Episode #131. Today’s episode is a personal understanding topic on finding your ideal role; looking beyond the job title for a role that plays to your strengths and values and is fulfilling for you. 

Joining Abby to discuss ideal roles and shining a light on hiring practices in the marketing is profession is Lauren Spearman. Lauren is a seasoned marketing professional with over 17 years of experience with brands such as Sky, Benefit Cosmetics and MADE.com. Now thriving as a freelance Brand Consultant, Lauren uses her growing platform on TikTok to champion pay transparency and improved recruitment practices in the marketing industry through her candid insights and advocacy efforts. 

In this episode, Lauren shares her definition of an ideal role, green and red flags hiring practices, salary transparency, interview tasks, advice for hiring managers, giving and receiving feedback when job searching. Plus career highs and lows. 

Download your free workbook on how to find your ideal role here Resources and free support - The Whole Marketer 

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Lauren Spearman | LinkedIn

This episode is sponsored by House of Performance 

Need to up your game in PPC, Paid Social or Display? 

House of Performance are a team of passionate marketeers growing ambitious brands through paid media. 

For a free mini audit, get in touch with the team at https://houseofperformance.co.uk/wholemarketer 

News and events: 

The Marketing Society Global Conference: Changemakers Impact. November 13th in Central London  

Hear from visionary speakers, gain cutting-edge insights, and connect with fellow changemakers who are reshaping our industry and society.  

Tickets are limited, so secure your place now. Book your ticket here and prepare to ignite your potential.  

The Marketing Society Global Conference: where ideas spark, connections form, and impact begins. See you in London! 

This episode, the fifth in our series on entrepreneurial thinking, and how it can benefit a brand of any size, is about ‘no preconceptions’ or in the words of our guest, Nick Saltarelli- founder of hit Canadian chocolate brand Mid-Day Squares, ‘No one in history has ever done anything great by following how it’s always been done’ 

It’s a fascinating conversation, as Nick talks about entrepreneurship, disrupting a category, lifting the curtain and sharing EVERYTHING and how they ‘act like a band instead of a brand’ to build true brand fans.

Our host - The Marketing Society Member Ruth Fittock

Ruth has almost 20 years experience building brands- from start-up to scale up, launch to acquisition. She’s helped U.S brands (vitaminwater, popchips) launch and scale in the UK and grown brands from scratch here too (Simply Roasted Crisps). Ruth has recently started a new consultancy- Tomorrow Brands, to help the purpose-driven global brands of tomorrow launch in the UK.

Our guest - Nick Saltarelli- founder of hit Canadian chocolate brand Mid-Day Squares,

Nick is an entrepreneur driven by the belief that every company should try to take an unaverage path, a vision that led him to co-found Mid-Day Squares with his wife, Lezlie and brother in-law Jake. Together, they’re redefining the chocolate industry by blending manufacturing innovation with bold, authentic branding. Nick’s mission is simple: marry art and data to build an iconic, rule-breaking brand. Period.

You can read the key takeaways on this think piece too

---

Find out about the latest The Marketing Society events here and if you're not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Find out about how to join here.

“There's something like 7.5 million data centers around the world now, and most of them are still powered by coal and gas. One of the easiest things you can do is move your hosting.”

Welcome back to the second part in our mini-series on ‘greening your marketing activities’ and this episode we explored smarter, greener websites with Sepas Seraj, Founder of Pixeled Eggs.

With the amount of activity that takes place online today purpose-driven digital is a must, and it’s not difficult, in fact, it’s super efficient, usable and can dramatically improve your organisations’ performance - (giving it a ‘digital edge’ as Sepas refers to it) - whilst simultaneously supporting your sustainability agendas now and into the future. 

There is a staggering amount of waste when it comes to websites and many of them are woefully inefficient, yet we can start to make changes immediately, improving performance and reducing negative impact. Sepas shares tools, resources and practical advice in abundance, we can’t recommend this episode enough.

Join us on this episode as we talk to Sepas about:

• The impact of digital
• Understanding the opportunities to optimise your website
• Green hosting, videos, images, page weights and variable fonts
• Ways you can make your website greener, more efficient and improve its performance
• The need for more conversations between design teams, developers, Marketers and sustainability teams
• Sustainability driving improved performance time and time again
• Best practice, tools and resources

For more information about Pixeled Eggs - visit https://www.pixeledeggs.com/

And to connect with Sepas via LinkedIn - he’s here https://www.linkedin.com/in/sepasseraj/

Another great episode… and still more to follow in this greening your marketing channels mini-series - so stay tuned.

________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

Slow design is the future of marketing, according to Rebecca McCowan, Design Lead at the Coca-Cola Company and our latest guest on the Shiny New Object Podcast.

Find out why brands go too fast and re-brand too much, as well as the merits of letting people engage with brands in a way that lets them learn along the way, rather than giving them all the information from the very beginning. Rebecca also shares the secrets behind the Coca-Cola Christmas and tells us why so many design briefs get things wrong - and how to fix it.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Welcome to In Conversation With a new mini-series podcast from The Marketing Society. With Rachel Letham Head of Content and Communications, “in conversation with” Allyson Stewart-Allen, Marketing Society Member and CEO of International Marketing Partners, a consulting firm helping companies successfully internationalise. We will delve into both the global and local perspectives when it comes to branding.

We’ve seen over the years that one size does not fit all when going global. Companies often make incorrect assumptions that other markets are just like their home market. This can lead to expensive mistakes. 

In this episode:

Allyson shares her background and how living in Germany as a child sparked her passion for international marketing. 

Key challenges in global branding include finding the right balance between global consistency and local relevance. Businesses tend to swing between fully global or fully local approaches, when success requires an integrated approach.

Cultural intelligence is critical for global marketing success. Leaders need to actively listen to and learn from local teams to understand what will resonate in each market.

Allyson shares examples of companies that do this well to adapt their product offerings for different markets. 

In the next episode, Allyson will share examples from her "cabinet of curiosities" - case studies of successful and unsuccessful cross-cultural marketing campaigns.

You can watch the recording of this podcast here: https://youtu.be/Pr9UkDrIAQ8

Biography: Allyson Stewart-Allen

Allyson Stewart-Allen is a renowned advisor, author, speaker, broadcaster and Non-Executive Director focused on helping leaders and their companies to successfully internationalise. You’ve probably seen or heard her on Sky News, BBC News, France 24, DW News, CNBC, LBC or watched one of her 5 seasons of The Apprentice – or maybe attended one of the many leadership courses she runs for Oxford University’s Said Business School.

Originally from Los Angeles and based in London for over 30 years, Allyson applies her extensive international consulting experience, MBA education with Dr. Peter Drucker and French and German languages to the company she founded, International Marketing Partners.

Having advised over 260 organisations across 27 countries, Allyson helps leaders successfully and profitably span international and functional boundaries. She is the creator of the LinkedIn learning course Leading International Growth, as well as author of both editions of the best-selling book Working with Americans.

Learn more from Allyson in The Marketing Society Insiders Programme where she is holding two powerhours covering this topic - find out more here

“There’s really no way you can say you don’t know this is a dangerous activity at this point”

Making a return to the podcast, we caught up with Duncan Meisel, founder of Clean Creatives, so we could talk about the newly published F-List.

For anyone unfamiliar, Clean Creatives, is a movement of advertisers, PR professionals, and their clients cutting ties with fossil fuels.The F-List is a body of research and report which documents agencies who choose to continue working with fossil fuel organisations despite the scientific consensus that what they do is destroying the planet. It really doesn’t get much clearer than that.

We dive straight into this conversation finding out what has been happening with the Clean Creative campaign, its progress and of course, that infamous F-List.

Duncan reveals that over 800 agencies have now taken the pledge including their first large agency (over a 1000 employees). When looking at the agencies who have made the bold commitment no to work with fossil fuel organisations vs, those who are on the F-List, Duncan points out, “there’s really no way you can say you don’t know this is a dangerous activity at this point” – the F-list is just highlighting to people those agencies who are choosing to ignore all the warnings.

The F-List has evolved over the last 3 years, with more focus on the data, the sources and as Duncan explains, they were able to do both a global and multilingual search this time. They also had a much shorter reporting timeframe, “this year we tried to be really precise and look for agencies that were doing work right now in 2022 and 2023, the hottest years in human history.”

We discuss the fact that despite all the evidence, the F-List agencies continue to try and defend their work, and the role the 800+ agencies committed to the Clean Creatives pledge have in telling their stories about change and progress. The more we share our work on the good stuff, the solutions and the opportunities around that the more we can work together to move away from those things that do the most harm.

This conversation is one not to miss, whether you work for an agency or with agencies, it’s important to be aware of the F-List and the work that Clean Creatives are doing.

For more information about Clean Creatives - https://cleancreatives.org/

And if you catch this podcast in time to join Duncan and the Clean Creatives team in London for their Happy Hour on the 31st October - there’s an invitation and more details to that event here.

________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

With the dust having settled on The Marketing Society Awards for 2023, in this podcast we are joined by Chris Dunne, Head of Marketing at Thinkbox and the team at Camelot, to discuss their Christmas campaign which won the award for Best Brand Communication.

In this discussion, Anna McInally (Head of Marketing Communications) and Rachel Moss (Head of Marketing Strategy & Media) talk us through the challenges The National Lottery were facing at the time, the innovative and creative strategy behind the campaign, and ultimately the results which led to its national success.

Find out more about The Marketing Society Awards here https://awards.marketingsociety.com/

H&R Block's Chief Marketing and Experience Officer, Jill Cress, talks to the Shiny New Object Podcast about the importance of knowing your audience for increasing creative effectiveness.

Of course, audiences have always been essential to good marketing. But in today's world full of additional data points, how do advertisers gain from being data-driven and creating personalised experiences? What are the tips to maximise this opportunity?

Find out more on the latest episode.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Hosted out of the UAE, the sustainability squad was created to bring together a group of members to help drive change around ESG and help curate high-quality content in the UAE’s Year of Sustainability. The squad seeks to put The Marketing Society at the heart of the Sustainability conversation in the build-up to COP28 and lead the conversation for the industry.

Episode 4

In episode 4 of the Marketing Society’s Sustainability Squad podcast series hear from Abdul Rahim Osman (15 years of experience in business and marketing in the financial services industry) and Stewart Morrison (Managing Director of Firm Decisions Middle East and Africa- the audit division of the world’s largest marketing and media performance consultancy Ebiquity PLC ) as they dive into Media Industry perspectives surrounding ESG. Particularly covering Environmental and responsible media issues to start with!

The purpose of the podcast is to educate and inspire the marcomms community to drive change around sustainability and ESG, build case studies of great work marketeers have done in the region around ESG and demonstrate real life problem solving and creativity to influence stakeholder groups around better ESG principles.

The aim of the series is to empower the wider marcomms community to drive change in their organisations.

The series produced by Podcast Now, will cover topics such as: Sustainability and ESG Literacy, Creativity and Storytelling, Behavioural Science and case studies from leading marketeers in the region.

Hosted out of the UAE, the sustainability squad was created to bring together a group of members to help drive change around ESG and help curate high-quality content in the UAE’s Year of Sustainability. The squad seeks to put The Marketing Society at the heart of the Sustainability conversation in the build-up to COP28 and lead the conversation for the industry.

Episode 3

In episode 3 of the Marketing Society’s Sustainability Squad podcast Learn about why The Marketing Society has selected Emirates Nature WWF as the organization to support for this year’s Marketing 4 Good initiative. TMS Board Member Neda Shelton hosts this episode of the Sustainability Squad podcast with Hossam Nasef, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Emirates Nature-WWF about the importance of the role of marketers in raising awareness and understanding of the critical role of nature-based solutions in tackling the climate crisis.

The purpose of the podcast is to educate and inspire the marcomms community to drive change around sustainability and ESG, build case studies of great work marketeers have done in the region around ESG and demonstrate real life problem solving and creativity to influence stakeholder groups around better ESG principles.

The aim of the series is to empower the wider marcomms community to drive change in their organisations.

The series produced by Podcast Now, will cover topics such as: Sustainability and ESG Literacy, Creativity and Storytelling, Behavioural Science and case studies from leading marketeers in the region.

Carrying on from Part 1, this episode jumps straight into the tactical side, where Caroline shares her views on the opportunities around digital, making the point that, “listening for a business is such a wealth of value which can be done in an automated way, and is the way forward to be commercially successful.”

Moving on to metrics and measures an area with many questions but not enough answers yet, we talked about how we have to go beyond the corporate metrics of revenue and profit. Whilst these are still important metrics, the need to broaden out what we measure and what ‘good performance’ looks like is critical. Caroline explains that influence was a big deal at IBM, influence and reputation metrics are valuable both from a B2B and B2C perspective. But….and this is important, Caroline points out in when it comes to why people buy from and engage with you, “the big challenge for marketers is, those reasons have to be authentic, they have to be real, there has to be credibility behind them.”

The ability to look broadly, do the right thing and meet all the points of value creation are what make marketing and indeed this conversation so interesting. Caroline shares some top actions she believes marketers need to be doing and of course we ask her that all important question, ‘Can marketing save the planet?’ This is not one to be missed, it will leave you with so much to think about and take forward, so tune in, listen and tell us what you think…

________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

On the latest episode of the Shiny New Object Podcast, Sorin Patilinet, Senior Director for Marketing Effectiveness at Mars, shares how he's been using neuro marketing - applying neuroscience to decision making in the marketing process.

Find out how neuro marketing works, what Sorin's top tips are for advertisers, and why blogging has been one of his best investments of time and energy.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

The Buy Side is an Unofficial Partner series of conversations about sport and sponsorship with brand marketers. 

Our guest is Kevin McNair, Marketing Director of KP Snacks, whose career includes previous senior marketing roles at Unilever and PepsiCo. 

We discuss the high profile sponsorship of The Hundred, the ECB's controversial short format cricket competition and discuss the work of Professor Byron Sharp and Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science, which shapes the decision making of KP Snacks and other major marketing led companies.

The other voice you'll hear is The Buy Side co-host Shaun Whatling, CEO of Redmandarin, the strategic sponsorship consultancy.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.

To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter @UnffclPrtnr

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 300 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

In this episode, the fourth in our series on entrepreneurial thinking, we’re exploring one of the six principles of entrepreneurial thinking in more detail- small details, not just big ideas and how one brand in particular brings this to life.  By small details we mean all the brand touchpoints, not just a big idea- it could be copy on pack, the way you respond to a customer complaint letter, a coupon.  All of these touchpoints are a way of bringing a brand to life.  

Ruth was joined by Jacqueline Ellis-Jones, Marketing Director at Pip & Nut, a brand has grown to great heights by doing this really well

Our Host: Ruth Fittock

Ruth has almost 20 years experience building brands- from start-up to scale up, launch to acquisition. She’s helped U.S brands (vitaminwater, popchips) launch and scale in the UK and grown brands from scratch here too (Simply Roasted Crisps).  Ruth has recently started a new consultancy- Tomorrow Brands, to help the purpose-driven global brands of tomorrow launch in the UK.

Our Guest: Jacqueline Ellis-Jones, Marketing Director at Pip&Nut

Experienced Marketing Leader with a passion for building iconic brands over 20 years, She’s navigated the ever-evolving marketing landscape, helping brands from all walks of life stand out from the crowd. From household names in baby food like Ella's Kitchen to health-conscious startups like Pip & Nut, Jack has helped fuel their growth with innovative and data-driven strategies.  Her passion lies in uncovering a brand's core essence and translating it into marketing strategies that deliver on the fundamentals of price and placement alongside creating award winning products and campaigns that spark conversations, build genuine connections, and deliver measurable results.

---

Find out about the latest The Marketing Society events here and if you're not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Find out about how to join here.

This month, THINK EQUAL Project Director, Leanne Foy meets Mary Godbeer, Senior Corporate Communications & PR Manager at International Cricket Council.

What can sport and business learn from each other when it comes to levelling the playing field? Mary shares how often being the only female in the meeting room can be a powerful and positive influence. If this resonates with you, Mary shares the importance of developing an open mindset that seeks constructive feedback. Be brave and back yourself!

In this episode, Mary shares how the ICC are making progress to champion equality in their sport and their business. On IWD and beyond, initiatives have included, closing the gender pay gap, developing safe spaces for women on digital channels and building a diverse team.

Highlights include:

• How to develop a ‘curious’ mindset to identify your career goal
• The importance of bravery when it comes to progression
• Why your network is the best place to look for honest and constructive feedback

Mary’s passion for sport and diversity is contagious. It's a fabulous listen, we hope you enjoy it!

A note from THINK EQUAL

We are stronger together, than we are alone. And that’s why we want the marcomms industry to come together to make a difference. Every single person who makes up our brilliant industry can make an impact. Want to get involved? We’d love to hear from you. Whether that’s through donating your time on our working committee, or putting your hand up to run an event or training session, you may have some suggestions of speakers to add to our speaker library, or have a venue you want to provide for free. Contact us at thinkequal@marketingsociety.com

THINK EQUAL is the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiative led by The Marketing Society. THINK EQUAL aims to drive diversity and inclusion across the marcomms industry in the MENA region. Through training, events, mentoring, policy changes, content and more. We aim to provide tangible activity that will make an impact and a difference now.

Our regular THINK EQUAL podcast shines a light on inspiring leaders who are dedicated to levelling the marcomms playing field.

Episode #106. The technical skill explored in this episode is Strategic Thinking -a fundamental skill for marketers to gain clarity on long-term choices and strategic direction in order to unlock the future growth of brands and businesses. 

Joining Abby to explore this topic is Zoe Scaman, founder of strategy studio Bodacious, whose career spans across client-side, agency-side and consultancy for brands and businesses such as Nike, Netflix, EA Games, Unilever, Oatly and Mediacom.  

In this episode, Zoe defines strategic thinking and some critical questions she asks during the strategic process (but why it’s not a concrete framework). Zoe also shares her views on the marketing industry, why she champions optimism and generalists vs specialists. Plus career highs and lows and advice for marketers. 

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Zoe Scaman | LinkedIn

This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

On this one-off episode of the Shiny New Object podcast, Tom Ollerton interviews Automated Creative's Amy Wright (Global Head of Creative Strategy) and Dan Moseley (Managing Director, North America). They share their findings on how marketers plan their end-of-year campaigns, what are the most common mistakes that could affect your budget, and how you can turn this around with actionable tips.

Amy and Dan's white paper will be presented during the upcoming webinar on 28th September, "Compounding Creative: An Urgent Q4 Wake-up Call for Marketers." Find out more and sign up here: https://live.remo.co/e/compounding-creative-effectivene/register

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Hosted out of the UAE, the sustainability squad was created to bring together a group of members to help drive change around ESG and help curate high-quality content in the UAE’s Year of Sustainability. The squad seeks to put The Marketing Society at the heart of the Sustainability conversation in the build-up to COP28 and lead the conversation for the industry.

Episode 2

In episode 2 of the Marketing Society’s Sustainability Squad podcast series the hear from Abdul Rahim Osman (15 years of experience in business and marketing in the financial services industry) and Dan Dimmock (cultural and institutional brand architect, impact strategist, and championing purpose-driven brand development) as they dive into what it really means to be a purpose led organisation, the function of brands and marketing and how brands can help consumers make better informed decisions. Produced by our partners Podcast Now.

The purpose of the podcast is to educate and inspire the marcomms community to drive change around sustainability and ESG, build case studies of great work marketeers have done in the region around ESG and demonstrate real life problem solving and creativity to influence stakeholder groups around better ESG principles.

The aim of the series is to empower the wider marcomms community to drive change in their organisations.

The series produced by Podcast Now, will cover topics such as: Sustainability and ESG Literacy, Creativity and Storytelling, Behavioural Science and case studies from leading marketeers in the region.

This podcast discusses the skills and capabilities that strategists, marketers, and insight professionals will need to develop to stay relevant as AI becomes more advanced.

The Marketing Society member Adam Riley is the founder of marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited and is joined by David Smith, Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith and also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School.

Adam and David introduce 7 "power skills" that will be critical to staying relevant as AI becomes more advanced.

In this episode they discuss the final two "power skills" - inspiring leadership and decision making. 

Inspiring leadership involves showing authenticity, compassion, and charisma - things an AI cannot fully replicate. Leaders must act as role models and problem simplifiers.

With decision making, AI can systematize parts of the process but ultimately complex decisions require a human perspective. Humans add context, intuition and reassurance.

The hosts summarize that in an AI future, focusing on these human power skills will allow strategists to collaborate with AI but also excel where AI falls short. 

Key power skills are critical thinking, sensemaking, creativity, storytelling, foresight, inspiring, and decision making.

Humans will still comprehend complexity and empathize in ways AI cannot. Building "T-shaped" teams with expertise across skills is important.

Fostering agility and fluidity in thinking will be critical to work alongside AI and "make a difference."

The hosts welcome discussion on these ideas and skills needed to survive and thrive alongside advancing AI systems. 

Bio's

Adam Riley founded marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited in 2006. His 25-year-plus career has spanned market research agencies, client-side roles and management consultancy. Adam joined TN-AGB in the early nineties, before moving to RSL in its embryonic international research team. After an MBA at The London Business School, he joined Samsung in South Korea, as a Global Marketing Strategist, before moving back to London and becoming a senior member of the marketing strategy practice of Monitor Company (now part of Deloitte).

David Smith is a Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith, which he founded in the 1980s. He is also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School. He holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology from the University of London and is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society. He is a former Vice President of ESOMAR, a Fellow and former Chairman of the UK Market Research Society (MRS), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and also a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting.

Find out more at

• The Polymath Mind Substack

“There are four questions every business needs good answers to. Why would anyone want to buy from us? Why would anyone want to work for us? Why would anyone want to invest in us? Why would anyone allow us to operate in their community, society?”

It’s another two-parter and in this episode (Part 1), we dive into the role of CMOs and leaders when it comes to the sustainability agenda. We were joined by Caroline Taylor OBE, former CMO for IBMs international business and a huge advocate for ‘adding value in many other places in the world.’

Already aware of sustainability back in the early 2000’s Caroline got really focused in the mid 2000’s when IBM was doing work in ‘green IT’ and 2% of global carbon emissions were attributed to IT. Caroline explains, “I was very struck with the notion…but what about the other 98% and how we might use technology to mitigate that?” It was at that point she fell down the sustainability rabbit hole and started looking into how IBM could become a greater part of the solution whilst at the same time, find new ways to differentiate.

As well as looking for answers externally, Caroline talks at depth about the need to changes hearts and minds on sustainability internally, and raises the important point that to do this effectively requires conversations which focus on, “why this is a business opportunity as opposed to being a really important thing to do.” Caroline explains, “learning how to shift my focus from here’s a brilliant marketing idea, to here’s a brilliant business idea that’s going to make us money, our shareholders will love us, but it’s going to be tapping into something that is really important societally at the same time, is a win, win, win.” And, when it comes to stakeholder engagement we have to understand that, “enlightenment is important but the self-interest is real – we have to think about all of our stakeholder and what’s in it for them”

The need for leaders to recognise and see the opportunity in sustainability is so critical to balancing the triple bottom line and protecting the sustainability of their business. This episode explores the need for investment, the shift away from short-term thinking and strategising and the very real, tough choices and prioritisation that organisations need to make. Caroline also shares her insights into the role B2B marketing and business plays….for marketing she says it’s about “taking all the smart marketers that care and taking them outside of their day jobs to figure out how to use all those marketing skills to educate and engage and empower people to make better choices.” And, we couldn’t agree more, the case for education and awareness and the significant role and opportunity marketers and leaders have really shines through in this episode.

So, tune in and listen, and don’t forget there’s Part 2 in two weeks time where we continue the conversation, delving into the tactical side of marketing, the importance of listening and the challenge of what to measure when it comes to value creation around driving a more sustainable marketing agenda.

_________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

Manchester United's famous red shirt is a prime piece of sporting real estate.

So why is TeamViewer ending its deal early?

What do you buy when you buy the United shirt?

And what does it say about the relationship between football and the commercial sector?

Welcome to Sports News Upload, with Richard Gillis and Matt Cutler.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.

To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter @UnffclPrtnr

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 300 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.

This podcast discusses the skills and capabilities that strategists, marketers, and insight professionals will need to develop to stay relevant as AI becomes more advanced.

The Marketing Society member Adam Riley is the founder of marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited and is joined by David Smith, Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith and also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School.

Adam and David introduce 7 "power skills" that will be critical to staying relevant as AI becomes more advanced.

In this episode they discuss the next 3 "power skills" needed to thrive in an AI-powered world: creativity, storytelling, and foresight.

For creativity, AI will provide a "first draft" that humans can then build on with creative prompts and nudges to reach true creative insight. 

With storytelling, humans must move beyond telling stories to transmitting powerful psychological messages that tap into emotions. AI can help craft stories, but humans provide the empathy.

Foresight involves "virtual time travel" - not just forecasting but imagining desired futures. Humans can envision scenarios in a way AI currently cannot. 

AI will get strategists and marketers to "first base" with data analysis, but they need these skills to make the leaps AI cannot yet make.

The skills discussed so far are: critical thinking, sensemaking, creativity, storytelling, and foresight. 

Still to come in the final episode are inspiring and decision making, and thoughts on applying these skills going forward.

Bio's

Adam Riley founded marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited in 2006. His 25-year-plus career has spanned market research agencies, client-side roles and management consultancy. Adam joined TN-AGB in the early nineties, before moving to RSL in its embryonic international research team. After an MBA at The London Business School, he joined Samsung in South Korea, as a Global Marketing Strategist, before moving back to London and becoming a senior member of the marketing strategy practice of Monitor Company (now part of Deloitte).

David Smith is a Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith, which he founded in the 1980s. He is also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School. He holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology from the University of London and is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society. He is a former Vice President of ESOMAR, a Fellow and former Chairman of the UK Market Research Society (MRS), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and also a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting.

Find out more at

• The Polymath Mind Substack

In our latest "In Conversation with" series, Head of Content and Communications Rachel Letham speaks with the President of The Marketing Society and former Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at Diageo, Syl Saller.

Syl is an Executive Coach and Mentor, Board Member, Marketing Advisor and co-founder of the Marketing Leadership Masterclass.

At the time of recording it is September 2023 and The Marketing Society is hosting a Fellows led event in London- "Life on the outside, Connections and Conversations with Annabel Venner and Martin Glenn" This event is all about NED, Trustee and portfolio roles. So Rachel delved into this topic with Syl, asking her some key questions about NED and portfolio roles, so we could share her insight with you. 

Find the event details here:

• CONNECTIONS AND CONVERSATIONS: LIFE ON THE OUTSIDE…MARTIN GLENN AND ANNABEL VENNER TELL ALL

After an illustrious career at Procter & Gamble, Gerry D'Angelo has seen a lot of marketing innovation mistakes. From the way the industry handled the social media boom to all the perils potentially thrown out by generative AI, he advises us to stay cautiously optimistic as we enter a new world of content production.

His Shiny New Object is AI, but he gives us tips on how to moderate the excitement and find ways to harness it without too many unforeseen negative consequences.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Hosted out of the UAE, The Sustainability Squad was created to drive change around ESG. Our mission is to place The Marketing Society at the heart of the sustainability conversation.

Episode 6

In episode 6 of the Marketing Society’s Sustainability Squad podcast series the hear from Abdul Rahim Osman (15 years of experience in business and marketing in the financial services industry) and Tricia Weener (Global CMO, Sustainability Leader and Coach) as they explore how marketers can drive positive change and plan for long-term sustainable growth.

The purpose of the podcast is to educate and inspire the marcomms community to drive change around sustainability and ESG, build case studies of great work marketeers have done in the region around ESG and demonstrate real life problem solving and creativity to influence stakeholder groups around better ESG principles.

The aim of the series is to empower the wider marcomms community to drive change in their organisations.

The series produced by Podcast Now, will cover topics such as: Sustainability and ESG Literacy, Creativity and Storytelling, Behavioural Science and case studies from leading marketeers in the region.

Episode #105. The technical topic in this episode is Decision Science and the role it plays in today’s consumer buying behaviour.

Decision Science combines the learnings from neuromarketing, behavioural economics and cognitive, social & evolutionary psychology. It helps us to understand how our brains make our decisions and how marketers can practically apply this to grow the brands and businesses of tomorrow.

Abby is joined by her guest expert, Phil Barden, MD of DECODE marketing ltd and author of 'Decoded. The Science Behind Why We Buy'. Phil started his career client-side for global brands such as Unilever, Diageo and T-Mobile before setting up the UK arm of Decode to leverage decision science to increase marketing effectiveness and brand growth.

In this episode he explains what we now understand about the process for making decisions, busts myths about subconscious purchase behaviour and how to get started if you’re a marketer new to decision science. Plus career highs and lows and advice for marketers.

This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk 

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Phil Barden | LinkedIn

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

This podcast discusses the skills and capabilities that strategists, marketers, and insight professionals will need to develop to stay relevant as AI becomes more advanced.

The Marketing Society member Adam Riley is the founder of marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited and is joined by David Smith, Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith and also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School.

Adam and David introduce 7 "power skills" that will be critical to staying relevant as AI becomes more advanced. In Episode 1 they focus on the first two: critical thinking and sensemaking.

For critical thinking, abductive reasoning will become more important as AI improves deductive and inductive logic. Abductive reasoning involves making informed leaps and using "fuzzy logic" to arrive at nuanced conclusions with imperfect information.

Sensemaking involves seeing the big picture interconnectedness of events and piecing together an understanding of how the world works. It requires intellectual confidence to bring together different disciplines.

Developing these skills will allow strategists and marketers to crystallize issues, see connections others miss, and pull together coherent narratives from disparate information.

In future episodes, they will cover the other power skills: creativity, storytelling, foresight, systems thinking, empathy, and learning agility.

Bio's

Adam Riley founded marketing insight consultancy Decision Architecture Limited in 2006. His 25-year-plus career has spanned market research agencies, client-side roles and management consultancy. Adam joined TN-AGB in the early nineties, before moving to RSL in its embryonic international research team. After an MBA at The London Business School, he joined Samsung in South Korea, as a Global Marketing Strategist, before moving back to London and becoming a senior member of the marketing strategy practice of Monitor Company (now part of Deloitte).

David Smith is a Director of Insight Consultancy DVL Smith, which he founded in the 1980s. He is also a Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School. He holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology from the University of London and is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society. He is a former Vice President of ESOMAR, a Fellow and former Chairman of the UK Market Research Society (MRS), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and also a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting.

Find out more at

• The Polymath Mind Substack

Saurabh Patel, Group Chief Marketing Officer at IHH Healthcare, believes in servant leadership to support successful teams. On the latest Shiny New Object podcast, he shares how leaders can approach this to build confidence, clarity of thought, and more cohesion in their organisations.

Tune in to get his marketing tips, find out why sales experience is so crucial for advertisers, and learn how to become a servant leader.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Episode #104. Season 6 returns with a leadership topic to support marketers to identify and develop their authentic leadership style.  

Abby’s guest in this episode is Gareth Helm, award-winning marketer and author of the Marketing Leader’s Code: unlock your potential - learn the secrets of successful marketing leadership. His previous roles include Unilever, Innocent Drinks, Bear snacks, Tails.com, Zoopla, as well as Global Chief Marketing Officer for HomeServe. Today Gareth is a NED and Board Advisor for brands such as for Purple Bricks and Higgidy. 

In this episode Gareth shares the principles and inspiration behind his new book, the 4 types of marketing leaders, the value of assessment and capability and why you should spend time building relationships. Plus Gareth shares his career highs and lows. 

Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn

Guest: Gareth Helm | LinkedIn

The Marketing Leader's Code: Unlock your potential - Learn the secrets of successful marketing leadership: Amazon.co.uk: Helm, Gareth, Helm, Sophie: 9781908770318: Books

This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk 

The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Discover the Sustainability Squad podcast series, hosted from the UAE, aimed at driving change in ESG practices. In Episode 1, cohosts Abdul Rahim Osman, Dan Bolton, and Nada Sayarh PhD delve into ESG considerations for marketers and how they can champion better practices. Produced by Podcast Now, this series offers insights on sustainability, creativity, and real-life case studies to inspire the marcomms community. Tune in to be part of the conversation leading up to COP28 and elevate your understanding of ESG.

“Being sustainable is a story of assumed negatives, but it’s actually a story of discovered positives.”

We were joined in this episode by Simon Garnett who has been on a personal journey with consumption, one which he started when he realised his own habits were unhealthy, a journey he continues and has taken into his professional life as well.

Simon shares with us the moment he decided to reappraise his consumption with ‘new’ and how after a year it moved to him reappraising his consumption overall. Simon explains, whenever he tells anyone his story he gets asked two questions “after a year of not consuming, what was the first things you bought and, what did you miss?” These questions only made it clearer for Simon that, “the engagement with this story, the engagement with the concept of not buying new, is absolutely, integrally rooted in a concept of loss. But, from his perspective and experience it was the total opposite, and as the headline to this episode highlights, “It’s a story of assumed negatives, which is actually a story of discovered positives.”

We go on to explore the tensions that exist once you embark on a more sustainable way of living and the challenge of taking what you’ve learned to influence others at scale. Simon explains that he wants to create meaning around consumption and highlight that is isn’t about success and it definitely shouldn’t be viewed as inconvenient if you decide to cut down or buy second-hand. For Simon, marketing has been primarily about “driving consumption of new, and consumption of new is what equals success.”  Sustainability is often associated with having less, or being told you can’t have something and Simon acknowledges that the message we need to consume less is a strong one, but given how much we waste, how can that be a loss if we don’t even use what we do buy. 

Michelle shares a recent room refurbishment, something she found incredibly creative, down to the paint which she got through the sharing app, Olio. Through this journey Michelle discovered a number of services she didn’t know existed and that sense of not just taking the convenient route brought a deeper feeling of fulfilment. However, she points out the reason she hadn’t heard of these services, is because they are not being talked about enough. There are so many stories not yet being told.

Simon worries that the sense of “build it and they will come” risks relying on platforms and infrastructure to deliver and make re-commerce successful with a great user experience but it’s not, it’s about the stories we need to be telling. Simon explains, “what we’re competing with is not just inconvenience, but decades of messaging that new equals success and second hand is a bit dirty and undesirable.” Marketing has such an important role, and Simon believes we can rewrite the story.

There are many discovered benefits to sustainable living. What is your experience? Tune in and listen to this episode and make it a personal objective to share your personal stories and experiences, after all, we all need to be shouting louder when it comes to the benefits.

And to join the Re-commerce Revolution LinkedIn group Simon mentions - the link is here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14191082/

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this...

Shaaf Tauqeer, easyJet's Audience and Martech Manager, shares the brand's plans for an upcoming in-flight podcast to build consumer loyalty and use their captive attention while traveling.

On the latest episode of the Shiny New Object Podcast, find out why Shaaf thinks a company podcast can blend interesting information with advertising, and hear his top tips for a stellar marketing career.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

This month, THINK EQUAL Project Director, Leanne Foy met Mohammed Ismaeel Hameedaldin, Founder at ToughLove Advisors and Chair of The Marketing Society, Dubai

Mohammed shares personal stories of how imposter syndrome has impacted his career and reflects on pivotal moments that have shaped him to become the leader he is today. As former executive sponsor of the Mental Health and Wellness and Women's Leadership networks at Visa, Mohammad offers insight into how male colleagues and businesses can support diversity in the workplace. 

This episode offers insight and guidance for anyone looking to start a conversation around gender equality in business. 

Highlights include: 

• How to learn, grow and appreciate those inevitable career ‘trip ups’ and how to turn them into valuable experiences
• Sharing techniques to manage feelings of imposter syndrome 
• What male colleagues can do to support females into leadership positions

This is a wonderful conversation, we hope you enjoy!

A note from THINK EQUAL 

We are stronger together, than we are alone. And that’s why we want the marcomms industry to come together to make a difference. Every single person who makes up our brilliant industry can make an impact. Want to get involved? We’d love to hear from you. Whether that’s through donating your time on our working committee, or putting your hand up to run an event or training session, you may have some suggestions of speakers to add to our speaker library, or have a venue you want to provide for free. Contact us at thinkequal@marketingsociety.com

THINK EQUAL is the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiative led by The Marketing Society. THINK EQUAL aims to drive diversity and inclusion across the marcomms industry in the MENA region. Through training, events, mentoring, policy changes, content and more. We aim to provide tangible activity that will make an impact and a difference now.

Our regular THINK EQUAL podcast shines a light on inspiring leaders who are dedicated to levelling the marcomms playing field.

People development theories often use the idea of T-shaped talent to show that those who specialise in one area become successful contributors to their organisation. However, Zach Doty, Online Marketing Director at AT&T, believes that “one-trick ponies get shot” and that you need to branch out and get domain expertise and a multi-faceted knowledge of your craft to be truly effective. That’s Pi-shaped talent and his Shiny New Object, which he explains in the latest podcast episode.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

“Through marketing campaigns we can bring sustainability and growing smaller more sustainable brands to the front and drive capital away from big brands.”

Where better to get the viewpoints from Gen Z about climate concerns and consumption habits than directly from a Gen Z’er. On this podcast were joined by Estella Struck, Founder and CEO of the first Gen Z Sustainable Product Marketing Agency based in New York. Estella found herself on the right side of TikTok during the lockdowns of 2020 and it was from here that her passion for sustainability was ignited. 

Coming out of the pandemic armed with her increased knowledge of the challenges around sustainability, Estella noticed the shifts in weather patterns. She also became more aware of what brands were saying in order to try and influence where Gen Z spend their money and drive consumption. Whilst Estella acknowledges there are some barriers when it comes to sustainable brands engaging with Gen Z such as location, accessibility and levels of disposable income, she believes there is a huge opportunity in reaching Gen Z through social media in a way that can raise awareness and change behaviours, encouraging them to put their money into sustainable brands supporting them in making sustainability more affordable.

Estella tells us, “what we see and what we consume influences what we do and how we act in our daily lives, our recent research revealed that Gen Z is more likely than any other generation to shop via social media”. Long form content may not always be an option on social, but creating a series is a powerful way to build awareness and knowledge whilst as she puts it “still provides that dopamine hit from the action of scrolling and seeing a new video.”

Estella believes her generation are sceptical of large corporates who launch sustainable lines or schemes, but more than that many Gen Z work in retail and see first-hand the levels of product, packaging and waste. She would like to see corporations doing more to reduce their impacts and address issues in their supply chains. Until they start doing that it will always come across as a cash grab and greenwashing.

Estella is all for supporting and growing smaller more sustainable organisations, she is a believer in social movements putting pressure on brands to change, but sustainability isn’t as front of mind as it needs to be, but as she states, “I know through marketing campaigns that we can bring it to the front and drive capital away from big brands.”

Estella shares her knowledge of social media both from a personal and professional perspective, and the work her agency does to ensure authenticity is an absolute priority. She is conscious that large audiences are left out and explains, “my goal to start an agency was to make the sustainability community more inclusive and encompassing so they felt like they had a place here because in the end sustainability isn’t just an environmental issue but an everyone issue”. Wise words indeed.

This is a podcast we encourage organisations big and small to tune into if they are serious about wanting to drive change. Estella and her generation have the most to lose if we do not change the course we are on, they are also a key driver of change across people, planet and profit. The fears are real and we all need to take responsibility and play our part. 

For more information about Estella and Viviene NY see: https://www.linkedin.com/company/viviene-new-york

_______________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing...

Have you ever considered the carbon footprint of your email activity? 

Welcome to the first in our ‘greening your marketing activity’ mini-series!  Did you know that your digital activity has a carbon footprint? Are you aware that there are better choices you can make which mean your marketing activity is greener and more sustainable, without compromising on performance and quality? Well, that’s what we’ll be exploring in the next few episodes.

Every organisation will have to commit to decarbonisation targets, regardless of sector or size. When writing our latest book, research identified that behind R&D, marketing has the largest proportion of organisational budget. Therefore, Marketers need to consider their marketing carbon footprint if they are to align with and support their organisations’ sustainability agendas.

We wanted to kick this mini-series off with the second most used online channel in the world (after instant messaging) - email. Why, because we send a LOT of emails, over 300 BILLION emails a day and, as well as needing to develop better and more efficient and responsible practices when it comes to our email marketing activity, there is also the practicalities of the carbon footprint to consider. So, we spoke to James Gill, Founder of EcoSend a platform that delivers, ‘Better email campaigns. Fewer emissions.’

Join us on this episode as we talk to James about:

• The concept  of  digital  sustainability  and  how our online  activities  have  a  carbon  footprint.
• The importance of understanding your email activity and how you can improve it from both a performance and sustainability perspective.
• What goes on behind the email platforms you use.
• Improving your email behaviours and practices – professionally and personally.
• How to drive efficiencies.
• How EcoSend can make the platform switch as painless as possible.

This episode is packed full of insights and practical information which will get your brains whirling, so dive in and get your notebooks ready.

For more information about Ecosend - visit https://ecosend.io/

And to connect with James via LinkedIn - he’s here https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesjgill/

Another great episode… enjoy.

________________________________________________________________________________

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

Meta's Tim Lion is Head of EMEA Gaming Marketing, Global Brand & Programs, Facebook Gaming - so he knows that gamers are a great target market for advertisers. This media savvy audience is open to value exchanges, especially on mobile. But it's an untapped opportunity for many brands, as he tells us on the latest episode of the Shiny New Object Podcast.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Marketers who embrace generative AI as a tool for reducing "busy work", being more creative, and testing and perfecting their messaging have a lot to gain, says Brian Costello, Head of Performance Driven Marketing - Corporate Brands, at General Motors.

On the latest episode of the Shiny New Object podcast, listen to Brian's advice about maximising the benefits of AI, as well as his top tips for beginner and seasoned marketers in career planning.

The host of the Shiny New Object podcast is Tom Ollerton, founder of Automated Creative.

Manchester United and Adidas are two of the sports worlds most iconic and valuable brands.

So the new £900million, 10 year deal, signed recently, has a significance that goes beyond the two organisations and offers a glimpse as to how the sports economy might evolve over the next decade.

What are the ripple effects of this deal, on other football clubs and other sports?

Did Man Utd benefit from Adidas' recent acrimonious split with controversial hiphop star Kanye West and the costly ending of the Yeezy brand collaboration?

How does this deal impact on the overall value of Man Utd?

And what's the significance of the timing of the announcement, as the Glazer family consider rival offers to buy Manchester United for a fee rumoured to be in the region of £5billion.

To dissect what all this means are guests Leo Thompson and Michael Broughton.

Leo Thompson is Co-President of Rights Management at Two Circles and formerly of Manchester United.

Michael Broughton is Co-Founder of Sports Investment Partners and part of the consortium which bid to buy Chelsea Football Club last year.

For more on the Adidas Man Utd deal and its ramifications, read this week's Unofficial Partner newsletter, under the heading of Yeezy Does It. 

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.

To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter @UnffclPrtnr

For digital marketers, audio isn't just a cheaper channel. The impact of audio in our lives is bigger than ever, according to Spotify's Head of Sales, UK & Northern Europe, Ed Couchman. On the Shiny New Object Podcast, he shares insights around how listeners are bringing audio into everyday activities and how marketers can take advantage of a subtle new way of advertising.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

“Building a culture of trust around green claims is the most important thing marketers, business and brands should be doing, using advertising self- regulation as a tool, making sure everyone is upholding those standards.”

As regulations and guidelines in and around sustainability continue to evolve, tighten up and support a better future around managing both what we do AND say, we spoke to Laura Brett whose remit is to lead the US system of advertising self-regulation looking at advertising claims to make sure what is being said is the truth, (like the Advertising Standards Agency – ASA, in the UK).

Laura makes it clear from the outset, that as a body, they look at one simple standard, and that is, “that advertising claims are truthful and not misleading, which also means you have to be transparent when advertising to consumers.” Greenwashing continues to make headlines globally with organisations being called out, investigated, or having their ads banned, whether due to misleading information, not telling the full story or only focusing on the ‘good’ whilst omitting the bad. All of which is incredibly damaging to people, planet and the organisations themselves.

Laura begins by explaining that actually, most complaints about claims in the US are brought to them not by consumers, but by competitors, one organisation challenging another. As she puts it, “the adversarial system is alive and well!” Laura goes on to explain that “the BBB National Programmes also open claims themselves both from consumers and from their own observations.”

During our discussion we discuss how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are currently in the process of reviewing their ‘Green Guides’ and inviting comment. Whilst the FTC do this every 10 years, Laura explains that this time round it feels particularly important because advertising needs to be held to a certain standard if we are to make progress in tackling the social and environmental challenges we face.

The ‘Green Guides’ are incredibly valuable for Marketers in terms of providing guidance, they can also be used to highlight what is being talked about and where gaps in knowledge might be. Any marketer looking at the guides should as a baseline know what the terms in them mean, and if they don’t they need to go and find out.

Laura talks about organisations who make carbon neutral claims without an achievable plan, and how if claims are going to be made, a plan has to be in place to show the pathway they are taking to meet that claim, even if that plan changes. Laura believes the FTCs focus is on closing the gaps in the ‘Green Guides’. The real issue however in amongst all of this isn’t whether one gets into trouble with the regulator, but the continued erosion of trust and that is where the damage really impacts brands in terms of reputation and culture - making them unfavourable to consumers and people not wanting to work for them. 

Another valuable episode for both Marketers in the US and, Marketers marketing to the US, providing advice and support to you as key stakeholders in supporting your organisations’ sustainable agendas, as Laura states, “building a culture of trust around green claims is the most important thing marketers, business and brands should be doing, using advertising self- regulation as a tool, making sure everyone is upholding those standards.” So tune in and listen!

Marketers can stay up to date with what is happening across advertising in the US by visiting:

https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings

In the latest episode of the Shiny New Object podcast, Tatyana Jones, Director of Consumer Marketing at Bausch + Lomb, delves into the power of simplicity in marketing. With a focus on doing the common, uncommonly well, Tatyana highlights three key pillars for brand success: reinventing the core business, driving innovation, and effective collaboration with stakeholders. Listen in to discover how this back-to-basics approach can cut through the noise and lead to more effective brand development for CPG marketers.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

In the newest Shiny New Object podcast episode, we’re speaking to Jen Tanner, Accenture’s Marketing Director. She’s picked the marketing strategy brief as her shiny new object, going back to basics to explain its value in demonstrating ROI and gaining internal support for initiatives. 

Find out Jen’s top marketing tips, as well as how she’s changed her approach to leadership, on the latest episode. 

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

How do you get a return on your investment for your business, AND at the same time deliver a return on investment for the planet, ensuring everyone benefits?

In this episode we’re joined by Gavin Sheppard and Rob Cheesewright from Pinwheel, an organisation focused on projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere, restore habitats and protect biodiversity - to discuss that very question.

Given there’s a lot of terminology that can become quite confusing, we kick things off with some jargon busting diving into offsetting, carbon capture and, carbon removal. Offsetting has been the subject of controversial debate recently, as some argue it’s ineffective and many schemes are a ‘license to pollute’, and so it’s really important do the homework around what is out there, not taking things at face value, and remembering that the focus has to be on reduce, reduce, reduce.

When it comes to carbon capture and carbon removal, these are very different things, but, again there is confusion with the terms being mixed, up, used interchangeably and not really telling the story that allows informed decisions and progress to be made. Whilst they both make up a critical part of the Net Zero journey, they also play very different roles (you’ll need to listen in to find out more!)

Gavin tells us, “the science tells us that businesses need to do three things. The first is, reduce your own emissions and the impact on the planet, but it’s much broader than carbon, and that’s inside your value chain. Outside of your value chain you need to do two other things, remove legacy carbon and waste, investing in projects that do that in a high quality way, and the third thing we need to do is restore, and it’s these last two parts that Pinwheel helps with.” It is the high quality restoration projects that have a conclusive response to the sizeable issues we are facing.

Where marketing comes in (as we talk about so often on this podcast) is the communication piece around what are complex solutions, translating in a way that is engaging, motivating and helps people understand, and more importantly, want to understand and take action. The carbon removal projects Pinwheel fund around the world do just that. Not only are they are effective and restorative, they are a massive opportunity to tell some really inspiring stories which grab the attention of people, build trust and make them part of making a positive difference and, they make you smile. [Indeed, Can Marketing Save the Planet is investing in such projects for that very reason - and you can get involved in that too - more on that later!].

From a marketing perspective, it’s all about shifting mindsets, a vital step if we are to change behaviours. Rob raises the point around the mindset shift to ‘contribution’ being so important, he explains, that it, “decouples the harm being done on one side to the good on the other, the problem with compensation approaches, or offset or carbon neutral is it aims to say, don’t worry, the harm hasn’t happened, we’ve neutralised it, the contribution mindset says, we just need to contribute to the biggest impactful things we can, it is not seeking to edge away the other stuff.”

The bottom line is, we need to create a balanced ecosystem where life can thrive on this planet, and as Gavin simply says, “stop covering up the shit that we’ve done”.

So, where to start? Pinwheel recommends the WWF blueprint… (link below). And we, working alongside Pinwheel, encourage everyone to not only listen to this episode, (it’s full of advice business needs to know, and start doing), but to also go over to our Can Marketing Save the Planet investment fund - and get involved and start making a difference. Every £ helps.

We’re focused on three projects:

• Seagrass restoration - ocean...

“If you ever think you are too small to influence change on a global scale, just look at what Wales are doing.”

We were intrigued and excited to have the opportunity to chat with Sophie Howe, the first and only (for a period of time) ‘Future Generations Commissioner’ in the world!

Sophie was appointed Future Generations Commissioner for Wales in 2016. Wales has committed to 7 long-term wellbeing goals for future generations. This is all about a long term vision, preventing future problems, working collaboratively and involving citizens, (and importantly, it’s a legal obligation - rather than a pledge).

As Sophie advises… “It’s the law, you have to do it,” - and this is the difference, tangible accountability! As Sophie shares how the commitments have come into play and the practicalities of embedding them, she explains how Wales has committed to stop spending money in building roads which when taking a long-term view, is a public health intervention. 14-15% of emissions in the country come from transport, and by reducing emissions from road transport there are multiple future benefits triggered, from emissions reduction through to health and wellbeing and opportunities being opened up for investment in a better public transport system - all of which collectively benefit society now and in the future.

Sophie raises many important points and examples around the interconnectedness of the challenge we all face when it comes to building a more sustainable future and how we need to make those connections when building strategies, planning investment, timescales and resource; “By not taking a joined up approach, we’re completely missing opportunities - so, we need to be thinking about what we do, and how its going to affect both now and into the future, asking how does it make the biggest contribution to wellbeing.”

The Future Generation Goals have brought people together, its changed the conversation both for the public sector and the private sector, Sophie tells us how industries operating in Wales are coming to them to ask how they can be part of delivering against the wellbeing goals. This has had a positive impact on how business is planned and operates, from point of tender through to selection and delivery, providing more security and stability.

When it comes to communities it’s a bit more of a mixed bag, with views being divided (as you’d expect) depending on the impact to where people live. However, it is bringing politicians, businesses and communities together, awareness is growing, and the opportunity to educate is also increasing as people look to understand why decisions and actions are happening.

The heart of this conversation and the actions taking place in Wales clearly evidence that we are all responsible for our future, and as Sophie points out, “as much as we criticise our politicians, actually we as citizens are as much to blame because we often demand that they do short term things.”

Brave leadership, shared communication and participation is an absolute must.

We recommend everyone listens to this episode, it is a wonderful example of rising to the challenge of making meaningful yet challenging commitments and leading the way. By the end of it, we had our bags packed ready to move to Wales (well I did, Gemma is considering Costa Rica ;)).

For more information about The Future Generations ‘Acting today for a Better Tomorrow’ - see here: https://www.futuregenerations.wales/

And to stay connected to the great work Sophie is championing - her LinkedIn profile is here:

AI-driven marketing may save you time, but does it benefit your creative output? Mars Petcare Performance Marketing Manager, Jeric Griffin, shares how automation without curation can damage a company’s marketing efforts on the latest episode of the Shiny New Object podcast.

Hear Jeric’s top marketing tips and find out how Mars Petcare works with Automated Creative to boost creative effectiveness.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

This month, THINK EQUAL Project Director, Leanne Foy met Lucy d’Abo, workplace culture expert, entrepreneur and public speaker.

Together, Leanne and Lucy explore workplace culture, defining important questions, such as; what is workplace culture? Why is it important? And, how can business leaders cultivate a positive workplace culture?

 In this episode, Lucy gives real examples from her past and current businesses sharing what it takes to build, manage and perform in the business world with culture at the core. Taking it one step further, this episode's key theme is unconscious bias and the impact it has on workplace culture. We deep dive into how unconscious bias manifests in organisations, how to spot it and why business leaders need to prioritise people, purpose and culture.

 Highlights include:

• The connection between a positive workplace Culture business growth
• Tangible actions business leaders can do to cultivate a great workplace culture
• Why unconscious bias could be holding your team back from reaching their true potential

This episode is packed with insights and advice to take your organisational culture to the next level. We hope you enjoy it!

A note from THINK EQUAL

We are stronger together, than we are alone. And that’s why we want the marcomms industry to come together to make a difference. Every single person who makes up our brilliant industry can make an impact. Want to get involved? We’d love to hear from you. Whether that’s through donating your time on our working committee or putting your hand up to run an event or training session, you may have some suggestions of speakers to add to our speaker library, or have a venue you want to provide for free. Contact us at thinkequal@marketingsociety.com

The Big Idea is Unofficial Partner series on creativity in sports marketing with regular co-host Simon Moore, award winning Consulting Creative Director.

Our guest is David Proudlock, Chief Strategy Officer at Crispin Porter Bogusky London.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is home to the world's most prestigious advertising awards.

The blurb says that Cannes celebrates 'creativity, effectiveness and innovation in the global advertising, marketing and communication industries'.

An award in the sport category has become much sought after by sports marketing agencies and their clients.

But what sort of work is getting rewarded with a gong, and what does that mean for the relationship between sport and the creative industry today.

The full list of awarded work is available here.

The creative referenced in this podcast includes:

Grand Prix

DREAMCASTER MICHELOB ULTRA

PEDIDOSYA WORLD CUP DELIVERY

Gold

SHOUT, TELEFONICA

LEA KIMBERLY CLARK

THE FORGOTTEN TEAM MEO

Silver

Nike FC Presents the Footballverse

AIRTEL 175 REPLAYED

THE EXILED TEAM BRAHMA BEER

ADIDAS X SPEEDPORTAL RICK & MORTY

SECOND OPPORTUNITY LEAGUE CORONA

LAS DIABLILLAS MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

BLACK COACHES TELEFÓNICA

We also mention this Orange Women's World Cup ad, which is not a Cannes winner but is getting a bit of traction recently.

This week’s episode is brought to you by our friends at the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH) and Loughborough University London.

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.

To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter @UnffclPrtnr

Unofficial Partner publish two podcasts each week, 

Epsilon's Performance Marketing Manager, Svetla Pavlova, shares her shiny new object on this latest podcast episode: fostering creative thinking. Being creative is easier than most people think, as long as they rely on a process and build confidence.

Listen to how businesses can benefit from adopting the PAGES framework and learn Svetla's top tips to marketers and newcomers to the industry.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net

Discover the secrets to thriving in B2B marketing with insights from Kristin Sinclair, Performance Marketing Manager at TÜV SÜD. Join the Shiny New Object Podcast to gain valuable knowledge on harnessing the power of AI, uncover her top marketing advice, and learn about a pivotal moment that shaped her career. Tune in now for a game-changing perspective on leveraging data in this industry.

The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, a creative effectiveness platform that turns brands' media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net