Mark Abraham leads Boston Consulting Group’s Marketing, Sales & Pricing practice in North America. He also launched and leads the firm’s personalization capability. He has built some of the firm’s largest ventures and AI platforms, including Fabriq Personalization AI by BCG X, a personalization platform that accelerates personalization. Mark coauthored the book Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI, which helps executives learn how to put personalization at the center of their strategy, accelerate growth, and capture their share of the $2 trillion personalization prize. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Why 2025 is the year of personalisation at scale 01:38 - When personalisation goes wrong 06:04 - Consumer data on our openness to personalisation 07:48 - The $2 trillion opportunity 10:08 - Who is doing personalisation well 14:27 - The competitive advantage of speed and scale 15:50 - How AI is driving personalisation forward 24:15 - The 5 areas to build the framework for personalisation 26:49 - How do you get information about your customer 31:53 - What is the most useful intelligence to gather 37:43 - How to make mass campaigns more targeted 42:36 - Some of the barriers to personalisation 50:19 - Why companies need to embrace AI 53:25 - Parting advice to people on implementing personalisation

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 are not the customer. 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:55 - Reflecting on the agency’s year 00:05:25 - Point 1: You are not the customer 00:19:51 - Point 2: Ignore Price at your peril 00:26:13 - Point 3: Consistency but not a lack of creativity 00:42:08 - Point 4: Never forget the eyeballs 00:50:48 - Point 5: Emotions aren’t just about making people cry 00:55:08 - Point 6: Is the era of purpose over? 01:00:38 - Point 7: Don’t just be in culture, stay in culture 01:03:48 - Point 8: Don’t forget the power of Out of Home

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 campaign (age representation) 14:49 - Why is Amazon’s advertising emotional 21:10 - Being consistent with your brand 24:39 - How Amazon make big decisions 28:27 - Managing the demand side of Amazon 29:30 - Amazon’s sustainability pledge 35:12 - The role of influencers at Amazon 38:56 - Culture at Amazon 46:42 - Ed’s marketing predictions for 2025

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, where the ideas came from that inspired such iconic and effective work. And I think you'll find that quite revealing also how relationships are basically underpinned all of Rupert's success. Enjoy. We covered so much ground in this bumper 2 hour episode, so here's the list of what we touched upon: How Rupert made HHCL the best agency of the 90’s Ruperts New Business Mantra – Honesty. Respect. Trust. Why saying ‘I don’t know’ and ‘we got it wrong’ is so important How the agency’s sole focus is Advertising but the Clients sole focus is the business Why new business should always be separate to the day to day account management How Rupert became ‘the finest new business director of all time’ How to win a pitch even after you have lost it Why the pitch process begins with the phone call and only ends when its announced in Campaign The sole purpose of the pitch is to win and not to solve the clients business problem Why HHCL had a strike rate of 65% for new business What the company annual report can tell you for the pitch process Why you should try and get your customer promoted How Carling Black Label inspired the most successful Tango Advertising of all time How Tango destroyed Fanta and forced Coke to withdraw it from the market How a call from a Surgeon led to the Tango Slap commercial being withdraw from market Why the ‘4th Emergency Service’ transformed The AA and how the bold idea was sold in How spending time with an AA team out on a call led to the idea The importance of winning your internal teams and why they matter as much as your customers Interrogating the product until ‘it confesses its strength’ Why the harder you practice the luckier you get is just as true for an agency The real hard yards of the start-up phase that meant not taking a day off in 3 years How tabloids create controversy and how to respond to it Why relationships are the secret to really succeeding in business Turning down offers to sell the agency including a £1million bribe Why HHCL accepted an offer from Chime with the support from Sir Martin Sorrell Why so few agencies ever succeed after being acquired by a network Why HHCL was never the same after Rupert left and why he would never go back The importance of timing for Founders handing over to the next generation Dealing with bullies, bribary and negotiating an exit from McCann with a boat & DB9 as consolation Which celebrities are still speaking to Rupert after he left ITV Why social media is driven by click bait and negative headlines Why you should give up the news, except perhaps local news The Pros and Cons of a British free press How to get a non-exec role

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 09:06 - Drinks trolley 12:38 - Review of the 2024 Christmas Ads 16:45 - A break from the ads 21:03 - Name that ad

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 flamingo-themed campaigns resonate with customers. Jess also sheds light on balancing commercial objectives with customer experience, fostering collaborative relationships, and the unique challenges of her executive role. Whether it's optimizing holiday ads or championing a vibrant company culture, Jess’s insights are sure to inspire. Timestamps 00:00 - Start 01:07 - Jess’ custom merch for the podcast 02:07 - Jess’ review of the year at Very 04:28 - From Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Customer Officer - what’s changed 06:17 - How marketers can thrive in the boardroom 08:53 - Embracing “hun culture” 12:35 - How important the golden quarter is for retailers 15:46 - Why Very chose the run the same campaign at Christmas 21:05 - Why short term is important in the Golden Quarter 23:57 - Very's Flamazing Flamingos as a fluent device 28:40 - Launching the Very Media Group 31:03 - Launching House of Flamingo 34:18 - Jess’ learnings from the last year at Very 35:45 - Making the most out of your agencies 39:29 - Closing thoughts

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 chocolate industry. Sadira also opens up about her bold career moves, the lessons learned from transitioning between major brands and startups, and her commitment to making a meaningful impact. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:37 - How Sadira discovered Tony’s 02:01 - Why Sadira is known as the Dean of Dopeness 03:19 - Sadira’s role at Pepsi; Puppy Monkey Baby and Mountain Dew 13:06 - From PepsiCo to a fintech (Happy Money) 16:03 - Making an impact in a product-led organisation 18:24 - Writing your own redundancy case 21:09 - Why Sadira took a 9 month Sabbatical 23:51 - How Sadira got the role at Tony’s 28:11 - The commitment to being a change brand 29:55 - Working with constrained budgets 34:26 - The lawsuit for Tony’s look alike bars 38:27 - The Tony’s advent calendar that caused a stir 39:53 - Using fun and humour to tell a serious story 42:21 - In house vs agencies at Tony’s 43:17 - Tony’s collaboration with The Washington Post 44:25 - Custom branded Tony’s Chocolonely bars 45:46 - The most successful campaigns for Tony’s 47:45 - Where does the brand go from here? 49:55 - What has surprised Sadira most about the brand

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 needed to make a bold change in the new wave of electrification to save it's dying brand, and many of the critics have never owned a Jaguar and likely never will. As always, chatting with Rory is a lot of fun with many uncensored opinions.

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 between maintaining a strong mission and driving business growth. Douglas also shares insights into Tony's dedicated efforts to eradicate child labor, pay fair wages, and maintain transparency in their cocoa sourcing, all while making their chocolate appealing and fun for consumers. Tune in next week for an interview with Tony's Dean of Dopeness, Sadira E. Furlow (aka their Chief Brand Officer), to find out exactly what it takes to grow a brand like Tony's. Timestamps 00:00 - Start 01:38 - Douglas’ journey to CEO at Innocent Smoothies 06:36 - Lessons on how to scale up at Innocent 12:47 - Why Coke kept Innocent independent 15:03 - Innocent’s approach to launching new products 21:52 - Why Douglas moved to Tony’s Chocolonely 24:22 - Tony’s Chocolonely origin story 28:29 - Why is Tony’s chocolate so good 29:42 - The B2B side of Tony’s Chocolonely 32:56 - Is it more expensive to be a change brand? 34:03 - Balancing a serious mission with a fun brand 35:53 - Why Tony’s is so transparent 41:48 - Tony’s international expansion 44:38 - Challenges of being in the biggest retailer in the US 47:35 - Lessons as a CMO 51:33 - Creating the culture at Tony’s

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, including her pivotal role in transforming Boots' digital presence and launching successful campaigns like Fenty beauty. We'll also cover trends shaping the future of retail, such as the impact of Cyber Monday falling in December for the first time in five years and retailers leveraging "Fake Friday" to boost profits. Additionally, we'll touch on the evolving dynamics of YouTube creators, the significance of emotional engagement in content, and innovative advertising strategies. Plus, we'll delve into the limitless curiosity driving the continuous evolution of Google Search and the role of AI in shaping marketing strategies. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:46 - Sophie’s career history 04:12 - Sophie’s time at Jack Wills 06:14 - Sophie’s job at Boots 09:26 - Top 2 retail trends from Google Search 11:50 - How Google Search has evolved over the years 18:12 - How to take advantage of insights from search 23:10 - What Google Trends tells us about Black Friday 29:51 - How retailers can go up against Amazon 31:48 - Is YouTube going to replace TV? 37:01 - Trends in formats for YouTube, short vs long 41:35 - How YouTube empowers creators (Chicken Shop Date) 47:19 - How advertisers can make the most out of YouTube 52:36 - Advice on how to grow a podcast on YouTube 55:00 - The greatest gift AI can give to humanity

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 also joined also joined by Dom Dwight, from Yorkshire Tea, and Vickie Ridley, from their partner agency Lucky Generals. Yorkshire Tea have been putting the principles of compound creativity to practice over many years and have been hugely successful as a result. So not only are we talking about the data, we're also talking about the practice. Download the Compound Creativity report here. Part 1 with Andrew Tindall 00:00 - Intro 00:58 - Launching the Compound Creativity report 01:35 - Coming up with the right name for Compound Creativity 02:52 - The building blocks of consistency 05:13 - The value of being consistent 08:04 - How compounding helps wear in 09:25 - Power of fluent devices 12:14 - Collaborating with the IPA for the business effects data 15:00 - Don’t fire your agency 16:39 - The 5 most consistent brands Part 2 with Dom Dwight and Vickie Ridley of Yorkshire Tea 18:29 - Intro to Lucky Generals and Yorkshire Tea 19:25 - Dom Dwight’s history with Yorkshire Tea 22:28 - Where did the “doing things proper” idea originate 25:31 - Narrowing 17 ideas down to 3 26:19 - How to use celebrities well in advertising 29:57 - Yorkshire Tea Ad with Sean Bean 32:06 - Yorkshire Tea Ad with Kaiser Chiefs 38:03 - How does the campaign work across channels 42:24 - Key to a successful client agency relationship 48:37 - The results of Yorkshire Tea’s compounding creativity 52:56 - Advice to clients to get the most out of their agency

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 doesn’t need a commercial excuse 14:13 - Jon #5: Liquid death article 21:15 - Mark #4: There's no such thing as performance branding 25:47 - Jon #4: Nike Winning isn’t for everybody 29:07 - Mark #3: KitKat's perfect positioning 34:33 - Jon #3: Compounding interest, relationships and creativity 39:55 - Mark #2: Why Liquid Death are running into trouble 45:42 - Jon #2: Outrage is the new s*x in marketing 48:32 - Ritson #1: Nike’s biggest mistake 52:44 - Jon #1: Airbnb’s focus on brand

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 off the streets by training them as baristas, and is available in 23 countries. Change Please was named the World’s Leading Social Enterprise in 2018 and in Marketing Week’s 100 Most Disruptive Brands in the World. He has spent 20 years working on the world’s biggest brands including Unilever, Pepsico, Boots, Sky and Alpro whilst winning over 100 strategic and creative awards along the way. Find out more about Chris' book, Obsolete, here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/obsolete-9781399416658/ 00:00 - Intro 02:09 - The premise of his book 04:27 - Why Chris called the book Obsolete 06:41 - Making positive change with small businesses 18:32 - Being inspired by change brands 21:53 - How to win against established brands 27:03 - The advantages of purpose 29:31 - How Chris started Change Please 32:48 - Measuring the impact of Change Please 36:28 - How change brands can be distinctive 40:14 - Why Tony’s Chocolonely are making an impact 42:06 - Putting change ahead of profits 47:06 - Applying a change mindset to other industries 49:37 - Making an impact commercially and with purpose 52:55 - How Serious Tissues started 55:53 - The power of partnerships 57:49 - Chris’ biggest takeaway from writing Obsolete

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 Gymshark 00:21:11 - The challenges of scaling up 00:26:23 - Elfried’s approach to personal growth 00:36:01 - How Elfried approaches finding talented people 00:41:59 - Why Elfried left Gymshark 00:49:26 - Scaling through influencers and community 01:00:52 - Power of personal brands

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 - Ad 9: Budweiser 10:43 - Ad 8: Heineken 13:56 - Ad 7: Stella Artois 18:30 - Ad 6: Corona 21:46 - Ad 5: Michelob Ultra 25:17 - Ad 4: Carlsberg 29:10 - Ad 3: Sam Adams 36:36 - Ad 2: Guinness 46:05 - Ad 1: Heineken Top 10 Ranking (with System1 Test Your Ad Report) HEINEKEN DANIEL CRAIG VS JAMES BOND (5.6) GUINNESS IN THIS TOGETHER (5.3) BOSTON BEER SAM ADAMS YOUR COUSIN FROM BOSTON (4.9) CARLSBERG THE SEAL (4.9) MICHELOB ULTRA MESSI SUPERBOWL AD (4.8) CORONA TINY UMBRELLAS (4.8) STELLA ARTOIS REASSURINGLY EXPENSIVE (4.6) HEINEKEN WATER IN MAJORCA (4.5) BUDWEISER WHASSUP (4.3) BUDWEISER OLD SCHOOL DELIVERY (4.2)

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 spearheaded the development of ‘To Fly: To Serve’, a new purpose for the organisation and a multi-platform campaign and at ICI Paints she transformed the company from a ‘multi-local’ to global brand building organisation. After gaining a PhD in molecular neuroscience from the University of Sussex, she began her career in marketing as a graduate trainee at Unilever. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:26 - Why Kerris has a PHD in molecular neuroscience 00:04:04 - Getting marketing training at Unilever 00:09:56 - From Unilever to joining Dulux in crisis 00:18:33 - How marketers can work closely with commercial teams 00:22:12 - Purpose led campaigns 00:31:36 - Lessons from Kerris’ time in Private Equity 00:42:06 - From British Airways to Virgin 00:48:42 - Kerris’ role at the BBC 00:58:32 - The power of the BBC’s editorial independence 01:01:05 - Marketing the BBC 01:05:20 - How the BBC makes engaging content 01:08:13 - Kerris’ advice to aspiring marketers

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 leading Super Bowl campaign. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - Tim Ellis career journey 01:51 - How Tim met Glenn from 72andSunny 04:20 - Secret to a successful client agency relationship 08:21 - The compounding effect of a long term agency relationship 11:51 - Helmets off strategy 15:09 - You can’t make this stuff up campaign 17:40 - This is Football Country campaign 24:41 - Growing the audience for the NFL 27:22 - The Taylor Swift effect 34:32 - The growth of flag Football 39:30 - Growing the sport internationally 42:35 - How to make a great Super Bowl ad 49:07 - The power of emotion in advertising

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, because if you've read the book, there are 24 characteristics that he talks about that are essential). Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:56 - The office of Pepsi’s Chief Design Officer 02:56 - How Mauro got into design 07:01 - Why you need to focus on people when innovating 16:29 - Why so many innovations fail 23:17 - Hiring the right people to foster innovation 25:42 - Key characteristics of successful innovators 33:50 - How to inspire kindness, optimism and curiosity 40:27 - Finding the balance in character traits 47:58 - The ideal recipe for innovation 51:26 - How to cultivate happiness at work 55:10 - Fighting the dictatorship of normal 57:00 - Pepsi Rebrand

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 transition from a creative to a CEO. 00:00 - Intro 01:58 - How David Droga got into advertising 07:36 - Working at Saatchi and Saatchi Singapore 12:19 - Pushing boundaries and making yourself uncomfortable 14:29 - Moving to Saatchi London 20:32 - Why David Droga started Droga5 25:55 - Droga5’s first campaign for Marc Ecko 31:23 - The first idea Droga5 presented: GE Olympics Campaign 38:30 - Droga’s Unicef campaign 43:25 - Droga’s Newcastle Brown Ale work 46:25 - Huggies Super Bowl Ad 48:44 - The Coinbase QR Code Super Bowl ad 52:22 - Characteristics of the best CMO’s Droga has worked with 56:23 - What it’s like being CEO of Accenture Song

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, founders and more. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - Jon’s journey from tax to marketing 10:18 - Deciding if you’re more suited to corporate or entrepreneurial life 12:35 - Why Jon got fired at Lucozade 17:15 - Traits of a confident CMO 18:35 - How do you go from tax to research? 25:21 - Why Jon chose Richard Shotton as his first guest 27:10 - Lesson’s we can take from COVID times 30:20 - What makes a great CMO 36:49 - Do emotional ads really work? 39:44 - Favourite campaign that didn’t perform well with System1 41:19 - Is winning a Cannes Lion worth it or not? 44:42 - How important is purpose in advertising? 48:37 - Is AI the saviour of creativity? 52:35 - What has Jon learned about leadership from Uncensored CMO guests? 56:25 - Who would Jon love to have on the podcast? 57:34 - Happy 50th Birthday Jon!