In this episode, we're going to be talking about Compound Creativity, a new report by System1 in partnership with the IPA showing how being consistent with your creative compounds over time. I'm speaking with the author of the report, Andrew Tindall, who explains the core facets of the report and shares some fascinating statistics on the impact of creative consistency.

And in a double bill, I'm also joined also joined by Dom Dwight, from Yorkshire Tea, and Vickie Ridley, from their partner agency Lucky Generals. Yorkshire Tea have been putting the principles of compound creativity to practice over many years and have been hugely successful as a result. So not only are we talking about the data, we're also talking about the practice.

Download the Compound Creativity report here.

Part 1  with Andrew Tindall

00:00 - Intro
00:58 - Launching the Compound Creativity report
01:35 - Coming up with the right name for Compound Creativity
02:52 - The building blocks of consistency
05:13 - The value of being consistent
08:04 - How compounding helps wear in
09:25 - Power of fluent devices
12:14 - Collaborating with the IPA for the business effects data
15:00 - Don’t fire your agency
16:39 - The 5 most consistent brands

Part 2 with Dom Dwight and Vickie Ridley of Yorkshire Tea

18:29 - Intro to Lucky Generals and Yorkshire Tea
19:25 - Dom Dwight’s history with Yorkshire Tea
22:28 - Where did the “doing things proper” idea originate
25:31 - Narrowing 17 ideas down to 3
26:19 - How to use celebrities well in advertising
29:57 - Yorkshire Tea Ad with Sean Bean
32:06 - Yorkshire Tea Ad with Kaiser Chiefs
38:03 - How does the campaign work across channels
42:24 - Key to a successful client agency relationship
48:37 - The results of Yorkshire Tea’s compounding creativity
52:56 - Advice to clients to get the most out of their agency

Mark Ritson is back on the podcast for a review of the most read stories this year. We debate if Liquid Death is more than just water in a can, why Nike’s focus on DTC was a mistake and what we can all learn from KitKat’s perfect positioning. Recorded in a pub in London, expect some uncensored opinions from everyone’s favourite marketing professor.

00:00 - Start
05:40 - Mark #5: Brand purpose doesn’t need a commercial excuse
14:13 - Jon #5: Liquid death article
21:15 - Mark #4: There's no such thing as performance branding
25:47 - Jon #4: Nike Winning isn’t for everybody
29:07 - Mark #3: KitKat's perfect positioning
34:33 - Jon #3: Compounding interest, relationships and creativity
39:55 - Mark #2: Why Liquid Death are running into trouble
45:42 - Jon #2: Outrage is the new s*x in marketing
48:32 - Ritson #1: Nike’s biggest mistake
52:44 - Jon #1: Airbnb’s focus on brand

Chris Baker is an award-winning advertising and social change strategist turned entrepreneur. He is the Founder & CEO of Serious Tissues, a toilet roll brand that fights climate change and deforestation by planting trees with every sale. Over 1.2m trees have been planted in just three years. He is also the Co-Founder of Change Please, a coffee brand that has helped hundreds of homeless people off the streets by training them as baristas, and is available in 23 countries. Change Please was named the World’s Leading Social Enterprise in 2018 and in Marketing Week’s 100 Most Disruptive Brands in the World. He has spent 20 years working on the world’s biggest brands including Unilever, Pepsico, Boots, Sky and Alpro whilst winning over 100 strategic and creative awards along the way.

Find out more about Chris' book, Obsolete, here:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/obsolete-9781399416658/

00:00 - Intro
02:09 - The premise of his book
04:27 - Why Chris called the book Obsolete
06:41 - Making positive change with small businesses
18:32 - Being inspired by change brands
21:53 - How to win against established brands
27:03 - The advantages of purpose
29:31 - How Chris started Change Please
32:48 - Measuring the impact of Change Please
36:28 - How change brands can be distinctive
40:14 - Why Tony’s Chocolonely are making an impact
42:06 - Putting change ahead of profits
47:06 - Applying a change mindset to other industries
49:37 - Making an impact commercially and with purpose
52:55 - How Serious Tissues started
55:53 - The power of partnerships
57:49 - Chris’ biggest takeaway from writing Obsolete

Elfried Samba is CEO of Butterfly 3ffect. Samba immigrated from D.R. Congo to the UK at age 14 before rising to prominence in the Social media space through his work at global fitness brand, Gymshark.

Timestamps

• 00:00:00 - Intro
• 00:00:52 - Why Elfried Samba wears a hat
• 00:03:49 - Elfried’s dissertation on social media
• 00:10:23 - The skills most in demand in 2024
• 00:12:36 - Elfried’s early work at Gymshark
• 00:21:11 - The challenges of scaling up
• 00:26:23 - Elfried’s approach to personal growth
• 00:36:01 - How Elfried approaches finding talented people
• 00:41:59 - Why Elfried left Gymshark
• 00:49:26 - Scaling through influencers and community
• 01:00:52 - Power of personal brands

Mark Ritson is back and has convinced me to record in a pub, talking about the top 10 beer ads of all time (while drinking beer) - what could go wrong? We break down some classic ads from Heineken & Stella, Super Bowl hits from Michelob & Sam Adams and round off drinking Britain's favourite pint.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:27 - The idea for the beer podcast
• 04:16 - Ad 10: Budweiser
• 08:24 - Ad 9: Budweiser
• 10:43 - Ad 8: Heineken
• 13:56 - Ad 7: Stella Artois
• 18:30 - Ad 6: Corona
• 21:46 - Ad 5: Michelob Ultra
• 25:17 - Ad 4: Carlsberg
• 29:10 - Ad 3: Sam Adams
• 36:36 - Ad 2: Guinness
• 46:05 - Ad 1: Heineken

Top 10 Ranking (with System1 Test Your Ad Report)

1. HEINEKEN DANIEL CRAIG VS JAMES BOND (5.6)
2. GUINNESS IN THIS TOGETHER (5.3)
3. BOSTON BEER SAM ADAMS YOUR COUSIN FROM BOSTON (4.9)
4. CARLSBERG THE SEAL (4.9)
5. MICHELOB ULTRA MESSI SUPERBOWL AD (4.8)
6. CORONA TINY UMBRELLAS (4.8)
7. STELLA ARTOIS REASSURINGLY EXPENSIVE (4.6)
8. HEINEKEN WATER IN MAJORCA (4.5)
9. BUDWEISER WHASSUP (4.3)
10. BUDWEISER OLD SCHOOL DELIVERY (4.2)

Kerris Bright is the Chief Customer Officer at the BBC. She was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media.

She is a highly experienced leader, bringing a customer-centred, data driven approach to setting marketing strategy and executing with creative flair. Before Virgin, she held senior marketing positions at British Airways, ICI Paints and Unilever. While at British Airways, she spearheaded the development of ‘To Fly: To Serve’, a new purpose for the organisation and a multi-platform campaign and at ICI Paints she transformed the company from a ‘multi-local’ to global brand building organisation. After gaining a PhD in molecular neuroscience from the University of Sussex, she began her career in marketing as a graduate trainee at Unilever.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:26 - Why Kerris has a PHD in molecular neuroscience
00:04:04 - Getting marketing training at Unilever
00:09:56 - From Unilever to joining Dulux in crisis
00:18:33 - How marketers can work closely with commercial teams
00:22:12 - Purpose led campaigns
00:31:36 - Lessons from Kerris’ time in Private Equity
00:42:06 - From British Airways to Virgin
00:48:42 - Kerris’ role at the BBC
00:58:32 - The power of the BBC’s editorial independence
01:01:05 - Marketing the BBC
01:05:20 - How the BBC makes engaging content
01:08:13 - Kerris’ advice to aspiring marketers

The NFL is one of the biggest sporting entities in the world and it's reaching the biggest audiences it ever has. So in this episode, I'm joined by their CMO Tim Ellis, and Glenn Cole, co-founder of 72andSunny, their agency partner. We talk about the secrets behind a successful 7 year agency-client relationship, how to consistently make groundbreaking, emotional work, and what it takes to create a leading Super Bowl campaign.

Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Tim Ellis career journey
01:51 - How Tim met Glenn from 72andSunny
04:20 - Secret to a successful client agency relationship
08:21 - The compounding effect of a long term agency relationship
11:51 - Helmets off strategy
15:09 - You can’t make this stuff up campaign
17:40 - This is Football Country campaign
24:41 - Growing the audience for the NFL
27:22 - The Taylor Swift effect
34:32 - The growth of flag Football
39:30 - Growing the sport internationally
42:35 - How to make a great Super Bowl ad
49:07 - The power of emotion in advertising

In this episode, we're talking about one of my favourite subjects; innovation. And who better to talk about it with than Mauro Porcini, who's the Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo, who is also the author of “The Human Side of Innovation”. We talk about what it takes to make innovation that succeeds, and importantly, what characteristics of people can make innovation that works, (and he really knows, because if you've read the book, there are 24 characteristics that he talks about that are essential).

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro
00:56 - The office of Pepsi’s Chief Design Officer
02:56 - How Mauro got into design
07:01 - Why you need to focus on people when innovating
16:29 - Why so many innovations fail
23:17 - Hiring the right people to foster innovation
25:42 - Key characteristics of successful innovators
33:50 - How to inspire kindness, optimism and curiosity
40:27 - Finding the balance in character traits
47:58 - The ideal recipe for innovation
51:26 - How to cultivate happiness at work
55:10 - Fighting the dictatorship of normal
57:00 - Pepsi Rebrand

Today I'm speaking with one of the most awarded creatives on the planet, David Droga, founder of iconic agency Droga5, and now CEO of Accenture Song, one of the largest creative groups in the world. Described by David himself as "therapy", this conversation spans topics from his start as life as a copywriter, how he created some of the most creative work on the planet and what it's like to transition from a creative to a CEO.

00:00 - Intro
01:58 - How David Droga got into advertising
07:36 - Working at Saatchi and Saatchi Singapore
12:19 - Pushing boundaries and making yourself uncomfortable
14:29 - Moving to Saatchi London
20:32 - Why David Droga started Droga5
25:55 - Droga5’s first campaign for Marc Ecko
31:23 - The first idea Droga5 presented: GE Olympics Campaign
38:30 - Droga’s Unicef campaign
43:25 - Droga’s Newcastle Brown Ale work
46:25 - Huggies Super Bowl Ad
48:44 - The Coinbase QR Code Super Bowl ad
52:22 - Characteristics of the best CMO’s Droga has worked with
56:23 - What it’s like being CEO of Accenture Song

In this episode, Antonia Wade, CMO of PwC, turns the tables and interviews our usual host, Jon Evans. From tax intern to marketing podcast host, we delve into Jon's journey through entrepreneurial endeavours at Britvic, through to being fired at Lucozade to finding a successful role in B2B at System1. We also discuss lessons Jon has learned from 150 podcast episodes with CMO's, agency creatives, founders and more.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:43 - Jon’s journey from tax to marketing
• 10:18 - Deciding if you’re more suited to corporate or entrepreneurial life
• 12:35 - Why Jon got fired at Lucozade
• 17:15 - Traits of a confident CMO
• 18:35 - How do you go from tax to research?
• 25:21 - Why Jon chose Richard Shotton as his first guest
• 27:10 - Lesson’s we can take from COVID times
• 30:20 - What makes a great CMO
• 36:49 - Do emotional ads really work?
• 39:44 - Favourite campaign that didn’t perform well with System1
• 41:19 - Is winning a Cannes Lion worth it or not?
• 44:42 - How important is purpose in advertising?
• 48:37 - Is AI the saviour of creativity?
• 52:35 - What has Jon learned about leadership from Uncensored CMO guests?
• 56:25 - Who would Jon love to have on the podcast?
• 57:34 - Happy 50th Birthday Jon!

Welcome to the 150th edition of the Uncensored CMO podcast. To celebrate, I'm joined by Orlando Wood, my colleague at System1 and author of Lemon and Look Out, with the legend that is Sir John Hegarty, iconic founder of BBH. Today we're talking about why they believe a creative revolution is necessary for the industry and why they are collaborating on a new course "Advertising Principles Explained" as the antidote.

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:22 - Have Oasis created the most effective ad of all time?
00:16:13 - What can we learn from the history of advertising?
00:22:43 - The advertising landscape when John started BBH
00:28:04 - The next creative revolution - Advertising Principles Explained
00:32:32 - The scientific evidence for emotional advertising
00:38:38 - Who is doing the best, most effective advertising today?
00:41:58 - BBH work with Lynx / Axe
00:44:55 - Why we need more humour in advertising
00:49:32 - Advice to CMOs for selling in this approach
00:51:44 - When does Advertising Principles Explained launch?
00:54:42 - Campaigns that didn’t go well for Sir John Hegarty
00:57:11 - What role do planners have in the success of the creative
00:57:33 - How did they sell in flat Eric to Levi’s
00:58:34 - How to challenge clients to think differently
00:59:13 - What emerging trends will shape the future of advertising
01:00:05 - What skills will the CMO of the future need?
01:02:58 - What trend needs breaking today?