Future Proof

In 2022 Aldi bounced back into the Global Top 100 Brands, having increased its value by 20% to $21bn. Aldi had the most effective UK Christmas ad last year and in is one of six brands to be nominated for Marketing Week’s UK brand of the year. Aldi is on the verge of taking over from Morrisons as the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket, it’s growth being far ahead of everyone else in a category that sa...

Staying profitable is more important in inflationary times. We discuss how to achieve this with Marketing professor, Mark Ritson Since he was a junior professor, Mark Ritson had one goal: to break through the narrow readership circles of academia and be read by everyone in the marketing industry. A goal he’s doubtlessly surpassed having won multiple awards for his column in Marketing Week. With ev...

Stephan Gans joins us to talk about Insights Transformation and how Consumer Insights can best organize to drive business value. Stephan Gans is the SVP, Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer at PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest and best-known FMCG companies. He’s been in the business of understanding and predicting consumer behaviour for some time and leads the ongoing transformation of...

Graham Page is a Global Managing Director at Affectiva and leads Affectiva’s Media Analytics business, which is focused on the application of Emotion AI technology to content, media testing, and customer experiences. Together with Kantar’s Vera Sidlova, Global Director, Creative at Kantar - join Jane Ostler to discuss the issues with sustainability in advertising and why brands often get it wrong....

Belinda J Smith is CEO of Americas at m/SIX, as well as the Global Diversity Ambassador for the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). Belinda is also a diversity activist and has led media and advertising in various organisations throughout her career. She joins Valeria Piaggio to discuss the issue of diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry, following the publication of the first Glob...

Patrick Collister is non-exec Creative Director at Ad-Lib, and Editor of Directory Magazine. He is also one of the few people to have had serious Creative Director roles in adland (Ogilvy) as well as in digital organisations (Google). So what has changed over the course of his career? Why do people keep harking back to the good old days – and what has happened to the funny ad? Jane and Patrick tal...

Shell’s purpose is to "power progress together with more and cleaner energy solutions." But how did that come about? What were the challenges for global VP of the Shell brand, Dean Aragón? How is the purpose embedded in the organisation? Dean shares his advice for establishing a purpose that doesn’t just become a side project, and how you can ensure success through people, partnerships and the per...

In Kantar’s recent Media Reactions study , it was revealed that ecommerce giant Mercado Libre is one of the most effective places to advertise in Latin America: it was seen as delivering the most ‘relevant and useful’ ads of all media brands in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. What is the marketplace doing to help advertisers, and still satisfy consumers? Juan tells Jane Ostler and Alex Connock abo...

In this episode, we discuss the evolving world of advertising technology and digital retail with Alexis (Lex) Josephs, Vice President of Sales, Ad Tech Partnerships and Ad Operations at Walmart Connect . How does Walmart’s advertising business use the insights from their 150m weekly shoppers to deliver targeted advertising at scale? Lex discusses how the pandemic has changed the retail experience...

We speak to Tim Jones, Global Head of Research and Insights at Mirriad , an advertising platform that allows brands to seamlessly integrate with content. Tim tells Kantar’s Duncan Southgate about the current challenges for advertisers, including changing consumer viewing habits and limited reach via linear TV advertising, as well as targeting and measurement. He explains how the placement of produ...

It’s not easy to get a totally new product on supermarket shelves, but Nimble Cleaning Products – founded by Von Sy in 2015 – has managed to find its way into several major UK retailers, and retain its environmentally-friendly credentials. Von tells Dr Nicki Morley about the inspiration behind a cleaning product for baby bottles, the startup journey so far, the impact of COVID-19, and his 7-second...

As the popularity of adverts and “branded content” declines, and more people use commercial-free streaming services, there is a real opportunity for brands to get in front of audiences with “sponsored entertainment”, says Rupert Maconick, Founder and Executive Producer of Saville Productions in LA. He spoke to Jane Ostler about how brands can get excellent returns from a feature-length documentary...

You can’t sum up a continent the size of Africa in three words, says  Thebe Ikalafeng , founder and chairman of  Brand Africa . But vibrancy, entrepreneurship and resilience do spring to mind, and help characterise and connect this group of dynamic countries. Thebe tells Jane how Brand Africa was launched to inspire a ‘renaissance’ of African brands, and change the narrative around the continent,...

Kantar research finds that 88% of consumers want brands to help them be more sustainable. In this episode, Nicki Morley speaks to Catriona Ferris, Consumer Insight Director for Homecare (Europe) at Unilever, about the key aspects of successful sustainable innovation – and why the consumer (and their pain points) must be considered first and foremost. With product and packaging innovation examples,...

In this episode, Jane speaks to Daniel Todaro, founder and managing director of Gekko Group, the retail marketing agency specialising in consumer electronics. Dan talks about how brands and retailers can improve the experience for customers in an evolving marketplace, noting that while omnichannel and online shopping has increased in importance, shoppers are still very keen to touch, try and exper...

Essence is perhaps the original ‘digital-first’ media organisation – but how does it evolve with changing needs? CEO Kyoko Matsushita explains how the global business stays nimble, their shift towards measurement, and how they bring together media, creativity and analytics. She also tells Jane and Seth about what advertising can learn from gaming, what the world can learn from Asia, and how the in...

Xaxis is known for programmatic media buying – or ‘transforming digital media into business outcomes’. But how is it managing to balance artificial and human intelligence? Short-term and long-term business outcomes? Brand-building activity and performance marketing? Smart targeting and winning creative? CEO Nicolas Bidon explains how they approach these challenges, as well as those around measurem...

With online platforms and audiences going through some big changes lately, it could be the ideal time to address or improve your influencer strategy. Karyn Spencer is Global Chief Marketing Officer at Whalar, a global tech-powered influencer agency, connecting brands with top social media creative talent. In this episode, she tells Jane and Felipe about Whalar’s work and mission, including its com...

It wouldn’t be absurd to think a global pandemic would hit the ad industry. But predictions of 15 or 20% decline turned out to be pessimistic: This Year Next Year , by Brian Wieser, Global President of Business Intelligence at Group M, finds that advertising will end up at declining by “only” 5.8% on an underlying basis in 2020 (excluding-U.S. political advertising). So what HAS the impact of COVI...

People listened to more radio during 2020, especially during periods of lockdown. Confined to our homes, we also saw less outdoor advertising. How did brands and media owners deal with the scenario, and make the most of a difficult situation? Oliver Deane, Director of Commercial Outdoor & DAX (Digital Advertising Exchange) at Global, the Media and Entertainment group, tells us what they have seen....

We know from Kantar’s COVID-19 Barometer that social media usage grew during the 2020 lockdowns. But what changes did Snapchat see? We speak to Andy Pang, Head of International Measurement & Insights at Snap Inc., about media consumption habits and the demographics of the Snapchat user base. Andy also discusses how advertisers are using the platform, and the innovative augmented reality ad formats...

In this episode, Jane Ostler and Andrew Stephen speak to Mark Read, the CEO of WPP, the world’s largest marketing and communications company, operating in 112 countries. Discover how it was affected by COVID-19, and what has changed in the media and marketing landscape as a result of the pandemic. How has WPP been helping clients to “react, recover and renew”? What is really going on with the “dig...

As brands have had to adapt their media plans during COVID-19, some changes might be temporary – but some represent an acceleration of more fundamental trends, says Huw Griffiths, Chief Product Officer at UM Worldwide. So what is going on? And where will marketers invest more next year? Including findings from the latest Kantar Media Reactions study , this episode looks at the relative importance...

If you think your business doesn’t need a purpose, you are wrong. Customers (and top talent) expect companies to advance society and make the community stronger – to have a purpose that transcends profits. But you don’t have to singlehandedly change the world. According to CMO Frank Cooper III, BlackRock found its purpose through listening to employees, and understanding what defined “BlackRock at...

“Purpose” is discussed a fair bit in marketing circles, but Larry Weber – founder of Weber Shandwick and more recently communications agency Racepoint Global, and author of six books on marketing – has something new to say. In this episode, and in his latest book Authentic Marketing: How to Capture Hearts and Minds Through the Power of Purpose, Larry covers the connection between corporate and mor...