Uncensored CMO

Margaret Jobling is the Group Chief Marketing Officer at NatWest. Margaret has spent the majority of her marketing career in FMCG, before to joining the utilities sector in 2014, as Director of Marketing at British Gas. At the beginning of 2016 she moved into a CMO role at Centrica, transforming the firm’s marketing capabilities across all regions. Then in 2020, joining NatWest as CMO. In Septembe...

Tom Goodwin is an author of a quote you might just have heard of: "Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening." He does other things too, like spendin...

It's 40 years since the founding of one of the most famous and iconic advertising agencies; BBH or Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty. Today I speak with founder, Sir John Hegarty to find out what it's been like to be at the helm of one of the world's most successful ad agencies for 4 decades. We take a look back over a long history of advertising to see what's changed, what we can learn and maybe what new te...

Pip Murray is the founder of Pip & Nut, which she launched in 2015 and it's now stocked in over 3,000 stores around the UK. It's the fastest growing nut butter brand around, and it's clear to see why. Pip is full of stories and insights in journey building the company, from humble beginnings in her kitchen and at craft fairs to becoming a staple brand on the shelves of all major supermarkets....

Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo are the heads of research and development at the B2B Institute, a think tank at LinkedIn that studies the laws of growth in B2B. You can follow Peter and Jon on LinkedIn. What we covered in this episode: Introducing the youngest B2B marketers on the planet Jon & Peters favourite Super Bowl ads The very low hurdle of writing a B2B article How half the economy is...

Andrew Robertson has been President and Chief Executive Officer of BBDO Worldwide since June 2004, and has worked with major clients including AT&T, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Ford, GE, Mars Inc, PepsiCo, SAP and Visa. It has been named Network of the Year at Cannes a record-setting seven times and the world's most awarded agency network according to The Gunn Report/World Advertising Research Center f...

Jon chats with CMO of Boston Beer, Lesya Lysyj, who has nearly 30 years of marketing experience in the food and beverage industry. Prior to joining Boston Beer, she served as President U.S. (Sales and Marketing) for Welch’s Foods. Watch the ad here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9GUnNAL9yY What we covered in this episode Counting down the Top 10 Super Bowl ads of 2022 The power of humour and no...

Byron Sharp is a Professor of Marketing Science and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute – the world’s largest centre for research into marketing.  His first book How Brands Grow: what marketers don’t know has been called one of the most influential marketing books of the past decade (Warc, 2015) and was voted marketing book of the year by AdAge readers. In 2015 he published the follow-up How...

Abba is the CMO at the FinTech start up Habito, the fastest growing online mortgage broker in the UK. Prior to Habito, Abba worked as director of strategy at News UK, pioneering the moves towards digital content and as a planner at agencies UM and Carat. What we covered in this episode: Begging Dan the founder for a new job How Habito are disrupting the Mortgage market The power of anger and frust...

Kev Chesters is the co-founder of Harbour Collective and co-author of " The Creative Nudge: Simple Steps to Help You Think Differently ". Previously Kev has been Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy UK, Head of Planning at W+K and Planning Director at S&S. What we covered in this episode: How Kev got sued by Dr Dre Bumping into famous people in urinals Why creativity in business really matters The...

Tony's Chocolonely is on a mission to make chocolate free of child-labour and slavery worldwide. I catch up with Lord Chocolonely III, or Ben Greensmith who runs Tony's in the UK about what it's like to run a mission-focused challenger brand in 2021. About Ben Ben started his career in food and drink over 20 years ago at IRI and then working for Unilever in a mixture of sales and category manageme...

How do you run marketing for one of the best known insurance brands in the UK, Direct Line? That's exactly what I find out from their CMO, Mark Evans, who has been at the company for a decade. What we covered in this episode: Starting a podcast during lockdown Where Mark gets his energy from The importance of being tuned into your purpose Career lessons from Jimmy Carr Why you should always coach...

Dom Dwight former editor & journalist who, just over a decade ago, discovered a passion for doing marketing properly, most notably through Yorkshire Tea but with a growing focus on coffee for Taylors of Harrogate. He's on a mission to prove that brands can connect with consumers in a way that benefits business, people, and (if it's not too ridiculous) the world. What we covered in this episode...

In this episode I talk with editor-in-chief of Marketing Week, Russell Parsons. We talk about our favourite news stories of the year, the Mark Ritson effect and if we should still be putting "digital" in job titles. Russell's Bio: Russell is the award-winning editor of the UK’s most prominent marketing title. He is responsible for leading Marketing Week’s content strategy across several platforms....

Rory's Bio Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioral science practice within the agency. ​Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Dire...

In this special episode of Uncensored CMO, Jon finds himself on the other side of the mic being interviewed by producer James McKinven , who grills him on some unusual career moves. After a promising start in the City Jon makes a large u-turn and decides to become a marketer instead where he goes on to learn his early craft at Britvic. His next big break came at drinks business First Drinks where...

Ade joined ITV as Head of Diversity Commissioning in 2017. She was later promoted to Director of Creative Diversity, before taking on the role of Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion and joining the Management Board in 2020. She has responsibility for all diversity and inclusion related matters across the Group, including leading, developing and growing ITV’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy...

Here's my mini conversation with Orlando Wood, author of Lemon and Look Out where I ask him about 5 key insights from the new book: why it’s rude to stare and how the fixed gaze took over art and advertising  whether you can actually build a brand online  the serious case for humour  how emotions capture our attention  the surprising power of the finer details  Listen to my longer conversation wit...

Orlando Wood is Chief Innovation Officer of System1 Group and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. He is also a member of the IPA’s Effectiveness Leadership Group. Author of Lemon (IPA, 2019), co-author of System1, Unlocking Profitable Growth (2017), his research on advertising effectiveness draws on psychology and a study of the creative arts. Orlando’s work has influ...

Nicole is an advertising and media researcher with a particular interest in how to design effective advertising content. Her expertise spans advertising measurement, management and decision making, distinctive brand assets, brand performance metrics and consumer behaviour. She has published in international journals including the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and the Eur...

Peter Field has spent 15 years as a strategic planner in advertising and has been a marketing consultant for the last 20 years. His pioneering work on the link between creativity and effectiveness – such as Media in Focus with Les Binet - has earned Peter a global reputation as one of the Godfathers of Effectiveness. What we covered in this episode: How he become ‘Godfather of effectiveness’ Getti...

Here's the articles before you listen: Read the Campaign article Read James' article Part 1 – The Case for Creativity in Business Growing up in a world that didn’t recognise the potential of creativity How Apple ‘Crazy Ones’ Ad inspired James to pursue Advertising James’ mission to prove the value of Creativity Why Jon was supposed to have a career as an Actuary What the research tells us about th...

Andy Nairn is one of the 3 founders of Lucky Generals, a creative company for people on a mission. It's been shortlisted for Campaign's Agency of the Year for 5 years in a row. In 2021, Campaign named him the top brand strategist in the UK, for the 3rd time in a row. Business Insider has also named him one of the top 5 creative people in world advertising. He's won 24 IPA Effectiveness Awards (inc...

Nils Leonard has spent over 20 years in the advertising and design industries working at a number of the most recognised agencies in London. In 2017, he founded the Uncommon Creative Studio alongside Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme, which aims to be “a creative studio building brands the real world is happy exists”. This episode is split into 3 parts, including a bonus segment from my recording wi...

Pick up a copy of Steve's book  "Can't Sell, Wont Sell"  here . Steve was European Creative Director (OgilvyOne) and Global Creative Director (Wunderman) either side of starting his own agency, HTW, where, in the seven years the agency operated, he won more Cannes Lions (18) in his discipline than any creative director in the world. His work has subsequently featured in the D&AD Copy Book. He...