Uncensored CMO

It's our annual tradition to bring Sarah Carter and Les Binet, authors of How Not To Plan, onto the podcast to discuss the hot topics of the year and what marketers need to know in 2025. We've broken this episode into 8 key discussion points, including why consistent advertising is so effective, why the era of purpose is over and another year of the advertising industry needing to remember they ar...

Ed Smith leads the Amazon mass marketing team in Europe. In this episode we talk about how Amazon create such emotional advertising, how they make such huge decisions in their marketing and what Ed thinks about consistency within the Amazon brand. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:48 - The top selling Amazon products at Christmas 02:53 - Ed’s career journey to Amazon 09:08 - Amazon’s sledging grannies c...

Uncensored CMO Reloaded. This episode was first published in May 2021. Rupert Howell is one of the founders of the iconic advertising agency HHCL & Partners. This is a bumper 2 hour episode, but I promise you it's worth it. We spend a lot of time actually talking about new business and the importance of winning pitches and growing customers. We also look at the campaigns that the HHCL created,...

For a special Christmas edition of the Uncensored CMO, we've recorded a bonus episode of the Never Mind the Adverts podcast, featuring our good friend Orlando Wood. We talk about some breaking news, have some festive drinks and review some of the best Christmas Ads this year (yes, including that Coke ad). Enjoy. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:10 - The news 03:53 - Orlando’s Christmas Stocking Fillers...

Jess Myers CCO of The Very Group, returns to the podcast sharing the success of her role over the past year. We'll explore how Jess and her team navigates the crucial "Golden Quarter" leading up to Christmas, the importance of creative consistency, and the successes they've achieved by sticking with what works. Plus, we'll hear about the innovative launch of the Very Media Group and how their flam...

In this episode, we're diving into a fascinating conversation with Sadira Furlow, known as the "Dean of Dopeness" at Tony's Chocolonely. We unpack Sadira's career journey from launching viral campaigns at PepsiCo to driving industry change at Tony's Chocolonely. We'll explore her admiration for Tony's authentic mission, their innovative approach to storytelling, and how they're reshaping the choco...

The marketing world has been dominated by the recent Jaguar rebrand. It's split opinion in the industry with many criticising the bold new approach with Jaguar's move to electrification. Rory Sutherland may be best positioned to give his thoughts on the change, as a six-time Jaguar owner and behavioural science expert. Rory comes at the rebrand with a more positive spin, suggesting that Jaguar nee...

In the first of a two part special on one of my favourite challenger brands of all time, Tony’s Chocolonely, I speak with their Chief Chocolonely (CEO), Douglas Lamont. Douglas is an expert in Challenger Brands, having previously led Innocent Smoothie for 15 years, guiding them through their acquisition by Coca-Cola and subsequent scaling. In this episode, we'll explore the delicate balance betwee...

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of digital retail and YouTube with our special guest, Sophie Neary, Retail MD at Google. We explore studies comparing rational and emotional advertising, uncover the power of YouTube in capturing audience attention, and discuss the vital role of creativity in ad success, even in the age of AI. Sophie shares insights from her extensive career, inc...

In this episode, we're going to be talking about Compound Creativity, a new report by System1 in partnership with the IPA showing how being consistent with your creative compounds over time. I'm speaking with the author of the report, Andrew Tindall, who explains the core facets of the report and shares some fascinating statistics on the impact of creative consistency. And in a double bill, I'm al...

Mark Ritson is back on the podcast for a review of the most read stories this year. We debate if Liquid Death is more than just water in a can, why Nike’s focus on DTC was a mistake and what we can all learn from KitKat’s perfect positioning. Recorded in a pub in London, expect some uncensored opinions from everyone’s favourite marketing professor. 00:00 - Start 05:40 - Mark #5: Brand purpose does...

Chris Baker is an award-winning advertising and social change strategist turned entrepreneur. He is the Founder & CEO of Serious Tissues, a toilet roll brand that fights climate change and deforestation by planting trees with every sale. Over 1.2m trees have been planted in just three years. He is also the Co-Founder of Change Please, a coffee brand that has helped hundreds of homeless people...

Elfried Samba is CEO of Butterfly 3ffect. Samba immigrated from D.R. Congo to the UK at age 14 before rising to prominence in the Social media space through his work at global fitness brand, Gymshark. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:52 - Why Elfried Samba wears a hat 00:03:49 - Elfried’s dissertation on social media 00:10:23 - The skills most in demand in 2024 00:12:36 - Elfried’s early work at...

Mark Ritson is back and has convinced me to record in a pub, talking about the top 10 beer ads of all time (while drinking beer) - what could go wrong? We break down some classic ads from Heineken & Stella, Super Bowl hits from Michelob & Sam Adams and round off drinking Britain's favourite pint. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - The idea for the beer podcast 04:16 - Ad 10: Budweiser 08:24...

Kerris Bright is the Chief Customer Officer at the BBC. She was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media. She is a highly experienced leader, bringing a customer-centred, data driven approach to setting marketing strategy and executing with creative flair. Before Virgin, she held senior marketing positions at British Airways, ICI Paints and Unilever. While at British Airways, she spearhe...

The NFL is one of the biggest sporting entities in the world and it's reaching the biggest audiences it ever has. So in this episode, I'm joined by their CMO Tim Ellis, and Glenn Cole, co-founder of 72andSunny, their agency partner. We talk about the secrets behind a successful 7 year agency-client relationship, how to consistently make groundbreaking, emotional work, and what it takes to create a...

In this episode, we're talking about one of my favourite subjects; innovation. And who better to talk about it with than Mauro Porcini, who's the Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo, who is also the author of “The Human Side of Innovation”. We talk about what it takes to make innovation that succeeds, and importantly, what characteristics of people can make innovation that works, (and he really knows,...

Today I'm speaking with one of the most awarded creatives on the planet, David Droga, founder of iconic agency Droga5, and now CEO of Accenture Song, one of the largest creative groups in the world. Described by David himself as "therapy", this conversation spans topics from his start as life as a copywriter, how he created some of the most creative work on the planet and what it's like to transit...

In this episode, Antonia Wade, CMO of PwC, turns the tables and interviews our usual host, Jon Evans. From tax intern to marketing podcast host, we delve into Jon's journey through entrepreneurial endeavours at Britvic, through to being fired at Lucozade to finding a successful role in B2B at System1. We also discuss lessons Jon has learned from 150 podcast episodes with CMO's, agency creatives, f...

Welcome to the 150th edition of the Uncensored CMO podcast. To celebrate, I'm joined by Orlando Wood, my colleague at System1 and author of Lemon and Look Out, with the legend that is Sir John Hegarty, iconic founder of BBH. Today we're talking about why they believe a creative revolution is necessary for the industry and why they are collaborating on a new course " Advertising Principles Explaine...

Regular listeners of the podcast will know how much I love challenger brands, and Gymbox are one of the best examples of a challenger brand really shaping up their industry. Rory McEntee is the Brand and Marketing Director for the challenger Gym brand, and is responsible for some of the most creative campaigns (which have often come along with a side helping of legal letters) that have really put...

Rebecca Hirst is the Chief Marketing Officer of EY UK, a TEDx Speaker and a winner of Campaign's 40 over 40. Before joining EY and making the switch to B2B, Rebecca was Marketing Director at Samsung and working on brands including Coca-Cola, Schweppes, Kellogg’s, Kleenex, Microsoft, IBM, United Airlines, Lufthansa and Star Alliance. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Winning Campaign’s 40 over 40 04...

Michelle Moscone is the VP of Brand and Content at GEICO, one of the most famous insurance brands in the US. Michele's career has spanned from project management at some of the biggest agencies in the world to leading creative at an organisation where creativity is at its core. In this episode we talk about why humour is so important for advertising and why we're so afraid to use it. Timestamps 00...

Greg Hahn is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mischief. One of the hottest agencies in the world doing work for the likes of Tinder, Tubi and Coors Light. Previous to Mischief, Greg was the CCO of BBDO NY. During that time BBDO was recognized as the most awarded agency in the world by the Gunn Report. It was also named Agency of the Year at The One Show, ADC and The Webbys multiple tim...

Kofi Amoo-Gottfried is the CMO of DoorDash, the premier local commerce platform valued at over $40 billion and dominates over 65% of the market for restaurant delivery. In his role as CMO, he is responsible for driving growth and engagement across all three sides of the marketplace. Prior to DoorDash, Kofi was VP of Brand & Consumer Marketing at Facebook, having previously served as the compan...