The Persuasion Game

"Most organisations don't need more data. What they need is a wider, more dynamic view of where demand is forming. And they need to be looking in the right places to find it." In this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, we're joined by Karl Miley, co-founder of Forge and leader of its Dynamic Demand practice.  Karl has spent years helping some of the world's biggest brands understand where con...

“Transparency builds credibility. Hyper-transparency builds trust.” As Gen Z continue their inevitable march towards being the dominant economic power, the way brands market themselves is going to have to shift dramatically. As David Cousino puts it, for them “ transparency directly influences where they're going to spend. If companies don't get their head around this cohort, they're going to be i...

“Relevance builds brands. Control just increases the risk of irrelevance.” In this episode of The Persuasion Game, we’re joined by Nathalia Amadeu, Global Brand Director at Vaseline, to explore how the 150-year-old brand is reinventing itself in the social-first era. It centres on the hugely successful Vaseline Verified campaign (winner of nine awards at the Cannes International Festival of Creati...

“The biggest thing that children show me is that there are no limits to what we can do.” In this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, we’re taking inspiration from the creativity of children. Our guest is Sarah Horowitz, Marketing Director for the UK and Northern Europe at Crayola. Crayola is an incredibly well-established brand, and has been relevant in homes and schools for more than a centur...

“You need an insights function that is really focused on being a catalyst for growth in an end-to-end way.” For many years, the insights industry has desired a ‘seat at the top table’, influencing decisions at the most senior levels of their organisations. There are few insights professionals as senior and influential to their businesses as our guest on this episode, Stephan Gans, Senior Vice Pres...

The tables have been turned in this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, as Adam and Laura get a taste of their own medicine in the hot seat. Izzie Macdonald, Global Cultural Insights Capability Lead at PepsiCo, takes on the role of host. Izzie has years of research and insights experience at Touchstone Partners and with almost a decade under her belt at Pepsi. Adam and Laura give their views o...

Ambition is the watchword for The Marketing Society in 2026: “Ambition for our businesses, our careers and our country.” In this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, we welcome Sophie Devonshire, CEO of The Marketing Society, for a conversation not to be missed by anyone working in marketing who has ambitions for a great year in 2026. We discuss the growing role of CMOs, why leading marketing t...

“It might not necessarily be the most emotional response ad, but I think it will be one of the most effective.” In this festive episode of The Persuasion Game, Media Effectiveness Expert, Matt Stockbridge helps us unpick the effectiveness of the Christmas adverts in 2025. From John Lewis telling the story of a teenage son connecting with his father, to JD Sports’ user-generated clip sequences, maj...

“Behavioural science is the most relevant field out there for a marketer. If you are in marketing, you are in the business of behaviour change.” Our guest on this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast is Richard Shotton, a behavioural science expert and author of The Choice Factory and Hacking the Human Mind. Richard shares some of the principles of behavioural science and how they can be used ma...

“It’s about understanding what people actually want to engage with. 99% of people aren't interested in your brand for most of their waking lives.” Our guest on this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast is Chris Willingham, Chief Marketing Office at Brompton Bicycles. Chris has had a remarkable career, previously working on accounts including Playstation, Sony Electronics, and Cadbury. Now at the...

Our guest on this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast is Stephen White, Senior Vice President, North America at Diageo. He is an expert in transforming teams, brands, innovation pipelines and businesses and has spent years working in different markets, all around the world, doing just that. Stephen shares stories and learnings from across his 20+ years leading teams at Diageo including: brand t...

Our guest on this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast is Shafik Saba, Global Lead of Front End Innovation at Haleon. He says, when it comes to innovation, you need to obsess over your brand’s core. Far too often, marketers and innovators get distracted by new extensions to their brands, which stretch the brand too far and lead to disaster. Not enough innovation is focused on driving the busines...

“The creator economy is worth about 250 billion right now. That's set to almost double in the next two years.” Our guest this week on The Persuasion Game podcast is an expert in one of the most exciting areas of marketing at the moment. Creator marketing is big business and there are huge opportunities for brands that get it right. But there are also potential pitfalls. Fiona Hughes has spent over...

“The frequency of shop has increased, but basket spend has decreased. So how do we make our brands stand out more?” It’s a conundrum being faced by just about every FMCG brand and finding the right solution is top of many marketers’ minds. In this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, we’re turning to Sarah Dossett, European Portfolio Director at Mars, to see if we can find some answers. Sarah h...

AI is changing the world of insights, but just how much change are we likely to see, and what will the insights teams of tomorrow look like? In this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, two AI marketing experts join us to offer their views on what is an ever-evolving landscape. What will AI mean for how insights are gathered and interpreted? What will it mean for where resources are directed? A...

“AI is fantastic, but we also really need to think about how we, as humans, thrive in a world that is AI-powered.” Anneke Quinn-de Jong is the perfect guest for this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, where we take a human-centric look at the world of Artificial Intelligence. It’s easy to be blown away by the technological advances that have been made, but where do people fit into the convers...

Most of us have experience of some form of negotiation, but how do you go about persuading the other party round to your position? In this episode of The Persuasion Game podcast, we meet Dan Hughes, founder of the negotiation training consultancy Bridge Ability, to explore the art of negotiation.  Dan has more than 20 years of experience training negotiators across industries - from Premier League...

We live in a world full of volatility and uncertainty, so how do insights teams at the biggest brands go about trying to predict the types of products we might be buying in the future? It’s no easy task and yet, Fenny Léautier, Global Senior Director of Consumer Insights in the Personal Health division at Philips, believes now is a “golden age” for insights teams. In this episode of The Persuasion...

More of us are living longer and what it means to be an ageing consumer is changing. So how will brands market themselves to tomorrow’s older population? This is a generation that is used to shopping online, holds authenticity in high regard, and has issues like sustainability top of mind. The old advertising tropes of an elderly couple walking on a beach probably won’t cut through, so how will br...

Operating in a declining category can often feel difficult - where’s the opportunity? What’s the point of investing in a market that’s declining? But for Grant McKenzie, former-CMO of Asahi, it’s exactly because a category is declining, that brands should be excited. His view: “It might be easier to make money in a declining market than it is in a growing one.” Grant has a huge amount of experienc...

This episode of The Persuasion Game podcast is  about the three things you have to do as a brand to get your portfolio strategy right. Our guest this week is Steven Melford, who co-founded The Forge 12 years ago. Steven, Adam and Laura discuss the art and science of great portfolio management, why all branding decisions need to be anchored in value, and the importance of having an eye on the futur...

“The core is the heartbeat of your business. If the core is 85% of your business and it declines by 1%, you need your innovation to grow by an incremental 10-to-15% to make up for that.” The core is the backbone of any brand’s success, but too often it is forgotten about in favour of new innovations or the latest trends.  In this episode of the Persuasion Game podcast, Adam and Simon discuss the i...

In this episode of the Persuasion Game podcast, Adam and Laura sit down with  Dan Quinn from The Forge to discuss the strategies and mindsets that underpin successful innovation. Dan is The Forge’s Head of Innovation, and throughout his career has worked with some of the world’s biggest consumer brands. This episode pulls together some key takeaways from leading figures at major FMCG brands, focus...

What is the ‘secret sauce’ to managing a portfolio of category-leading brands? Who better to ask than Sally Smallman, the Global Consumer Planning Director for Whiskies at Diageo? In this episode of the Persuasion Game podcast, Adam and Laura sit down with Sally to do just that, exploring the challenges and opportunities managing multiple brands presents. Diageo owns some of the most famous whisky...

In this episode, Adam and Laura reflect on their recent experiences at Advertising Week Europe. At AWE, Laura interviewed previous podcast guest Katie Evans, CMO of Burger King UK, about the Bundles of Joy campaign before Adam and Laura attended talks with brands including Jaguar and Vaseline. The podcast draws together the big themes from the conference including: the growing prevalence of brands...