Strategy Sessions

Thierry is Bradford’s second best marketer (after your not-so-humble host!), a data expert and a product inventor. In this episode we discuss: The joy of a non linear path Learning from our community Why Bradford is bouncing How fusing ideas, cultures and thoughts creates greatness Launching his first product What’s the worst that could happen You are not your customer Launching a peanut butter Mo...

Collette Philip runs multi award-winning brand and strategy consultancy, Brand By Me. Brand by Me help organisations build brands that drive social justice. In this episode we discuss: • Knowing when a space isn't for you • How divide and conquer works in the workplace • Importance of language • Clarity in brand strategy • Hallmarks of bad brand strategy • The history of Brand By Me • Focus an...

Kevin Morosky is a Virgo, film director, and creative. He’s a community leader, a change maker, an author and a fascinating podcast guest. In this episode we discuss: A love letter to Black women Being black and queer and how that inspired Kevin’s first book How life influences the creative process Pocc & the community around it The influence of Biggie Smalls How to spot bad briefs from brands...

Anu has worked in Paid Search since 2008, with experiences in agencies, brands and tech companies. She’s also the founder of London’s PPC Live meet up. In this episode we discuss: Why paid media isn’t all spreadsheets and data How the PPC Live event started and why ‘done is better than perfect’ PPCChat and how that became a podcast The role of traditional ads in PPC success The future of Google ad...

Sherice Anibaba learned her marketing fundamentals at McDonald’s restaurant . Her career spans senior roles held at Britvic Soft Drinks, Speedo as Global Head of Brand, and is currently at Greene King as Head of Brand. In this episode we discuss: Lessons from McDonald’s Staying customer centric How innovation really works Innovation within a heritage brand The benefits of The Marketing Academy Why...

Eyup and welcome to the Strategy Sessions! We're back with the 4th season on Tuesday October. All the usual interviews you'd expect - this time with improved production.  We're starting Season 4 with a mini-series-within-a-series for Black History Month (BHM) throughout October.  I'll be releasing an episode a week throughout the month, featuring some of the best black marketing ta...

Rory Sutherland is, perhaps, the closest thing to industry royalty that we have in marketing. He’s Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, a best-selling author, owner of one of the best ⁠TED Talks⁠ you’ll ever see and the man behind ⁠MAD Fest⁠ a marketing, advertising and disruption event taking place in London 4 – 6 July. In this episode we discuss: Lionfish, toothfish and pilchards – how rebranding fish dr...

Hamptons Tech Week is back at the end of June . It’s one of the must attend events in the tech sector because of the incredible network of people who attend. Steve Sabo is the Co-Founder of the event and he explores what makes the event special. He’s also the Founder of Ethereal, a blockchain and Web3 consultancy, a massive golf fan and the CEO of Vin & Fin, the financial services event you ne...

Barry is Mr News SEO. He focuses on technical SEO and specialised services for news publishers, working with some of the biggest names in world publishing. In this episode we discuss: The difference between ‘classic’ SEO and news SEO Google’s role as judge, jury and executioner for news organisations Social traffic v search traffic in news SEO How news organisations are struggling with new commerc...

The day this podcast launches - Thursday 20th April 2023 - I'm speaking at Brighton SEO alongside Fabio Embalo ( Viaduct Generation ) and Azeem Ahmad about equality in marketing. Azeem hosts the Azeem Digital Asks podcast, so we did a joint episode to dive into the subject for a wider audience. In this episode we discuss: A simple explanation of marketing strategy Where equality fits in your m...

Bethan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Open Velocity, a marketing strategy consultancy, based York but working globally. In this episode we discuss: Should marketing be involved in product decisions? Building teams the P&G way Being the voice of the customer in the organisation Speaking the language of the business Marketing bubbles and why you need to avoid them Why marketing reports s...

Somehow we managed to get to 50 episodes. So we paused, got some regular listeners to come on and talked about lessons they’ve picked up from the show. Andi is joined by Jane Roper , Simon Caughey , Frank Olivo and Maret Reutelingsperger . In this episode we discuss: · Sarah Shimmons (Season1, Episode 22 ) – how to build a brand to drive revenue · Lily Hecht-Leavitt and Gil David (Season 3, Episod...

Karina is an economist with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Ireland. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor Studies (IZA) in Germany, holds a PhD from University College Dublin has economics at Cambridge University. She’s easily the smartest person ever to appear on the show. In this episode we disc...

Andrew uses research to drive brand strategy. His career in media includes stints at Channel 4, the BBC and Reach. Andrew also writes for Marketing Week. In this episode we discuss: The infamous Microsoft study of attention (and why it’s bum gravy) What the research into social purpose gets wrong (thanks to Marc Pritchard) How to spot and avoid bad research Why ‘straight line thinking’ doesn’t alw...

Noémie El-Maawiy is the Head of Marketing at Viaduct Generation. In this episode we discuss: How Noémie got into marketing Event marketing – never really chatted to anyone on the show about events and you’ve got a background in them. Could be interesting Working for a mission led company – what does that mean and how does it match the commercial reality of running an agency  Living in Spain,...

Evolved is the leading UK performance marketing agency in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I am joined by co-founder, Ian McIntosh and Head of People, Sinead Hall. This episode is all about people, marketing, growing businesses and our exciting new partnership. In this episode we discuss: The amazing story of how Evolved went from 2 people to 60 in just 8 years Why you need to trust your team and encourage th...

Mike Stevens is the author of The Direct To Consumer Playbook, consultant and entrepreneur. In this episode we discuss: Mike’s career that ended up with him writing the book about DTC How DTC is evolving Products and if DTC has to be better than the alternatives Managing the rising customer acquisition costs that are hitting DTC margins Picking up the phone and why you never lose money talking to...

Pritesh is the Managing Director of Accenture Song.  In this episode we discuss: Who Accenture Song are and what they do Managing the rebrand from Accenture Interactive to Accenture Song Streamlining dozens of companies under the new brand Managing the human implications of a rebrand The benefits of merging data and creativity The new brand of CMOs and how they need to be literate in both dat...

Peep is the founder of CXL , Speero , Wynter and the host of How to Win with Peep Laja podcast.  Peep’s intro to his podcast says “I don’t do fluff, I don’t do filler, I don’t do emojis” let’s see if we can be friends.  In this episode we discuss: Is the story the strategy? What happens when some idiot hijacks your LinkedIn posts The lessons from the How to Win podcast Being competitor a...

Jane Maher is the Head of Marketing for FREE NOW in Ireland, having joined the company in December 2021. In this episode we discuss: This history of free now and why it’s more than a ride hailing app The challenge facing marketing in a competitive space Brand v performance marketing The roll of CSR for Free Now How you balance global and local marketing Dive into the marketing strategy process at...

Lily Hecht-Leavitt runs marketing at Rootine, a US-based DTC brand. Gil David is the founder of a performance marketing agency specialising in scaling DTC brands. Unsurprisingly, this ep is about growing DTC brands. In this episode we discuss: The role of brand in growing DTC brands The challenges of using Meta (that’s Facebook and Instagram to old folk) to build sales Impact of Apple’s iOS update...

Adrian is Chief Marketing Officer for Harlequins, one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world. In this episode we discuss: The amazing story of Harlequins last season The role that culture plays in growing an organisation The growth of women’s rugby and how that’s helping the Quins brand Selling out games, memberships and hospitality and the problems (yes, probelsm) that causes Moving some games to...

Emma Mondolino is the Head of Nextdoor Create, the sales marketing and strategy group at Nextdoor. She talks with Andi about marketing v strategy, what true ‘hustle’ means and what it’s like working for a hypergrowth start up. In this episode we discuss: 1. The advertising trend towards hyperlocal and what that means for brands 2. How brands can adapt and thrive with hyper local advertising 3. Com...

Mark Ritson is one of the world's most respected marketing and brand strategists. Mark runs the Mini MBA in Marketing and Brand Management. He’s a columnist for Marketing Week. Prior to that he was a consultant for LVMH and a stack of brands you’d know. And Prof at the world’s top business schools. He’s not short of opinions either. In this episode we discuss: What’s the Mini MBA about and where d...

Areej is Head of SEO at Papier where she focuses on all things technical and on-site SEO. She is the founder of the Women in Tech SEO community which is a support network aimed for women in the Technical SEO field. In this episode we discuss: Where the idea for Women in Tech SEO came from The stress and joy of hosting a conference (alongside a full time job!) Lessons and learnings from the biggest...