, the thinking behind the Blade Masters campaign, and the real work involved in shifting a business out of long-term sales decline. Sophie shares her career journey, lessons from major brand projects, and how she stays focu...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand, hosts Adam Wright and Matt Huntly sit down with Tom Priestman, Director of Client Services at Nectar360 . With experience across Colgate, Meta, and now Nectar360, Tom shares what he’s learned from working on the brand, platform, and retailer sides of the marketing world. The conversation explores retail media’s rapid rise, why it works differently from other ch...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand , Adam Wright and Matt Huntly speak with Lottie Unwin, founder and CEO of Up Collective, which includes Upworld, Up Talent, and Brand Hackers. Lottie is a marketer, community builder, and champion of entrepreneurial talent. She shares how she built a 1,000+ marketing community, what she's learned leading a remote-first team, and why communication strategy, not c...

In this episode of Beyond the Brand , Adam Wright speaks with Giovanni Pupo , a seasoned digital marketing leader with experience across both agencies and client-side. Gio led e-commerce for Lipton across Europe for a number of years before leaving to dedicate full time to teaching, keynote speaking, and content creation. He shares insights on navigating a marketing career, the evolving role of AI...