

Uncensored CMO
Jon Evans
The Uncensored CMO was created to explore the good, the bad and quite frankly downright ugly truth about marketing theory & practice.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 24, 2021 • 58min
Punks, Purpose & Profit - the biggest marketing stories of 2021 - Russell Parsons, Marketing Week
In this episode I talk with editor-in-chief of Marketing Week, Russell Parsons. We talk about our favourite news stories of the year, the Mark Ritson effect and if we should still be putting "digital" in job titles.Russell's Bio:Russell is the award-winning editor of the UK’s most prominent marketing title. He is responsible for leading Marketing Week’s content strategy across several platforms. Russell is also a trusted authority on marketing issues, delivering keynote speeches and hosting and appearing on panels at industry events. He first joined Marketing Week as a reporter in 2009.What we covered in this episode:• How Russell became editor-in-chief of Marketing Week• Making decisions based on effectiveness rather than efficiency• Discovering purpose back in 2011• The Mark Ritson effect on Marketing Week• Why every marketer should claim to be digital first in a job interview• How Unilever put digital transformation in the CMO remit• The importance of putting strategy ahead of digital tactics• Is B2B really that different to B2C• The one question Mark Ritson always gets asked• Why we are all B2B marketers but just don’t realise it• What Peter Field really said about Purpose• The importance of demonstrating business impact• How Direct Line have focussed on their real purpose• The biggest bit of good news for every Marketer• Putting performance into brand and brand into performance• Building the world a better funnel with Tom Roach• Russell’s mission to make Marketing Week as nerdy as possible• If its fundamental and flawed it gets read• Why all models are wrong but some are useful• Fake gold BrewDog cans, ASA bans and employee letters• Why negative BrewDog stories might create a recruitment problem• Russell’s favourite Christmas ad of 2021• The case for Aldi being the quintessential Christmas ad• Predictions for what we will be talking about in 2022

Nov 17, 2021 • 1h 35min
Planet saving Aston Martin’s and Transport for Humans - Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy
Rory's BioRory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioral science practice within the agency. Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Market Leader and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of two books: The Wiki Man, available on Amazon at prices between £1.96 and £2,345.54, depending on whether the algorithm is having a bad day, and Alchemy, The surprising Power of Ideas which don't make Sense, to be published in the UK and US in March 2019. Buy the book, Transport for Humans.What we covered in this episode:What Rory thinks of Orlando’s new bookThe danger of big data, economic theory and the assumption of ergodicityThe strangeness of focus groupsWhy we’re all trying to project the ‘right answer’ in public forumsWhy reading novels makes you more attractive to the opposite sexThe appeal of true live crime to womenWhy we should switch mile per hour to minutes per hourAre we nearly there yet? The behavioural science of transportWhat trains should always leave 2mins lateWhy we all need a season ticket from the Isle of White to go anywhere in first classWhy going first class should be based on length of service rather than statusHow Brexit is good for employee benefitsHow the invention of the tube transformed working class access to jobsHow the breakthrough happens when you’re doing what everyone else isn’t doingLucozade Energy and how the perception of change is worse than the actual changeThe real WHY and the hidden WHOBetter for the reputation to fail conventionally than succeeds unconventionallyThe safe course of action in corporate life is always to be boringly conventionalQuality of reasoning isn’t quality of outcomeWhat every second hand car salesman knowsThe case for making decisions when drunkHow behaviourial science can save the planetNever solve a problem based on the averageWhy we should be able to choose our own contribution to the climate crisisThe climate case for a vintage Aston Martin - known as the Kazzoom-brooks postulateThe case for choosing premium brands over cheap onesWhat you can learn from the 4th man in Wales to own a dishwasherWhy you shouldn’t post a picture of your car in social mediaChanging the currency of status signalling to solve climate crisisRory’s favourite ad campaign of the past 10 yearsThe case for Germany as a tourist destinationWhy VW should have put cup holders in their cars in the USWhat we can learn from the German approach to the environmentWhy we shouldn’t politicise the environment otherwise it creates reputational lossWhy winning an argument and holding attention are not the same thing

Nov 9, 2021 • 2h 5min
How I got fired twice in one year, the Uncensored CMO story - Jon Evans
In this special episode of Uncensored CMO, Jon finds himself on the other side of the mic being interviewed by producer James McKinven, who grills him on some unusual career moves. After a promising start in the City Jon makes a large u-turn and decides to become a marketer instead where he goes on to learn his early craft at Britvic. His next big break came at drinks business First Drinks where he notoriously closed down the London underground after causing a terror threat. After recovering from that he returned to Britvic to launch brands in International markets and from there set up a new team of challenger brands. With the entrepreneurs bug he poured his life savings into a management buy in which didn’t end well. From there he went ‘major league’ as Marketing Director of LRS before being fired. Then landing his dream job Brewdog he only managed 3 months before being fired again. But the story ends well as you find Jon as host of Uncensored CMO and CMO for System1 talking about what makes advertising work. In this episode he shares everything he has learnt in his career and why being fired twice in one year wasn’t the setback you might imagine.What we covered in this episode:What inspired Jon to go into MarketingMaking the giant leap from Business Finance to MarketingGetting a big break launching Fruit Shoot at BritvicHow small conversations can make a big differenceWhy leaving Britvic was the best way to get promoted at BritvicLearning the marketing ropes at First DrinksCausing a terror threat in the London UndergroundAppearing on Have I Got News For YouHow sometimes it pays to go backWhat you discover in International marketingCreating a challenger brand from within the companyBetting his life savings on a Management Buy InWhat you learn when you have nothingLanding a grown up CMO role at Lucozade Ribena SuntoryWorking with a Boxing legend Anthony JoshuaImposter syndrome when going from nothing to £50m budgetsManaging perception vs reality in a large corporation organisationCreating the best performing OOH ad everHow to screw up the Lucozade reformulationGetting fired despite delivering every single KPIJon’s 100 day plan to meet 100 peopleLanding his dream job at BrewDogGetting fired (again) after only 3 monthsThe power of being unreasonableWas James Watt a good CEO to work for?The unexpected source of work after being firedHow Uncensored CMO was bornThe episode that made him cryWhat happens next for Uncensored CMO and how he wants to help you

Oct 25, 2021 • 45min
The power of feeling seen in advertising - Ade Rawcliffe, ITV
Ade joined ITV as Head of Diversity Commissioning in 2017. She was later promoted to Director of Creative Diversity, before taking on the role of Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion and joining the Management Board in 2020. She has responsibility for all diversity and inclusion related matters across the Group, including leading, developing and growing ITV’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy on and off-screen. Prior to joining ITV, Ade spent over 10 years at Channel 4, most recently as Creative Diversity Manager, where she supported and nurtured the careers of diverse creative talent and sought out and commissioned a slate of developments which encouraged diversity, risk-taking and innovation. Ade is currently a Trustee of BAFTA, Chair of BAFTA’s Learning and New Talent Committee, and a Trustee of the National Trust.What we covered in this episode:From making Shirley Bassey’s tea to Director of Diversity & Inclusion at ITVThe excitement of seeing a black person on screen in the 80’sAdvice for how to get into TVBeing inspired by the arrival of Channel 4How Ade created diversity on and off screen at Channel 4Thanks for the warm up – positioning the Paralympics in 2012How Channel 4 led the change throughout the entire industryHow the Paralympic advertising beat the OlympicsThe impact of the pandemic on Diversity & InclusionTalent is equally distributed so cast your net wideHiring the best talent vs the people we are most familiar withYou can’t be what you can’t see and the importance of role models on screenITV’s role is to tell a story for everyoneTelling someone’s story well rather than everyone’s story badlyHow off screen diversity has been transformedLearning about other people’s culture through dramaThe opportunity for more action on social class and disabilityWhy we should stamp out unpaid work experienceTop advice for creative Diversity changeWe are changed when we are seen as we are changed by what we seeProving the commercial case for Diversity in the Feeling Seen reportWhat is good for society is also good for businessNike Toughest Athlete and the power of seeing black pregnant women on TVThe power of the wonderful everyday inspiration from IkeaWhy it will be good when we no longer have to reference a person’s raceThe importance of doing your cultural researchTelling fresh stories can be a brilliant ways to stand outHow the Boots ad makes you feel like real life holidays enjoying yourselfAdvice to Advertisers to be authentically diverse

Oct 19, 2021 • 8min
Mini Episode - 5 Reasons to "Look Out" - Orlando Wood
Here's my mini conversation with Orlando Wood, author of Lemon and Look Out where I ask him about 5 key insights from the new book:why it’s rude to stare and how the fixed gaze took over art and advertising whether you can actually build a brand online the serious case for humour how emotions capture our attention the surprising power of the finer details Listen to my longer conversation with Orlando: https://share.transistor.fm/s/9496c9ddBuy the book: https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/publications-reports/look-out/

Oct 12, 2021 • 1h 2min
Why it’s time to Look Out - Orlando Wood
Orlando Wood is Chief Innovation Officer of System1 Group and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. He is also a member of the IPA’s Effectiveness Leadership Group. Author of Lemon (IPA, 2019), co-author of System1, Unlocking Profitable Growth (2017), his research on advertising effectiveness draws on psychology and a study of the creative arts.Orlando’s work has influenced thinking and practice in the research, marketing, and advertising, winning him awards from the ARF (Great Minds Distinction Award), the AMA (4 under 40), Jay Chiat (Gold Award for Research Innovation), ISBA (Ad Effectiveness Award), MRS (Best Paper and Research Effectiveness Awards) and ESOMAR (Best Methodology).Orlando led the IPA’s Creativity and Effectiveness research for Effectiveness Week in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He has repeatedly worked with Peter Field and the IPA’s DataBank to demonstrate the long and broad effects achieved by emotional advertising, including the performance of fluent devices, a term he coined.Orlando is a frequent conference speaker and has been published in The Journal of Advertising Research, Admap, and Market Leader.What we covered in this episode:Why digital disruption means we need to start ‘looking out’His last book was a Lemon but it did rather wellHow Prof Iain McGilchrist inspired OrlandoWhat history can tell us about what is happening todayHow understanding the brain helps us capture & sustain attentionThe left brain argument for right brain creativityHow our culture lost its vitalityThe separation of writing a book during lockdownOrlando reads his own introduction to the bookIts rude to stare. How the stare has been used throughout historyHow advertising is starting to reflect art from periods of disruption & conflictFake news isn’t new. How the printing press created a publishing revolutionHow the industrial revolution created a loss of communityThe rapid rise of anxiety and the loss of humourThe different modes of attention and why they matterWhy we can’t see the wood for the treesWe watch what interests us and sometimes that’s advertisingHow emotion orientates our attention, encodes in memory & aids decision makingThe role of digital to support brand building ‘broad beam’ advertisingWhy brand building becomes more important for online businessesHow emotion drives more viewing of advertising in digital environmentsThe trap of using digital style ‘narrow beam’ advertising on TVWhat features in advertising holds attention and drives business effectsThe swordfish strangler called Wilford. Why uniqueness creates believability.Yorkshire Tea and creating connectionsPoking fun at rigidity and the serious case for humour What’s too silly to be said can be sungHow colour grading can change our mood and how effective an Ad will beThe pandemic and why we need a right-brained reactionThe story of a dog and cone and the inspiration for this bookLook Out for the book o Amazon and via the IPA’s website

Oct 1, 2021 • 1h 6min
When Brands Stop Advertising - Dr Nicole Hartnett, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
Nicole is an advertising and media researcher with a particular interest in how to design effective advertising content.Her expertise spans advertising measurement, management and decision making, distinctive brand assets, brand performance metrics and consumer behaviour. She has published in international journals including the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and the European Journal of Marketing. Nicole also has extensive experience conducting research projects for the Institute’s sponsors across industries and markets, and regularly presents seminars and workshops on various marketing topics.What we covered in this episode:Why Marketers are not good judges of advertisingMarketing departments are not better than a coin tossIntermediate campaign variables don’t often correlate to salesWhy experience doesn’t make you any better at spotting winnersThe importance of distinctive assetsWhy characters are a dying art formWhy we all need to be a little more ChurchillThe case for not changing the creativeWhat happens when brands stop advertisingAlcohol, babies, pet food & PandemicsWhy scale matters when you go darkHow your trajectory determines how bad going dark will beWhat to do when you manage a portfolio and have to cut spendThe long term consequence of going darkWhy you need a range of distinctive assets to aid memoryThe power of blackcurrants as a Ribena distinctive assetWhy the high turnover of brand managers is bad for effectivenessWhy How Brands Grow is the one book every marketer should haveQuiet behind the scenes discipline is what matters when everything changesThe comfort of familiarity when it comes to memoryBuilding your business around what doesn’t changeAre you measuring what really mattersOrganisations suffer from short term memory and short datasetsLearning from success and failures over a long time seriesWhy the insight department need to start letting goWinning the Boardroom battle with data

Sep 20, 2021 • 1h 3min
The Long and the Short of It - Peter Field
Peter Field has spent 15 years as a strategic planner in advertising and has been a marketing consultant for the last 20 years. His pioneering work on the link between creativity and effectiveness – such as Media in Focus with Les Binet - has earned Peter a global reputation as one of the Godfathers of Effectiveness. What we covered in this episode:How he become ‘Godfather of effectiveness’Getting fired from two agencies The evidence based approach to marketingCreating the IPA database Origin of The Long and Short of It The curse of short term thinking Why brands take time to build The power of emotion to create connections The window in which you measure effectiveness is vital Long term is broad reach emotional creative Why the 60/40 ratio works Why brand building matters even more for DTCThe conflation of physical and mental availability on line The myth of digital replacing brand Convincing the CFO of the role of brand building Why investors really get it Why the ESOV model matters and what it tells us The impact of brand size on ESOVThe challenge facing new entrants and why challenger brand thinking matters How economies of scale benefit market leaders The amplification power of creativity The tidal wave of disposable creativity How award judges are celebrating short term activation Even effectiveness awards lack long term results The dangers of going dark in a recession Why we should be more P&G than CokeWhy it’s time to celebrate consistency The power of strong fluent devicesWhat happens when brands stop advertisingThe one thing we should be talking about which we aren’t The breakdown in the correlation between media spend and share of voice Why we should be measuring share of attention rather than share of voice It’s time to start paying for attentionPeter FieldThe Long and the Short of It

Sep 7, 2021 • 1h 49min
The Case for Creativity & Cannes Lions - James Hurman
Here's the articles before you listen:Read the Campaign articleRead James' articlePart 1 – The Case for Creativity in BusinessGrowing up in a world that didn’t recognise the potential of creativityHow Apple ‘Crazy Ones’ Ad inspired James to pursue AdvertisingJames’ mission to prove the value of CreativityWhy Jon was supposed to have a career as an ActuaryWhat the research tells us about the role of Creativity on your successWhy we should define effectiveness in hard commercial termsEstablishing a universal definition with the Creative Effectiveness LadderWhy understanding your commercial contribution will get you promotedWhy the CMO needs to match the certainty and measurability of their Exec colleaguesHow to sell a Gorilla playing drums to your businessWe overestimate what we can achieve in 1 year and underestimate what we can achieve in 10The surprising impact on light buyers even on large brandsVery few people are buying right now so you must focus on creating future demandThe seduction of short term performance metricsHow the failure rate of start-ups warn us about the danger of rely on short term metrics onlyWhy it takes an average of 7 years to have an ‘over-night success’The importance of using familiarity when launching a new innovationWhy you shouldn’t ditch the old creative if its good Part 2 – The Controversy over CannesHow little time CMO’s actually spend on AdvertisingJon shares the story before his Effie and Cannes Lion winsHow Jon created the name for Uncensored CMO on the beach at CannesSystem1 puts Cannes Lion winners to the testWhy James reacted so strongly to my Campaign articleThe importance of recognising the power of Creativity in AdvertisingHow the emotion being created by Cannes winners has changedThe case for picking a side and standing up for your valuesEffectiveness awards look back whilst Creative awards look forwardWhat the Nike winners tell us about Juries decision makingAldi Kevin the Carrot and the power of consistencyWhether we can judge creative on a first impression onlyThe importance of authenticity when it comes to purposeWisdom of Crowds and how a Nat Rep samples can be a good guide to effectivenessThe power of Excess Creative Share of Voice in addition to standard ESOVHow the opinion of others impacts on our opinion of a brandThe history of Essity’s Bodyform campaign and how agency & client worked togetherPeter Field’s Crisis in Creativity and how we have seen a significant shift to short termismWhat the role of Creative Awards should beWhy we all need to work towards a longer term view and apply creativity to the health of our business

Aug 11, 2021 • 1h 20min
Go Luck Yourself - Andy Nairn, Lucky Generals
Andy Nairn is one of the 3 founders of Lucky Generals, a creative company for people on a mission. It's been shortlisted for Campaign's Agency of the Year for 5 years in a row. In 2021, Campaign named him the top brand strategist in the UK, for the 3rd time in a row. Business Insider has also named him one of the top 5 creative people in world advertising. He's won 24 IPA Effectiveness Awards (including the 2005, 2007 and 2010 Grands Prix) as well as the top 2 planning prizes in the USA (Gold Effie and Gold APGUS). And he's just launched his first book GO LUCK YOURSELF, with all the royalties going to help working class kids get a lucky break into the creative industry. What we covered in this episode:How lockdown led to Andy writing a bookWhy he went from law to advertisingJon’s ‘lucky’ break creating a new businessWhy successful companies use their luck betterGood luck is more how you handle bad luckHow being clear on your purpose helps prepare for bad luckHow Napolean inspired Lucky GeneralsThe importance of a popular idea rather than PowerPoint slidesWhy strategists should make things simple rather than being super intellectualsLucky Lockdown and a socially distanced Teapot from YorkshireHow Lucky General took Yorkshire Tea from No.3 to No.1Lucky timing and how the Coop strategy would have been much cooler in SwedishTrolling Tesco with the Coop’s recycling messagePremier league footballers lacing up in support of the LGBTQ communityLucky dog story and the role of jeopardy in creating a good adMaking the best Super Bowl ad for AmazonWhy the more boring the category the more interesting you becomeHow we lost our history and forgot the power of nostalgiaWhy lucky mascots are unloved marketing goldHow Lucky Generals got everyone to complete their tax returnsHow the navy beat enemy u-boats by using a new paint schemeWhat took Taylors so long to put coffee in bags and how they turned this into an advantageGoing commando for a good cause and the power of a beautiful constraintLucky legacy and the battle of the bread brandsHow they updated the legendary Hovis boy on a bike campaign a won ad of the decade