Uncensored CMO

Meghan Farren spent 10 years at KFC UK, spending the last 5 as CMO. What does it take to run a marketing department of one of the biggest consumer brands? What do you do when you run out of chicken as a fast food chicken joint? How do you change your strapline when it involves licking fingers during a global pandemic? And how a strong culture is pivotal for all this creativity to happen.What we covered in this episodeGoing back to KFC after a year - back to school vibeThe realness of working in a KFC restaurantResearch vs real world experienceHow Meg got into marketing in the first placeFrom finance to marketingHow to transition industryExperience vs action and impostor syndromeHow to nail a new jobImportance of cultureHiring the best talentBeing close to the customerMarketing week brand of the yearPower of consistencyThe FCK campaignHow taking a big risk can pay offHow humour in a crisis can helpKFC’s many distinctive assetsHow to do brand innovation wellAdvice for aspiring CMOs

This podcast explores the crazy amount of money spent on advertising, the importance of emotional advertising, the decline in creative effectiveness, and the 5 things that make a 5 Star ad. It discusses the role of System1 in measuring advertising effectiveness and the power of behavioral science in understanding consumer behavior. The podcast also emphasizes the importance of fluent devices, distinctive assets, and storytelling in effective advertising.

Do you think the advertising industry has a problem with age now? In my experience, the majority of marketing departments are run by people under 40. Sometimes the majority, even under 30, and that's reflected in creative agencies as well. I think that's a real problem because if you look at the statistics, people over the age of 55 represent the majority of people in the UK, they have enormous buying power, lost disposable income, and often a bit more time on their hands to spend it as well. So it's such a shame that we as an industry are neglecting a very significant part of the population. Recently that MullenLowe have released a new report called "The Invisible Powerhouse", looking at the lives of over 50s and how we can market to them better. In this episode, I speak to MullenLowe UK CEO, Jeremy Hine, about the report and what we can do to address this problem.What we covered in this episode:52 year old Jeremy introduces himselfWhat inspired ‘The Invisible Powerhouse’ report on age diversityWhy age represents the greatest disparity in Advertising representationHow do older people feel about the way in which they are portrayedThe business case for people ‘Feeling Seen’ in advertisingAlmost half the population are over 50 and own 70% of all assetsWhy not all over 50’s are the sameThe age people feel rather than the age they areWhat segmentation by attitude revealsInspiration from the gear lever design in a JaguarThe dominance of youth in the ad industryHow to brief to ensure older representationThe importance of seeing and understanding the older generationWhy Entertainment matters to an older audienceInspiration from the Magnum campaign featuring older peopleThe value of spending time with older peopleWhat we can learn from TikTokThe stereotypes of older people in advertisingTaking inspiration from Top GunWhy women experience an even greater invisibility in advertisingHow Mullen Lowe led the Governments covid responseHow a crisis super charged creative work & collaborationWhere to get more help on marketing to an older audience

A double header episode as I speak with JP Castlin and James Hankins on the back of their Cannes 2022 talk, in partnership with WARC, "The Gravity of e-commerce".JP Castlin is an independent consultant who coined the term naturalized strategy-making and created the ABCDE framework. JP has been featured in Marketing Week, The Drum, WARC and more, and he also wrote "Strategy in Polemy". James Hankins is the founder of Vizer Consulting & Global VP Marketing Strategy and Planning at SAGE.View JP & James' WARC report here.What we covered in this episode:How the pandemic inspired the Cannes collaborationThe one question everyone was asking at CannesWhat is driving the sudden adjustment in e-commerce valuationsPresenting straight after Gary V’s Cannes talk and our obsession with new thingsThe threat of Stagflation and how it will impact the economyReturning to the 4 P’s for the solution to the problemThe gravity effect of e-commerce and the challenging cost efficiencyDefining the model as a shift from one-to-many from many-to-oneWhy marketers are needed to solve this problemThe real cost of returning e-commerce productsThe long and short effect of guaranteed returnsHow Amazon mitigated the cost of product returnsWhy marketers needs to see the whole picture to solve the puzzleThe Nike business model and how even they struggle to do e-commerceWhy growth-first companies like Uber Eats fail to make a profitThe Vegan Sausage roll principle and the challenge of second-hand car buying platformsWhy fulfilment capability is so critical for e-commerce businessesWhy Cinch are set up to beat Cazoo in the car e-commerce warThe importance of understanding your business model firstUsing creativity to solve the most fundamental commercial challengesWhat we can all learn from the Next annual report and their emergent strategyThe pivotal role of the CMO in a commercial crisis

Today we're joined by David Hieatt, founder of Hiut Denim Co., and The Do Lectures.What we covered in this episode:How to pronounce Hiut and its originsWhat inspired David to start a jeans companyPitching a business aged 14Raised by wolves at Saatchi and SaatchiSetting up their first business HowiesSurviving without pay for 6 yearsHow it feels to sell your businessThe impact of having a dad in the merchant navyThe importance of making people feel somethingHaving a purpose and bringing your values to workHow to find your purposeWhy saving Britains biggest jeans factory inspired David to create HiutCoping with 6 months orders in one monthWhy a newsletter is your most important communiction toolGetting geeky about newsletter statsTrying to beat your best newsletterWriting a book in 30mins a dayLearning from Paul ArdenThe importance of choosing your boss carefullyFocussing on being the most influential 30 person jeans companyBeing better today than yesterdaySaving the planet with the No Wash ClubCoping with 3 years of repairs in 3 months after offering free repairs for lifeThe 88 hours it takes to win businessThe inspiration behind the DO lectures and the irony of 'doing one thing well'Don't just stand there, do something. Making change happen.Selling tickets to Do lectures out in an hourTalks from a cowshed in west wales

I've always had a bit of a love, hate relationship with Cannes. It's wonderful that we celebrate creativity with this event, but seeing how the festival rewards a certain type of creativity, particularly short term activation and purpose recently, I'm starting to wonder how effective Cannes Lions winners are in the real world.So who better to talk to about this than Tom Goodwin, who isn't short of uncensored opinions, to find out what he really thinks of Cannes. Is it just a jolly for the industry? or is it something more?-> Listen to my previous episode with TomWhether Web3 is the next big thingHow dis-interested we are in real people’s livesThe cost of luxury opinionsHaving a seat at the Davos tableWhy normal people do all the wrong thingsHow purpose has replaced creativityMaking good advertising that sellsHow big tech stole the creative footballComparing Cannes to previous yearsHow the Cannes experience can varyThe status symbol of Cannes passesThe future of travel to CannesTom’s view on Gary Vee’s talkInventing the perfect CannesThe case for seducing and entertaining

For the 50th episode of Uncensored CMO, I'm live in Cannes to talk about the triple threat to creative effectiveness. Why effectiveness has been declining over the years, how attention has impacted mental availability and what we can do about it. Fresh off the stage at Cannes Lions 2022, Peter Field, Orlando Wood and Karen Nelson-Field talk us through what they're calling Triple Jeopardy.From Peter Field himself: "Triple Jeopardy is three things: the withdrawal of money from brand and putting it into performance marketing and the short-term on a massive scale. That has drained the mental availability fuel supply, if you like"What we covered in this episodeKaren, Peter and Orlando's triple jeopardy Cannes panelHow effectiveness has progressively declined throughout the yearsWhat's causing the decline? Is it a focus on short term activation vs long term brand building?Why are you calling this triple jeopardy?Why short term activation is damaging mental availabilityMeasuring inwards vs outwardWhy we need to change attention metricsActive vs passive attention85% of ads sit below the attention memory thresholdViewablity metrics are failing usHow the elasticity of attention variesSo how do we solve this? How do we sustain attention?Why we need more right-brained features in advertisingWhat captures attention?Are you paying attention to this very message on this podcast? (and in these show notes?)

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 September 2020, Margaret was announced as one of Marketing Week’s Top 100 Most Effective Marketers for her work at Centrica.What we covered in this episode:How Marg went from laser chemistry to marketingBlagging her way through her first job in marketingCapturing an emotional response in a rational wayHow to look smart giving creative feedback to an agencyThe ABC of assessing a piece of creativeWhy marketers face a much more complex context todayHow marketing is like sex and drivingUsing the language of business in the Board roomWhy marketers should focus on customers and commercials firstThe two hats every CMO wearsCreating a culture where people can test and learnInverting the pyramid and supporting the marketing teamWhy the store manager is kingThe power of showcasing what has gone wrongMarg’s hidden showreel of what went wrongJon’s best training talking about his biggest failuresWhy Marg wouldn’t go back to fast moving consumer goodsThe importance of a consistent customer experienceHow service sector and FMCG differDefining what marketing isThe inspiration behind ‘tomorrow starts today’Why procrastination is the largest barrier to your successWhat NatWest is doing to protect the climateHow banks can finance a greener economyWhich technology we should be paying attention toWhy not even the tech giants know what the future holdsIf it saves time, money or effort it will workWhat being in the Top 100 CMO charts does for MargLeaving the world in a better state than we found it

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 spending an immense amount of time on LinkedIn and writing some seriously impressive books - two of them in fact - Digital Darwinism 1 and 2 (out now in the UK).What we covered in this episode:From architecture to advertisingCoping with job rejection lettersJon blags himself a jobThe terrifying feeling of going soloBeing a Decathlete rather than sprinterThe importance of saying NoHow the industry lost its wayWhy customer service has been lostThe story behind THAT quotePotential applications of the insight and its limitationsHow we may be coming full circleWhy is better to leverage existing tech rather than gambling on newThe challenge of the Metaverse and how society will reject itHow technology should be making us more human not lessTechnology as augmentation rather than replacementWhy nothing new has happened in the past 8 yearsThe power of Nowism vs FuturismThe biggest barriers to innovation inside larger corporate businessesWhere the next big innovations should beThe ‘in the office’ auto replyTom’s new book is out nowLinksFollow me on Twitter: @uncensoredCMOFollow me on LI: LinkedInMy website: www.uncensoredcmo.comEmail me: jon@uncensoredcmo.com

Sir John Hegarty, founder of BBH, reflects on 40 years of advertising, discussing the importance of entertaining over informing, following cultural trends, and the lack of evidence for brand building through social media. He shares stories about iconic campaigns like Levi's, the making of the Laundrette advert, and how illogical choices can be the right ones. The podcast also explores personal branding in advertising agencies, the process of creating commercials, the importance of focusing on the work, and the value of purpose in marketing.