Uncensored CMO

Cadillac is an iconic American brand who are navigating the shift to electrification in the automotive industry and have partnered up with 72andSunny to launch their brand new campaign “Let’s Take the Cadillac. So today, Melissa Grady Dias, CMO of Cadillac, and Marianne Malina, President of 72andSunny join Jon to talk about working with a new agency and launching their first campaign together. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 03:53 - Marianne’s background 06:49 - How to manage a brand like Cadillac 08:34 - How EV’s are changing the industry 13:53 - How do you change your marketing for EVs 15:08 - Insights and inception of “Let’s Take the Cadillac” 17:56 - Developing the “Let’s Take the Cadillac” campaign 21:41 - How to launch a new car 23:39 - Building the campaign for different formats 25:42 - 72andSunny and Cadillac’s first campaign together 28:11 - Challenging the conformity in car advertising 30:48 - Why brand is so important for car purchasing 32:31 - Leading the marketing agenda inside a big org like General Motors 34:24 - In car Cadillac Car-aoke 35:22 - Melissa’s song 36:13 - Cooest feature about Escalade IQ 38:37 - Creating a luxury experience 39:27 - Chosing your car as CMO of Cadillac 40:57 - Creating a premium vehicle 42:53 - Thoughts on the Escalade IQ

Rob Mayhew joins Jon for bonus episode, talking about his big move to New York City, becoming a full-time content creator and how brands can work with creators like him effectively. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:39 - Why Rob moved to NYC 04:20 - Rob’s new YouTube show 05:47 - London vs New York for marketers 08:00 - Rob’s approach to content in 2025 11:00 - Rob’s view on the future of the social platforms 14:17 - How System1’s ad testing works 17:27 - Rob’s funniest posts on LinkedIn 18:46 - Rob’s process for making content 20:16 - Any trends that are different in the US than UK 21:43 - Thoughts on the creator economy 23:09 - The Poppi vending machine backlash 24:22 - How does Rob plan his content? 25:18 - Different audiences for TikTok and LinkedIn 25:38 - Rory Sutherland’s TikTok 26:48 - Power of B2B content creation

Rare Beauty is a brand built on the inclusive approach to beauty set by their celebrity founder, Selena Gomez. They've taken the US market by storm and so I'm speaking to their CMO, Katie Welch, about how they've done it. From strong positioning and making a difference in mental health across their customer base to growing a strong presence on social media (with a little help from their founder with over 400m Instagram followers), Rare Beauty is a wonderful success story of a challenger brand. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Katie’s career background 07:46 - How Katie joined Rare Beauty 11:09 - The challenges of launching a startup beauty brand 14:19 - The positioning of Rare Beauty 16:21 - New guest host interruption 16:58 - Being true to the brand positioning 19:48 - Being a purpose led brand 22:47 - Addressing the pressures of social media 26:27 - Building the Rare Beauty brand on social media 28:22 - How involved does Selena Gomez get in the Rare Beauty brand 29:57 - The secret to a successful product launch for Rare Beauty 33:00 - Dealing with the growth challenges of a scale up 40:36 - Evolving the Rare Beauty community 42:24 - What’s next for the Rare Beauty brand? 42:47 - Being an entreprenuer in a startup 45:09 - Katie growing her own social accounts

This episode is a QSR masterclass. Ken Muench is the CMO of Yum! brands, who own Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. I speak to Ken about how he started the agency that got acquired by Yum! (The Collider Lab) and his journey to being the CMO of such a large group of brands. We also talk about how all CMOs within Yum! are encouraged to swing big to make impactful campaigns and drive innovation within their brands. Ken is also the co-author of "R.E.D Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands" which breaks down why Relevance, Ease and Distinctiveness are essential for QSR brands. Timestamps:

Marcel Marcondes is the CMO of AB InBev, who run the largest portfolio of beer brands in the world. Stella Artois, Corona, Michelob Ultra and Budwieser are all under the marketing leadership of Marcel. Through creativity and consistency, AB InBev have produced some of the most effective campaigns of the past few years, often topping out the System1 charts. This has led to Marcel and his team to win some incredible awards, including WFA marketer of the year (Marcel) and most effective marketer of the year by the Effies (AB InBev). Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:48 - Marcel’s journey to running the biggest portfolio in the world 03:51 - The global beer brands Marcel oversees 04:27 - How to manage such a large portfolio of brands 07:04 - Being the most effective marketing team for the past 3 years 09:39 - The Olympics partnership 13:08 - How important is creativity to deliver effectiveness 16:35 - How to demonstrate the power of marketing internally 18:10 - Why campaign consistency is so important for AB InBev 21:25 - The most effective ad by AB InBev 22:39 - Having 4 brands with Super Bowl ads 24:53 - Stella Artois 2025 Super Bowl ad with David Beckham 30:20 - Michelob Ultra at Super Bowl 33:29 - Executing a campaign across platforms 36:18 - The relationship with creative agencies 40:07 - Marcel’s advice to CMOs

I think one of the biggest problems facing us today is the amount of distraction in our lives. Social media feeds, unnecessary meetings, huge inboxes full of emails you didn't really need. All these things are grabbing our attention and taking us away from doing what we're supposed to be doing. In this episode I'm talking to Nir Eyal, who's the author of a brilliant book called Indistractable, which is all about how we can reclaim our attention to focus our energy around the things that really matter. Now, as marketers, we can have a massive impact on our brands and our business, if only we can focus our time and effort on the right things. So Nir is uncovering all the tips and tricks for how to do that and how to make sure you're more productive and less distracted. Timestamps:

The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising event of the year, with the biggest brands in the world flexing their advertising muscles (and budgets). A new entrant to the Super Bowl in 2024 was Pfizer, and they're back again this year with an ad that has blown the socks off the Pharma category. Their big game ad "Knock Out", scored 4.4 stars in System1 testing, also making it one of the best ads overall. I speak with Pfizer CMO, Susan Rienow about what it takes to create such a successful ad in the most competitive environment. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:20 - Susan’s successful career so far 03:19 - What Pfizer does and their mission 04:21 - The Covid vaccine rollout 06:29 - The role of insights for making business decisions 07:36 - Dealing with the complexities of different audiences 10:12 - Managing the impact of fair balance in advertising 14:51 - The role of Pfizer’s advertising 17:04 - Why have Pfizer gone all in with a Super Bowl ad 20:12 - The Pfizer Super Bowl ad in 2025 25:20 - What role does testing play for creating an effective ad 33:31 - The role of testing giving confidence to the board 37:39 - How tiny changes can make such a big difference 39:15 - How to evaluate the impact of a Super Bowl ad 41:22 - What makes a great CMO 46:40 - Advice Susan would give to young marketers

Today Jon sits down with Benjamin Braun, CMO at Samsung Europe, for a fascinating conversation that spans from innovative tech demos to Olympic marketing strategies. Benjamin shares insights on Samsung's role as a 40-year Olympic sponsor, demonstrates the latest AI capabilities in Samsung devices, and discusses how the company balances long-term brand building with short-term sales goals. The conversation takes a personal turn as Benjamin opens up about his experience with dyslexia and how neurodiversity can be a strength in business leadership. From product innovation to marketing effectiveness in the boardroom, this episode offers a glimpse into the mind of one of Europe's leading CMOs and the future of consumer technology. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:50 - A thank you to Uncommon Creative Studios 00:05:09 - Samsung’s approach to AI products 00:13:36 - Showing Samsung’s AI photo editing features 00:16:35 - The Samsung Galaxy Ring and the health benefits of tech 00:21:49 - The history of Samsung 00:24:02 - How Samsung have innovated in TV’s 00:28:51 - Having products across all price points 00:30:25 - What can marketers learn from being a Police Officer? 00:37:31 - The mini max approach to marketing 00:43:27 - Samsung sponsoring the Olympics 00:50:32 - The best Samsung ads 00:57:11 - How to be an effective CMO in a large organisation 01:01:51 - Put your CFO and CEO in the shoes of the customer 01:08:37 - How Benjamin manages his dyslexia as a CMO

Dr Karen Nelson Field is a multiple returning guest to the podcast, talking about her book "The Attention Economy: A Category Blueprint" which takes an in-depth look into the dynamic world of marketing and advertising, unveiling the pivotal role that human attention measurement plays in the present and future landscape. In this episode we discuss the history of attention, how the platforms are manipulating our attention, why not all reach is equal, and, ultimately, what we can do about it. 00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Karen’s new book 01:42 - The history of attention 03:20 - The case for attention 04:17 - The difference between active and passive attention 09:37 - Linking attention to memory 11:30 - Linking attention to advertising outcomes 14:12 - The concept of attention elasticity 15:17 - How platforms are manipulating our attention 17:51 - How to measure attention 20:10 - Seen vs served 25:22 - How is the industry progressing? 27:21 - Is there a new metric we can use in place of CPM? 29:10 - How to buy media based on attention 31:25 - Karen’s new course 32:31 - How is Amplified Intelligence going

In this episode I'm joined by Allison Ellsworth, founder of the fastest growing beverage brand in the US, Poppi. Poppi was started as Mother Beverage in 2018 (a nod to the raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar used in the drink) but was rebranded after featuring on Shark Tank in the same year. Now, it's one of the biggest soda brands in the US, outselling Coke and Pepsi on Amazon. I speak to Allison about the journey of creating the brand, how influential TikTok was for their growth, their merch strategy and how they ended up buying a Super Bowl ad. This is a fascinating account of how a challenger brand can disrupt an industry in such a small period of time. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 02:08 - Allison’s experience on Shark Tank 05:56 - Funding and rebrand of Poppi 10:36 - Launching the brand during COVID 11:06 - Outselling Coke and Pepsi on Amazon 12:33 - How big is the impact of Shark Tank 13:45 - Growing the brand on social media 17:02 - The influencer and social first marketing strategy 19:45 - How Poppi’s marketing popup worked 22:05 - Why Poppi invested in merch and launching in Target 24:36 - Chosing which flavours to launch with Poppi 28:04 - Approach to retail and growth 29:27 - Breaking into a competitive market 30:29 - Poppi’s Super Bowl campaign 35:30 - The journey from 2 to 200 employees 40:18 - How Allison hires at Poppi 42:05 - The hardest part of the journey at Poppi 44:07 - How Allison would start a new startup today

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a the most watched drama on ITV of all time. It's the extraordinary story of the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history, where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system. I speak to the producer of the show, Patrick Spence, to get a behind the scenes look at the drama, how it was discovered, how it was made and why the country rallied around Mr Bates. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:09 - The story of Mr Bates 05:33 - Having the film commissioned by ITV 08:59 - How true was the drama 12:04 - How big was the cover up at the Post Office 14:12 - How did this scandal happen 17:21 - Why some people pleaded guilty 19:36 - How has the show impacted real people 22:08 - Why no one has received compensation yet 24:46 - What awards has the show won 26:24 - The reaction from Fujitsu and the Post Office 31:53 - How has the drama translated globally?

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:

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