The Changemakers

In this episode of The Changemakers, which was recorded as part of our virtual summit Bring Your Own Bold, Dave Corlett sits down with Scott Smith, Creative Director at Intercom, to dive deep into a critical question for B2B scale-ups: How do you build and scale a brand identity that’s truly bold?Scott, a champion of exceptional creative vision, unpacks the secrets behind Intercom's award-winning identity.Together they unpack:How the Creative Studio operates as an in-house agency, starting every project by asking: How can we execute this in the most exceptional creative way possible?The system for scaling a complex brand identity across all touchpoints, using the "brand matrix" to push the boundaries creatively while still ensuring a through-line.The importance of leading by example in a creative studio and how Scott fosters a culture of high engagement and serious, fun work.How Intercom’s C-suite acts as a creative partner, riffing with the team to shape a vision where the final creative work is often stronger than the initial idea.This conversation is full of tips for any marketing or creative leader ready to embrace a philosophy of constant change and craft a sophisticated brand that stands out from the crowd.Listen now 🎧Timestamps02:03: Brand is a galaxy, the antithesis of a brand-in-a-box.03:36: Brand idea: Customer service changes everything. Change is key.05:25: How to execute in the most exceptional creative way possible.06:38: The "super bloom" creative concept for the Pioneer event.12:28: Scaling the complex brand using the strategic "Brand Matrix."12:56: Ace the Basics: The fallback brand skeleton when moving fast.17:15: The best job part: Team creative is stronger than initial vision.21:30: Creative leadership tenants: Early is on time, lead by example.23:13: Creative team is the example for company operations, not the exception.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In this episode of The Changemakers, which was recorded as part of our virtual summit Bring Your Own Bold, Dave Corlett, Business Director at Shaped By sits down with Alex Walters from Papaya Global to tackle the "super meaty topic" of humanising B2B brands. Together they unpack:Why Alex believes 90% of the B2B world is failing to crack the human element, defaulting to "grey" because of a primal fear of people not liking their tone.The insidious "herd mentality" that causes B2B brands to blend and converge around safe, jargon-filled design and copy.The biggest internal challenge of brand building: winning hearts and minds by getting people to view their brand from the perspective of an outsider.The strategic reason for B2B FinTech to invest in a Super Bowl ad—and how they created a secondary content layer that generated 250 pieces of Tier 1 media coverage.This is a very insightful conversation for any marketing or creative leader who is ready to make a difference with their brand.🎧 Listen nowTimestamps:00:34 - The primal fear and why 90% of the industry defaults to 'grey.'03:17 - The herd mentality and B2B brands blending in.05:19 - Papaya Global's story: How they became a globally recognised brand.06:41 - Owning the narrative: Why the tagline is "How the world gets paid."07:25 - The biggest internal battle: Winning hearts and minds inside the business.08:35 - The "Air" thought exercise: Helping people see the brand as an outsider.09:59 - The sliding scale of humanity: Humour fades closer to the customer.11:41 - The strategic reason for a Super Bowl ad (and why a B2B FinTech did it).13:41 - The PR angle: Generating 250 pieces of coverage because the ad became the story.16:32 - The viral AI activation: Allowing users to put their face in the ad.18:24 - Balancing emotional connection with rational confidence for multi-million dollar decisions.21:48 - Alex's first pure B2B SaaS role: The challenges of scale, speed, and complexity.23:14 - The job of a creative: Understanding the product at a deep level to communicate its value.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In this episode of The Changemakers, Dave Corlett, Business Director at Shaped By, sits down with Joseph Steele, Lead Brand Strategist at Celonis, to dive deep into brand, technology, and "anarchistic accelerationism".How does a company like Celonis, which was already pioneering AI technology long before it went mainstream, adapt its brand positioning without getting lost in the "now with AI" enterprise noise? As well as tackling that thorny question, Dave and Joseph go deep into what makes Joseph so positive about the world of AI, why he thinks it's a great leveller of technology, and how internal creative teams can carve out space for their own 'Manhattan project'.Joseph also shares a surprisingly profound naval history analogy to show where we are in the current evolution of AI.This episode is a compelling, original conversation for anyone in the enterprise technology space looking to balance deep-seated brand consistency with rapid technological change.🎧 Listen nowTimestamps00:00 - Meet Joseph: Intro to Joseph Steele, Lead Brand Strategist at Celonis.01:22 - From Midlands to Munich: Joseph’s journey from Burton on Trent to the German tech scene.02:25 - Start with Why: How art school taught him to question everything (and apply it to business).04:19 - Celonis in a Nutshell: Unlocking the value trapped in enterprise processes.07:25 - The Optimist's Edge: Why Joseph is an "anarchistic accelerationist" on AI.09:16 - Revolutionary Learning: How tools like ChatGPT are a "good leveler" of expertise.12:14 - Allergic to Governance: Why AI is a chance to pursue a flatter, more democratic system.15:58 - Surviving the Hype Wave: Celonis's strategy to talk about AI without becoming "Celonis.ai".19:15 - The Punk Aesthetic: Why a $13 billion B2B company needs a gritty, unique visual identity.24:57 - Dare to be Different: The Celonis ethos: be 10x better or completely different.25:38 - Skepticism & Trust: Why a change-maker customer base trusts AI, despite failed pilot reports.28:23 - Legal Blockers: Why internal processes—not technology—are killing creative AI adoption.30:37 - The Manhattan Project: Why every creative team needs a secure space to mess around with AI.34:17 - Embracing Inevitability: Why trying to stop AI image-making is absurd.36:43 - The Dreadnought Analogy: Naval history explains exactly where we are in the AI revolution.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In this episode of The Changemakers, which was recorded as part of our virtual summit Bring Your Own Bold, Dave Corlett sat down with Adam Morgan to explore why it’s important to have creatives at the board table and unpack:Why the experience era demands right-brain thinkers in leadership.The difference between a growth marketing and a brand marketing mindset in a downturn.The 'glass ceiling' for creatives and why many creatives "shoot themselves in the foot" by not learning business strategy.How the "design-led movement" opened the door for Chief Design Officers—but why that's not enough.Don't miss this one. It's a non-negotiable conversation if you're looking to elevate your creative impact and make the case for creative leadership in your business.🎧 Listen nowTimestamps00:00 - Introduction: Meet Adam Morgan and the case for creative leadership.01:02 - Why the Experience Era demands creative leaders on the board.01:43 - Why creative people are best poised to understand customers and emotional connections.05:42 - The counter argument: Why most companies don't take this approach.06:11 - The CMO challenge: Performance marketing focus vs. creative understanding.08:35 - The 'glass ceiling' and why creatives aren't stepping up to C-level roles.11:56 - Is creativity seen as 'fluffy'? The cultural problem of 'squeeze, squeeze, squeeze' operational efficiency.13:58 - Design vs. Creativity: The impact of the design-led movement.15:48 - The Chief Experience Officer: Why they are the master problem solvers.17:43 - Building the creative leadership movement: The importance of seeing yourself up there.21:25 - The search for B2B companies with a Chief Creative or Experience Officer.23:17 - Closing remarks: Start the movement!Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In this episode of The Changemakers, which was recorded as part of our virtual summit Bring Your Own Bold, we dive deep into the forces that truly drive customer decisions with Richard Shotton, author of the influential book The Choice Factory.Richard's work is celebrated for taking the academic, jargon-filled world of behavioral science and making it usable and applicable for marketers. We wanted to get him on to bust the myth that these principles are purely a consumer thing. Spoiler: They're not. B2B professionals are just as influenced by biases as B2C customers.We go beyond surface-level concepts like social proof and scarcity to unpack the EAST framework—a simple, powerful structure (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely) for applying behavioral science daily.Richard shares incredible real-world examples that challenge what you think you know about your customer journey.This episode is packed with practical, costless principles you can apply to stack the odds in your favour and drive behavior change.🎧 Listen nowSend us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

Too often, creative and marketing teams are seen as executors instead of innovators. This conversation between Phil Lewis (Consultant & Speaker) and Dave Corlett (Business Director at Shaped By), which was recorded as part of our virtual summit Bring Your Own Bold, offers practical tips to shift that dynamic by removing internal barriers that block progress, cloud clarity, and weaken conviction. Learn how to position your team as a trusted, strategic force that drives impact, influences decision-making, and earns a seat at the table.🎧 Listen nowTimestamps:00:00 – Introduction: Moving teams from order-takers to strategic partners.03:10 – Why internal dynamics shape external perception.04:40 – The Five Steps to Team Vitality framework.06:00 – Breaking down comprehension, confidence, and engagement.08:30 – Common team pitfalls and the bias for action.11:00 – Measuring progress and maintaining team health.14:00 – Endurance and the emotional labor of leadership.16:40 – Collaboration as the heart of strategic partnership.18:40 – Healthy conflict: Why disagreement fuels innovation.23:00 – The Regeneration Equation: Context, communication, conflict.24:50 – The power of uncomfortable conversations.27:00 – Understanding context to amplify collaboration.31:30 – Scaling collaboration across departments.34:20 – Case study: 800% improvement through honest dialogue.38:00 – How long real transformation takes.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

How do you embrace the AI revolution without losing the human touch?Shaped By CEO and Founder Nick Farrar and Business Director Dave Corlett dive into our deliberate and "people-first" journey with artificial intelligence. They share insights from their own AI Manifesto and discuss how AI is being used to improve everything from client research to internal processes.In this episode, you'll discover:How to boost efficiency and accuracy with tools like Gemini and Fireflies.The critical role of a human-led approach in navigating this new landscape.Why the future of creativity is about augmenting human imagination, not replacing it.Lessons from the past, from the dot-com boom to the present-day AI shift.Timestamps:00:00 – Dave introduces the episode and welcomes Nick Farrah, CEO & Founder of Shaped By, to discuss AI progress at the agency.02:00 – Nick reflects on where Shaped By is on its AI journey and compares it to the digital revolution.05:00 – Nick outlines Shaped By’s AI Manifesto and the creation of the AI Leadership Team.09:00 – Dave explains how the agency is improving efficiency with AI tools like Fireflies and Gemini.12:00 – Nick discusses AI’s role in refining team structures and the importance of human oversight.16:00 – Nick critiques low-effort AI content and shares how Shaped By uses AI to enhance creativity and quality.21:00 – Dave and Nick close by exploring collaboration with clients, the “mindful journey” of AI adoption, and the enduring power of human creativity.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In this engaging conversation, David Moulton, Senior Director at Palo Alto Networks, reveals the power of emotive storytelling in B2B marketing. He discusses the common pitfalls of rational messaging, urging marketers to connect with the human side of buyers. David shares insights on transforming fear in cybersecurity narratives into messages of empowerment. He emphasizes the balance between creativity and credibility and highlights storytelling as a competitive advantage in business, ultimately unlocking permission to sell more effectively.

In this bite-sized episode of the Changemakers Podcast, Dave Corlett and Alex Waite lift the lid on what’s coming up at Bring Your Own Bold 2025 — the virtual event for bold brand and marketing leaders in B2B tech.They reveal this year’s new 3-day format, fresh content drops, and their personal picks from the upcoming sessions — from building emotional brand connections to measuring brand impact and scaling design systems.Whether you’ve joined before or this is your first BYOB, this episode will get you fired up for what’s to come.Timestamps:00:00 – Intro & what is Bring Your Own Bold?02:35 – What’s new for 202505:45 – Alex’s top session: Brand data vs. intuition08:40 – Dave’s top session: Brand + Product alignment13:10 – Scott Smith (Intercom) on scalable identity14:10 – Human emotion in B2B: Alex Walters (Papaya Global)18:40 – Richard Shotton on buyer behaviour & decision-making20:50 – The Art of Unplugging – creative wellbeing26:30 – How to register + final thoughtsSend us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️

In the Changemakers, we try to cover the broad subject of creativity in B2B from as many angles as possible, and we’ve covered quite a few so far. But one thing we haven't dived into too much until today is the brand measurement and tracking side of things. Emelia is the Founder of Pebble Strategy and has a wealth of experience in all things B2B brand planning, market research and particularly brand tracking. We chat to her about some of the do's and don'ts in this area. We discuss things businesses in their early stages or niche businesses should be aware of, especially those who struggle to measure the impact of their brand in their market. So we talk about different tactics and approaches to brand tracking that can help businesses perform better.Towards the end, our strategy director, Alex Waite, shares his perspective on how to take all that amazing brand tracking data and turn it into something tangible and actionable to drive your business forward.Don’t miss out, this is a really good episode, full of insightful nuggets! Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction: Meet Emelia Rallapalli, brand measurement expert.05:10 - Why B2B leaders should think of brand as behaviour.11:15 - The importance of brand tracking for marketers.15:40 - Key brand metrics to track: Awareness, consideration, preference, and usage.19:00 - The value of qualitative customer research for emerging companies.25:00 - Making the case for brand building to leadership: Share of voice vs. share of market.29:00 - Educating CEOs and CFOs about marketing science.37:25 - The power of creativity in B2B.42:00 - Dave and Alex intro 43:00 - How to use brand tracking to see if your strategy is working.50:45 - Category entry points and brand tracking.56:45 - Closing remarks and a preview of BYOB, Shaped By's virtual summit.Send us a message if you enjoyed this episodeIf you enjoy the chats then there are more ways to quench your thirst for creative inspiration in the world of B2B tech. 👉 Watch episodes on YouTube👉 Follow us on LinkedIn for regular snippets in your feed 👉 Visit our website for more in-depth thinking on topics👉 Subscribe to Beyond our monthly collection of insight, opinion and inspirationAnd finally please rate our podcast on Apple if you enjoyed it!✌️