Uncensored CMO

Lex Bradshaw-Zanger is the Chief Marketing & Digital Officer for L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa Region. Prior to this role, Lex was the CMO for the UK & Ireland, held roles in the Western Europe Zone and was Chief Digital Officer for the L’Oréal Middle East and Africa Region. Prior to L’Oréal, Lex was with McDonald’s and Facebook. He is a recovered ad-man having spent over 10 years in the agency world, with both WPP and Publicis – his last role was Regional Director for Digital Strategy & Innovation for Leo Burnett MENA.

Work is fundamentally important to the quality of our lives and we are surrounded by more change and choice than ever before. Our careers have become far less predictable and increasingly 'squiggly'. In this episode I have a chat with Helen Tupper, co-founder of Amazing If and co-author of "The Squiggly Career: Ditch the Ladder, Discover Opportunity, Design Your Career".Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube ->Find out more about Helen:The Squiggly Career BookSquiggly Careers PodcastAmazing IfHelen's LinkedInWhat we covered in this episode:How Helen and Sarah started their business on napkinWhy the career ladder is not necessarily the path to success5 years of experimentation to develop the Squiggly businessHow Helen and Sarah went from starting The Squiggly Careers Podcast to 330 episodesHow to create a growth flywheel for your brand or business - making content more usefulWhy creating something of huge value for free is the key to B2B growth - remaining relevantTrusting in reciprocity - why helping people authentically is so important for growthWhy you shouldn't worry about your weaknessesThe Squiggly Careers Book - The 5 Key Skills you needThe importance of deliberately choosing what you want to be known forYour 2 week energy audit - How to discover your core skills and valuesJon and Helen's 12 month career high and why it matteredBuilding high trust teams and emotional safetyLess budget =  happy teamsConfidence Gremlins and limiting beliefsTeaching yourself to draw on the positiveLearning how to fail.... and that this means for successThe pressure pedestal - we are not all Simon Sinek!Jon's advice on presentation skillsNetworking Events - how to reframe the fearFired? Redundant? How to get back into employment....fast!Why you should only share what you really care aboutHow curious career conversations will set you up well in you next jobCreating a constant flow of future job opportunitiesHow to use your mobile phone contacts to find the perfect roleRedefining the definition of progressionHelen shares whom Squiggly Careers is for and whom it can helpHelen's advice on crafting your best career storyFollow Jon:LinkedInTwitter

Edward Pilkington is the Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at Diageo North America, managing a portfolio of the biggest brands in the world, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff and more. If theres anyone that understands how to run marketing for huge brands, it's Ed, and he certainly brings his wealth of experience to this conversation.

Nishma is responsible for leading brand and reputation marketing for Google in the UK. She has led many of Google’s acclaimed projects and campaigns including Digital Garage, This is My YouTube, the Google Executive Summit, Brandcast, ThinkwithGoogle and Be Internet Legends. Nishma is a Board Director at the School of Marketing and is proud to be a Fellow of the Marketing Society. Her accolades include Ad Age’s Woman to Watch, Europe (2018), Campaign A List (2017, 2018 and 2019), Drum Digerati and was recognised in the Hospital Group’s h100 list as one of the most influential and innovative people in the UK’s creative industry. When she’s not looking after her twins or at work, you’ll find her in sparkly shoes dancing in the sun or under the stars!Talking points00:00 Intro00:32 The inspiration behind MadWomen04:18 How Teletext was the Google before Google07:54 The responsibility of managing the Google brand12:20 How Google makes you look clever13:30 What search reveals about humanity16:08 "It’s Ok to Ask" campaign with Uncommon17:59 Why Marcus Rashford helping out with the campaign20:37 It’s not what we ask it’s what we do with the answers20:47 The role of humanity in Google's work24:05 Why we shouldn't just sell cheese26:01 How the Google Pixel phone makes technology accessible to new audiences30:17 CODA, How Google helped people understand the life of someone with two deaf parents34:02 How diverse advertising unites the audience36:40 Telling one person's story well39:40 Diversity and representation in media42:28 How technology democratises the ability for creators to get funded46:54 Creating the worlds first augmented reality brand48:00 Top tips for YouTube creators50:20 How creators and collaborators can grow your brand51:05 The role of AI to democratise tech53:13 Advice for advertisers using YouTube58:01 The surprising effectiveness of brand building style advertising in digital01:00:35 Nishma’s biggest ever failure01:02:36 Outro

Yusuf has worked across most flavors of planning and strategy making him one of the few genuine hybrid strategists. His experience spans a number of the world’s leading corporations including Microsoft, BMW, Samsung, Kimberley-Clark, Kraft and Verizon. He is currently EVP, Client Strategy at NBCUniversal. Early ambition to become a city traderFalling into media planningWearing trainers to workSelling the internet in 1995Crossing the creative and media divideWhy all things are not equalThe birth of planningWhy so many Englishmen end up in New YorkWhy 90’s sitcoms are still so popularThe power of stories to attract a global audienceThe special relationship between audience and programmingThe 3 aspects of Fandom98% of commercial airtime is as engaging as the contentPricing media based on emotionReflecting people identity on screenSatisfying cultural curiosityThe representation hierarchyThe diversity divided when people feel seenThe power of empathy to connect with audiencesHow empathy and sympathy are different things

Today I'm joined by one of the most influential and successful CMOs on the planet, Fernando Machado, of legendary Burger King fame. He went on to work at Activision and now is CMO at NotCo.Fernando is a creative genuis, he's been awarded many, many times I've started to lose count (over 200 Cannes Lions). I wanted to catch up with Fernando and find out what makes a great creative marketer, was that "Mouldy Whopper" campaign actually worth it, and why did they sponsor a low league English football team? We also talk about what is he doing now working for a plant-based company and how AI plays a crucial role for them.LinksFollow JonFollow FernandoWatch UCMO on YouTubeTopics covered:What makes an influential CMOThe culture that leads to award winning workThe importance of influencing an organisation QUOTEThe two hidden P’s of the CMOThe importance of a shared creative ambitionWhy shared values and purposes is so importantWhat it takes to create award winning work QUOTEWhy is takes time to build up the credibility to take risksWhy huge failures are similar to most campaigns QUOTEIf your creative isn’t noticed everything else is academicWhy attracting the best creative talent means committing to bold workThe more creative work you do the more creative you are likely to getWhen you have a smaller budget you have to get more creativeSharing the results for Mouldy Whopper in public to address the criticsWhere the idea for the Mouldy Whopper came from QUOTEWhat Fernando learnt at Activision BlizzardThe power of networking in finding a perfect roleThe biggest challenge facing NotCoWhy the best creative work gets done on small budgetsHow AI is accelerating the development of plant based productsHow AI beat the Nike design departmentHow AI created the most average Pizza advertWhy the brief matters when using AI QUOTEFrom curation to creative, why AI is a tool and not a replacement of the marketing functionWhy Notco is advertising old animalsThink of a colour that doesn’t existThe one piece of advice for marketers

Richard Warren has spent his career working in and growing agencies, but most recently has worked in house at one of the UK's largest banking group, Lloyds. In 2000 Richard founded DLKW as Director of Strategy, which grew to become the the UK’s largest independent agency, before merging with Lowe in 2010. As someone who has spent time on both sides, I wanted to catch up with Richard to find out how to make the most of the agency-client relationship.

Rebecca Dibb-Simkin is the Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Octopus Energy Group. Previously at British Gas, Rebecca has helped scale Octopus into an impressive challenger brand with over 50k customers and $10b in revenue.What we covered in this episodeResponding to a job ad written by Rory SutherlandFrom the tax department to marketingBeing rejected on graduate schemesPoetic job applicationsMarketing jargon that needs to be ditchedWhy being close to the customer mattersThe marketers role in the middle of the spiders webFrom energy industry giant to start upThe spontaneous moment that led to Octopus energyJon blags a speech on the Internet of thingsThe surprisingly short distance to the edge of our atmosphereThe cost advantage of green energyWhich energy sources are the cleanestThe tricky of balance of managing variable sources of energyAdvantages of smart energyHow octopus are helping with the cost of living crisisThe red tape holding us backHow to incentivise people to adopt wind powerThe 40,000 electric blankets helping people in crisisFrom 50,000 customers to 5 millionThe secret to seriously rapid growthThe Brewdog question that drives growthHow to handle 80k job applicationsKeeping the core management team togetherThe advantages of an in house agencyOutrageously good customer service with humansNow the octopus came aboutThe science behind animals as mascotsIn praise of simplicity and products that workRunning the same campaign over and over againThe role of industry awards

Jo Arden is the Chief Strategy Officer of Ogilvy UK, and she joins me on the podcast to talk all things strategy. What's involved, why it's important and how to make a career of it. Jo's experience is vast, not landing a "strategy" role until her 30's and since has had senior roles at Publicis•Poke and MullenLowe.Here's what we covered in our chat:How Jo got into strategyHer winding path from PR through business development and into strategyWhat does a Chief Strategy Officer do?The role of generosity in being a great CSOThe business case for involving your strategy team on a core business problemThe one question you should always ask your customer“Making your thinking as funny as possible”Why the winning ads in technology don’t take themselves seriouslyThe ‘good sense of humour’ approach to planning“If you aren’t having fun you aren’t doing great work”In praise of Dove and it’s purpose in advertising“If it didn’t sell it wasn’t creative”Why the industry loves a crisis narrativeThe crisis in creativity is more of a trend than a crisisCannes Lions role in creative exploration rather than effectivenessJon was left out of his own Cannes Lion winning partyThe one Campaign award no-one wants to winWhy Turkeys eat Lions for breakfast“The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife”The challenge of bringing the consumer into the roomThe importance of doing normal thingsSpending the most time out of the officeRabbits in the office and other fun things at OgilvyGenerating borderless creativityPutting pressure on the task and not yourselfHow to create an environment for creativity to happenWhat Jo would advise her 21 year old selfJon share his almost unbelievable imposter syndrome storyUsing the power of your network

Chaka Sobhani is Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett London. With 20 years of experience as an award winning director, writer and creative director, she has worked for the biggest broadcasters, brands and agencies worldwide. She hasn’t had a conventional advertising career, having spent over 10 years as a film maker and in television. Chaka was recruited by ITV to set up and ECD their first in-house creative agency, production company and design studio. She has worked on countless brands including McDonalds, Boots, Coca Cola & more.Watch the McDonalds ad.Talking points:Celebrating Campaign Creative Leader of the YearGetting rejected 200 times before breaking into the industrySetting up ITV’s in-house creative departmentLearning production techniques at ITVHow to make great work on a budgetWhat its like being a global Executive Creative DirectorHelping others being successfulGetting industry acclaim and audience success for McDonaldsWhere the ‘raising your arches’ idea came fromSystem1 Test Your Ad scores for McDonalds Raise Your ArchesThe subtle branding for McDonalds that stood outThe challenge of casting eye brow raisingHow Raise Your Arches became a Tik Tok sensationThe state of diversity and inclusion in the industryHow advertising doesn’t reflect the society we live inTreating diversity with the same passion as new businessTelling one persons story wellThe diversity dividend of representative advertising