
Champagne Strategy
Uncovering the secrets behind world-class commercialization strategy for senior executives - garnished with tech & Champagne.
Learn from people who've bridged the strategy gap between planning, execution and measurement. They'll have battle scars to show, skin in the game and money in play. Most aren't famous but there's zero commercial agenda here, so heeding their wisdom is priceless.
Listen to an episode if you dare, but you've been warned. There's no going back.
Keep taking your blue pills - or press play
Latest episodes

Mar 20, 2025 • 47min
Henry Innis - MMM & The Mutintex Growth Story - S5 Ep14
Brain Hurt Scale = 7/10. Henry Innis, founder of MMM platform Mutinex has caused a stir in APAC and more recently overseas. But with media headlines aside, what was the real growth story behind their success? What are the dynamics of the MMM industry and as we both peer into the future of AI, measurement and marketing in general - how should we be preparing for the future? Full episode Season 5, Episode 14 of the Champagne Strategy Show.This could be a bit businessey/technical for non-business owners and those who aren't involved in product or business models, but all the same it should be an interesting north star episode that reveals where we're all heading in the future regardless.

Jan 23, 2025 • 1h 2min
Paz Pisarski - Building High-value Communities - Community Strategy - S5 Ep13
Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10 - Did you know, one of the biggest growth channels tech companies invest in is community? The same goes for companies outside of SaaS as well.
Companies like Sephora and Nike have massive communities of customers that act as the glue for their entire promotional model.
But how do you create them? What are the do's and don'ts we need to be aware of and what tools should we use?
Luckily Paz Pisarski has created countless communities for some of the biggest companies in the world before evolving her model to teach this method to other community managers and interested entrepreneurs.
During a panel discussion at SXSW Sydney in 2024 Paz Pisarski came into our orbit and we just had to have a chat afterwards, So if you want a crash-course in community building this will get you at least 90% of the way there.
You could leverage the network effects and synergy that comes from building a high-value community.
Or
Continue to be a one-trick pony, cross your fingers and publish that next piece of content which everyone says is "going to go viral".
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Paz Pisarski's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paz-pisarski/
Community Collective https://thecommunitycollective.co/

Jan 19, 2025 • 46min
Ken Roberts - Emotions in Advertising - S5 Ep12
Brain Hurt Scale = 3/10 - Do you need your advertising to be emotional in order for it to work? Ken Roberts has spent decades researching this with colleagues and is one of the world's authorities on this topic.
In this wide-ranging interview we separate fact from fiction about everything from brand tracking, to the creative process, market-share drivers, advertising pre-testing vendors, famous marketing personalities and everything else in between.
And Ken doesn't disappoint. Refuting much of the common wisdom and offering contrarian points of view supported by the practical commercially-focused research he's been personally involved with.
Discover which voices you should be listening to and which you probably shouldn't if you're focused on high-value financial outcomes with your marketing expenditure.
Or you could continue listening to the populist narratives of famous commentators.
The choice is yours.
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Links and recommended further reading mentioned in this episode.
Ken Roberts https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-roberts-789b222/
ForeThought - https://www.forethought.com.au/
BrandComms - https://www.brandcomms.ai/
Bendigo Better Bank TVC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx0UkhlcJCM
Kmart Australia 1000 Mum's TVC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnHg_RcsWck
Brand Health Tracking Course - https://app.vexpower.com/sim/how-to-measure-and-track-brand-accurately-without-a-vendor-filtered-lens/
The Folly of the ‘The Long and the Short of It’ https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/the-folly-of-the-the-long-and-the-short-of-it
Emotion: the Mandatory of Marketing – Part One: Behavior https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/emotion-the-mandatory-of-marketing-8211-part-one-behavior
Emotion: the Mandatory of Marketing – Part Two: Measurement https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/emotion-the-mandatory-of-marketing-8211-part-two-measurement
Emotion: the Mandatory of Marketing Part Three: Application https://www.greenbook.org/insights/gain-retain/emotion-the-mandatory-of-marketing-part-three-application

Nov 17, 2024 • 53min
Scott Thomas - Hybrid and crowdsourced creative production - S5 Ep11
Brain Hurt Scale = 2/10. Dealing with creative fills up a good chunk of any marketing department's time. But do you really have a binary choice between in-house vs agency? Or is there a better way?
We interview co-founder of Creatively Squared, Scott Thomas to talk about the awkward creative production transition many companies are faced with. From one where a high-priced TVC sits at the core of the campaign. To the modern reality that embraces media fragmentation and takes advantage at scale.
If you don't learn something, you haven't been listening.

8 snips
Aug 8, 2024 • 29min
Sam Redfern - Canva's shift from digital attribution to world-class model - Part 3
Sam Redfern, a key innovator at Canva, shares insights on transforming marketing measurement. He delves into the shift from traditional digital attribution to advanced multi-touch models, emphasizing team collaboration. The discussion covers navigating complexities in evaluating ad performance and the principal-agent problem in market investments. Redfern also highlights Canva's implementation of marketing mix modeling, pointing out the challenges of data quality and the need for continuous model adjustments in today's evolving landscape. Practical tips for all business sizes are included!

7 snips
Jul 21, 2024 • 38min
Daniel McCarthy & Brett Hollenbeck - Digital Marketing Apocalypse - Part 2
Daniel McCarthy, an expert in digital marketing analytics, teams up with Brett Hollenbeck, a researcher of online retail trends, to dive deep into the seismic shifts in digital marketing. They unpack a pivotal study revealing skyrocketing marketing costs and decreasing customer acquisition yields. The duo explores the ramifications of Apple’s privacy policies and iOS 14's App Tracking Transparency, discussing how these changes disrupt advertising strategies and create hidden challenges for small businesses. It's a must-listen for anyone navigating this new marketing landscape!

14 snips
Jul 17, 2024 • 45min
Keaton Garnet - Digital Marketing Apocalypse - Part 1
Keaton Garnet, an expert in digital marketing, dives deep into the evolving landscape of online privacy. He discusses Apple's recent shifts towards user privacy and the global legislative push for data protection. The conversation covers the history of analytics, the cookie dilemma, and the decline of mobile app success stories. Keaton explores challenges posed by privacy laws on digital marketing strategies, the shift towards contextual targeting, and innovative solutions to ensure advertising relevancy. A thought-provoking look at a industry's future in a privacy-conscious world!

Jun 17, 2024 • 1h 15min
Mike Taylor - A crash course in AI - S5 Ep7
Brain Hurt Scale = 5/10. Want a crash course in AI without the sale pitch? Listen to people who have actually used it for years without the buzzword consulting BS getting in the way.
Listen to this episode and get the perfect grounding in what you need to know. The terms you need to know. The history you need to understand in order to be confident talking about it even if you haven't used it very much.
How did it start?
Where did this new wave come from?
What's an LLM?
What's a diffusion model?
What are the different brands?
Is it better than a human?
How do you prompt it properly to get results that are actually useful?
All these questions answered and more.
This summary was even written by AI

May 19, 2024 • 53min
Mike Harris - The politics of growth #1 - Turnarounds, hugs and chugs - S5 Ep6
Brain Hurt Scale - 2/10 - The first of a world-wide mini-series exposing true life stories behind the number 1 impediment to workplace success - politics.
Mike Harris is an accomplished former executive and consultant with deep personal skills in consulting, sales, marketing, operations and product.
He gives us three examples from a storied career. The first of which is 30mins about a successful turnaround at Phillips.
On the surface all three stories are about political conflict and resolution. But also cover common constraints you'll frequently encounter in the workplace: interdepartmental cooperation, incentive dynamics, culture, capability, alignment and executive communication.
But they're also just great examples of basic strategy hygiene: diagnosis, problem identification, objectives and action. A skill Mike says has been lost in the face of a few modern trends that are getting in the way. Even though his first story is from the 90's, the takeaways are perhaps even more relevant today than they've ever been.
So no matter what sized business or what position you're in, I'd be very surprised if you don't learn something very valuable by listening to this series of wisdom-laden episodes.
Especially if you want to know how to deal with people to get what you need done
Let the games begin!

Apr 7, 2024 • 1h 4min
Brett Friedman - Applied creative strategy in an AI world - S5 Ep5
Brain Hurt Scale = 4/10. Why does ChatGPT provide me with terrible responses. Why does DALL-E give me an image that's terrible?
Learning how to brief creatives is an art form. After all, their job is to create artwork so this probably shouldn't come as a surprise. But if you've never created something yourself, you'll be oblivious as to how it all goes down.
That mismatched perspective can all be fixed by listening to this episode where Brett Friedman goes through start-to-finish the entire process that goes on behind closed doors when you hire an agency.
So if you want to be left to your own devices fumbling around using Canva or Photoshop or dealing with Upwork freelancers that's fine.
Or if you're an AI creative guru who is adept at prompting the most sophisticated technology on the planet but can't get something back you like...
This is the episode you need to listen to.
Now
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